Tech News Today 1662

Bloomberg says cybercriminals may have broken into over 1 billion Yahoo accounts, including as many as 150,000 U.S. government and military employees. They gained access to names, passwords, telephone numbers, security questions, birth dates, and backup e-mail addresses. The FBI is investigating. And once again sources say the news could affect Yahoo's sale to Verizon.

Tom Wheeler, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission since November of 2013, has announced that he will step down in January. Prior to his tenure at the FCC, Wheeler was a VC and Lobbyist of the Cable and Wireless industry: He's even in the Wireless industry's Hall-of-Fame!

Facebook is testing a few new features that will make it easier to recognize and report fake news. Facebook will also tweak their algorithm to give less weight to stories that are read, but not shared.

Last week we told you that Samsung was forcing an update that would brick all remaining Galaxy Note 7s in the wild -- ALMOST. Verizon responded to the announcement with one of their own, saying that they would NOT push the update to its users because they were concerned that doing so would adversely affect those who needed their phones in an emergency. After a little back and forth over who would be responsible should a Verizon-linked Note 7 decide to go nuclear, the wireless carrier now says they'll push the update... but not until January 5th.

We're beginning to hear a bit more about the future of Pebble watch owners now that FitBit has bought the company. In a post today on the Pebble developer's blog, Jon Barlow wrote that Pebble is going out of its way to keep Pebble software and services running through 2017. Cloud services will be discontinued over the coming months, but Barlow says your Pebble will continue to function.

<p>Download or subscribe to this show at <a href="https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-today">https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-… to <a href="https://www.cachefly.com/&quot; target="_blank">CacheFly</a> for the bandwidth for this show.</p>

Links

• Stolen Yahoo Data Includes Government Employee Information
• In wake of billion-account hack, Verizon reportedly not so hot for Yahoo
• FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to step down in January 2017
• Facebook Messenger built a new in-app camera for Snapchat-style selfies
• Facebook Tests “M Suggestions,” Laying Groundwork For More AI In Messenger
• Google Could Prevent Samsung from Adding VIV Digital Assistant to the Galaxy S8
• Facebook Mounts Effort to Limit Tide of Fake News
• Pebble’s smartwatches may not be smart for very long
• Verizon Now Also Decides To Kill Remaining Note 7 Phones
• FIRST STEPS FORWARD WITH FITBIT
• Banks Turn to Mind Reading to Source Top Tech Graduates