Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Line Games, chat app Line’s gaming division, raises $110M from Anchor Equity Partners; Anchor acquires 27.5% stake, dilutes Line’s holdings to a minority 41.7%  —  Messaging app firm Line has given up majority control of its Line Games business after it raised outside financing to expand …

NDTV Gadgets 360:

WhatsApp’s VP Chris Daniels confirms WhatsApp will put ads in its ‘Status’ section, but declined to provide a timeline  —  Clearing the air on Facebook’s monetisation efforts towards WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service’s Vice President Chris Daniels on Wednesday said the company …

Scientists are calling it “mind-boggling”. Scientists confirm there's a 'supermassive black hole' at the centre of our galaxy – CNET
Source: CNet

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Fitbit posts a net loss of $2.1M in Q3, down from $113.4M a year ago, on revenue of $393.6M, as smartwatches accounted for 49% of company’s total revenue  —  Fitbit is slowly righting its financial ship, courtesy of a successful push into smartwatch category.

Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:

Apple’s newly unveiled products start at higher price points, with the 2018 Macbook Air 128GB model starting 20% higher, continuing Apple’s push into higher ASP  —  When Apple launched the iPhone X, it did more than just change the design language of the iPhone: it also offered a whole new pricing level.

There is a certain sense of accomplishment one gets when building their own tools. This is what [Alejandro Velazquez] was going for when he built his own soldering station. Sure you can get a decent station for a pittance on Amazon, or eBay. You can even build your own microprocessor controlled station. [Alejandro] is currently interested in analog electronics, so he went that route to build his own closed-loop station.

The handle is a 50 watt, 24-volt affair with a thermocouple. You can find this handle on many Hakko 907 clone soldering stations, often referred to as the 907A. The station itself is completely analog. A triac switches the current going to the heater. The triac is controlled by a PWM signal. The PWM itself is generated and regulated by an LM324 quad op-amp, which is the heart of the station. The op-amp compares the setpoint with the current temperature read from the soldering handle’s thermocouple, then adjusts the duty cycle of the PWM signal to raise, or lower the temperature.

It’s a classic control system, and the schematic is definitely worth checking out if you want to understand how op-amps can be used to create complex operations.

You can find plenty more information on analog electronics right here on Hackaday — we’ve covered thermocouple amplifiers, as well as instrumentation amps. If you’re more of a digital man, check out this Arduino controlled soldering station!

The Modern Analog Soldering Station
Source: HackADay

Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:

Xiaomi sends cease and desist letter to Lyft, saying it will pursue legal action if Lyft continues to modify scooters originally manufactured by Xiaomi  —  Xiaomi, the electric scooter manufacturer that a handful of the shared electric scooter services in the U.S. (like ones from Lyft …

Kiera Knightley shines in this undemanding fairy tale. Ballet-inspired Nutcracker and the Four Realms isn't quite on point – CNET
Source: CNet

Employees don’t like how the search giant has dealt with claims of misconduct. Google workers plan worldwide walkout over handling of sexual harassment cases – CNET
Source: CNet

We partnered with DC Entertainment to give away a set of Batman figurines to commemorate All Hallows’ Eve. This giveaway ends Nov. 5, 2018. You can win* Batman, The Joker and Harley Quinn collectibles for Halloween – CNET
Source: CNet

The case focused on user privacy, but users didn’t get any money in the deal. Supreme court appears divided on Google settlement that gave to charities – CNET
Source: CNet

The day we’ve been fearing is on the horizon: WhatsApp is getting ads. For real, this time. In a comment to several publications in India. WhatsApp Vice President Chris Daniels confirmed that the popular messaging app will be placing ads in the Snapchat-like Status section: “We are going to be putting ads in ‘Status’. That is going to be primary monetization mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp.” We’ve known for a long time that Facebook is planning on monetizing WhatsApp. In fact, co-founder Brian Acton – who left the company in…

This story continues at The Next Web

Or just read more coverage about: WhatsApp

WhatsApp VP confirms ads are coming to the ‘Status’ section
Source: The Next Web

New York Times:

A look at the internal backlash at Google over its handling of sexual harassment claims, with 1,500+ employees planning to walk out in protest on Thursday  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Google is struggling to contain a growing internal backlash over its handling of sexual harassment and its workplace culture.

The HBO prequel will feature Watts as a socialite with a secret, with Whitehouse in a key role. Also, did George R.R. Martin just confirm the show’s title? Josh Whitehouse joins Naomi Watts as Game of Thrones prequel star – CNET
Source: CNet

Workers are up in arms over how the company treated accused executives, another sign of growing employee activism at the Silicon Valley behemoth. Hundreds at Google Plan Walkout to Protest Handling of Sexual Harassment
Source: NY Times Tech

And now you can finally watch the video for the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince classic on YouTube. Nightmare on My Street is the only Halloween music video you need – CNET
Source: CNet

The button lets some iOS users instantly switch from tweets deemed important by an algorithm to a reverse chronological order. Twitter tests home-screen button to switch tweet order – CNET
Source: CNet

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Apple says its T2 security chip, found in the 2018 Mac laptops, disconnects the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed  —  Apple’s newest MacBooks include a new feature that makes it virtually impossible for hackers or spies to eavesdrop on your microphone.

It doesn’t take a hacker to mess with voting machines. Sometimes the problem comes from within. Software bugs could compromise midterm votes in Texas – CNET
Source: CNet

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Amazon launches the Music Skill API for Alexa, allowing developers to stream songs from online services to Alexa devices and Amazon Echo speakers in the US  —  Spicing up voice apps on Amazon’s Alexa assistant with jammin’ tunes just got a whole lot easier.

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Twitter says it’s testing a home screen toggle to switch between latest and top tweets timelines with a small number of iOS users; toggle previously in settings  —  Twitter is digging one of its most important new features out of its settings and putting it within easy reach.

We’ve seen a variety of oddball 7-segment displays in the past, but this one uses a new material: both for the display and the mechanical mechanism that drives it; cardboard. Yup, the whole thing is made from cardboard, wood and a few rubber bands. [The Q] shows how he put together in this nice video, starting from first principles that show how the segments are made: simple pieces of cardboard painted on one side with fluorescent paint. A piece of wood pushes the element out to blank it, and each element is connected to a cam wheel that pushes the wood in or out.

The really clever bit is that [The Q] mapped digits 0 – 9 onto a matrix for which of the 7 segments is “on” or “off”. He then used this information to create a stack of 7 cams on a central axle. As you rotate the axle, the cams turn, moving the wooding arms. The arms then cause the elements to flip as they count up through the digits. In essence, he engineered a physical decimal to 7 segment decoder, much like the electronic one inside the SN74LS47. The whole assembly is capped by a knob that indicates which digit is currently displayed. If mechanical displays like this are your thing, check out this one made from LEGO parts, or this awesome 3D printed creation.

7 Segment Clockwork Display Made From Cardboard
Source: HackADay

But Android devices are fine, a Redditor observed. iPhones reportedly malfunction after helium exposure – CNET
Source: CNet

Washington Post:

Profile of Gab co-founder Andrew Torba days after Gab went offline and its CTO and co-founder Ekrem Buyukkaya quit following “attacks from the American media”  —  Like many young entrepreneurs drawn to California’s technological gold rush, Andrew Torba brought a familiar mix of smarts …

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:

Amazon says Alexa can now give information about federal and gubernatorial elections and that it is working with AP and Ballotpedia for poll times and results  —  Amazon today announced a series of updates to Alexa’s knowledge base so the intelligent assistant can deliver helpful information ahead of …