New York Times Technology News

1. Senators Demand Online Ad Disclosures as Tech Lobby Mobilizes

   Tech has fought online ad regulations, but three senators will introduce a bipartisan bill to force the industry to disclose who buys political ads.

2. Lyft Is Said to Explore I.P.O. as It Raises $1 Billion Led by Alphabet

   The ride-hailing company is exploring a 2018 initial public offering, as it added fresh capital to its coffers from investors including a venture arm spun out of Google.

3. State of the Art: How the Frightful Five Put Start-Ups in a Lose-Lose Situation

   In Silicon Valley, small companies used to unseat big ones. Now the clutches of the five biggest tech companies are hard to escape.

4. Want to Clap for Xi Jinping’s Speech? Use Your Smartphone

   A WeChat app lets users show appreciation for the Chinese leader’s words by mashing their screens. The game says players have clapped a billion times so far.

5. Hundreds of Mysterious Stone ‘Gates’ Found in Saudi Arabia’s Desert

   With Google Earth, archaeologists have uncovered strange stone structures that may have been built by nomadic tribes in ancient lava fields.

6. Trump Picks Joseph Simons, Corporate Antitrust Lawyer, to Lead F.T.C.

   The choice comes at a time of broad bipartisan concern over corporate consolidation and big deals in the waiting.

7. Tech Tip: Editing Your History on Amazon

   The shopping site keeps a record of the products you browse in the hope you’ll return to close the deal, but you can turn off the tracking.

8. Dream City?: Google’s Founders Wanted to Shape a City. Toronto Is Their Chance.

   Here’s an opportunity to develop “the world’s first neighborhood built from the internet up,” but will humans be put first?

9. Tech We’re Using: Pioneering Virtual Reality and New Video Technologies in Journalism

   Marcelle Hopkins, deputy video editor and co-director of virtual reality, traces The Times’s push into V.R. and other visual technologies.

10. Tech Tip: Using New Space-Saving Photo Files

    With the latest updates for its Macs and mobile devices, Apple has added support for new image and video formats while keeping things compatible.

11. Samsung Is Under Scrutiny Again as South Korean Police Raid Offices

    Two months after a scion of the conglomerate’s controlling family was sent to prison, investigators were looking into an alleged misappropriation of company funds.

12. How Many People Watch Netflix? Nielsen Tries to Solve a Mystery

    The ratings company is using audio-recognition software to crack a closely guarded trade secret.

13. Feature: How the Appetite for Emojis Complicates the Effort to Standardize the World’s Alphabets

    Do the volunteers behind Unicode, whose mission is to bring all human languages into the digital sphere, have enough bandwidth to deal with emojis too?

14. After Drone Hits Plane in Canada, New Fears About Air Safety

    Pilots are filing reports of drones flying too high on a weekly, almost daily basis, despite new rules and fines.

15. Google Serves Fake News Ads in an Unlikely Place: Fact-Checking Sites

    Google placed ads linking to blatantly bogus stories on Snopes and PolitiFact, sites created precisely to dispel such falsehoods.

16. Google Maps Pulls Calorie-Counting Feature After Criticism

    The app told users how many calories they would burn by walking instead of driving, but was criticized as dangerous to people with eating disorders.

17. Tech Tip: Moving the Windows 10 Taskbar by Hand

    Like previous versions of the system, Windows 10 lets you move the taskbar to where you want it.

18. Google’s Pixel 2 Smartphone Is a Powerful Extravagance

    Google’s new Pixel 2 phone is clearly impressive, according to our reviewer. But whether that makes the device worth buying is another matter.

19. Netflix Says It Will Spend Up to $8 Billion on Content Next Year

    The company beat expectations by adding 5.3 million subscribers in the third quarter and said it would ramp up its spending on original content.

20. Kimbal Musk Wants to Feed America, Silicon Valley-Style

    Trying to improve the nation’s diet, he’s hatching food projects the way his brother, Elon, launches rockets — and drawing some friendly fire.