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Apple reportedly killed a TV+ show about Gawker after a Tim Cook email
Apple+ TV killed a show called Scraper about the rise of Gawker Media after CEO Tim Cook personally weighed in, according to a report in the New York Times.
Thiel-Hogan vs. Gawker saga to get the TV and movie treatment
Two production outfits are planning to make films tackling the Peter Thiel-backed Hulk Hogan case that brought down the once-thriving online media company Gawker. And one of them is exploring the idea of creating a miniseries instead. Modern Family director Jason Winer has just signed on to direct the one being by produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan (Chicago, Hairspray, Footloose). It's currently entitled Gawker v. Thiel, and will focus on players behind the scenes, including Gawker owner Nick Denton, the editor who published the Hulk Hogan sex tape that started it all (A.J. Daulerio) and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who financed Hogan's legal battle against the website that outed him years ago.
Gawker's journalism will be preserved online
When a billionaire bankrolls lawsuits to shut down a news outlet that they don't like, it's a pretty big deal for how we treat journalism. It's why the Freedom of the Press Foundation has announced that it will launch an online archive for news sites, starting with Gawker. The project, in partnership with the Internet Archive, has crawled every page of the disputed site, as well as others like the L.A. Weekly, for preservation.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 13: A Chicken with its Head Cut Off
Editor in chief Michael Gorman and executive editor Christopher Trout are in town this week and stop by to talk Peter Thiel, Vine and online voting with host Terrence O'Brien and reviews editor Cherlynn Low. Then, after they've had their fill of beating up on Thiel, the four will explore how dating and sex have changed in the age of apps. Warning, things get a little NSFW.
Gawker settles with Hulk Hogan for a reported $31 million
Since Gawker lost its court battle with Hulk Hogan back in June and filed for bankruptcy, it's been unclear just how much the former professional wrestler would get given the massive $140 million judgment awarded him. But today, the media company's cofounder and CEO Nick Denton announced that they've settled with the celebrity for $31 million.
Peter Thiel's tech wealth made him a First Amendment gatekeeper
Peter Thiel built his fortune in Silicon Valley as a founder of PayPal, an early backer of Facebook and a venture capitalist focused on the technology industry. He's living proof of the Bay Area's ability to make billionaires of mortal men. Using a fraction of his tech billions, Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media earlier this year, which eventually led to the company declaring bankruptcy and shutting down Gawker.com. Thiel had held a grudge against the site for years, after he claimed it outed him as gay in 2007. Since the Gawker ruling, Thiel has fielded questions about the ethics of a billionaire effectively using his money to shut down a news organization that he didn't like, a move that some argue violate the site's First Amendment rights. He's responded by calling his $10 million support of Hulk Hogan's lawsuit "one of [the] greater philanthropic things" that he's ever done. Thiel has also said he's backing other, similar lawsuits. During a Q&A session at the National Press Club today, Thiel explained three key things about the Gawker lawsuit:
Is tech billionaire Peter Thiel prepping for a life in politics?
"I occasionally get involved but don't want to make it a full time thing." That was how Peter Thiel answered a question about his future in politics today. But, after he spent roughly 15 minutes delivering what amounted to a polite version of Donald Trump's stump speech to the National Press Club, it's a little hard to take him at his word.
Gawker Media has been renamed 'Gizmodo Media Group'
It's been about a month since Gawker.com shut down, and now the last traces of the site's heritage have been effectively erased. Parent company Univision, which purchased Gawker Media's assets after it filed for bankruptcy (thanks to Hulk Hogan and retaliatory lawsuit aficionado Peter Thiel) just named Raju Narisetti as new CEO of Gizmodo Media Group. There's not a word to been seen here of Gawker's heritage, and with the flagship site on ice, there's nothing left for the Gawker brand.
The Engadget Podcast, Ep 3: Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
Editors Nathan Ingraham and Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O'Brien to talk about Android Nougat, PlayStation 4 rumors and why Amazon would create an Echo-exclusive music service. Then the panel addresses the endless harassment faced by Leslie Jones, and use the word "garbage"... a lot.
Gawker.com will shut down as part of Univision buyout
Gawker Media's long, strange legal battle is done, and so is Gawker.com -- reporter JK Trotter just confirmed that the site is set to cease operations next week, after 14 years of snarking up every possible tree. The announcement comes on the heels of Univision's $135 million bid for Gawker Media's network of websites, which also includes Kotaku, Lifehacker, Deadspin, Jalopnik, Jezebel and our friendly rival Gizmodo.
Facebook's board of directors re-elects Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel, the early Facebook investor and board member who admitted last month to secretly financing multiple lawsuits against Gawker Media, will officially remain on Facebook's executive board, Mashable reports today. COO Sheryl Sandberg had previously stated that Thiel would keep his position because he "did what he did on his own, not as a Facebook board member," but Monday's annual shareholder's meeting was the last chance for the board to acknowledge that his actions run counter to Facebook's own mission statement. During the vote, the shareholders voted to keep all board members who are up for re-election, including Thiel. Mark Zuckerberg, who has the overriding vote as founder and majority stakeholder, approved the decision.
Gawker Media files for bankruptcy thanks to Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel
A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a co-founder of Paypal and current Facebook board member, was bankrolling Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media. (Got all that?) Despite the fact that Gawker has vowed to appeal the massive $140 million judgement against it, the company today has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The media company is now entertaining bids to buy the company, and Recode reports that publisher Ziff Davis has already put in a bid in the $100 million range.
Recommended Reading: The Golden State Warriors' tech training
Golden State Warriors use tech to their on-court advantage Terry Collins, CNET The Golden State Warriors set an NBA single-season record this year with 73 wins and are currently facing the Cleveland Cavaliers for the championship. Part of the reason for that success can likely be attributed the team's use of tech to track player performance and physical activity. CNET has the story on all the gadgetry and how the Warriors are using it to ensure they continue their winning ways.
Recommended Reading: Is the VR hype train grinding to a halt?
Why the virtual-reality hype is about to come crashing down Christoper Mims, Wall Street Journal While VR seems to be all the rage this year, WSJ's Christopher Mims argues that the bubble is about to burst. Mims says that it'll be the limited content that will ultimately derail the virtual reality hype train, and that it could happen sooner rather than later.
Peter Thiel is the one behind Hulk Hogan's Gawker lawsuit
Confirming rumors that had grown over the past few days, Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel admitted to the New York Times that he is financing Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media. Its Gawker blog published an article in 2007 titled "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people" (before later publicizing the sexuality of Apple CEO Tim Cook, and a Conde Nast exec) which kicked off this whole revenge-by-proxy legal saga. Hogan's involvement comes after the site posted a video of the wrestler (real name: Terry Bollea) having sex with the wife of a friend, clipped from a tape with other interesting details. He sued the site and won a $140 million award, which Gawker is appealing.
Gawker hack prompts Blizzard to issue password reset
The hacking of Gawker websites earlier last week has prompted Blizzard to issue a security alert and emails requesting that certain users reset their Battle.net passwords. These emails, sent to your Battle.net account, request that you log into Blizzard's account management and reset your password via the provided tools. Earlier we reported these emails as phishing attempts. This turned out to be incorrect. At the time these emails were received by members of our staff, there was no word from Blizzard on them, and such attempts at phishing out WoW account passwords are common after well-known hacking attempts. Nonetheless, it is imperative that everyone uses an authenticator and employs good password security. Always watch what the links you go to are, and don't use the same password for multiple sites -- especially for your WoW account. If you do have an account with a Gawker website, it's recommended that you reset your Battle.net / World of Warcraft password. Blizzard's full statement after the break.
Mac 101: Securing your passwords after the Gawker breach
Thanks to questionable security practices at Gawker Media (publishing parent of many high-profile websites including Gizmodo and Lifehacker), a number of people are busy scrambling to change their passwords on a lot of different sites today. Gawker stored encrypted passwords on its servers instead of password hashes (and stored those passwords using the deprecated DES standard), so as a result of some weekend hacking, a lot of email addresses and passwords were stolen. Gawker Media is asking anyone who uses its comment system to change their password immediately, and if they used the same email address and password on other websites, they should change those passwords as well. If you have used any of the Gawker sites in the past, you can use Slate's Gawker Hack widget to determine if your email address and password was part of the group that was compromised. Some other sites like LinkedIn are proactively disabling the accounts of users who were included in the data dump, requiring them to reset their passwords before they can get back in. Common sense dictates that for the best security, every website account should have a separate password; you should never use a dictionary word, birthday or family name as your password; strong passwords always need a mix of capitals and lowercase letters, numbers and (if acceptable to the service you're logging into) punctuation/non-alphanumerics. (The number of people who used 'password' or '123456' as their comment login in the Gawker system is truly shocking.) However, our puny human brains don't work well with strong passwords; we just can't remember a lot of passwords that are random gibberish, and even using mnemonics and other tricks for password generation can fill up the ol' brain pretty quickly. There are some ways to generate strong passwords that are associated with just one website -- and keep them recorded securely on your Mac or in the cloud -- so click that Read More link to see how.
Stevemail smackdown on student strikes sparks
On Friday, Gawker ran the story of Chelsea K. Isaacs and her claimed email back-and-forth with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Now it's all the buzz. Isaacs, a self-described "renowned college journalist, artist and social fixture" (also apparently North America's "most desirable hand model" at the age of 12, which is, if accurate, rather creepy), didn't get the replies she sought when she reached out to Apple's media relations team over and over for answers relating to a class assignment. Since her three iPad-related questions were apparently the key to her getting an A on her classwork, and she felt that she'd been ill-treated by the silence, she took her case to El Steve. The exchange was spicy enough to get covered all over the place, from New York Magazine to the UK's Guardian newspaper. Apparently, when a CEO bothers to answer his email at all, she thought he'd be friendly and helpful -- not say things like "Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade" and "Please leave us alone." Curt and more than a little rude? Sure, but a) that's our Steve, and b) she kind of had it coming. I'm not sure how much Ms. Isaacs knows about Apple, but if she was expecting a prompt and thorough response to any question that began "I'm working on a college assignment" from the PR folk, she's not living on the same planet as any journalist or blogger who covers the company. From the bottom to the top, Apple employees hold their cards close to the chest, and often as not a request for comment goes unanswered -- even from major media outlets, to say nothing of college seniors. Calling repeatedly and desperately with the three mystery iPad questions, rather than rolling with a placid "Apple's representatives were not available for comment" or seeking out other sources of info, doesn't speak for her journalistic acumen. Emailing the CEO to complain that nobody would help her with her schoolwork? Well, that's just sophomoric. One thing's for certain, though, she's got her good grade in Brand Promotion 101 -- although who knows how well it will serve her out in the job market. Of course, from a media relations perspective, far better if Steve had skipped replying at all, or come back with a simple "Sorry, can't help" rather than getting in that satisfying but unnecessary dig about her grades. Then again, she's fortunate he didn't get really ticked off and go all ninja on her.
Of Stevemails and stevedores: Talkcast tonight, live at 10 pm ET
You have to hand it to Gawker writer Ryan Tate; he wasn't timid about giving his new penpal a piece of his mind, salty language and all. Tate let loose with a full-throated defense of iPad pornography, overworked print publishers and the freedom to write once and run anywhere. Of course, in this particular case he was sending aggrieved notes to Steve Jobs -- and, most surprising, Steve chose to write back. Repeatedly. In the wee hours of the night. Steve's defense of Apple's approach toward Flash on iPhone/iPad and the choices Apple is making about the future of its platforms makes for good reading; Tate's decision to run the emails in a post is one I can only describe as "chutzpadik," although he notes that Steve must be aware that many of his casual one-liners are making news in short order. [Side note, if Apple hasn't productized Steve's killer spam filter yet, they darn well should get started on that. Unless it's a rotating panel of interns -- that would be difficult to scale.] All that to say, we're fortunate to have our special time together later tonight on the Talkcast to chat about Stevemails, MacBook rumors, MobileMe betas, Steam releases and more! Join us, won't you? To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. iPhone users may prefer the iPhone-optimized Talkshoe site found here. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your computer, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!
$100,000 prototype laptop stolen from Apple's campus in 2009?
Zirana, a startup company with the goal to make Zirana.com "a one stop shop for all local information" for "residents of small and medium sized towns all across the world," including Cupertino, is reporting that a prototype laptop was stolen from Apple's campus sometime in 2009: Trade Secret Theft/Possession of Stolen Property - Infinite Loop Between 1/1 and 12/18, unknown suspect(s) took a prototype laptop worth about $100,000 from Apple Computers on Infinite Loop using an unknown method. The suspect(s) sold it to another suspect. Deputies recovered the laptop from the second suspect and he was released pending further investigation. Given that the laptop was a prototype, it's no surprise that it could be worth $100,000. And if Apple is having internal theft problems, it's no wonder they acted so swiftly and decisively to stop Gawker's (coincidentally) $100,000 bounty on Apple's tablet. As Zirana states, the prototype laptop has since been recovered. It should be noted, however, that Zirana's information on the theft is user generated and does not originate from an official police report or an Apple spokesperson. Then again, maybe that 3GS commercial took its inspiration from real life events?
