13 TechCrunch Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

This week, rumors swirled about the new Apple TV, Google changed its logo, Chrome killed Flash ads, and BB-8 scared our office dog. These are the stories to catch you up on this week’s tech news.

1. Matthew Panzarino laid out a detailed piece on what we can expect from the new Apple TV 4, including a full platform for games and app content, an SDK from which developers can build, and a brand new remote. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman reported that the new Apple TV is reportedly powered by an A8 chip and will retail for under $200.

2. Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla’s $35,000 Model 3 sedan will go into production in 2 years, and that pre-orders will start next March. It’s finally happening!

3. Google changed its logo, and reviews were a mixed bag. Drew Olanoff points out that this is far more than just a digital doodle – making a swap like this is quite the undertaking for a massive company.

4. One of the lesser-known, but potentially groundbreaking, features arriving in the new version of iOS 9, is support for “content blocking” extensions in Safari. Sarah Perez explained everything you need to know about iOS 9’s new content blockers.

5. Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix announced that they have formed the Alliance for Open Media with the goal of developing the next generation of royalty-free video formats, codecs and other related tech.

6. Google announced that it will start downranking mobile sites that use a particularly invasive type of app install ads.

7. Chrome killed Flash ads. Google says that users will see better battery life and speed improvements, as Sarah Perez previously reported.

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8. Matt Burns reviewed Apple CarPlay in the 2016 Corvette Stingray. Apple CarPlay is far from perfect, but it still trumps all platforms currently offered by automakers.

9. Palo Alto Networks released a report detailing a new form of iOS malware it’s calling “KeyRaider,” which is responsible for stealing account information from over 225,000 Apple customers. The malware targets those with jailbroken iOS devices.

10. Back in July, we reported that Aol was eyeing Millennial Media. This week, Aol confirmed it will buy Millennial Media in a $238M deal to expand in mobile ads.

11. Wikipedia announced that editors on the English version of the site have banned 381 user accounts that were engaging in “undisclosed paid advocacy.” In other words, they were posting promotional articles to the user-editable online encyclopedia, without revealing that they were paid to do so.

12. In light of recent FDA scrutiny of food startup Hampton Creek, Sarah Buhr analyzed claims related to the founder’s alleged exaggerations about his company. These are our lingering questions for Hampton Creek.

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13. Thanks to a collaboration between Disney and robotics startup Sphero, you can now own your own BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Lucas Matney demoed this adorable little droid (and it scared one of our office dogs).