Tom Schmidt / Dragonfly Research: A look at the role of liquidators in the decentralized finance ecosystem, who make money by liquidating under-collateralized loans on crypto lending platforms  —  Over the past two years, a number of decentralized lending protocols, including MakerDAO, Compound, dYdX, and others …

GeekWire: Sources: Apple has acquired Seattle-based Xnor.ai, which develops low-power, edge-based AI image recognition tools, for around $200M  —  Apple has acquired Xnor.ai, a Seattle startup specializing in low-power, edge-based artificial intelligence tools, sources with knowledge of the deal told GeekWire.

Blake Hester / Polygon: Former Microsoft employees and third-party developers reflect on the rise and fall of Microsoft Kinect, which was once billed as the future of Xbox  —  For a moment a decade ago, the game industry looked like a very different place  —  Illustrations by Cobysoft Joe for Polygon

Mariella Moon / Engadget: Facebook will now notify users via email and the Facebook App when their account is used to login into a third-party app or website  —  It´s pretty easy to forget where you use your Facebook credentials to log in, especially since using it is as easy as clicking a single button.

Michael Thomsen / Daily Mail: Toyota launches Kinto in Europe, a package of four separate mobility programs including car sharing, car pooling, and subscription-based leasing  —  Toyota Kinto is a package of four separate services that will be available in Europe in 2020.  The four programs are:

Juli Clover / MacRumors: Gartner: global Mac shipments in Q4 dropped by 3% YoY, to 5.26M units, as the overall PC market saw growth for the first time since 2011  —  Apple´s worldwide Mac shipments were down in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to new PC shipping estimates shared this afternoon by Gartner.

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: A look at tech catering to the needs of the elderly showcased at CES; US citizens over 50 are projected to spend $84B on tech products over the next decade  —  At CES 2020, tech´s biggest trade show, it was heartening to see that the tech industry is paying attention to the needs of the elderly …

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: Sources: Microsoft is slated to release a Windows update on Tuesday to fix a critical flaw in a crypto component present in all versions of Windows  —  Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity that Microsoft Corp. is slated to release a software update on Tuesday to fix an extraordinarily serious security vulnerability …

Steve Crowe / The Robot Report: Hesai Technology, a China-based LiDAR manufacturer with customers like Bosch, Lyft, and TuSimple, raises $173M Series C co-led by the Bosch Group and Lightspeed  —  While LiDAR manufacturers are busy pumping out new sensors at CES 2020, a leading Chinese LiDAR maker closed one of largest financing rounds ever in the sector.

Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica: HP Spectre x360 13 (2019) review: an excellent high-end laptop with nice port selection, good performance, and great battery life, but its trackpad is narrow  —  There wasn´t a lot to fix, so HP added a few features to make this convertible even better.  —  There was a lot to love …