Techmeme
January 5, 2023, 1:50 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Amazon plans to lay off 18,000+ employees, more than its initial target of 10,000 in November 2022, with the “majority” coming from retail and recruiting  —  Cuts focused on the company's corporate staff exceed earlier projection  —  Amazon AMZN -0.79%decrease …
Leyland Cecco / The Guardian:
Apple quietly launches a catalog of books narrated by AI on its Books app, in a move that publishers, authors, and agents warn may upend the audiobook market  —  Exclusive: tech firm quietly launches new audiobook catalogue narrated by AI - but move expected to spark backlash
David Benoit / Wall Street Journal:
US bank Silvergate, which caters to crypto, reports liquidating debt to cover $8.1B withdrawals as FTX collapsed and laying off 40% of its staff; SI falls 40%+  —  Bank sold assets at a loss to cover withdrawals and cut 40% of its staff but remains committed to crypto
Angus Berwick / Reuters:
Source: FTX's former top lawyer Daniel Friedberg has cooperated with US prosecutors, telling them what he knew of SBF and others misusing customer funds  —  FTX's former top lawyer Daniel Friedberg has cooperated with U.S. prosecutors as they investigate the crypto firm's collapse …
Jessica Conditt / Engadget:
Sony unveils Project Leonardo, a PS5 accessibility controller kit with circular gamepads, for use on its own or with DualSense; pricing and release are TBC  —  Sony is building a better PlayStation 5 controller with Project Leonardo, a kit that promises to make games easier to play for people with limited motor control.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Sony has sold ~30M PlayStation 5 consoles and says the shortage is over, meaning everyone “should have a much easier time” finding a PS5 at retailers globally  —  The PlayStation 5 shortage is finally over — at least according to Sony.  “Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier …
Jules Roscoe / VICE:
The FTC proposes a rule banning worker non-compete clauses, saying they harm healthy competition in the labor and product markets and block entrepreneurship  —  The agency stated that noncompete clauses are bad for both the labor market and innovation.  The proposed rule would make them illegal.
Matt Burgess / Wired:
WhatsApp launches proxy support globally, letting users with blocked or disrupted connections access WhatsApp via servers set up by volunteers and others  —  Amid internet shutdowns in Iran, the encrypted messaging app is introducing proxy connections that can help people get online.
Wall Street Journal:
New York AG Letitia James files a civil suit against Celsius co-founder Alex Mashinsky, alleging he defrauded investors out of billions through false statements  —  Alex Mashinsky made false statements to investors about the crypto lender, lawsuit alleges  —  New York Attorney General …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amazon's Ring announces its first dashboard camera, the Ring Car Cam, with inside and outside recording, after a two-year delay, shipping in February for $250  —  Amazon.com Inc.'s Ring division introduced its first car dashboard camera after a two-year delay, expanding beyond home security with a new category.
Levi Winslow / Kotaku:
After YouTuber Coffeezilla reported on Logan Paul's apparently sham NFT game CryptoZoo, Paul finally responds, acknowledging some involved were “bad actors”  —  Blockchain investigator Stephen ‘Coffeezilla’ Findeisen may see Paul in court  —  After keeping his mouth shut …
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Wall Street Journal:
Crystal Kim / Axios:
A US judge rules that the crypto deposits in bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network's yield-bearing accounts belong to Celsius and not the individual holders  —  Celsius Network's bankruptcy might have just set a precedent in determining what crypto assets belong to whom when stored on a centralized platform.
Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:
CI/CD service CircleCI says it is investigating “a security incident” and “out of an abundance of caution” all customers should “rotate any and all secrets”  —  CircleCI, a software development service has disclosed a security incident and is urging users to rotate their secrets.
Michael Elsen-Rooney / Chalkbeat New York:
The New York City Department of Education, the largest US school system, bans access to OpenAI's ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing cheating fears  —  New York City students and teachers can no longer access ChatGPT — the new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot …

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More News

Scott Stein / CNET:

Earlier Picks

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Ian Thomas / CNBC:
Vincent Manancourt / Politico: