Techmeme
January 18, 2023, 10:20 AM

Top News

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Memo: Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 employees through March 31, reducing headcount by less than 5%, and will take a $1.2B charge to facilitate the move  —  Citing a need to “align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple indefinitely postpones its lightweight AR glasses due to technical difficulties and is instead planning a lower-cost MR headset for 2024 or 2025  —  Apple Inc. is still planning to unveil its first mixed-reality headset this year, but an even more important follow-up product …
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
FTX identifies ~$5.5B in “liquid” assets for recovery, including $415M in “unauthorized third-party transfers” possibly tied to a hack found after its collapse  —  - FTX has identified about $5.5 billion worth of digital assets for recovery, a number that includes $415 million in “hacked crypto.”
CoinDesk:
Analysis: 196 members of the new Congress accepted donations from Sam Bankman-Fried or other FTX senior executives, including Kevin McCarthy and Chuck Schumer  —  The session began with 196 U.S. lawmakers who took direct contributions from Sam Bankman-Fried and other former FTX executives …
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Apple announces an updated HomePod with a similar design to the original from 2018, Matter support, and more, available now for $299, shipping February 3  —  It will be sold alongside the HomePod Mini, the smaller version of the speaker introduced in 2020, and features support …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra specs allegedly leak, showing 6.1, 6.6, and 6.8-inch screens, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the Ultra's 200MP sensor, and more  —  Spec sheets for all three devices in Samsung's upcoming flagship smartphone lineup, the Galaxy S23 series, appear to have leaked online.
Billy Perrigo / TIME:
Investigation: starting in November 2021, OpenAI contracted Kenya-based Sama to label violent and toxic content, paying workers $2/hour, to improve ChatGPT  —  Content warning: this story contains descriptions of sexual abuse  —  ChatGPT was hailed as one 2022's most impressive technological …
Erin Woo / The Information:
Source: Twitter manager Siddharth Rao told employees that daily revenue was 40% lower than a year earlier and more than 500 top advertisers have paused spending  —  A senior Twitter manager told employees that the company's daily revenue on Tuesday was 40% lower than the same day a year ago …
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
As Apple shifts from China, experts worry India will struggle with iPhone production due to supply chain issues, labor woes, a lack of automation, and more  —  The tech giant increasingly finds itself beholden to America's biggest geopolitical rival.  But is diversification even possible?
Bloomberg:
Noam Scheiber / New York Times:
Apple plans to hire a third-party firm to audit its US labor practices, focusing on human rights, after an investor coalition pushed for the assessment  —  The tech giant will assess its compliance with its official human rights policy, according to a federal filing.
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
By suing Genesis Global Capital and Gemini Trust over Gemini Earn in 2023, the SEC is years late to addressing the crypto lending product marketed as a security  —  Earn  —  Well, of course: … We covered this in 2021, when Coinbase Global Inc.'s similar crypto lending program was shut down by the SEC before it started.
Bloomberg:
Amazon begins laying off 18,000+ employees, impacting around 1% of its total workforce and 6% of its corporate staff, mostly in its retail and HR departments  —  Amazon.com Inc. is set to begin a round of layoffs ultimately affecting more than 18,000 employees in the largest job cull in its history …
Hyunjoo Jin / Reuters:
Tesla's Autopilot software director testified in 2022 that an October 2016 video promoted by Elon Musk was staged, showing self-driving features the cars lacked  —  A 2016 video that Tesla (TSLA.O) used to promote its self-driving technology was staged to show capabilities like stopping …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple updates its Mac mini with M2 and M2 Pro options, improved graphics performance, up to 32GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and more, starting at $599  —  Apple today launched the new Mac mini lineup, available with M2 and M2 Pro chips inside.  The M2 Mac mini starts at a new lower price of $599.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Zoho RPA named a Leader in the 2026 RPA Technology Value Matrix by Nucleus Research  —  Zoho RPA has been named a Leader in the 2026 RPA Technology Value Matrix, published by Nucleus Research …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
A top iPhone app developer reacts to Apple's new Siri
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live, Part 1: Satya Nadella and Cindy Cohn
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
TBC's Alex Ksendzovsky: The Neurosurgeon Using Brain Cells To Build Better AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
BG2 Pod:
The SpaceX IPO, Fable 5, AI Capex Update & Market Check w/ Gavin Baker, Andrew Fox & Clark Tang
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
All about Interest Rates
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:20 AM ET, January 18, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Abha Bhattarai / Washington Post:
Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Jon Christian / Futurism:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: