Techmeme
January 31, 2023, 4:35 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger form a venture to explore next-gen social apps; the first is Artifact, a TikTok-like app for news articles  —  EXCLUSIVE: Meet Artifact, a kind of TikTok for text  —  Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are back.
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
Independent examiner: Celsius misled its investors, sometimes used new customer funds to pay for withdrawals, CEO Alex Mashinsky made false claims, and more  —  Shoba Pillay was appointed by a New York bankruptcy court to look at whether the crypto lender operated as a Ponzi scheme
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
A look at Microsoft's prized 343 Industries, the studio behind Halo, after a leadership overhaul, layoffs, and more; sources detail a pivot to Unreal Engine  —  Microsoft Corp. says it's going to keep making new games in the popular Halo franchise at its prized 343 Industries studio — despite rumors to the contrary.
The Verge:
Apple HomePod (second-gen) review: similarly good sound quality, useful sensors, and a responsive Siri, but pricey and the best experience is via a paired set  —  Apple's second take on the HomePod doesn't stray far from the original, but it's better all around.
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony halves its PlayStation VR2 shipment forecast to ~1M units in Q1 after early preorders disappointed; the headset is slated to launch on February 22  —  Sony Group Corp. reduced projections for the initial launch of its PlayStation VR2 headset dramatically after early pre-orders disappointed …
Ina Fried / Axios:
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Brian Merchant / Los Angeles Times:
The real aim of the Big Tech layoffs is to bring workers to heel and cultivate an insecure workforce, as an actual recession has yet to hit the tech sector  —  In Silicon Valley, the new year began as the last one ended — with tens of thousands of tech workers losing their jobs.
Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg:
A draft EU “fair-share” document proposes making Netflix, Alphabet, and other “large traffic generators” to help pay for next-generation internet infrastructure  —  The European Union is weighing a proposal to make technology companies that use the most bandwidth …
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
Tech Nation, the UK-sanctioned tech ecosystem builder, plans to shut down on March 31 after 10+ years, due to losing its grant funding to a Barclays-run program  —  After over ten years in operation, Tech Nation, the UK's government-sanctioned ecosystem builder for UK tech startups …
Parmy Olson / Bloomberg:
The European Commission plans to require that country regulators report six times a year on GDPR investigations and more, after a complaint by rights group ICCL  —  It's well established that the European Union has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, threatening fines of up to 4% of a company's annual turnover.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
A look at US cases that may set the bounds of free speech online, including Gonzalez v. Google, Twitter v. Taamneh, and a fight over California's kid safety law  —  - The U.S. justice system, including the Supreme Court, will consider cases that will help determine the bounds of free expression on the internet.
AJ Vicens / CyberScoop:
Kaspersky: from January 2020 to June 2022, hacker groups offered salaries from six figures to $1.2M, bonuses, and paid leave to attract talent on the dark web  —  Cybercrime is a booming business.  So, like any other thriving market, the masterminds behind ransomware syndicates or online scam operations need workers, too.
Reuters:
Kat Bailey / IGN:
Sources: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony do not plan to attend E3 2023, to be held in-person from June 13 to June 16; E3 2022 was canceled due to the pandemic  —  All three of gaming's first-party console manufacturers appear poised to skip E3's big return.  —  E3's first physical event …

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Featured Podcasts

The Social Radars:
Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
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Why Countries Go to War
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.
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Great Chat:
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
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Earlier Picks

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