Techmeme
May 11, 2023, 12:55 PM

Top News

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Twitter rolls out encrypted DMs, but both sender and recipient must be verified users, no support for group messages, and message metadata is not encrypted  —  There are still some major limitations to the feature.  —  Twitter is beginning to roll out its long-promised encrypted direct messaging feature.
Reuters:
EU lawmakers agree to ban facial recognition in public, limit predictive policing, and impose transparency on generative AI; EU Commission will finalize details  —  European lawmakers came a step closer to passing new rules regulating artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos says a known cybercrime group gained access to its SharePoint cloud service on May 8 but didn't breach its internal network  —  Industrial cybersecurity company Dragos today disclosed what it describes as a “cybersecurity event” after a known cybercrime gang attempted …
Brady Snyder / XDA Developers:
Google launches a dedicated Labs page, where users can sign up to test Google's early ideas for features and products, including Search and Workspace AI tools  —  Google is using artificial intelligence to improve its existing products, and you can sign up to try them in Labs now.  Here's how to get started.
Bloomberg:
SoftBank reports Vision Fund lost ~$2B in Q4, down from ~$16B in Q4 2022, leading to a record ~$32B full fiscal year loss; investments in the year fell to ~$3B  —  SoftBank Group Corp. lost money in its Vision Fund investment unit again despite a rebound in tech stocks …
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Google unveils the $1,799 Pixel Fold with a 120Hz 7.6" main screen, a 5.8" exterior screen, a Tensor G2, and 12GB of RAM, for preorder now and arriving in June  —  Google's first foldable phone feels like what I always wanted from the Surface Duo to be.  —  I've been using some version …
Scott Stein / CNET:
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Ted Chiang / New Yorker:
Similar to McKinsey and other consulting firms, AI advancements may help concentrate wealth, disempower workers, and “sharpen the knife blade of capitalism”  —  As it's currently imagined, the technology promises to concentrate wealth and disempower workers.  Is an alternative possible?
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney reports Q2 Disney+ subscribers down 2% QoQ to 157.8M, vs. ~163M est, its second straight quarterly drop, ESPN+ up 2% QoQ to 25.3M, and Hulu flat at 48.2M  —  On the bright side, the Mouse House also managed to narrow its streaming business losses by $400 million, down 26% year over year.
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
A judge rules that $300M in BlockFi's wallets belong to clients, not the bankrupt lender's estate; $375M in interest-bearing accounts belong to the estate  —  A further $375 million that users tried to transfer out of interest-bearing accounts after Nov. 10 still belongs to the estate, Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan said
More: The Block
Haaretz:
A profile of Andreas Fink, a Swiss telecom expert whose services let state agencies, like Israeli disinformation unit Team Jorge, attack phone networks globally  —  The international mobile system is exposed and a loophole allows hackers, cybercriminals and states to geolocate targets and even hijack email and web accounts.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Review of the $700 Asus ROG Ally: fast performance and smooth variable refresh screen, but Windows is hard to use on a handheld and the UI has major glitches  —  A big step forward for Windows handhelds — but is Windows the way forward at all? … Windows handheld gaming PCs existed before the Deck …

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More News

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New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
David Pierce / The Verge: