Techmeme
July 13, 2023, 6:30 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
The US arrests and charges former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky with six counts, including wire fraud; the SEC, CFTC, and FTC sue Mashinsky and the crypto company  —  Alex Mashinsky, the former chief executive officer of Celsius Network Ltd., was accused by prosecutors of orchestrating …
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
The FTC asks a federal court to temporarily halt Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition until after an appeals court has ruled on a separate stay request  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission asked a federal court on Thursday for a stay that would prevent Microsoft (MSFT.O) …
The Verge:
Tom Hals / Reuters:
A US judge says Ripple's XRP sales to sophisticated investors violated securities law but that sales on exchanges were not offers of securities; XRP jumps 70%+  —  U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said Ripple Labs Inc's institutional sales of its XRP digital token violated federal law …
Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk:
After the court ruling, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp resume XRP trading on their US exchanges, while Gemini is exploring the listing of the token  —  U.S. federal court ruled on Thursday that sale of XRP tokens on exchanges and through algorithms did not constitute investment contracts.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Doc: the FTC sends OpenAI a demand for records about addressing risks tied to its AI models and a March 2023 security incident over payment-related information  —  The agency's demand for OpenAI's documents marks the company's greatest U.S. regulatory threat to date
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Google updates Bard with 43 more languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese, and privacy features requested by EU regulators, and debuts the tool in Europe and Brazil  —  Latest version to also include a privacy hub for all users  —  Google is betting a new version of its artificial-intelligence chatbot …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The AP and OpenAI sign a two-year deal; the AP gets access to OpenAI's tech in return for licensing some of its text archive dating back to 1985 for AI training  —  The Associated Press on Thursday said it reached a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, to share access to select news content and technology.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft names Aptos as the next default font for its Microsoft 365 productivity apps, replacing Calibri; Aptos was available for two years as Bierstadt  —  - After considering user feedback on five options, Microsoft has picked the next default font for its productivity apps like Word and Outlook.
Bloomberg:
Adobe: US shoppers spent $12.7B on Amazon's 48-hour Prime Day, up 6.1% YoY but below estimates of 9.5% growth; an increasing customer share used BNPL services  —  US shoppers spent $12.7 billion online during Amazon.com Inc.'s 48-hour Prime Day, up 6.1% from a year ago but short of estimates for 9.5% growth, according to Adobe Inc.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Telly begins shipping its free, ad-supported, dual-screen 4K TV as part of its public beta program; users must submit demographic info, viewing habits, and more  —  Start-up says it received more than 250,000 sign-ups from U.S. consumers … The start-up, which plans to ship some 500,000 free …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Honor unveils Magic V2, a foldable phone measuring 9.9mm thick when folded and weighing 231g, is thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Pixel Fold  —  If there's one thing Honor wants you to know about its new Magic V2, it's how thin and light it is.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple updates the macOS Sonoma beta to bring iCloud Keychain passwords to Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers via an iCloud Passwords extension  —  The macOS Sonoma update that is in testing allows Mac owners who opt to use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or another browser …
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University files a lawsuit challenging Texas' TikTok ban on state devices, for limiting research and teaching  —  A lawsuit filed on Thursday says Gov. Greg Abbott's ban is compromising research and teaching at public universities.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Apple launches Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UK, starting with Revolut and Tyl by NatWest as the first payment platforms, following the US, Australia, and Taiwan  —  Apple has announced the launch of Tap to Pay on iPhone in the United Kingdom, allowing independent sellers, small merchants …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Apple adds bilingual support for five Indic languages to Siri in beta; Google Assistant got multilingual support in 2018 and Alexa got the feature in 2019  —  Apple released its first set of public beta versions of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma on Wednesday.
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
At a congressional hearing, FTC Chair Lina Khan defended herself against GOP attacks over her alleged ethics violation and aggressive antitrust enforcement  —  Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan fended off Republican attacks over her adherence to ethics laws and aggressive antitrust enforcement …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
A Stability AI co-founder sues the startup over being duped into selling his 15% stake for $100 to CEO Emad Mostaque months before Stability hit a $1B valuation  —  A Stability AI Ltd. co-founder has sued the company, claiming he was tricked into selling his stake for $100 months …
More: Reuters, Forbes, and Semafor
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toTwitter: @tomgara and @chrisfralicForums: Hacker News
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Twitter starts paying Twitter Blue creators who earned 5M+ impressions per month for three months a revenue cut from the ads beside the replies to their tweets  —  Twitter is now paying creators for a share of the ad revenue earned from ads served in the replies to their posts.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
GitHub launches passkey support in public beta, allowing users who opt in to upgrade from security keys and use passkeys in place of a password and a 2FA method  —  GitHub announced today the introduction of passwordless authentication support in public beta, allowing users to upgrade from security keys to passkeys.
Bloomberg:
China unveils the final version of its generative AI guidelines, which omits some restrictions present in its April draft, signaling a more flexible regulation  —  China has loosened some of the guardrails it proposed for ChatGPT-style services months ago, as it acknowledges the need to compete …
New York Times:
Microsoft says Chinese hackers gained access to US government email accounts and had access to at least some accounts for a month before the breach was detected  —  The hack, by a Chinese group that the company said was intent on conducting espionage, went undetected for a month.  —  Reporting from Washington
Washington Post:

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Prospect:
A running list of the best startups to join  —  We've analyzed thousands of startups using the same data VCs use and distilled our list down to the top 2%.  Discover and join the next Stripe, Airbnb, or Coinbase today.
Zoho:
Simplify your billing processes by integrating Zoho Billing with Zoho Cliq  —  Handling billing in a customizable subscription model can quickly become a headache.  If a SaaS company offers three packages for its email client …
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Big Technology Podcast:
Apple's Bad iPad Ad, AI Assistant Hype, Netflix's Big Live Ambitions
The Big Technology Podcast, hosted by journalist Alex Kantrowitz, takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 05/13 - The Solar Storm Is Real (Ask Farmers)
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:30 PM ET, July 13, 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

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Kyle Chayka / New Yorker:

Earlier Picks

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg: