Techmeme
August 17, 2023, 7:40 PM

Top News

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Cofense discovers a phishing campaign that uses QR codes to mainly target a notable US energy company, the first known use of QR codes for phishing at scale  —  A phishing campaign was observed predominantly targeting a notable energy company in the US, employing QR codes to slip malicious emails into inboxes and bypass security.
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Internal doc: Spotify weighed removing white noise podcasts and redirecting users to “talk” content, which would boost the company's annual gross profit by €35M  —  An internal document shows that white noise podcasts account for 3 million daily consumption hours on the platform
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft plans to close its Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29, 2024, meaning users will no longer be able to buy games, DLC, avatars, and more  —  Microsoft is preparing to close down its Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29th, 2024.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Meta starts rolling out HD photo support globally in WhatsApp for Android, iOS, and the web, and says the company plans to add support for HD videos soon  —  WhatsApp is flipping a switch that will let users send higher-quality “HD” images on the messaging platform.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Snap confirms and fixes a My AI glitch that caused the chatbot to post its own one-second Story of a two-toned image and then stop responding to users' messages  —  Snapchat's My AI feature, an in-app AI chatbot launched earlier this year with its fair share of controversy, briefly appeared to have a mind of its own.
Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
A deep dive into X's Community Notes, including how the algorithm works, whether the feature actually fights polarization, and its use in high-stakes situations  —  Special thanks to Dennis Pourteaux and Jay Baxter for feedback and review.  —  The last two years of Twitter X have been tumultuous, to say the least.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Solidus: between mid-July and August, developers deployed 500+ scam tokens on Coinbase's Base blockchain, ~300 of which let their creators mint unlimited tokens  —  - More than 500 scam tokens were deployed on blockchain  — Solidus Labs says scammers pocketed about $2 million in profit
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Sei launches its trading-focused blockchain and SEI hits $1.6B in trading volume in the first 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap; many users criticized SEI's airdrop  —  The buzzy blockchain project's SEI token saw a flurry of trading as it debuted on several crypto exchanges …
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Counterpoint expects 2023 global smartphone shipments to drop 6% YoY to 1.15B units, the lowest level since 2013, due to a slowing Chinese economy and US demand  —  - Global smartphone shipments are expected to drop 6% from 2022  — Apple is better positioned than others to weather the storm
Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: Bing had 1% to 3% search market share globally in July, the same as in January 2023, despite adding Bing Chat; Microsoft calls the new Bing a success  —  The new Bing with AI chatbot is ‘cute, but not a game changer’  —  When Microsoft unveiled an AI-powered version of Bing in February …
Vlad Turiceanu / Windows Report:
Leaked images reveal Lenovo's new Legion Go, a Windows 11 gaming handheld that appears to combine features of the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, and Nintendo Switch  —  Here's a first look at Lenovo's new gaming handheld, the Legion Go  —  Lenovo is working on a gaming handheld called Legion Go …
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Llion Jones, who co-authored Google's transformer paper, and David Ha, the former head of Google's AI research arm in Japan, launch Sakana AI in Tokyo  —  Llion Jones and David Ha take inspiration from nature with start-up Sakana AI  —  A former Google researcher who co-authored a paper …
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
Court filings: Alameda can make a $175M claim from the estate of similarly bankrupt crypto company Genesis, significantly below the nearly $4B FTX first sought  —  Though a sharp drop from the $4 billion originally claimed, lawyers hope it will let them get on with winding up estates.
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times:

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

Lenny's Podcast:
The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
SpaceX's IPO Triumph, Anthropic's Fable Fumble, OpenAI's Price War
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
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.
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 7:40 PM ET, August 17, 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

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Foreign Affairs:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Helene Braun / CoinDesk:
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Dan Garisto / Nature:
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: