Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
September 15, 2023, 11:00 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Ireland's DPC fines TikTok €345M after finding it in breach of GDPR in relation to how it handles children's data and gives the company three months to comply  —  It's been a long time coming but TikTok has finally been found in breach of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation …
Financial Times:
Sources: Meta is exploring whether to show ads in WhatsApp and charge a subscription fee to use the app without ads; WhatsApp denies working on such a feature  —  Talks are at an early stage, sources say, as Facebook parent looks for new ways to increase revenue
Victor Tangermann / Futurism:
Microsoft's Start news website published a garbled, seemingly AI-generated obit for former NBA player Brandon Hunter, headlined, “Brandon Hunter useless at 42”  —  “AI should not be writing obituaries.”  —  Former NBA player Brandon Hunter passed away unexpectedly at the young age …
Elizabeth Pineau / Reuters:
Apple plans a software update for iPhone 12 in France to address radiation concerns, says “this is related to a specific testing protocol” used by the regulator  —  Apple said on Friday it would issue a software update for iPhone 12 users in France, in what seemed to offer …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Unity cancels a town hall and closes two offices after receiving what the company says was a credible death threat, following its controversial install fee news  —  Management announced a controversial pricing decision two days ago  —  Unity Technologies Inc. canceled a planned town hall …
Neil Long / Mobilegamer.biz:
Sources: Unity offered a 100% Runtime Fee waiver to studios using its LevelPlay mediation platform and 80% to 100% waivers to developers switching from AppLovin
Kat Bailey / IGN:
Unity acknowledges “the confusion and frustration” around its planned install fees but argues that “more than 90% of our customers will not be affected”
Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:
MGM was likely hacked by Scattered Spider, an English-speaking group that previously used help desk calls to get passwords and planned to hack the slot machines  —  Person claiming to represent cybercriminals explains techniques used to evade detection by casino resort company
Wall Street Journal:
Filing: Caesars confirms the casino operator was hacked via a social engineering attack on an outsourced IT support vendor; sources: Caesars paid a ~$15M ransom
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Salesforce plans to hire 3,300 people for sales, engineering, and its data cloud product, after cutting 10% of its workforce, or ~8,000 jobs, in January 2023  —  - New hires will be split among sales, engineering, data cloud  — Many hires will be boomerang employees, CEO Benioff says
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Google agrees to pay California $93M to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of tracking users' location for commercial gain even after they opted out  —  Google will pay California $93 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing the search engine company of misleading consumers about its location tracking practices.
Bloomberg:
At trial, the US DOJ asserted Googlers are trained to have sensitive conversations over chat with history off and avoid phrases like “market share” and “bundle”  —  Hi all, it's Tom Giles in San Francisco and Davey Alba in Washington.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Google confirms it currently offers no repair options for cracked Pixel Watch screens; the company's hardware warranty does not cover accidental damage  —  If you crack the screen on the Pixel Watch, getting it officially repaired by Google isn't in the cards.
Jon Victor / The Information:
Sources: Google has given a small group of companies access to an early version of its Gemini AI model, as the company nears a launch of the GPT-4 rival  —  Google has given a small group of companies access to an early version of its highly anticipated conversational artificial intelligence software …
Steven Rosenbush / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft and Oracle expand their cloud partnership with Oracle Database@Azure, letting customers run Oracle workloads natively in Azure data centers  —  The new level of collaboration reflects how technology and customer demand have fostered more cooperation among software companies
Christopher Beam / Wired:
A look at the race to build tools to identify AI-generated text and evade detection, such as GPTZero and WorkNinja, which were built by college students  —  And college students are developing the weapons, quickly building tools that identify AI-generated text—and tools to evade detection.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Microsoft unveils EvoDiff, a novel protein-generating AI framework that the company says can help create enzymes for new therapeutics and drug delivery methods  —  Proteins, the natural molecules that carry out key cellular functions within the body, are the building blocks of all diseases.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
 OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
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.
Hard Fork:
 Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
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.
Access:
 Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
 So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:00 AM ET, September 15, 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.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

More News

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Adobe reports Q3 revenue up 10% YoY to $4.89B, vs. $4.87B est., Digital Media revenue up 11% YoY to $3.59B, and Digital Experience revenue up 10% YoY to $1.23B
Bloomberg:
SCOTUS pauses a lower court's order limiting the White House, FBI, and public health agencies from making social media requests, hours after the DOJ's request

Earlier Picks

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta expands Horizon Worlds, previously exclusive to its VR headsets, to the web and Android in early access, and rolling out to iOS “in the coming weeks”
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Automattic releases ActivityPub 1.0.0 for WordPress, letting fediverse users follow WordPress blogs on apps like Mastodon and receive replies as blog comments
CNBC:
Arm closes up 24.69% to $63.59 in its Nasdaq debut, valuing the company at $65.24B, after Arm priced shares at the upper end of its expected $47 to $51 range
Nicole Nguyen / Wall Street Journal:
Google plans to offer Chromebook software updates for up to 10 years, starting in 2024, so no current device expires within the next two years, to help schools
Bloomberg:
How Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both renowned Stanford scholars, opened doors for their son, Sam, and provided a halo effect for FTX before its implosion
Monica Chin / The Verge:
HP unveils the $5,000+ Spectre Fold, an OLED foldable PC that can be used as a 17-inch tablet, a 17-inch laptop, or a 12.3-inch laptop and weighs less than 3lbs
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter