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September 20, 2023, 4:00 PM
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The Verge:
Everything Amazon announced at its product event: Alexa Emergency Assist for $6/month, the Alexa Eye Gaze accessibility feature, the $50 Echo Pop Kids, and more  —  Amazon is kicking off its annual fall product announcements at its HQ2 campus in Arlington, Virginia.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Amazon refreshes its Alexa-powered Echo Frames glasses: enhanced speech processing, better noise isolation, 15% thinner, and a six-hour battery life for $270  —  Amazon today unveiled a new generation of Echo Frames, its Alexa-powered glasses, with enhanced speech processing, better noise isolation and a $269.99 price tag.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Amazon unveils the $180 Echo Hub, a wall-mountable smart home controller with an 8" touchscreen, and Map View, an Alexa app interface for the user's floor plan
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Amazon unveils new generative AI features aimed at making Alexa more conversational and personalized, available as a free preview on all Echo devices in the US
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Amazon refreshes its $150 Echo Show 8 with a new design, a centered camera, a smart home hub, Spatial Audio, and a home screen that changes based on proximity
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon announces the $50 Fire TV Stick 4K, the $60 Fire TV Stick 4K Max, the $120 24-inch Fire TV Soundbar, and generative AI updates for Fire TV voice search
Ina Fried / Axios:
OpenAI teases DALL-E 3, which can be summoned and controlled using ChatGPT, and plans to make the tool available to ChatGPT+ and enterprise customers in October  —  OpenAI is offering an early look at DALL-E 3, the next version of its image generation tool.
CNBC:
Sources: as equities soared in 2020, Apple and Goldman were working on an iPhone stock trading feature but shelved the project when markets turned south in 2022  —  - Apple was exploring the launch of an iPhone feature that would let users buy and sell stocks, according to three sources familiar with the plans.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 review: Double Tap is great, but Precision Finding requires an iPhone 15, and the Siri and brightness improvements feel minor  —  Iterative updates aren't flashy, but these smartwatches are mainly for folks who don't have Apple Watches yet.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta expands its Meta Verified program to businesses on Facebook and Instagram in select markets, for $21.99/month/page for each or $34.99/month/page for both  —  Meta announced today that it is expanding Meta Verified to businesses after first launching it for creators in March.
Financial Times:
Meta launches in-chat payments for WhatsApp in India, letting businesses accept payments via credit cards, debit cards, WhatsApp Pay, and UPI at no extra charge
BBC:
After Meta criticized the UK's potential E2EE rules, the UK says Meta “failed to provide assurances” over keeping its platforms “safe from sickening abusers”  —  Facebook's owner Meta has hit back at a new government campaign strongly critical of its plans to encrypt messages.
Qianer Liu / Financial Times:
Sources: the Kirin 9000S SoC has four CPUs that use Arm designs, the other four use Huawei-modified Arm designs, HiSilicon developed the GPU and NPU, and more  —  Facing US sanctions, Chinese company emulates Apple by using its own designs in chips for Mate 60 Pro
Nikkei Asia:
On WeChat, China's Ministry of State Security says the US, since 2009, has continuously hacked Huawei's servers, stolen critical data, and installed backdoors  —  Beijing says Washington forces tech companies to install backdoors for spying  —  China has accused the U.S. of hacking Huawei's servers continuously since 2009.
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
PayPal says select Venmo users can now purchase its stablecoin PYUSD, with a rollout to more users in the coming weeks, in addition to BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC  —  PayPal announced on Wednesday that Venmo users will be able to buy PayPal's new stablecoin, PayPal USD, increasing the number …
WABetaInfo:
WhatsApp releases a beta for iOS via Apple's TestFlight with a companion mode for iPadOS, built using Mac Catalyst, after years of user requests for an iPad app  —  WhatsApp has just submitted a new update through the TestFlight beta Program, bringing the version up to 23.19.1.71.
Mariam Sunny / Reuters:
Neuralink is recruiting for the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients, expected to take about six years, likely for fewer than 10 people  —  Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday it has received approval from an independent review board …
The Verge:
Memo: Phil Spencer tells staff the FTC v. Microsoft documents leak is “disappointing” and that the company failed to live up to its confidentiality expectations  —  / ‘We all put incredible amounts of passion and energy into our work, and this is never how we want that hard work to be shared with the community.’

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:00 PM ET, September 20, 2023.

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From Mediagazer

Salon:
Salon, launched in 1995 to cover politics, culture, and more, says it is closing: “business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly”

Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
Nexstar reports Q3 net income up 285% YoY to $250M and net revenue up 78% YoY to $2.1B, as Q3 political ads brought in $317M; results include Tegna numbers

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
How Democrats' midterm wins may affect Hollywood and media: uncertainty over federal tax incentive bill, greater FCC oversight, restoring CPB funding, and more

More News

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Copenhagen-based Corti, whose AI co-pilot transcribes hospital calls and does paperwork, raised $60M led by Atomico and Prosus, sources say at a $260M valuation

Earlier Picks

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
An Uber executive says the EU's Platform Work Directive that designates gig workers as employees may raise prices and cause Uber to close in hundreds of cities
Bloomberg:
E-commerce marketing company Klaviyo prices its 19.2M shares at $30 each, above its $27-$29 range, raising $576M in its IPO at a $9.2B fully diluted valuation
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
The Linux Foundation launches the Unified Acceleration Foundation to create an open standard for accelerator programming, an evolution of the oneAPI initiative
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Bard's “Google it” feature adds the ability to “double check” answers by highlighting phrases with “supporting or contradicting information found by Search”
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