Techmeme: 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 (Ben Weiss/Fortune)

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September 20, 2023, 7:10 PM

Top News

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.

More: About Amazon, About Amazon, About Amazon, XDA Developers, MacRumors, Engadget, CNN, TechCrunch, Engadget, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, Engadget, Engadget, Engadget, The Verge, Constellation Research, Liliputing, Neowin, About Amazon, TechCrunch, and The Shortcut

Threads: @carnage4life. Mastodon: @bradlinder@fosstodon.org and @bradlinder@fosstodon.org

X: @amazon, @daveleebbg, @lanceulanoff, @amazon, @amazon, @amazon, @caro_milanesi, @daveleebbg, @film_girl, @amazon, @raywongy, @rogerwcheng, and @danwroc. LinkedIn: Andy Jassy. Forums: MacRumors Forums

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 — During a press event this morning at its HQ2 headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, Amazon announced that it'll soon use …

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.

More: About Amazon, TechHive, AppleInsider, Engadget, PhoneArena, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Wired, Android Central, T3, Pocket-lint, Digital Trends, The Verge, 9to5Toys, Android Headlines, and MobileSyrup

X: @caro_milanesi, @markgurman, and @amazon. LinkedIn: Brian Dews

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 — Designed specifically as a smart home controller, the Echo Hub is a slimline version of an Echo Show 8 or a shrunken version of a Show 15.

More: About Amazon, TechHive, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Android Police, Tech Advisor, Pocket-lint, MobileSyrup, Tom's Guide, Android Headlines, and Display Daily

X: @amazon, @markgurman, and @iethics

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 — Amazon kicked off today's Fall Devices Event with an update to its Echo Show 8. The small smart screen features smart home hub functionality and improved audio quality.

More: About Amazon, Android Authority, Engadget, The Verge, Decrypt, PhoneArena, TechRadar, Android Police, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Toys, Digital Trends, Pocket-lint, nextpit, Digital Trends, Android Headlines, TechHive, MobileSyrup, Mashable, PCMag, TechEBlog, and Android Central

Mastodon: @davezatz@mastodon.social, @jank0@sfba.social, and @jank0@sfba.social

X: @daveleebbg and @amazon. LinkedIn: David Limp

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.

More: OpenAI, Ars Technica, Decrypt, SiliconANGLE, The Messenger, PCMag, Gizmodo, The Verge, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Decoder, Neowin, BGR, Mashable, Washington Post, The Algorithmic Bridge, and Wired

Mastodon: @BartWronski@mastodon …. X: @sama, @officiallogank, @openai, @tomlikesrobots, @model_mechanic, @stokel, @scobleizer, @marvinvonhagen, @aravsrinivas, and @drjimfan. LinkedIn: Jordan Mazer

Forums: r/OpenAI, r/dalle2, and r/ChatGPTPro

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.

More: The Information, 9to5Mac, Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist.com, BGR, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Watcher Guru, iPhone in Canada Blog, PYMNTS.com, The Verge, and Apple Must

X: @bzamayo and @kejca

LinkedIn: Romeo Salta, Romeo Salta, and Arcady Lapiro

Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums

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 …

More: PayPal Newsroom, PYMNTS.com, Benzinga, Decrypt, Blockworks, crypto.news, TechCrunch, CryptoPotato, The Block, Bitcoin News, and Cryptopolitan. LinkedIn: Jose Fernandez da Ponte

Allison Johnson / The Verge:

Apple's FineWoven accessories and iPhone cases are really bad: they're expensive, quickly show wear, and scratch very easily, leaving seemingly permanent marks — Apple's new FineWoven iPhone cases and accessories are bad. Like, really bad. I've been puzzling over them for the past week, looking at them from different angles.

More: MobileReviewsEh on YouTube, zollotech on YouTube, Engadget, and Framework of Tech

Threads: @danseifert. Mastodon: @eli@hodapp.club, @ljpuk@twit.social, @marioguzman@mastodon.social, @jarango@mastodon.social, @thefreehunter@infosec …, and @SebastienK@mastodon.social

Bluesky: @edbott.com and @epro.social

Forums: r/gadgets and r/apple

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.

More: Wired, CNN, CNBC, CNET, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Engadget, Wired, Hodinkee, Independent.ie, TechCrunch, New York Times, British GQ, Pocket-lint, Geek Culture, MobileSyrup, XDA Developers, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, BGR, and 9to5Mac

X: @adrianweckler, @nicnguyen, and @nicnguyen

Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums

Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:

In its Prime lawsuit, the FTC alleges three Amazon executives played key roles in enrolling customers unwittingly and making it hard to cancel subscriptions — Federal agency alleges Amazon executives were aware of enrolling customers unwittingly and erecting intentional hurdles to cancellation

More: Federal Trade Commission, The Verge, PYMNTS.com, Los Angeles Times, CNBC, American Economic …, and The Messenger

X: @matthewstoller, @danamattioli, @noahpransky, and @ftc

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

More: Reuters, CNBC, and OSnews

X: @sub8u, @tphuang, @briantycangco, @echenze, @davidgaleuk, @tphuang, @pstasiatech, and @pstasiatech. Forums: Ars OpenForum

Reuters:

Sources: Huawei's HiSilicon is shipping new Chinese-made surveillance camera chips, a fresh sign the company is circumventing four years of US export controls

More: Bloomberg. Forums: Slashdot

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.

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.

More: WhatsApp Blog, The Information, Meta, The Verge, The Information, Social Media Today, Mashable, Engadget, Neowin, Memeburn, WinBuzzer, and PhoneArena

X: @liahaberman and @kyurieff

LinkedIn: Conor Shanley and Ritu Agarwal

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:10 PM ET, September 20, 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

Dan Kennedy / The Conversation:

Five regional newspapers in Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle, Philly, and Salt Lake offer examples of sustainability for the news business, as WaPo shrinks

Bloomberg:

Sources: Warner Bros Discovery is considering reopening sale talks with Paramount after receiving Paramount's most recent amended offer

Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:

Ars Technica apologizes after publishing an article it says had fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool attributed to a source who did not say them

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More News

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:

Documents: Amazon scrapped a planned 2% fee on merchants that don't use its shipping services; disclosed in August, the fee was set to take effect on October 1

More: Reuters and Best Stocks. LinkedIn: Spencer Soper

Matt Binder / Mashable:

Bluesky Stats: on September 18, Elon Musk floated charging all X users, and on September 19, Bluesky signed up 53,585 users, or 5% of its ~1,125,499 accounts

More: Insider. Bluesky: @mattbinder.bsky.social. LinkedIn: Todd Irwin

Madeleine Ngo / New York Times:

The US spending $64.5B+ to improve rural broadband and close the “digital divide” may not be enough due to the cost of laying fiber, labor shortages, and more

X: @connect_fund

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:

DeepMind researchers detail Optimization by PROmpting to improve LLM performance by using “meta-prompts” like “take a deep breath”, which helped Google's PaLM 2

More: Insider. Forums: r/singularity and Ars OpenForum

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Legit Security, whose service helps identify app vulnerabilities from code, raised a $40M Series B led by CRV, taking its total funding to $77M

More: PR Newswire, SiliconANGLE, TechStartups, Reuters, CTech, and FinSMEs. X: @crv

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:

Latin America-focused rapid grocery startup JOKR raised a ~$50M Series D led by Convivialité at an $800M valuation, down from a $1.3B valuation in February 2023

LinkedIn: Gabrielle Charnoff

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

More: PYMNTS.com, Corti, Metaverse Post, Tech.eu, Insider, TechCrunch, and SiliconANGLE. LinkedIn: Florian Schwiecker

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

LimeWire, which pivoted from piracy to content creation, acquires generative AI image tool BlueWillow, which has 2.5M Discord members and has made 500M+ images

More: TechRadar, CCN.com, and Axios

X: @limewire and @bluewillow_ai. LinkedIn: Salvatore Liberto Jr

Earlier Picks

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Q&A with Matthew Panzarino, who recently stepped down as TechCrunch EIC after 10 years, on the site's Silicon Valley relationship, the future of media, and more

X: @alex

Rest of World:

A profile of Tokyo-based Soramitsu, which worked on Cambodia's blockchain-based “quasi-digital currency” system and is running CBDC studies in other countries

X: @restofworld

Wall Street Journal:

A profile of Jeff Yass, whose Susquehanna International Group has a ~15% stake in ByteDance, as he works to prevent a US TikTok ban by donating to GOP lawmakers

More: New York Times. X: @jimrubens

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

More: City A.M. and Fortune

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @sarahoconnor_ and @jeremiasprassl

Hayden Field / CNBC:

How Airbnb Head of Trust and Safety Naba Banerjee cut parties reported on the service by 55% from 2020 to 2022 and launched an anti-party AI system in May 2023

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

More: The Linux Foundation, SiliconANGLE, Forbes, The Next Platform, oneAPI.io, and Runtime

Mastodon: @fj@mastodon.social and @Codeandrew@mastodon …

X: @kelseyhightower and @intelsoftware. LinkedIn: Seungwon Lee

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

More: Wired, Neuralink, The Verge, Ars Technica, BBC, The Hill, MobileSyrup, The Register, ExtremeTech, WHDH 7News, Gizmodo, Newser, WinBuzzer, TechSpot, Watcher Guru, Futurism, TweakTown, T3, The Verge, Forbes, Wired, Engadget, Bloomberg, and Mashable

X: @neuralink, @elonmusk, @sawyermerritt, and @sotadotclub

Forums: r/ABoringDystopia and Ars OpenForum

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”

More: The Keyword, New York Times, Fast Company, iThinkDifferent, The Verge, and Gizmodo

Threads: @crumbler. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @mcwm, @aurman21, @ilyaabyzov, and @kelvin_guu