Techmeme
November 9, 2023, 1:40 PM

Top News

Paresh Dave / Wired:
Humane plans to open Ai Pin pre-orders on November 16, starting at $699 plus $24 per month for calling, texts, and data via T-Mobile, shipping in early 2024  —  If you're willing to clip the Ai Pin to your chest, you can talk, gesture, and tap to take photos or summon a powerful virtual assistant.
New York Times:
A look at Humane's $699 clip-on Ai Pin, the culmination of five years of work, $240M in funding, and 25 patents; Humane expects to sell ~100K in the first year  —  Humane, a company started by two former Apple employees, says its new artificial intelligence pin can stop all the scrolling.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Omegle, a service founded in 2009 for chatting with strangers, shuts down; founder Leif K-Brooks blames rising misuse, including in committing “heinous crimes”  —  Omegle, an online service that allowed individuals to connect and chat with strangers, has shut …
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Chinese state-affiliated outlet Chinastarmarket says Nvidia plans to release three new H100-based AI chips in the country in the coming days, after new US rules  —  - US is further limiting China's access to advanced silicon  — Nvidia's gaming graphic card is also affected by new US rules
Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:
Sony COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki says the company now plans to release six live service games by FY 2025, delaying the remaining six from the original 12 titles  —  Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has halved the number of live service games it plans to release over the next few years, it's confirmed.
Sam Nussey / Reuters:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google stops selling Fitbit products in 29 countries, including those where the company doesn't offer Pixel alternatives, to “align” its hardware portfolio  —  In a move that went a bit under the radar, Fitbit under Google has stopped selling its products in nearly 20 countries around the globe.
Taras Buria / Neowin:
Microsoft now requires that Windows users choose a listed reason for closing the OneDrive app, like “I do not use OneDrive” or “I don't know what OneDrive is”  —  A few weeks ago, we reported an odd discovery in Microsoft Edge: a poll asking users to explain their decision to download Chrome.
Suzanne Smalley / The Record:
A US judge rules that automakers using on-board infotainment systems to record and intercept owners' texts and call logs doesn't violate Washington privacy laws  —  A federal judge on Tuesday refused to bring back a class action lawsuit alleging four auto manufacturers had violated Washington …
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Yuga Labs says UV lights were the likely cause of eye and skin issues experienced by some of the attendees of ApeFest, hosted in Hong Kong from November 3 to 5  —  The probe was undertaken in collaboration with Jack Morton Worldwide, the company that produced the event …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Mandiant: Russia-tied Sandworm carried out a third successful attack on Ukraine's electric utility in October 2022, coinciding with a series of missile strikes  —  Russia's most notorious military hackers successfully sabotaged Ukraine's power grid for the third time last year.
Joe Brennan / The Irish Times:
A key CJEU advisor recommends that the court set aside a 2020 EU ruling that said Apple did not owe Ireland €13B+ in back taxes, a setback for Apple and Ireland  —  Opinion of key advisor to European Court of Justice (ECJ) comes months ahead of final ruling on world's biggest antitrust case
Bloomberg:
OpenAI says its APIs and ChatGPT are dealing with “periodic outages due to an abnormal traffic pattern reflective of a DDoS attack” and is mitigating the issue  —  - OpenAI says on its site it's grappling with “abnormal traffic”  — The US startup introduced a preview version of GPT-4 Turbo
Michael Kan / PCMag:
Signal begins testing usernames in a new beta build, letting users set the phone number linked to their account as private to hide the number from their profile  —  Offering usernames will allow people to stop giving out their phone number —a sensitive piece of information— in order to connect with others on the messaging app.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Samsung announces Galaxy AI, a “comprehensive mobile AI experience” that includes a translation feature called AI Live Translate Call, coming “early next year”  —  Samsung wants to make sure you know it cares about AI, too.  In a new blog post, the company previewed what it calls …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Inside Bryce Adams and Brian Adam's OnlyFans empire run from a $2.5M Florida compound: ~$10M in annual revenue and a $1M+ payroll; Adams' OF has $16.5M in sales  —  SOMEWHERE IN FLORIDA — In the mornings, the workers of Bryce Adams's OnlyFans empire buzz in through a camera-wired security gate …
Melanie Dawes / Financial Times:
Ofcom's CEO on the regulator's new powers to police tech: kids are the first priority, companies must detect and remove CSAM, and working in harmony with the EU  —  Where the laws have different scope, it's important that implementing them does not create conflicts for companies
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Apple, Google, and Samsung are working with Schlage, Yale, Qualcomm, and others, to build Aliro, an open standard for smart locks and digital keys  —  Launching Thursday, the effort is called Aliro, and if you've ever enjoyed using Apple's Home Key technology on your watch or phone to unlock your door …
Janko Roettgers / Lowpass:
Sources: Amazon is working on Vega, a new OS to replace Android on Fire TVs, smart displays, and other devices and could ship devices with the OS in 2024  —  Vega, baby! … Amazon has been working on a new operating system to replace Android on Fire TVs, smart displays and other connected devices …
Forums: r/Android
Andy Chalk / PC Gamer:
Activision Blizzard plans to shut down the Overwatch League and work on “evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction”; teams may get a $6M termination fee  —  Competitive Overwatch may return, but not in its current form.  —  Earlier this year, Activision Blizzard expressed doubt …
Brian Fung / CNN:
Unsealed court documents allegedly show how Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Bob Iger says Disney plans to launch a “unified one-app experience” that combines Disney+ and Hulu in beta in December 2023, ahead of a late March 2024 launch  —  Disney, which is in the home stretch of swinging the deal to become the full owner of Hulu, will launch a beta test …

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Bessie Liu / Blockworks:
Jay Peters / The Verge: