Techmeme
January 24, 2024, 12:30 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple plans to add new fees and restrictions after allowing EU users to download apps from outside the App Store, including reviewing sideloaded apps  —  Meta, Spotify and other companies are weighing new options for customers as Apple makes changes to comply with new European law
Ariel Shapiro / The Verge:
Ahead of the EU's DMA, Spotify shares iOS app mockups with full in-app payments, rolling out in part on March 7; Apple hasn't yet shared its changes for the DMA  —  For years, Apple's App Store policies have made it impossible for apps to sell digital services and goods on their own terms.
Michael Acton / Financial Times:
Apple's acquisitions, job postings, and academic papers detail the company's AI plans; PitchBook says Apple acquired 21 AI startups since the start of 2017  —  Acquisitions, job postings and academic papers suggest tech company is preparing to run AI through its devices
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
eBay plans to cut ~1,000 full-time jobs, or ~9% of its workforce, and scale back the number of contracts within its “alternate workforce” over the coming months  —  - EBay said Tuesday it's laying off 1,000 full-time employees.  — CEO Jamie Iannone told employees the company will …
Toby Sterling / Reuters:
ASML reports Q4 revenue up 13% YoY to €7.2B, net profit up 9% YoY to €2B, both above est., orders up 3x QoQ to €9B+, and expects 2024 net sales to be flat YoY  —  ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS), Europe's biggest technology company by market value, on Wednesday reported better …
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Originality AI: 88%+ of the top US news outlets now block AI companies' web crawlers; leading right-wing outlets, like Breitbart and Newsmax, mostly permit them  —  Nearly 90 percent of top news outlets like The New York Times now block AI data collection bots from OpenAI and others.
Alexander Martin / The Record:
The UK NCSC's all-source intelligence assessment: ransomware attacks will almost certainly increase in both volume and impact over the next two years due to AI  —  Ransomware attacks will increase in both volume and impact over the next two years due to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, British intelligence has warned.
Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.co:
A look at some long-term issues facing the gaming industry, including deep layoffs, weak revenue growth, and declining VC investments  —  To players and outside observers, 2023 looks like one of the 70-year-old gaming industry's greatest-ever years.  Chief among its achievements was its slate of new software releases.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google unveils a new Gemini-powered chat-based tool in Google Ads to build Search ad campaigns, out in beta to all English language advertisers in the US and UK  —  Google announced today that Gemini, its family of multimodal large language models, now powers the conversational experience within the Google Ads platform.
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
London- and Tallinn-based VC firm Plural, led by some of Europe's best known startup founders, raised a €400M fund to invest in early-stage “deep tech” startups  —  The firm offers a Silicon-Valley approach to backing start-ups as an alternative to the traditional VC model
Noam Cohen / Bloomberg:
As Wikimedia Russia shuts down, a look at the Kremlin-compliant Wikipedia alternative Ruwiki, which recently went live, led by an ex-Wikimedia Russia director  —  A campaign to replace the country's Wikipedia with a more pliant alternative seems near completion.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Netflix plans to to retire its ad-free Basic plan in some countries where ad-supported plans are available, starting with Canada and the UK in Q2 2024  —  Although Netflix no longer allows new or returning members to sign up for the ad-free Basic subscription that costs $11.99 per month …
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
X adds support for passkeys for US-based iOS users; the announcement comes shortly after the hack of the US SEC's X account  —  X, formerly Twitter, today announced support for passkeys, a new and more secure login method than traditional passwords, which will become an option for U.S. users on iOS devices.
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
The US National Science Foundation partners with OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, and others to launch NAIRR, a pilot program to increase researchers' access to AI tools  —  The pilot program, called the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource, follows President Biden's executive order mandating lower entry to AI infrastructure.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
SAP plans voluntary buyouts or job changes for 8,000 employees as part of a 2024 restructuring program but says its headcount should remain the same  —  SAP said in a statement on Tuesday that it plans to carry out voluntary buyouts or job changes for 8,000 employees as part of a 2024 restructuring program …
Basith Rahman P P / MySmartPrice:
Alleged renders of Google's Pixel 9 Pro show a ~6.5-inch display, smaller than the Pixel 8 Pro, a refreshed camera island with three cameras, and a flat frame  —  The upcoming Google Pixel 9 Pro might feature a smaller flat display compared to the Pixel 8 Pro.  —  HIGHLIGHTS
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
BeReal plans to let brands and celebrities join, starting on February 6, and says the app now has 23M DAUs, up from 20M DAUs in August 2023  —  BeReal, a rising social media app that emphasizes authenticity, is making its first outreach to brands and celebrities.
More: BeReal

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Cheap code, precious trust: Code modernization at scale  —  The promise—and challenges—of agentic software engineering, from large-scale code migration to language modernization.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Your Linkthread page just leveled up!  Better analytics, bolder designs, bigger teams.  —  Since we launched Linkthread in March 2025, over 10,000 businesses have signed up to make their one bio link work harder.
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

Invest Like the Best:
Cliff Sosin - Owning the Complements to Intelligence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Big Technology Podcast:
Emergency Pod: Anthropic's S-1 IPO Filing — With Dan Primack
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Lubricate the Inside of the Hinge', With Joanna Stern
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Lenny's Podcast:
An 86-minute guide to finding PMF | Rob Snyder (Author, The Power of Pull)
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.
Machine Gods:
Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora's Box
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:30 PM ET, January 24, 2024.

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

Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

TechCrunch:
Ian King / Bloomberg:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: