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Techmeme
January 25, 2024, 11:35 AM
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Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Internal memo: Microsoft plans to lay off ~1,900 staff at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, or ~8% of its Microsoft Gaming workforce, this week  —  Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week.  While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
As Palworld hits 8M+ copies sold, The Pokémon Company denies having let “another company” use its IP and plans to “investigate and take appropriate measures”  —  The Pokemon Company said Thursday it has not granted any permission to “another company,” …
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Google Research details Lumiere, an AI video tool that uses unique architecture to create videos in one smooth process instead of putting together smaller parts  —  Lumiere generates five-second videos that “portray realistic, diverse and coherent motion.”  —  On Tuesday, Google announced Lumiere …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft launches Mesh, its 3D meeting platform in Teams, out of preview, with custom environments, games, spatial audio, and only supporting Meta Quest for VR  —  Microsoft is launching its immersive 3D meetings inside Microsoft Teams today.  Microsoft Mesh, the company's mixed reality platform …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta rolls out DM limits on Facebook and Instagram to stop all users from messaging teens who don't follow them, on by default, and expands parental controls  —  Meta announced today that it is rolling out new DM restrictions on both Facebook and Instagram for teens that prevent anyone from messaging teens.
IDC:
Chinese smartphone shipments declined 5% YoY to 271.3M units in 2023; Apple gained the top spot, a first, with 17.3% market share, followed by Honor with 17.1%  —  A shift of power that we saw on the worldwide stage also happened in China, the largest smartphone market globally.
Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
How the rising prices of streaming services are driving users to pirate websites with a ~90% profit margin that bring in ~$2B per year in ads and subscriptions  —  Illegal subscription services that steal films or TV shows bring in $2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees.
Forums: Slashdot
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google unveils the Pixel 8 series in a mint color, plans to bring Circle to Search to the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, improves the 8 Pro's built-in thermometer, and more  —  A “fresh” new color for the Pixel 8 series isn't the only thing Google is announcing today.
Bloomberg:
Filing: HPE says a threat actor believed to be Russia-linked Midnight Blizzard exfiltrated data from “a small percentage of HPE mailboxes” beginning in May 2023  —  - HPE says it was informed of nation-state breach on Dec. 12  — Same Russia-linked group suspected in recent Microsoft hack
Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:
Fubo TV launches Instant Headlines Beta, which uses AI to generate headlines from live news programs on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and other networks  —  You may be familiar with AI-powered highlights of sporting events.  Now, though, Fubo has announced for the first time you will be able to get instant headlines from live news programs.
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
An investigation details a spy tool called Patternz, which can track billions of phone profiles via ads in hundreds of thousands of apps, including 9gag and Kik  —  Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google Pixel users say all their apps cannot access data in internal storage after installing the January 2024 Google Play system update, causing various issues  —  Following a storage access issue in October with the initial Android 14 release and multiple users, Pixel devices might …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Anomalo, which uses AI to solve data-quality problems in large datasets, raised a $33M Series B led by SignalFire, bringing its total funding to $72M  —  When Anomalo's co-founders left Instacart in 2018, they thought they could put machine learning to work to solve data quality problems inherent in large data sets.
More: SiliconANGLE
Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:
VCs put $100B+ in US defense tech startups since 2021, but convincing the Pentagon to buy from them has proven difficult; only a few had $25M+ in orders in FY23  —  Tech startups get cool reception from Defense Department despite its rhetoric that it will buy more from Silicon Valley
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Sources: research group China Tech Threat, which has advocated against Lenovo, aligns with the corporate interests of Dell and Micron, both long-term funders  —  China Tech Threat's advocacy aligns with the corporate interests of Dell and Micron, which have supported the group financially, say people familiar with the group.
LinkedIn: Brody Ford
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Microsoft briefly reached a $3T market cap for the first time on January 24, becoming the second company to do so after Apple, before closing at a record $2.99T  —  - Software giant is second company to hit level, following Apple  — AI services are seen as a long-term revenue growth tailwind

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:35 AM ET, January 25, 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.

From Mediagazer

New York Times:
White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was forced out of her role on Friday, after five days on the job and hosting only one press briefing

Page Six:
Sources: Bela Bajaria was “blindsided” by her firing and only found out at 5pm on Wednesday after Netflix had repeatedly reassured her that her job was secure

Washington Post:
Israeli settlers attacked WaPo photographer Heidi Levine, who wore a “PRESS” vest, in the West Bank, kicking her repeatedly and taking her cameras and phone

More News

Sara Merken / Reuters:
Toronto-based Spellbook, which offers an AI-powered contract drafting and review tool for lawyers, raised a $20M Series A led by Inovia Capital
Sareen Habeshian / Axios:
New York City issues a public health advisory officially designating social media as an “environmental toxin”, blaming it for a youth mental health crisis

Earlier Picks

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
IBM reports Q4 revenue up 4% YoY to $17.38B, vs. $17.30B est., software revenue up 3% YoY to $7.51B, and net income of $3.29B, up from $2.71B YoY; IBM jumps 8%+
Hugh Son / CNBC:
Klarna launches Klarna Plus, a $7.99 per month plan in the US, offering waived service fees when using its One Time Card, double rewards points, and more
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia's RTX GPUs can now upgrade SDR video to HDR using AI, supported in both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome on Windows PCs with HDR enabled
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Twitch changes the Prime Gaming subscription payout model to a fixed rate, expands the Partner Plus Program, and removes the $100K cap for 70/30 revenue share
Richard Nieva / Forbes:
The US National Science Foundation partners with OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and others to launch NAIRR, a pilot to expand researchers' access to AI tools
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Ring is sunsetting a tool that lets police request footage from users via its Neighbors app, forcing law enforcement to obtain warrants or evidence of emergency
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
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
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