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January 29, 2024, 2:30 PM
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| Bloomberg: |
Amazon drops its $1.4B acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot after clashing with EU regulators and will pay a $94M fee; iRobot has ~$500M in net losses since 2021 — - IRobot CEO steps down and company cuts workforce by 31% — Tech giant to pay $94 million to iRobot over deal termination
More: The Verge, About Amazon, Telegraph, TechCrunch, The Register, The Messenger, NBC News, Thurrott, The Information, TechSpot, Engadget, TechRadar, Cybernews.com, Associated Press, New York Times, Axios, Financial Times, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Chain Store Age, Android Headlines, and TechStartups
Threads: @firstadopter. X: @progresschamber, @visu, @jamestitcomb, @bongcapital, @marketsneil, @mattturck, @pat_hedger, @pitdesi, @jcbcp, @sarthakgh, @ttoboyle, @adamkovac, @edludlow, @linakhanftc, @matthewstoller, @theo_wayt, @laz_radic, @lewis_crofts, @diane_alter, and @bhalligan. LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski
| Rohan Goswami / CNBC: |
After Amazon ended its acquisition, iRobot plans to lay off 31% of its staff, or ~350 people, and says chair and CEO Colin Angle would step down; IRBT drops 5%+ — - Amazon and iRobot mutually agreed to call off their planned acquisition, writing that there was “no path” to regulatory approval and sending iRobot shares down 15%.
More: Ars Technica, iRobot, PCMag, The Guardian, Gizmodo, eeNews Europe, Seattle Business Journal, Fortune, Tech Monitor, Business Post, SiliconANGLE, Android Police, GeekWire, PYMNTS.com, The Boston Globe, Investor's Business Daily, Reuters, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechHive, New York Post, TechCrunch, Tech Xplore, MobileSyrup, Neowin, Techaeris, The Robot Report, and NBC Bay Area
X: @geoffmanne, @geoffmanne, @bongcapital, @carnage4life, and @mattmday
Forums: Hacker News, Blind, and r/technology
| Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media: |
Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer, after fake AI images of Taylor Swift went viral and a report of 4chan users misusing the tool — Following 404 Media's reporting, Microsoft has made changes to a tool people were using to make AI nudes of celebrities.
More: VentureBeat, NBC News, Thurrott, Windows Central, New York Post, Futurism, Gizmochina, Gizmodo, NBC News on YouTube, Engadget, Neowin, Fortune, and Variety
| Washington Post: |
X blocking “Taylor Swift” searches as explicit AI images spread is a blunt measure to accomplish a basic moderation task, after gutting “trust and safety” staff — The superstar's fans were spurred into action last week after the images, likely generated by AI, began proliferating online
More: The Register, Ars Technica, MobileSyrup, TechCrunch, BBC, Axios, Reuters, PCMag, CCN.com, Business Insider, The Information, Financial Times, Mashable, Engadget, The Verge, Neowin, and Comic Book
Threads: @renee.diresta and @drewharwell
Mastodon: @malwarejake@infosec.exchange, @vrandecic@mas.to, and @homelessjun@mas.to
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Zoom details its visionOS app, which will support 3D file sharing, “real-world pinning” of up to five meeting participants, Apple's Persona feature, and more — As promised, Zoom will be available on Apple Vision Pro from day one. Ahead of Vision Pro's launch on Friday …
More: Zoom, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Engadget, PCMag, The Verge, UC Today, XR Today, and TweakTown
| Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal: |
Amazon expects Prime Video's average hourly ad load to be 2 to 3.5 minutes, below traditional TV and most streaming services, and to reach 159M monthly viewers — Move prompts longtime subscribers to cancel Prime altogether, forgoing free shipping; ‘There is only one way to show them that this is not OK’| Dawn Lim / Bloomberg: |
How Blackstone is building a ~$25B US data center empire after acquiring QTS, estimated to use 6GW of electricity when complete, equal to the needs of ~5M homes — The private equity giant says landlord QTS could be one of its best investments ever — but the resources needed for growth are vast.| Allison Johnson / The Verge: |
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: bright screen, anti-glare, Circle to Search, great camera, and seven years of updates, but pricey, heavy, and AI is a mixed bag — The Galaxy S24 Ultra is packed with top-tier hardware, but its highly touted AI features are hit-or-miss — and the price is higher than ever.
More: CNET, MacRumors, XDA Developers, IGN, Forbes, MakeUseOf, PCMag, Tom's Guide, GSMArena.com, TechSpot, and The Shortcut
| New York Times: |
How Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and others balance developing AI chips with their Nvidia relationship; Omdia says Nvidia accounts for 70%+ of AI chip sales — In September, Amazon said it would invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, a San Francisco start-up working on artificial intelligence.| Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: |
Meta partners with the Center for Open Science to share data for researching online well-being, before January 31's Congressional hearing on kids' online safety — Ahead of a major Congressional hearing about children's online safety, Meta has announced a collaboration with the Center for Open Science …
More: Engadget and Center for Open Science
| Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech: |
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G review: both offer solid levels of gaming performance for $329 and $229, respectively, especially with AMD's fastest cores — One of the most desired desktop chips designed for low-cost systems has been AMD's APUs, or Accelerated Processing Units.| Oliver Haslam / iMore: |
Apple updates Shazam to add support for identifying songs from other apps while listening via wired or Bluetooth headphones and earbuds — Apple's Shazam is now better than ever. — Shazam has long been the go-to app for people who want to know what song they're listening to but now it's better …
More: MacRumors, MobileSyrup, and BGR
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Sundar Pichai on what's next for Google Gemini, Waymo, and data centers in space
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