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January 29, 2024, 5:05 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
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LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski and Josh Chessman
| 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: About Amazon, iRobot, IEEE Spectrum, ZDNet, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, PCMag, Gizmodo, Reuters, eeNews Europe, The Guardian, Seattle Business Journal, The Boston Globe, Fortune, Business Post, Tech Monitor, Tom's Guide, Android Police, SiliconANGLE, GeekWire, The Robot Report, New York Post, TechStartups, Neowin, Techaeris, Tech Xplore, MobileSyrup, Cybernews.com, TechHive, TechCrunch, PYMNTS.com, Investor's Business Daily, Pocket-lint, and NBC Bay Area
X: @geoffmanne, @geoffmanne, @carnage4life, @mattmday, and @bongcapital
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 — Join the newsletter to get the latest updates. — Success — Great! Check your inbox and click the link. — Error
More: VentureBeat, NBC News, Thurrott, Windows Central, KnowTechie, Gizmodo, New York Post, Futurism, NBC News on YouTube, Engadget, Neowin, Fortune, and Variety
Mastodon: @faduda@mastodon.ie, @josephcox@infosec.exchange, and @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social. X: @tomwarren
| 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, Futurism, BBC, Axios, MobileSyrup, Reuters, CCN.com, TechCrunch, Associated Press, Business Insider, PCMag, The Information, Mashable, Financial Times, Engadget, The Verge, and Neowin
Threads: @drewharwell, @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, AppleInsider, PYMNTS.com, TechCrunch, ZDNet, Engadget, PCMag, iMore, UC Today, XR Today, TweakTown, and The Verge
X: @emilychangtv, @scobleizer, and @kantrowitz
| Bloomberg: |
Blizzard names Johanna Faries, former general manager for Call of Duty at Activision, as its president, succeeding Mike Ybarra, who left last week amid layoffs — Replaces Mike Ybarra who left the video-game company last week as part of mass layoffs under new owner Microsoft| Zoe Kleinman / BBC: |
Apple says proposed UK legislation could let the country try “to secretly veto new user protections globally”, preventing Apple from shipping them to customers — Apple has attacked proposals for the UK government to pre-approve new security features introduced by tech firms.| Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat: |
Meta releases Code Llama 70B, a new version of its code generation model, featuring improved code correctness, a variant optimized for Python, and more — Meta AI, the company that brought you Llama 2, the gargantuan language model that can generate anything from tweets to essays …
More: Meta, MSPoweruser, The Decoder, and Analytics India Magazine
X: @aiatmeta, @scobleizer, @wolfejosh, @syhw, @b_roziere, @ylecun, @jpineau1, @ollama, @omarsar0, @ollama, @_philschmid, @soumithchintala, @reach_vb, @sentdex, @_akhaliq, and @osanseviero. LinkedIn: Ahmad Al-Dahle. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg
Forums: Hacker News and r/singularity
| Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
After a months-long probe, Italy's data protection authority tells OpenAI that it's suspected of violating EU privacy regulations, giving it 30 days to respond — OpenAI has been told it's suspected of violating European Union privacy, following a multi-month investigation of its AI chatbot … | 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’
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| Alex Barinka / Bloomberg: |
TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to “find similar items on TikTok Shop” — - Feature links products to any posts, not just influencers — TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable … | 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.| 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: Center for Open Science, Engadget, Social Media Today, and PetaPixel
Mastodon: @briannosek@nerdculture.de, @AAKL@noc.social, and @manisha@neuromatch.social
X: @andymstone, @jeroenson, @seanmcginty, @fractaldoctor, @_andyburrows, @nickclegg, @mollyroseorg, @nickclegg, and @dougaparry. LinkedIn: Brian Nosek
| 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, Engadget, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, IGN, Forbes, MakeUseOf, XDA Developers, Tom's Guide, PCMag, GSMArena.com, and TechSpot
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