Techmeme
January 31, 2024, 2:20 AM

Top News

Alphabet:
Alphabet reports Q4 revenue up 13% YoY to $86B, net income up 52% to $20.7B, Google Cloud revenue up 26% to $9.2B, and headcount down 4%+; GOOG drops 5%+  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - January 30, 2024 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Apple Vision Pro review: marvelous display, great hand and eye tracking, and works seamlessly in the ecosystem, but pricey and video passthrough can be blurry  —  The Apple Vision Pro is the best consumer headset anyone's ever made — and that's the problem.
More: CNET, CNBC, Marques Brownlee on YouTube, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Tom's Guide, Daring Fireball, The Verge on YouTube, AppleInsider, iJustine on YouTube, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, The Wall Street Journal on YouTube, Creative Strategies, The Overspill, Wccftech, Enterprise Times, TechEBlog, The Guardian, Spyglass, Business Insider, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, 9to5Mac, SlashGear, BGR, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider, Boing Boing, Tom's Guide on YouTube, Macworld, UploadVR, On my Om, PetaPixel, OSnews, Constellation Research, The Metaverse Insider, Club386, Washington Post, Digital Trends, CNET, iClarified, Techmeme Ride Home Podcast on YouTube, Dexerto, Gizmodo, Cult of Mac, TechRadar, Forbes, Road to VR, MacStories, The Messenger, The Apple Post, ZDNet, Washington Post, 9to5Mac, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iMore, BGR, iPhone in Canada Blog, Variety, CNET on YouTube, The Verge on YouTube, ZDNet, and MacRumors
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple's visionOS doesn't let users rearrange icons or pin web apps to the home screen, which is particularly limiting given Netflix and YouTube don't offer apps  —  In addition to not letting you rearrange home screen icons, visionOS 1.0 also doesn't support the ability to pin web apps to the home screen.
Microsoft:
Microsoft reports Q2 revenue up 18% YoY to $62B, net income up 33% YoY to $21.9B, Office Commercial revenue up 15% YoY, and LinkedIn revenue up 9% YoY  —  REDMOND, Wash. — January 30, 2024 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended December 31, 2023 …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Universal Music Group plans to cease licensing content to TikTok after their agreement expires on January 31, saying they failed to reach new licensing terms  —  UMG said that its agreement with TikTok is set to expire on Jan. 31.  “The companies have not agreed to terms for a new agreement …
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Block begins layoffs under a previously disclosed plan to cut staff by up to 10%, by imposing an “absolute cap” of a 12,000 headcount, which was 13,000 in Q3'23  —  The company plans to drastically reduce its headcount throughout 2024 through a series of layoffs and reorganizing measures.
Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
In a letter to employees, PayPal says it plans to lay off around 2,500 employees, or about 9% of its workforce, and will cut back on open roles  —  - CEO Alex Chriss has vowed to improve operating leverage  — Latest round of cuts will affect about 9% of the workforce
Sheila Chiang / CNBC:
Samsung reports Q4 revenue down 3.8% YoY to ~$51B, vs. ~$52.1B est., and operating profit down 34.57% YoY to ~$2.1B, vs. ~$2.6B est.  —  - Samsung on Wednesday reported a 34.57% drop in operating profit in the fourth quarter from a year ago, in line with its guidance issued earlier this month.
Arsheeya Bajwa / Reuters:
AMD reports Q4 revenue down 10% YoY to $6.2B, net income up 3,076% to $667M, Data Center revenue up 38% to $2.3B, Q1 revenue forecast below est.; AMD drops 5%+  —  Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) forecast first-quarter revenue below market estimates on Tuesday …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple says Apple Card now has 12M+ US users, over 1M are sharing their card via Apple Card Family, and users earned $1B+ in Daily Cash rewards in 2023  —  Apple Card has over 12 million users in the United States, Apple said today.  Apple Card holders earned more than $1 billion in Daily Cash rewards in 2023.
Financial Times:
Bernstein estimates PDD spent ~$3B on marketing Temu in the US in 2023; the Chinese group says Temu has 70M MAUs in the US, versus an estimated 13M in Jan. 2023  —  High-spending marketing push by PDD Holdings-owned internet marketplace leads to doubts over growth strategy
Financial Times:
Bain: as of September 2023, autonomous vehicles in China had driven a cumulative total of 70M kilometers, on par with the US, despite Beijing's safety concerns  —  Experts believe carmakers and tech companies are closing gap with US rivals despite Beijing's safety concerns
Suzanne Smalley / The Record:
Legislators and privacy experts detail how the tech industry has sought to water down state privacy regulation in the US; 13 US states now have privacy laws  —  New Jersey's governor signed a hard-fought data privacy law earlier this month, making the state one of eight nationwide …
Forums: r/privacy

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Earlier Picks

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Karin Matussek / Bloomberg:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Ashley Capoot / CNBC: