Techmeme
February 4, 2024, 9:30 PM

Top News

Charlie Sorrel / iFixit News:
Apple Vision Pro teardown: not great repairability-wise, an unforgivable proprietary battery plug, and a lenticular lens layer that makes EyeSight look blurry  —  The strangest thing about the Vision Pro is also the thing that makes it most uniquely Apple: it's got a big shiny bubble glass front …
CNN:
A Hong Kong-based firm's employee was tricked into paying $25M to fraudsters who used deepfake tech to pose as the company's CFO and staff during a video call  —  A finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake technology to pose …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: some Tesla and SpaceX directors have consumed drugs with Elon Musk feeling there is an expectation to do so, raising concerns about their independence  —  Board members have reaped hundreds of millions from stock awards and separate investments, even as some have done drugs with Musk …
Washington Post:
Amid mass tech layoffs, some workers with years of experience or deep technical expertise are having trouble getting hired again while some seek non-tech jobs  —  Google, Amazon, Microsoft and a raft of others fired thousands of workers in January, continuing a layoff wave that began in 2022.
Gabriel J.X. Dance / New York Times:
A look at the dispute between Bitcoin miners in Arkansas and residents, who say the noise is ruining lives, lowering property values, and driving away wildlife  —  Pushed by an advocacy group, Arkansas became the first state to shield noisy cryptocurrency operators from unhappy neighbors.
Umar Farooq / ProPublica:
US police departments are using AI software from Chicago-based Truleo and other companies to analyze millions of hours of unreviewed body-cam footage  —  Black Boxes: How Police Undermined the Promise of Body Cameras  —  Body-worn cameras were supposed to deliver a revolution in transparency and accountability to policing.
Rebecca Jennings / Vox:
How social media is forcing writers and artists to build personal brands and become influencers, making many artists uncomfortable and feel like sellouts  —  So you want to be an artist.  Do you have to start a TikTok?  —  When Rachael Kay Albers was shopping around her book proposal …
Nitish Pahwa / Slate:
A look at the decline of Quora, which used to stand out as an accuracy-focused, knowledge-centric platform but is now filled with bizarre, AI-generated entries  —  This raised the issue of consent and ownership, as Quorans had to decide whether to consent to the new terms or take their work and flee.
Danny Crichton / Securities:
TechCrunch+'s founding editor about its launch to complement TechCrunch's ads and events revenue and its failure due to issues with finding business reporters  —  January was a brutal month for journalists, globally from death and locally from layoffs.  The latter hit home this week …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Remote desktop software maker AnyDesk says it has suffered a cyberattack recently; source: hackers stole source code and private code signing keys  —  AnyDesk confirmed today that it suffered a recent cyberattack that allowed hackers to gain access to the company's production systems.
Michael Grothaus / Fast Company:
Interview with Phil Schiller about Apple's efforts to minimize potential risks that third-party app stores, mandated by EU's DMA, may expose iPhone users to  —  Third-party app stores will soon appear on the iPhone in the EU.  That's good for small companies, but it could be terrible for consumers.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:30 PM ET, February 4, 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

Pkl Blog:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:

Earlier Picks

David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post: