Techmeme
February 13, 2024, 8:25 AM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft plans an Xbox business update event on February 15 at 12PM PT, delivered via a podcast hosted by Xbox's Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty  —  After weeks of rumors of Xbox exclusives coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Microsoft is now planning to discuss its vision for the future of Xbox at an event later this week.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft plans to launch select Xbox games on the PS5 and Switch, starting with Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, and Sea of Thieves, a seismic strategy shift  —  With rumors of some Xbox games coming to PS5 and Switch, Microsoft gets ready to lay out its vision for the future of Xbox.
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU closes its DMA investigation into iMessage and Microsoft Bing, Edge, and Advertising, deciding against regulating the services due to a lack of dominance  —  - Services not dominant enough to face Digital Markets Act … A probe concluded that the services don't hold a dominant enough position …
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
US court notice: the sentencing of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao for money laundering has been postponed until April 30, 2024; CZ is free on a $175M release bond  —  - The sentencing of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao on a money laundering rule charge has been postponed until April 30, a notice in Seattle federal court shows.
Rebekah Valentine / IGN:
Interviews with 40+ developers detail reasons for layoffs in gaming, including an environment fraught with high costs and execs having little regard for staff  —  An estimated 10,000 game workers lost their jobs in 2023 alone.  —  In August of last year, Ascendant Studios developer Aaron …
John Archer / Forbes:
Amazon Prime Video's basic ad tier, which US subscribers who didn't pay extra were downgraded to on January 29, doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos  —  Amazon AMZN caused a furor recently when it announced that it was introducing advertisements right across its Prime Video streaming service.
Rachel Phua / Bloomberg:
Temu bought six Super Bowl ad slots, likely for tens of millions, to win back US shoppers; US observed sales fell 12.5% MoM in December 2023 and 4.8% in January  —  - Observed sales and users fell month-on-month in Dec. and Jan.  — Chinese e-commerce app offers users $10 million in giveaways
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Meta begins testing “today's topics” on Threads in the US, surfaced in the app on the Search page and in the For You feed, that can feature political content  —  After acknowledging last week that Meta's X competitor Threads would not actively recommend political content …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Websites with seemingly AI-generated obituaries litter Google search, sometimes listing living people as deceased and turning private individuals into clickbait  —  In the wake of death, AI-generated obituaries litter search results, turning even private individuals into clickbait. … part of /
More: Los Angeles TimesThreads: @knguyen and @miasato.2Mastodon: @annaecook@mstdn.socialBluesky: @djcentos7.bsky.socialForums: Slashdot
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Shopify reports Q4 revenue up 24% YoY to $2.1B, above $2.08B est., and Gross Merchandise Volume up 23% YoY to $75.1B, above $71.6B est.; SHOP drops 10%+  —  Shopify Inc. reported sales and profit for the fourth quarter that narrowly beat analysts' estimates, but that didn't impress Wall Street …
More: Reuters and MarketWatch
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Proofpoint: unknown hackers are targeting hundreds of Azure accounts, some belonging to senior executives, to steal sensitive data and financial assets  —  The wide range of employee roles targeted indicates attacker's multifaceted approach.  —  Hundreds of Microsoft Azure accounts …
Zoë Schiffer / Platformer:
Q&A with Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko on the platform, its future, collaborating on ActivityPub with Meta's Threads team, why Bluesky should ditch AT, and more  —  The news last week that Bluesky is open to the public left me wondering how Mastodon, the original federated social network, is faring these days.
More: Mark CarriganThreads: @reporterzoe and @crumblerMastodon: @leonido@chaos.socialBluesky: @t1u.bsky.social
Reuters:
Sources: Founders Fund bought $100M in bitcoin and $100M in ether from late summer to early fall 2023; the VC sold its crypto portfolio in 2022, making ~$1.8B  —  Founders Fund, the venture capital firm founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, is investing once again in bitcoin and ether …

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More News

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Nate Raymond / Reuters:
Brandon Vigliarolo / The Register:
More: The Cloudflare Blog and WebProNews
Threads: @gergelyorosz_X: @eastdakota and @cloudflareLinkedIn: Steven CallahanForums: Hacker News
Michelle F Davis / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Stephen Alpher / CoinDesk:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
VideoCardz.com:
Eva Dou / Washington Post: