Techmeme
February 18, 2024, 3:00 PM

Top News

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Sources: the EU plans to fine Apple around €500M for allegedly breaking EU law over access to music streaming services, following a 2019 complaint by Spotify  —  Move is culmination of long-running European Commission antitrust probe after a complaint by Spotify
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple Store sources: Vision Pro returns are between average and above average compared to other products; in-store demo conversion rate is as high as 10% to 15%  —  The Apple Vision Pro has now been available for two weeks — and some of Apple's most dedicated customers are returning the device to get back their $3,500.
Michael Crider / PCWorld:
SPEC invalidates 2,600 benchmark results for some Intel Xeon CPUs, saying their compiler artificially inflated the results of its benchmark by as much as 9%  —  Benchmarks, while inherently contentious and not always representative of real-world performance, are an important tool in any kind of quantitative evaluation.
Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:
A Florida court filing accuses the Bahamas-based Deltec Bank of giving Alameda Research a short-term line of credit worth billions of dollars to buy Tether  —  - Deltec is alleged to have provided a short-term line of credit  — Court documents suggest a tighter web than previously known
Bloomberg:
Sources: the UK, the US, and other allies are working to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones that could swarm Russian targets simultaneously  —  - Technology could help Ukraine overwhelm some Russian targets  — Germany's Scholz calls on EU allies to increase Ukraine aid
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Q&A with Laela Sturdy, the head of Alphabet's growth stage venture arm CapitalG, about its decision-making process, AI strategy, Stripe's valuation, and more  —  Almost a year ago, Alphabet's growth stage venture arm, CapitalG, named partner Laela Sturdy as its new head, just as the unit's founder, David Lawee, stepped down.
Jessica Traynor / The Guardian:
A look at the data center economy of Ireland, which had 82 data centers in 2023, amid concerns about rolling blackouts due to pressure on the electrical grid  —  Datacentres are part of Ireland's vision of itself as a tech hub.  There are now more than 80, using vast amounts of electricity.
Amy Or / Bloomberg:
Sources: Reddit signed a deal early in 2024, worth ~$60M on an annualized basis, allowing a large unnamed AI company to train its models on Reddit's content  —  - Social media firm agrees $60 million deal with AI company  — Reddit advised to seek at least $5 billion IPO valuation

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More News

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
Washington Post:
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Earlier Picks

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:
New York Times: