Techmeme
March 18, 2024, 10:00 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple and Google are in active talks to use Gemini to power some new iPhone features in 2024; Apple also held talks with OpenAI to use its models  —  - Companies considering AI deal that would build on search pact  — Apple also recently held discussions with OpenAI about deal
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman, who blends the personal and professional as CEO and plans to test a tepid IPO market for the unprofitable company  —  Steve Huffman built the social-media platform nearly two decades ago while in college.  Now he's taking it public …
Echo Wang / Reuters:
xAI:
xAI open sources the base model weights and network architecture of Grok-1, a 314B parameter Mixture-of-Experts model, under the Apache 2.0 license  —  We are releasing the base model weights and network architecture of Grok-1, our large language model.  Grok-1 is a 314 billion parameter Mixture …
Paul Tassi / Forbes:
Respawn and EA postpone the North American Finals of Apex Legends, after an unknown user hacked the game and gave pros hacks like aimbots during the event  —  Something rather terrifying has disrupted the North American Finals of Apex Legends, and players are now starting to potentially worry …
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony pauses PlayStation VR2 production, which hit 2M+ since February 2023, to clear unsold inventory; Sony recently confirmed testing PSVR2 PC support  —  - $550 accessory has suffered from lack of compelling content  — Sony testing PC compatibility to expand gadget's appeal
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at issues and monetization options for CarPlay; sources say Apple plans to produce 20M-25M units of the entry and mid-tier AirPods launching in fall 2024  —  Apple's new CarPlay interface was originally designed to fend off Android, but now it's Apple's last hope to conquer the automotive industry.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3, aiming to bring most 8 Gen 3 features, including on-device AI models, to mid-range smartphones in the “coming months”  —  Qualcomm just launched a new chipset that's designed to sit just below its current flagship in terms of capabilities and price.
Rachel Graf / Bloomberg:
A US judge rules Apple must face a class-action suit over AirTag stalking, as three plaintiffs made sufficient negligence and liability claims under CA law  —  - Judge says three plaintiffs made sufficient negligence claims  — Apple had argued it couldn't be held responsible for misuse
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
At an EU DMA hearing, an Apple lawyer fended off criticism over DMA compliance; Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, ByteDance, and Microsoft will now have similar hearings  —  Apple (AAPL.O) on Monday fended off criticism that it has not done enough to open up its closed eco-system as required under …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google quietly refreshes its Fitbit branding, changing from “Fitbit by Google” to “Google Fitbit”, similar to Google Pixel and Google Nest  —  With the Sense 2 and Versa 4 announcement in August of 2022, the “Fitbit by Google” branding emerged.  That's now going away in favor of just “Google Fitbit.”

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Sequoia CEO coach: Why it's never been easier to start a company, and never been harder to scale one | Brian Halligan (co-founder, HubSpot)
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Ben Thompson from Stratechery on AI ads, the end of SaaS, and the future of media
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Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
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Brian Hiatt / Rolling Stone:

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