Techmeme
April 23, 2024, 6:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, the first time in 50+ years that the FTC has issued a regulation mandating an economy-wide change  —  Move sets up high-stakes legal clash with business groups over the agency's power  —  WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission …
Emilia David / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts Phi-3 Mini, a small 3.8B-parameter model about as capable as GPT-3.5, and plans Phi-3 Small and Phi-3 Medium models with 7B and 14B parameters  —  Microsoft launched the next version of its lightweight AI model Phi-3 Mini, the first of three small models the company plans to release.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Meta rolls out multimodal AI in early access for the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, mainly to help identify objects, translate signs, and write Instagram captions  —  When the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses launched last fall, they were a pretty neat content capture tool and a surprisingly solid pair of headphones.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Meta's Ray-Ban Smart Glasses get support for video calling via WhatsApp and Messenger, hands-free Apple Music controls, and a new frame style  —  Meta just announced a slew of new updates for its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg just dropped an Instagram reel showing off …
Ming-Chi Kuo:
Sources: Apple cut 2024 Vision Pro shipments to 400K-450K units, vs. a 700K+ market consensus, and US demand has “fallen sharply beyond expectations”  —  My latest survey is as follows:  — Apple has cut its 2024 Vision Pro shipments to 400-450k units (vs. market consensus of 700-800k units or more).
Quentyn Kennemer / The Verge:
Apple schedules a “special Apple Event” for May 7 at 10am ET, where new iPads are expected; rumors suggest the iPad Pro will get an OLED display and an M3 chip  —  After kicking off 2024 with the launch of the Vision Pro, the next act in Apple's 2024 script is a May product launch event.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: IBM is nearing an acquisition of HashiCorp, which helps companies manage cloud infrastructure, in the coming days; HashiCorp's stock jumps 22%+  —  .  —  The details  —  A deal for HashiCorp could come together in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.
Jacob Ridley / PC Gamer:
The European Parliament adopts right-to-repair rules clarifying manufacturer obligations to provide repair services, consumer access to spare parts, and more  —  The new rules will give customers new ways to claim support for a product throughout its lifetime, and also aid independent repair shops.
Counterpoint Research:
iPhone sales in China fell 19.1% YoY to a 15.7% share in Q1 2024; Vivo fell 0.4% YoY to 17.4%, Honor rose 11.5% YoY to 16.1%, and Huawei rose 69.7% YoY to 15.5%  —  - China's smartphone sales grew 1.5% YoY and 4.6% QoQ in Q1 2024, marking the second consecutive quarter of positive YoY growth.
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Perplexity AI, which offers an AI chatbot that summarizes search results, raised ~$63M led by Daniel Gross at a $1B+ valuation, up from $520M in January 2024  —  Perplexity's valuation has doubled in three months in a clear sign of investor enthusiasm for the company's artificial intelligence chatbot.
Sara Dorn / Forbes:
The US Senate advances the bill forcing a sale or ban of TikTok, preparing for a final vote on the bill as soon as Tuesday evening  —  The Senate is all but certain to pass the House-approved package that could ultimately ban TikTok if its China-based parent company doesn't sell the app …
Viola Zhou / Rest of World:
Interviews with 20+ current and former TSMC staff at its Arizona plant finds struggles over bridging Taiwanese and US norms, rigid hierarchies, and other issues  —  Missed deadlines and tension among Taiwanese and American coworkers are plaguing the chip giant's Phoenix expansion.
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Spotify reports Q1 revenue up 20% YoY to €3.6B, MAUs up 19% YoY to 615M, below 617.9M est., subscribers up 14% YoY to 239M, and a €168M operating income  —  - Subscribers to paid Spotify tiers jumped 14% to 239 million  — Swedish audio-streaming company posted record operating profit
Forbes:
Taser company Axon launches an AI tool that turns body cam audio into police reports to save time; critics worry it will introduce errors into crucial evidence  —  Axon says its AI will help get more police out of the office and on the streets.  Critics worry it'll make cops lazy and potentially introduce errors into crucial evidence.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe adds AI tools powered by its new Firefly Image 3 model to Photoshop, including Reference Image to inspire the AI's output, available in beta on desktop  —  Adobe is adding some new generative AI tools to its Photoshop creative software that aim to give users additional ways to control the designs they generate.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Repairable laptop maker Framework Computer raised a $17M Series A-1, after an $18M Series A in early 2022, to expand into new product categories  —  Framework Computer was ahead of the curve.  The company was founded in 2019, as 20 U.S. states began exploring potential right to repair bills.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
The new primitives of agentic software delivery  —  This goes beyond code generation.  We're connecting people, AI, and feedback across the software development lifecycle.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Pro Tips: 5 ways to keep your OKR rollout on track past the three-month mark  —  Three months into an OKR rollout is when the cracks appear.  Manual tracking stalls, CRM data and strategic goals drift apart, and missed targets catch leaders by surprise.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Big Technology Podcast:
This AI Expert Argues We're Underestimating AI's Productivity Impact — With Ethan Mollick
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.
Machine Gods:
Inside Anthropic's IPO + How AI Agents Spy on Your Messages
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
You Can't Escape AI. Here's How to Live With It.
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.
Training Data:
European Defense Sovereignty Starts in the Factory: Stark's Uwe Horstmann and Johannes Schaback
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Cheeky Pint:
The airline CEO putting Starlink on every plane
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:25 PM ET, April 23, 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

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Chris Welch / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Washington Post:
Austin Weinstein / Bloomberg:
Reuters:
Mike Cherney / Wall Street Journal:
Scott Stein / CNET:
More: Meta, UploadVR, Game Rant, TweakTown, Inc.com, Fortune, iLounge, TechRadar, PC Gamer, PCGamesN, VentureBeat, T3, HotHardware, KitGuru, Stratechery, Road to VR, Mashable, Financial Express, SamMobile, NFT News Today, Engadget, The Hindu, Thurrott, 9to5Google, UploadVR, The Verge, Techsponential, Meta for Developers, UploadVR, and Road to VR