Techmeme
September 18, 2024, 9:15 AM

Top News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max review: physical shutter button, 4K120 video, and camera tone control, but Camera Control can be fiddly and an incremental upgrade  —  I'm not saying you should buy a new phone for a single camera setting... but I'm not not saying that, either.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Plus review: reliable camera, Action Button, more RAM, and A18 chip, but standard refresh rate screen and Camera Control is a mixed bag  —  It's a good year for Apple's basic iPhone, even if its AI is MIA. … Over the past few years, Apple's standard iPhone looked a little neglected.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Pieter Haeck / Politico:
Intel's decision to delay new Germany and Poland plants by two years is a blow to the EU's goal of making 20% of the world's chips by 2030, up from ~9% in 2022  —  BRUSSELS — The European Commission's landmark 2022 chips strategy has collapsed just as it laid out a new team to fix the bloc's competitiveness.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple pulls the iPadOS 18 update for M4 iPad Pro models after bricking complaints as the company works “to resolve an issue impacting a small number of devices”  —  Apple stopped signing the iPadOS 18 update for the M4 iPad Pro models, which means the new software is no longer available …
Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
California Gov. Newsom signs three laws regulating election AI deepfakes, including holding large platforms liable for not removing content after a user report  —  The state joins dozens of others in regulating the A.I. fakery in ways that could impact this year's presidential race.
Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Rod McGuirk / Associated Press:
Australia, Europol, and more say they infiltrated Ghost, an encrypted communications app developed for criminals, arresting dozens, including its alleged admin  —  Australian police said Wednesday they have infiltrated Ghost, an encrypted global communications app developed for criminals, leading to dozens of arrests.
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU's General Court backs Google's challenge against the EU's €1.49B antitrust fine, imposed in 2019 for hindering rivals in online search ads  —  Europe's second-top court on Wednesday backed Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google's challenge against a 1.49 billion euros ($1.66 billion) …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Prager Metis, a former auditor for FTX, pays a $1.95M fine to settle two US SEC cases, including for alleged negligence in auditing the cryptocurrency exchange  —  A former auditor for FTX will pay $1.95 million to settle two U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cases …
Tim Culpan / Tim Culpan's Position:
Sources: Apple's A16 SoC is currently being manufactured at Phase 1 of TSMC's Fab 21 in Arizona in small, but significant, numbers  —  [Exclusive] The iPhone maker is set to be the first client of TSMC's new Arizona fab  —  TSMC's first Arizona chips are now in production …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mozilla says it will shut down its Mastodon server, Mozilla.social, giving users until December 17 to export their data and migrate to another instance  —  Mozilla is exiting the fediverse.  Though the concept of the open social web, also known as the fediverse, has been picking …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Discord says it is beginning to roll out end-to-end encryption to voice and video chats in DMs, Group DMs, voice channels, and Go Live streams  —  Discord, one of the largest group chat apps in the world, announced on Tuesday that audio and video calls inside the platform will now be end-to-end encrypted …
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
How a trademark fight led to a new version of Flappy Bird by a crypto-adjacent game developer, ten years after the original was pulled from app stores  —  Decadelong trademark fight culminates in new game hinting at “Web3 innovation.”  —  Fans of ultra-viral mobile gaming hit Flappy Bird …
Financial Times:
BlackRock, GIP, Microsoft, and MGX announce a new AI fund that seeks to raise $30B+ of private equity capital and $100B+ in total investment when including debt  —  Nvidia and Abu Dhabi-backed MGX will join effort as energy-intensive tech strains power and data grids
Sam Sabin / Axios:
Microsoft: starting in late August 2024, Russian cyber operatives focused on Harris' campaign, with disinformation including videos spread by a fake news outlet  —  - One claimed to show a group of alleged Harris supporters attacking an assumed Trump rally attendee.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Snap unveils new Spectacles to lease to Snapchat AR lens developers for a $1,188 one-year commitment, with an improved display, longer battery life, and more  —  Will developers finally help Snap take AR glasses mainstream? … Snap's fifth-generation Spectacles have a richer, more immersive display.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
HTC unveils the $999 Vive Focus Vision, a standalone VR headset with built-in eye tracking, 16MP stereo color front-facing cameras, and more, for pre-order now  —  It's no Quest 3 competitor, but it could appeal to businesses and VR fanatics.  —  HTC Vive is following up its intriguing …
David Shepardson / Reuters:
The US plans to host the first meeting of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes in San Francisco on November 20 and 21  —  The Biden administration plans to convene a global safety summit on artificial intelligence, it said on Wednesday, as Congress continues to struggle with regulating the technology.
Juliet Chung / Wall Street Journal:
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark plans to donate $100M to boost US cybersecurity: $50M to protect infrastructure and $50M to educate people about safeguards  —  Donation brings Craig Newmark's charitable commitments to around $400 million  —  Craigslist founder Craig Newmark believes hacking …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
3 smarter updates for your staffing pipeline  —  Staffing recruiters manage multiple client requirements, large candidate databases, and tight submission deadlines.  Finding suitable candidates is only the first step.
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.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Big Tech's Ugly Week, Getting Rich At Anthropic, AI Costs Plunge
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:
OpenAI's Latest Discoveries Spark a Backlash + Help! My Kid Hates AI
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:15 AM ET, September 18, 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

Earlier Picks

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Bhanvi Satija / Reuters: