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February 8, 2025, 1:50 AM
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Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Sources: in a secret January order, UK security officials demanded that Apple create a backdoor to access all cloud content any Apple user globally has uploaded  —  Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content …
More: The Guardian, The Verge, BBC, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Techdirt, MacRumors, TechCrunch, Six Colors, The Verge, Reuters, 9to5Mac, Information Technology …, HotAir, Pixel Envy, GSMArena.com, Pocket-lint, Bloomberg, PCMag, MakeUseOf, PYMNTS.com, mjtsai.com, TechRepublic, VICE, ComputerWeekly.com, Daily Mail, Newser, MobileSyrup, Redmond Pie, Macworld, Tech.co, Reclaim The Net, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Independent, CyberInsider, Forbes, Open Rights Group, MacRumors, The Register, Sky News, iDownloadBlog.com, TechRadar, The Apple Post, Cult of Mac, New Scientist, Computerworld, and Seeking Alpha
Bluesky: @stamos.org, @caseynewton, @appsecbloke.com, @ridt, @carnage4life, @malwarejake, @fredis, @dyatesswfl, @hern, @metacurity.com, and @coleraineyid
Mastodon: @aral@mastodon.ar.al, @nadim@infosec.exchange, @ernie@writing.exchange, @tylium@eupolicy.social, @evacide@hachyderm.io, @baldur@toot.cafe, @henry@dindon.one, @mttaggart@infosec.exchange, @dcdeejay@mastodon.online, @karlemilnikka@social …, @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social, @thirstybear@agilodon.social, and @cwebber@social.coop
X: @timsweeneyepic, @eff, @timsweeneyepic, @paulg, @jsrailton, @markgurman, @vitalikbuterin, @benthompson, @jsrailton, @matthew_d_green, @matthew_d_green, @matthew_d_green, @matthew_d_green, @matthew_d_green, @gilbeezyskit93, @tomwarren, @alex, @benlovejoy, @matthew_d_green, and @jhurfurt
LinkedIn: Mike Chapple and Tim Turner
Forums: Hacker News, r/moderatepolitics, r/stupidpol, r/cybersecurity, r/anime_titties, r/Libertarian, r/technology, r/uknews, r/ios, r/iphone, r/InternationalNews, r/technews, r/Scotland, r/europe, r/worldnews, r/ukpolitics, r/technology, r/privacy, r/apple, r/technology, r/unitedkingdom, Ars OpenForum, and MacRumors Forums
Jay Peters / The Verge:
PlayStation Network has been experiencing a multi-hour outage, affecting account management, gaming and social, and PlayStation Video, Store, and Direct website  —  PSN has been experiencing a multi-hour outage.  You might have trouble loading purchased digital games or seeing which friends are online.
CNBC:
Sources: Anduril is in talks to raise up to $2.5B, led by Founders Fund with a $1B commitment, at a $28B valuation; Anduril's revenue in 2024 doubled to ~$1B  —  WATCH NOW  —  Anduril, the defense-tech startup founded by Palmer Luckey, has signed a term sheet to raise capital at a $28 billion valuation …
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Sources: SoftBank is set to invest $40B in OpenAI at a $260B pre-money valuation; investors last valued OpenAI at $157B, when it raised $6.6B in October 2024  —  - CNBC Councils  — CNBC on Peacock  — Join the CNBC Panel  — Supply Chain Values  — Select Shopping  — Ad Choices
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Chat logs reveal DOGE member Edward Coristine's ties to cybercrime community The Com, and a Telegram handle linked to him sought a DDoS-for-hire service in 2022  —  Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) …
Bloomberg:
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of DOGE, was fired from an internship at cybersecurity firm Path Network for allegedly sharing info with a competitor
CNBC:
Elon Musk says he will rehire a DOGE staffer who resigned following the exposure of his posts advocating for racism and eugenics, after Trump endorsed the idea
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Filing: Kash Patel, Trump's nominee to head FBI, was allotted Shein shares of $1M to $5M in exchange for consulting services; he has no plans to divest them  —  Donald Trump's pick for FBI director told senators he has no plans to divest his shares, which his financial disclosure form …
Punchbowl News:
Sources: Trump has tasked JD Vance and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz with overseeing a potential sale of TikTok  —  Vance is in charge of “quarterbacking a deal to save TikTok,” according to a source familiar with the matter.  Waltz and the National Security Council are in charge …
Reuters:
SolarWinds says it will go private in a $4.4B deal with buyout firm Turn/River Capital; SWI closes up 21.8%  —  SolarWinds (SWI.N) said on Friday it would go private in a $4.4 billion deal with buyout firm Turn/River Capital, the latest sign debt-funded deals were set to rebound this year as borrowing costs decline.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Trump issues an EO pausing the removal of the de minimis exemption on goods from China until systems are in place to “process and collect tariff revenue”  —  President Donald Trump has paused the removal of the de minimis exemption on goods from China.
Reuters:
Sources: Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence is in talks to raise funding at a $20B+ valuation, up from a $5B valuation in its September 2024 funding round  —  Safe Superintelligence, an artificial intelligence startup co-founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever last year …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
DeepMind says its AlphaGeometry2 model solved 84% of International Math Olympiad's geometry problems from the last 25 years, surpassing average gold medalists  —  An AI system developed by Google DeepMind, Google's leading AI research lab, appears to have surpassed the average gold medalist …
Ryan Christoffel / 9to5Mac:
Apple settles a lawsuit against a former iOS Software Engineer who leaked Journal app details and more to journalists; the employee issues an apology on X  —  Last March, Apple filed a lawsuit against one of its former employees, an iOS Software Engineer who had leaked confidential information …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: TSMC is informing Chinese customers using its 16nm or better tech that it cannot ship orders unless they use a US “white list” chip packaging supplier  —  TAIPEI — The latest U.S. export controls on China's chip sector are causing more disruption than the industry expected …
Fei-Fei Li / Financial Times:
Three fundamental principles for the future of AI policymaking: have a clear view of reality, be pragmatic instead of ideological, and empower the AI ecosystem  —  It is possible to develop a model with the best intentions, and for that model to be misused later on
Monique Mulima / Bloomberg:
CoinMarketCap: Circle's USDC market cap reached a new high of $56.2B on February 9, after dropping to $24.5B in 2023 in the months following FTX's collapse  —  USDC reached a market value of $56.2 billion on Friday, after falling to $24.5 billion in 2023, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
More: CryptoSlate
Financial Times:
Docs: Palantir has won $2.7B+ in US contracts since 2009, including $1.3B+ in Pentagon contracts, and spent $5.8M in lobbying in 2024, up from ~$1M in 2015  —  Peter Thiel-chaired group has Washington and Westminster network that helped secure around $3bn in official contracts
More: Motley Fool
James Hunt / The Block:
Nikkei: Japan's financial regulator asks Apple and Google to remove apps from Bybit, MEXC Global, LBank Exchange, KuCoin, and Bitget; Apple has removed the apps  —  - Japan's Financial Services Agency has reportedly requested Apple and Google to block five unregistered overseas crypto exchange apps in the country.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:50 AM ET, February 8, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

David Bauder / Associated Press:
A US federal judge orders Voice of America employees reinstated by March 23, putting hundreds of people who have been on administrative leave back to work

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen: the Oscars drew 17.86M viewers on ABC and Hulu, down about 9% from 2025; the show delivered a 3.92 rating among those aged 18 to 49, or ~5.34M viewers

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
At SXSW, Jonah Peretti introduces BuzzFeed spinoff Branch Office, dedicated to exploring AI in consumer-facing apps, and debuts two apps, BF Island and Conjure

More News

Bloomberg:
Uber's stock jumps 6%+ after Bill Ackman disclosed that his hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management owns 30.3M shares; Pershing started buying in January
Financial Times:
Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta reported a combined $246B capex in 2024, up 63% YoY from $151B, and forecast that their 2025 spending could exceed $320B

Earlier Picks

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
WBD took $300M in gaming writedowns in 2024; current and former staff blame a lack of a strong, cohesive vision during former games chief David Haddad's tenure
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft warns that attackers are using static ASP.NET machine keys found online to inject malware into ViewState, which controls web form state during reloads
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google edited Gemini's response in a Super Bowl commercial to remove an incorrect statistic about Gouda cheese, regurgitated from seeming SEO-optimized blogs
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI updates o3-mini's chain of thought to help free and paid ChatGPT users “understand how the model thinks”, in response to DeepSeek and other competitors
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
GitHub announces updates for Copilot, including Vision for Copilot being able to generate interfaces, code, and alt text from a screenshot, photo, or a diagram
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
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