Techmeme
July 19, 2023, 1:30 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple built a framework called Ajax to build LLMs, created a chatbot app that some engineers call “Apple GPT”, and aims for a consumer product in 2024  —  - Company builds large language models and internal chatbot  — Executives haven't decided how to release tools to consumers
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agree to extend their merger agreement to October 18, pending the outcome of negotiations with UK regulators  —  Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed to extend their merger agreement pending the outcome of negotiations with UK regulators.
Or Goren / Cord Busters:
Netflix removes its $10 Basic tier, its most affordable ad-free tier, in the US and UK for new and rejoining members  —  This post may contain affiliate links*  —  Breaking: In a major shakeup of its pricing model, Netflix, the global streaming giant, has abandoned its low-cost ‘Basic’ tier …
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft will make 31 security logs available for free to its lower-cost cloud service licensees from September, after criticism about China hack disclosures  —  Company says it will make security logs available to customers with lower-cost cloud services  —  Microsoft said it plans …
Todd Haselton / CNBC:
Microsoft's stock closed up 4% at $359.49 on July 18, an all-time high, after announcing pricing for Microsoft 365 Copilot service; MSFT is up ~50% in 2023  —  - Microsoft shares rallied to an all-time high after the company announced pricing for its new Microsoft 365 artificial intelligence subscription service.
Will Shanklin / Engadget:
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Sources: Google is piloting an opt-in program that gives volunteer employees internet-free PCs, in a bid to reduce the risk of cyberattacks against the company  —  - Google is enlisting employees for a pilot program to work without internet access.  — The search giant …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Meta launches a WhatsApp app for Wear OS 3 smartwatches, letting users start chats, reply to messages, and take calls without having their connected phone  —  WhatsApp has finally launched its standalone app for smartwatches running Google's Wear OS, after much anticipation and months-long beta testing.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Hands-on with Framework Laptop 16, a modular gaming laptop that lets you replace and upgrade the whole GPU, for pre-order starting at $1,399 for the DIY edition  —  Four layers of modular components — including a swappable discrete GPU — right at your fingertips.
Matthew Humphries / PCMag:
Intel grants Asus a non-exclusive license to its NUC designs; Asus will make and sell 10th to 13th gen NUC systems and can develop new system designs  —  The agreement covers existing NUCs and allows Asus to design new models. … , Asus is granted a non-exclusive license to Intel's NUC designs …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Rapid7: threat actors have exploited zero-day RCE flaws in Adobe ColdFusion and Citrix NetScaler; Citrix patched its flaw but Adobe issued an incomplete fix  —  The exploited code-execution flaws are the kind coveted by ransomware and nation-state hackers.  —  Organizations big and small …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Review of $350 Beats Studio Pro headphones: nice transparency mode, lossless USB-C audio, native iOS and Android support, but subpar build quality for the price  —  They look like a lazy refresh from the outside, but the noise-canceling Studio Pros include a ton of new features like transparency mode and lossless USB-C audio.
Gene Park / Washington Post:
A look at “non-playable character” TikTok creators, like Pinkydoll, who livestream themselves doing robotic and repetitive actions for digital tips  —  On TikTok, a woman named Pinkydoll with a thousand-yard stare faces you, undulating just enough to let you know she's alive.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sacramento-based Unstructured, which offers a service to extract and stage enterprise data in a way that LLMs can use, raised $25M across a Series A and seed  —  Large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's GPT-4 are the building blocks for an increasing number of AI applications.
More: Newcomer
Axios:
Sources: Vox Media plans to stop using Chorus, its CMS that the company licensed to external publishers from 2018 to 2022, and move its websites to WordPress  —  Vox Media, the parent company to websites such as New York Magazine, Eater and SB Nation, will no longer use Chorus …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Unity launches PolySpatial, announced in conjunction with Vision Pro at WWDC to help developers port and create a 3D experience for Apple's visionOS, in beta  —  Unity this morning announced that it has opened the beta version of its development platform for visionOS.
Katharine Gemmell / Bloomberg:
The UK CMA provisionally clears Broadcom's $61B VMware acquisition, after finding that the deal “would not harm competition”; the deal still needs US approval  —  - CMA looks to clear technology deal after an in-depth review  — The decision follows a green light from its EU counterpart
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Samsung completes developing its first generation of GDDR7 tech, slated for a 2024 release, and projects a 32Gbps/pin data transfer rate, up ~33% from GDDR6  —  Samsung has announced this evening that they have completed development on their first generation of GDDR7 memory.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Over 8,500 authors sign an Authors Guild letter asking AI leaders to get consent and fairly compensate writers when using copyrighted material for generative AI  —  If you ask GPT-4 to do a passage in the style of Carmen Machado or Margaret Atwood or Alexander Chee, it will do a fair job at it …

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