Techmeme
July 20, 2023, 6:40 PM

Top News

Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
Apple threatens to remove services like FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken their security under a proposed Investigatory Powers Act amendment  —  Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Apple is struggling to assemble iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models due to larger screens and narrower bezels, possibly causing September launch shortages  —  Apple is facing challenges assembling its two upcoming new iPhone models, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, which could lead …
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
The US Federal Reserve launches FedNow, its long-awaited real-time payments system that will eventually let individuals and businesses transfer money in seconds  —  The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched a long-awaited service which will aim to modernize the country's payment system …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon plans to roll out its Amazon One palm scanning payment tech to all 500+ US Whole Foods stores by the end of 2023; 200+ locations already have Amazon One  —  - Amazon is bringing its pay-by-palm system to all of its Whole Foods stores by the end of the year.
David Pierce / The Verge:
OpenAI adds opt-in “custom instructions”, or a user's details that ChatGPT should remember, in beta for ChatGPT Plus subscribers everywhere but the UK and EU  —  The newest feature of ChatGPT is designed to help you type a little less.  It's called “custom instructions,” …
Nikkei Asia:
TSMC reports Q2 revenue down 10% YoY to ~$15.68B and net income down 23.3% YoY to ~$5.9B, the first quarterly decline since 2019, as all non-AI chip sales slump  —  Taiwan chipmaker logs quarterly net profit drop on consumer electronics slump  —  Sluggish demand for smartphones …
Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal:
New York Times:
Sources: Google is pitching an AI news article writing tool to outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and News Corp as a helpmate for journalists  —  The product, pitched as a helpmate for journalists, has been demonstrated for executives at The New York Times …
New York Times:
Caroline Ellison's private Google docs detail her thoughts before FTX's collapse, including doubts over running Alameda and her breakup with Sam Bankman-Fried  —  Ms. Ellison, a top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried's business empire, recorded her thoughts on private Google documents that offer …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
YouTube increases YouTube Premium's price in the US from $11.99 per month to $13.99 per month and YouTube Music from $9.99 per month to $10.99 per month  —  The price of an individual YouTube Premium subscription is increasing by $2 to $13.99 per month in the US.
New York Times:
Kevin Mitnick, a hacker best known for his crime spree in the 1990s, who became a security consultant, writer, and public speaker after serving time, dies at 59  —  Mr. Mitnick, best known for a crime spree during the 1990s that involved the theft of thousands of data files and credit card numbers, died from pancreatic cancer.
Reuters:
Sources: North Korea-linked hackers breached JumpCloud in late June 2023 and used the access to target crypto clients; JumpCloud says <5 customers were impacted  —  A North Korean government-backed hacking group penetrated an American IT management company and used it as a springboard …
Dolphin Emulator:
Open-source GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin is not coming to Steam; its developers deny that Nintendo sent a DMCA but cite its “long-held stance on emulation”  —  Written on 2023-07-20T10:11:32+02:00 / Last update on 2023-07-20T10:18:11.976637+02:00 / Short link / Forum thread
Bloomberg:
Analysis: Microsoft's 1,000%+ stock rally under Satya Nadella, most recently driven by AI, takes his total windfall to above $1B, following Apple's Tim Cook arc  —  - Figure includes equity grants, salary, bonuses and dividends  — Haul puts executive in exclusive club of corporate titans
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
A Google bug report says the company fixed a Chrome zero-day that an Apple employee found during a March 2023 hacking competition but did not report to Google  —  Google fixed a zero-day in Chrome that was found by an Apple employee, according to comments in the official bug report.
Kristi Hines / Search Engine Journal:
Twitter is letting some verified organizations post job listings directly on their profiles through a job listings feature  —  Twitter allows Verified Organizations to post jobs to Twitter profiles.  Take a look at the new features for hiring companies and job seekers.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: China-linked hackers accessed the emails of the US ambassador to China and the assistant secretary of state for East Asia in a recent Microsoft breach  —  Spying campaign also compromised State Department official who oversees East Asia  —  Hackers linked to Beijing accessed …
More: The Hill, Reuters, CNN, and Forbes
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
A study claims GPT-4's outputs got worse between March and June 2023, but some experts aren't convinced and say OpenAI should be less opaque about its AI models  —  Either way, experts think OpenAI should be less opaque about its AI model architecture.  —  On Tuesday, researchers …

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More News

Yiwen Lu / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

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Arun Padmanabhan / Moneycontrol:
Jay Jacobs / Cyentia Institute: