Techmeme
September 28, 2023, 2:25 PM

Top News

Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Epic Games lays off 16% of its workforce, or ~830 employees, divests from music storefront Bandcamp, and intends to spin off “kid-tech” company SuperAwesome  —  Bloomberg reports that Fortnite developer Epic Games is expected to lay off 16 percent of its workforce.
Songtradr:
Music licensing marketplace Songtradr acquires Bandcamp and plans to keep operating Bandcamp as a marketplace and community with an artist-first revenue share  —  Los Angeles) - Songtradr, a music licensing platform and marketplace company supporting artists, labels and publishers …
Financial Times:
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Email: Serve Robotics, used by Uber Eats in Los Angeles, shared video filmed by one of its food delivery robots to the LAPD as part of a criminal investigation  —  This article was primarily reported using public records requests.  We are making it available to all readers as a public service.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Raspberry Pi 5 launches with a 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A76 chip, up to 8GB of RAM, two 4K HDMI ports with HDR, available in October for $60 for a 4GB model  —  Despite doubts that the Raspberry Pi 5 would launch this year, the latest version of the microcomputer has arrived with some notable upgrades at a $60 starting price.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Reddit removes the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on Reddit activity but says that users will still have opt-out controls in “select countries”  —  Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent.
RT Watson / The Block:
Coinbase says the crypto exchange has gained approval from the Bermuda Monetary Authority to offer non-US retail users perpetual futures trading  —  - Coinbase has gained approval to offer non-U.S. retail users perpetual futures trading from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg:
Apple asks SCOTUS to revisit the 2021 Epic Games ruling regarding alternative IAP payment options, a day after Epic separately asked SCOTUS to take up the case  —  - IPhone maker wants to avoid allowing an end run around store  — Fortnite maker has separately asked high court to take up case
Camomile Shumba / CoinDesk:
Report: the Bank for International Settlements and French, Swiss, and Singaporean central banks successfully tested cross-border trading of wholesale CBDCs  —  The Bank for International Settlements alongside the central banks of France, Singapore and Switzerland tested out using wholesale CBDC to conduct cross border trading.
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Google patches a Chrome zero-day that was exploited by a commercial spyware vendor, just two days after Google's Threat Analysis Group informed the Chrome team  —  Google has rushed to patch a zero-day vulnerability in Chrome that was exploited by a commercial spyware vendor.
Erin Woo / The Information:
Sources: X is cutting ~50% of its election integrity team, including its Dublin-based head, less than a month after saying the company would expand the team  —  Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, is cutting around half of the global team devoted to limiting disinformation and election fraud …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
The US and Japan warn that the China-backed BlackTech hacking group is breaching network devices, including Cisco's, to install backdoors on corporate networks  —  US and Japanese law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies warn of the Chinese ‘BlackTech’ hackers breaching network devices …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out ChromeOS 117 with a Material You redesign, adaptive charging, a new camera and microphone privacy indicator, an improved clipboard, and more  —  Google is rolling out ChromeOS 117, and it's a very big update for Chromebooks that adds Material You, as well as other usability enhancements.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Google unveils the Fitbit Charge 6, with a physical side button, integration with Google services like YouTube Music, and more, available on October 12 for $160  —  Fitbit is back with the Charge 6 — and on paper, this one feels like the most Fitbit-y Fitbit since Google actively began folding the company into its ecosystem.
Bloomberg:
An analysis of 115 warrants in five US states shows that investigators are increasingly using Google's location and search data to try to solve nonviolent cases  —  Investigators increasingly use warrants to obtain location and search data from Google, even for nonviolent cases—and even for people who had nothing to do with the crime.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple launches an iOS Wallet feature in the UK using the country's Open Banking API, showing users their current account balances, deposits, and payment history  —  Apple is soft launching a new iPhone Wallet app integration today that is powered by the United Kingdom's Open Banking API.
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan plans to retire in March 2024; Ryan joined Sony in 1994, just before the first PlayStation debuted  —  Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, is stepping down after almost 30 years with the company.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Paris-based Mistral AI makes its first LLM, Mistral 7B, that it claims outperforms open models with up to 13B parameters, free to use without restrictions  —  The most popular language models out there may be accessed via API, but open models — as far as that term can be taken seriously — are gaining ground.
Anthony Capaccio / Bloomberg:
SpaceX gets its first US Space Force contract, valued at up to $70M, offering the military custom satellite communications via the company's Starshield service  —  - Contract extends billionaire's role as a defense contractor  — Starshield provides customized satellite communications
More: CNBC, VICE, Gizmodo, The Verge, PCMag, and Forbes
Bluesky: @wattle.bsky.socialLinkedIn: Jesse KlekampForums: Hacker News and r/elonmusk
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
NYC-based IYK, which lets brands, musicians, and creators build “digi-physical experiences”, including through NFTs, raised a $16.8M seed led by A16z Crypto  —  - IYK has raised $16.8 million in seed funding led by A16z Crypto.  — The startup helps brands …

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Samrhitha Arunasalam / Reuters: