Techmeme
October 26, 2023, 1:25 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft reorganizes its Xbox teams, promoting Matt Booty to game content president and Sarah Bond to Xbox president; CMO Chris Capossela leaves after 32 years  —  Microsoft is reorganizing its Xbox gaming and marketing leadership, less than two weeks after acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Internal docs: Google worked to limit Apple's search ambitions after Spotlight's 2021 update; sources say Google paid Apple ~$18B in 2021 to remain the default  —  Google has worried for years that Apple would one day expand its internet search technology, and has been working on ways to prevent that from happening.
Wall Street Journal:
X's tumultuous first year under Elon Musk: mobile DAUs down 16% from October 2022 to September 2023, app downloads fell post X rebrand, and investor markdowns  —  The platform struggles to attract users and advertisers, third-party data suggest, while Musk has voiced optimism
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out new Google Maps features, including updating search to more easily find things nearby and expanding Immersive View for Routes to 15 new cities  —  Google is adding a slew of new updates for Maps, including a few AI-powered features that are designed to make it easier for users to search …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
The UK's controversial Online Safety Bill becomes law, allowing fines of up to £18M or 10% of global turnover; Ofcom now plans to publish its codes of practice  —  The UK's Online Safety Bill, a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to make the country “the safest place in the world to be online” …
CNBC:
Uber starts offering rides in fully autonomous Waymo cars in Phoenix, Arizona; users can accept or reject the autonomous option, which includes a 24/7 helpline  —  - Uber users in Phoenix, Arizona, will be able to ride in a fully autonomous car, Uber announced Thursday.
Matthieu Faou / WeLiveSecurity:
Pro-Russia hacking group Winter Vivern is targeting European governmental entities' Roundcube Webmail servers; viewing an email triggers a Roundcube zero-day  —  ESET Research recommends updating Roundcube Webmail to the latest available version as soon as possible
The Verge:
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads hit “just under” 100M monthly users and is aiming for 1B+ in a few years; Meta released the Instagram-based app in early July 2023  —  The rumors of Threads' early demise have been exaggerated.  —  Meta's competitor to Elon Musk's X has hit …
Meta Investor Relations:
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Kids are attending virtual pro-Palestine protests on Roblox in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war; one virtual protest area has been visited 275K+ times  —  - Kids are attending virtual pro-Palestine protests on Roblox in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, and so far, one virtual protest area has been visited more than 275,000 times.
Sheena Vasani / The Verge:
Samsung offers Galaxy smartphone and tablets running One UI 6 a Temporary Cloud Backup feature with unlimited storage for up to 30 days for free, matching Apple  —  Samsung is starting to roll out a “Temporary Cloud Backup” feature to Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets running on One UI 6, the company announced on Thursday.
Politico:
UK PM Rishi Sunak announces plans to set up a UK-based AI Safety Institute and an AI research network modeled on the IPCC, ahead of the UK AI Summit in November  —  British PM defended seeking Chinese buy-in for a bevvy of new AI governance initiatives he is set to launch next week.
Stephanie Barnes / Engadget:
X rolls out opt-out audio and video calling to some users, who can allow incoming calls from users in their address book, users they follow, and Premium users  —  Just call them or not.  —  It's finally happening: X (formerly known as Twitter) has begun rolling out yet another feature nobody asked for.
Andrew Tarantola / Engadget:
Leica releases the $9,480 M11-P camera, which watermarks photos with Content Credentials metadata, created by advocacy groups to fight misinformation  —  It automatically watermarks photos with Content Credentials metadata.  —  It's getting to the point these days that we can't even trust …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers reveal an attack forcing iOS and macOS WebKit browsers to divulge secrets, like passwords and email content, of users who visit a malicious website  —  iLeakage is practical and requires minimal resources.  A patch isn't (yet) available.  —  Researchers have devised an attack …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Censys, which offers tools to monitor internet hosts and their security statuses, raised a $50M Series C and $25M in debt, bringing its total funding to $128.1M  —  Investments in cybersecurity companies are beginning to turn a corner, seemingly.  —  After a brutal summer …

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Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:
Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide:
Victoria Song / The Verge: