Techmeme
December 15, 2023, 1:40 PM

Top News

Forbes:
Google says it will no longer respond to geofence warrants after making changes to how Google Maps stores and accesses users' opt-in Location History  —  “Geofence warrants,” which allow law enforcement to get location data across a wide area, have become commonplace in recent years.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
How Microsoft's 10-year-old Digital Crime Unit uses unique legal tactics and the company's technical reach to disrupt global cybercrime and state-backed actors  —  Ten years in, Microsoft's DCU has honed its strategy of using both unique legal tactics and the company's technical reach …
David Gilbert / Wired:
Researchers: Microsoft Copilot answers some political queries in the US and other countries with conspiracies, misinformation, and out-of-date or incorrect info  —  Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft's AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies and conspiracy theories.
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Cox Media Group claims it can listen to consumers' conversations through microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices and use the data to target ads  —  A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations …
Stacy Elliott / Decrypt:
Crypto wallet maker Ledger updates Connect Kit to remove some malicious code, live for five hours, after a former employee “fell victim to a phishing attack”  —  Crypto wallet manufacturer Ledger has confirmed an exploit that led it to warn users to “stop using dapps” …
Financial Times:
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Apple plans to use advanced OLED screens in high-end iPads in 2024 and in a MacBook model in H2 2025, and is also considering making foldable tablets  —  Display industry in for disruption as investment pours into newer technology  —  Apple is the leader in the global tablet computer market thanks to its popular iPad lineup.
Glenn Fleishman / Retool:
A look back at Yahoo Pipes, which from 2007 to 2015 let users drag and drop elements in a browser to make data feeds, influencing a generation of UI designers  —  Want to know whether the latest logged earthquakes were near you?  Aggregate 100 top news sites, but only see items that mention cats?
Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central:
Microsoft launches the basic Office suite on the Meta Quest store for free; all three apps run in a MR environment and all Quest headsets are supported  —  Now you can tweak spreadsheets while playing Xbox, all in VR.  —  What you need to know  — Meta Quest users can now use Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in VR.
Wall Street Journal:
Some publishers estimate that Google's Search Generative Experience could cut referral traffic by 20% to 40% if the final version resembles recent iterations  —  Tech giant's AI-powered search product is being tested on roughly 10 million users; publishers rely on Google for traffic and see a gathering storm
Ben Horowitz / Andreessen Horowitz:
Andreessen Horowitz says “we will, for the first time, get involved with politics by supporting candidates who align with our vision and values” for technology  —  As software has eaten the world, it has become integral to every industry and nearly every endeavor in our society.
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:
Intel 5th-Gen Xeon Platinum 8592+ review: the $11,600 64-core chip outperforms AMD's 64-core EPYC Genoa in several benchmarks, particularly in AI workloads  —  The sun shines brighter for Intel. … Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products …
Andrew E. Freedman / Tom's Hardware:

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Featured Podcasts

Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
PBS Lost a Billion Dollars. Now what? With CEO Paula Kerger
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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More News

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Timmy Shen / The Block:
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Will Knight / Wired:
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Aria Alamalhodaei / TechCrunch:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: