Techmeme
December 29, 2023, 3:45 PM

Top News

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Apple blocking Beeper Mini, not a service unto itself but an unauthorized client for a proprietary platform that costs a lot to run, is not anticompetitive  —  There's a lot to catch up on since last I wrote about Beeper.  Long story short, they've been playing — and no surprise, losing — the cat-and-mouse game with Apple.
Usama Jawad / XDA Developers:
Microsoft disables Windows App Installer's ms-appinstaller after the URI scheme was used to spread malware; Microsoft disabled and re-enabled the scheme in 2022  —  Microsoft has disabled the ms-appinstaller URI scheme handler by default in the latest version of App Installer due to a rise in cyberattacks.
NBC News:
Sources: US intelligence determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the US in January and February 2023 used a US ISP to communicate with China  —  An American intelligence assessment found that the balloon used a commercially available U.S. network to communicate, primarily for navigation, U.S. officials say.
Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:
Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen says he mistakenly used bogus legal citations from Google Bard in a motion seeking an early end to court supervision  —  Donald Trump's former fixer had sought an early end to court supervision after his 2018 campaign finance conviction.
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Sources: for months, OpenAI has held talks with major news publishers including Gannett, News Corp, and IAC about the price and terms of licensing their content  —  Several major publishers have been in talks to license content to the creator of ChatGPT, but agreement on the price and terms has been elusive.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
GitHub launches GPT-4-powered Copilot Chat in general availability for all users, in the sidebar of Microsoft's IDEs, Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio  —  Earlier this year, GitHub rolled out Copilot Chat, a ChatGPT-like programming-centric chatbot, for organizations subscribed to Copilot for Business.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple was up ~50% in 2023 but underperformed its tech peers after Apple suffered four straight quarters of declining revenue, its longest such slide since 2001  —  - In 2023, Apple suffered its longest revenue slide in 22 years, reporting four straight quarters of declining sales.
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
LG debuts new LG Gram and Gram Pro laptops with NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050; the Pro includes Intel's AI Boost NPU for on-device AI tasks  —  If you're in the market for OLED displays and better graphics, take a look at the 2024 LG Gram Pro lineup.
The Indian Express:
Martin Young / Cointelegraph:
Vitalik Buterin proposes requiring only 8,192 validator signatures per slot, down from 28K per slot, to make Ethereum's proof-of-stake “simpler and lighter”  —  The Ethereum co-founder suggested reducing validator signatures to lighten the load and make predicting future loads more accurate.

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Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Food and Beverage Director', With MG Siegler
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Access:
What happens when AI runs a store
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Why Blockbuster Failed
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Mark Cuban: AI Hype vs. Reality, OpenAI's Wasting $1 Trillion, Lebron vs. Jordan
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Tarek Mansour from Kalshi
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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Earlier Picks

Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:
Reuters:
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica: