Techmeme
January 9, 2024, 1:55 PM

Top News

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple plans to offer customers demos of the Apple Vision Pro at its US retail stores from February 2 through the weekend on a first-come, first-served basis  —  Apple Vision Pro officially has pre-order and launch dates as of today, and now we know how the public will get to try Apple's first spatial computer as well.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
X suspended several podcasters and journalists, including The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Texas Observer's Steven Monacelli, with little to no explanation  —  Elon Musk's “free speech” social media platform banned a number of accounts recently critical of Israel.
Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal:
Meta plans to start automatically restricting teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including posts about self-harm, in the coming weeks  —  Efforts to curb harmful material and reduce unwanted interactions with teen social-media accounts come as states sue parent company Meta
Bloomberg:
Beijing's judicial bureau says a state-backed institution cracked Apple's AirDrop to identify message senders, and police found multiple suspects via the method  —  - Beijing agency claims to have found way to identify senders  — Declaration follows efforts to crack down on sensitive content
Mia Sato / The Verge:
How the internet reshaped itself around Google's search algorithms, including via SEO tricks, and the company's role in many websites now using similar designs  —  How the internet reshaped itself around Google's search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same.  —  Animations by Richard Parry
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amazon announces Matter Casting, an Apple AirPlay-like feature to send videos from Android and iOS to Amazon devices, initially supporting Echo Show devices  —  Amazon.com Inc. introduced a new feature that mimics Apple Inc.'s AirPlay while working across different platforms …
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
In November 2023, Apple challenged the EU's DMA designation of its five App Stores as a single service, iOS' interoperability, and iMessage's NIICS designation  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has challenged EU tech rules designating its five App Stores as a single core platform service subject to onerous obligations …
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU begins investigating whether Microsoft's OpenAI investment should be vetted under its rules, and asks for feedback on generative AI and virtual worlds  —  - EU watchdog follows UK regulator in weighing a probe  — Move comes after furore over firing and rehiring of Sam Altman
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
Microsoft finds a material that could replace ~70% of lithium in a battery, by using Azure Quantum Elements HPC resources to run simulations and AI models  —  Recently, Microsoft built a clock.  —  Well, “built” may be overstating things.  Members of the company's quantum computing team found …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
PerformYard, which offers staff retention, management, and upskilling tools, raised $95M from Updata Partners after being mostly bootstrapped besides a $3M seed  —  Employee performance reviews take time and effort — and aren't always conducted very efficiently.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Axios:
Carta plans to close its liquidity services business, which matched private company stock buyers and sellers, as people will “worry that we are using the data”  —  Carta has decided to close its liquidity services business, which matched buyers and sellers of private company stock, Axios has learned.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Luma, which is training AI models that can generate 3D models from text prompts, raised a $43M Series B, a source says at a valuation between $200M and $300M  —  A couple of years ago, Alex Yu and Amit Jain came together to found a company that'd let people capture objects in 3D using their smartphones …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Texas-based HPE is in advanced talks to acquire California-based Juniper Networks for ~$13B, in a deal that could be announced as soon as this week  —  Deal could be unveiled this week, valuing Juniper at roughly $13 billion  —  Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in advanced talks …
Anna Tong / Reuters:
Filing and memo: Unity Software plans to lay off ~25% of its workforce, or 1,800 jobs, by the end of March 2024, its largest layoff ever and affecting all teams  —  Videogame software provider Unity Software (U.N) will target laying off approximately 25% of its workforce, or 1,800 jobs …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Sony teases a “spatial” VR headset for 3D model creation, offering 4K OLEDs, a ring and a pointer controller, and a Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, coming later in 2024  —  The company showed off the headset along with a unique pair of controllers today during a presentation at CES 2024.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Volkswagen plans to add ChatGPT to its voice assistant for “general knowledge questions” and to control functions like heating and AC, starting in Europe in Q2  —  Volkswagen is jumping on the generative AI bandwagon by announcing plans to install OpenAI's ChatGPT into its vehicles starting in the second quarter of 2024.
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Netflix defeats a shareholder lawsuit claiming the company hid the impact of account sharing; NFLX fell ~50% from January to April 2022 after growth warnings  —  Netflix (NFLX.O) has defeated a lawsuit filed by shareholders in a federal court in California that accused the streaming entertainment company …

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