Techmeme
January 25, 2024, 1:25 PM

Top News

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces support for alternative app marketplaces in the EU, charging a 0% commission and a €0.50 Core Technology Fee per install per account annually  —  Apple today announced major changes to its app ecosystem in the European Union, implementing updates that will allow iPhone …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Internal memo: Microsoft plans to lay off ~1,900 staff at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, or ~8% of its Microsoft Gaming workforce, this week  —  Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week.  While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Google Research details Lumiere, an AI video tool that uses unique architecture to create videos in one smooth process instead of putting together smaller parts  —  Lumiere generates five-second videos that “portray realistic, diverse and coherent motion.”  —  On Tuesday, Google announced Lumiere …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
X is flooded with AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift; one post, live for 17 hours, had 45M+ views, hundreds of thousands of likes, and 24K reposts  —  Sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift have been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) over the last day in the latest example …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft launches Mesh, its 3D meeting platform in Teams, out of preview, with custom environments, games, spatial audio, and only supporting Meta Quest for VR  —  Microsoft is launching its immersive 3D meetings inside Microsoft Teams today.  Microsoft Mesh, the company's mixed reality platform …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta rolls out DM limits on Facebook and Instagram to stop all users from messaging teens who don't follow them, on by default, and expands parental controls  —  Meta announced today that it is rolling out new DM restrictions on both Facebook and Instagram for teens that prevent anyone from messaging teens.
Anton Shilov / AnandTech:
Intel begins production at its Fab 9 facility in New Mexico, to package chips for its Foveros tech; Fab 9 cost $3.5B, the most expensive such facility ever  —  Intel this week has started production at Fab 9, the company's latest and most advanced chip packaging plant.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
IDC:
Chinese smartphone shipments declined 5% YoY to 271.3M units in 2023; Apple gained the top spot, a first, with 17.3% market share, followed by Honor with 17.1%  —  A shift of power that we saw on the worldwide stage also happened in China, the largest smartphone market globally.
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
An investigation details a spy tool called Patternz, which can track billions of phone profiles via ads in hundreds of thousands of apps, including 9gag and Kik  —  Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps …
Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:
Fubo TV launches Instant Headlines Beta, which uses AI to generate headlines from live news programs on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and other networks  —  You may be familiar with AI-powered highlights of sporting events.  Now, though, Fubo has announced for the first time you will be able to get instant headlines from live news programs.
David McCabe / New York Times:
The FTC launches a review of investments by Microsoft in OpenAI and by Amazon and Google in Anthropic, to assess how the deals alter the competitive landscape  —  The agency plans to scrutinize Microsoft, Amazon and Google for their investments in the A.I. start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Introducing Zoho Spend: A unified platform for the next gen finance teams.  —  Effective business spend management is a direct lever for profitability.  When organizations gain visibility into where money flows …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Invest Like the Best:
Gavin Baker - Nvidia v. Google, Scaling Laws, and the Economics of AI
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Pat Grady & Alfred Lin from Sequoia
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
The Social Radars:
Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:25 PM ET, January 25, 2024.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Sara Merken / Reuters:
Sareen Habeshian / Axios:
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Abner Li / 9to5Google: