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January 29, 2024, 9:05 PM
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| Bloomberg: |
Amazon drops its $1.4B acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot after clashing with EU regulators and will pay a $94M fee; iRobot has ~$500M in net losses since 2021 — - IRobot CEO steps down and company cuts workforce by 31% — Tech giant to pay $94 million to iRobot over deal termination
More: The Verge, TechCrunch, NBC News, Engadget, Android Central, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechSpot, TechRadar, Fortune, The Register, New York Times, Mashable, Chain Store Age, Telegraph, Android Headlines, The Information, Axios, Financial Times, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, The Messenger, and Thurrott
Threads: @moskov, @moskov, @moskov, and @firstadopter
X: @laz_radic, @visu, @jamestitcomb, @marketsneil, @mattturck, @pitdesi, @danprimack, @sarthakgh, @adamkovac, @matthewstoller, @laz_radic, @lewis_crofts, @diane_alter, @progresschamber, @bongcapital, @pat_hedger, @jcbcp, @ttoboyle, @edludlow, @linakhanftc, @theo_wayt, and @bhalligan
LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski and Josh Chessman
| Rohan Goswami / CNBC: |
After Amazon ended its acquisition, iRobot plans to lay off 31% of its staff, or ~350 people, and says chair and CEO Colin Angle would step down; IRBT drops 5%+ — - Amazon and iRobot mutually agreed to call off their planned acquisition, writing that there was “no path” to regulatory approval and sending iRobot shares down 15%.
More: About Amazon, iRobot Corporation, PCMag, Ars Technica, Reuters, IEEE Spectrum, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, The Guardian, ZDNet, Bloomberg, Associated Press, eeNews Europe, GeekWire, The Robot Report, Gizmodo, Fortune, TechStartups, Neowin, Tech Monitor, Techaeris, Tech Xplore, MobileSyrup, Cybernews.com, SiliconANGLE, Tom's Guide, TechHive, New York Post, Seattle Business Journal, TechCrunch, Investor's Business Daily, PYMNTS.com, Business Post, Android Police, Pocket-lint, and NBC Bay Area
X: @geoffmanne, @geoffmanne, @carnage4life, @mattmday, and @bongcapital
Forums: Hacker News, Blind, and r/technology
| Ashley Capoot / CNBC: |
Elon Musk says Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on January 28, and that the first Neuralink product is called Telepathy — - Elon Musk's neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday, and the patient is “recovering well,” according to a post on X.
More: NBC News, PCMag, The Sun, Gizmodo, The i Paper, Financial Times, Forbes, Reuters, The Information, Engadget, Bloomberg, Cointelegraph, Wired, The Verge, SlashGear, TechStartups, Digital Trends, and The Hill
| Zoe Kleinman / BBC: |
Apple says proposed UK legislation could let the country try “to secretly veto new user protections globally”, preventing Apple from shipping them to customers — Apple has attacked proposals for the UK government to pre-approve new security features introduced by tech firms.
More: Ars Technica, iMore, and AppleInsider
Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social and @carnage4life@mas.to
X: @counternotions, @matthew_d_green, @zsk, and @profwoodward
Forums: Hacker News, r/privacy, and Ars OpenForum
| Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media: |
Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer, after fake AI images of Taylor Swift went viral and a report of 4chan users misusing the tool — Microsoft has introduced more protections to Designer, an AI text-to-image generation tool that people were using to make nonconsensual sexual images of celebrities.
More: VentureBeat, XDA Developers, NBC News, New York Post, Dexerto, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, Thurrott, Windows Central, Gizmodo, Futurism, NBC News on YouTube, Neowin, Fortune, and Washington Post on YouTube
Mastodon: @faduda@mastodon.ie, @josephcox@infosec.exchange, and @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social. X: @tomwarren
| Washington Post: |
More: The Register, BBC, Ars Technica, Newser, Futurism, MobileSyrup, TechCrunch, Associated Press, CCN.com, Axios, Business Insider, Reuters, PCMag, The Information, Mashable, Financial Times, and Engadget
Threads: @renee.diresta, @drewharwell, and @drewharwell
Mastodon: @malwarejake@infosec.exchange, @vrandecic@mas.to, and @homelessjun@mas.to
| Bloomberg: |
Blizzard names Johanna Faries, former general manager for Call of Duty at Activision, as its president, succeeding Mike Ybarra, who left last week amid layoffs — Replaces Mike Ybarra who left the video-game company last week as part of mass layoffs under new owner Microsoft
More: Blizzard News, PCMag, Reuters, Video Games Chronicle, Dexerto, PC Gamer, Neowin, TweakTown, Gematsu, Dot Esports, Windows Central, TechPowerUp, IGN, VentureBeat, GameSpot, Destructoid, Game Rant, Thurrott, Game Developer, GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, Blue's News, and The Verge
| Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat: |
Meta releases Code Llama 70B, a new version of its code generation model, featuring improved code correctness, a variant optimized for Python, and more — Meta AI, the company that brought you Llama 2, the gargantuan language model that can generate anything from tweets to essays …
More: Meta, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, The Information, Analytics India Magazine, MSPoweruser, and The Decoder
X: @aiatmeta, @ollama, @scobleizer, @jpineau1, @osanseviero, @omarsar0, @soumithchintala, @reach_vb, @wolfejosh, @syhw, @ollama, @b_roziere, @sentdex, @_philschmid, @_akhaliq, and @ylecun. LinkedIn: Ahmad Al-Dahle. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg
Forums: Hacker News and r/singularity
| Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
After a months-long probe, Italy's data protection authority tells OpenAI that it's suspected of violating EU privacy regulations, giving it 30 days to respond — OpenAI has been told it's suspected of violating European Union privacy, following a multi-month investigation of its AI chatbot …
More: Garante Privacy, BBC, SiliconANGLE, Euronews, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Reuters, PCMag, Seeking Alpha, Times of India, English Jagran, DeviceSecurity.io, Metaverse Post, Android Headlines, Voice of Nigeria, Dentons, The Decoder, Cryptopolitan, Silicon Republic, TechStartups, and Bloomberg. X: @gpdp_it
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Zoom details its visionOS app, which will support 3D file sharing, “real-world pinning” of up to five meeting participants, Apple's Persona feature, and more — As promised, Zoom will be available on Apple Vision Pro from day one. Ahead of Vision Pro's launch on Friday …
More: Zoom, TechCrunch, MacRumors, AppleInsider, MacRumors, PYMNTS.com, iThinkDifferent, iPhone in Canada Blog, ZDNet, Engadget, TweakTown, PCMag, iMore, XR Today, UC Today, and The Verge
| The Information: |
Source: Alphabet execs told staffers at its moonshot X lab that the company will not convert promising investment projects into Other Bets subsidiaries in 2024 — Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is cutting back its commitment to ambitious moonshot projects.
X: @carnage4life and @amir
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Source: Apple has sold upwards of 200K Vision Pro units; Apple began accepting pre-orders for the Vision Pro on January 19 — Apple has sold upwards of 200,000 Vision Pro headsets, MacRumors has learned from a source with knowledge of Apple's sales numbers.
More: UploadVR, GSMArena.com, Wccftech, and iClarified
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Xbox President Sarah Bond says that “Apple's new policy is a step in the wrong direction”, in response to an X post by the Spotify CEO about Apple's DMA changes — Apple's new plan to comply with the European Union's tech regulations has already drawn criticism from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and Spotify.
More: Thurrott, AppleInsider, Windows Central, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Android Headlines, iClarified, TechSpot, AppleInsider, and Digital Music News
X: @bondsarah_bond, @aatilley, @tomwarren, and @jezcorden
| Alex Barinka / Bloomberg: |
TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to “find similar items on TikTok Shop” — - Feature links products to any posts, not just influencers — TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable …
More: PYMNTS.com, The Information, Gizmodo, and Social Media Today
| Dan Mangan / CNBC: |
The US DOJ and SEC unveil charges in an alleged $1.9B crypto fraud scheme known as HyperFund — - The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against two people and the guilty plea of a third person for orchestrating a $1.9 billion cryptocurrency fraud scheme known as HyperFund, as well as by other names.| Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: |
Meta partners with the Center for Open Science to share data for researching online well-being, before January 31's Congressional hearing on kids' online safety — Ahead of a major Congressional hearing about children's online safety, Meta has announced a collaboration with the Center for Open Science …
More: Center for Open Science, The Information, Engadget, Social Media Today, and PetaPixel
Mastodon: @AAKL@noc.social, @manisha@neuromatch.social, and @briannosek@nerdculture.de
X: @andymstone, @jeroenson, @seanmcginty, @fractaldoctor, @_andyburrows, @nickclegg, @mollyroseorg, @nickclegg, and @dougaparry. LinkedIn: Brian Nosek
| Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal: |
Amazon expects Prime Video's average hourly ad load to be 2 to 3.5 minutes, below traditional TV and most streaming services, and to reach 159M monthly viewers — Move prompts longtime subscribers to cancel Prime altogether, forgoing free shipping; ‘There is only one way to show them that this is not OK’
More: The Hill, 9to5Mac, Axios, Fast Company, Washington Post, Bloomberg, iMore, TechRadar, Gizmochina, PCMag, The Streamable, KnowTechie, iPhone in Canada Blog, TweakTown, GameSpot, Insider Intelligence, Neowin, Thurrott, Gizmodo, TechHive, Cord Cutters News, The Verge, and Making Television Easy Again!. Forums: Hacker News
| Allison Johnson / The Verge: |
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: bright screen, anti-glare, Circle to Search, great camera, and seven years of updates, but pricey, heavy, and AI is a mixed bag — The Galaxy S24 Ultra is packed with top-tier hardware, but its highly touted AI features are hit-or-miss — and the price is higher than ever.
More: MrMobile [Michael Fisher] on YouTube, Marques Brownlee on YouTube, CNET, MobileTechReview on YouTube, The Tech Chap on YouTube, Tim Schofield on YouTube, UrAvgConsumer on YouTube, Mrwhosetheboss on YouTube, IGN, Forbes, Android Central, Mashable, Pocket-lint, MacRumors, Engadget, XDA Developers, MakeUseOf, Tom's Guide, PCMag, GSMArena.com, and TechSpot
| Dawn Lim / Bloomberg: |
How Blackstone is building a ~$25B US data center empire after acquiring QTS, estimated to use 6GW of electricity when complete, equal to the needs of ~5M homes — The private equity giant says landlord QTS could be one of its best investments ever — but the resources needed for growth are vast.Sponsor Posts
Google:
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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.
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
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
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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Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Anthropic's quest to study the negative effects of AI is under pressure
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
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Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
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