Techmeme: Google, Apple, Mozilla, and Microsoft launch Speedometer 3.0, a benchmark to “create a shared understanding of web performance”; Speedometer 2.0 debuted in 2018 (Abner Li/9to5Google)

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March 12, 2024, 9:50 AM

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Apple announces App Store updates under the EU's DMA, including letting developers offer apps on their websites via a new Web Distribution tool from spring 2024 — Last week, Apple released iOS 17.4 with big changes to the iPhone and App Store ecosystem to comply with the Digital Markets Act in the European Union.

More: Apple Developer, MacRumors, The Verge, MacStories, Reuters, Bloomberg, Android Authority, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, Neowin, iMore, GSMArena.com, Financial Times, Supercharged, Trusted Reviews, Spyglass, BGR, and MacDailyNews

Mastodon: @nektworks@wetdry.world. X: @mgsiegler, @openwebadvocacy, @ballmatthew, @lewis_crofts, @jamestitcomb, @mysk_co, @drbarnard, @drbarnard, @bzamayo, and @bzamayo

Forums: Hacker News and MacRumors Forums

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google, Apple, Mozilla, and Microsoft launch Speedometer 3.0, a benchmark to “create a shared understanding of web performance”; Speedometer 2.0 debuted in 2018 — Speedometer has long been Google's preferred benchmark, previously noting how it's the “most reflective of the real world” …

More: WebKit, BrowerBench.org, The Verge, MacRumors, Mozilla Hacks, Chromium Blog, TechSpot, Windows Blog, Neowin, MSPoweruser, iClarified, and Macworld

Mastodon: @patrickbrosset@mas.to. X: @dhh, @praaatiiik, @msedgedev, @dmitriid, @webkit, @vivekgalatage, @googlechrome, @mozhacks, and @justinfagnani

Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, and MacRumors Forums

The SP Android:

Analysis: TikTok's app code shows a separate TikTok Photos app, a potential Instagram rival that syncs with the main app and may debut “soon” on iOS and Android — Tiktok has dominated the short form video market from a long time and other platform like Instagram and YouTube copied …

More: TechCrunch, Android Authority, Creative Bloq, MSPoweruser, PhoneArena, iThinkDifferent, Android Police, Android Central, Neowin, 9to5Mac, Social Media Today, Android Headlines, 9to5Google, Forbes, PCMag, and London Evening Standard

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Nigeria has held Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla in Abuja without any charges or their passports since February 26, per their families — Tigran Gambaryan, a former crypto-focused US federal agent, and a second Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been held in Abuja without passports for two weeks.

More: Wall Street Journal, PYMNTS.com, The Block, CCN.com, crypto.news, Cryptopolitan, Cointelegraph, Cryptonews, TechCabal, Watcher Guru, Blockonomi, CoinGape, and CoinDesk

Mastodon: @agreenberg@infosec.exchange. Forums: r/ethtrader

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:

An interview with Pavel Durov on running Telegram, which has ~50 full-time staff, its Dubai HQ, reaching 1B MAUs in 12-14 months, Russia, moderation, and more — As the messaging platform gears up for a potential stock market flotation, it is under pressure to curtail use by criminals

More: The Register, The Crypto Times, Business Insider, The Information, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Nairametrics

X: @davetroy, @sapitonmix, @aurman21, @maxseddon, @edourdoo, and @irgarner

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:

Google confirms rolling out restrictions to limit Gemini surfacing answers on election queries globally; the update is live in the US and rolling out in India — If you want to ask Google's AI chatbot a question about an upcoming election, you will have to do it from a country where there are no elections taking place.

More: Google, Moneycontrol, and Business Standard

Pew Research Center:

A survey of US teens: 38% say they spend too much time on their phone, vs. 27% for too much social media; girls are more likely to report too much phone time — Most teens at least sometimes feel happy and peaceful when they don't have their phone, but 44% say this makes them anxious.

More: 9to5Mac, CNN, Associated Press, NBC News, Washington Post, NBC Bay Area, and Axios

X: @pewresearch, @johngramlich, @monicaranders, and @monicaranders

Andrew Marantz / New Yorker:

A profile of several AI “doomers”, including AI Impacts researcher Katja Grace, and “effective accelerationists”, as both make arguments about the future of AI — Some people think machine intelligence will transform humanity for the better. Others fear it may destroy us.

More: TIME and New York Post

X: @bengoldhaber, @haydnbelfield, @hkanji, @manifoldmarkets, @bcmerchant, @nils_gilman, @robinhanson, @austinc3301, and @drtechlash

Forums: Hacker News, r/Futurology, r/OpenAI, r/politics, r/worldnews, r/singularity, r/slatestarcodex, and r/LocalLLaMA

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:

Meta sues ex-VP Dipinder Singh Khurana for allegedly stealing documents related to employee pay and private contracts before leaving for a stealth AI startup — - Khurana allegedly took employee pay docs and private contracts — Meta says eight employees followed Khurana to new startup

More: Times of India, The Information, Cryptopolitan, Business Today, and Benzinga

X: @anissagardizy8 and @disappoptimism

Matt Burgess / Wired:

As Google removes nonconsensual deepfake porn video URLs after complaints, experts urge Google to remove the biggest deepfake sites from search results entirely — Content creators are using copyright laws to get nonconsensual deepfakes removed from the web.

More: PetaPixel, The Markup, and Cryptopolitan

Mastodon: @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org and @mattburgess@infosec.exchange

X: @jbhall56, @neilturkewitz, @schemaly, and @tweetinjules

Washington Post:

Sources: in summer 2023, Donald Trump asked Elon Musk if he wanted to buy Truth Social, but no deal was made; Trump advisers say the pair have talked politics — The idea went nowhere, but the former president and the billionaire X owner have continued to communicate more than was previously known

More: Benzinga, Gizmodo, Business Insider, The Hill, NBC News, and Deadline

X: @annmarie, @drewharwell, @benjysarlin, and @silvermanjacob

Forums: r/wallstreetbets and r/politics

Alexandra Alper / Reuters:

Sources: Intel survived an effort to halt laptop chip sales to Huawei under a Trump-era license, after AMD pressured Biden; source: AMD sought a similar license — Intel has survived an effort to halt hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of chip sales to Huawei, two people familiar with the matter said …

More: Tom's Hardware, Investing.com, and Huawei Central

Associated Press:

The IRS launches Direct File, a free online tool to let some taxpayers in 12 US states file their federal income taxes; the IRS says 19M people may be eligible — After weeks of testing, an electronic system for filing returns directly to the IRS is now available for taxpayers from 12 selected states.

More: Engadget, Vox, CNBC, and Trak.in

Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:

Sources: Apple is testing an AI-powered ad tool that automatically decides where to place ads within the App Store, similar to Google's Performance Max ad tool — - Apple is testing a new AI-powered tool for optimizing App Store ad campaigns. — The tool mimics Google's Performance Max …

More: TechRadar, Supercharged, Android Headlines, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Trusted Reviews, Daring Fireball, and MacDailyNews

Threads: @mattdlynch. X: @bzamayo, @florian4gamers, @thurrott, @mysk_co, @jerrycap, and @nmcalone

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From Mediagazer

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

A US federal judge sets the antitrust trial over Paramount's acquisition of WBD for March 2 to March 19, 2027; Paramount had sought a November start

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:

Hearst announces an agreement to acquire Disney's 50% interest in A+E Global Media for around $1.2B in cash and expects to close the deal in September

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Axel Springer names Business Insider's interim CEO Christian Baesler as the outlet's permanent CEO; he plans to keep focusing on direct sales and subscriptions

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More News

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

Nanonets, which offers AI tools to process business invoices in as little as one minute, raised a $29M Series B led by Accel India, for $40M in total funding

More: TechCrunch, Inc42 Media, and Crowdfund Insider

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Epic plans to charge non-game developers $1,850 per seat per year to use Unreal Engine in late April with version 5.4, as opposed to royalty-based game fees

Ashlee Vance / Bloomberg:

Cognition AI, which offers a Copilot-like coding assistant that, the startup says, can finish whole projects, raised $21M from Founders Fund, Elad Gil, and more

Elijah Nicholson-Messmer / Bloomberg:

CoinShares: as bitcoin topped $72K, a record $2.7B flowed into crypto assets last week; in 2024 so far, $10.3B flowed to crypto assets, close to 2021's $10.6B

More: CoinShares Crypto ETP, The Crypto Times, DL News, The Daily Hodl, Decrypt, CoinDesk, CoinGape, and The Block

Reuters:

An Autopilot trial over a fatal 2018 crash, starting next week, may show Tesla did not study how fast drivers can retake control, testing Tesla's safety claims

More: The Verge and Electrek. Forums: r/electricvehicles

Max Ramsay / Bloomberg:

EU countries reach a compromise deal on gig economy workers' rights, breaking a logjam by letting states make decisions; EU Parliament and members must approve

More: Politico, Council of the EU, Reuters, Financial Times, PYMNTS.com, and Tech Xplore

Financial Times:

Sources: Samsung and SK Hynix are storing, instead of selling, second-hand chipmaking machines over fears of breaking US export controls and sanctions

More: PhoneArena, SamMobile, and Reuters

Isaac Taylor / Wall Street Journal:

Eye Security, which provides cyber protection, incident response, and cyber insurance tools, raised a €36M Series B led by JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners

More: Finextra, TNW, Eye Security, FinTech Global, Silicon Canals, and PYMNTS.com

X: @alexferrara and @chirag_mehta

LinkedIn: Job Kuijpers and Eye Security

Earlier Picks

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:

Filing: OpenAI rebuts Elon Musk's lawsuit, saying OpenAI didn't violate its founding agreement because “there is no founding agreement, or any agreement at all”

More: Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, New York Post, MSPoweruser, CNBC, Engadget, South China Morning Post, Benzinga, CNN, Axios, and Superior Court of the State of California

X: @rachelmetz and @paulroetzer

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

AI-powered robot maker Covariant debuts RFM-1, an AI model the company says can process physics, may limit the need for bespoke robotics programming, and more

More: Silicon Republic, Covariant, SiliconANGLE, IEEE Spectrum, MIT Technology Review, RoboticsTomorrow.com, and Wired

Threads: @motorcityadam. X: @peterxichen, @peterxichen, and @covariantai. Forums: r/artificial

Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Oracle reports Q3 revenue up 7% YoY to $13.3B, meeting expectations, and cloud services and license support revenues up 12% YoY to $9.96B; ORCL jumps 9%+

More: Finbold, Barron's Online, Miami Herald, Quartz, NBC 7 San Diego, PR Newswire, NBC Bay Area, SiliconANGLE, RTÉ, CRN, The Information, Investor's Business Daily, Proactive, Bloomberg, Constellation Research, and Reuters

X: @bluechipdaily, @charlesfitz, and @thetranscript_. LinkedIn: Craig Guarente

Forbes:

A profile of Ryan Breslow, the founder of Bolt, whose $355M Series E in 2022 set off 18 months of acrimonious lawsuits and a showdown with early backer Activant

X: @_iainmartin, @friedmandave, @lukejohnsonrcp, @leomschwartz, @sarahnemerson, @dannygroner, and @alexrkonrad

Alexandra Sternlicht / Fortune:

TikTok uses a non-disparagement clause in RSU contracts, perhaps to silence staff, an unusual practice; one ex-staffer claims a share buyback offer was withheld

More: Business Insider. Threads: @yair_rosenberg1. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @jerrycap, @aghamilton29, @rlheinrichs, and @lexnfx

Forums: Hacker News and r/technology

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Airbnb will no longer let hosts use indoor security cameras, starting April 30, citing renters' privacy; previously, cameras in common areas had been allowed

More: Airbnb Newsroom, Metacurity, Associated Press, Ars Technica, Silicon Republic, Benzinga, ZDNet, Channel News, TIME, Al Jazeera, Proactive, Fast Company, CNBC, CNN, MediaNama, Wired, Digital Trends, Business Today, Washington Post, NPR, NBC News, New York Daily News, The Register, Tuko.co.ke, The Hill, New York Post, Gizmodo, TechSpot, PetaPixel, WAVY-TV, Skift, Metro.co.uk, Mashable, TechHive, TechCrunch, PCMag, Engadget, and Boing Boing

Threads: @hunterwalk and @laurengoode

Mastodon: @glennf@twit.social and @elizatech@mastodon.ie

X: @varunsriskanda, @rafat, and @_danilo. LinkedIn: Nils Erik Mattisson

Forums: Hacker News, r/AirBnB, and r/news

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

EU privacy watchdog EDPS says the European Commission using Microsoft 365 breached privacy rules and the EU didn't implement adequate data transfer safeguards

More: TechCrunch, European Data Protection …, OSnews, GIGAZINE, Windows Report, WinBuzzer, Cybernews.com, The Register, TechRadar, iTnews, Silicon Republic, Euractiv, Euronews, MSPoweruser, The Stack, Neowin, and WebProNews

Threads: @scott.a.corbitt, @benedictevans, and @snamber

X: @eu_edps and @maxschrems. LinkedIn: Georgía Philippou

Forums: r/technology and r/europe

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Elon Musk says xAI plans to open source Grok this week; xAI released Grok in November 2023, offering access to “real-time” data via X's $16/month subscription