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Techmeme
August 14, 2024, 6:25 PM
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Top News

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
xAI launches Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta with improved reasoning and image generation, available now to X Premium and Premium+ users, and later via its API  —  Elon Musk-owned launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta today with improved reasoning.  The new Grok AI model can now generate images …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Images generated by Grok, like Barack Obama doing cocaine and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris with guns, go viral on X, raising questions about Grok's guardrails  —  xAI's Grok chatbot now lets you create images from text prompts and publish them to X — and so far, the rollout seems as chaotic …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says developers can offer NFC transactions using the iPhone's Secure Element, separate from Apple Pay, starting in iOS 18.1; there'll be “associated fees”  —  Apple has announced that it is opening up the iPhone's NFC chip using the Secure Element to allow …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is prioritizing developing a tabletop home device with an iPad-like display and a robotic limb, aiming for a release in 2026 or 2027 for ~$1,000  —  - Executive who oversaw car project is leading the effort  — Device would offer twist on home products from Amazon and Meta
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Apple approves Spotify updating its app to show in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the EU starting today, after Spotify's yearslong legal battle  —  Spotify will begin showing in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the European Union starting today, following a yearslong legal battle against Apple.
Dara Kerr / NPR:
Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, less than three months before the US election, in favor of the Meta Content Library; Mozilla says 50K+ petitioned against the move  —  Meta has been bombarded by academics, researchers, politicians and regulators about a tool called CrowdTangle, which most people probably haven't heard of.
Danny Gallagher / Engadget:
The US FTC announces a final rule banning the sale of fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-generated ones, with fines as high as $50K per violation  —  The new rules prohibit the selling of fake and AI-generated reviews and testimonials in several forms.
Orianna Rosa Royle / Fortune:
During a talk, Eric Schmidt said Google is losing the AI race because it decided that work-life balance and working from home were “more important than winning”  —  Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt has a complaint about his old stomping ground—and it's one that workers have heard …
Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X review: the Zen 5 flagship chips are fine for highly threaded productivity workloads, but the gaming issues need to be fixed  —  Earlier this month, AMD launched the first two desktop CPUs using their latest Zen 5 microarchitecture: the Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sources: Sonos is considering relaunching its previous mobile app as it works to improve the redesigned version, which launched in May to widespread criticism  —  Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company's hurried redesign has become.
Troy Hunt:
A look at the National Public Data breach, first noted in April 2024 and posted publicly last week, and why it's unlikely that “nearly 3B people” were exposed  —  I decided to write this post because there's no concise way to explain the nuances of what's being described as one of the largest data breaches ever.
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Access Now and Citizen Lab: Russian spy agencies are using deep knowledge about opponents, reporters, and human rights groups to target them via phishing emails  —  Traditional phishing attacks aimed to break into organizations advocating for Russian dissidents, among others.
Ben Dowsett / Wired:
How the English Premier League plans to use 28+ iPhone 14 or newer cameras at stadiums to call offsides later in the 2024/25 season, ditching its VAR system  —  Later this season, the UK's top soccer division will replace its controversial VAR offside-detection system in favor of a whole bunch of Apple's smartphones.
Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
A look at some of the victims of the now-ubiquitous deepfake video scams; an analysis of 2,000+ deepfakes found Elon Musk was featured in ~25% of such scams  —  “It's shifting now because organized crime has figured out, ‘we can make money at this,’” according to Lou Steinberg, the founder of CTM Insights, a cybersecurity research lab.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
The main takeaway from the Google Pixel event is Android's primacy, and Google's integration with Android is worth preserving if the goal is spurring innovation  —  The original Pixel was released in 2016 at the end of interesting, at least when it came to smartphones.
More: SlashGear, CNET, and 9to5Google
X: @anshublog, @rakeshsfnyc, and @stevesi.  Forums: Hacker News
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Hands-on with Gemini Live: conversationally, a big step forward, but functionally, a step back in some ways, largely due to working entirely in the cloud

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:25 PM ET, August 14, 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.

From Mediagazer

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

James Faris / Business Insider:
Kalshi strikes a deal with CNBC that will integrate Kalshi's prediction data into CNBC's channel, site, and app starting in 2026, days after striking a CNN deal

Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: Atlas Obscura's co-founders were pushed out of the company amid clashes with CEO Louise Story, who has trimmed staff and changed editorial strategy

More News

Financial Times:
How Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta are using accounting techniques to hide their growing emissions, while working to influence pollution disclosure rules
Nic Fildes / Financial Times:
Australia's market regulator sues the country's ASX stock exchange over its botched blockchain upgrade, abandoned in November 2022 after being unveiled in 2017

Earlier Picks

Bobby Allyn / NPR:
US District Judge Reed O'Connor recuses himself from X's advertiser lawsuit over an alleged ad boycott; O'Connor held stock in Tesla and Unilever
Ian King / Bloomberg:
Filing: Intel sold its 1.18M Arm shares during Q2 2024, which would have raised ~$147M for Intel based on the stock's $124.34 average price in the quarter
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
The US NIST publishes its first three post-quantum cryptography standards; IBM's director of research thinks quantum will hit an inflection point around 2030
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google unveils the Pixel Watch 3 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with a 2,000-nit display and around 16% smaller bezels compared to the Watch 2, starting at $349
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