Techmeme
September 12, 2024, 12:50 PM

Top News

Wesley Yin-Poole / IGN:
Memo: Microsoft lays off 650 staff from its gaming business, bringing the cuts in its gaming business to 2,550 jobs since acquiring Activision Blizzard in 2023  —  No games canceled or studios closed this time.  —  Microsoft is laying off a further 650 staff from its gaming business …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
The FDA approves the Hearing Aid Feature in Apple's AirPods Pro 2, calling it the “first over-the-counter hearing aid software device”  —  The iPhone 16 took center stage at Apple's “Glowtime” event, but the most interesting tidbit came from a different line entirely.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
How the hearing aid feature in AirPods Pro 2 could change the hearing aid industry, where most devices range from $799 into the thousands of dollars  —  Soon, people with AirPods in their ears might not be drowning you out — they might be wearing them to hear you better.
Teresa Xie / Bloomberg:
eToro USA agrees to pay $1.5M and limit US user trading to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether to settle SEC allegations that it operated as an unregistered broker  —  - Unregistered broker, clearing agency allegations settled  — US users will be limited to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Arasu Kannagi Basil / Reuters:
Mastercard agrees to acquire Recorded Future, which uses AI-based analytics to identify potential threats, from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65B  —  Mastercard (MA.N) has agreed to buy threat intelligence company Recorded Future from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65 billion …
Richard Speed / The Register:
Transport for London confirms ~5,000 customers' bank data may have been exposed in an ongoing cyber incident and pulls a lot of its IT infrastructure offline  —  NCA confirms arrest of 17-year-old ‘on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences’ - now bailed  —  BREAKING Transport …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The UK gives data centers Critical National Infrastructure designation, enabling the government to coordinate better against hackers and unexpected cyber events  —  LONDON — The U.K. on Thursday said it now classes data centers as critical infrastructure, in a move that is expected …
Sarah Emerson / Forbes:
Sources: Adam Neumann's Flowcarbon, which raised $70M in 2022 from a16z and others, is refunding investors after failing to launch its Goddess Nature Token  —  Flowcarbon secured millions of dollars in funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz to merge carbon credits with the blockchain …
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Coinbase launches its wrapped bitcoin, cbBTC, on the Ethereum and Base networks, supported by various DeFi services for trading, lending, and as collateral  —  The token will initially be offered on Ethereum and Coinbase's Base networks, with plans to expand to more blockchains in the coming months.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Ireland's DPC opens an investigation into Google's GDPR compliance over using the personal information of EU and EEA users for training foundation AI models  —  Google's lead privacy regulator in the European Union has opened an investigation into whether or not it has complied …
Todd Feathers / Gizmodo:
Nevada is working with Google to launch a generative AI tool that will issue recommendations to human referees on whether unemployed workers should get benefits  —  The state is working with Google on a first-of-its-kind generative AI system that will analyze transcripts from appeals hearings …
Bloomberg:
Sources: OpenAI is in talks to raise $6.5B in equity financing at a $150B valuation, plus, a source says, $5B in debt from banks as a revolving credit facility  —  - Company set to raise $6.5 billion in equity financing  — Banks also in talks to issue startup $5 billion in debt
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
A look at Apple's Private Cloud Compute for Apple Intelligence that Craig Federighi says allows user data to be “hermetically sealed inside of a privacy bubble”  —  Private Cloud Compute is an entirely new kind of infrastructure that, Apple's Craig Federighi tells WIRED …
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Infineon says it has developed 300mm gallium nitride wafers, which can produce 2.3x more chips than 200mm wafers and speed their adoption for AI applications  —  - Chipmaker announces breakthrough in gallium nitride production  — Compound semiconductors can be more efficient than silicon

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Earlier Picks

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