Techmeme
September 27, 2023, 7:20 AM
 

September 27, 2023

6:55 AM  •
Byron Kaye / Reuters:  Researchers say X removed the ability for users to report election misinformation, a feature launched in the US, Australia, and some other countries in 2021
6:10 AM  •
Jofie Yordan / Tech in Asia:  Indonesia plans to ban direct transactions on social media, citing their effect on traditional markets, a blow to TikTok Shop in its first and largest market
6:02 AM  •
Bloomberg:  Binance exits its Russia business as it is not “compatible with Binance's compliance strategy”, and sells the business to CommEX, which launched a day earlier
5:45 AM  •
Josh Ye / Reuters:  China releases a list of 26 app stores, including from Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi, that comply with its new rules; Apple's App Store is not on the list
4:25 AM  •
Stefania Palma / Financial Times:  FTC Chair Lina Khan, who rose to prominence with a 2017 academic paper that called for a break-up of Amazon, now has a chance to test her approach in the courts
2:50 AM  •
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:  Linda Yaccarino reflects on her first 100 days as X CEO, says intense public scrutiny is “hard on me”, as sources describe her relationship with Elon Musk
2:25 AM  •
James Rundle / Wall Street Journal:  Study: 88% of S&P 500 company boards don't have a director with direct cybersecurity experience; only seven companies have a current or former CISO on the board
1:50 AM  •
Ming-Chi Kuo:  Ming-Chi Kuo: iPhone 15 Pro overheating issues likely due to thermal system design compromises to achieve a lighter weight, and are unrelated to TSMC's 3nm node
1:30 AM  •
Georgia Wells / Wall Street Journal:  US-based TikTok staff say recent executive transfers from ByteDance to TikTok show ByteDance plays a greater role in TikTok's operations than publicly disclosed
12:45 AM  •
Alex Cranz / The Verge:  The WGA contract calls for streaming data transparency and guarantees on AI use, including preventing AI-generated material to be used as a source material
12:35 AM  •
Gerry Shih / Washington Post:  Staffers and allies of India's BJP detail how they crafted posts for a vast network of WhatsApp groups aimed at exploiting the fears of the Hindu majority
12:20 AM  •
Financial Times:  Sources: China's $41B chip fund is struggling to raise capital from local governments and state-owned enterprises, which are grappling with an economic slowdown
12:10 AM  •
Washington Post:  Sources and new documents detail how Facebook execs repeatedly shied away from punishing the BJP or associated accounts in India for hate speech and propaganda

September 26, 2023

11:00 PM  •
Financial Times:  French billionaire Xavier Niel plans to invest €200M in AI projects, including an Nvidia cloud supercomputer, a research lab in Paris, and an annual conference
10:25 PM  •
The Information:  Sources: Jony Ive and Sam Altman have been discussing building a new AI hardware device, and Masayoshi Son has been involved in some aspects of the conversation
8:40 PM  •
Meir Orbach / CTech:  Sources: Palo Alto Networks is in negotiations to acquire Tel Aviv-based startups Dig Security for $300M to $400M and Talon Cyber Security for $600M to $700M
8:05 PM  •
Wesley Yin-Poole / IGN:  Sony opens an investigation after ransomware group “Ransomed.vc” claimed to have breached the company's systems and threatened to sell or post the stolen data
6:10 PM  •
Bloomberg:  The federal judge overseeing US et al v. Google says documents used during the trial can be posted online at the end of each day, resolving a weeklong dispute
5:35 PM  •
Tom Warren / The Verge:  Microsoft starts rolling out a Windows 11 update that adds the new Windows Copilot and, over the coming months, AI updates to Paint, Snipping Tool, and Photos
5:25 PM  •
Wall Street Journal:  Sources: the WGA and AMPTP's deal lets studios train AI models on writers' work while writers would be compensated for work on scripts even if AI tools are used
4:40 PM  •
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:  MoneyGram plans to launch a non-custodial wallet in Q1 2024, letting users move funds between fiat and USDC, limited to ~40 countries with a digital KYC process
4:30 PM  •
Wall Street Journal:  Over a dozen senior executives left Binance over the past three months; Kaiko: Binance now handles ~50% of all direct crypto trades, vs. ~70% in January 2023
4:05 PM  •
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:  An OpenAI paper on GPT-4 with vision, or GPT-4V, reveals some of the model's biases, flaws, and potential malicious use cases, and the company's safeguards
3:30 PM  •
Wall Street Journal:  Sources: OpenAI is pitching investors on a possible share sale that would value the AI startup at between $80B and $90B, almost triple its level earlier in 2023
3:10 PM  •
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:  Researchers discover a cross-origin attack exploiting how modern GPUs compress images to let a malicious website in Chrome or Edge read pixels from another site
3:00 PM  •
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:  FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel announces plans to reinstate net neutrality, seeking to “largely return to the successful rules the Commission adopted in 2015”
2:35 PM  •
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:  Review of macOS 14 Sonoma: a better stab at usable widgets, an improved password manager, promising gaming enhancements, but fewer new features for Intel Macs
2:10 PM  •
David Pierce / The Verge:  Eddie Cue's US v. Google testimony: Cue said Google was the only “valid” search choice for a deal; the DOJ noted Apple railed against Google's privacy policies
1:20 PM  •
Khari Johnson / Wired:  Skydio debuts X10, an autonomous drone capable of mitigating high-speed police chases by flying at 45 mph and tracking people in the dark using infrared sensors
1:00 PM  •
New York Times:  Over half of the testimony in the Google antitrust trial so far has been given behind closed doors thanks to arguments from Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others
12:47 PM  •
CNBC:  The FTC and 17 US states sue Amazon for allegedly using monopoly power to raise its prices, force sellers to pay fulfillment and ad fees, and harm its rivals
12:25 PM  •
Bloomberg:  The CIA is planning to roll out a ChatGPT-style tool across the 18-agency US intelligence community to give analysts better access to open-source intelligence
12:07 PM  •
Wall Street Journal:  FTC Sues Amazon, Alleging Illegal Online-Marketplace Monopoly
12:00 PM  •
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:  Google Messages has been installed 5B+ times, after crossing 1B installations in May 2020 and becoming the default messaging app on most new Android devices
11:20 AM  •
Aaron Holmes / The Information:  Sources: Microsoft is developing “distilled”, smaller AI models for features like Bing Chat that cost less to operate and mimic OpenAI's more advanced models
10:05 AM  •
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:  Google plans to shut down Google Podcasts “later in 2024”, moving its streaming listeners to YouTube Music, which will support US podcasts and RSS feeds by 2024
9:30 AM  •
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:  Series, which offers ERP-like tools, including for managing payroll and benefits, contract lifecycles, and treasuries, raised $25M across a Series A and a seed
8:55 AM  •
Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:  Email: Chase bans crypto-linked payments for UK clients starting on October 16 as “fraudsters are increasingly using crypto assets to steal large sums of money”
8:30 AM  •
Lisa O'Carroll / The Guardian:  EU analysis: Twitter had the highest disinformation rate in H1 2023, followed by Facebook; TikTok closed ~6M fake accounts; YouTube closed 400+ channels
7:40 AM  •
Alexandra Garfinkle / Yahoo Finance:  Q&A with GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on generative AI making developers more efficient and shortening software development cycles, managing AI's risks, and more
7:10 AM  •
Bloomberg:  The US SEC objects to Coinbase's role in Celsius' plan to emerge from bankruptcy, saying the proposal goes “far beyond the services of a distribution agent”
7:00 AM  •
Elizabeth Pineau / Reuters:  Sources: French authorities received and are reviewing an iPhone 12 software update from Apple that is meant to defuse a row over the device's radiation levels
6:35 AM  •
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:  San Diego-based edge AI chipmaker Kneron raised a $49M Series B extension, after raising a $48M Series B in October 2022, bringing its total funding to $190M
4:15 AM  •
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:  Spotify launches Jam, a feature that lets up to 32 people curate a playlist together; only Premium subscribers can create Jams, but all users can contribute
2:40 AM  •
Steve Dent / Engadget:  DJI Mini 4 Pro review: lightweight, improved obstacle avoidance, great ActiveTrack 360 subject tracking, 4K at 60fps, but expensive at $760+ and not crashproof
12:20 AM  •
Sean Hollister / The Verge:  Valve announces SteamVR 2.0 in beta, with an updated keyboard, Steam Chat and Voice Chat integration, and an improved Store, after teasing the project in 2019

September 25, 2023

11:50 PM  •
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:  Q&A with Apple execs Ron Huang and Eric Treski on AirPods Pro's Adaptive Audio, Conversational Awareness, Personalized Volume, faster device switching, and more
11:05 PM  •
Todd Shields / Bloomberg:  Sources: FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel is set to announce on September 26 plans to reinstate net neutrality rules governing ISPs that the FCC gutted under Trump
10:50 PM  •
Financial Times:  Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission plans to publish a list of crypto exchange license applicants in the wake of the JPEX crypto exchange probe
10:15 PM  •
Balkan Insight:  Investigation: some stakeholders, like AI firms selling CSAM scanning tech, funded lobbying efforts for EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson's CSAM scanning proposal
8:20 PM  •
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:  Email: YouTube plans to stop offering its ad-free €6.99/month Premium Lite tier after October 25, 2023, following a two year pilot in some European countries
7:20 PM  •
Simon Sharwood / The Register:  Google plans to discontinue Gmail's Basic HTML version in January 2024, saying the view does not include “full Gmail feature functionality”
6:40 PM  •
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority:  Many users report that their iPhone 15 series devices, including the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, get too hot to hold, especially during charging or prolonged use
6:05 PM  •
CNBC:  Memos: Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith is stepping down on December 4 and retiring on January 2, set to be replaced by Amazon SVP of Devices and Services Dave Limp
5:30 PM  •
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:  LG unveils the Gram Fold, its first foldable-screen laptop, weighing 2.76 lbs and arriving in South Korea on October 4 for ~$3,700 to rival Asus, Lenovo, and HP
3:15 PM  •
Leke Oso Alabi / Financial Times:  Gripped by worker shortages, some security companies are using robots developed by 1X, Knightscope, Ava Robotics, Ascento, and others to augment human labor
1:20 PM  •
Jay Peters / The Verge:  Reddit launches a Contributor Program that pays verified users monthly based on the karma earned and the gold received for “eligible contributions” on the site
11:50 AM  •
Lucia Maffei / Boston Business Journal:  Boston-based Openly, which uses AI to generate home insurance quotes in 20+ US states, raised a $100M Series D led by Eden, bringing its total funding to $240M
10:50 AM  •
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:  Tinder rolls out Tinder Select, a $500/month tier with perks like a SELECT profile badge and the ability to DM others up to twice a week without matching first
9:50 AM  •
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:  Amazon shuts down its Alexa Guard security system and moves the free smoke and carbon monoxide detection features to its $5.99/month Emergency Assist service
9:15 AM  •
Emilia David / The Verge:  Getty partners with Nvidia to launch Generative AI by Getty Images, a tool trained on Getty's licensed photos that lets users create legally protected images
9:10 AM  •
Kyle Wiens / iFixit News:  iPhone 15 Pro Max teardown: a redesigned frame helps with replacing the back glass, a tetraprism periscope lens, software lockdown makes repairs hard, and more
8:45 AM  •
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:  OpenAI updates ChatGPT for iOS and Android to let the chatbot speak in five different voices in a conversational tone, rolling out to Plus and Enterprise users
8:35 AM  •
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:  Spotify partners with OpenAI to debut an AI translation feature that reproduces podcasts in other languages using a synthesized version of the podcaster's voice
8:30 AM  •
David Pierce / The Verge:  OpenAI updates ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise to let users prompt the tool using voice commands or by uploading an image, coming to all users “soon after”
6:08 AM  •
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:  The EU blocks Booking Holdings' €1.63B Etraveli acquisition, saying Booking failed to allay concerns that the deal expands its dominance in the hotel OTA market
5:55 AM  •
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:  Sources: China told Tencent and Huya to livestream only multiplayer semifinals and finals at the Hangzhou Asian Games, in part due to internet addiction worries
5:20 AM  •
Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:  DeFi project Mixin Network suspends deposits and withdrawals after a hack involving $200M in crypto assets; SlowMist says Mixin's cloud provider was compromised
4:06 AM  •
Financial Times:  Amazon plans to invest $1.25B in Anthropic for a minority stake, with an option to increase the total to $4B; Anthropic plans to use AWS and Amazon's AI chips

September 24, 2023

10:43 PM  •
Los Angeles Times:  The WGA and the AMPTP reach a tentative deal to end the strike; the proposed three-year contract ups pay and streaming residuals, adds new AI rules, and more
8:25 PM  •
Jody Serrano / The Messenger:  Q&A with Kevin Systrom about Artifact's Links discovery feature, moderation, the bear case and bull case for Threads, the current state of Instagram, and more
5:10 PM  •
McKenzie Funk / New York Times:  A profile of Hank Asher, the “father of data fusion” who died in 2013 after initiating a vast shift in privacy norms through his data mining software companies
12:55 PM  •
PTI:  Sources: Apple plans to increase its production in India over 5x to ~$40B in the next four to five years, and start making AirPods, on top of iPhones, in 2024
12:05 PM  •
Chethan Rao / Android Police:  EV maker Nio launches the Nio Phone in China with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and 30+ car-specific features, including automatic parking, starting at ~$890
10:45 AM  •
Wall Street Journal:  Sources: Meta plans to release AI chatbots with personalities, internally called Gen AI Personas, across its apps at this week's Connect, to attract young users
9:35 AM  •
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:  A look at the role of pro gaming in Tencent's long-term strategy as China hosts the Hangzhou Asian Games, the first event where esports are eligible for medals
1:45 AM  •
New York Times:  Some employees reminisce about Netflix's DVD subscription service, which upended the entertainment industry and is shutting down on September 29 after 25 years

September 23, 2023

11:50 PM  •
Dave Lee / Bloomberg:  Q&A with outgoing Amazon SVP of Devices and Services Dave Limp on using generative AI for Alexa, a possible Alexa subscription, advice for Panos Panay, and more
8:00 PM  •
Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg:  In a countersuit, chip startup Rivos and six ex-Apple staff claim Apple intimidates those who “dare to leave”; Apple sued Rivos over trade secrets theft in 2022
4:30 PM  •
Kate Knibbs / Wired:  A look at the flood of near-identical YouTube obituary videos, in which men read obituaries scraped from authorized publishers like funeral homes and newspapers
2:50 PM  •
Sanket Vijayasarathy / 91mobiles:  A leaked Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro promo video reveals new camera features: an Audio Eraser, the ability to swap faces, full manual controls like ISO, and more
1:45 PM  •
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:  Walmart-backed PhonePe, which leads India's UPI-based payments market, launches the Indus AppStore on Android and promises no platform fees or IAP commission
12:30 PM  •
Abhirup Roy / Reuters:  California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes a bill that would have required a human safety operator in heavy-duty self-driving trucks on public roads in the state
11:50 AM  •
Washington Post:  Academics and US agencies are overhauling or ending online misinformation research due to Representative Jim Jordan and other Republicans' escalating campaign
11:00 AM  •
Reuters:  Sources: India plans to delay its import license requirement for laptops and tablets by a year and propose a simpler import registration process from November
9:55 AM  •
Reuters:  A look at Scattered Spider, which experts say is a group of 17- to 22-year-old native English speakers likely behind MGM and 52+ other hacks since March 2022
7:55 AM  •
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:  A look at chip equipment makers, like Applied Materials, that push the boundaries of sculpting materials at the atomic level, in a quest to make chips faster
2:10 AM  •
Ed Bott / ZDNet:  A look at Microsoft's Surface business as device revenue plunged in FY 2023 after growing steadily since FY 2014, as a major correction hits the wider PC market
12:20 AM  •
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:  Doc: Booking accuses EU officials of using “misleading” and “selective” facts to block its €1.63B Etraveli acquisition and plans to challenge any ban in court

September 22, 2023

8:20 PM  •
Becky Peterson / The Information:  Sources: due to technical kinks, SpaceX won't roll out its direct to cell service in late 2023 as announced, and plans to start testing with T-Mobile in 2024
4:45 PM  •
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:  Documents: Coinbase explored acquiring FTX Europe after FTX's November 2022 bankruptcy, as part of Coinbase's goal to expand its overseas derivatives business
3:50 PM  •
Louise Matsakis / Semafor:  Sources: The White House is weighing requiring cloud companies to disclose when a client buys computing resources above a set threshold, as part of an EO on AI
2:03 PM  •
Bryant Francis / Game Developer:  Unity apologizes and says games made with Unity Personal will be exempt from its Runtime Fee, which will only apply to games made with Unity versions from 2024
1:10 PM  •
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:  Microsoft adds AI-powered features to its SwiftKey keyboard app for iOS and Android, including Snapchat camera lenses, stickers, an AI-powered editor, and more
9:20 AM  •
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:  An interview with Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin about his “decentralized lifestyle”, avoiding countries like Russia, the US' growing crypto crackdown, and more
7:20 AM  •
David Shepardson / Reuters:  The US issues final rules to stop Chips Act subsidies from going to countries of concern, like China, such as limiting foreign chip fab expansions for 10 years

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