Monday, September 16, 2024

8:50 PM
A US federal jury finds Zynga infringed on two IBM patents related to web-based communications and orders the game maker to pay $44.9M; Zynga plans to appeal
Reuters
8:40 PM
Meta says it's banning Russian media outlet RT from its apps globally, days after the Biden admin accused RT of acting as an arm of Moscow's spy agencies
NBC News
7:00 PM
At an Oracle investor Q&A, Larry Ellison pitched a future where AI systems would constantly monitor citizens through an extensive network of cameras and drones
Ars Technica
6:30 PM
Microsoft unveils a $60B stock buyback program, matching its largest-ever repurchase authorization, and raises its quarterly dividend by 10% to $0.83 per share
Bloomberg
6:15 PM
Runway announces an API for its video-generating AI model Gen-3 Alpha Turbo, with two plans available via a waitlist, starting at $0.01 per credit
VentureBeat
5:30 PM
The US awards Intel up to an additional $3B under the CHIPS and Science Act for the Secure Enclave program to expand the supply of microelectronics for the DOD
CNBC
5:20 PM
Review of iOS 18: despite missing upcoming AI features, there's plenty to like including bold personalization options and solid updates to Notes, Calendar, Maps
Tom's Guide
5:00 PM
A US appeals court signals skepticism with TikTok's arguments against the law that could force it to sever ties with China to keep operating in the US
Wall Street Journal
4:23 PM
Intel announces it is creating a separate entity for its foundry business, a structure that could allow it to raise outside funding; INTC jumps 5%+ after hours
CNBC
4:15 PM
Intel and AWS plan to coinvest in making a new AI chip on Intel 18A via a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework”; Intel delays new Germany and Poland plants
Bloomberg
4:07 PM
OpenAI says Sam Altman will no longer serve on its board's safety and security committee, which will now be fully composed of independent board members
Axios
3:00 PM
Google's 20% ad transaction cut was a primary subject of its antitrust trial at the end of week one; the DOJ says it's a key sign of Google's online ad monopoly
The Verge
2:25 PM
Apple launches iOS 18 without Apple Intelligence, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 Sequoia, watchOS 11, visionOS 2, and tvOS 18
iPhone in Canada Blog
2:20 PM
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells staff to return to the office five days a week from January 2, 2025, citing the importance of the policy to the company's culture
CNBC
1:52 PM
Apple adds an Apple Pay option to pay with BNPL service Affirm in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, after announcing the discontinuation of Apple Pay Later in June 2024
9to5Mac
1:25 PM
macOS 15 Sequoia review: window tiling, the Passwords app, and iPhone mirroring make it a solid update even without the upcoming Apple Intelligence features
Ars Technica
12:20 PM
11xAI, which builds AI bots that help automate end-to-end workflows, raised a $24M Series A led by Benchmark and says it is nearing ARR of $10M
TechCrunch
12:01 PM
Elon Musk posted “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala 🤔” on X and deleted the false claim after it garnered 34M+ views, claiming it was a “joke”
Newsweek
11:20 AM
Microsoft debuts AI tools for Python, charts, and more in Excel, adds email prioritization features to Outlook, and says Copilot's customers grew 60%+ QoQ
Bloomberg
11:12 AM
Microsoft rolls out Copilot Pages, which pulls Copilot responses into a new page where they can be edited collaboratively, to Microsoft 365 Copilot customers
The Verge
10:20 AM
Synchron says its brain implant now lets people with paralysis use Alexa without voice or physical interaction, along with iPhones and other devices
Wired
10:00 AM
The US FDA approves sleep apnea detection on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2, before the 10's September 20 launch, after Samsung in early 2024
TechCrunch
9:50 AM
Microsoft confirms scrapping plans to overhaul its Edge browser UI, including moving away from a rounded tab design, first announced at a February 2023 event
Windows Central
9:30 AM
Slack unveils Agents for Slack, letting paid users access Salesforce AI agents, third-party agents from Asana, Cohere, Adobe, and others, and users' own agents
VentureBeat
9:15 AM
Sources: ByteDance aims to mass produce two AI chips designed alongside TSMC in 2026; a source says ByteDance plans to order several hundred thousand
The Information
8:05 AM
AirPods 4 review: ANC is often impressive for an open design, better sound, and wireless charging, but no proper multipoint and inconvenient volume controls
The Verge
7:25 AM
Elon Musk says he's learned a lesson
Business Insider
6:50 AM
Sources: in 2022, Intel lost out to AMD and TSMC on a contract to design and fabricate Sony's PS6 chip, a significant blow to its contract manufacturing unit
Reuters
6:25 AM
Apple increases the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max's out-of-warranty battery replacement fee by 20% to $119, vs. $99 for the iPhone 15 lineup, the 16, and 16 Plus
MacRumors
5:55 AM
Analysis: iPhone first weekend preorders were down 12.7% YoY to ~37M units; the iPhone 16 Pro was down 27% and the iPhone 16 Pro Max 16% vs. the iPhone 15 line
Ming-Chi Kuo
5:00 AM
China advises state-linked orgs to use a new lithography machine with a resolution of 65nm or better, signaling an improvement in its home-developed DUV tech
Bloomberg
4:25 AM
European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees Big Tech regulation, says he is stepping down over a clash with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Reuters
2:15 AM
Groq and Aramco plan to build a Saudi Arabia data center by the end of 2024; Groq says it will be the world's largest AI inferencing center with 19K Groq GPUs
Bloomberg

Sunday, September 15, 2024

7:25 PM
Research based on the US Census Bureau's data from 2008 to 2021 suggests online dating may be partially to blame for a rise in income inequality in recent times
Bloomberg
2:55 PM
The Port of Seattle says the Rhysida ransomware operation was behind an August 24 cyberattack and “it does appear that some Port data was obtained by the actor”
BleepingComputer
9:50 AM
How Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are fighting an Ohio power company's proposal to increase the upfront energy costs they'll pay for their data centers
Washington Post
7:05 AM
BNY Mellon and other large custodial banks are interested in crypto custody but are hindered by US SEC rule SAB 121, which establishes accounting standards
Bloomberg
2:00 AM
A look at the US DOJ's divestment case against TikTok, which relies on classified material that TikTok can't review, as oral arguments begin on September 16
The Verge
1:15 AM
Nirvana, which provides insurance verification and cost estimates to healthcare providers and their patients, raised a $24.2M Series A led by Northzone
PYMNTS.com

Saturday, September 14, 2024

11:55 PM
Regulatory reports: India's CCI accuses Samsung, Xiaomi, and other smartphone makers of collusion for exclusively launching products on Amazon and Flipkart
Reuters
11:45 PM
Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of USDC issuer Circle, says the company is moving its global HQ to One World Trade Center in New York City, ahead of a planned IPO
Cointelegraph
11:15 PM
Boston-based AceUp, which offers AI-powered business coaching and performance analytics services, raised a $22.5M Series A led by PJC
TechCrunch
8:01 PM
Maryland-based Aembit, a non-human identity and access management provider, raised a $25M Series A led by Acrew Capital, bringing its total raised to ~$45M
SecurityWeek
4:35 PM
Apple's Activation Lock for iPhone components will make a huge dent in the market for stolen iPhones, while also introducing another barrier to DIY repairs
9to5Mac
2:35 PM
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold teardown: impressive repairability for a foldable, with a modular design that separates high mechanical wear parts like the USB-C port
iFixit News
12:40 PM
OpenAI should've stuck with the name Strawberry for o1, avoiding user confusion between models named 4o and o1, and helping humanize the tech
Spyglass
9:40 AM
A profile of Chase Herro, who calls himself the “dirtbag of the internet”; sources say he is the dealmaker behind Trump's crypto project World Liberty Financial
Bloomberg
6:35 AM
An overview of California's AI safety bill SB 1047, which easily passed the state's legislature and awaits Gov. Newsom's signature or veto before September 30
Financial Times
2:30 AM
Recent announcements from Apple and Google show that AI is most useful as a feature in devices and software we already use, rather than a standalone product
Wall Street Journal
12:45 AM
Doctor Web: malware dubbed Android.Vo1d has infected ~1.3M TV boxes running OSes based on Android Open Source Project in almost 200 countries, forming a botnet
Ars Technica
12:15 AM
In reports dated August 9, Indian antitrust regulator CCI found that Amazon and Flipkart violated local competition laws by giving preference to select sellers
Reuters
12:00 AM
India's new M&A rule for deals exceeding ~$240M could create hurdles for startups that hope to be acquired in their early years to access funding and scale
Bloomberg

Friday, September 13, 2024

10:05 PM
Sources: OpenAI's $150B valuation in a $6.5B funding round hinges on whether the company can upend its corporate structure and remove a profit cap for investors
Reuters
9:30 PM
Some former CrowdStrike employees say they raised concerns about executives rushing deadlines and quality checks, more than a year before the July 2024 outage
Semafor
8:25 PM
Google ad trial: an ex-Facebook ad exec testifies the company signed the 2018 Jedi Blue deal with Google because it couldn't compete against Google's “monopoly”
Bloomberg
7:35 PM
Sources: Sam Altman told OpenAI's staff that the company plans to move away from being controlled by a nonprofit sometime in 2025
Fortune
6:45 PM
An EEOC analysis finds women made up 22.6% of US workers in high-tech roles in 2022, similar to the 22% in 2005, even as the number of lucrative jobs has soared
Washington Post
5:35 PM
MicroStrategy stock jumped 8%+ on Friday after founder Michael Saylor said it purchased another $1.1B worth of bitcoin, taking its bitcoin holdings to $14.6B
CNBC
5:25 PM
Sam Bankman-Fried asks for a new trial in an appeal to the 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals and directly attacks US District Judge Lewis Kaplan for alleged bias
Bloomberg
4:20 PM
Trump says he has “absolutely no intention” of selling his Trump Media stock when the lockup period expires; DJT initially popped 25%+, then closed up about 12%
CNBC
4:00 PM
Brazil lifts the block on the bank accounts of X and Starlink after withdrawing ~$3.3M from the accounts to pay for fines imposed by the Supreme Court
Bloomberg
3:10 PM
A TuSimple shareholder letter alleges “potentially fraudulent activities” as it tries to move ~$450M to China to pivot from self-driving trucks to AI animation
TechCrunch
2:20 PM
German prosecutors open a sexual harassment probe into SAP CTO Jürgen Müller, after SAP said he'd resign at the end of September due to “inappropriate” behavior
Bloomberg
1:30 PM
Filing: 23andMe will pay $30M to settle a lawsuit for failing to protect the privacy of 6.9M customers whose personal info was exposed in a 2023 data breach
Reuters
1:10 PM
Apple files to drop its NSO suit, citing Israeli government's alleged seizure of NSO files, and saying Apple's court disclosures may aid NSO and other hackers
Washington Post
12:55 PM
Google debuts DataGemma models that use real world data from Google-created Data Commons to reduce hallucinations in queries revolving around statistical data
VentureBeat
11:40 AM
Spotify begins piloting parent-managed accounts for kids under 13 on family plans in select markets, including Denmark, New Zealand, and Sweden
TechCrunch
11:30 AM
Sources: the European Commission is poised to conclude X does not fall under its Digital Markets Act, after a probe found X's impact on EU markets is too small
Bloomberg
11:05 AM
Sources: CoreWeave is in talks to sell existing shares, valuing it at $23B, up from $19.1B in May 2024; shareholders, such as employees, may sell $400M to $500M
Bloomberg
10:55 AM
United Airlines plans to start testing Starlink internet service in early 2025, with the first passenger flights likely equipped with free Wi-Fi later in 2025
Wall Street Journal
10:40 AM
Meta restarts training its AI systems on UK users' public Facebook and Instagram posts, having “incorporated regulatory feedback” to be “even more transparent”
TechCrunch
10:10 AM
Sources paint a bleak picture for startup founders in China; IT Juzi report: only 1,202 startups were founded in the country in 2023 compared to 51,302 in 2018
Financial Times
9:55 AM
Waymo and Uber plan to expand their two-year partnership in Phoenix to Austin and Atlanta, where Waymo robotaxis can be hailed only on Uber's app, in early 2025
The Verge
9:40 AM
FanDuel and Betfair's parent company, Flutter, agrees to acquire a 56% stake in Brazilian online gaming operator NSX Group for a ~$350M, set to close in Q2 2025
Bloomberg
9:35 AM
Second Front, which helps companies deploy software in sensitive government networks, raised a $75M Series C led by Salesforce, sources say at a $750M valuation
Forbes
9:25 AM
The White House plans to curb the “overuse and abuse” of the de minimis loophole used by Shein and Temu, which exempts packages worth $800 or less from tariffs
CNBC
8:30 AM
A profile of Fei-Fei Li's World Labs, which aims to create “spatial intelligence” in AI and has raised $230M from a16z and others, reportedly at a $1B valuation
Wired
8:25 AM
Sources: Microsoft has pitched its AI to ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others to find and develop oil and gas reserves while publicly committing to reduce emissions
The Atlantic
6:37 AM
Apple plans to allow alt app stores and browser engines on iPads in the EU with iPadOS 18 on September 16, after the EU added iPadOS to the DMA in April 2024
TechCrunch
5:05 AM
Elon Musk calls Australia's government “fascists” after it unveiled a bill to fine online platforms up to 5% of their global revenue for enabling misinformation
Reuters
4:35 AM
In a provisional ruling, the CMA says Vodafone and Three's planned $19B merger could lead to higher prices, diminished service, and reduced investment in the UK
TechCrunch
2:15 AM
Q&A with Alibaba.com president Kuo Zhang on the enduring importance of the US market, navigating geopolitical tensions, competing with Shein and Temu, and more
Rest of World
12:20 AM
OpenAI's o1 models aren't a straightforward upgrade to GPT-4o, as they introduce some major cost and performance trade-offs in exchange for improved “reasoning”
Simon Willison's Weblog

Thursday, September 12, 2024

11:50 PM
Researchers detail GAZEploit, a now-fixed Apple Vision Pro vulnerability that let hackers determine which key a user is typing based on the user's eye movement
Wired
10:50 PM
Across two experiments with 2,190 American conspiracy theorists, dialogues with GPT-4 Turbo reduced their belief in their chosen conspiracy by ~20% on average
Ars Technica
9:15 PM
Every, which offers startups an all-in-one finance and human resources suite that combines banking, cards, tax, payroll, and more, raised a $22.5M Series A
SiliconANGLE
8:15 PM
All 25 staff of Annapurna's gaming division resigned in September after CEO Megan Ellison pulled out of talks with President Nathan Gary to spin off the unit
Bloomberg
7:50 PM
Vox Media says its annual Code Conference has been put on hold, calling it a “strong franchise” but declining to share further information about its future
Status
7:10 PM
YC plans to expand to four cohorts per year, adding spring and fall sessions in 2025; each batch will be half the size of the most recent cohort of 256 startups
Bloomberg
6:10 PM
Source: OpenAI's ChatGPT has 11M+ paying subscribers, including 1M for its higher-priced business plans, implying it's generating $225M+ in revenue per month
The Information
5:45 PM
The White House says Adobe, Cohere, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Common Crawl made voluntary commitments to combat nonconsensual image deepfakes and CSAM
TechCrunch
5:05 PM
Adobe reports Q3 revenue up 11% YoY to $5.41B, vs. $5.37B est., Digital Media revenue up 11% YoY to $4B, and Q4 revenue guidance below est.; ADBE drops 9%+
Bloomberg
4:55 PM
Salesforce rolls out Agentforce, a suite of AI agents that handle tasks in sales, marketing, commerce, and customer service, starting at $2 per conversation
Axios
4:10 PM
At an Acquired podcast event, Mark Zuckerberg said his biggest career mistake was taking too much ownership for issues out of Meta's control
TechCrunch
3:45 PM
Microsoft plans to make changes to Windows that will help CrowdStrike, Broadcom, Sophos, Trend Micro, and other security vendors operate outside of the kernel
The Verge
3:25 PM
Nick Clegg says Elon Musk turned X into “a sort of one man, sort of hyper-partisan and ideological hobby horse”, contrasting Meta's content moderation with X's
Politico
3:10 PM
Facebook and Instagram make AI labels less prominent on content edited with AI, moving them behind a menu; the labels will still appear on AI-generated content
The Verge
2:55 PM
Sources: Spotify is trying to entice video-oriented creators to distribute shows on the platform in addition to YouTube, sometimes offering them seven figures
Bloomberg
2:25 PM
OpenAI's o1 System Card: “medium” rating for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear weapon risk, and it sometimes manipulated task data to fake alignment
Transformer
1:21 PM
OpenAI claims that in a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad, o1 correctly solved 83.3% of the problems, while GPT-4o solved only 13.4%
TechCrunch
1:16 PM
OpenAI releases o1, the first of its rumored reasoning-focused Strawberry models, in preview, alongside a smaller o1-mini, for ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers
The Verge
12:45 PM
Utah-based Strider, which analyzes OSINT to help protect organizations against nation-state attacks, raised a $55M Series C, bringing its total funding to $110M
Wall Street Journal
12:25 PM
A hacker says he tricked ChatGPT into giving detailed instructions to make a fertilizer bomb, by getting it to “play a game” and create a sci-fi fantasy world
TechCrunch
12:15 PM
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
CNBC
12:10 PM
Google rolls out Gemini Live to free users with Android devices set to English, following its release to Gemini Advanced subscribers last month
9to5Google
12:05 PM
The FDA approves the Hearing Aid Feature in Apple's AirPods Pro 2, calling it the “first over-the-counter hearing aid software device”
TechCrunch
11:38 AM
Microsoft hires Carolina Dybeck Happe as its executive vice president and COO; Dybeck Happe was previously the CFO at GE
CNBC
11:35 AM
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
The Register
11:30 AM
Unity cancels its controversial Runtime Fee and reverts to its existing seat-based subscription model, but raises Unity Pro's and Unity Enterprise's prices
Game Developer
11:20 AM
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
Bloomberg
10:50 AM
Leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and power and utility companies met at the White House to discuss US AI energy infrastructure
CNBC
10:45 AM
The Mental Health Coalition announces Thrive, a data-sharing program to reduce content on suicide and self-harm, with Meta, Snap, and TikTok as founding members
Engadget
10:25 AM
Meta, TikTok, and Snap pledge to participate in program to combat suicide and self-harm content
TechCrunch
9:25 AM
Mastercard agrees to acquire Recorded Future, which uses AI-based analytics to identify potential threats, from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65B
Reuters
8:55 AM
Coinbase launches its wrapped bitcoin, cbBTC, on the Ethereum and Base networks, supported by various DeFi services for trading, lending, and as collateral
CoinDesk
8:30 AM
London-based Novatus, which helps financial companies manage their data to comply with regulations, raised $40M, sources say at a ~$150M post-money valuation
TechCrunch
8:05 AM
Analysis: VC investments in AI startups have reached $64.1B so far in 2024, or ~30% of total VC dollars invested, amid questions about whether they will pay off
Wall Street Journal
7:05 AM
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
IGN
6:15 AM
A look at the tough options before Intel's board, including scaling back factory projects, selling off subsidiaries, or splitting Intel's core operations
Bloomberg
5:40 AM
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
TechCrunch
5:25 AM
The UK gives data centers Critical National Infrastructure designation, enabling the government to coordinate better against hackers and unexpected cyber events
CNBC
4:40 AM
WhatsApp brings Meta Verified badges to small businesses in India, starting at ~$8/month, and gives them the ability to send customized messages to customers
TechCrunch
2:35 AM
Researchers detail gaining the ability to generate counterfeit HTTPS certificates and more after buying an expired WHOIS server domain for the .mobi TLD for $20
Ars Technica
2:25 AM
A 397-page EC report, released shortly before the CJEU's verdicts against Apple and Google, says the EU's competition enforcement can be “harmful to innovation”
Bloomberg
1:40 AM
Centricity, a digital wealth management service for financial advisers and asset managers, raised a $20M seed led by Lightspeed India at a $125M valuation
The Economic Times
1:05 AM
Tune.fm, a music streaming service with an integrated NFT marketplace that pays artists via blockchain micropayments, raised $50M from Global Emerging Markets
Cointelegraph

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

11:30 PM
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
Bloomberg
10:55 PM
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
Gizmodo