Techmeme
September 29, 2022, 1:40 PM

Top News

The Verge:
Google plans to shut down Stadia on January 18, 2023, and will refund hardware, software, and DLC purchases; members of the Stadia team will be reassigned  —  Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming service.  The service will remain live for players until January 18th, 2023.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Meta details its text-to-video AI generator, Make-A-Video, which can produce up to five-second videos without audio; Meta is not giving access to the AI model  —  AI text-to-image generators have been making headlines in recent months, but researchers are already moving on to the next frontier: AI text-to-video generators.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Meta confirms taking “enforcement actions” against The OG App, which offers ad-free Instagram feeds, as developer UN1feed says Apple removed the App Store app  —  A third-party Instagram app, called “The OG App,” which promised an ad-free feed more like the original Instagram experience …
Reuters:
An investigation shows the CIA failed to secure its messaging system used by Iranian spies, often hidden within websites, leading to capture, torture, and death  —  The spy was minutes from leaving Iran when he was nabbed.  —  Gholamreza Hosseini was at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran in late 2010, preparing for a flight to Bangkok.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft plans to end support for SwiftKey on iOS and delist the app from the App Store on October 5; Microsoft will continue to support SwiftKey for Android  —  Questions about what's going on with Microsoft's support of the predictive SwifKey keyboard app for iOS have been bubbling up over the past few weeks.
Barbara Ortutay / Associated Press:
Amnesty International: Meta's algorithms “proactively amplified and promoted content” on Facebook that incited violent hatred against the Rohingya in Myanmar  —  With roosters crowing in the background as he speaks from the crowded refugee camp in Bangladesh that's been his home since 2017 …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google announces new Maps features, including the ability to visually soar over some areas, 250 more landmark views, enriched neighborhood info, and AR search  —  Google is gearing up to launch several new updates for Maps in the coming months, the company announced today at its Search On event.
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
An Apple support document and a compliance page reference an “iPhone 14 Max”, suggesting Apple changed the name to iPhone 14 Plus at the last moment  —  Newly discovered references to the iPhone 14 Plus as “iPhone 14 Max” on Apple's website suggest this was the name originally intended …
Bloomberg:
Clothilde Goujard / Politico:
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the US candidate for secretary general of the UN's International Telecommunications Union, beats Russia's candidate by 139 to 25 votes  —  BUCHAREST — A top U.S. official won a massive majority to lead the United Nations agency that sets global standards for telecoms and tech infrastructure.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers detail Chaos, a new cross-platform malware that infected a wide range of Linux and Windows devices, including routers, FreeBSD boxes, and servers  —  Small office routers?  FreeBSD machines?  Enterprise servers?  Chaos infects them all.  —  Researchers have revealed a never …
Eli Tan / CoinDesk:
Meta opens NFT sharing to Facebook users in the US and to all Instagram users in 100 countries, including the US, where digital collectibles are available  —  Users in the U.S. can now connect their crypto wallets to Instagram as part of the app's new digital collectible feature, which the tech giant has been testing since May.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon increases its average starting pay for front-line US staff to $19+/hour, up from $18/hour; warehouse and delivery workers will earn $16/hour to $26/hour  —  - Amazon is bumping its average starting pay for warehouse and delivery workers to more than $19 an hour, up from $18 an hour, the company said Wednesday.
Morgan Meaker / Wired:
A look at Botometer, which claims to identify the likelihood that a Twitter account is a bot and has been cited by Elon Musk's lawyers in the Twitter lawsuit  —  In the battle over Twitter's future, the number of bots on the platform is a key issue.  Problem is, nobody knows how to count them.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
YouTube plans to show “Personal Stories”, videos of people diagnosed with certain disorders, in US search results for health-related queries starting this week  —  YouTube announced Wednesday that it will show a new section called “Personal Stories” in search results starting …
Angus Whitley / Bloomberg:
Experts say the Optus hack could cost parent Singtel $420M to $560M for the 2.8M worst-affected customers; Singtel made $1.44B in profit in its fiscal year 2022  —  The cost for Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. to make good customers exposed to one of Australia's worst data breaches risks wiping …
More: ZDNet
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Amazon encourages some customer service staff to work from home, sources say to cut real estate costs; source: Amazon plans to close multiple US call centers  —  Amazon.com Inc. is encouraging customer service employees at some US call centers to work from home, signaling the company's preference …

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