Techmeme
December 8, 2022, 2:20 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
The FTC sues to block Microsoft's $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard, charging that the deal would allow Microsoft to suppress its competitors in gaming  —  The lawsuit marks FTC chair Lina Khan's most significant effort to date to address tech industry consolidation, and it could upend Microsoft's gaming ambitions
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
A look at the reaction to Apple's E2EE news: the FBI is “deeply concerned” and says the change “hinders” its work while the EFF and others applaud the feature  —  Apple yesterday announced that end-to-end encryption is coming to even more sensitive types of iCloud data …
New York Times:
Sources: US prosecutors are investigating whether Sam Bankman-Fried manipulated TerraUSD and LUNA markets, leading to the cryptocurrencies' collapse in May 2022  —  Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Sam Bankman-Fried and his hedge fund orchestrated trades in a way that led to the collapse of two cryptocurrencies in May.
Kollen Post / The Block:
The US Senate Banking Committee calls on SBF to testify on December 14, a day after a similar House hearing; House lawmakers also threatened him with a subpoena  —  - The Senate committee wants Sam Bankman-Fried to testify the day after he's been told to testify in the House of Representatives …
Tatum Hunter / Washington Post:
A look at Prisma Labs' Stable Diffusion-based portrait generation app Lensa, which launched in 2018 for $36 per year and took off after adding “magic avatars”  —  Social media is celebrating.  Artists are protesting.  What's the real cost of an AI-generated portrait?
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Debunking claims on Twitter's handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story, including that Twitter engaged in election interference or violated the First Amendment  —  Hello!  Someone has referred you to this post because you've said something quite wrong about Twitter and how it handled something to do with Hunter Biden's laptop.
Erin Woo / The Information:
Source: Twitter plans to change Twitter Blue's $8 per month price to $11 per month on iOS, likely due to Apple's 30% App Store cut, and $7 per month on the web  —  Twitter has informed some employees that it plans to change the pricing of its Twitter Blue subscription product to $7 if users pay …
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong expects the crypto exchange's 2022 revenue to be half “or less” of the ~$7B the company generated in 2021, as coin prices fall  —  Coinbase Global Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said the cryptocurrency exchange's revenue is set to be cut …
Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon rolls out Inspire, a TikTok-like photo and video feed in its app that lets customers “like” and buy products, initially to select customers in the US  —  The tech giant joins Facebook, Google in seeking to capitalize on popularity of short-form video format
Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo:
Dyson announces the $949 Dyson Zone headphones, offering active noise cancellation and filters to block unwanted airborne particles, for preorder in March 2023  —  The company's first audio product promises to eliminate both unwanted noise and unwanted air particles.  —  Alerts
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google announces Chrome will get a Memory Saver mode, which promises to cut memory usage by up to 30%, and an Energy Saver mode, rolling out in the coming weeks  —  Google today announced two new performance settings in its Chrome browser: Memory Saver and Energy Saver.
Ezra Reguerra / Cointelegraph:
Some NFTs minted on FTX now show blank images instead of the original art as the metadata points to an FTX.US domain used for a bankruptcy restructuring website  —  NFTs hosted on FTX platform were affected by the firm's collapse, showing blank images instead of the original art.  —  191 Total views
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
A look at CoinDesk's blockbuster Alameda scoop that led to FTX's collapse and bankruptcy, adding to CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group's woes  —  What happens when a story has impact? … Depending on how you look at it, this is either a cautionary tale about how small and entwined …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: a letter by Foxconn founder Terry Gou to China's leadership, sent over a month ago during unrest in Zhengzhou, helped dismantle zero COVID-19 policies  —  Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou warned that the government's strict policies would threaten its position in global supply chains
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Cameo launches Cameo Kids, offering personalized videos from animated characters like Thomas the Tank Engine, Blippi, CoComelon's Nina, and Santa for $25 to $30  —  Cameo today launched Cameo Kids, its new video messaging service that features personalized videos from popular animated characters …
More: Variety
Jon Porter / The Verge:
The EU sets a December 28, 2024, deadline for new smartphones, tablets, headphones, handheld game consoles, and other devices to use USB-C for wired charging  —  We finally have a final official deadline for when new phones sold in the European Union — including future iPhones …
Joseph De Avila / Wall Street Journal:
Disney rolls out its ad-supported Disney+ tier for $7.99 per month after signing up 100+ advertisers; the ad-free tier now costs $10.99 per month, up from $7.99  —  The overhaul of Disney+ comes after a slowdown in subscriber growth for streaming services  —  Walt Disney Co. DIS 0.68%increase …
Wall Street Journal:
How tensions grew between Salesforce co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor for months; sources: Benioff became frustrated about how Taylor was spending his time  —  Exit of Bret Taylor from role he has shared for about a year wasn't long planned  —  The Tech Sector Is Taking a Beating.  Here's Why.
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
Google plans to merge Waze's 500+ employees into its Maps group starting on December 9; Waze will remain a standalone service but CEO Neha Parikh plans to leave  —  Search giant to keep navigation apps separate, says no layoffs are planned  —  How Google Remapped the World: The Tech Behind

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