Techmeme
February 16, 2023, 3:15 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Vox:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki plans to step down after nine years, replaced by Neal Mohan as SVP and new head of YouTube; Wojcicki was Google's 16th employee  —  One of the most prominent women in tech — and one of Google's earliest employees — is leaving the company.
Bing Blogs:
Microsoft reflects on the new Bing: 71% gave AI answers a thumbs up, Bing can become repetitive after 15+ questions, a few sessions over two hours, and more  —  A little over a week ago, we shared an all new, AI-powered Bing search engine, Edge web browser, and integrated Chat, that we think of as Your Copilot for the Web.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
PlayStation VR2 review: excellent OLED displays, comfortable fit, solid Sense controllers, and immersive headset haptics, but pricey and limited games at launch  —  The PlayStation VR 2 is the virtual reality upgrade console gamers have been waiting for — but is it really worth $550?
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta launches Instagram Channels, a broadcast chat feature that lets select US creators share public, one-to-many text, images, and more with their followers  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the company is launching a new broadcast chat feature on Instagram called “Channels.”
Jemima Kelly / Financial Times:
A year on from Meta hyping its VR headsets in a dystopian Super Bowl ad, enthusiasm for a metaverse has drained away as Mark Zuckerberg talks up efficiency  —  Enthusiasm for a virtual future is draining away — and so is investment  —  Remember when we were all going to ditch our humdrum lives …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft authorizes Parallels Desktop 18 to support Windows 11 on Apple's M1 and M2 Macs, after previously only licensing ARM versions of Windows to OEMs  —  Microsoft is officially supporting Windows 11 on Apple's M1 and M2 Macs thanks to a partnership with Parallels to allow the operating system to run in a virtual environment.
Mia Sato / The Verge:
TikTok announces TikTok Trivia, a livestreamed trivia quiz with a $500K prize pool hosted daily between February 22 and 26, open to US users aged 18 and older  —  TikTok is taking a page out of HQ's playbook and launching a series of live trivia games, the company announced today.
Shane Huntley / The Keyword:
An analysis of the cyber threat landscape one year after Russia invaded Ukraine shows Russia's aggressive, multi-pronged five-phase plan has had mixed results  —  One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google TAG, Mandiant, and Trust & Safety provide insights into changes in the cyber threat landscape triggered by the war.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: spooked by a regulatory crackdown, US banks are backing away from crypto companies and re-evaluating any exposure to the sector, no matter how small  —  SEC and banking overseers step up scrutiny following collapse of FTX  —  Crypto's Crash Has Been Swift but Largely Self-Contained.
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Bloomberg:
A profile of FTX co-founder and CTO Gary Wang, Sam Bankman-Fried's MIT roommate who is cooperating with the US; insiders: Wang knows what really happened at FTX  —  They'd come a long way together, from teenage mathletes to MIT frat brothers to crypto billionaires.
Reuters:
A German court rules that police use of Palantir's automated data analysis to prevent crime in some states was unconstitutional; a rights group brought the case  —  A top German court ruled on Thursday that police use of automated data analysis to prevent crime in some German states was unconstitutional …
More: Euractiv
Akane Otani / Wall Street Journal:
Jaime Rogozinski, who created r/WallStreetBets, sues Reddit for “breach of contract” by removing him as a moderator in 2020, trademark dilution, and more  —  Jaime Rogozinski says site ousted him without claim; Reddit calls suit frivolous  —  WallStreetBets' founder is suing the site where it all began.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Tile debuts an anti-theft mode that requires biometric data, a government ID, and a ToS letting Tile share info with police, to limit the misuse of its trackers  —  Apple took a big PR hit as news spread that its item tracker the AirTag was being used for stalking and car thefts …
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
CoinMarketCap data shows crypto is struggling with an “Alameda gap”, or a lack of liquidity; coin applications fell from 10,264 in Q1 2022 to 6,350 in Q4 2022  —  Data from CoinMarketCap shows a precipitous decline in applications for token listings as liquidity dries up.
More: Protos
Ryan McMorrow / Financial Times:
Filing: China Renaissance says founder and chairman Bao Fan, a top tech investor, dealmaker, and banker in China, has been unreachable for over two days  —  Investment bank China Renaissance says it has been unable to contact its founder  —  China's top tech dealmaker Bao Fan has gone missing …
Game Developer:
Activision Blizzard plans to require employees to come to the office three days per week starting on April 10 for Activision Publishing and July 10 for Blizzard  —  Remote work is reportedly ending across Activision Blizzard.  According to a developer at Blizzard Entertainment …

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More News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
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Sara Fischer / Axios: