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Techmeme
July 20, 2023, 1:50 PM

Top News

Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
Apple threatens to remove FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security under a proposed security bill amendment, dubbed a “snooper's charter”  —  Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.
New York Times:
Sources: Google tests an AI tool to produce news stories, pitching the service to the NYT, WaPo, News Corp, and other outlets as a helpmate for journalists  —  The product, pitched as a helpmate for journalists, has been demonstrated for executives at The New York Times, The Washington Post and News Corp …
New York Times:
Kevin Mitnick, a hacker best known for his crime spree in the 1990s, who later became a consultant, writer, and public speaker after leaving prison, dies at 59  —  Mr. Mitnick, best known for a crime spree during the 1990s that involved the theft of thousands of data files and credit card numbers, died from pancreatic cancer.
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Apple is struggling to assemble iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models due to larger screens and narrower bezels, possibly causing September launch shortages  —  Apple is facing challenges assembling its two upcoming new iPhone models, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, which could lead …
Nikkei Asia:
TSMC reports Q2 revenue down 10% YoY to ~$15.68B and net profit down 23.3% YoY to ~$5.9B, the first quarterly decline since 2019, as all non-AI chip sales lag  —  Taiwan chipmaker logs quarterly net profit drop on consumer electronics slump  —  Sluggish demand for smartphones …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon plans to roll out its Amazon One palm scanning payment tech to all of its more than 500 Whole Foods Market stores in the US by the end of 2023  —  - Amazon is bringing its pay-by-palm system to all of its Whole Foods stores by the end of the year.  — Amazon One lets users enter …
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
The US Federal Reserve launches FedNow Service, its long-awaited real-time payments system, enabling individuals and businesses to instantly transfer money  —  The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched a long-awaited service which will aim to modernize the country's payment system …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
YouTube increases YouTube Premium's price in the US from $11.99 per month to $13.99 per month and YouTube Music from $9.99 per month to $10.99 per month  —  The price of an individual YouTube Premium subscription is increasing by $2 to $13.99 per month in the US.
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
A study claims GPT-4's outputs became worse between March and June 2023, but some experts are not convinced and urge OpenAI to be less opaque with its AI models  —  Either way, experts think OpenAI should be less opaque about its AI model architecture.  —  On Tuesday, researchers …
Bloomberg:
Analysis: Microsoft's 1,000%+ stock rally under Satya Nadella, most recently driven by AI, takes his total windfall to above $1B, following Apple's Tim Cook arc  —  - Figure includes equity grants, salary, bonuses and dividends  — Haul puts executive in exclusive club of corporate titans
Reuters:
Sources: North Korea-linked hackers breached JumpCloud in late June and used their access to target crypto clients; JumpCloud says <5 customers were impacted  —  A North Korean government-backed hacking group penetrated an American IT management company and used it as a springboard to target …
Arun Padmanabhan / Moneycontrol:
Llama 2's commercial terms say companies with 700M+ MAUs must obtain a license from Meta, and that users are prohibited from using Llama 2 to improve other LLMs  —  Although Meta has announced that it will open-source its LLM and allow free usage for commercial and research purposes …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Netflix expands its password-sharing crackdown to its remaining markets and doesn't plan to offer an “extra member” option due to low pricing and penetration  —  Netflix is bringing password-sharing crackdown to consumers in India and every other market starting today …
Lisa Richwine / Reuters:
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority:
Google launches Nearby Share for Windows, letting users transfer files between PCs and Android devices close to each other, after debuting a beta in March 2023  —  Anyone can download Nearby Share for Windows now, but your future laptop might come with it pre-installed.  —  •  —  TL;DR

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Earlier Picks

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