Techmeme: Epic Games expands its Epic Online Services crossplay tools from PC to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, helping developers more easily add crossplay multiplayer (Jay Peters/The Verge)

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August 16, 2023, 5:45 PM

Top News

Timmy Shen / The Block:

Coinbase says the exchange received regulatory approval from the CFTC-backed National Futures Association to offer futures trading services to eligible US users — - Coinbase is now allowed to operate as a futures commission merchant and offer eligible U.S. customers access to crypto futures from its platforms, the company said.

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:

Sources: Foxconn's plant in Tamil Nadu, India plans to deliver iPhone 15 units weeks after Chinese factories; output previously lagged by six to nine months — - Apple is diversifying iPhone supply chain away from China — India's push to become a manufacturing hub is bearing fruit

More: AppleInsider, Appleosophy, DigiTimes, Livemint, iMore, Apple Must, MacRumors, Pricebaba.com Daily, MacDailyNews, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, NBC 7 San Diego, 9to5Mac, BGR, Patently Apple, Digit, Inc42 Media, Supercharged, WRAL TechWire, iClarified, Tech in Asia, Business Today, and GSMArena.com

X: @gokul_sahni. LinkedIn: Krishnanand Gaur. Forums: MacRumors Forums

Financial Times:

Docs: India accounts for $10B of Foxconn's annual revenue, or 4.6% in 2022, showing the limits of “China plus one”; China makes up 75% of Foxconn's operations

More: DigiTimes and Livemint

X: @birdyword, @financialtimes, @rmantri, @sushantsin, @pstasiatech, @chadbown, and @conradkbarwa

Nico Grant / New York Times:

Docs: Google DeepMind has been developing generative AI to perform 21+ different types of personal and professional tasks, including to give users life advice — The tech giant is evaluating tools that would use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that some of its researchers have said should be avoided.

More: SiliconANGLE, Fast Company, CNBC, Neowin, SlashGear, Engadget, Tech Startups, Mashable, and The Verge

Bluesky: @hypervisible.bsky.social and @sirshannon.com. X: @silvermanjacob

Makena Kelly / The Verge:

NYC bans TikTok on city-owned devices and asks agencies to remove the app within 30 days; a NYC Cyber Command review found that TikTok “posed a security threat” — New York City is banning TikTok from city-owned devices and requiring agencies to remove the app within the next 30 days.

More: TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Reuters, Engadget, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Neowin, MacDailyNews, Mashable, Variety, and TweakTown

Forums: Hacker News, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums

Bloomberg:

Intel ends its $5.4B bid to acquire Israeli company Tower Semiconductor, announced in February 2022, after failing to win Chinese regulatory approval in time — - Deal for Tower Semiconductor needed Chinese antitrust approval — Intel Corp. walked away from its attempt …

Bloomberg:

Docs: Amazon plans to impose a new 2% fee per sale on merchants who ship products themselves, on top of the ~15% commission they already pay, from October 2023 — - The new levy comes even with an FTC antitrust suit looming — Merchant fees generate revenue as online sales growth slows

More: Gizmodo, The Verge, and CNBC

X: @seyitaylor and @halsinger. LinkedIn: Spencer Soper. Forums: r/wallstreetbets

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:

Crypto custody startup BitGo raised $100M at a $1.75B valuation from unnamed US and Asian investors; Galaxy Digital scrapped a $1.2B BitGo acquisition in 2022 — The crypto company raised $100 million from new investors, emphasizing its focus on following rules and regulations.

More: PRWeb, FinTech Global, SiliconANGLE, Crunchbase News, Cointelegraph, Coinpedia Fintech News, Bitcoin News, The Block, Crowdfund Insider, FinSMEs, NFTgators, CoinDesk, and Decrypt

X: @bitgo and @silvermanjacob

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:

Filing: Leslie Kilgore and Andrea Wishom stepped down from Nextdoor's board on August 1 after the US DOJ raised concerns they were also on Pinterest's board — - DOJ is cracking down on directors serving on rival companies

More: US Department of Justice, The Information, Reuters, Associated Press, and The Hill. Bluesky: @hunterwalk.com

Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Apple backtracks and moves the iPhone's “end call” button back to the middle of the screen, from the bottom-right corner, in the latest iOS 17 beta — - Apple has moved the end call button back to the middle of the screen in the the newest developer version of iOS 17 released on Tuesday.

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Epic Games expands its Epic Online Services crossplay tools from PC to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, helping developers more easily add crossplay multiplayer — The change could mean that developers will be able to more easily bring crossplay multiplayer to their games.

More: Epic Online Services, VentureBeat, Game Developer, IGN, Neowin, GameSpot, and Dexerto

LinkedIn: Louis Denoly. Forums: r/PS5, r/pcgaming, and r/Games

Caitlin Harrington / Wired:

OSHA investigations and 11 interviews: Amazon's first aid clinics put warehouse staff at risk by keeping them working instead of referring them to medical care — A WIRED investigation and federal citations show how first aid clinics in Amazon warehouses sometimes direct injured employees …

More: GeekWire. Bluesky: @epro.social. X: @lfelizleon, @jbarab, and @tonyajoriley

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:

The Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, and the Open Markets Institute urge the DOJ and the FTC to investigate Amazon's book market “monopoly” — The online retailer's size and sway affects the free exchange of ideas, the groups argue.

More: Ars Technica, Open Markets Institute, Axios, New York Post, and The Verge

X: @billineastala, @openmarkets, and @openmarkets. Forums: Ars OpenForum

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:45 PM ET, August 16, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Alex Isenstadt / Axios:

The White House launches White House Wire, a website that looks similar to the Drudge Report, to promote pro-Trump news stories

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

WaPo plans to overhaul its events business, moving away from virtual events to 30 to 40 in-person experiences, including 10 major franchise-style gatherings

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

BBC Studios and the Agatha Christie estate partner to launch a writing course on education streaming service BBC Maestro, using AI to recreate Christie's voice

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More News

Ryan Weeks / The Block:

Layer 1 blockchain startup ZetaChain raised $27M from Blockchain.com and others and plans to launch its mainnet soon; ZetaChain has 27K+ dApp contracts deployed

More: Cointelegraph, NFTgators, and ZetaChain Blog

Bloomberg:

Sources: as part of the US DOJ's two-year Visa investigation, officials are looking at the company charging merchants more for not using its “tokenization” tool

More: Finextra, Reuters, and San Francisco Business Journal

Bloomberg:

Filing: Samsung sold ~3.55M ASML shares from April to June 2023, more than halving its holding from 1.6% to 0.7%, or 2.75M shares, and reportedly raising ~$2.2B

More: The Korea Herald and Reuters

Yuvraj Malik / Reuters:

JD.com reports Q2 revenue up 7.6% YoY to ~$39.7B, vs. ~$38.27B est., and retail sales up 2.5% YoY, vs. 4.5% YoY est. and slowing from 3.1% YoY in June 2023

More: Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, JD.com Investor Relations, and Barron's Online

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$20.6B, below ~$20.8B est., and operating profit up 37% YoY to ~$6.9B, driven by benefits from cost cutting in 2022

More: PYMNTS.com, Bloomberg, Tencent Investor Relations, PingWest, Nikkei Asia, Variety, Coinspeaker, Financial Times, Tech Xplore, South China Morning Post, Reuters, Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, and ChinaTechNews.com

Politico:

By the end of August, the EU plans to use the DSA to force online platforms with 45M+ EU users to prove they are ensuring their products aren't harming children

Forums: r/europe

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:

Ampere: in 2023, console video game players will spend $21B on in-game items and subscriptions, as “live service games” make the market more akin to mobile

X: @eleanorolcott and @alex

Olivia Poh / Bloomberg:

Southeast Asian giant Sea's stock fell 29%, its largest single-day drop, wiping out nearly $10B to hit a $23B market cap, down ~$180B from a November 2021 peak

More: Reuters, Tech in Asia, Business Wire, and Bloomberg

Earlier Picks

Yuka Hayashi / Wall Street Journal:

The US Commerce Department forms a team of financiers from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, KKR, and other Wall Street firms to help allocate $39B in chip subsidies

More: The Information and Politico

X: @davidasmanfox, @davidpgoldman, @adamthierer, and @zachweinberg. LinkedIn: Matt Hill

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Some users of X Pro, formerly TweetDeck, see an X Blue paywall when trying to use the tool; on July 3, X said that X Pro would be subscriber-only “in 30 days”

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:

GOP House Financial Services Committee lawmakers demand that SEC Chair Gary Gensler explain how Prometheum won its unique approval as a broker-dealer for crypto

More: Financial Services Committee, The Block, Crowdfund Insider, Coinspeaker, Crypto Daily, Inside Bitcoins, Unchained Crypto, Bitcoinist.com, CryptoSlate, Cryptopolitan, Decrypt, and CoinGape

X: @financialcmte, @brian_armstrong, and @repfitzgerald

Chelsey Cox / CNBC:

At a White House roundtable, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau touts Fair Credit Reporting Act rules to crack down on harmful data broker practices

Ash Parrish / The Verge:

Xbox debuts a strike-based enforcement program, to improve “player transparency” and clear up confusion; eight strikes over six months results in a one-year ban

More: Xbox Wire, PCMag, TweakTown, Ars Technica, PC Gamer, Reclaim The Net, Polygon, Gameranx, KitGuru, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gamereactor UK, MSPoweruser, PC Games Insider, GamingBolt, Press Start, Wccftech, TechSpot, GamesIndustry.biz, Dexerto, SlashGear, Android Headlines, and Gizmodo

X: @xboxp3, @dmc_ryan, @vicious696, @duckvalentine, @hot_bid, @xboxwire, @nextgenplayer, @steinekin, @tomwarren, @tomwarren, and @tomwarren

Forums: r/xboxone, r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, and Slashdot

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:

OpenAI says the company has been using GPT-4 to enforce its content policies and says some of its customers are already using the LLM for content moderation

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google adds an experimental browsing feature that summarizes page content to Search Generative Experience, first in the Google mobile app for Search Labs users

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

YouTube updates YouTube Music on iOS and Android with Samples, a music discovery feed featuring vertically cropped, 30-second clips uploaded directly by artists

More: YouTube Official Blog, Android Police, TweakTown, T3, Chrome Unboxed, Wccftech, PhoneArena, Pricebaba.com Daily, Phandroid, TechRadar, The Verge, Engadget, Tom's Guide, BGR, Social Media Today, and MobileSyrup. Forums: r/YoutubeMusic