Techmeme: Counterpoint expects 2023 global smartphone shipments to drop 6% YoY to 1.15B units, the lowest level since 2013, due to a slowing Chinese economy and US demand (Vlad Savov/Bloomberg)

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August 17, 2023, 11:40 PM

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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Internal doc: Spotify weighed removing white noise podcasts and redirecting users to “talk” content, which would boost the company's annual gross profit by €35M — An internal document shows that white noise podcasts account for 3 million daily consumption hours on the platform

More: SoundExchange, Sirius XM Holdings Inc., The Verge, SlashGear, RAIN News, and Music Ally

Threads: @katienotopoulos. X: @mylesudland, @muckymann, @aotearoa_ben, @loudmouthjulia, @ashleyrcarman, @cullend, and @dada_drummer

See also Mediagazer

Kevin McLaughlin / The Information:

Sources: Meta is preparing to release “Code Llama”, a free code-generating AI model based on Llama 2, as soon as next week — Meta Platforms is preparing to launch software to help developers automatically generate programming code, a challenge to proprietary software from OpenAI …

More: The Verge. Mastodon: @jeremiah@tldr.nettime.org. X: @news_by_nick and @amir. Forums: r/singularity

MK Manoylov / The Block:

OpenSea plans to make creator fees optional for new collections from August 31, and enforce creator fees on certain existing collections through February 2024 — - OpenSea has opted to make creator fees optional for new collections, starting in September. — The platform will disable …

More: OpenSea, Decrypt, The Verge, Coinmonks, Ethereum World News, and NFT Evening

Zeba Siddiqui / Reuters:

Mandiant: the use of AI to conduct politically-motivated online influence campaigns has grown in recent years, but the impact of such campaigns has been limited — Google-owned U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant said on Thursday it had seen increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) …

More: Mandiant, ITPro, CyberScoop, Dark Reading, and BankInfoSecurity.com

X: @vijaybolina and @johnhultquist

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

Cofense discovers a phishing campaign that uses QR codes to mainly target a notable US energy company, the first known use of QR codes for phishing at scale — A phishing campaign was observed predominantly targeting a notable energy company in the US, employing QR codes to slip malicious emails into inboxes and bypass security.

More: Cofense, DataBreachToday.com, SiliconANGLE, SecurityWeek, SC Media, TechRadar, Cybernews.com, The Record, Security Affairs, Dark Reading, and Security Boulevard

Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. X: @cofense, @hughbarnard, @arekfurt, @jkamdjou, and @mlgualtieri. LinkedIn: Alexandre Borges

Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot

Umar Shakir / The Verge:

Meta starts rolling out HD photo support globally in WhatsApp for Android, iOS, and the web, and says the company plans to add support for HD videos soon — WhatsApp is flipping a switch that will let users send higher-quality “HD” images on the messaging platform.

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Google launches a new Transparency Center to let users report harmful content, make appeals, read transparency reports and product or service policies, and more — Google is launching a new Transparency Center to make it easier for users to learn more about its product policies.

More: The Keyword, Android Police, Lifewire, Android Authority, Neowin, Social Media Today, and BetaNews. LinkedIn: Gianluca Varisco

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft plans to close its Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29, 2024, meaning users will no longer be able to buy games, DLC, avatars, and more — Microsoft is preparing to close down its Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29th, 2024.

More: Xbox Wire, PCMag, The Register, Video Games Chronicle, Eurogamer.net, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Android Headlines, MobileSyrup, Stevivor, KnowTechie, SlashGear, TechSpot, Polygon, Digital Trends, Metro, MSPoweruser, Engadget, TrueAchievements, Pure Xbox, WhatIfGaming, Kotaku, Neowin, Press Start, Game Developer, Gameranx, IGN, GamingBolt, Thurrott, GamesIndustry.biz, OnMSFT.com, and iPhone in Canada Blog

Threads: @tomwarrenuk. Mastodon: @EposVox@glitch.lgbt. Bluesky: @jayabe2.bsky.social and @knoebel.bsky.social

X: @shpeshal_nick, @souistyce, @that_juan_gamer, @dark1x, @wario64, @jackal27, @spawnwavemedia, @akarinesoberi, @dmc_ryan, @masteredirony, @scully1888, @headfallsoff, @jawmuncher, @lumpythecook, @austinnotduncan, and @vgc_news

Forums: r/Rockband, r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, r/xbox, r/xboxachievements, and r/XboxSeriesX

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

ProjectDiscovery, a free vulnerability scanning platform to monitor for exploits in websites, apps, APIs, and cloud services, raised a $25M Series A led by CRV — ProjectDiscovery, a platform that detects new, exploitable vulnerabilities in codebases, today announced that it raised $25 million …

More: ProjectDiscovery.io, SecurityWeek, and FinSMEs

X: @crv, @pdiscoveryio, and @kristacanfield

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:

Arthur launches Arthur Bench, an open-source tool for comparing the performance of LLMs, like OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo and Meta's Llama 2, for specific use cases — New York City-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup Arthur has announced the launch of Arthur Bench, an open-source tool …

More: Arthur, CNBC, SiliconANGLE, and Axios. X: @inafried

John Callaham / Neowin:

Microsoft plans to discontinue Azure Kinect Developer Kit, the depth-sensing camera the company released in 2019, in October 2023, or sooner if supplies run out — Microsoft thought it had the next generation of technology control inputs when it first revealed the Kinect motion-tracking camera sensor for its Xbox 360 console.

More: Microsoft Tech Community, MSPoweruser, and OnMSFT.com

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:

A group of crypto investors and developers loses its Coinbase-funded lawsuit arguing that the US Treasury overstepped its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash — The group of developers and investors sued the Treasury Department last year. — A group of crypto investors and developers lost …

More: Bloomberg, Cointelegraph, United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Cryptopolitan, and The Block. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft plans to hold a “special event” in NYC on September 21, 2023, likely to announce Surface hardware including the Go 4, Laptop Studio 2, and Laptop Go 3 — Microsoft has started sending media invites for a “special event” in New York City next month.

More: Thurrott, Windows Central, Digital Trends, Lifewire, SlashGear, OnMSFT.com, XDA Developers, PCWorld, Gizmodo, Engadget, MobileSyrup, and Notebookcheck

X: @tomwarren and @kylebrussell

Sara Ashley O'Brien / Wall Street Journal:

Nonprofit Garbo plans to drop its background checking tool used by Match Group's apps on August 31, saying most tech companies “see trust and safety as good PR” — After a news report that sex offenders were using its dating apps, the company funded a nonprofit tool meant to protect users.

More: The Verge and Engadget

X: @ttp_updates and @dannygroner

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Snap confirms and fixes a My AI glitch that caused the chatbot to post its own one-second Story of a two-toned image and then stop responding to users' messages — Snapchat's My AI feature, an in-app AI chatbot launched earlier this year with its fair share of controversy, briefly appeared to have a mind of its own.

More: HotHardware, TechRadar, Mashable, Silicon Republic, Dexerto, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, Social Media Today, CNN, GovTech, Engadget, and Android Headlines

X: @ryanjkrul, @jackofallgames7, @matthewesp, @zander0009, @repmiias, @lexnfx, @popbase, @popbase, @paulaaaf_, and @ssn02112

LinkedIn: Nick Lafakis, Chris Hackney, and Fred Fontes Gerards. Forums: Slashdot

Hayden Field / CNBC:

Filing: NYC-based AI startup Elemental Cognition raised nearly $60M; AI researcher David Ferrucci, who led the team behind IBM Watson, founded Elemental in 2015 — - David Ferrucci, who led the team that created IBM Watson, has raised nearly $60 million for his artificial intelligence startup …

More: SiliconANGLE. X: @theonlyjordan__

Cory Weinberg / The Information:

Sources: Databricks had a total ~$900M loss in its past two fiscal years, including $380M in the year ending in January 2023, and is moving closer to break-even — Enterprise software firm Databricks is in early discussions with investors for a new cash infusion, likely totaling hundreds …

More: San Francisco Business Journal and SiliconANGLE. X: @coryweinberg

Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:

Sei launches its trading-focused blockchain and SEI hits $1.6B in trading volume in the first 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap; many users criticized SEI's airdrop — The buzzy blockchain project's SEI token saw a flurry of trading as it debuted on several crypto exchanges …

More: Finbold, Inside Bitcoins, NewsBTC, Cryptopolitan, The Block, CryptoSlate, Metaverse Post, and CoinDesk

X: @coinbaseassets, @sei_fnd, @seinetwork, @sei_fnd, @seinetwork, @sei_fnd, and @abrahamchase09. Forums: r/CryptoCurrency

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:

Counterpoint expects 2023 global smartphone shipments to drop 6% YoY to 1.15B units, the lowest level since 2013, due to a slowing Chinese economy and US demand — - Global smartphone shipments are expected to drop 6% from 2022 — Apple is better positioned than others to weather the storm

More: Counterpoint Research, AppleInsider, Apple Must, The Independent, PhoneArena, Gizmodo, Wccftech, Proactiveinvestors UK, Investopedia, PCMag, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Livemint, CNBC, BGR, 9to5Mac, and iClarified

X: @tarunpathak and @technology

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

Solidus: between mid-July and August, developers deployed 500+ scam tokens on Coinbase's Base blockchain, ~300 of which let their creators mint unlimited tokens — - More than 500 scam tokens were deployed on blockchain — Solidus Labs says scammers pocketed about $2 million in profit

More: CCN.com, Cryptopolitan, Watcher Guru, Web3 is Going Just Great, Cointelegraph, PYMNTS.com, Bitcoinist.com, and CryptoSlate

X: @peckshieldalert, @peckshieldalert, @ahboyash, and @coryklippsten

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From Mediagazer

The Wrap:

Trump says he authorized the Commerce Department to impose a “100% Tariff” on movies “produced in Foreign Lands,” saying they are a “National Security” threat

Washington Post:

After VOA director said staff can begin a “phased return”, an appeals court stays the preliminary injunction that allowed VOA and USAGM staffers to go back

CPB:

In response to Trump's EO, CPB CEO says CPB is “not a federal executive agency subject to the President's authority” but a private nonprofit corporation

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Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Llion Jones, who co-authored Google's transformer paper, and David Ha, the former head of Google's AI research arm in Japan, launch Sakana AI in Tokyo

More: Bloomberg, CNBC, and Tech Startups

X: @byjulialove and @rachelmetz

Kate Clark / The Information:

Sources: Ramp, which sells credit cards and expense management software, is raising funding at a $5.5B valuation, a 32% cut to its $8.1B valuation in March 2022

X: @kateclarktweets

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Apple says the company removed all episodes of The Glenn Beck Program from Apple Podcasts because of a trademark dispute that has since been resolved

More: The Independent, MacDailyNews, iLounge, Inside Radio, Podnews, The Verge, Reclaim The Net, The Verge, TheBlaze, Deadline, The Post Millennial, AppleInsider, and Mediaite

X: @thedanieljlewis, @glennbeck, @jdvance1, @glennbeck, @glennbeck, @parkerortolani, @xpangler, @glennbeck, @glennbeck, @glennbeck, @edkrassen, @donaldjtrumpjr, and @thelofaz. Forums: r/Liberal

Earlier Picks

Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:

A number of cyber security professionals called in by companies and governments to tackle organized hacking groups say their work is attracting physical threats

X: @tanarrowz and @lukolejnik

Foreign Affairs:

Effective global AI governance will not stand a chance sans collaboration with tech companies and policymakers agreeing on basic principles for how to govern AI

More: The Information and Beyond Search

X: @joshgellers, @mustafasuleyman, @ianbremmer, @cwilstrup, @esyudkowsky, and @cturnerfcdo. Forums: r/politics

Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:

A deep dive into X's Community Notes, including how the algorithm works, whether the feature actually fights polarization, and its use in high-stakes situations

More: CoinDesk, Cryptonews, crypto.news, Crypto Daily, Cointelegraph, and CryptoSlate

Threads: @bestofdyingtwitter, @carnage4life, and @carnage4life. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to

X: @elonmusk, @natesilver538, @greglinden, @vitalikbuterin, @mohithagadi, @diligentium, @_jaybaxter_, @anirudh_chohan, @davidstehle, @smbounds, @christophera, @iuventini, @arthaud_, @scobleizer, @iamdcinvestor, @timsweeneyepic, @timsweeneyepic, and @kcoleman. Forums: Hacker News

Bloomberg:

Court filings: Tesla engineers admit that the company failed to fix Autopilot's limitations in recognizing crossing traffic after a fatal truck crash in 2016

More: The Register and The Verge

X: @juliuscezarrrr, @technology, @sokane1, and @sokane1. Forums: r/RealTesla

Reuters:

Lenovo reports Q1 revenue down 24% YoY to $12.9B, below $13.84B est., net income down 66% YoY to $177M, and China sales down 29% YoY, as PC demand slumps

More: Lenovo StoryHub, South China Morning Post, iTnews, Nikkei Asia, The Register, and Bloomberg

LinkedIn: Che Min and Ken Wong

New York Times:

Inside Def Con AI Village 2023, which attracted 2,200 people tackling 21 White House-backed challenges to find vulnerabilities in popular generative AI models

X: @nytimestech, @nytimestech, @nytimestech, and @nytimes

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:

Shiba Inu's Ethereum Layer 2 network Shibarium goes live, joining 50+ other networks luring users via low fees to an ecosystem for financial services and gaming

More: Shiba Inu Ecosystem, CoinDesk, CryptoPotato, Inside Bitcoins, Coinpedia Fintech News, The Daily Hodl, Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist.com, Cryptopolitan, ZyCrypto, Coinspeaker, NewsBTC, Watcher Guru, Ethereum World News, and Web3 is Going Just Great

X: @rnr_0. Forums: r/CryptoCurrency

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

OpenAI acquires NYC-based AI design studio Global Illumination, the company's first public acquisition in its seven-year history; deal terms weren't disclosed

More: OpenAI, WinBuzzer, Voicebot.ai, Cryptopolitan, MSPoweruser, Ghacks, Silicon Republic, Decrypt, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, The Verge, Tech Startups, VentureBeat, and The Decoder

X: @openai, @turtlesoupy, @yongyuanxi, @nickadobos, @gregkamradt, @andrew_n_carr, @mhdempsey, @iansilber, @officiallogank, @wjosephflynn, @drjimfan, @therealadamg, and @nathanbenaich

LinkedIn: Adrian Wong and Thomas Dimson

Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, and Slashdot