Techmeme
August 31, 2023, 12:10 AM

Top News

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Sony plans to raise PlayStation Plus annual subscription prices on September 6: Essential from $60 to $80, Extra from $100 to $135, Premium from $120 to $160  —  Sony is raising the price of its PlayStation Plus subscription next month.  The service's annual Essential plan will go from $60 to $80 …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Microsoft retires Visual Studio for Mac, saying the IDE will get “servicing updates for security issues and updated platforms from Apple” until August 31, 2024  —  Microsoft has announced plans to discontinue Visual Studio for Mac.  The latest version of the company's IDE …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing 3D printing the stainless steel Apple Watch Series 9's chassis to speed up production, boost sustainability, and lower costs over time  —  - New approach will use less material and be more eco-friendly  — Company is trying out the process with steel Apple Watches
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft plans to address a Windows 11 “unintended behavior” that for months has caused malware-like notification pop-ups promoting Bing search to Chrome users  —  I thought I had malware on my main Windows 11 machine this weekend.  There I was minding my own business in Chrome …
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Meta lets users submit requests to access, alter, or delete some of their third-party information that Meta uses for generative AI training  —  - Meta updated its help resource center with a form that gives users some control over what personal data is used to train generative artificial intelligence models.
Jon Gambrell / Associated Press:
A Saudi court sentences a man to death over his X posts and YouTube activity, part of a growing dissent crackdown; his brother is a well-known government critic  —  A Saudi court has sentenced a man to death over his posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and his activity on YouTube …
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
OpenAI files a motion to dismiss two similar lawsuits from book authors alleging copyright infringement, saying the authors “misconceive the scope of copyright”  —  Authors claim generative AI is just a “grift” that repackages original works.  —  This week, OpenAI finally responded …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google announces a hardware event on October 4 at 10am ET in New York City, where the company is expected to unveil the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Watch 2  —  Google this morning announced that it will be hosting its annual Pixel hardware event on Wednesday, October 4.
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Tel Aviv-based AI21 Labs, which develops generative AI tools for text use cases, raised a $155M Series C at a $1.4B valuation, taking its total funding to $283M  —  AI21 Labs, a Tel Aviv-based startup developing a range of text-generating AI tools, has raised $155 million in a Series C funding round led …
Josh Taylor / The Guardian:
Australia abandons its plans to mandate age verification tech for porn sites, citing privacy and security concerns, and will instead focus on educating parents  —  The eSafety commissioner is to work with industry on a new code to educate parents about how to access filtering software and limit children's access
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Instagram is internally testing letting users create Reels up to 10 minutes long, after TikTok increased its maximum video length to 10 minutes in February 2022  —  Instagram is internally testing the ability to create Reels that are up to 10 minutes in the length, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon announces the Buy with Prime app for Shopify, which will let US-based Shopify merchants natively integrate Amazon's program into their Shopify stores  —  In-depth Amazon coverage from the tech giant's hometown, including e-commerce, AWS, Amazon Prime, Alexa, logistics, devices, and more.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Sources: Apple plans to eliminate social media support adviser roles across X, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community website starting later this year  —  Apple is planning to eliminate social media support advisor roles across Twitter, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community website starting later …
Financial Times:
Document: the UK plans to increase use of AI-based facial recognition tech by the police, potentially deploying new biometric systems over the next 12-18 months  —  Move comes after privacy campaigners and independent academics criticised technology for being inaccurate
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches its Search Generative Experience in India and Japan via Search Labs opt-in, following the US launch of the AI search feature in May 2023  —  Following the May launch in the US, Google is giving the Search Generative Experience (SGE) an international launch in India and Japan …
Wallace Witkowski / MarketWatch:

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