Techmeme
August 31, 2023, 11:55 AM

Top News

Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Microsoft plans to unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 across Europe from October 1, instead offering Teams to enterprise for €24 per year  —  - Company offers to unbundle Teams from other business software  — EU investigating if Microsoft's bundling broke antitrust law
Walter Isaacson / Wall Street Journal:
An excerpt from Walter Isaacson's new Elon Musk biography details Musk's decision to buy Twitter and how his moods fluctuated wildly before the official closing  —  In an exclusive excerpt from his new biography ‘Elon Musk,’ Walter Isaacson offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most surprising …
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:
X updates its privacy policy to include new biometric data, which the company plans to collect for safety and security, along with data on jobs and education  —  - In policy shift, X will use the data for safety, security  — Employment, education history will be used to recommend jobs
Charlotte Hughes-Morgan / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says X users will be able to make video and audio calls without a phone number, but offers no timeframe, as X “is the effective global address book”  —  Users of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will be able to make video and audio calls through …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta begins testing full-text search on Threads in Australia and New Zealand and plans a wider rollout to other English-speaking countries in the future  —  Threads launched one of the most anticipated features, a web version of the platform, last week.  Now, Meta is testing another highly …
Morgan Park / PC Gamer:
Activision partners with Modulate to begin testing ToxMod, an AI-based voice moderation tool for Modern Warfare 2 and other games, in North America  —  There's a new AI-powered sheriff in town, and its name is ToxMod.  —  Call of Duty is joining the growing number of online games combatting toxicity …
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Binance plans to “gradually” end support for its BUSD stablecoin by February 2024, citing Paxos ceasing to mint new BUSD after an NYDFS order in February 2023  —  The move follows Paxos' decision to halt minting of new BUSD.  —  Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it will …
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
The NYC subway's OMNY contactless payments system has a privacy issue that lets anyone view a rider's seven-day trip history using just credit card details  —  In the mid-afternoon one Saturday earlier this month, the target got on the New York subway.  I knew what station they entered the subway at and at what specific time.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Sources: Apple plans to eliminate social media support adviser roles across X, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community website starting later in 2023  —  Apple is planning to eliminate social media support advisor roles across Twitter, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community website starting later …
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 …
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 …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Wired:
A monthslong investigation exposes the secrets of Russian ransomware gang Trickbot, which thrived despite global disruption efforts, and a key member's identity  —  A WIRED investigation into a cache of documents posted by an unknown figure lays bare the Trickbot ransomware gang's secrets, including the identity of a central member.
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Meta lets users submit requests to access, alter, or delete some of their third-party information that the company 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.
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 …
Emilia David / The Verge:
The US Copyright Office seeks public input on AI and copyright issues, including the use of copyrighted works to train AI; written comments are due October 18  —  The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI and copyright issues beginning August 30th as the agency figures out how to approach the subject.
Gillian Tan / Bloomberg:
Sources: CoreWeave, which offers Nvidia GPUs in the cloud, explores a ~10% equity sale at a $5B-$8B valuation; source: CoreWeave projects $1.5B revenue in 2024  —  - Company counts Nvidia, Magnetar as existing equity investors  — Startup raised $2.3 billion in debt from Blackstone, others
More: Synthedia
James Hunt / The Block:
A US judge dismisses a lawsuit against Uniswap, founder Hayden Adams, a16z, and others over scam token sales as software cannot be held accountable for losses  —  - Uniswap founder Hayden Adams hailed the court's comments as “based” after a class action lawsuit alleging liability for scam token sales was thrown out.
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
Ben Strack / Blockworks:
Robinhood Wallet adds support for bitcoin and dogecoin six months after public launch, and is rolling out in-app ethereum swaps to all users in the coming weeks  —  Six months after its public launch, the self-custody offering has begun enabling in-app swaps on the Ethereum network

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
How EQ plays a defining role in workplace communication  —  What if everyone you worked with had a psychic ability to understand how you're feeling and respond accordingly?  Wouldn't that be great?
IDrive:
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Earlier Picks

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Matt Burgess / Wired:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Reuters:
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica: