Techmeme
September 7, 2023, 5:45 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: China plans to expand its ban on iPhones in sensitive departments to government agencies and state companies, an unprecedented blockade; AAPL drops ~3%  —  - Beijing begins by banning the devices from certain bodies  — It could deal blow to Apple and amplifies a self-reliance push
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame pleads guilty to US campaign finance and money transmitting charges and will forfeit $1.5B+ as part of the deal  —  Salame admitted to being a “straw donor” to secretly funnel millions of dollars to Republican political candidates while Bankman-Fried donated to Democrats.
Joe Warminsky / The Record:
Apple releases macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS updates to address two zero-day flaws that Citizen Lab says were used to deliver NSO Group's Pegasus spyware  —  Apple released software updates on Thursday to address two zero-day vulnerabilities that researchers said were used …
Tom Phillips / Eurogamer.net:
Source: at Gamescom in August, Nintendo demoed the Switch 2 running a souped-up Breath of the Wild to developers; the console is expected to launch in 2024  —  Ahead of widely-expected launch next year.  —  News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief  —  In Cologne last month …
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft commits to defending customers of its AI Copilots from copyright infringement lawsuits, as long as they've “used the guardrails and content filters”  —  The software giant also will pay related fines and settlements, so long as customers follow its rules.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google plans to update Chrome in the coming weeks to incorporate the company's Material You design language, including refreshed icons and new color palettes  —  Chrome on the desktop is about to get a new look.  Google's widely used browser is getting an update based on its Material …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Alistair Charlton / Forbes:
BMW drops a controversial subscription that activates heated seats or other hardware already in its cars, limiting subscriptions to software-based functions  —  BMW has made a U-turn on a controversial subscription service that saw drivers pay a fee to activate the heated seats already fitted to their car.
Christopher Dring / GamesIndustry.biz:
The ESA announces organizer ReedPop will not be working on future E3 events and informs the Los Angeles Convention Center that 2024's E3 will not be held there  —  E3 2024 may still happen, but not at the Los Angeles Convention Center  —  News by Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B
CNBC:
Riot Blockchain reports earning $31.7M in energy credits from Texas' power grid to curtail its usage in August, dwarfing the ~$8.9M in bitcoin the company mined  —  - Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms raked in $31.7 million in energy credits from Texas power grid operator ERCOT in August.
Lane Brown / Vulture:
How Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, an important metric in entertainment, became erratic and reductive as some PR firms hack its score by paying obscure “critics”  —  In 2018, a movie-publicity company called Bunker 15 took on a new project: Ophelia, a feminist retelling of Hamlet starring Daisy Ridley.
Linda Hardesty / Fierce Wireless:
The Senate votes 55 to 43 to approve Anna Gomez as the fifth FCC commissioner, breaking the deadlock at the agency and giving the FCC a 3-2 Democratic majority  —  Today, the U.S. Senate finally approved a nominee to fill the vacant, fifth seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:
An IMF and Financial Stability Board paper warns jurisdictions against blanket crypto bans, recommending targeted restrictions and sound monetary policy instead  —  The global standard-setters also warned stablecoins adopted by multiple jurisdictions “may transmit volatility more abruptly” than other crypto.
Dylan Smith / TucsonSentinel.com:
Molly Holzschlag, aka “mollydotcom”, a longtime advocate for a more open web and accessible, inclusive online design standards, died at 60 on September 5  —  Pioneer of online design & accessibility  —  Molly Holzschlag, whose pioneering work in online design standards led to her being dubbed …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Joe Coscarelli / New York Times:
Ghostwriter, the anonymous creator who used AI to mimic Drake and The Weeknd, has met with record labels, Grammy organizers, and more, and releases a new song  —  The anonymous artist, who stirred conversation with the A.I. track “Heart on My Sleeve,” has been quietly consulting with executives, while also gunning for a Grammy.
Forbes:
Imbue, formerly Generally Intelligent, which claims to have access to 10K Nvidia H100 GPUs to train its AI “agents”, raised a $200M Series B at a $1B valuation  —  The startup, one of very few woman-led AI unicorns, has a $1 billion valuation and access to 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Google releases September 2023 updates for Android 11, 12, 12L, and 13 to fix a privilege escalation zero-day that “may be under limited, targeted exploitation”  —  The September 2023 Android security updates tackle 33 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day bug currently targeted in the wild.
Vishal Chawla / The Block:
Vitalik Buterin co-authors a paper on Privacy Pools, a blockchain protocol to verify the legality of user funds without revealing their full transaction history  —  - Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin co-authored a research paper on a privacy protocol named Privacy Pools.

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:
Recruiters, be that zeroth candidate  —  Welcome again!  Earlier, we looked at how personality assessments are evaluation tools that help look at candidates beyond resumes.  Let's look at how to use …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Bribing Is The Oldest Form Of Hacking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
Ed Helms Answers Your Hard Questions
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
Are VC jobs truly AI Proof? (Marc thinks so)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
How Revolut trains world-class product managers: The "local CEO" model, raw intellect over experience, and a cultural obsession with building wow products | Dmitry Zlokazov (Head of Product)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Qasar Younis from Applied Intuition
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:45 PM ET, September 7, 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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Zeke Faux / New York Magazine:
Walter Isaacson / TIME:
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
Jay Peters / The Verge: