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.

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Earlier Picks

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