Techmeme
September 19, 2023, 7:40 AM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
FTC v. Microsoft: new documents detail an Xbox Series X refresh in 2024, codenamed Brooklin, including a new controller and cylindrical, disc-less design  —  Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features.
Push Square:
FTC v. Microsoft: in mid-2020, Phil Spencer discussed acquiring Warner Bros Interactive alongside Bethesda and said buying Nintendo would be a “career moment”  —  “It'd be a good move for both companies”  —  A genuinely dystopian email sent by Xbox chief Phil Spencer …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
FTC v. Microsoft: docs show Microsoft's gaming plans for 2028, aiming for “full convergence” of its cloud platform and hardware to deliver “cloud hybrid games”  —  The documents may also reveal Microsoft's far future plans for 2028 — by which the company believed it could achieve …
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
On a livestream, Elon Musk says X is “moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system”, as it's “the only way to combat vast armies of bots”  —  - Tesla, SpaceX and X Corp. leader Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a livestream …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google updates Bard to use data from Gmail, Docs, and Drive, not just the web, to help find and summarize emails, highlight points in a document, and more  —  Google's Bard AI chatbot is no longer limited to pulling answers from just the web — it can now scan your Gmail, Docs …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Amazon is hiring Microsoft's former CPO Panos Panay to run the Alexa and Echo unit; longtime hardware chief Dave Limp said in August he is retiring  —  Amazon.com Inc. is hiring Microsoft Corp.'s product chief to run the division responsible for Alexa and the Echo smart speakers …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
At an all-hands, Unity discussed potential changes to its controversial new fees, like capping fees to 4% of a game's revenue for customers with $1M+ in revenue  —  Maker of video-game development tools backtracks after customers threaten boycott  —  Video-game tool maker Unity Software Inc …
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 review: a bigger bet on widgets and the modularization of apps, and needed Stage Manager fixes, but visionOS stole the spotlight this year  —  Well, last year was weird.  —  For the first time since I started writing annual reviews of Apple's two mobile operating systems …
Amitoj Singh / CoinDesk:
Filing: FTX sues SBF's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, to “recover millions of dollars in fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds”  —  The filing, redacted in parts, asks the court to award the FTX estate damages, the return of any property given or payment made to the parents.
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
A look at ShadowDragon, which offers social media surveillance tools that gather data from games and more, used by ICE, the State Department, the DEA, and more  —  ShadowDragon tracks BabyCenter, a website for people expecting children, as well as social media sites specifically for Black people, bodybuilders, and the fetish community.
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Instacart prices its 22M shares at $30 a piece, raising $660M in its IPO at a fully diluted valuation of ~$10B; Instacart was valued at $39B in 2021  —  - Instacart priced its IPO at $30 a share on Monday, at the top end of the expected range of $28 to $30.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft adds layers and image transparency to Paint, 38 years after the app's launch, rolling out to Windows Insiders first, after adding background removal  —  Microsoft is finally rolling out support for layers and image transparency to the Paint image editor application 38 years after its launch.
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Researchers find a GitHub repo run by Microsoft's AI research unit that exposed 38TB of sensitive data, like secret keys and 30K+ Microsoft staff Teams messages  —  Microsoft AI researchers accidentally exposed tens of terabytes of sensitive data, including private keys and passwords …
Sabrina Willmer / Bloomberg:
A US federal judge rejects the SEC's request to inspect Binance.US' tech infrastructure and to force the company to share other requested information  —  - Regulator says it is not getting enough access in lawsuit  — Magistrate judge didn't grant expedited discovery request
Catherine Thorbecke / CNN:
Filing: Alyssa Henry, the CEO of Block's Square unit, plans to step down on October 2 after nine years at the company; Jack Dorsey will become the “Square Head”  —  Alyssa Henry, the CEO of Square - a unit of Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block - will leave her post at the company next month.

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Earlier Picks

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Jennifer Surane / Bloomberg:
Lora Kolodny / CNBC: