Techmeme
November 15, 2023, 10:00 AM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Intel patches a bug affecting virtually all modern Intel CPUs that lets code running inside a VM crash hypervisors, a risk to cloud providers in particular  —  Among other things, bug allows code running inside a VM to crash hypervisors.  —  Intel on Tuesday pushed microcode updates to fix …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple extends free usage of Emergency SOS on iPhone 14 for two more years, to September 2025; the company has not yet announced how much Emergency SOS will cost  —  Apple today announced it is extending the free usage period for Emergency SOS satellite features for iPhone 14 users.
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Epic v. Google: Sundar Pichai confirms Google paid Apple 36% of the search revenue generated on iPhones, saying the total payment “was well over $10B” in 2022  —  Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, testified on Tuesday for the second time in two weeks to defend his company against monopoly claims.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
US v. Google raises the question of how antitrust law handles a company becoming dominant due to offering a far superior product, especially if the DOJ wins  —  I've noted my skepticism regarding the antitrust attacks on the current Google antitrust trial regarding how it pays to have its search placed …
Kristi Hines / Search Engine Journal:
Sam Altman says OpenAI is pausing new ChatGPT Plus signups “for a bit” as “the surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity”  —  OpenAI has paused new ChatGPT Plus signups due to overwhelming demand for new features introduced at recent DevDay conference.
Jonathan Greig / The Record:
The FBI dismantled the IPStorm botnet proxy network and its infrastructure as part of a September plea deal with Sergei Makinin, the hacker behind the operation  —  The FBI dismantled the IPStorm botnet proxy network and its infrastructure this week following a September plea deal with the hacker behind the operation.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Three young hackers behind Mirai talk about building the DDoS botnet, losing control of their monster, their work for the FBI as part of a plea deal, and more  —  Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, PayPal, Slack.  All down for millions of people.  How a group of teen friends plunged into an underworld …
Nicola Davis / The Guardian:
A study found that AI-generated photos of faces, particularly white faces, were perceived as more real by survey participants than photos of actual people  —  Photographs were seen as less realistic than computer images but there was no difference with pictures of people of colour
Clive Cookson / Financial Times:
Google DeepMind details weather forecasting AI model GraphCast, more accurate than the best conventional systems for three to 10 day predictions, an AI first  —  Google DeepMind's model beat world's leading system in 90% of metrics used and took only a fraction of the time
Chris Velazco / Washington Post:
Nothing plans to roll out an early version of Nothing Chats, a Sunbird-based app that lets Phone (2) users send iMessages to iPhone contacts, on November 17  —  Nothing, Sunbird and other upstarts are taking iMessage where it's never been before  —  Here's a glimmer of hope for anyone …
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Crypto exchange and wallet service Blockchain.com raised a $110M Series E led by Kingsway, a source says at less than half of its $14B valuation in spring 2022  —  - Prior investor Kingsway led the Series E funding round  — Raise leaves valuation at less than half of prior $14 billion
Rest of World:
An in-depth look at how platforms like Shein, Pinduoduo-owned Temu, and TikTok Shop are heralding a new era for Chinese e-commerce by expanding overseas  —  China is no longer just the world's factory; now, it's also the world's mall.  As online shopping slows within China …
Eyal Press / New Yorker:
A look at some wrongful arrests in the US due to bad facial recognition matches, and how “automation bias” could lead police to ignore contradictory evidence  —  Too often, a facial-recognition search represents virtually the entirety of a police investigation.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
See how your customer experience priorities compare  —  TELUS Digital surveyed leaders about the tech they're investing in, the KPIs they're tracking and their plans for outsourcing.  Get the results.  No form fill required!
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
Back your gut feeling with behavioral assessments  —  Imagine someone gives you a mystery box.  What's the first thing you'd do?  You'd likely assess the box and try to predict what is inside.
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:
xAI Acquires X
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
CEO Matt Bromberg on ending Unity's 'war' against its customers
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Diggnation:
GTA 6, Helicopter Joysticks, AI Psychics, and Live Show Regret
Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht give you their unique, sometimes awkward, and always hilarious take on the edges of the internet.
Subscribe to Diggnation.
Grit:
From India to Silicon Valley: The Jay Chaudhry & Zscaler Story
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
A better way to plan, build, and ship products | Ryan Singer (creator of "Shape Up," early employee at 37signals)
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.
Hard Fork:
The Tech Behind Signalgate + Dwarkesh Patel's "Scaling Era" + Is A.I. Making Our Listeners Dumb?
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:00 AM ET, November 15, 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

Anna Wiener / New Yorker:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
CNBC:
Davey Alba / Bloomberg: