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January 4, 2024, 1:10 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
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Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils a Copilot keyboard key, shipping in new PCs and laptops from its partners, the first major change to the PC keyboard layout in nearly 30 years  —  Microsoft wants 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC,” and it's kicking things off with a significant change to the keyboard on new laptops and PCs.
Sarah Martin / The Guardian:
The CEO of collapsed crypto fund HyperVerse, introduced to investors in 2021, doesn't appear to exist; Chainalysis: consumers lost $1.3B to HyperVerse in 2022  —  Exclusive: Steven Reece Lewis was introduced to investors with an impressive list of qualifications and achievements, but no organisation cited can find any record of him
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
LastPass now requires users to set a master password with a minimum of 12 characters, after enforcing the requirement for new accounts or resets in April 2023  —  LastPass notified customers today that they are now required to use complex master passwords with a minimum of 12 characters to increase their accounts' security.
Wall Street Journal:
As Google restricts third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, marketers, adtech companies, and publishers say Google has not done enough to prepare the market  —  Search giant plans to remove a technology seen as critical to the digital-ad industry  —  Google is going forward …
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
Dell announces the $1,299+ XPS 13, the $1,699+ XPS 14, replacing the XPS 13 Plus, and the $1,899+ XPS 16, offering Intel Core 7 and 9 and up to 4TB of storage  —  This might not be the biggest shake-up of the Dell XPS lineup ever, but between some bigger laptops and a total revamping of the XPS portfolio, it feels like a big deal.
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
Perplexity, which offers an AI-based “answer engine” with ~10M MAUs to compete with Google, raised $74M at a $520M valuation from IVP, Jeff Bezos, and others  —  Perplexity, with a fraction of Google's users, raised the largest sum by an internet search startup in recent years
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2, an update to the XR2 Gen 2 used in Meta's Quest 3, offering 4.3K resolution at 90fps per eye, up from 3K per eye  —  The new chipset is designed as a step up from the XR2 Gen 2 in the Meta Quest 3, capable of rendering high-resolution visuals like the ones promised by Apple's Vision Pro.
The Information:
Sources: OpenAI offered some media companies as little as between $1M and $5M per year to license their news articles for use in model training, a tiny amount  —  OpenAI has offered some media firms as little as between $1 million and $5 million annually to license their news articles for use …
Ana Swanson / New York Times:
The White House awards $162M in federal grants to Arizona-based Microchip Technology to expand its Oregon and Colorado facilities, the second CHIPS Act award  —  The Biden administration said its second grant under a new program would help Microchip Technology expand its facilities in Oregon and Colorado.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
In a letter to a group of victims of its October 2023 breach, 23andMe blames them, saying that “users negligently recycled and failed to update their passwords”  —  Facing more than 30 lawsuits from victims of its massive data breach, 23andMe is now deflecting the blame …
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
The US NLRB rules that Alphabet illegally refused to negotiate with a group of YouTube Music contract workers working at Cognizant after they voted to unionize  —  - YouTube Music staff voted to join Alphabet union last year  — Google to appeal, says workers are employees of Cognizant
Bloomberg:
Sources: TikTok aims to grow TikTok Shop US' merchandise volume tenfold to $17.5B in 2024 and plans to launch TikTok Shop in Latin America in the coming months  —  - ByeDance's video app is fast expanding beyond advertising … The 2024 merchandise volume goal for the US version of TikTok Shop …
The Information:
TikTok plans to raise TikTok Shop's US seller fees from 2% to 8% over the next few months; a source says TikTok has started reducing some merchant subsidies

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From Mediagazer

Julian Wyllie / Current:
PBS North Carolina says it will offer voluntary buyouts as it anticipates an annual loss of $4.8M in federal funding and may also lose $4M in state funding

Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
Disney reports Q3 revenue up 2% YoY to $23.7B, operating income up 8% YoY to $4.6B, streaming revenue of $6.2B, profit of $346M; Disney+ and Hulu hit 183M subs

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
ESPN signs a deal to show the WWE's biggest live events, including WrestleMania, from 2026; sources say ESPN will pay $325M on average per year for five years

More News

Nicole Carpenter / Polygon:
Kim Kardashian says her Glu Mobile-developed game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, will shut down on April 8; between 2014 and 2016, the game made $156M in sales
Paul Sandle / Reuters:
Layered Reality announces Elvis Evolution, an AI, AR, and holographic-based show, launching in London in 2024 before traveling to Las Vegas, Tokyo, and Berlin

Earlier Picks

Macauley Peterson / Blockworks:
Etherscan, the leading block explorer for Ethereum that was founded in 2015, acquires Solscan, a block explorer for Solana founded in 2021
Todd Shields / Bloomberg:
SpaceX launches its first six Starlink satellites capable of offering mobile phone service as part of its Direct to Cell service in partnership with T-Mobile US
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Intel spins out Articul8, an AI company backed by DigitalBridge and others; executives did not share the deal's value or if Intel would retain a majority stake
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