Techmeme
January 9, 2024, 2:45 PM

Top News

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple plans to offer customers demos of the Apple Vision Pro at its US retail stores from February 2 through the weekend on a first-come, first-served basis  —  Apple Vision Pro officially has pre-order and launch dates as of today, and now we know how the public will get to try Apple's first spatial computer as well.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
X suspended several podcasters and journalists, including The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Texas Observer's Steven Monacelli, with little to no explanation  —  Elon Musk's “free speech” social media platform banned a number of accounts recently critical of Israel.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amazon announces Matter Casting, an Apple AirPlay-like feature to send videos from Android and iOS to Amazon devices, initially supporting Echo Show devices  —  Amazon.com Inc. introduced a new feature that mimics Apple Inc.'s AirPlay while working across different platforms …
Bloomberg:
Beijing's judicial bureau says a state-backed institution cracked Apple's AirDrop to identify message senders, and police found multiple suspects via the method  —  - Beijing agency claims to have found way to identify senders  — Declaration follows efforts to crack down on sensitive content
Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal:
Meta plans to start automatically restricting teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including posts about self-harm, in the coming weeks  —  Efforts to curb harmful material and reduce unwanted interactions with teen social-media accounts come as states sue parent company Meta
Nelson Aguilar / CNET:
Google and Samsung merge their respective Nearby Share and Quick Share features under the Quick Share name, for a more unified cross-Android sharing option  —  Apple has AirDrop.  Android now has Quick Share.  —  At CES 2024 today, Google announced Quick Share, a collaboration with Samsung …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
How the internet reshaped itself around Google's search algorithms, including via SEO tricks, and the company's role in many websites now using similar designs  —  How the internet reshaped itself around Google's search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same.  —  Animations by Richard Parry
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
In a first, the US FTC bans the data broker X-Mode Social, now known as Outlogic, from selling phone location data and orders it to delete collected data  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has banned the data broker X-Mode Social from sharing or selling users' sensitive location data, the federal regulator said Tuesday.
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU begins investigating whether Microsoft's OpenAI investment should be vetted under its rules, and asks for feedback on generative AI and virtual worlds  —  - EU watchdog follows UK regulator in weighing a probe  — Move comes after furore over firing and rehiring of Sam Altman
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
In November 2023, Apple challenged the EU's DMA designation of its five App Stores as a single service, iOS' interoperability, and iMessage's NIICS designation  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has challenged EU tech rules designating its five App Stores as a single core platform service subject to onerous obligations …
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
Microsoft finds a material that could replace ~70% of lithium in a battery, by using Azure Quantum Elements HPC resources to run simulations and AI models  —  Recently, Microsoft built a clock.  —  Well, “built” may be overstating things.  Members of the company's quantum computing team found …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
PerformYard, which offers staff retention, management, and upskilling tools, raised $95M from Updata Partners after being mostly bootstrapped besides a $3M seed  —  Employee performance reviews take time and effort — and aren't always conducted very efficiently.
Eric Geller / The Messenger:
Source: the US is planning rules would require hospitals impose new cybersecurity requirements to get federal funding, amid a barrage of hacks in the industry  —  The White House sees the policy as essential for patient safety.  The hospital industry has vowed to oppose it.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Luma, which is training AI models that can generate 3D models from text prompts, raised a $43M Series B, a source says at a valuation between $200M and $300M  —  A couple of years ago, Alex Yu and Amit Jain came together to found a company that'd let people capture objects in 3D using their smartphones …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Sony teases a “spatial” VR headset for 3D model creation, offering 4K OLEDs, a ring and a pointer controller, and a Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, coming later in 2024  —  The company showed off the headset along with a unique pair of controllers today during a presentation at CES 2024.
Axios:
Carta plans to close its liquidity services business, which matched private company stock buyers and sellers, as people will “worry that we are using the data”  —  Carta has decided to close its liquidity services business, which matched buyers and sellers of private company stock, Axios has learned.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Texas-based HPE is in advanced talks to acquire California-based Juniper Networks for ~$13B, in a deal that could be announced as soon as this week  —  Deal could be unveiled this week, valuing Juniper at roughly $13 billion  —  Hewlett Packard Enterprise is in advanced talks …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Volkswagen plans to add ChatGPT to its voice assistant for “general knowledge questions” and to control functions like heating and AC, starting in Europe in Q2  —  Volkswagen is jumping on the generative AI bandwagon by announcing plans to install OpenAI's ChatGPT into its vehicles starting in the second quarter of 2024.
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Netflix defeats a shareholder lawsuit claiming the company hid the impact of account sharing; NFLX fell ~50% from January to April 2022 after growth warnings  —  Netflix (NFLX.O) has defeated a lawsuit filed by shareholders in a federal court in California that accused the streaming entertainment company …

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
How remote support can make your Christmas stress-free  —  As Christmas approaches, the air fills with the anticipation of joy, family gatherings, and gift-giving.  While the season brings immense happiness …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 12/23 - The Revenge Of Google Glass?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:45 PM ET, January 9, 2024.

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

Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Kate Clark / The Information:
Anna Tong / Reuters: