Techmeme: Pixel 8 Pro's Thermometer app, which uses an infrared sensor to scan the forehead, has a fiddly user experience and appears to have accuracy issues (Victoria Song/The Verge)

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January 27, 2024, 3:25 AM

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Damien Geradin / The Platform Law Blog:

Apple's changes for iOS app distribution in the EU fail to offer fair and reasonable commissions and show its disdain for both the DMA and app developers — Yesterday, Apple made an important announcement regarding changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union in response to the Digital Markets Act ("DMA").

More: David Heinemeier Hansson, Fortune, David Heinemeier Hansson, games fray, Apple, The Register, Wall Street Journal, Cocoa Switch, Six Colors, Wired, The Verge, The Verge, Reclaim The Net, Pixel Envy, PC Gamer, Tao of Mac, mjtsai.com, Global Competition Review, Mobile Dev Memo, TNW, PhoneArena, and The Information

Threads: @timothybucksf. Mastodon: @stroughtonsmith …, @bigzaphod@mastodon.social, @stroughtonsmith …, @Gargron@mastodon.social, @lapcatsoftware@mastodon …, @slightlyoff@toot.cafe, @stroughtonsmith …, @lapcatsoftware@mastodon …, @dmoren@zeppelin.flights, @ecschwarz@mastodon.social, @iKyle@mastodon.social, @macguru17@objc.social, @iKyle@mastodon.social, @macguru17@objc.social, @macguru17@objc.social, and @iKyle@mastodon.social

Forums: Hacker News and r/hardware

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Apple's proposed App Store and iOS changes seek to retain as much control over iOS as possible while staying within the letter of the EU's DMA — Apple yesterday announced a broad, wide-ranging, and complex set of new policies establishing their intended compliance with the European Union's …

More: BleepingComputer, Spyglass, Ars Technica, Apple Developer, Mobile World Live, The Overspill, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, and Thurrott

X: @maxrovensky, @gruber, and @sdw. Forums: Hacker News

Spotify:

Spotify says Apple is “forcing developers to stay with the status quo” and calls on the EU to “reject this blatant disregard” of the EU's established principles — For almost five years - 1,782 days - we have been asking the European Commission to take action against Apple.

More: MacRumors, Reuters, The Verge, TechCrunch, Livemint, Benzinga, iClarified, 9to5Mac, Pocket Gamer.biz, Fast Company, The Messenger, mjtsai.com, and The Information

Threads: @chancehmiller, @daveleebbg, and @documentingmeta. Mastodon: @Kierkegaanks@beige.party

X: @kwekuoa, @eldsjal, @mdudas, @simmenfl, @joecarlsonshow, @eldsjal, @kwekuoa, @elchefe, @patrickmoorhead, @eldsjal, and @carnage4life. Forums: MacRumors Forums

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Apple's reluctant, punitive compliance with regulators will burn its political and developer goodwill, affecting the success of new platforms like Vision Pro — Apple is on a roll when it comes to having its hand forced by state entities and governing bodies: Alternative payment methods …

Mastodon: @lapcatsoftware@mastodon …. X: @patrickmoorhead

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

iPad users in the EU will miss out on third-party app stores, browser engines, and the new iOS prompt in Safari that asks users to pick a default browser

More: MacRumors, SD Times, iThinkDifferent, O'Grady's PowerPage, AIN.Capital, Appleosophy, Android Authority, PhoneArena, and BBC

Mastodon: @josh@vickerson.me and @terhechte@mastodon.social

X: @wavesblog, @auchenberg, and @ashleygullen. Forums: Hacker News

Chris Kerr / Game Developer:

Some developers say Apple's new Core Technology Fee in the EU is eerily similar to the controversial Runtime Fee that Unity touted and withdrew after a backlash

More: iFixit News, Engadget, Benzinga, MSPoweruser, Pocket Gamer.biz, and MacRumors

X: @prime_31, @florian4gamers, @florian4gamers, @incvuvuu, @nimajamalian, @sirstendec, @yacinemtb, @podopriguez, @dev_avocado, @andytouch, @oskargroth, @injimaru, and @paulplaystudio. Forums: Hacker News

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Mozilla criticizes Apple's plans to restrict BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps, forcing “Firefox to build and maintain two separate browser implementations” — Apple's new rules in the European Union mean browsers like Firefox can finally use their own engines on iOS.

More: MacRumors, Open Web Advocacy, TechCrunch, and The Messenger

Mastodon: @maffeis@mastodon.social. X: @opera, @film_girl, @opera, @tomwarren, @keleftheriou, and @baekdal. LinkedIn: Justin Willis

Forums: Hacker News, r/apple, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

A look at the browser-related iOS changes in the EU, including letting users set their default out of the 12 most popular browsers in their country's App Store

More: 9to5Mac, MacStories, Opera Limited, MacDailyNews, The Verge, mjtsai.com, TechRadar, AppleInsider, MacManX Aside, Android Authority, Wccftech, GSMArena.com, The Register, 9to5Mac, and Lifewire

Mastodon: @stroughtonsmith … and @LukaszOlejnik@mastodon.social. LinkedIn: Bruce Lawson

Forums: Hacker News and Hacker News

Victoria Song / The Verge:

Fossil Group plans to leave the smartwatch business, and says the company will continue to keep its existing Wear OS watches updated “for the next few years” — Fossil Group has decided to call it quits on smartwatches. — The company announced this afternoon that it would leave …

More: 9to5Google, Android Headlines, Android Central, Notebookcheck, and TalkAndroid.com

Threads: @durrellb.r, @durrellb.r, and @eshumarneedi

X: @tomaxwell, @carnage4life, @joshuaogundu, @nerdwiththehat, @vicmsong, and @anshelsag

Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/Android, and Slashdot

Bloomberg:

Source: ElevenLabs banned a creator's account after researchers said the company's tech was used to make an audio deepfake used in a fake Biden robocall — Company's technology used to create fake Biden recording, researchers say — The creator of an audio deepfake of US President Joe Biden urging people …

More: Wired, Pindrop, Tech Xplore, and Bloomberg

Threads: @brianrbarrett. X: @hackingbutlegal, @pindrop, @samgregory, @sf_mills, @knibbs, and @lynnmdoan. Forums: Slashdot

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Google is testing an ARM64 version of Chrome for Arm-based Windows devices — Google appears to be readying a version of its popular Chrome browser for Windows on Arm. X (formerly Twitter) user Pedro Justo spotted a native version of the browser for Windows 11 Arm-powered devices …

More: 9to5Google, Ars Technica, Phandroid, MSPoweruser, How-To Geek, Windows Central, TechRadar, PCWorld, Digital Trends, SamMobile, Windows Report, Engadget, Neowin, Thurrott, and XDA Developers

X: @itanium_guy, @patrickmoorhead, @ryanshrout, and @benbajarin. Forums: r/hardware

Victoria Song / The Verge:

Pixel 8 Pro's Thermometer app, which uses an infrared sensor to scan the forehead, has a fiddly user experience and appears to have accuracy issues — Earlier this week, Google updated the Pixel 8 Pro to let its strange new temperature sensor finally take readings of human bodies.

More: The Keyword, Benzinga, Yanko Design, KnowTechie, Android Police, Android Central, and Android Headlines

Mastodon: @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org. LinkedIn: John Hernandez

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

iOS 17.4 code shows that Apple may be testing two versions of its Ajax LLM for Siri and Messages, comparing their responses to results from OpenAI's ChatGPT — Apple is widely expected to unveil major new artificial intelligence features with iOS 18 in June.

More: AppleInsider, AppleInsider, The Verge, and Wccftech

Threads: @hi.nixson, @marcslove, and @alexoid. X: @cullend

Forums: r/apple and Slashdot

Helene Braun / CoinDesk:

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF becomes the first of the recently launched spot bitcoin products to reach $2B in assets under management, within 10 days of its debut — The fund now holds nearly 50,000 bitcoin after adding almost another 4,300 tokens on Thursday. — Register Now

More: CryptoSlate, Crypto Briefing, Cryptonews, Inside Bitcoins, Bitcoin Insider, Cointelegraph, The Block, Cryptopolitan, and Bitcoin News. X: @nategeraci

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Microsoft says some users may be experiencing “multiple issues” with Microsoft Teams, and that it is applying “mitigations across the affected infrastructure” — Was it a joyous outage where you got to relax, or did something mission-critical go wrong?

More: Business Today, BleepingComputer, Global News, Associated Press, Microsoft, The Register, Cybernews.com, Neowin, Tech Xplore, CRN, and International Business Times

Threads: @fredericl. X: @msft365status, @msft365status, @msft365status, @msft365status, @msft365status, @erikdarlingdata, and @infosecsav

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

Microsoft details the techniques that the Russian hacking group Midnight Blizzard used to breach the email accounts of its executives and other organizations — Microsoft confirmed that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service hacking group, which hacked into its executives' email accounts in November 2023 …

More: Microsoft Security Blog, Ars Technica, Washington Post, LinkedIn, Dark Reading, The Verge, TechCrunch, DataBreachToday.com, The Record, CSO, and TechRadar

X: @stevesi. LinkedIn: Sarah Armstrong-Smith, Dana K., Jeremy Dallman, Dan Taylor, and Ann Johnson

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

A look at Midnight Blizzard, also known as Cozy Bear, a Russia-linked hacking group that has allegedly recently hacked the email systems of Microsoft and HPE

More: Axios, CRN, Thurrott, and Bloomberg

Mastodon: @dangoodin@infosec.exchange. LinkedIn: Mitch Densley. Forums: Beehaw and Ars OpenForum

CNBC:

Layoffs.fyi: so far in January, around 23,670 workers have been laid off from 85 tech companies, the most since March 2023 when ~38,000 people were laid off — - So far in January, some 23,670 workers have been laid off, the most in any month since March, according to the website Layoffs.fyi.

More: International Business Times, NBC 7 San Diego, and TechStartups

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:25 AM ET, January 27, 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.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Richard Parsons, who had a long career as chairman, CEO, and as a board member of media companies including CBS and Time Warner, died at 76 of bone cancer

Reuters:

Palestinian sources say an Israeli airstrike killed five journalists from Al-Quds Today; the Israeli military called the five “operatives posing as journalists”

Inside Radio:

iHeart reduces its total debt by over $440M and extends most of its debt maturities by three years, by using debt exchange transactions

Upcoming Tech Events

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Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Co-founder Binny Bansal steps down from Flipkart's board, after selling his entire stake in the company, which was acquired by Walmart in 2018, in recent years

More: The Economic Times, Entrackr, Moneycontrol, News18, and Inc42 Media

X: @digbijaymishra1, @upadhyay_harsh1, @ettech, @chandrarsrikant, and @chandrarsrikant

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:

Supporters of Israel are using apps to mass report pro-Palestinian content online, raising questions for tech platforms over “citizen-led propaganda” campaigns

More: ZDNet. X: @clancynewyork, @thackerpd, @attorneynora, and @washingtonpost

PYMNTS.com:

Proof, which provides legal document serving, e-filing, and other online litigation services, raised a $30.4M Series B led by Long Ridge Equity Partners

More: PRWeb and FinSMEs

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

Interview with Meta Oversight Board member Pamela San Martín on preparing Meta for a critical year in elections, the weaponization of social platforms, and more

X: @telliotter

Kylie Robison / Fortune:

Source: MGM Resorts International's BetMGM is partnering with X to showcase betting odds on X and provide a direct link to BetMGM, allowing users to place bets

More: Social Media Today and New York Post

X: @kyliebytes, @lexnfx, @firefintrades, @xupdatesradar, @davidfucillo, @nima_owji, @xdaily, and @nft_god

Theo Wayt / The Information:

Sources: Flexport plans to lay off ~20% of workforce, its third round of cut in just over a year; it has ~2600 employees after cutting 20% of staff in October

More: Fortune, FreightWaves, and TechCrunch

Bluesky: @niedermeyer.io. X: @jessicalessin and @theo_wayt

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:

Source: Chamath Palihapitiya shelved plans to raise $1B for an early-stage investment fund, in part due to fundraising challenges

X: @thestalwart, @jasonlk, @carnage4life, @bucknsf, @riddle245, @fed_speak, @fisurgi, @hitsamty, and @mhdempsey

Tripp Mickle / New York Times:

Some Beeper users lost access to iMessage on their Mac and were told by Apple that the company had revoked access due to irregular activity

More: 9to5Google, The Verge, AppleInsider, and iPhone in Canada Blog

Mastodon: @lcruggeri@mastodon.uno and @digfish@masto.pt

X: @onbeeper, @onbeeper, and @onbeeper

Earlier Picks

Jon Porter / The Verge:

A review of Honor's Magic V2 foldable, launching in the UK and Europe for £1,700 and €2,000: thin and durable but a dated OS and processor, and software issues

More: Honor Newsroom, CNET, Phandroid, Sammy Fans, Laptop Mag, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar, Gizchina, nextpit, JMComms, PhoneArena, Android Authority, BGR, Forbes, T3, TalkAndroid.com, Android Headlines, Pocketnow, Mashable, 9to5Google, Android Police, and GSMArena.com

Threads: @fjeronimo and @porschedesignlebanon

X: @zsk, @evleaks, and @fjeronimo

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

A profile of Israel-linked Predatory Sparrow, whose cyberattacks on Iranian civilian targets are some of the most aggressive offensive hacking incidents ever

Mastodon: @simontsui@infosec.exchange and @agreenberg@infosec.exchange

X: @soheilsec, @cecalli_helper, and @a_greenberg

Turner Wright / Cointelegraph:

A federal judge sentences OneCoin lawyer Mark Scott to 10 years in prison for his role in laundering millions of dollars through the crypto scheme

More: Reuters, Bloomberg Law, Bitcoin News, CryptoPotato, CryptoSlate, The Record, Crypto Daily, Cryptonews, Bitcoin Insider, CCN.com, Cybernews.com, crypto.news, Cryptopolitan, and CoinGape. Forums: r/ethtrader

Financial Times:

Sources: Lightspeed Venture Partners seeks to sell stakes in 10 startups, worth ~$1B, to a private equity-style continuation fund, to let investors cash out

More: The Information. Mastodon: @quoll@mastodon.sdf.org. X: @carnage4life

Sheila Chiang / CNBC:

Baidu partners with Samsung to integrate its Ernie chatbot into Galaxy S24 smartphones in China, allowing users to translate calls in real time and more

More: Sam Lover, The Verge, Livemint, NewsBytes, China Internet Watch, Android Central, South China Morning Post, Android Headlines, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, The Economic Times, 9to5Google, Cybernews.com, SamMobile, GSMArena.com, TechNode, Gizmochina, and Sammy Fans. Threads: @mazdaksafaei

Katharine Gemmell / Bloomberg:

The UK CMA launches the first stage of its review of Vodafone and Three UK's merger, and sets March 22, 2024 as a deadline to decide for an in-depth probe

More: GOV.UK, Telecoms Tech News, Total Telecom, RCR Wireless News, Light Reading, The Register, DatacenterDynamics, TechCrunch, Tech Monitor, Reuters, and CNBC

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

OpenAI announces 25% to 50% lower GPT-3.5 Turbo prices, a GPT-4 Turbo preview model to reduce cases of “laziness”, improved text embedding models, and more

More: Ars Technica, OpenAI, InfoWorld, Analytics India Magazine, The Decoder, Mashable, ZDNet, PCMag, MobileSyrup, Tech.co, Android Headlines, Cointelegraph, Business Insider, Business Today, The Verge, VentureBeat, MSPoweruser, and SiliconANGLE

X: @openaidevs, @film_girl, @gregkamradt, @officiallogank, @gdb, @sherwinwu, @openaidevs, and @altryne. LinkedIn: Pasi Vuorio. Forums: Slashdot

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says Apple's “anticompetitive scheme rife with new junk fees” is illegal under the EU's DMA and an example of “malicious compliance”