Techmeme
July 10, 2024, 2:20 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Source: Apple is not taking an OpenAI board observer role, as AI antitrust scrutiny mounts; OpenAI plans to host regular meetings with investors and partners  —  ChatGPT maker plans strategy to engage crucial partners as regulatory scrutiny of sector increases
Ina Fried / Axios:
Microsoft gives up an observer seat on OpenAI's board, citing the new board's “significant progress” and saying the company is “confident” in OpenAI's direction  —  - “We appreciate the support shown by OpenAI leadership and the OpenAI board as we made this decision,” Microsoft said.
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Samsung debuts the Galaxy Z Fold6, with a wider 22.1:9 display, up to 2,600 nits of brightness, a thinner frame, IP48, and seven years of updates, for $1,899  —  At an Unpacked event today in Paris, Samsung has officially unveiled its latest book-style foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Samsung unveils the Galaxy Z Flip6 with 3.4" and 6.7" displays, a 50MP camera, a larger 4,000 mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, for $1,099+ from July 24  —  With its new Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung is addressing one of the biggest problems with its foldable flip phone, but in what is otherwise a fairly minor upgrade.
Akshat Rathi / Bloomberg:
Environmental report: Google stops buying carbon offsets and no longer maintains operational carbon neutrality, but still aims to hit net-zero emissions by 2030  —  The tech giant, which has seen its planet-warming emissions rise because of artificial intelligence, has stopped buying cheap offsets behind the neutrality claim.
New York Times:
Financial Times:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers detail the Blast-RADIUS MD5-based vulnerability affecting RADIUS, a widely used network access authentication protocol first developed in 1991  —  Ubiquitous RADIUS scheme uses homegrown authentication based on MD5.  Yup, you heard right.  —  One of the most widely used network protocols …
Wired:
Elliptic finds a Cambodian online market offering the crypto scam industry products and services, including money laundering and victim data, with $11B in sales  —  Deepfake scam services.  Victim data.  Electrified shackles for human trafficking.  Crypto tracing firm Elliptic found …
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Google now lets its users set up Advanced Protection Program with a single passkey, using Android or iOS biometric authentication, instead of two physical keys  —  Google has made it a little easier for those at more risk of targeted online attacks to enroll in its Advanced Protection Program for Google accounts.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft hikes the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate by $3 to $19.99/month for new subscribers and plans a Standard tier for $14.99/month without day-one titles  —  Microsoft is planning to hike its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate pricing again in September, alongside launching a new “standard” …
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Intuit plans to cut 10% of its global workforce, or ~1,800 employees, and rehire the same number, primarily in its engineering, product, and sales divisions  —  - Move affects 1,800 people; company will re-hire in other areas  — About 1,050 of the employees were dismissed due to performance
Evan Gorelick / Bloomberg:
OpenAI and Los Alamos National Laboratory announce a partnership to evaluate how multimodal AI models can be used safely by scientists in laboratory settings  —  - Study will look at risks, rewards of using AI for research  — AI startup has made several recent health and biotech deals
Harshita Mary Varghese / Reuters:
IDC: global PC shipments rose 3% YoY to 64.9M units in Q2 2024; Apple's shipments rose 20.8% YoY, the biggest jump among PC makers, followed by Acer at 13.7%  —  Global shipments of personal computers rose by 3% in the second quarter, helped by demand for AI-capable devices, with Apple …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy Ring hands-on: the $400 ring has a titanium frame, optical heart rate and skin temperature sensors, feels slimmer than the Oura Ring, and more  —  The hardware is solid.  The ideas are intriguing.  So long as it holds up in testing, Samsung could have a winner.
James Frew / Tom's Guide:
Kwanwoo Jun / Wall Street Journal:
Samsung Electronics' union workers declare an “indefinite general strike” on the final day of a three-day walkout because management was unwilling to negotiate  —  Union cites management's unwillingness to talk to union leaders  —  Samsung Electronics unionized workers have decided …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Samsung unveils $250 Galaxy Buds3 Pro and $180 Galaxy Buds3, with ANC and switching to an AirPods-like stemmed design and case, available on July 24  —  Alongside its latest folding phones and wearables, Samsung is introducing the new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Galaxy Buds 3.
Michael Kan / PCMag:
The US DOJ and its partners seized two domain names and 968 accounts on X used by Russia's RT to develop an AI-enhanced bot farm that spread disinformation  —  Russian media outlet RT ran the bot farm to pump out disinformation via 968 Twitter accounts, the US Justice Department says.
CNN:
An investigation finds Airbnb fails to protect its guests from hidden cameras and moves swiftly to contain user complaints and resolve them out of court  —  Watch AC360 at 8pm ET tonight for more on this investigation, including where cameras can be hidden inside Airbnb rentals.  —  CNN —

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:
(BNS) Calvin And Hobbes - With Daniel Kibblesmith
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.

More News

Financial Times:
Victoria Song / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.co:
More: BenzingaThreads: @xzed87X: @battleaxevr, @borrowed_ideas, @cixliv, and @ballmatthewForums: r/OculusQuest
Financial Times:
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:
Anissa Gardizy / The Information: