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August 15, 2024, 12:15 AM
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Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is prioritizing developing a tabletop home device with an iPad-like display and a robotic limb, aiming for a release in 2026 or 2027 for ~$1,000  —  - Executive who oversaw car project is leading the effort  — Device would offer twist on home products from Amazon and Meta
Joseph De Avila / Wall Street Journal:
Eric Schmidt says he “misspoke” when he said Google was losing the AI race because it decided that “working from home was more important than winning”  —  Ex-Google CEO had said the tech company's work-life balance was ‘more important than winning’
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says developers can offer NFC transactions using the iPhone's Secure Element, separate from Apple Pay, starting in iOS 18.1; there'll be “associated fees”  —  Apple has announced that it is opening up the iPhone's NFC chip using the Secure Element to allow …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Images generated by Grok, like Barack Obama doing cocaine and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris with guns, go viral on X, raising questions about Grok's guardrails  —  xAI's Grok chatbot now lets you create images from text prompts and publish them to X — and so far, the rollout seems as chaotic …
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
A look at Germany-based Black Forest Labs, which recently emerged from stealth with a $31M seed led by a16z and whose FLUX.1 model powers Grok's image generator
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
xAI launches Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta with improved reasoning and image generation, available now to X Premium and Premium+ users, and later via its API
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q4 revenue down 10% YoY to $13.64B, vs. $13.54B est., and says it's cutting 7% of its global workforce; CSCO jumps 5%+ after hours  —  Cisco shares popped in extended trading on Wednesday after the networking company said it's cutting 7% of its global workforce …
Danny Gallagher / Engadget:
The US FTC announces a final rule banning the sale of fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-generated ones, with fines as high as $50K per violation  —  The new rules prohibit the selling of fake and AI-generated reviews and testimonials in several forms.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Google says Iran-backed hacking group APT42 has targeted both Trump and Biden campaigns, as well as Israeli military, government, and diplomatic organizations  —  APT42, which is believed to work for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted about a dozen people associated with both Trump …
Emilia David / VentureBeat:
Anthropic says prompt caching, which enables developers to cache frequently used context between API calls, is now available in public beta on its API  —  Anthropic introduced prompt caching on its API, which remembers the context between API calls and allows developers to avoid repeating prompts.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sources: Sonos is considering relaunching its previous mobile app as it works to improve the redesigned version, which launched in May to widespread criticism  —  Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company's hurried redesign has become.
Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X review: the Zen 5 flagship chips are fine for highly threaded productivity workloads, but the gaming issues need to be fixed  —  Earlier this month, AMD launched the first two desktop CPUs using their latest Zen 5 microarchitecture: the Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
President Biden speaks at the first White House Creator Economy Conference, with about 100 startup founders, industry stakeholders, and creators in attendance  —  At the first ever White House Creator Economy Conference, the most popular man to drop by was not a TikTok superstar or a YouTube sensation.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Apple approves Spotify updating its app to show in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the EU starting today, after Spotify's yearslong legal battle  —  Spotify will begin showing in-app pricing information for iPhone users in the European Union starting today, following a yearslong legal battle against Apple.
Troy Hunt:
A look at the National Public Data breach, first noted in April 2024 and posted publicly last week, and why it's unlikely that “nearly 3B people” were exposed  —  I decided to write this post because there's no concise way to explain the nuances of what's being described as one of the largest data breaches ever.
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Access Now and Citizen Lab: Russian spy agencies are using deep knowledge about opponents, reporters, and human rights groups to target them via phishing emails  —  Traditional phishing attacks aimed to break into organizations advocating for Russian dissidents, among others.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
The main takeaway from the Google Pixel event is Android's primacy, and Google's integration with Android is worth preserving if the goal is spurring innovation  —  The original Pixel was released in 2016 at the end of interesting, at least when it came to smartphones.
More: CNET and 9to5Google
X: @anshublog, @rakeshsfnyc, and @stevesi.  Forums: Hacker News
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Hands-on with Gemini Live: conversationally, a big step forward, but functionally, a step back in some ways, largely due to working entirely in the cloud

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:15 AM ET, August 15, 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:
The Onion, backed by some Sandy Hook families and Everytown for Gun Safety, buys Infowars in a bankruptcy auction, and plans a January 2025 relaunch as a parody

The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney expects to spend $24B on content in 2025, up from $23.4B in 2024, due to sports programming expenses rising after NFL rate increases and NBA contracts

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Disney said Disney+ Q4 ARPU in the US and Canada, down 1% QoQ to $7.70, was affected partly by new wholesale arrangements with some distributors

More News

CNN:
A look at the five-person Gen Z team running Kamala Harris' TikTok account @KamalaHQ, capitalizing on the VP's viral moments and averaging 6M views per post
More: Wired.  Threads: @mattnavarra.  Mastodon: @rightardia@mastodon.social.  X: @sarafinachitika and @betsy_klein
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
In the final hearing on remedies after Epic's antitrust win, the judge says he'll “tear the barriers down” on Google's app store but won't “micromanage” Google
Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
A look at some of the victims of the now-ubiquitous deepfake video scams; an analysis of 2,000+ deepfakes found Elon Musk was featured in ~25% of such scams
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with Narrativ for voice replicas in digital ads, letting union members add themselves to the AI startup's database and negotiate fees

Earlier Picks

Dara Kerr / NPR:
Meta shuts down CrowdTangle, less than three months before the US election, in favor of the Meta Content Library; Mozilla says 50K+ petitioned against the move
Financial Times:
How Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta are using accounting techniques to hide their growing emissions, while working to influence pollution disclosure rules
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
The US NIST publishes its first three post-quantum cryptography standards; IBM's director of research thinks quantum will hit an inflection point around 2030
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google unveils the Pixel Watch 3 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with a 2,000-nit display and around 16% smaller bezels compared to the Watch 2, starting at $349
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