Techmeme
January 16, 2025, 2:45 PM

Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nintendo teases the Switch 2, featuring a new kickstand design and backward compatibility for physical and digital games, with more details on April 2, 2025  —  The console looks a lot like the original, but it's bigger.  In the video, the Joy-Con controllers are black with colored accents, and they attach to the console magnetically.
More: Nintendo of America on YouTube, Nintendo UK on YouTube, Bloomberg, Nintendo, The Verge, IGN, CNET, Forbes, NBC News, Tech Advisor, VentureBeat, The Verge, Wired, Engadget, PCWorld, USA Today, RTÉ, Decrypt, How-To Geek, ExtremeTech, Fast Company, Comic Book, The Verge, Liliputing, Polygon, Digital Trends, them., Boston.com, KitGuru, Game World Observer, HotHardware, CBR, New York Times, Tom's Guide, Thurrott, Proactive, Eurogamer.net, The Verge, TheGamer, T3 (publication), Lifehacker, KnowTechie, Gizchina.com, Game Rant, BGR, Creative Bloq, SlashGear, GoNintendo, UPI, Kotaku, and Pocket-lint
LinkedIn: Nathan Madsen and Blair Herter
NBC News:
An official says the Biden administration is “exploring options” to implement the law without causing TikTok to go dark for US users on January 19  —  Barring action by the Supreme Court, a ban in the U.S. on the popular app is set to begin on Sunday.
New York Times:
Sources: TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to attend Trump's inauguration after being invited to sit on the dais, joining Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at the event  —  Shou Chew will join tech moguls like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at President-elect Donald J. Trump's inauguration as the fate of the app hangs in the balance.
The Information:
Reuters:
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
UK's Ofcom imposes robust age checks on porn sites, which could include photo ID matching, facial age estimation technology, and credit card checks  —  Ofcom sets out new rules that could include photo ID matching and credit card verification  —  The UK media regulator will make it harder …
Lindsay Whitehurst / Associated Press:
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
A look at the legal dispute between Walgreens and Cooler Screens, which installed 10,000 smart doors that track shoppers and show ads at Walgreens' US stores  —  A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
An interview with Replit CEO Amjad Masad, who says the company's revenue grew 5x over the past six months after releasing a new AI coding tool called Agent  —  THE SCENE  —  Replit has had a turbulent year, but CEO Amjad Masad's sonorous voice was almost zen-like as he spoke to me on Monday …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
US school districts hit by PowerSchool's December breach say hackers accessed “all” historical student and teacher data; PowerSchool has 50M+ US student records  —  U.S. school districts affected by the recent cyberattack on edtech giant PowerSchool have told TechCrunch that hackers accessed …
Eric Geller / Wired:
Joe Biden issues a cybersecurity EO to improve the way the government monitors its networks, buys software, uses AI, and punishes foreign hackers  —  US president Joe Biden just issued a 40-page executive order that aims to bolster federal cybersecurity protections, directs government use of AI …
Reuters:
NOYB files complaints against AliExpress, Shein, TikTok, Xiaomi, Temu, and WeChat over claims they are unlawfully sending EU user data to China  —  TikTok, Shein, Xiaomi (1810.HK) and three other Chinese companies were named in a privacy complaint filed on Thursday by Austrian advocacy group Noyb …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Letter: Google told EU it will not add fact checks to search results and YouTube videos or use them in ranking or removing content, despite new EU requirements  —  - The code would require Google to incorporate fact-check results alongside Google's search results and YouTube videos.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft bundles its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions for an extra $3 per month  —  Microsoft is bundling its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions, but it's also raising prices as a result.
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
CFPB announces a $175M settlement with Block, including $120M in refunds to consumers, saying Cash App allowed rampant fraud while misleading its customers  —  On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a massive $175 million settlement with Block, the publicly traded financial conglomerate led by Jack Dorsey.
Eli Blumenthal / CNET:
AT&T stops 5G Internet Air service in New York, as a new law mandates monthly broadband rates of $15 for 25Mbps or $20 for 200Mbps for low-income residents  —  A new affordable broadband law in the Empire State has led to AT&T dropping its 5G home internet product entirely.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple disables notification summaries for News & Entertainment apps in iOS 18.3 beta and makes other changes to summaries, including using italicized text  —  Apple released iOS 18.3 beta 3 to developers this afternoon.  The update includes a handful of changes to the notification summaries feature of Apple Intelligence.
New York Times:
Anduril plans to build a $1B factory in Columbus, Ohio called Arsenal-1 to eventually produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems and weapons each year  —  The company said its Columbus plant could eventually produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems and weapons each year.
William Langley / Financial Times:
Canalys: China smartphone shipments rose 4% YoY to 285M units in 2024, with Vivo up 11% to a 17% market share, Huawei up 37% to 16%, and Apple down 17% to 15%  —  US tech giant faces competition on mainland as it struggles to introduce AI features on its flagship product
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
AI researcher François Chollet and Zapier co-founder Mike Knoop launch Ndea, an AI research and science lab focused on “developing and operationalizing AGI”  —  François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs.
Bloomberg:
Zhou Chaonan, the chairwoman of data center operator Range Intelligent, has become China's third richest woman after her company's stock rose 105% in 2024  —  - Range Intelligent's chairwoman Zhou joins world's 500 richest  — TikTok owner ByteDance is one of Range's major customers
Kyt Dotson / SiliconANGLE:
Nvidia announces new Nvidia Inference Microservices aimed at helping enterprises develop AI agents to address issues of trust, security, and safety  —  Nvidia Corp. today announced today the release of new Nvidia Inference Microservices aimed at helping enterprise organizations develop …
Gaby Del Valle / The Verge:
Tech trade groups NetChoice and TechNet sue CFPB for its efforts to regulate digital payment apps like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Venmo more like banks  —  Two major tech trade groups are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) effort to treat payment apps and digital wallets like banks.

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