Techmeme
February 16, 2023, 2:45 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Vox:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki plans to step down after nine years, replaced by Neal Mohan as SVP and new head of YouTube; Wojcicki was Google's 16th employee  —  One of the most prominent women in tech — and one of Google's earliest employees — is leaving the company.
Bing Blogs:
Microsoft reflects on the new Bing: 71% gave AI answers a thumbs up, Bing can become repetitive after 15+ questions, a few sessions over two hours, and more  —  A little over a week ago, we shared an all new, AI-powered Bing search engine, Edge web browser, and integrated Chat, that we think of as Your Copilot for the Web.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta launches Instagram Channels, a broadcast chat feature that lets select US creators share public, one-to-many text, images, and more with their followers  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the company is launching a new broadcast chat feature on Instagram called “Channels.”
Jemima Kelly / Financial Times:
A year on from Meta hyping the metaverse in a dystopian Super Bowl ad, enthusiasm for a virtual future has evaporated and Meta is now more focused on efficiency  —  Enthusiasm for a virtual future is draining away — and so is investment  —  Remember when we were all going to ditch our humdrum lives …
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
PlayStation VR2 review: excellent OLED displays, comfortable, solid controllers, and immersive headset haptics, but pricey and limited games at launch  —  The PlayStation VR 2 is the virtual reality upgrade console gamers have been waiting for — but is it really worth $550?
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft authorizes Parallels Desktop 18 to support Windows 11 on Apple's M1 and M2 Macs, after previously only licensing ARM versions of Windows to OEMs  —  Microsoft is officially supporting Windows 11 on Apple's M1 and M2 Macs thanks to a partnership with Parallels to allow the operating system to run in a virtual environment.
Shane Huntley / The Keyword:
Analysis of the cyber threat landscape one year after Russia invaded Ukraine shows Russia's aggressive multi-pronged plan across five phases with mixed success  —  One year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google TAG, Mandiant, and Trust & Safety provide insights into changes in the cyber threat landscape triggered by the war.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: spooked by a regulatory crackdown, US banks are backing away from crypto companies and re-evaluating any exposure to the sector, no matter how small  —  SEC and banking overseers step up scrutiny following collapse of FTX  —  Crypto's Crash Has Been Swift but Largely Self-Contained.
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Akane Otani / Wall Street Journal:
Jaime Rogozinski, who created r/WallStreetBets, sues Reddit for “breach of contract” by removing him as a moderator in 2020, trademark dilution, and more  —  Jaime Rogozinski says site ousted him without claim; Reddit calls suit frivolous  —  WallStreetBets' founder is suing the site where it all began.
Bloomberg:
A profile of FTX co-founder and CTO Gary Wang, a roommate to Sam Bankman-Fried at MIT who is cooperating with the US, as insiders say he may have key insights  —  They'd come a long way together, from teenage mathletes to MIT frat brothers to crypto billionaires.
Reuters:
A German court rules that police use of Palantir's automated data analysis to prevent crime in some states was unconstitutional; a rights group brought the case  —  A top German court ruled on Thursday that police use of automated data analysis to prevent crime in some German states was unconstitutional …
More: Euractiv
Ryan McMorrow / Financial Times:
Filing: China Renaissance says founder and chairman Bao Fan, a top tech investor, dealmaker, and banker in China, has been unreachable for over two days  —  Investment bank China Renaissance says it has been unable to contact its founder  —  China's top tech dealmaker Bao Fan has gone missing …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Baltimore-based Apkudo, whose service manages connected devices, raised a $37.5M Series C, sources say at a ~$300M valuation, bringing its total funding to $75M  —  Apkudo, a Baltimore-based startup developing a platform to help manage, sell and test connected devices like smartphones and laptops …
Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:
Binance Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann says the company expects to pay monetary penalties to settle US regulatory and law enforcement investigations  —  DOJ, CFTC have been probing world's largest cryptocurrency exchange  —  Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange …
Game Developer:
Activision Blizzard plans to require employees to come to the office three days per week starting on April 10 for Activision Publishing and July 10 for Blizzard  —  Remote work is reportedly ending across Activision Blizzard.  According to a developer at Blizzard Entertainment …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Snap says Snapchat now has over 750M MAUs, up 25% from April 2022, with 150M users in North America, $3.99/month Snapchat+ has 2.5M subscribers, and more  —  At its Investor Day event on Thursday, Snap shared a handful of new metrics about its business and teased its prospects.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
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Tribe AI:
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Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
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Earlier Picks

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: