Techmeme
June 20, 2023, 2:25 PM

Top News

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Source: Spotify plans a more expensive “Supremium” tier with HiFi audio, audiobooks, and more, launching outside the US later in 2023; Premium costs $9.99/month  —  Spotify Technology SA is planning a more expensive subscription option that's expected to include high-fidelity audio …
Billy Perrigo / TIME:
Documents show OpenAI lobbied for parts of the EU's AI Act to be watered down, including successfully avoiding deeming general purpose AI systems as “high risk”  —  The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has spent the last month touring world capitals where, at talks to sold-out crowds …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple expands Self Service Repair to the iPhone 14 lineup, 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, and 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and Max, starting on June 21  —  Apple today announced that its self-service repair program will be expanding to the iPhone 14 lineup, 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Anti-Meta Fedi Pact, circulated on Mastodon, pledges to block Meta's planned ActivityPub service, a petty and insular move that would keep Mastodon small  —  The Anti-Meta Fedi Pact: … Yours truly, on Bluesky a month ago (which, ironically, is not yet open itself, so here's an open preview):
Jane Zhang / Bloomberg:
In a surprise shakeup, Alibaba names Eddie Wu as its CEO, replacing Daniel Zhang, effective September 10; Zhang will remain CEO of Alibaba Cloud  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is replacing eight-year veteran chief Daniel Zhang at the helm of a Chinese e-commerce leader bleeding market share …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
After Indian users complained about increasing spam, WhatsApp adds the ability to automatically silence calls from unknown numbers and a Privacy Checkup feature  —  WhatsApp has introduced a new feature to automatically silence calls from unknown numbers.  This comes after multiple customers in India …
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Crypto exchange EDX Markets, backed by Citadel, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab, quietly began executing trades via its “noncustodial” service in recent weeks  —  EDX Markets won't directly handle customers' digital assets or directly serve individual investors
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Twitter says CEO Linda Yaccarino and Elon Musk won't attend the Cannes Lions ad festival, despite the company's new “brand safety and suitability controls” push  —  Elon Musk and Twitter Inc.'s new Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino won't be at the advertising industry's biggest annual event …
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Binance begins running Bitcoin Lightning Network nodes, as part of its plan to use the service for deposits and withdrawals, in response to network congestion  —  - Binance confirmed Tuesday it has started the process of integrating the Lightning Network.  — They would join rivals Kraken …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
USA Today publisher Gannett sues Google over an alleged ad tech monopoly, echoing the US DOJ's arguments and saying audiences have grown but ad spending is down  —  - USA Today publisher Gannett is suing Google for allegedly illegally monopolizing the advertising technology market.
New York Times:
In a legal campaign, GOP lawmakers accuse Wikimedia, Graphika, universities, and others of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online  —  A legal campaign against universities and think tanks seeks to undermine the fight against false claims about elections, vaccines and other hot political topics.
Tabby Kinder / Financial Times:
a16z, Sequoia, and others are increasingly investing in defense tech startups; PitchBook: US VCs invested $33B in the sector in 2022, up from below $16B in 2019  —  War in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions leads to belief that fledgling companies will get a share of US Pentagon budget
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google Pixel Tablet review: a good screen, audio, and performance, and a useful speaker dock, but below average battery life and some apps don't display well  —  Google's first tablet in many years doesn't try to reinvent what tablets are good for.  Instead, it leans into being a good media …

Sponsor Posts

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.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/15 - Crypto Ascendant
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:25 PM ET, June 20, 2023.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNet:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:
Jon Pincus / The Nexus Of Privacy: