Techmeme
July 13, 2023, 6:30 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
The US arrests and charges former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky with six counts, including wire fraud; the SEC, CFTC, and FTC sue Mashinsky and the crypto company  —  Alex Mashinsky, the former chief executive officer of Celsius Network Ltd., was accused by prosecutors of orchestrating …
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
The FTC asks a federal court to temporarily halt Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition until after an appeals court has ruled on a separate stay request  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission asked a federal court on Thursday for a stay that would prevent Microsoft (MSFT.O) …
The Verge:
Tom Hals / Reuters:
A US judge says Ripple's XRP sales to sophisticated investors violated securities law but that sales on exchanges were not offers of securities; XRP jumps 70%+  —  U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said Ripple Labs Inc's institutional sales of its XRP digital token violated federal law …
Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk:
After the court ruling, Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitstamp resume XRP trading on their US exchanges, while Gemini is exploring the listing of the token  —  U.S. federal court ruled on Thursday that sale of XRP tokens on exchanges and through algorithms did not constitute investment contracts.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Doc: the FTC sends OpenAI a demand for records about addressing risks tied to its AI models and a March 2023 security incident over payment-related information  —  The agency's demand for OpenAI's documents marks the company's greatest U.S. regulatory threat to date
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Google updates Bard with 43 more languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese, and privacy features requested by EU regulators, and debuts the tool in Europe and Brazil  —  Latest version to also include a privacy hub for all users  —  Google is betting a new version of its artificial-intelligence chatbot …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The AP and OpenAI sign a two-year deal; the AP gets access to OpenAI's tech in return for licensing some of its text archive dating back to 1985 for AI training  —  The Associated Press on Thursday said it reached a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, to share access to select news content and technology.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft names Aptos as the next default font for its Microsoft 365 productivity apps, replacing Calibri; Aptos was available for two years as Bierstadt  —  - After considering user feedback on five options, Microsoft has picked the next default font for its productivity apps like Word and Outlook.
Bloomberg:
Adobe: US shoppers spent $12.7B on Amazon's 48-hour Prime Day, up 6.1% YoY but below estimates of 9.5% growth; an increasing customer share used BNPL services  —  US shoppers spent $12.7 billion online during Amazon.com Inc.'s 48-hour Prime Day, up 6.1% from a year ago but short of estimates for 9.5% growth, according to Adobe Inc.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Telly begins shipping its free, ad-supported, dual-screen 4K TV as part of its public beta program; users must submit demographic info, viewing habits, and more  —  Start-up says it received more than 250,000 sign-ups from U.S. consumers … The start-up, which plans to ship some 500,000 free …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Honor unveils Magic V2, a foldable phone measuring 9.9mm thick when folded and weighing 231g, is thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Pixel Fold  —  If there's one thing Honor wants you to know about its new Magic V2, it's how thin and light it is.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple updates the macOS Sonoma beta to bring iCloud Keychain passwords to Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers via an iCloud Passwords extension  —  The macOS Sonoma update that is in testing allows Mac owners who opt to use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or another browser …
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University files a lawsuit challenging Texas' TikTok ban on state devices, for limiting research and teaching  —  A lawsuit filed on Thursday says Gov. Greg Abbott's ban is compromising research and teaching at public universities.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Apple launches Tap to Pay on iPhone in the UK, starting with Revolut and Tyl by NatWest as the first payment platforms, following the US, Australia, and Taiwan  —  Apple has announced the launch of Tap to Pay on iPhone in the United Kingdom, allowing independent sellers, small merchants …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Apple adds bilingual support for five Indic languages to Siri in beta; Google Assistant got multilingual support in 2018 and Alexa got the feature in 2019  —  Apple released its first set of public beta versions of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma on Wednesday.
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
At a congressional hearing, FTC Chair Lina Khan defended herself against GOP attacks over her alleged ethics violation and aggressive antitrust enforcement  —  Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan fended off Republican attacks over her adherence to ethics laws and aggressive antitrust enforcement …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
A Stability AI co-founder sues the startup over being duped into selling his 15% stake for $100 to CEO Emad Mostaque months before Stability hit a $1B valuation  —  A Stability AI Ltd. co-founder has sued the company, claiming he was tricked into selling his stake for $100 months …
More: Reuters, Forbes, and Semafor
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toTwitter: @tomgara and @chrisfralicForums: Hacker News
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Twitter starts paying Twitter Blue creators who earned 5M+ impressions per month for three months a revenue cut from the ads beside the replies to their tweets  —  Twitter is now paying creators for a share of the ad revenue earned from ads served in the replies to their posts.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
GitHub launches passkey support in public beta, allowing users who opt in to upgrade from security keys and use passkeys in place of a password and a 2FA method  —  GitHub announced today the introduction of passwordless authentication support in public beta, allowing users to upgrade from security keys to passkeys.
Bloomberg:
China unveils the final version of its generative AI guidelines, which omits some restrictions present in its April draft, signaling a more flexible regulation  —  China has loosened some of the guardrails it proposed for ChatGPT-style services months ago, as it acknowledges the need to compete …
New York Times:
Microsoft says Chinese hackers gained access to US government email accounts and had access to at least some accounts for a month before the breach was detected  —  The hack, by a Chinese group that the company said was intent on conducting espionage, went undetected for a month.  —  Reporting from Washington
Washington Post:

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Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
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Earlier Picks

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg: