Techmeme
October 17, 2023, 7:20 PM

Top News

Stephen Warwick / iMore:
Apple unveils an “affordable” $79 Apple Pencil that charges via a USB-C cable, shipping in “early November” and compatible with all iPads that have a USB-C port  —  A nice surprise...  Apple has today unveiled a new “affordable” Apple Pencil with USB-C that costs $79.
Wall Street Journal:
The US plans to significantly constrict AI chip exports to China, including by Nvidia and Intel, aiming to close perceived export control loopholes made in 2022  —  New rules make it tougher for Nvidia and Intel to sell advanced semiconductors to the Chinese market
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
FTX floats an amended proposal to return up to 90% of creditor holdings, divided into three pools, and plans to formally file the plan in court by December 16  —  An amended proposal released early Tuesday will be filed by the FTX Debtors by mid-December if approved.
New York Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Phil Spencer says Activision Blizzard games won't come to Xbox Game Pass until 2024, in part due to the time it took for the Activision acquisition to be closed  —  There's no 'secret celebration drop that's coming in the next couple of weeks.' … Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Meta Quest 3's better passthrough video means people are again walking in public with face-mounted, video-recording devices, a throwback to Google “glassholes”  —  It's happening: people are once walking into public places wearing a video-recording face computer on their heads.
Rob Pegoraro / PCMag:
The US IRS plans to offer a free direct e-filing option in 13 states in 2024, for taxpayers with simpler tax situations  —  The move deals a blow to decades of effort by Intuit and other tax-prep software vendors to stop government e-filing efforts. … Last year's Inflation Reduction Act …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Qualcomm says it's developing a Snapdragon RISC-V chip for Wear OS in partnership with Google, in what could be the first mass-market RISC-V Android SoC  —  Qualcomm and Google project will enable more RISC-V Android devices in the future.  —  The Android ecosystem is hurtling toward a RISC-V future.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Meta identifies and fixes a bug after thousands of Palestinian supporters say their rule-abiding posts were suppressed or removed from Facebook and Instagram  —  Meta has cautioned that some posts may be temporarily suppressed or suspended as it sifts through millions of posts spreading across its platforms.
New York Times:
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
WhatsApp plans to roll out passkey support to all Android users over the coming months to replace passwords and 2FA; Meta did not share passkey plans for iOS  —  WhatsApp users on Android can say goodbye to insecure and annoying SMS two-factor authentication.
Morgan Sung / TechCrunch:
Reddit kills Community Points, started in 2020 as a blockchain-based way to reward creators and developers, citing the regulatory environment and scaling issues  —  Reddit is winding down Community Points — the blockchain-based “internet points” program designed to reward creators and developers …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Roblox CEO David Baszucki says the company is “transitioning away” from remote work, as virtual workspaces aren't as engaging or productive as physical ones  —  Roblox — a company that builds a hugely popular virtual experiences platform, recently introduced its own spin on video chat …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out new accessibility features, like Lens in Maps screen reader options, Google Maps accessible walking routes, and faster Chrome mobile search  —  Google is updating Maps, Search, and Assistant with new accessibility features.  The company is also releasing a new Magnifier app to help users read text in different places.
Bloomberg:
Tim Cook visits China for the second time this year, showing up at a contest for Tencent's Honor of Kings game in a Chengdu Apple Store  —  - Cook joined an ‘Honor of Kings’ contest in Chengdu Apple store  — The CEO visits as worries grow about its performance in China
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Similarweb: in September, X's global monthly website traffic fell 14% YoY, US traffic declined 19% YoY, while traffic to Elon Musk's profile page was up 96% YoY  —  Despite proclamations from X CEO Linda Yaccarino that usage of the social network was at an all-time high this summer …

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
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:
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:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
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 7:20 PM ET, October 17, 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

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:

Earlier Picks

Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Justine Calma / The Verge:
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority:
Bloomberg:
Rachyl Jones / Fortune: