Techmeme
October 26, 2023, 4:20 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft reorganizes its Xbox teams, promoting Matt Booty to game content president and Sarah Bond to Xbox president; CMO Chris Capossela leaves after 32 years  —  Microsoft is reorganizing its Xbox gaming and marketing leadership, less than two weeks after acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
The UK's controversial Online Safety Bill becomes law, allowing fines of up to £18M or 10% of global turnover; Ofcom now plans to publish its codes of practice  —  The UK's Online Safety Bill, a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to make the country “the safest place in the world to be online” …
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Internal docs: Google worked to limit Apple's search ambitions after Spotlight's 2021 update; sources say Google paid Apple ~$18B in 2021 to remain the default  —  Google has worried for years that Apple would one day expand its internet search technology, and has been working on ways to prevent that from happening.
Wall Street Journal:
X's tumultuous first year under Elon Musk: mobile DAUs down 16% from October 2022 to September 2023, app downloads fell post X rebrand, and investor markdowns  —  The platform struggles to attract users and advertisers, third-party data suggest, while Musk has voiced optimism
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out new Google Maps features, including updating search to more easily find things nearby and expanding Immersive View for Routes to 15 new cities  —  Google is adding a slew of new updates for Maps, including a few AI-powered features that are designed to make it easier for users to search …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI forms Preparedness, a new team to assess, evaluate, and probe AI models to protect against “catastrophic risks”, including biological and nuclear threats  —  OpenAI today announced that it's created a new team to assess, evaluate and probe AI models to protect against what it describes as “catastrophic risks.”
Bloomberg:
A live blog of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried's testimony at his own criminal fraud trial in NYC over the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange  —  Welcome to TOPLive.  FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is taking the witness stand at his own fraud trial in New York over the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
CNBC:
Uber starts offering rides in fully autonomous Waymo cars in Phoenix, Arizona; users can accept or reject the autonomous option, which includes a 24/7 helpline  —  - Uber users in Phoenix, Arizona, will be able to ride in a fully autonomous car, Uber announced Thursday.
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Kids are attending virtual pro-Palestine protests on Roblox in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war; one virtual protest area has been visited 275K+ times  —  - Kids are attending virtual pro-Palestine protests on Roblox in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, and so far, one virtual protest area has been visited more than 275,000 times.
Andrew Tarantola / Engadget:
Leica releases the $9,480 M11-P camera, which watermarks photos with the Content Credentials metadata system, created by advocacy groups to fight misinformation  —  It automatically watermarks photos with Content Credentials metadata.  —  It's getting to the point these days that we can't even trust …
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
JPMorgan's Global Head of Payments says the blockchain-based JPM Coin now handles $1B in transactions per day and the bank plans to continue widening its usage  —  - JPM Coin allows blockchain-based payments by wholesale clients  — Token is a rare instance of live blockchain use by a big bank
Matthieu Faou / WeLiveSecurity:
Pro-Russia hacking group Winter Vivern is targeting European governmental entities' Roundcube Webmail servers; viewing an email triggers a Roundcube zero-day  —  ESET Research recommends updating Roundcube Webmail to the latest available version as soon as possible
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Xiaomi unveils the 6.36" Xiaomi 14 and 6.73" Xiaomi 14 Pro, offering the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 50MP camera sensors, a Leica lens on the Pro, and LTPO 120Hz panels  —  Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 just this week as Android's next flagship chipset, and now Xiaomi is already announcing …
Sheena Vasani / The Verge:
Samsung offers Galaxy smartphone and tablets running One UI 6 a Temporary Cloud Backup feature with unlimited storage for up to 30 days for free, matching Apple  —  Samsung is starting to roll out a “Temporary Cloud Backup” feature to Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets running on One UI 6, the company announced on Thursday.
Bloomberg:
Meta declines its Oversight Board's advice from August 2023 to tighten its oversight of drug-related posts; the Oversight Board calls the decision “unfortunate”  —  - Board found ‘inconsistent enforcement’ of drug-related posts  — Instagram, Facebook owner may consider a review in 2024
Politico:
UK PM Rishi Sunak announces plans to set up a UK-based AI Safety Institute and an AI research network modeled on the IPCC, ahead of the UK AI Summit in November  —  British PM defended seeking Chinese buy-in for a bevvy of new AI governance initiatives he is set to launch next week.
Stephanie Barnes / Engadget:
X rolls out opt-out audio and video calling to some users, who can allow incoming calls from users in their address book, users they follow, and Premium users  —  Just call them or not.  —  It's finally happening: X (formerly known as Twitter) has begun rolling out yet another feature nobody asked for.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
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:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
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 4:20 PM ET, October 26, 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

Washington Post:
Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

The Verge:
Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide:
Victoria Song / The Verge: