Techmeme
November 16, 2023, 7:25 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Threads tests tags, a way of categorizing posts similar to hashtags without the # symbol being visible, initially in Australia and other countries “soon”  —  Instagram's Threads app has been duping Twitter/X in a number of ways and today it's adding one more feature that's been core …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Meta rolls out new Instagram filters, and tests letting users create custom stickers from their photos and videos, improvements to Reels, and more  —  Instagram is changing a lot these days, especially when it comes to the ways in which we can share our content with others and segment different audiences.
Will Knight / Wired:
YouTube lets some Shorts creators test Dream Track, a new DeepMind-powered AI tool to generate and remix music in the styles of nine artists, including Sia  —  YouTube creators will get to test a new AI tool that generates and remixes music in the style of several famous musicians, including Sia, Demi Lovato, and T-Pain.
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Pew: 30% of US adults regularly get their news from Facebook, 26% from YouTube, 16% from Instagram, 14% TikTok, 12% X, 8% Reddit, and 5% Nextdoor and LinkedIn  —  Facebook may be ready to divorce the news business, but it's still the No. 1 source of news on social media for Americans.
Jane Zhang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q2 revenue up 9% YoY to ~$31B, beating ~$30.9B est., a ~$3.8B net income, up from a ~$3B loss in Q2 2022, and calls off its cloud spinoff  —  - The decision marks a dramatic reversal on a signature move  — Alibaba's historic six-way restructuring is now in doubt
Nathan Edwards / The Verge:
The Wireless Power Consortium says the first Qi v2.0 devices are arriving in time for the holidays and over 100 are in certification testing or waiting in line  —  Qi2 — the next version of the wireless charging standard, now with more magnets! — is more almost-here than ever.
Charisma Madarang / Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk replied “You have said the actual truth” to an X user who, replying to a “Hitler was right” inquiry, accused Jewish groups of “hatred against whites”  —  The billionaire amplified a post Wednesday accusing the Jewish community of promoting “dialectical hatred against whites”
Music Business Worldwide:
K.J. Yossman / Variety:
Embracer reports Q2 net sales up 13% YoY to ~$1B, layoffs impacted 900 employees, or 5% of its workforce, and 36 fewer games are in development than Q2 2022  —  “Lord of the Rings” owner Embracer Group has reported a 13% increase in net sales year-on-year in Q2, in part thanks to its intensive restructuring program.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft rebrands Bing Chat as Microsoft Copilot to take on ChatGPT, pitching Copilot as the free version and Copilot for Microsoft 365 as the paid version  —  Microsoft launched its big AI push earlier this year as part of its Bing search engine, integrating a ChatGPT-like interface directly into its search results.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Supantha Mukherjee / Reuters:
TikTok joins Meta in challenging its EU DMA “gatekeeper” status, saying the service is “arguably the most capable challenger to more entrenched” rivals  —  TikTok on Thursday joined Meta (META.O) in appealing against the “gatekeeper” status under the Digital Markets Act …
Connor Jones / The Register:
Security researchers detail the largest cyberattack against Danish critical infrastructure, which involved Zyxel zero-days and affected 22 companies in May 2023  —  Zyxel zero days and nation-state actors (maybe) had a hand in the sector's worst cybersecurity event on record
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Paxos and StraitsX get in-principle approvals from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to issue USD-backed stablecoins  —  - City-state issues in-principle licenses to stablecoin firms  — Japan and Hong Kong also aim to attract such businesses  —  Singapore awarded a batch …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches two Titan Security Keys with FIDO2 that can store up to 250 unique passkeys, and commits to giving 100K security keys to high-risk users in 2024  —  Google has been selling its own line of Titan Security Keys for several years now, and new USB-C and USB-A models with NFC today let you store passkeys.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google debuts Notes, a Search Labs experiment that lets users annotate search results, including with images and colorful fonts; notes show up “within minutes”  —  Ever wanted to add your own annotations to search results you find on Google?  With Google's new “Notes” experiment …
Ryan Tracy / Wall Street Journal:

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Earlier Picks

The Indian Express:
Thomas Wilde / GeekWire:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac: