Techmeme
November 29, 2023, 2:05 PM

Top News

Mike Seymour / fxguide:
Unity plans to cut 265 jobs, or 3.8% of its workforce, and end its services deal with VFX company Wētā FX to focus on its core business in a “company reset”  —  UPDATE: Scroll down for a statement from WētāFX:  —  Reuters is reporting that Unity Software …
Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify launches Spotify Wrapped 2023, adding a Me in 2023 feature that assigns users one of 12 themes to describe their listening habits, on mobile and desktop  —  The listening recap, available Wednesday, takes over social media every year  —  It's the time of year many people have been anxiously awaiting: Spotify Wrapped season.
Steven J. Horowitz / Variety:
Variety:
Robert De Niro criticizes Apple and the Gotham Awards, after sources say Apple cut part of his speech slamming Donald Trump, which he read anyway from his phone  —  The “Killers of the Flower Moon” actor was gearing up to slam Donald Trump at Monday's Gotham Awards, but when he took the stage …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
The US sanctions Sinbad, a crypto mixer allegedly used by North Korean Lazarus hackers, and seizes its service in an international law enforcement operation  —  The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned the Sinbad cryptocurrency mixing service for its use as a money-laundering tool by the North Korean Lazarus hacking group.
Graham Starr / Bloomberg:
Okta tells customers that hackers who breached its network stole information on all users of its customer support system, greater than the 1% claimed previously  —  - Okta had earlier said breach affected about 1% of customers  — Company said some Okta employee information was also stolen
AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple plans to exit its Goldman Sachs contract in 12 to 15 months, ending their consumer partnership, including for credit card and savings accounts  —  Tech giant proposed exiting contract in about 12-to-15 months  —  Apple is pulling the plug on its credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs …
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Apple licenses Arm's IP at less than 30 cents per device, the lowest rate among Arm's smartphone chip clients; Apple makes up under 5% of Arm's sales  —  In 2017, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son gathered a group of executives from Arm Holdings, the British chip designer SoftBank had just bought …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix plans to add Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy for its users at no extra charge on December 14 in its mobile app or on the App Store and Google Play  —  The three classic titles in “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition" will be available Dec. 14 for Netflix customers at no additional charge on mobile platforms.
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
Wormhole, a Jump Crypto messaging protocol that lets developers communicate across blockchains, raised $225M at a $2.5B valuation, 2023's largest crypto raise  —  In a parched fundraising landscape, the team behind Wormhole, the messaging protocol that lets developers communicate across different blockchains …
Michael Peel / Financial Times:
Google DeepMind uses GNoME to find 2.2M crystal structures, over 45x more than all such substances ever found, and plans to make 381K available to scientists  —  Work shows power of AI to improve real-world technology in fields from renewable energy to advanced computation
Bloomberg:
How deepfake porn victims in NYC suburb Levittown helped convict the perpetrator, a former classmate, an ordeal further complicated by the lack of clear US laws  —  A group of young women in a New York City suburb, horrified to learn their photographs had been manipulated and posted online, took matters into their own hands.
CBC News:
Sources: Google and Canada have reached an agreement in their dispute over the Online News Act; source: Google will pay news companies around $100M per year  —  Agreement comes 3 weeks before Online News Act rules come into force  —  Google and the federal government have reached an agreement …
David Pierce / The Verge:
A look at Ayaneo's $199+ Retro Mini PC AM01, designed to look like a 1980s-era Macintosh, with Ryzen chip options, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage  —  Ayaneo, which is mostly known for making handheld gaming consoles, just fully revealed the new Retro Mini PC AM01 after teasing it a few weeks ago.
Bloomberg:
A profile of Adam D'Angelo, who will remain on OpenAI's board despite agreeing to oust Sam Altman and who was a key figure in negotiations to bring Altman back  —  Adam D'Angelo will continue to serve on the board despite previously agreeing to oust Altman as CEO and running a company that competes with ChatGPT.
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
Together AI, which helps pre-train and fine-tune open source foundation models more efficiently, raised a $102.5M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins  —  I spoke with Together AI CEO Vipul Ved Prakash  —  Together AI, a startup that's helping companies pre-train and fine-tune open source foundation models …
Bloomberg:
Sources: London-based AI startup Stability AI held early-stage talks with several companies about a sale, as executives face investor pressure over its finances  —  - Move follows letter from investor Coatue calling for changes  — Coatue concerned about Stability AI's financial position
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google Registry launches a .meme top level domain, adding to .dad, .boo, .ing, and its other unconventional domain names  —  If you ever wanted to make your website sound a little more silly, now's your chance.  Google Registry just released a new top-level domain that lets you slap a big ol' .meme at the end of your website.
Scott Hayden / Road to VR:
Meta pauses shipments of the Quest 3's Elite Strap with Battery after users report a charging fault renders the battery useless, and starts making new straps  —  Meta paused shipments of its Elite Strap with Battery for Quest 3 amid widespread user reports of a charging fault that renders the battery useless.

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:
Planned US Data Center Maintenance on 23rd and 30th November 2024, between 08.30PM to 00.30AM PST  —  Dear Customers, Our annual infrastructure maintenance for our US Data Center is scheduled for 23rd November 2024 …
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:
Tue. 11/12 - Apple Into The Smarthome
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 2:05 PM ET, November 29, 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

Financial Times:
Vikas SN / Moneycontrol:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Rest of World:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: