Techmeme
February 20, 2024, 7:30 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Messaging app Signal finally rolls out usernames in beta, letting users conceal their phone numbers; Signal still requires inputting a phone number to register  —  We tested the end-to-end encrypted messenger's new feature aimed at addressing critics' most persistent complaint.  Here's how it works.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Authorities arrest two LockBit operators in Poland and Ukraine, issue arrest warrants and a decryption tool, seize 200+ crypto wallets; US indicts two Russians  —  Law enforcement arrested two operators of the LockBit ransomware gang in Poland and Ukraine, created a decryption tool …
Bloomberg:
Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:
Walmart agrees to acquire TV maker Vizio for $2.3B, or $11.50/share, to boost its ad business via Vizio's SmartCast OS, which lets users stream content with ads  —  Walmart's acquisition of Vizio for $2.3BN was confirmed today.  The European Commission rejected Amazon's acquisition of iRobot for $1.7BN.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Gary Geaves, Apple's longtime VP in charge of acoustics, is stepping down, replaced by Ruchir Davé, adding to the hardware engineering group's upheaval  —  - Apple acoustics chief Gary Geaves is stepping down from role  — Executive has been key to development of AirPods and HomePod
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple debuts a monthly Apple Music Replay, offering insights like total listening time, top songs, artists, and albums, and releases 2024's Replay Mix playlist  —  Apple today updated the Apple Music Replay experience, available at replay.music.apple.com, with visualizations of your favorite music habits …
Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo:
Demos from AI chip maker Groq go viral after the company's inference engine shows remarkable speeds running LLMs, including with real-time conversations  —  Two AI companies are claiming the science fiction term, “Grok,” as their own, but only one is turbocharging the AI industry.
John Voorhees / MacStories:
A look at ways to play games on Apple Vision Pro: spatial and iPad App Store games, streaming via MirrorPlay for PS5, NDI, Macs, browsers like Nexus⁺, and more  —  The lack of any kind of port significantly limits the type of gaming you can do in the Apple Vision Pro - or does it?
More: 9to5Mac, iMore, Six Colors, and The Verge
Threads: @viticciMastodon: @viticci@mastodon … and @johnvoorhees@mastodon …Forums: r/apple
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Samsung details its Auracast, 360 Audio, and Auto Switch features, rolling out to Buds 2, Buds FE, the S24 series, Neo QLED and OLED TVs, Book laptops, and more  —  None are appearing on Samsung's devices for the first time, but we now know how broadly they'll be supported across the lineup.

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:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 7:30 PM ET, February 20, 2024.

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

Larry Dignan / Constellation Research:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Antonia Mufarech / Bloomberg:
HouseFresh:
Reuters:
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: