Techmeme
August 1, 2024, 2:10 PM

Top News

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 beta hands-on: meaningful Siri language understanding improvements and Siri text input is nice, but few other notable features  —  In iOS 18's latest developer preview, Siri gets a glow-up.  Like, the whole phone actually glows around the edges when you invoke Siri.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google unveils AI features for Chrome on desktop, including support for Google Lens and searching history via natural language queries, rolling out in the US  —  Google Thursday said that it is introducing new Gemini-powered features for Chrome's desktop version, including Lens for desktop …
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Don Lemon sues Elon Musk and X, arguing Musk refused to pay him after a $1.5M/year exclusive X content deal fell apart; Lemon did not sign a formal contract  —  The former CNN reporter said in a lawsuit that X had refused to pay him after a testy interview with its billionaire owner.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
The Twitter for Mac app appears to have been delisted from the App Store; some users say their X accounts were suspended after using the X for iPad app on macOS  —  As noted by Vedant, the official Twitter for Mac app is currently missing from the Mac App Store.
Meta:
Meta reports Q2 revenue up 22% YoY to $39B, net income up 73% to $13.5B, and family daily active people up 7% to 3.27B on average for June 2024; META jumps 5%+  —  Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2024.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI tells US lawmakers that it is “dedicated” to “rigorous safety protocols at every stage of our process” and is working with the US AI Safety Institute  —  OpenAI, responding to questions from US lawmakers, said it's dedicated to making sure its powerful AI tools …
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
WBD, Disney, and Fox plan to launch their joint sports streaming venture Venu for $42.99 per month initially, with a seven-day free trial, expected in fall 2024  —  Streaming sports on a stand-alone basis won't be cheap. … The service is expected to debut in the fall in conjunction with the start of the next NFL season.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The EU's AI Act takes effect, triggering staggered compliance deadlines for various AI developers and apps; most provisions will be fully applicable by mid-2026  —  It's official: The European Union's risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence has come into force from Thursday, August 1, 2024.
Andrew Romero / 9to5Google:
Telegram rolls out a Mini App Store to help users find apps, a new in-app browser that supports multiple tabs, and says mini apps have 500M+ out of 950M MAUs  —  Telegram is refining the in-app expereince, adding a new way to interact with the browser and a Mini App Store for native applications.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Discord on Xbox gets the ability to watch friends' Discord streams whether they're sharing from a PC, a phone, or an Xbox, rolling out over the coming weeks  —  Microsoft and Discord are greatly improving the integration of the communication platform into Xbox consoles.
Bloomberg:
Investigation: 2020 to 2023 data shows how thousands of middlemen game the H-1B program and companies farm out IT workers to exploit the US visa lottery system  —  Each year in April, the US government conducts a lottery that shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people — and America's future as an economic power.
Reuters:
UAE-based G42 is working with the US and Emirati government “to comply with the highest global standards” in AI, after US lawmakers questioned its China ties  —  UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42 is actively working with U.S. partners and the Emirati government to comply …
More: Politico
Tales Azzoni / Associated Press:
The Premier League, Bundesliga, DAZN, Sky, UEFA, CONMEBOL, and others write to X CEO Linda Yaccarino demanding more action against illegal soccer content on X  —  Some of Europe's main broadcasters and top soccer leagues have sent a letter to the CEO of social media platform X, Linda Yaccarino …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity need to pay to scrape Reddit's data, and blocking them has been “a real pain in the ass”  —  After striking deals with Google and OpenAI, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is calling on Microsoft and others to pay if they want to continue scraping the site's data.

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Anna Washenko / Engadget:
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