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January 16, 2025, 8:50 PM
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Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nintendo teases the Switch 2, featuring a new kickstand design and backward compatibility for physical and digital games, with more details on April 2, 2025  —  The console looks a lot like the original, but it's bigger.  In the video, the Joy-Con controllers are black with colored accents, and they attach to the console magnetically.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple disables notification summaries for News & Entertainment apps in iOS 18.3 beta and makes other changes to summaries, including using italicized text  —  Apple released iOS 18.3 beta 3 to developers this afternoon.  The update includes a handful of changes to the notification summaries feature of Apple Intelligence.
New York Times:
Sources: Zuckerberg told Stephen Miller that he would do nothing to obstruct Trump's agenda and blamed Sheryl Sandberg for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook  —  Stephen Miller was the architect of Donald J. Trump's hard-line immigration agenda in his first term.
Eric Geller / Wired:
Joe Biden issues a cybersecurity EO to improve the way the government monitors its networks, buys software, uses AI, and punishes foreign hackers  —  US president Joe Biden just issued a 40-page executive order that aims to bolster federal cybersecurity protections, directs government use of AI …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft bundles its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions for an extra $3 per month  —  Microsoft is bundling its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 Personal and Home subscriptions, but it's also raising prices as a result.
The Information:
Sources: RedNote staff is scrambling to hide US users' posts from Chinese users after China raised concerns about politically sensitive English-language posts  —  A pending ban of TikTok in the U.S. is prompting a flood of TikTok users to try out Chinese social media app RedNote.
Reuters:
Source: over 700K new users joined Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, in just two days; Sensor Tower: the app's US downloads were up more than 200% YoY this week
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
UK's Ofcom imposes robust age checks on porn sites, which could include photo ID matching, facial age estimation technology, and credit card checks  —  Ofcom sets out new rules that could include photo ID matching and credit card verification  —  The UK media regulator will make it harder …
ABC News:
A US official says the Biden administration won't force TikTok to go dark in the country on January 19 and will leave it up to Trump to implement the law  —  The ban goes into effect on Sunday unless the Supreme Court intervenes.  —  TikTok logo on a smartphone.
New York Times:
Sources: TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans to attend Trump's inauguration after being invited to sit on the dais, joining Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at the event
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
The FTC bans GM from selling driver behavior and geolocation data to consumer reporting agencies for five years, after finding GM didn't properly inform drivers  —  An investigation by the Federal Trade Commission determined that consumers had not been aware that the automaker was providing their driving information to data brokers.
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
A look at the legal dispute between Walgreens and Cooler Screens, which installed 10,000 smart doors that track shoppers and show ads at Walgreens' US stores  —  A startup promised the pharmacy chain its high-tech coolers would track shoppers and spark an in-store ad revolution.
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
An interview with Replit CEO Amjad Masad, who says the company's revenue grew 5x over the past six months after releasing a new AI coding tool called Agent  —  THE SCENE  —  Replit has had a turbulent year, but CEO Amjad Masad's sonorous voice was almost zen-like as he spoke to me on Monday …
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
CFPB announces a $175M settlement with Block, including $120M in refunds to consumers, saying Cash App allowed rampant fraud while misleading its customers  —  On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a massive $175 million settlement with Block, the publicly traded financial conglomerate led by Jack Dorsey.
Reuters:
NOYB files complaints against AliExpress, Shein, TikTok, Xiaomi, Temu, and WeChat over claims they are unlawfully sending EU user data to China  —  TikTok, Shein, Xiaomi (1810.HK) and three other Chinese companies were named in a privacy complaint filed on Thursday by Austrian advocacy group Noyb …
Gaby Del Valle / The Verge:
Tech trade groups NetChoice and TechNet sue CFPB for its efforts to regulate digital payment apps like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Venmo more like banks  —  Two major tech trade groups are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) effort to treat payment apps and digital wallets like banks.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Letter: Google told EU it will not add fact checks to search results and YouTube videos or use them in ranking or removing content, despite new EU requirements  —  - The code would require Google to incorporate fact-check results alongside Google's search results and YouTube videos.
Zoë Schiffer / Wired:
Sources: Mira Murati's AI startup has poached about 10 researchers and engineers, including former OpenAI Head of Special Projects Jonathan Lachman, from rivals  —  It's a major get for Murati's mysterious startup, which has also poached engineers and researchers from a number of other prominent AI firms.
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
US school districts hit by PowerSchool's December breach say hackers accessed “all” historical student and teacher data; PowerSchool has 50M+ US student records  —  U.S. school districts affected by the recent cyberattack on edtech giant PowerSchool have told TechCrunch that hackers accessed …
Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Trump plans to nominate Olivia Trusty, policy director for a US Senate committee, as the third Republican member of the FCC's five-person commission  —  President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he intends to nominate Olivia Trusty to fill an upcoming vacancy at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Bloomberg:
Zhou Chaonan, the chairwoman of data center operator Range Intelligent, has become China's third richest woman after her company's stock rose 105% in 2024  —  - Range Intelligent's chairwoman Zhou joins world's 500 richest  — TikTok owner ByteDance is one of Range's major customers

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UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
AI meeting assistants: A game-changer in communication  —  We've come a long way from live video call demonstrations at world's fairs.  What was once considered a futuristic idea is now a vital part of how we collaborate …
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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:50 PM ET, January 16, 2025.

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.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Ally Jarmanning / New Hampshire Public Radio:
The US charges addiction treatment network founder Eric Spofford with orchestrating vandalism at NHPR reporters' homes after a report into alleged sexual abuse

David Remnick / New Yorker:
Q&A with Lesley Stahl on the pressures at CBS News and 60 Minutes, Trump's lawsuit and likely settlement, Shari Redstone, Bill Owens stepping down, and more

More News

Tonya Riley / Bloomberg Law:
FTC finalizes changes to COPPA, including requiring opt-in consent for targeted ads and prohibiting companies from retaining kids' data indefinitely
Eli Blumenthal / CNET:
AT&T stops 5G Internet Air service in New York, as a new law mandates monthly broadband rates of $15 for 25Mbps or $20 for 200Mbps for low-income residents
New York Times:
Anduril plans to build a $1B factory in Columbus, Ohio called Arsenal-1 to eventually produce tens of thousands of autonomous systems and weapons each year

Earlier Picks

Paresh Dave / Wired:
Four current Meta employees, citing internal discussions, say the actual number of full-time staff who will have to relocate from California to Texas is limited
William Langley / Financial Times:
Canalys: China smartphone shipments rose 4% YoY to 285M units in 2024, with Vivo up 11% to a 17% market share, Huawei up 37% to 16%, and Apple down 17% to 15%
TechCrunch:
In a deposition for the Kadrey v. Meta copyright case, Mark Zuckerberg seemingly cited YouTube to justify Meta's use of copyrighted data for AI training
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