Hands-on with Threads: fairly basic text-based messaging app, log in via Instagram, no hashtags, can't search for anything other than user handles, and more
Programming note: I really was trying to take a vacation, but this felt like it was worth the one-day interruption.
Meta launches Instagram's Threads, available on the App Store and Google Play in 100+ countries; users log in via Instagram and can follow the same accounts
- Threads is a text-based messaging app that looks very similar to Twitter. — People will be able to use their Instagram usernames …
Instagram Threads feels like Twitter's early days, offering users an insta-network underpinned by Meta's infrastructure that helped surpass smaller rivals
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times :
Meta's Supplemental Privacy Policy for Threads says “your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account”, surprising some users
Threads, Meta's Twitter rival, is drawing users at an astounding pace, amassing 10 million signups in just seven hours …
Q&A with Adam Mosseri on how Threads began, why the service is a “risky endeavor”, creating a standalone app off of Instagram, ActivityPub, Elon Musk, and more
The ‘volatility’ of Twitter under Elon Musk has given Instagram an opening to compete.
Sources: CFTC investigators concluded that bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network misled investors and that its former CEO Alex Mashinsky also broke US rules
Investigators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have concluded that bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network …
Framing AI debates as a schism between people worried about AI going rogue and those illuminating actual harms is ahistorical and obscures important research
In two recent conversations with very thoughtful journalists, I was asked about the apparent ‘schism’ between those making a lot … Bluesky: @abeba.bsky.social , @mmitchell.bsky.social , and @emilymben...
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads now has over 30M signups, up from 10M within seven hours of launch, 5M in four hours, and 2M in two hours
Update July 6, 11:45 AM IST: Zuckerberg noted that Threads crossed the milestone of 10 million signups within seven hours of launch.
Samsung announces its next Galaxy Unpacked event for July 26 in Seoul at 7am ET, where the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5, Watch 6, and new tablets are expected
Samsung has announced it's hosting its next Unpacked on July 26th at 7AM ET — bright and early for the east coast …
Mastodon CEO says the launch of Instagram's Threads, which intends to adopt ActivityPub, “is a clear victory for our cause, hopefully one of many to come”
Today, Meta is launching its new microblogging platform called Threads. What is noteworthy about this launch …
How Tom Brady's crypto ambitions, including a bet on FTX, collided with reality, an example of the humiliating reckoning facing celebrities who embraced crypto
The superstar quarterback is among the celebrities dealing with the fallout from the crypto crash. Others, like Taylor Swift, escaped.
Spotify no longer lets subscribers still paying via the App Store use IAP as a payment method; new subscribers were barred from using Apple's IAP in May 2016
Spotify hasn't let new Premium subscribers pay for service using in-app purchases via Apple's App Store since May 2016 …
Source: the US State Department cancels meetings with Meta about the 2024 election, one day after a judge limited Biden officials' contact with tech companies
A Louisiana federal court's order limiting the Biden administration's communications with tech firms already is disrupting efforts to fight misinformation.
Bluesky raised an $8M seed led by Neo and partners with Namecheap to offer easy custom domain purchasing and management, Bluesky's first paid service
Hours before Meta launches its anticipated Instagram competitor, Threads, another Twitter rival — Bluesky — is announcing additional funding and its first paid service.
OpenAI forms Superalignment, a team for developing ways to steer and control “superintelligent” AI systems, with access to 20% of its compute secured to date
OpenAI is forming a new team led by Ilya Sutskever, its chief scientist and one of the company's co-founders …
Twitter quietly backtracks on requiring users to log in to see individual tweets, ending Elon Musk's “temporary emergency measure”; profiles remain blocked
The platform is becoming slightly more usable just as Meta opens up its Twitter competitor.
A look at Dustin Moskovitz's Open Philanthropy, which has spent ~$500M on student scholarships and more at Stanford and other universities to fight rogue AI
https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Mastodon: Baldur Bjarnason / @baldur@toot.cafe : “How elite schools like Stanford became fixated on the AI apocalypse: A billionaire-backed movement is recruiting c...
PitchBook: US VCs invested $39.8B in Q2 2023, down ~50% YoY, across 3,011 startup deals, down ~33% YoY, with the number of angel or seed deals falling ~50% YoY
Venture capitalists are funding fewer startups, especially at the earliest stages of a company's life, according to new data from research firm PitchBook.
TSMC does not expect China's gallium and germanium export curbs to have any “impact on TSMC's production”; a Chinese official said the rules are “just a start”
Taiwan's TSMC (2330.TW), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said on Thursday it does not expect …
Mastercard says nine UK banks, including Lloyds and NatWest, signed up to use its AI-based Consumer Fraud Risk system, trained on years of transaction data
Mastercard Inc. is selling a new artificial intelligence-powered tool that helps banks more effectively spot if their customers are trying to send money to fraudsters.
Sources: Google has delayed the release of its first fully customized chip for the Pixel by at least a year, after originally planning to introduce it in 2024
Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things haven't gone according to plan.
A look at a National Defense Authorization Act amendment, which if passed would forbid US government agencies from buying citizens' search histories and more
An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would forbid government entities from buying Americans' search histories, location data, and more. Bluesky: @dell.bsky.social . Mastodon: @daniel...
The US military is running an eight-week exercise of five LLMs trained on classified info to test AI-enabled data for decision-making, sensors, and firepower
Matthew Strohmeyer is sounding a little giddy. The US Air Force colonel has been running data-based exercises inside the US Defense Department for years. Twitter: @stbaasch Twitter: Stephan Baasch / ...
Fairphone and Murena partner to launch the user-repairable, modular Fairphone 4 in the US for $599+, unlocked and running the Google-free /e/ OS, not Android
the repairable, sustainable smartphone—is coming to the US Jay Bonggolto / Android Police : Fairphone 4 arrives in the US without Google apps on board Dan Avery / CNET : Fairphone 4: A Phone for Peopl...
NYC's law on AI use in hiring takes effect, requiring annual software audits, race and gender impact disclosures, and up to $1,500 fines per violation per day
Lauren Weber / Wall Street Journal :
Nansen: NFT royalties hit a two-year low in June 2023, with a week of payouts falling to ~$3.8M from a ~$76M April 2022 peak, as royalty-optional platforms rise
Cam Thompson / CoinDesk :
US fintech group FIS plans to sell a majority stake in its merchant payments arm Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR for up to $18.5B, including $11.7B in cash
Antoine Gara / Financial Times :
A US Navy red team member releases TeamsPhisher, which leverages an unfixed Microsoft Teams bug to send malware from an account outside a targeted organization
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer :
DigitalOcean agrees to acquire NY-based Paperspace, which offers cloud computing for AI models, for $111M in cash; Paperspace had raised $35M from YC and others
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch :
A test by the New York Fed and big banks on a private blockchain finds tokenized deposits can improve wholesale payments without “insuperable legal impediments”
Bloomberg :
Tokyo-based Telexistence, which develops AI-powered robotic arms for retail and logistics, raised a $170M Series B from SoftBank, Airbus Ventures, and others
Kate Park / TechCrunch :
After Fortinet patched a major FortiOS bug on June 12, researchers find that ~336K out of ~490K affected SSL VPN interfaces are still unpatched and open to RCE
many used by government organizations — aren't patched to deal with a critical bug identified last month https://therecord.media/...
Gfycat, a Snap-owned GIF-hosting platform, plans to shut down on September 1, 2023; the site was down for five days in May due to an expired SSL certificate
Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica :
Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud plans to step down at the end of August 2023 “to pursue a new opportunity”; board member Adam Gross will become interim CEO on September 1
Jesse Levine / Bloomberg :
A look at AI Dungeon and other games that let players use generative AI to create in-game content, raising questions about authorship, ownership, and copyright
Banking app Clair, which helps employees get paid after finishing a shift, raised $25M led by Thrive Capital and $150M in debt from partner bank Pathward
Christine Hall / TechCrunch :
A look at Chinese streaming service Mango TV, run by state-owned Hunan Broadcasting System; QuestMobile: Mango TV had 280M MAUs in April 2023, vs. ~100M in 2019
Takashi Kawakami / Nikkei Asia : See also Mediagazer
Sensor Tower: ChatGPT iOS app downloads and Bing app downloads in the US were down 38% MoM in June 2023; Bank of America: visits to ChatGPT were down ~11% MoM
Kif Leswing / CNBC :
Twitter subsidiary Twitter Payments secured its first US money transmitter licenses over the past week from Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire
Tokyo-based CADDi, which offers a B2B marketplace for the manufacturing sector and an AI-based cloud service for managing drawing data, raised an $89M Series C
PitchBook: global crypto startup funding was $2.34B across 382 deals in Q2 2023, down for the fifth straight quarter; valuations fell nearly 70% YoY in H1 2023
Jacquelyn Melinek / TechCrunch : Twitter: @drleostrauss Twitter: Leo Strauss / @drleostrauss : A reason Silicon Valley techbros insistently push 🇺🇸 already in a recession - besides trying to damage B...
Munich-based EGYM, which sells smart fitness apps, diagnostics, and hardware to measure how people work out, raised a $225M Series F led by Affinity Partners
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