How Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, an important metric in entertainment, became erratic and reductive as some PR firms hack its score by paying obscure “critics”
In 2018, a movie-publicity company called Bunker 15 took on a new project: Ophelia, a feminist retelling of Hamlet starring Daisy Ridley.
Source: at Gamescom in August, Nintendo demoed the Switch 2 running a souped up version of Breath of the Wild to developers; the device is expected in 2024
Ahead of widely-expected launch next year. — News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief — In Cologne last month …
Sources: China plans to expand its ban on iPhones in sensitive departments to government agencies and state companies, an unprecedented blockade; AAPL drops 3%+
- Beijing begins by banning the devices from certain bodies — It could deal blow to Apple and amplifies a self-reliance push
Molly Holzschlag, aka “mollydotcom”, a longtime advocate for the open web and accessible, inclusive online design standards, died at 60 on September 5
Pioneer of online design & accessibility — Molly Holzschlag, whose pioneering work in online design standards led to her being dubbed …
Microsoft says Chinese hackers who in June breached US government email accounts stole an MSA key from a crash dump after hacking a Microsoft engineer's account
Microsoft says Storm-0558 Chinese hackers stole a signing key used to breach government email accounts from a Windows crash dump …
Riot Blockchain reports earning $31.7M in energy credits from Texas' power grid to curtail its usage in August, dwarfing the ~$8.9M worth of bitcoin mined
- Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms raked in $31.7 million in energy credits from Texas power grid operator ERCOT in August.
Vitalik Buterin co-authors a paper on “Privacy Pools”, a blockchain protocol to verify the legality of user funds without revealing a full transaction history
- Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin co-authored a research paper on a privacy protocol named Privacy Pools. Source: SSRN .
Ghostwriter, the anonymous creator who used AI to mimic Drake and The Weeknd, has met with record labels, Grammy organizers, and more, and releases a new song
The anonymous artist, who stirred conversation with the A.I. track “Heart on My Sleeve,” has been quietly consulting with executives, while also gunning for a Grammy.
Android Security Bulletin for September 2023 patches a privilege escalation zero-day flaw in Android 11-13 that “may be under limited, targeted exploitation”
The September 2023 Android security updates tackle 33 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day bug currently targeted in the wild.
Flexport CEO Dave Clark resigns after one year at the company, which he joined from Amazon; sources: Clark is considering a potential run for governor of Texas
The former Amazon senior executive is considering a potential run for governor of Texas, according to people familiar with the matter
An IMF and Financial Stability Board paper warns jurisdictions against blanket bans on crypto, recommending targeted restrictions and sound monetary policy
The global standard-setters also warned stablecoins adopted by multiple jurisdictions “may transmit volatility more abruptly” than other crypto.
An excerpt from the new Elon Musk biography details an argument with Larry Page in 2013 over the dangers of AI, how he founded OpenAI and xAI, and more
At a conference in 2012, Elon Musk met Demis Hassabis, the video-game designer and artificial—intelligence researcher who had co-founded …
Google plans to update Chrome to incorporate its Material You design language in the coming weeks, including refreshed icons and new color palettes
Chrome on the desktop is about to get a new look. Google's widely used browser is getting an update based on its Material You design language …
An excerpt from the book Number Go Up details an April 2022 FTX conference in the Bahamas, where writer Michael Lewis lavished Sam Bankman-Fried with praise
Three years ago, nobody knew who you were. And now you're sitting on the cover of magazines. And you're a gazillionaire.
YouTube plans to drop some Studio ad controls, limiting creators' control over pre-roll, post-roll, skippable, and non-skippable ads, starting in November 2023
YouTube is making some notable changes to the ad controls available to creators. Beginning in November, YouTube …
Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, describes the company's evolution from a gaming company to a broader entertainment company, including live events
For decades, Nintendo was synonymous with video games. Now in its second century, the Japanese company wants to be much more. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to . X: @genepark Mastodon: Dare Obasanjo / @...
Anthropic launches a $20 per month version of its Claude chatbot in the US and the UK, offering priority during busy times, early access to features, and more
Anthropic, the AI company backed by Google, has launched a paid version of its Claude chatbot in the US and UK.
BMW drops a controversial subscription that activates heated seats or other hardware already in its cars, limiting subscriptions to software-based functions
BMW has made a U-turn on a controversial subscription service that saw drivers pay a fee to activate the heated seats already fitted to their car.
Certa, which offers a compliance, governance, and risk management service for enterprises, raised a $35M Series B, bringing its total raised to “just over” $50M
Certa, a compliance, governance and risk management platform for enterprises, today announced that it raised $35 million …
A test of ChatGPT's ability to respond in underrepresented languages like Bengali and Kurdish found translation errors, fabricated words, and illogical answers
Outside of English, ChatGPT makes up words, fails logic tests, and can't do basic information retrieval. X: @vickiturk and @russellbrandom . Forums: Beehaw X: Vicki Turk / @vickiturk : Love this - @de...
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt attributes angst over driverless cars to anti-robot bias, saying “anything that we do differently than humans is being sensationalized”
Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said in an interview with The Washington Post that the angst around driverless cars in San Francisco is overblown X: @yoda . Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars X: Drew Olanoff / @yoda : I ...
Microsoft commits to defending customers of its AI Copilots from copyright infringement lawsuits, as long as they've “used the guardrails and content filters”
The software giant also will pay related fines and settlements, so long as customers follow its rules.
UNESCO: overreliance on remote learning tech during COVID-19 led to “staggering” education inequality and hindered talk of more equitable, lower-tech options
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed education from schools to educational technologies … John Thornhill / Financial Times : ‘Edtech’ offers no escape from reality Benjamin Godfrey / Coinspeaker : UNESCO Rele...
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT review: great for 1440p gaming and less power hungry but the 7800 XT barely outperforms the 6800 XT and older GPUs may suffice
Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis sues its parent company DCG, seeking to recover ~$620M in cash and BTC outstanding loans despite ongoing settlement talks
Jonathan Randles / Bloomberg :
Filing: Google tentatively settles a US Play Store class action antitrust lawsuit brought by 30+ states and representing 21M+ customers; the court must approve
Clubhouse completely redesigns its iOS and Android apps around a new asynchronous voice-only group chat feature, in an attempt to be “more like a messaging app”
Hey all. We're evolving Clubhouse to be more like a messaging app … Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch : Clubhouse is trying to make a comeback Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today : Clubhouse Adds New...
Norway's $1.4T oil fund, which owns ~1.5% of all listed companies, details its three concerns over AI: board responsibility, transparency, and risk management
Head of sovereign investor warns boards are ‘absolutely not on top’ of the issues surrounding the technology
Google makes its relevance and measurement APIs for Privacy Sandbox generally available, meaning the APIs are now available by default in Chrome
Google's Chrome browser is now one important step closer to its goal of phasing out third-party cookies by the end of 2024.
London-based Shop Circle, which sells restock alerts and other e-commerce tools to merchants, raised a $120M Series A in equity and debt led by 645 and 3VC
Alex York / Forbes :
An analysis of the EU's and other data on iOS and Android usage finds that Apple's App Store generates $10.40 monthly revenue per user vs. $1.40 for Google Play
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs an EO on AI risks, directing state agencies to examine AI threats and authorizing state staff to experiment with AI tools
studying risks & harnessing opportunities. CA leads the world in AI with 35 of the top 50 AI companies. We're showing how to ethically & responsibly use AI. https://www.gov.ca.gov/... @stanfordhai : B...
A profile of Circle, after secondary market shares of the USDC developer traded at a ~$4.8B valuation in August 2023; Circle was valued at ~$8B in April 2022
lots of first-time details on one of the most important firms in crypto https://fortune.com/... @bitfinexed : Circle @jerallaire is losing to a fraud, he's too chicken shit to call Tether the fraud th...
Imbue, formerly Generally Intelligent, which has 10K Nvidia H100 GPUs to train AI agents, raised a $200M Series B at a $1B valuation led by the Astera Institute
The startup, one of very few woman-led AI unicorns, has a $1 billion valuation and access to 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs …
Google plans a November policy update requiring election advertisers to prominently disclose when their ads contain generative AI-based images, video, or audio
Google will soon require that all election advertisers disclose when their messages have been altered or created by AI tools. Afaik, that's the first company from big tech requiring such disclosures o...
Source: Apple's budget for training AI is now millions of dollars per day; its conversational AI team Foundational Models has ~16 people led by Ruoming Pang
here's how (report) Asma Hussain / iThinkDifferent : Apple to make Siri smarter using language models in iOS 18 Ed Hardy / Cult of Mac : Apple's conversational AI efforts began 4 years ago X: @winterm...
SK Hynix opens an investigation into Huawei's Mate 60 Pro using Hynix's LPDDR5 and NAND flash memory, an isolated example of materials sourced outside of China
Bloomberg :
OpenAI announces its first developer conference, OpenAI DevDay, set for November 6 in San Francisco, offering sessions with its staff and a livestreamed keynote
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg :
Spotify tests making song lyrics a Premium-only feature, currently “with a limited number of users in a pair of markets”, as the company seeks to boost revenue
In a novel move, Pinterest updates its content algorithm to surface diverse body types, powered by an AI system trained on 5B+ images of bodies of all sizes
Paresh Dave / Wired :
The FAA approves UPS, uAvionix, and Phoenix Air Unmanned to fly drones beyond operators' line of sight, a key step toward enabling widespread package delivery
Tel Aviv-based Ibex Medical Analytics, which develops AI-powered cancer diagnostics, raised a $55M Series C led by 83North, bringing its total funding to $100M+
Meir Orbach / CTech :
The CWA files two unfair labor practice charges with the US NLRB alleging Grindr cut 82 workers, or 46% of its staff, for rejecting a return-to-office mandate
https://www.wired.com/... X: Caitlin Harrington / @caitharr : New: Grindr issued an in-office mandate 2 weeks after the @GrindrUnited union went public. Now, nearly half of its staff is gone. Today th...
Tencent launches its Hunyuan AI model for business use, integrating the model into its video conferencing and social media products, after ad and fintech tests
Slack announces Slack AI, which can generate channel highlights, thread summaries, and search answers based on messages and files, with a pilot “this winter”
Mariella Moon / Engadget :
Inceptive, whose AI-based tool designs unique mRNA-based molecules that the startup licenses out to pharmaceutical companies, raised $100M from Nvidia and a16z
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.