Google unveils Gemini, an AI model with Ultra, Pro, and Nano tiers, and plans a paid chatbot version in 2024; Google says Gemini Ultra beats GPT-4 on most tests
NASA Discovers Root Cause of Parachute Glitch in Asteroid Sample Landing — Magnesium Supplements Could Protect Your Liver From Acetaminophen
Microsoft plans to offer three additional years of monthly Windows 10 security updates, paid for annually, after the OS' end-of-support date on October 14, 2025
Windows 10 gets a version of the program that extended updates for Windows 7. — Windows 10's end-of-support date is October 14, 2025.
Twitch plans to shut down in South Korea on February 27, 2024, saying the country was “prohibitively expensive” to operate in despite working to reduce costs
Games livestreaming platform Twitch is shutting down its business operations in South Korea February 27, 2024.
Google updates Bard to use its Gemini Pro model, which the company says represents Bard's “biggest and best upgrade yet” and can match and even exceed ChatGPT
While OpenAI's ChatGPT has become a worldwide phenomenon and one of the fastest-growing consumer products ever …
Beeper debuts Beeper Mini for Android, which lets users send iMessages using E2EE, without having to use a new number or log in with an Apple ID, for $2/month
Earlier this year, a developer slid into Eric Migicovsky's DMs with a spectacular claim: that he had reverse engineered Apple's iMessage …
Google adds Gemini Nano, its native, local-first LLM, to the Pixel 8 Pro, powering Gboard's Smart Reply and Recorder's auto-summarize, before an Android launch
Gemini may be the biggest, most powerful large language model, or LLM, Google has ever developed, but it's better suited to running in data centers than on your phone.
Apple was prevented by the “federal government” from sharing details on governments' push notifications spying, and will now share info after Ron Wyden's letter
Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps' push notifications, a U.S. senator warned on Wednesday.
Q&A with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on Gemini, digital agents, changing search's UX, the pace of AI development, coding, and more
CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind's Demis Hassabis talk to Platformer about the promise — and product roadmap — of their answer to GPT-4
Coinbase updates Wallet, available in 170+ countries, to let users send crypto via any app where they can share a link, including email, social, and messaging
Recipients need to download a Coinbase Wallet to receive the funds, but the crypto exchange says they've simplified the process for less tech-savvy users.
Microsoft updates Copilot with DALL-E 3 and says GPT-4 Turbo support and a Code Interpreter feature are coming soon; Bing will get a “Deep Search” feature
Microsoft is detailing a number of new features coming to its Copilot service soon, including OpenAI's latest models.
New Mexico sues Meta, alleging the company let Facebook and Instagram “become a marketplace for predators in search of children”, and blames Mark Zuckerberg
State investigators' test accounts with AI-generated photos were deluged with sexual propositions and adult sex content …
SAG-AFTRA members ratify the union's three-year contract with studios after 78% voted in favor; some members remain dissatisfied with the deal's AI protections
The SAG-AFTRA vote formally ends six months of labor strife, though some members were not happy about the contract's artificial intelligence protections.
Google announces its Cloud TPU v5p, an updated version of its Cloud TPU v5e, consisting of 8,960 chips at 4,800 Gpbs/chip interconnect, and available by request
Google today announced the launch of its new Gemini large language model (LLM) and with that, the company also launched its new Cloud TPU v5p …
The internet enabled mass surveillance, and AI will enable mass spying, once limited by human labor, by making troves of data searchable and understandable
Spying and surveillance are different but related things. If I hired a private detective to spy on you, that detective could hide … Threads: @ben.werdmuller . Mastodon: @ben@werd.social and @Schneier...
Sources: the EU leans toward excluding iMessage from DMA rules due to not being popular enough among business users, part of an investigation ending in February
- EU tentatively finds it doesn't warrant being covered by DMA — New antitrust law imposes raft of Big Tech dos and don'ts
Intel publishes and then removes “Core Truths”, a document calling AMD products “snake oil” for using the older Zen 2 architecture in new Ryzen 7000 mobile CPUs
Look in the mirror Intel — Intel recently published a new playbook titled “Core Truths” …
Google details the Gemini-powered AlphaCode 2, an update to the code generating AlphaCode announced in February 2022, beating ~85% of competitors in Codeforces
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch :
Interviews with Sam Altman and 20+ people in his circle reveal a complicated portrait of being brilliant but slippery, as Time names him CEO of the Year 2023
It was a strange Thanksgiving for Sam Altman. Normally, the CEO of OpenAI flies home to St. Louis to visit family. X: @kristileilani , @samraskinz , @aaltman82 , @billyperrigo , and @annmarie X: Kris...
Sources: Apple tells component suppliers of its preference to source iPhone 16 batteries from Indian factories, as part of plans to diversify away from China
Tech giant wants suppliers to build key component in India as part of broader effort to diversify supply chain
Jensen Huang says Nvidia has been “working very closely with the US government” to create products that comply with US curbs on high-end chip exports to China
SINGAPORE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Nvidia (NVDA.O) will continue to develop a new set of products that comply …
UK carrier EE launches broadband TV platform EE TV, to replace the BT TV service, partnering with Apple to offer an Apple TV 4K with a custom EE remote control
EE TV, a new broadband TV platform from EE, today launched as a BT TV replacement service in the UK, offering subscribers …
Amazon plans to cut its merchant fees on clothing items under $15 to 5% and $15 to $20 items to 10% in January 2024, both down from 17%, to compete with Shein
Amazon.com Inc. is sharply cutting fees for merchants selling clothing priced below $20, a sign it's hunkering down for a price war with Chinese fast-fashion upstart Shein.
Google plans to add its “Help me write” AI tool to Chrome desktop, appearing in autofill popups when typing text, expanding on Messages, Gmail, Docs, and Keep
Over the past few months, Google has been steadily introducing AI tools to its many apps and services.
Google updates the Pixel 8 Pro with Video Boost, to let models adjust videos in the cloud, and announces new Pixel features, like a Repair Mode for servicing
Google is bringing some sophisticated new AI smarts to the Pixel 8 Pro today, but it's not stopping there.
AI data startup VAST Data, which unifies storage, databases, and more, raised a $118M Series E led by Fidelity at a $9B valuation, up from $3.7B in May 2021
VAST Data's platform unifies storage, database, and containerized compute engine services into a single, scalable software platform.
Jensen Huang says Huawei, Intel, and an expanding group of semiconductor startups pose a stiff challenge to Nvidia in the race to produce the best AI chips
Olivia Poh / Bloomberg :
TikTok releases its 2023 list of top videos and trends, again showing how disparate users' individual experiences are on the app and how siloed its content is
It's the most wonderful time of the year: when TikTok publishes its annual roundup of the biggest hits, and I get to see what everyone else …
iOS 17.2 RC brings Qi2 wireless charging support to iPhone 13 and iPhone 14-series devices; Apple hasn't said if the phones will charge at 15W on Qi2 chargers
what it means for you Daniel Casil / Gearrice : Qi2 compatible with iPhone 13 and 14 Chris Smith / Trusted Reviews : iOS 17.2 will give older iPhones a major charging boost MacDailyNews : Apple's iOS ...
Elon Musk's xAI files with the US SEC to raise up to $1B in an equity offering, saying the startup has raised nearly $135M from four investors since November 29
tech, AI, crypto Newb / New.blicio.us : X.ai, Elon Musk's Latest Foray into AI Threads: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : An amazing opportunity for the bankers and VCs that didn't get a chance to inves...
AT&T chooses Ericsson to modernize its wireless network with an architecture utilizing open standards, a ~$14B project over five years; ERICB closes up 6.08%
Meta plans to fix a months-long bug that has caused many Instagram videos posted between June 2013 and October 2014 to lose their audio, but offers no timeframe
Jay Peters / The Verge :
Sources: ByteDance offers to buy back up to $5B of shares from existing investors at ~$160 per share, putting the company's valuation at $268B, down ~10% YoY
Beijing-based ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is offering to buy back up to US$5 billion worth of shares from existing investors …
Discord redesigns its mobile app, offering separate messages and server tabs, new messaging features, a Midnight theme, and speed and data usage improvements
Sarah Fielding / Engadget :
ESET researchers have found 18 “SpyLoan” malicious loan Android apps, which have been downloaded 12M+ times from the Google Play store alone, in 2023 so far
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ ... Forums: r/Android : SpyLoan Android malware on Google Play downloaded 12 million times
Binance CEO Richard Teng refuses to disclose the location of the company's global headquarters, maintaining a stance taken by former CEO Changpeng Zhao
Financial Times :
Source: VC firm OpenView laid off most of its staff and does not plan to make new investments, after several partners recently left the firm
OpenView Venture Partners is a VC firm which raised $2.4 billion and is now shutting down because they don't think they can generate returns for their LPs. … X: @saranormous : Dramatic VC fund collaps...
MaintainX, which helps manufacturing, hospitality, and other companies manage operations and maintenance, raised $50M at a $1B valuation, up from $191M in 2021
- Bain Capital Ventures leads $50 million investment in firm — McDonald's, Shell, Duracell are among MaintainX's clients
A look at lawmakers' struggles globally to regulate AI, including the tech's rapid evolution, governments' AI knowledge deficits, and labyrinthine bureaucracies
New York Times :
Alibaba's paper on its Animate Anyone AI model goes viral after videos show the model can replace TikTok influencers after being trained on their videos
the thing it was inadvertently made to accomplish—is the destruction of the internet, by making it so trivially easy to falsify anything that the internet ceases to reliably serve any of the purposes ...
San Diego-based self-driving trucking company TuSimple plans to shutter its US business, laying off ~150, or 75% of its US staff, and move its business to China
Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal :
Asana reports Q3 revenue up 18% YoY to $166.5M, vs. $164.09M est., but warns macroeconomic headwinds continue to impact its net retention rates; ASAN drops 10%+
Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE :
Cambridge, UK-based Pragmatic Semiconductor, which develops and manufactures flexible integrated circuits, raised £182M at a ~£500M post-money valuation
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times :
Q&A with Waymo CPO Saswat Panigrahi on simulating 25K+ vehicles 24/7 to improve AI driving, growing in San Francisco and Phoenix after Cruise's woes, and more
Hayden Field / CNBC : X: @haydenfield . Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars X: Hayden Field / @haydenfield : NEW: As safety incidents and regulators stymie GM's Cruise, Waymo seems to be operating full steam a...
Meta's 28 AI characters are now live across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram in the US, and Meta is experimenting with “long-term memory” for some characters
Earlier this year, Meta introduced a set of AI characters, including those based on real-life celebs including …
Q&A with IBM Quantum Director Jerry Chow on the state of quantum computing, IBM's 10-year quantum roadmap, the IBM Quantum Heron processor, qubits, AI, and more
Nilay Patel / The Verge :
Massachusetts-based Dust Identity, which links physical items to digital records with diamond dust marks, raised a $40M Series B led by Castle Island Ventures
Kim Bhasin / Bloomberg :
Gecko Robotics, whose robots inspect infrastructure for industries including energy, defense, and manufacturing, raised $100M at a $633M post-money valuation
Cisco debuts new security tools, including Cisco AI Assistant for Security, which can understand event triage, impact and scope, root cause analysis, and more
Leaked docs show concern at OctoML about helping its customer Civitai make AI images; OctoML co-founder Thierry Moreau said some “could be categorized as” CSAM
At an all-hands meeting, Cruise President Mo Elshenawy said the company has hit an “all-time low” and its tech needs to be “significantly better” than humans
Greg Bensinger / Reuters : X: @gregbensinger and @gregbensinger X: @gregbensinger : 🚨NEW from @reuters: Cruise's new head acknowledges “all time low” amid safety review, regulatory hurdles at all-han...
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.