Meta rolls out end-to-end encryption to Messenger by default for one-on-one chats and calls, fulfilling a yearslong promise; E2EE for group chats remains opt-in
Meta is now rolling out end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook, finally fulfilling …
Sources: Bungie's recent layoffs came alongside a scramble to avoid a total Sony takeover, which could happen if Bungie doesn't meet certain financial goals
The Destiny 2 and Marathon developer may not be able to cling to the last of its independence forever.
Apple guidelines now say that US law enforcement can obtain the Apple ID associated with a push notification token via a subpoena; Google requires a court order
Apple and Google had been told to keep the practice secret until Sen. Ron Wyden revealed it in a letter Wednesday
The UK accuses a unit of Russia's FSB of using cyberattacks in a “sustained but unsuccessful” campaign to undermine democratic institutions since 2015
The British government accused a unit of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on Thursday of using cyberattacks in a …
Robinhood launches a commission-free crypto trading app, supporting 25+ cryptocurrencies, in the EU, a week after the company launched stock trading in the UK
- More than 25 tokens available to trade for free at launch — Launch comes as Bitcoin's price recovers to 19-month high
AMD launches Instinct MI300X and MI300A AI accelerators and claims the MI300X delivers up to 1.6x more performance than Nvidia's H100 HGX in inference workloads
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware :
Sony's Discovery content removals due to licensing “arrangements” and unexpected account bans are timely reminders of why users don't really own digital content
In less than a week, Sony has given us two timely reminders of the tenuousness of digital “ownership” — and both reminders involve things on PlayStation.
Sources: Apple plans a revamped iPad Pro with an OLED screen, iPad Airs with 10.9" and 12.9" screens, 13" and 15" MacBook Airs with M3, and more for early 2024
- New models follow an unprecedented drought in iPad releases — Vision Pro, larger iPhones and new AirPods also coming in 2024
Meta debuts Imagine with Meta, a standalone text-to-image generator on the web powered by its Emu model that generates four images per prompt, free for US users
Not to be outdone by Google's Gemini launch, Meta's rolling out a new, standalone generative AI experience on the web …
Bitzlato co-founder Anatoly Legkodymov pleads guilty in the US to running a money transmitting business for illicit funds and plans to close the crypto exchange
Anatoly Legkodymov says he'll dissolve the sanctioned exchange as part of his plea. — Register Now
Nintendo cancels Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo and delays Splatoon and Mario Kart esports events after “persistently receiving threats” against staff and spectators
Splatoon and Mario Kart events postponed too — Nintendo has today announced that the first Nintendo Live event of 2024 …
Sources: Montenegro's Justice Minister has privately said he plans to extradite Do Kwon to the US rather than South Korea to face criminal charges
Alexander Osipovich and Marko Vešović — Montenegro's top justice official has privately said he plans to send disgraced crypto tycoon …
Google posts instructions for restoring files in Google Drive for desktop, after users reported last week that some of their files disappeared from the service
Google has a solution for the sync issue that caused files to disappear for some users on Drive for desktop.
Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, and OpenAI say they plan to use AMD's new Instinct MI300X GPU; Microsoft plans to offer access to the chips through Azure
- Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft said they will use AMD's newest AI chip, the Instinct MI300X — a sign that tech companies want alternatives …
PitchBook: approximately 3,200 private venture-backed US companies, which had raised a combined $27.2B in VC funding, have gone out of business in 2023
After staving off collapse by cutting costs, many young tech companies are out of options, fueling a cash bonfire.
Reuters temporarily removes its article titled “How an Indian startup hacked the world” to comply with an Indian court order, and plans to appeal the decision
Reuters has temporarily removed the article “How an Indian startup hacked the world” to comply with a preliminary court order issued …
Microsoft announces a major security leadership reshuffle as part of its Secure Future Initiative, replacing Bret Arsenault with Igor Tsyganskiy as Global CISO
Microsoft Corp. has announced a significant shakeup of its security team, with its long-time leader being put into a new role …
Researchers detail AutoSpill, a flaw on Android that can expose users' saved credentials from 1Password, LastPass, and other popular password managers
A number of popular mobile password managers are inadvertently spilling user credentials due to a vulnerability in the autofill functionality of Android apps.
TrendForce: the top 10 chip foundries' Q3 revenue rose 7.9% YoY to ~$28.29B; TSMC was first at ~$17B; Intel made the list for the first time in several quarters
The global foundry industry witnessed a substantial rise in demand in the third quarter of 2023, according to TrendForce.
Microsoft says Russia-aligned propagandists duped at least seven Western celebrities via Cameo into recording videos used to attack Ukraine's President Zelensky
Microsoft found that celebrities were tricked into making videos used to attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Meta announces Purple Llama, an initiative to promote responsible AI development through the release of tools and evaluations to build open generative AI models
Meta Platforms Inc. is looking to promote the responsible development of artificial intelligence systems with a new initiative called Purple Llama.
A review of Amazon's $315 Echo Frames Carrera Cruiser: more stylish and better battery life, but pricey, bass isn't great, audio leaks, and Alexa isn't the best
I felt like a Kardashian reject roaming the streets of New York City, but hey, Alexa could tell me the weather.
Sources: Steve Hotelling, the Apple VP overseeing technologies like touchscreen, health sensors, and Face ID, and one of the inventors of Touch ID, is retiring
- Steve Hotelling oversaw many key technologies at Apple — Executive was a top deputy under hardware boss Johny Srouji
Earnest: Chinese e-commerce platform Temu had nearly 17% of US discount store market share in November, compared to Dollar General's 43% and Dollar Tree's 28%
Temu, the fast-growing Chinese e-commerce platform selling $4 home decor and $10 shirts, is successfully taking …
Users say Google's Gemini Pro is loathe to comment on some controversial news topics, fails to get basic facts right, and struggles with basic coding functions
This week, Google took the wraps off of Gemini, its new flagship generative AI model meant to power a range of products …
Block opens preorders for its self-custodial Bitcoin hardware wallet Bitkey in 95+ countries, coming to the US in early 2024 for $150, after a beta in June 2023
Block, the payments company led by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, announced on Thursday that Bitkey, a physical device …
Meta's Oversight Board takes up two expedited cases, the first ever, related to the Israel-Hamas war, looking at posts that were removed and then reinstated
at unusual speed — on two deleted posts related to Israel-Hamas war Karissa Bell / Engadget : Meta's Oversight Board is fast-tracking two cases about Israel-Hamas war content Russell Brandom / Rest of...
A profile of Chinese whistleblower Tang Mingfang, who is still paying the price for calling out injustices at a Foxconn factory making Amazon devices in 2019
Four years after Tang Mingfang called out the injustices he witnessed at a Foxconn factory in China, nothing has changed — except for him X: @thorstenbenner and @neilos49 LinkedIn: Aaron Halegua and S...
Apple's machine learning research team quietly releases MLX, an array framework to train and deploy ML models on Apple silicon, available on GitHub
Jonny Evans / Computerworld :
Researchers unveil LogoFAIL, an attack that defeats UEFI boot protections in nearly all Windows and Linux computers and can be remotely executed in many cases
The UK FCA, the PRA, and the Bank of England issue a joint consultation paper setting out proposals to strengthen oversight of banks' cloud computing providers
Financial Times :
Sources: Microsoft plans the next major Windows version for 2024, with an AI-powered Windows Shell, an “advanced Copilot”, natural language search, and more
Zac Bowden / Windows Central :
Amazon tells users that the service plans to stop accepting Venmo as a payment method on January 10, 2024, after rolling out Venmo support in October 2022
- Amazon will no longer allow users to pay with Venmo beginning Jan. 10, according to a notice sent to users.
Paytm's stock fell ~20% after the company announced plans to issue fewer personal loans under ~$600 to comply with the Reserve Bank of India's tightening rules
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Q&A with Sundar Pichai on Gemini, the leading AI benchmarks, hallucinations, making AI helpful for all, the legal AI landscape, the future of search, and more
Mat Honan / MIT Technology Review :
MIT spinoff Liquid AI, which aims to build AI systems powered by liquid neural networks, emerges from stealth with a $37.6M seed at a $303M post-money valuation
US officials attribute a DDoS attack on the HHS in March 2020 to a state-level actor; docs: the DDoS attack was the largest the US government ever experienced
Bloomberg : X: @niubi X: Bill Bishop / @niubi : A massive cyberattack hit the US government in the early days of Covid. For the first time, officials reveal its scale https://www.bloomberg.com/... vi...
Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which is building LLMs that support Indian languages, emerges from stealth with a $41M combined seed and Series A led by Lightspeed
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Travel booking service Klook raised a $210M Series E+ led by Bessemer, taking its total funding to $900M+, after turning cash flow positive in mid-2023
Olivia Poh / Bloomberg :
How Google, Meta, and other tech giants ramped up university donations over the years, giving them influence over AI, social media, and disinformation research
Washington Post :
Sources: House Republicans blocked a measure to speed up US chip projects in must-pass defense legislation, a key priority for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo
Bloomberg :
In a US appeals court, the FTC argues that a federal judge held the agency to too high a standard when she ruled that Microsoft's $69B Activision deal was legal
Air Space Intelligence, whose Waze-like tool Flyways helps flight dispatchers pick routes for planes, raised $34M led by a16z, sources say at a ~$300M valuation
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg :
Sydney-based Leonardo.Ai, which lets users generate AI images for use in creative industries, raised $31M, and reports its 7M users have generated 700M+ images
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch :
TSMC and Arizona labor unions reach a deal covering foreign workers and more, to resolve labor disputes that have dogged TSMC's fab construction in Phoenix
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg :
NYC-based Pontera, which builds software for managing retirement accounts, raised $60M, a source says at a $550M+ valuation, taking its total funding to $160M
Krystal Hu / Reuters :
AWS re:Invent 2023 shows Amazon lags behind rivals in generative AI, as half of the 22 announcements are still in preview and were seemingly developed in a rush
Corey Quinn / Last Week in AWS : X: @quinnypig and @quinnypig X: Corey Quinn / @quinnypig : It took longer than you'd think to get this thing published after re:Invent. My favorite part are the image...
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