Microsoft says Russia-linked group Midnight Blizzard hacked some employee emails beginning in November 2023; the same group breached SolarWinds as early as 2019
- Nation-state spies previously conducted cyber-espionage on US — Targeted breaches hit Microsoft executives, cyber team
Dave Mills, who created the Network Time Protocol in 1985 to synchronize time across different computer systems and networks, died at age 85 on January 17
Dave Mills created NTP, the protocol that holds the temporal Internet together, in 1985. — On Thursday, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf announced …
Apple opens pre-orders for the Vision Pro, which has an M2 chip with an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, 16GB of memory, and 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options
Apple today finally shared additional tech specs for its Vision Pro headset following the start of pre-orders in the United States.
Sources: Sam Altman has held talks to raise billions, including $8B to $10B from Abu Dhabi-based G42, to set up a network of factories to manufacture chips
- Push reflects concern about potential semiconductor shortage — Project would involve working with major chipmaking companies
Apple releases Vision Pro accessories, including a travel case, a battery pack, and a Light Seal, all for $199 each, and Solo Knit and Dual Loop bands for $99
$199 travel case, $199 battery, and more William Gallagher / AppleInsider : Apple and a very few third parties unveil first Vision Pro accessories June Wan / ZDNet : Apple Vision Pro's $199 Travel Cas...
Sources: Elon Musk's xAI secured $500M in commitments out of $1B and is aiming for a $15B to $20B valuation; source: X investors are invited to invest in xAI
- Grok maker aims for valuation of at least $15 billion — Investors in X, formerly Twitter, getting priority in round
BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka “Pompompurin”, is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum
Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today in the Eastern District of Virginia …
Author Rie Kudan, this year's winner of Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Prize, reveals that ~5% of her book “quoted verbatim the sentences generated by” ChatGPT
Dan Ladden-Hall / The Daily Beast :
Sources: the US DOJ and FTC are discussing which agency can investigate the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership and which can probe companies for scraping web content
One of the most high-profile tech partnerships in years has drawn scrutiny from regulators, who currently can't pursue an investigation.
Indian smartphone shipments in Q4 2023 grew 20% YoY to 38.9M units, after five quarters of declines; total shipments for 2023 declined 2% YoY to 148.6M units
The latest Canalys research shows Indian smartphone vendors capitalized on robust festival season demand and propelled Q4 shipments …
Stability AI releases Stable LM 2 1.6B, which the company says outperforms other small AI language models on most benchmarks, including Microsoft's Phi-2
Size certainly matters when it comes to large language models (LLMs) as it impacts where a model can run.
How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud
Voice cloning is just one of the new tools in the tricksters' armoury — It was last spring when Paddric Fitzgerald received a telephone call at work.
Kazakhstan-based mobile app provider Kaspi.kz raised $1B+ in its US IPO, with the stock rising 4.3% on its debut, giving the company a market cap of ~$18B
The American depositary shares, which were trading below their IPO price until the final minute of their New York debut Friday …
Flexport raised $260M from Shopify, one of its biggest shareholders; Shopify sold its money-losing logistics unit to Flexport in exchange for equity in May 2023
Report FreightWaves : Flexport raises $260M from Shopify Threads: Ran Reichman / @ranreichman : I don't understand this on two accounts: 1. Flexport CEO said they have a fortress balance sheet quite ...
Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply makes alternative options non-viable for app developers
The Supreme Court this week declined to hear Apple's appeal of an antitrust case that compels the company to allow app developers to link to external, web-based payment options.
Rabbit's R1 will use Perplexity AI's tech to answer user queries; the first 100K buyers of the $199 device get one year of Perplexity Pro, worth $200, for free
rabbit r1 is 2024's most exciting launch yet Chris Smith / BGR : Here's another reason to buy a Rabbit r1: Perplexity Pro AI with GPT-4 Jonathan Lamont / MobileSyrup : Rabbit's R1 AI device will use P...
The EU Commission is seeking feedback on concessions Apple offered, including opening its Tap to Pay tech to third-party wallets for 10 years, to settle a probe
Piotr Lipinski / Reuters :
How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud
Voice cloning is just one of the new tools in the tricksters' armoury — It was last spring when Paddric Fitzgerald received a telephone call at work.
X rolls out audio and video calling to Android, after launching on iOS in October 2023; all users can receive calls, but only Premium subscribers can place them
can you clarify why this is a good feature? And what problem will this solve? Why will I use X to call people on Android and not WhatsApp or other messaging apps that I am already so used to? Sam Bidd...
Google says 404 Media's report claiming Google is “boosting” AI-written article is misleading since the writer sorted news content by date rather than relevance
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable :
YouTube Head of Gaming Leo Olebe was among the 100 employees that Google laid off from YouTube this week
whose success was largely made *because of* gaming—not having a strong gaming lead and team is a good omen. …
AMD says it removed the country of diffusion labels from all new CPUs and APUs, after criticism that it removed the “Diffused in Taiwan” labels to appease China
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware :
How urban planners in Barcelona and others are using supercomputers and AI to create digital twins of their cities to address issues like traffic congestion
Joy Lo Dico / 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.