Amazon ends its $1.4B acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot after clashing with EU regulators and will pay a $94M fee; iRobot has $500M in net losses since 2021
- IRobot CEO steps down and company cuts workforce by 31% — Tech giant to pay $94 million to iRobot over deal termination
Apple's proposed App Store and iOS changes seek to retain as much control over iOS as possible while staying within the letter of the EU's DMA
After Amazon ended its acquisition, iRobot plans to lay off 31% of its staff, or ~350 people, and says chair and CEO Colin Angle will step down; IRBT drops 15%+
- Amazon and iRobot mutually agreed to call off their planned acquisition, writing that there was “no path” to regulatory approval and sending iRobot shares down 15%.
The Browser Company releases Arc Search, a new iOS app that takes a user's search query, browses the web, and builds a custom webpage to answer the query
A few minutes ago, I opened the new Arc Search app and typed, “What happened in the Chiefs game.” That game, the AFC Championship, had just wrapped up.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: bright screen, anti-glare, Circle to Search, great camera, and seven years of updates, but pricey, heavy, and AI is a mixed bag
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is packed with top-tier hardware, but its highly touted AI features are hit-or-miss — and the price is higher than ever.
Presentation: Amazon says Prime Video's ad load per hour will be two to 3.5 minutes, below traditional TV and most streamers, and expects 195M monthly viewers
Move prompts longtime subscribers to cancel Prime altogether, forgoing free shipping; ‘There is only one way to show them that this is not OK’
The Biden admin plans to use the Defense Production Act to require companies to inform the Commerce Department when they start training high-powered AI models
The Biden administration is using the Defense Production Act to require companies to inform the Commerce Department when they start training high-powered AI algorithms.
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G review: both offer solid levels of gaming performance for $329 and $229, respectively, especially with AMD's fastest cores
One of the most desired desktop chips designed for low-cost systems has been AMD's APUs, or Accelerated Processing Units.
After fake AI images of Taylor Swift went viral, Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer; Microsoft couldn't verify if Designer was used
Following 404 Media's reporting, Microsoft has made changes to a tool people were using to make AI nudes of celebrities.
Apple has handled its response, including its proposed App Store changes, to the EU's DMA with aplomb, despite the law being an assault on Apple's brand promise
an important perspective from someone who had to comply with EU's regs at Microsoft. … Romain Dillet / @romaindillet@mastodon.social : Apple appears to be very insecure with DMA-related App Store chan...
Chinese state media: China has approved more than 40 LLMs for public use since authorities began the approval process in August 2023; 14 were approved last week
China has approved more than 40 artificial intelligence (AI) models for public use in the first six months since authorities began …
Sources: Meta is optimistic Vision Pro can reinvigorate its $50B metaverse effort, with the Quest ecosystem filling the role played by Android in smartphones
Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal :
How Google, Meta, Microsoft, and others balance developing specialized AI chips with their relationship with Nvidia, which has an estimated 70% of AI chip sales
In September, Amazon said it would invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, a San Francisco start-up working on artificial intelligence.
Apple updates Shazam to add support for identifying songs from other apps while listening via wired or Bluetooth headphones
Oliver Haslam / iMore :
How Blackstone is building a $25B US data center empire via its QTS acquisition, using an estimated 6 GW of electricity when complete, equal to ~5M homes' needs
The private equity giant says landlord QTS could be one of its best investments ever — but the resources needed for growth are vast. LinkedIn: Rich Miller LinkedIn: Rich Miller : Bloomberg does a deep...
Meta partners with the Center for Open Science to share data for researching online well-being, before Wednesday's Congressional hearing on kids' online safety
Ahead of a major Congressional hearing about children's online safety, Meta has announced a collaboration with the Center for Open Science …
X blocks Taylor Swift searches as a “temporary action and done with an abundance of caution”, days after explicit AI-generated images of her flooded the site
A look at Warner Bros. Discovery's push to expand its gaming division with live services and mobile games, by leveraging its franchises like Game of Thrones
Jennifer Maas / Variety :
China's chipmakers are ramping up production capacity, helped by the country's subsidies, raising concerns among western nations about China flooding the market
Chris Miller / Financial Times :
The US ODNI appointed cyber expert Jason Barrett in October 2023 to help the intel community harness open-source intel, an area US agencies have struggled with
Scouring open-source intelligence may not have the same cachet as undercover work, but it's become a new priority for the US intelligence agencies.
Sources: Reddit is targeting a valuation “in the mid-single-digit billions” for its planned IPO in March 2024, after raising funds at a $10B valuation in 2021
Researchers: financial sextortion of young users on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube is rising, driven by Yahoo Boys, a West African cybercriminal gang
Source: Japanese telecom NTT and Intel plan to build tech to mass-produce next-gen chips using optical tech to reduce power consumption, a possible game changer
Nikkei Asia :
X plans to build a new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Austin, Texas, and hire 100 full-time moderators to fight child sexual exploitation material
At Pwn2Own's first automotive-focused event, a total of $1.3M+ was awarded across 49 car-related zero-days, which included gaining root access to a Tesla modem
Brandon Vigliarolo / The Register :
AR glasses maker Xreal raised $60M from an unidentified supply chain partner at a $1B+ valuation, for $300M+ in funding, and expects $100M-$150M in 2024 revenue
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg :
How Japan's $6.4B takeover of key photoresists supplier JSR and ~$4.7B buyout of Fujitsu's chip-packaging arm Shinko Electric rankled many in the chip industry
Financial Times : X: @kanainagaki X: Kana Inagaki / @kanainagaki : Here is our deep dive into why semiconductor materials maker JSR turned to a Japanese government-backed fund for a $6.4bn take-priva...
The New York Times says users played its puzzles and games more than 8B times in 2023, led by Wordle with 4.8B plays, and the NYT Games app had 10M downloads
Alex Fitzpatrick / Axios : LinkedIn: Jonathan Knight LinkedIn: Jonathan Knight : I'm incredibly proud of the work that NYT Games is doing to help support our journalistic mission: to seek the truth a...
Sources: DJ Novotney, an Apple VP of hardware engineering who led work on home devices and helped start Apple's electric vehicle project, is leaving for Rivian
Q&A with Simon Willison, Django co-creator and an influential observer of AI software, on copyright concerns over AI, open-source AI models, LLMs, and more
Thomas Claburn / The Register : X: @j2bryson , @simonw , and @rednafi X: Joanna J Bryson / @j2bryson : @ylecun 1) the #AIAct will benefit ALL sized tech firms just as the GDPR did by creating a 400M ...
With high-stakes elections in 2024, some experts worry about a well-timed piece of disinformation, potentially involving a deepfake, having a calamitous impact
Europe's blue-chip stocks index Euro Stoxx 50 hits its highest level since 2001, with ASML and SAP, the region's two biggest tech stocks, powering the surge
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.