An interview with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer on Xbox growth, job cuts, and why getting rid of physical Xbox discs is “not a strategic thing for us”
Microsoft's gaming chief Phil Spencer is upbeat about his vast Xbox team's future. But he also tells Game File …
Google releases Gemma 2B and 7B, open-source AI models that let developers more freely use the research that went into Gemini, its flagship closed-source model
Google has released Gemma 2B and 7B, a pair of open-source AI models that let developers use the research that went into its flagship Gemini more freely.
Apple says the iPhone 15 lineup can retain up to 80% of its original battery capacity at 1,000 charge cycles, up from its original estimate of 500 charge cycles
In addition to changes to the Battery Health settings in iOS 17.4, Apple has more iPhone battery news to share today.
Apple announces PQ3, a post-quantum cryptographic protocol for iMessage that uses the Kyber algorithm, launching in iOS 17.4, iPad OS 17.4, and macOS 14.4
Useful quantum computers aren't a reality—yet. But in one of the biggest deployments of post-quantum encryption so far, Apple is bringing the technology to iMessage.
Apple launches Apple Sports, a free app offering scores and stats for the NBA, Premier League, and more, in the US, Canada, and the UK, on iOS 17.2 or later
Game on! Apple launched a free standalone app for sports fans, Apple Sports, which is engineered to fire scores and stats to your iPhone as quickly as possible.
Cybersecurity experts say that global law enforcement agencies dealt Russia-linked LockBit a major blow, but history shows that ransomware gangs regroup quickly
- Disruption of LockBit praised as major blow against gang — History has shown that hackers regroup quickly, experts say
Circle no longer plans to mint USDC tokens on the Tron blockchain, effective immediately, to “ensure that USDC remains trusted, transparent, and safe”
Major U.S. crypto firm Circle will end support for its USDC token on the Tron blockchain network, a decision the company said on Wednesday …
Source: Meta and Microsoft lobby EU regulators to reject Apple's iOS and App Store changes to comply with the DMA, saying Apple's plans fail to go far enough
Meta and Microsoft want Brussels regulators to extract more concessions that unpick iOS mobile software
In a first, Apple had the seven best-selling smartphones globally in 2023, and Samsung had the next three; iPhone 14, 14 Pro Max, 14 Pro, and 13 were top four
- The combined market share of the top 10 smartphones in 2023 reached the highest ever at 20%, up from 19% in 2022.
Messaging app Signal finally rolls out usernames in beta, letting users conceal their phone numbers; Signal still requires inputting a phone number to register
We tested the end-to-end encrypted messenger's new feature aimed at addressing critics' most persistent complaint. Here's how it works.
Intel's Direct Connect announcements: IFS rebranded to Intel Foundry, “systems foundry” era, 18A-P, 14A, and Hybrid Bonding, five nodes in four years, and more
5 nodes in 4 years. This is what Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger promised Intel's customers, investors …
Biden signs an EO to increase the cyber defenses of maritime ports via additional Coast Guard powers, invest $20B in infrastructure over five years, and more
President Joe Biden plans to issue an executive order Wednesday morning aimed at increasing the defenses of maritime ports through …
Q&A with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on Intel Foundry, IDM 2.0, working with Amazon, packaging, 18A, innovation in Moore's Law, reluctant customers, AI, and more
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat :
Q&A with Intel Foundry Services SVP and GM Stu Pann on the company's goal of becoming the world's second-largest foundry by 2030, making Arm chips, and more
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware :
IBM: hackers are finding more opportunities to log in via legitimate credentials, rather than hacking into networks; info-stealing malware grew 266% YoY in 2023
IBM's annual X-Force Threat Intelligence Index report released today highlights an emerging global crisis in identity …
Demos from AI chipmaker Groq go viral after the startup's inference engine shows lightning-fast speeds when running LLMs, including for real-time conversations
Two AI companies are claiming the science fiction term, “Grok,” as their own, but only one is turbocharging the AI industry.
Microsoft plans to use Intel's 18A tech to make a forthcoming chip that Microsoft designed in-house; Microsoft recently announced two computer and AI chips
Ian King / Bloomberg :
WhatsApp rolls out support for bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code to highlight and organize messages on Android, iOS, web, and macOS
Four new text formatting options have been added to WhatsApp to help users communicate more effectively.
CrowdStrike's 2024 Global Threat Report: cloud intrusions jumped 75%, a 76% rise in data theft victims named on data leak sites, 34 newly named groups, and more
Traditional security approaches aren't closing the gap fast enough against the onslaught of cyberattacks growing in severity and sophistication every day.
Sources: Reddit plans to reserve some of its IPO shares for 75K loyal users, an unusual move that could build loyalty, and list its shares on the NYSE in March
Social-media company intends to offer shares in the offering to 75,000 of its biggest users — Reddit plans to place a big chunk …
Microsoft Copilot Pro review: the $20/month service is a good start that offers impressive image generation and useful features in Word and other Office apps
Microsoft's Copilot Pro launched last month as a $20 monthly subscription that provides access to AI-powered features inside some Office apps …
Arm prepares to release its Neoverse V3 and N3 CPU designs to its customers, offering up to 128 cores and more, for server, cloud, and infrastructure
A bit over 5 years ago, Arm announced their Neoverse initiative for server, cloud, and infrastructure CPU cores.
Apple debuts a monthly Apple Music Replay, offering insights like total listening time, top songs, artists, and albums, and releases 2024's Replay Mix playlist
Letter: an FTC “Twitter Files” investigation finds no evidence that Twitter violated its government data security order, despite Elon Musk's directives to do so
After investigating his handling of the ‘Twitter Files’ for more than a year, the agency found no evidence the company violated consent order
A US jury finds two Chinese nationals guilty of a “sophisticated scheme” to defraud Apple out of $3M+ by giving the company 5,000+ counterfeit iPhones to repair
over 5,000 fake iPhones sent in for repair
Paris-based Bioptimus, which aims to build an LLM to understand biological processes on different scales, launches with a $35M seed led by Sofinnova Partners
Daphné Leprince-Ringuet / Sifted :
Sources: Gary Geaves, Apple's longtime VP in charge of acoustics, is stepping down, replaced by Ruchir Davé, adding to the hardware engineering group's upheaval
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg :
NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce plans to retire at the end of March after taking the position in 2021; Deputy Director David Luber plans to assume the role
How Japan plans to spend $67B to revive its domestic chip production, hoping to leverage US supply chain concerns, including Rapidus building 2nm chips by 2027
US-China tech battle makes semiconductors a key economic security concern for policymakers — Deep in the snowy northern island … X: @pelstrom , @pelstrom , and @pelstrom Forums: Hacker News , r/tech...
Palo Alto Networks reports Q2 revenue up 19% YoY to $1.98B, vs. $1.97B est., and lowers its full-year guidance for billings and revenue; PANW drops 19%+
Attackers have been signing up spam accounts on smaller Mastodon servers over the past several days; Eugen Rochko said previously only big servers were targeted
Chipmaker Astera Labs, which offers cloud and AI connectivity hardware, files for a US IPO, reporting 2023 revenue up 44.9% YoY to $115.8M and a $26.3M net loss
Chipmaker Astera Labs revealed its loss narrowed in 2023 in its filing on Wednesday to go public in the United States …
Tech insiders and engineers say China lags behind the US in generative AI by at least one year, leading Chinese companies to rely on US models like Meta's LLaMA
China's tech firms were caught off guard by breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence. Beijing's regulations and a sagging economy aren't helping.
Byju's says the $200M rights issue that cuts its valuation by 99% to $20M-$25M is fully subscribed; source: some of Byju's major investors are yet to take part
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Indonesia issues a regulation requiring digital platforms, including Facebook and Google, to pay media outlets that provide them with content
Israel-based BRIA, a Getty-backed AI image generation startup that licenses 1B+ images from 18 stock providers, raised a $24M Series A from Publicis and others
A “responsible” AI image generation startup backed by stock photo provider Getty Images (GETY.N) has raised $24 million in a Series …
DefiLlama: the total value of tokens sent to the Bitcoin DeFi market surpassed $1B; CryptoSlam: daily NFT sales volume on Bitcoin beat Ethereum in early January
Muyao Shen / Bloomberg :
Scale AI signs a one-year contract with the Pentagon to provide a means to test and evaluate LLMs that can be used for military planning and decision-making
Brandi Vincent / DefenseScoop :
Source: Microsoft is developing a server networking card to boost perfomance of AI chips and lessen its reliance on Nvidia; Pradeep Sindhu is leading the effort
South Korea's leading display makers LG and Samsung close ranks as they cede ground to Chinese TV and smartphone screen manufacturers and face OLED competition
Financial Times :
A profile of ElevenLabs, whose AI voice cloning tech is being used to spoof politicians; five of ElevenLabs' 40 employees are dedicated to trust and safety
ElevenLabs' technology is already being used to spoof political candidates and promote scammy products.
How livestreaming talent agencies in China recruit influencers, often signing them to multiyear contracts that cost tens of thousands of dollars to breach
https://restofworld.org/... [image] X: Russell Brandom / @russellbrandom : Talent agencies are forcing Chinese influencers into debt peonage https://restofworld.org/... [image] LinkedIn: Sophie Schmi...
Emails: Sequoia Capital retracted its request to remove Michael Moritz as chairman of Klarna's board; Sequoia partner Matthew Miller is leaving Klarna's board
Sources: the US sent letters in 2023 to US suppliers of SMIC suspending permission to sell to its most advanced plant, after SMIC produced a chip for Huawei
A look at TDCommons, a website launched by Google in 2015 that publishes technical details of ideas from companies and individuals to head off patent disputes
Paresh Dave / Wired : X: @kent_walker and @heathermeeker4 LinkedIn: Laura Sheridan and Halimah DeLaine Prado X: Kent Walker / @kent_walker : Google has long worked to improve patent quality and minim...
Clumio, a data backup and recovery service for companies using the public cloud, raised a $75M Series D, following a $135M Series C in November 2019
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch :
Filing: Samsung sold 1.58M ASML shares, or 0.4% of ASML, worth ~$930M in September 2023, reducing its stake to zero, as Samsung looks to new areas of chipmaking
Bloomberg :
Beijing-based Moonshot AI, which launched its AI chatbot Kimi Chat in October 2023, raised $1B+ led by Alibaba and HongShan, reportedly at a ~$2.5B valuation
Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post :
Sources: some ByteDance executives expressed concerns over running the video editing app CapCut from China given the political scrutiny facing TikTok in the US
Juro Osawa / The Information :
China's Ministry of State Security warns unnamed hackers are obtaining data on key issues, like food production and the weather, in a series of WeChat posts
Josh Xiao / Bloomberg :
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.