French President Emmanuel Macron says the government was not involved in the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and “this is in no way a political decision”
French president condemns “false information” as Pavel Durov's detention in Paris triggers global outcry.
Sources: Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France as part of a probe into Telegram allegedly allowing a range of crimes due to a lack of moderation
Related by education: Saint Petersburg State University BBC : Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at French airport Jones Hayden / Politico : Telegram CEO reportedly arrested at French airport Jennifer ...
A look at Apple's robotics efforts; sources: at Connect, Meta will unveil prototype “Orion” AR glasses, a cheaper Quest, and new AI features for Ray-Ban Meta
Also: Meta nears the launch of a cheaper Quest; Apple tries a new Vision Pro sales tactic; and the App Store chief is leaving as part of a reorganization.
Dubai-based Telegram says CEO Pavel Durov has “nothing to hide” and the app “abides by EU laws”, including the Digital Services Act, after France arrested Durov
- Company says it isn't responsible for abuse on messaging app — Billionaire co-founded taken into custody at a Paris airport
A look at Telegram's claims that it is a “secure messenger” despite lacking default end-to-end encrypted messages and any E2E encrypted option for group chats
This blog is reserved for more serious things, and ordinarily I wouldn't spend time on questions like the above.
Apple announces a September 9 event at Apple Park with the iPhone 16 lineup, new Apple Watch models, and AirPods 4 expected; the invitation says “It's Glowtime”
Apple today announced plans to hold its annual iPhone-centric event on Monday, September 9 at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California.
French agency OFMIN, established in 2023 to prevent violence against minors, issued the arrest warrant for Pavel Durov, who is a citizen of France and the UAE
- French magistrate will decide whether to charge Pavel Durov — Durov was apprehended at an airport outside Paris on Saturday
The Dutch Data Protection Authority fines Uber a record €290M for failing to abide by European protection standards when sending sensitive driver data to the US
- Uber was fined for not sufficiently protecting driver data — The fine is the highest penalty ever issued by Dutch regulator
Sources: IBM shuts its China R&D department, affecting 1,000+ employees, and plans to move some R&D functions overseas, the latest company to retreat from China
Jobs to be added in India, employees are told — IBM is shutting down its China research and development department …
Chinese-made, Tencent-backed game Black Myth: Wukong sold 10M copies in just 83 hours, one of the fastest game debuts in history, earning an estimated $450M+
- Adventure title has one of the fastest game launches ever — Strong debut signals China's games industry turning a corner
Ikea launches Ikea Preowned, an online marketplace for customers to sell secondhand furniture to each other, testing in Madrid and Oslo until the end of 2024
Furniture retailer challenges digital classified ads ‘oligopoly’ with peer-to-peer sales platform for its products
How prominent games accessibility advocate Susan Banks, who worked with studios and raised awareness for accessibility in games, may never have existed at all
(On a side note, this is the first time I can recall ever seeing actual deep journalism from IGN) — https://www.ign.com/... #disability #accessibility #gaming @omatheft@timetheft.social : this has ...
How some Chinese AI companies use brokers to access top AI chips despite US sanctions, sometimes using cryptocurrency smart contracts to anonymously make orders
SINGAPORE—Chinese artificial-intelligence developers have found a way to use the most advanced American chips without bringing them to China.
PDD, which runs Temu and Pinduoduo, reports Q2 revenue up 86% YoY to ~$13.6B, vs. ~$14B est., net income up 144% YoY to ~$4.5B, vs. $3.8B est.; PPD drops 28%+
Bloomberg :
Some San Francisco city officials say they are not lamenting X's departure from the city, as X bears little resemblance to the company that SF welcomed in 2012
https://www.nytimes.com/... X: Jacob Silverman / @silvermanjacob : “Mayor London Breed said she met with Mr. Musk once several months ago and had texted with him.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Senator ...
Current and former Nvidia staff say that, despite a 3,776% stock jump since 2019, minting many millionaires, the work hours are still grueling and high-stress
Many of the chipmaker's employees have grown rich but still face a stress-filled work life. — It's a summer day in Santa Clara …
A look at the aftermath of the FCC ending the Affordable Connectivity Program for ~23M US households in May 2024; Spectrum says it lost 154K customers in Q2
This is definitely going to send us tumbling backwards into more of a divide. [embedded post] Peter Clines / @peterclines.bsky.social : Just pointing out that—by the math in the article— it would've ...
Chinese tech giants splurge on AI infrastructure, doubling their capex in 2024; Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu had a combined ~$7B capex in H1 2024, up 117%+ YoY
Financial Times :
The problem with Xbox's new vision isn't that it is moving away from console-exclusive games, but that its release strategy is confusing and inconsistent
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg :
How Ukraine is working with private firms to test AI and other tech in drones to find land mines, save lives, and allow military forces to advance more quickly
Lara Jakes / New York Times :
An excerpt from the book Character Limit details the chaotic revamp of Twitter Blue, including Elon Musk's haphazard planning and Esther Crawford's involvement
From @kateaconger and @mac_ryan_'s new book: “Ms. Crawford and Mr. Jones faced a maelstrom of criticism across Twitter, and the product designer wanted to delete his post. … Kate Conger / @kateaconger...
Chicago-based G Squared raised $1.1B for a fund to buy secondary startup shares; G Squared bought ~$135M in Anthropic shares from FTX during its bankruptcy
Ivan Levingston / Financial Times :
Analysis: Elon Musk posted ~13,000 times on X in 2024 to July, or 61 posts per day, almost as much as in all of 2023, as he shifts to posting about politics
Wall Street Journal :
A look at voice bots from Indian startups Sarvam AI, CoRover, and Gnani.ai; Samsung-backed Gnani now handles millions of voice conversations daily for companies
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg : X: @saritharai and @newley . Forums: r/artificial X: Saritha Rai / @saritharai : $0.01 per minute AI voice bots have made their debut! Sarvam, India's OpenAI, and startups l...
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.