Network Support Blog

Kim Jaewon / Nikkei Asia: Samsung reports Q4 operating profit down 69% YoY to ~$3.5B, its lowest since Q3 2014, and revenue down 8% YoY to ~$57.3B, citing weak chip and smartphone demand  —  South Korean tech giant's slump expected to continue in first half of this year  —  SEOUL — Samsung Electronics said Tuesday … http://www.techmeme.com/230130/p24?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230130p24

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan / New Scientist: Researchers detail how ProGen, an LLM trained on 280M proteins, designed proteins with anti-microbial properties that were tested in real life and shown to work  —  An AI was tasked with creating proteins with anti-microbial properties.  Researchers then created a subset of the proteins and found some did the job http://www.techmeme.com/230129/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230129p5

Kat Bailey / IGN: Q&A with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer on Xbox having no major 2022 releases, 2023 momentum, layoffs, the Activision deal amid the FTC lawsuit, and more  —  Xbox's CEO talks about the recent Developer Direct, 2022 struggles, layoffs, and what 2023 could hold. http://www.techmeme.com/230128/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230128p7

Maureen Farrell / New York Times: New York City-based Paradigm, whose tech streamlines data aggregation and patient recruitment to speed up clinical trials, launches with a $203M Series A  —  New York-based Paradigm has raised a significant amount to simplify clinical trials.  Its goal is ambitious, but its challenges are many, researchers say. http://www.techmeme.com/230127/p15?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230127p15

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: New York City Mayor Eric Adams plans to require that Uber and Lyft have zero-emission fleets by 2030, potentially affecting an estimated 100K+ for-hire vehicles  —  In his State of the City speech Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that Uber and Lyft will be required to be zero emission by 2030. http://www.techmeme.com/230126/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230126p28

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Substack introduces private publications, search improvements, chat updates, post duplication, publication toggling, inline footnotes, LaTeX support, and more  —  Newsletter platform Substack announced today that it's introducing several new features, including private Substacks. http://www.techmeme.com/230126/p27?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230126p27

Ian King / Bloomberg: Lam Research, one of the three biggest US chip manufacturing equipment providers, plans to cut ~7% of its workforce to reduce expenses, or ~1,300 jobs worldwide  —  Lam Research Corp., one of the three biggest providers of chip-manufacturing equipment in the US, is cutting about 7% … http://www.techmeme.com/230125/p37?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230125p37

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Meta pays BuzzFeed to generate creator content for Facebook and Instagram and to train creators to grow online as part of a ~$10M deal reached in 2022  —  Partnership marks latest iteration of yearslong relationship between digital publisher and social-media giant http://www.techmeme.com/230125/p36?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230125p36

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: The new 256GB Mac mini with M2 and 512GB 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro have slower SSD read and write speeds than M1 models because they have fewer NAND chips  —  While the new Mac mini with the M2 chip has a lower $599 starting price, the base model with 256GB of storage has slower SSD read … http://www.techmeme.com/230124/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230124p34

Kaya Yurieff / The Information: Internal messages: TikTok told some of its US employees they could lose their jobs unless they show they already moved to an address near their assigned offices  —  TikTok is cracking down on remote work, telling some U.S. workers they could lose their jobs unless they show they have already moved near their assigned offices. http://www.techmeme.com/230123/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230123p31

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Analysis: Apple timed the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and HomePod launches to boost this quarter's revenue and avoid suffering supply issues in the holiday season  —  Apple timed the launch of the new MacBook Pro, Mac mini and HomePod to shore up its current quarter's revenue … http://www.techmeme.com/230122/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230122p4

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World: Creators from India's hinterland are going viral on YouTube Shorts and running into copyright issues for “fact channels” that add context to other users' videos  —  A new generation of creators found success on YouTube Shorts.  Now, YouTube is after them for violating its community guidelines. http://www.techmeme.com/230122/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230122p3

Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal: Apple's lean hiring may help the company avoid layoffs; Apple's workforce grew ~20% from 2019 to 2022, Amazon's grew 100%, Meta 94%, Alphabet 57%, Microsoft 53%  —  The iPhone maker's workforce grew 20% in the past three years, a far slower pace than rivals  —  Tech Layoffs Pile Up as Bosses Reverse Course http://www.techmeme.com/230121/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230121p8

Mia Sato / The Verge: In a staff call, CNET and Red Ventures executives said they were pausing AI-generated content on CNET and other websites and detailed their proprietary AI tool  —  The call, which lasted under an hour, was held a week after CNET came under fire for its use of AI tools on stories … http://www.techmeme.com/230120/p23?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230120p23

Jordan Novet / CNBC: Texas Instruments names COO Haviv Ilan as its next CEO, starting on April 1, replacing Rich Templeton, who was CEO for 19 years and will remain company chairman  —  - Rich Templeton has run Texas Instruments for almost 19 years, and the company has outperformed one exchange-traded fund for chips. http://www.techmeme.com/230119/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230119p34

Digiday: Similarweb: Twitter referral traffic to 12 major news outlets fell 12% on average from November 2022 to December 2022; only traffic to NY Post and Fox News grew  —  Under the leadership of Elon Musk, Twitter's role as a traffic referral source to publishers' sites is largely declining. http://www.techmeme.com/230118/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230118p34

Noam Scheiber / New York Times: Apple plans to hire a third-party firm to audit its US labor practices, focusing on human rights, after an investor coalition pushed for the assessment  —  The tech giant will assess its compliance with its official human rights policy, according to a federal filing. http://www.techmeme.com/230117/p35?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230117p35

Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times: Some US universities, including Alabama's Auburn University and the University of Oklahoma, are banning TikTok on their Wi-Fi networks, annoying some students  —  The school's prohibition brings a geopolitical fight front and center for TikTok's biggest fans: young Americans. http://www.techmeme.com/230116/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230116p19

Jim Wyss / Bloomberg: Two years after the Bahamas launched the world's first CBDC, the Sand Dollar's adoption has been sluggish as FTX's demise only fuels digital fiat skepticism  —  Before FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried made the Bahamas synonymous with the crypto crash, the country was known as a pioneer of digital fiat. http://www.techmeme.com/230115/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230115p4

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Amazon is testing a ~$12/year Prime Lite in India with free two-day shipping and ad-supported Prime Video in standard definition; Prime costs ~$18/year in India  —  Amazon is quietly piloting a new tier for its Prime membership in India, providing customers with access to popular benefits … http://www.techmeme.com/230114/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230114p7

Victoria Song / The Verge: Strava users say the rollout of its first price hike in over a decade has been unnecessarily convoluted and confusing  —  No one likes price hikes, but Strava's messy rollout has left many customers wondering what's happening to their subscription.  Here's what's actually happening … http://www.techmeme.com/230113/p16?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230113p16

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: SEC filing: Apple plans to cut Tim Cook's compensation by 40%+ to $49M in 2023, citing investor guidance and a request from Cook, who was paid $99.4M in 2022  —  Apple Inc. is cutting Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's compensation by more than 40% to $49 million in 2023 … http://www.techmeme.com/230112/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230112p33

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft plans to update the Xbox Series X and S consoles to switch to an energy-saving Shutdown mode and is working on a smarter Sleep mode for active hours  —  Microsoft is planning to switch Xbox Series X and S owners over to an energy-saving power mode in a bid for sustainability and cost savings. http://www.techmeme.com/230111/p41?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230111p41

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Twitter renames Latest Tweets to Following and Home to For You, making the algorithmic feed the default with no way to change it, rolling out to iOS users first  —  Twitter is changing how you move between the algorithmically-driven timeline and the reverse chronological one and making the algorithmic feed the default. http://www.techmeme.com/230110/p36?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230110p36

Damir Yalalov / Metaverse Post: VALL-E: Microsoft's new zero-shot text-to-speech model can duplicate everyone's voice in three seconds  —  IN BRIEF  —  With just a three-second sample of any voice, the transformer-based TTS model VALL-E can produce speech in every voice.  —  This is a significant advancement in the direction of more natural-sounding TTS systems. http://www.techmeme.com/230109/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230109p31

Oliver Whang / New York Times: A look at Columbia University's Creative Machines Lab, which is exploring questions around artificial consciousness and the possibility of self-aware robots  —  The pursuit of artificial awareness may be humankind's next moonshot.  But it comes with a slurry of difficult questions. http://www.techmeme.com/230108/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230108p4

Kylie Robison / Fortune: Sources: some former US Twitter employees finally received their severance agreements, offering only one month of base pay as severance and no prorated bonuses  —  Following further delays this week, some former Twitter employees finally received their official severance agreements on Saturday … http://www.techmeme.com/230107/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230107p10

Parmy Olson / Bloomberg: Irish DPC's €390M Meta fine, issued at the behest of the European Data Protection Board, fits with the EU's plan to crack down on Big Tech in the next two years  —  Meta Platforms Inc. is used to batting away the occasional fine from European regulators as a cost of doing business. http://www.techmeme.com/230106/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230106p14

Kate Clark / The Information: Memo: Genesis parent company DCG shut down its wealth management subsidiary HQ Digital on January 2; filing: HQ had $3.5B+ under management as of December 2022  —  Digital Currency Group, the parent company of crypto broker Genesis and the publication CoinDesk, has shut down its wealth … http://www.techmeme.com/230105/p32?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230105p32

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Satellite, which lets phones with a Gen 2 SoC and an X70 modem text off the grid via Iridium's satellite network, coming in H2 2023  —  Android phones will soon be getting a feature similar to — and perhaps even more powerful than — Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite. http://www.techmeme.com/230105/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230105p31

Bloomberg: Alibaba, Tencent, and other Chinese tech giants struck a truce with the government, accepting slower growth and stricter controls as China eases its crackdown  —  In China, 2022 was the year Big Tech changed.  Succumbing to a government crackdown and a pandemic that refused to go away … http://www.techmeme.com/230105/p30?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230105p30

Jessica Conditt / Engadget: Sony unveils Project Leonardo, an accessibility controller kit with a circular gamepad for PS5 that can be used on its own or paired with DualSense controllers  —  Sony is building a better PlayStation 5 controller with Project Leonardo, a kit that promises to make games easier to play for people with limited motor control. http://www.techmeme.com/230104/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230104p33

Paul Kiernan / Wall Street Journal: The US Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC warn banks that issuing or holding crypto “is highly likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices”  —  Regulators say holding cryptocurrencies is likely inconsistent with safe banking practices  —  Crypto's Crash Has Been Swift but Largely Self-Contained. http://www.techmeme.com/230103/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230103p33

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: In an open letter, Cameron Winklevoss accuses Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert of engaging in “bad faith stall tactics” after Genesis halted withdrawals  —  The fallout from the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire just got messier, with digital-asset entrepreneur … http://www.techmeme.com/230102/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230102p7

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Verizon decommissioned its 3G network on December 31, the last major US carrier to do so after AT&T and T-Mobile turned off their services in February and March  —  It's well and truly curtains for 3G, one of the key technologies that helped usher in the age of the smartphone. http://www.techmeme.com/230101/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230101p5

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Meta acquires Netherlands-based Luxexcel, which 3D prints prescription lenses for smart glasses; Meta and Luxexcel reportedly worked together on Project Aria  —  As Meta faces antitrust scrutiny over its acquisition of VR fitness developers Within, the tech giant is making another acquisition. http://www.techmeme.com/221231/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a221231p7