Network Support Blog

Rebekah Valentine / IGN: ESA cancels E3 2023, after Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Ubisoft announced they would not attend the event originally scheduled for June 13 to June 16  —  The show “did not garner the sustained interest necessary”  —  Almost a year after announcing its return, the Entertainment Software … http://www.techmeme.com/230330/p32?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230330p32

James Reddick / The Record: The FDA says approval for medical devices now requires meeting certain cybersecurity standards issued in the omnibus spending bill signed in December 2022  —  The Food and Drug Administration affirmed Wednesday that medical device manufacturers must now prove their products meet certain … http://www.techmeme.com/230329/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230329p33

Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg: A US federal judge finds Google flouted a court order requiring it to save records of employee chats in antitrust litigation over its Play Store policies  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google flouted a court order requiring it to save records of employee chats in antitrust litigation … http://www.techmeme.com/230328/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230328p38

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Snap's head of growth and previously longtime product head Jacob Andreou is leaving the company in May after eight years to join Greylock as a general partner  —  Snap's head of growth and previously longtime product head Jacob Andreou is leaving the social media company after eight years to join Greylock as a general partner. http://www.techmeme.com/230327/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230327p34

The Verge: Elon Musk says only verified accounts will be recommended in Twitter's For You tab and be able to vote in polls to address “AI bot swarms”, starting April 15  —  Twitter users will need a “verified account” to get recommended on the platform's For You page starting on April 15th … http://www.techmeme.com/230327/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230327p33

Zoë Schiffer / Platformer: Documents: Twitter has a list of ~35 accounts which it monitors and offers increased visibility to, including AOC, Biden, Marc Andreessen, Musk, and @catturd2  —  Congratulations to Ben Shapiro, AOC, and ... LeBron?  —  Last week, Twitter began notifying users who were verified under … http://www.techmeme.com/230327/p32?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230327p32

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple last week demoed its mixed reality headset, likely dubbed Reality Pro or Reality One, for its top ~100 executives, ahead of their annual offsite  —  Apple's push into mixed reality will take years to pay off, with the company hoping the device follows the same trajectory as its smartwatch. http://www.techmeme.com/230326/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230326p8

Anna Tong / Reuters: Replika restores erotic roleplay for users who signed up before February 1, after complaints from some who considered themselves “married” to chatbot companions  —  AI chatbot company Replika is restoring erotic roleplay for some users, Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda said late on Friday. http://www.techmeme.com/230325/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230325p13

Drew Harwell / Washington Post: TikTok says Enes Freedom, a former NBA player critical of China, was banned for 12 days due to an error by US moderators before being reinstated on March 23  —  Enes Kanter Freedom, a popular figure on the right, had his account restored on the same day TikTok's chief was grilled on Capitol Hill. http://www.techmeme.com/230324/p16?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230324p16

Bloomberg: Montenegro says police detained Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon when he tried to fly to Dubai using falsified Costa Rican travel documents  —  Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, who presided over a more than $40 billion cryptocurrency implosion last year, was detained in Montenegro … http://www.techmeme.com/230323/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230323p28

Washington Post: Poll of 1,027 US adults: 41% support a TikTok ban, 25% oppose it, and 71% are concerned that ByteDance is based in China; 17% of US daily users support a ban  —  As D.C. pushes for action against TikTok, a Washington Post poll finds more support than oppose banning the app http://www.techmeme.com/230322/p32?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230322p32

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: GP Bullhound: European tech startups raised €30.5B in debt in 2022, up from €15.9B in 2021, as the global tech slump made raising new equity more difficult  —  European technology startups nearly doubled the amount of debt they took on last year, exposing them to the turmoil … http://www.techmeme.com/230321/p37?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230321p37

David Shepardson / Reuters: TikTok announces its video app has 150M MAUs in the US, up from 100M MAUs in August 2020; in September 2021, TikTok reported 1B+ MAUs globally  —  TikTok said on Monday the short-video sharing app now has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 100 million it said it had in 2020. http://www.techmeme.com/230320/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230320p19

Ashley Capoot / CNBC: Microsoft speech recognition subsidiary Nuance debuts Dragon Ambient eXperience Express, which uses GPT-4 to generate clinical note drafts after patient visits  —  - Microsoft and its Nuance Communications subsidiary announced Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express, a clinical notes application … http://www.techmeme.com/230320/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230320p18

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Researchers detail “aCropalypse”, a bug in Google Pixel's Markup fixed in March 2023, where some edited screenshots can be retroactively unredacted or uncropped  —  Besides the Samsung Exynos modem issue, Android 13 QPR2 with the March 2023 security update fixes a vulnerability with the Pixel's Markup screenshot tool. http://www.techmeme.com/230319/p2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230319p2

Maria Bustillos / The Nation: A look at four publishers' lawsuit against the Internet Archive, which hinges on defining the legal ownership of ebooks, ahead of oral arguments on March 20  —  Or that they haven't already started to pollute Google searches.  And if publishers win their lawsuit against the Internet Archive … http://www.techmeme.com/230318/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230318p3

Andy Brown / NME: The FTC finalized a $245M fine for Epic Games on March 14 over tricking users into making unintended Fortnite purchases and bans Epic from using dark patterns  —  Epic Games faces over half a billion dollars in fines from the FTC  —  The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) … http://www.techmeme.com/230317/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230317p13

Alex Konrad / Forbes: Around 20 investors and founders detail how some solo investors and small VC firms helped startups during the SVB crisis while many big VC firms disappointed  —  Covering venture capital, cloud and startups  —  When founders scrambled to make payroll after the closure of SVB … http://www.techmeme.com/230317/p12?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230317p12

Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times: Private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners acquires Pornhub owner MindGeek, which had $460M in 2018 revenue and sources say profit margins near 50% at times  —  MindGeek acquired by Ethical Capital Partners for undisclosed sum  —  MindGeek, one of the world's largest and most controversial porn companies … http://www.techmeme.com/230316/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230316p33

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal: The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their stakes in the company or face a possible US ban of the app  —  TikTok says forced sale won't resolve national security issues; its CEO set to appear before Congress next week  —  WASHINGTON—The Biden administration … http://www.techmeme.com/230315/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230315p38

Kate Park / TechCrunch: Tilia, a payment platform for game publishers and metaverse projects, has raised $22M since spinning off from Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, in 2022  —  “Today, the way people transact has evolved,” newly appointed chief business officer (CBO) of Tilia Catherine Porter told me in an interview. http://www.techmeme.com/230314/p46?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230314p46

Silicon Canals: Just Eat Takeaway plans to file for deregistration of its securities from the US SEC due to low trading volume and high costs, as the CEO of Grubhub exits  —  Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway.com, a global online food delivery marketplace, announced on Tuesday that it will file for deregistration … http://www.techmeme.com/230314/p45?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230314p45

Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal: Sources: the US DOJ is investigating the May 2022 collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin; the SEC filed a suit against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon last month  —  FBI and New York officials have questioned former Terraform Labs team members  —  The Justice Department is investigating … http://www.techmeme.com/230313/p26?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230313p26

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: A look at the unprecedented level of executive turnover at Apple, which lost 11 key people, most just below Senior Vice President, since the second half of 2022  —  Apple is facing an unprecedented wave of executive departures.  Also: The company will shake up its sales operations with a focus on India … http://www.techmeme.com/230312/p6?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230312p6

New York Times: SVB's implosion leads to finger-pointing and factionalism, as crypto advocates blame centralized banking and investors argue crypto collapses led to the crisis  —  The implosion of the Silicon Valley bank led to finger-pointing, as executives and investors jumped on the crisis for their own messaging. http://www.techmeme.com/230311/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230311p13

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Meta plans multiple rounds of layoffs over the coming months that in total would be roughly the same magnitude as its ~13% cut in November 2022  —  New layoffs at Meta Platforms would follow cuts of around 11,000 employees started last year  —  Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc … http://www.techmeme.com/230310/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230310p19

Financial Times: Silicon Valley Bank launches a $2.25B share sale after losing ~$1.8B on its ~$21B of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities; SIVB closes down 60.41%  —  Technology-focused lender suffered loss on $21bn portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities http://www.techmeme.com/230309/p25?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230309p25

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Utah-based Consensus, which helps companies make personalized customer demos, raised $110M from Sumeru Equity Partners, bringing its total funding to $139M+  —  Garin Hess, a tech entrepreneur based in Utah, experienced what he calls the “demo bottleneck” at a previous software-as-a-service … http://www.techmeme.com/230308/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230308p33

Ellen Huet / Bloomberg: How effective altruism, championed by SBF before he dismissed it as a dodge, and doomsday scenarios, like killer rogue AI, became Silicon Valley obsessions  —  Sonia Joseph was 14 years old when she first read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, a mega-popular piece of fan fiction … http://www.techmeme.com/230307/p36?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230307p36

Eduard Kovacs / SecurityWeek: Acer confirms that one of its document servers was breached, after a hacker listed 160GB of data for sale allegedly containing confidential documents and files  —  Electronics giant Acer has confirmed getting hacked after a hacker offered to sell 160 Gb of files allegedly stolen from the company's systems. http://www.techmeme.com/230307/p35?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230307p35

Jennifer Elias / CNBC: At an all-hands last week, Sundar Pichai defended Google Cloud's new desk-sharing policy; an exec says ~35% of staff are in the office at least four days a week  —  - Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed employee criticism of the cloud unit's new desk-sharing policy at an all-hands meeting last week. http://www.techmeme.com/230306/p20?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230306p20

Bert Hubert / Bert Hubert's writings: An analysis of the EU Cyber Resilience Act, which covers every connected device and almost all software, causing open-source developers to worry about its scope  —  The EU's new Cyber Resilience Act is admirable in its goal.  And the EU is not alone in thinking something needs to be done … http://www.techmeme.com/230305/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230305p4

Kate Park / TechCrunch: Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M pre-Series C, following a $30M Series B in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $115M  —  Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing … http://www.techmeme.com/230304/p9?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230304p9

Erin Woo / The Information: Sources: last month, Amazon threatened to withhold payments for advertising it runs on Twitter, as the social network refused to pay its AWS bills for months  —  Elon Musk is running into an obstacle in his relentless drive to cut costs at Twitter: some of the same vendors that Twitter … http://www.techmeme.com/230303/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230303p19

Jon Swartz / MarketWatch: HPE reports Q1 revenue up 12% YoY to $7.8B, vs. $7.45B est., HPC & AI revenue up 34% YoY to $1.1B, and Q2 revenue guidance above estimates  —  Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.'s stock climbed more than 6% in extended trading Thursday after the computing giant reported quarterly results … http://www.techmeme.com/230302/p24?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230302p24

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: Paris-based Sesamm, which uses NLP to generate insights helping companies adhere to their ESG goals, raised a €35M Series B2, taking its total funding to €50.5M  —  Sesamm, a French startup that helps financial firms and corporates adhere to their ESG goals by using natural language processing … http://www.techmeme.com/230301/p30?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230301p30

Nilay Patel / The Verge: Q&A with iHeartMedia's Conal Byrne on overseeing podcasting at the company, the industry maturing, RSS, radio and podcast ads, subscriptions, and exclusivity  —  Amid layoffs and a looming recession, folks are concerned about the audio industry. iHeart's podcast head Conal Byrne is not worried. http://www.techmeme.com/230228/p30?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230228p30

Karissa Bell / Engadget: Twitter changes its violent speech policy to ban users from voicing “wishes of harm” on people, a policy reversal, as well as homes and essential infrastructure  —  Twitter is once again tightening its rules around what users are permitted to say on the platform. http://www.techmeme.com/230228/p29?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230228p29