About: blatcho

Daniel Van Boom / CNET: Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed at MTV’s Video Music Awards in Yuga Labs’ game Otherside, using Bored Yacht Ape NFT avatars that they own  —  Just like the video clip for the song, Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed “From The D 2 The LBC” as their Bored Apes during Sunday’s […]

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Reliance Jio, which has 421M subscribers, says it will spend $25B to launch a 5G service in October and plans to expand to “every town” in India by end of 2023  —  Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s top telecom mobile operator, has earmarked a spending of $25 billion on the rollout …

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Sources: EU regulators will not appeal a court ruling scrapping a €997M fine against Qualcomm for allegedly paying Apple billions to use only Qualcomm chips  —  EU antitrust regulators will not appeal a court ruling scrapping its 997-million-euro ($991 million) fine against U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm …

Don’t wait to assess the potential impact on your organization.

Let’s hope you never need it—but it’s important to know how it works.

The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum.

KEF’s new LSX II’s have all the sound you’d expect from luxury bookshelf speakers, and they’re heinously easy to use.

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Trademark filings suggest Apple is considering calling its mixed reality headset “Reality One” or “Reality Pro” and its specialized chip “Reality Processor”  —  Trademark filings suggest that Apple Inc. may be staking claim to potential names …

Dong-Won Kim / IEEE Spectrum: Profile of Kim Choong-Ki, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who is revered as the godfather of South Korea’s chip industry  —  They were called “Kim’s Mafia.”  Kim Choong-Ki himself wouldn’t have put it that way.  But it was true what semiconductor engineers …

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: A look at past Apple event invite clues, and what the upcoming event’s “Far Out” name might hint at: satellite connectivity, astrophotography mode, and more  —  Apple makes it official and will hold its big product launch event on Sept. 7.  Also: The company confirms …

What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem—and what do either have to do with Silicon Valley?

One of the platform’s best features keeps an automatic playlist downloaded with all your top bops.

Max Chafkin / Bloomberg: The bubble that Masayoshi Son blamed for SoftBank’s $23B loss last quarter is one that he helped create through Vision Fund, which distorted the VC market  —  In retrospect there were reasons to be skeptical of the Vision Fund, the attempt by the Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp …

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: Mobile commerce, one-click checkouts, and short-form video have enabled “drops” to spread beyond the fashion world, turning product launches into marquee events  —  Technology is changing the launch of everything from soap to sneakers … Once upon a time, not that many years ago …

Kurt Gessler: Tribune Publishing says disabling Google’s AMP led to very little impact on mobile search referrals, as year-long drops mostly aligned to broader search trends  —  Ahead of its June 2021 algorithm update, Google made a significant announcement as part of its shift to emphasize overall page experience …

The Sony Walkman and virtual reality headsets are not just prominent examples of personal technology. In the hands of Paul Roquet, they’re also vehicles for learning more about Japan, the U.S., global technology trends — and ourselves. Roquet is an associate professor in MIT’s program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing, and his forte is analyzing how […]

Plus: Apple makes some MacBooks more repairable, Meta soft-announces its new VR headset, and Twitter is really into podcasts now.

We threw everything we could at—and into—these wheeled suitcases and duffel bags. Here are the ones we’d let ride shotgun.

The company added support for MacBooks this week, but critics say that the repair manuals and processes are unnecessarily complicated.

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: Ahead of launch of passkeys, which requires users to have two-factor authentication, Apple says 95%+ of active iCloud users have 2FA enabled on their accounts  —  With its next round of software updates coming this fall, including iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Apple will launch integrated support for the passkeys standard.

Wall Street Journal: Tether, which has promised an audit since at least 2017, says one is “likely months” away; former SEC exec: it needs an audit “akin to a corporate colonoscopy”  —  Many crypto companies lack basic financial guardrails; ‘Tether needs an audit that’s akin to a corporate colonoscopy’

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google launches Cross device SDK to let developers build experiences across Android phones and tablets, coming later to other Android and non-Android devices  —  At I/O 2022, Google detailed a way for Android apps to build cross-device experiences, similar to Nearby Share, and the SDK’s developer preview is now available.

In the Delaware River and other waterways across the US, conservationists are restoring aquatic vegetation and beds of bivalves to fight pollution.

In a huge change from the past two years, prices are low and high-end PC graphics boards are readily available.

Prepare for Labor Day weekend by loading up on everything you need for some targeted me time.

Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal: Gartner: global spending on tech, including cloud services, is expected to rise ~3% in 2022, well below the 10% annual growth in 2021 and the nearly 7% in 2020  —  After pandemic-fueled gains, the firms contend with a more conservative business environment  —  Why Consumer Confidence Is Key to […]

Daniel Alvarenga / Rolling Stone: El Salvador appears to be heading deeper into an economic crisis with funding sources drying up, one year after it adopted bitcoin as legal tender  —  It’s been a year since El Salvador adopted bitcoin as currency — things are not going well  —  SIX DAYS BEFORE El Salvador’s Bitcoin […]

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Shuffles, Pinterest’s invite-only collage-making iOS app that launched in late July, is going viral on TikTok; Sensor Tower estimates the app has ~338K installs  —  Collage-style video “mood boards” are going viral on TikTok — and so is the app making them possible.

The phishing attack on the SMS giant exposes the dangers of B2B companies to the entire tech ecosystem.

Want the image quality of a DSLR without the bulk? These WIRED picks do more with less.

Plus: Decades-old security flaws, a wave of startup layoffs, and multiple “thousand-year” rainfalls.

Reuters: Facebook agrees in principle to settle a lawsuit alleging it violated consumer privacy laws by sharing user data with 3rd parties, including Cambridge Analytica  —  Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook has in-principle agreed to settle a lawsuit in the San Francisco federal court seeking damages …

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg: Sources: Netflix plans to charge $7-$9/month for its ad-supported tier in the US, with ~4 minutes of ads/hour, and may launch it in 2022 in a half dozen markets  —  Netflix Inc. is considering pricing its new advertising-supported tier at $7 to $9 a month, half as much as its current […]

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: Meta’s VP of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, is leaving the company after six years; the Horizon team will report directly to Meta’s VP of Metaverse, Vishal Shah  —  – Vivek Sharma has been with Meta for six years and was most recently its VP of Horizon.  — Sharma’s team will now report […]

Grass lawns and hiking trails are no problem for this robot, which learned to walk on them on the fly thanks to a machine learning algorithm

A start-up has developed data centre pods that can be submerged in the ocean to let the water naturally keep them cool. Cooling is normally very energy-intensive

A recent survey found that employees’ sense of community declined 37% during the pandemic. Here’s how to rebuild it.

Three ways to navigate an awkward situation.

The ‘Mad Max’ director spoke with WIRED about the allegorical grace of his new movie, ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing.’

An attack on Russian mercenaries shows how militaries are increasingly using open source data—with sometimes deadly consequences.

What was once a hobbyist toy is now a more accessible home-improvement and productivity machine.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Sources: India’s Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at CoinSwitch Kuber for allegedly acquiring shares of $200M+ in violation of forex laws  —  India’s financial crime-fighting agency conducted searches at multiple premises of the Bengaluru-headquartered CoinSwitch Kuber on Thursday …

Derek Decloet / Bloomberg: Open Text plans to buy UK-based enterprise software company Micro Focus for ~$6B including debt, a 99% premium on Thursday’s close; Micro Focus stock jumps 90%+  —  Canada’s Open Text Corp. struck a deal to buy UK software firm Micro Focus International Plc for about $6 billion including debt …

Bloomberg: Meituan reports Q2 revenue up 16% YoY to ~$7.4B and a ~$163.5M net loss, as its “core local commerce” business, including food delivery, rose 9.2% YoY  —  Chinese food delivery titan Meituan reported a better-than-expected 16% increase in quarterly revenue, after appetite …

Images have identified 21 facilities that are forcibly detaining thousands of Ukrainians, as well as possible mass grave sites.

An Ohio judge ruled that such surveillance to prevent cheating could form a slippery slope to more illegal searches.

Social media accounts featuring kids are more popular than ever. But labor and privacy laws haven’t been updated to safeguard the young stars.

Brandy Betz / CoinDesk: FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denies a Bloomberg report that FTX Ventures is merging with Alameda Research’s VC operations  —  Bloomberg had reported that the two operations would merge their venture capital businesses.  —  Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Ventures denied a Bloomberg report Thursday …

Benjamin Pimentel / Protocol: Affirm reports Q4 revenue up 39% YoY to $364.1M, vs. $354.8M est., but a Q1 2023 revenue outlook of $345M to $365M, vs. $386M est.; stock falls 13%+ after hours  —  Shares of Affirm tumbled Thursday after the “buy now, pay later” company reported a weaker-than-expected outlook that underlined an “uncertain […]

Queenie Wong / CNET: Meta made 68 “newsworthiness allowances” from June 2021 to June 2022 for content that may have violated Facebook or Instagram rules, letting the pieces stay up  —  Queenie Wong  —  Queenie Wong is a senior writer for CNET News, who focuses on social media companies including …