Twitter’s Elon Musk takeover saga has only amplified its problems, which stem from a broken business model at odds with the platform’s freewheeling nature (Will Oremus/Washington Post)

Will Oremus / Washington Post: Twitter’s Elon Musk takeover saga has only amplified its problems, which stem from a broken business model at odds with the platform’s freewheeling nature  —  Its ill-fated foray into adult content is emblematic of an unpoliceable platform — and a broken business model

China’s punishing tech crackdown has undercut the industry’s position as the largest and most sought-after employer, leading to high graduate unemployment rates (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: China’s punishing tech crackdown has undercut the industry’s position as the largest and most sought-after employer, leading to high graduate unemployment rates  —  When Xi Jinping tightened the screws on China’s technology industry last year, he escalated a jobs crisis for the youngest …

Cyber insurers are failing to reduce companies’ cyber risk exposure and to cover breached firms’ costs after state-sponsored cyberattacks that fall short of war (Josephine Wolff/Wired)

Josephine Wolff / Wired: Cyber insurers are failing to reduce companies’ cyber risk exposure and to cover breached firms’ costs after state-sponsored cyberattacks that fall short of war  —  Cyberinsurance doesn’t cover acts of war.  But even as cyberattacks mount, the definition of “warlike” actions remains blurry.

Apple says developers can now purchase Xcode Cloud subscriptions; the plan with 25 compute hours will be free until the end of 2023 and $15/month after that (Juli Clover/MacRumors)

Juli Clover / MacRumors: Apple says developers can now purchase Xcode Cloud subscriptions; the plan with 25 compute hours will be free until the end of 2023 and $15/month after that  —  Apple today announced that developers can purchase subscriptions to Xcode Cloud, a continuous integration and delivery service that’s built into the Xcode app.

Royal Caribbean Cruises partners with SpaceX’s Starlink to offer onboard internet across all its ships, with installation scheduled to be completed early 2023 (Jack Stebbins/CNBC)

Jack Stebbins / CNBC: Royal Caribbean Cruises partners with SpaceX’s Starlink to offer onboard internet across all its ships, with installation scheduled to be completed early 2023  —  – Royal Caribbean Cruises will begin offering onboard internet via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network.

CrowdStrike reports Q2 revenue up 58% YoY to $535.2M, subscription revenue up 60% YoY to $506.2M, and subscription customers up 51% YoY to 19,686 (Jeffrey T. Lewis/MarketWatch)

Jeffrey T. Lewis / MarketWatch: CrowdStrike reports Q2 revenue up 58% YoY to $535.2M, subscription revenue up 60% YoY to $506.2M, and subscription customers up 51% YoY to 19,686  —  CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.’s loss narrowed in its second quarter from a year earlier after subscription revenue jumped higher.

“You are here because you belong here”

On Monday morning, a bright sun and blue sky accented a warm greeting by President L. Rafael Reif to the newest members of MIT — the Class of 2026 — who gathered with their families under a large and airy tent on Kresge Oval for Convocation, the Institute’s annual welcome to the incoming class. This […]

AI that can learn the patterns of human language

Human languages are notoriously complex, and linguists have long thought it would be impossible to teach a machine how to analyze speech sounds and word structures in the way human investigators do. But researchers at MIT, Cornell University, and McGill University have taken a step in this direction. They have demonstrated an artificial intelligence system […]

Starlink users in the US, the UK, New Zealand, Mexico, and elsewhere complain of a multi-hour outage; the Starlink app reports “Degraded Service” (Thomas Ricker/The Verge)

Thomas Ricker / The Verge: Starlink users in the US, the UK, New Zealand, Mexico, and elsewhere complain of a multi-hour outage; the Starlink app reports “Degraded Service”  —  Things seem to be coming back online now but with degraded performance  —  Starlink users around the world complained on Tuesday …

Meta plans to shutter the Facebook Gaming app on iOS and Android on October 28, 2022, transferring some functionality to the main Facebook app (Jordan Middler/Video Games Chronicle)

Jordan Middler / Video Games Chronicle: Meta plans to shutter the Facebook Gaming app on iOS and Android on October 28, 2022, transferring some functionality to the main Facebook app  —  MUCH OF THE FUNCTIONALITY WILL BE MIGRATED TO THE MAIN FACEBOOK APP  —  Facebook will end support for its Facebook Gaming app in October, […]

Sony updates the PS5 in Australia ahead of a broader rollout, reducing the disc model’s weight by 300g and digital model’s by 200g compared to the 2021 updates (Shannon Grixti/Press Start)

Shannon Grixti / Press Start: Sony updates the PS5 in Australia ahead of a broader rollout, reducing the disc model’s weight by 300g and digital model’s by 200g compared to the 2021 updates  —  Earlier today it was revealed by Japanese retailers that a brand new PS5 model dubbed the CFI-1200 model was releasing on […]

StarTree, which offers an Apache Pinot database-powered real-time analytics service, raised a $47M Series B led by GGV Capital and plans to open an India office (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: StarTree, which offers an Apache Pinot database-powered real-time analytics service, raised a $47M Series B led by GGV Capital and plans to open an India office  —  StarTree, a company building what it describes as an “analytics-as-a-service” platform, today announced that it raised $47 million …

Using aerial photos and AI software developed by Google and Capgemini, French tax authorities identify 20,356 unregistered pools, leading to ~€10M more in taxes (Kim Willsher/The Guardian)

Kim Willsher / The Guardian: Using aerial photos and AI software developed by Google and Capgemini, French tax authorities identify 20,356 unregistered pools, leading to ~€10M more in taxes  —  Scheme to be extended across the country after trial in nine departments led to extra €10m in tax receipts

DappRadar: OpenSea processed nearly $5M of NFT transactions on August 28, down ~99% from a $405.75M high on May 1; Bored Ape Yacht Club’s floor price fell 53% (Yashu Gola/Cointelegraph)

Yashu Gola / Cointelegraph: DappRadar: OpenSea processed nearly $5M of NFT transactions on August 28, down ~99% from a $405.75M high on May 1; Bored Ape Yacht Club’s floor price fell 53%  —  An ongoing debt crisis at lending platform BendDAO is also increasing the risks of the NFT bubble going bust.  —  463 Total […]

Deepto Chakrabarty named head of the Department of Physics

Professor Deepto Chakrabarty, principal investigator at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, has been named head of the Department of Physics, effective Aug. 29. Chakrabarty succeeds Peter Fisher, the Thomas A. Frank (1977) Professor of Physics, who has led the department since Nov. 13, 2013. “Professor Chakrabarty will continue to provide strong […]

Tipping the balance between global rivals

John David Minnich was under the spell of political philosophy until he took a trip across a bridge in China. The doctoral student in political science vividly recalls this life-changing 2009 journey, undertaken as part of a summer research fellowship program.  “Driving in from the airport, I was overwhelmed by my first glimpse of the […]

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 (Daniel Van Boom/CNET)

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 […]

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 (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

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 …

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 (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

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 …

Trademark filings suggest Apple is considering calling its mixed reality headset “Reality One” or “Reality Pro” and its specialized chip “Reality Processor” (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

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 …

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 (Dong-Won Kim/IEEE Spectrum)

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 …

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 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

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 …

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 (Max Chafkin/Bloomberg)

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 …

Mobile commerce, one-click checkouts, and short-form video have enabled “drops” to spread beyond the fashion world, turning product launches into marquee events (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

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 …

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 (Kurt Gessler)

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 …

Tech in translation

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 […]