Tech Meme

Jennifer Elias / CNBC: At a town hall, Sundar Pichai asked staff to stay motivated as Google faces competition in areas like AI and indicated there would be executive bonus cuts  —  – Google CEO Sundar Pichai and executive leaders addressed employee questions at a town hall meeting on Monday after last week’s job cuts. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Chinese gamers lose access to Blizzard’s games after its 14-year partnership with NetEase ended; servers hosting the games shut down in China on January 23  —  Millions of Chinese gamers have lost access to World of Warcraft after a furious dispute between US title owner Activision Blizzard Inc … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk: The FBI says North Korea-backed hacking groups Lazarus and APT38 are behind the June 2022 theft of ~$100M in ETH, USDT, and wBTC from Harmony’s Horizon bridge  —  Lazarus Group and APT38, both associated with North Korea, are responsible for the attack in June, the agency concluded. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Bloomberg: Sources: the DOJ is poised to sue Google this week over dominating the US digital ad market, the fifth major US case challenging its business practices  —  The US Justice Department is poised to sue Alphabet Inc.’s Google as soon as Tuesday regarding the search giant’s dominance … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Lauren Feiner / CNBC: Filings: Apple’s US lobbying spend grew 44% YoY to $9.4M in 2022; Amazon’s grew ~2% to $19.7M, Meta’s fell 4.6% to $19.2M; Google spent $10.9M, Microsoft $9.8M  —  – Apple grew its lobbying spend the most last year compared to its peers, according to public disclosures. Lees verder op Tech Meme

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. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kevin McLaughlin / The Information: Source: CEO Satya Nadella voiced concerns for years that Microsoft was slow to commercialize its AI research; in 2022, its researchers said rivals seemed ahead  —  For more than a decade, Microsoft Research, the company’s in-house research group, has touted artificial intelligence breakthroughs … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin’s website: How a “stealth address system” using zero-knowledge proofs could improve Ethereum’s privacy vs. trying to hide or mix transfers using services like Tornado Cash  —  Special thanks to Ben DiFrancesco, Matt Solomon, Toni Wahrstätter and Antonio Sanso for feedback and review Lees verder op Tech Meme

Mahmoud Itani / XDA Developers: Apple releases iOS 16.3, iPadOS 16.3, and macOS Ventura 13.2 with FIDO key support for Apple ID, Advanced Data Protection out globally, security fixes, and more  —  Following several weeks of beta testing, iOS 16.3 and macOS Ventura 13.2 are now available to the public as stable releases. Lees verder op Tech Meme

James Vincent / The Verge: After OpenAI opened a waitlist for a faster, paid version of ChatGPT, some users report seeing a “pro” plan for $42/month; the company hasn’t announced pricing  —  Earlier this month, OpenAI said it was exploring ways to monetize its AI chatbot ChatGPT, giving users the opportunity … Lees verder op Tech Meme