News

Carly Page / TechCrunch: In a first, the US FTC bans the data broker X-Mode Social, now known as Outlogic, from selling phone location data and orders it to delete collected data  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has banned… Read More »In a first, the US FTC bans the data broker X-Mode Social, now known as Outlogic, from selling phone location data and orders it to delete collected data (Carly Page/TechCrunch)

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget: Micron announces LPCAMM2, thinner and lighter laptop RAM that may replace SODIMM, the nearly 25-year-old standard, as Samsung, Dell, and more also make progress  —  It’s thinner and lighter than standard notebook RAM, and it’s upgradeable… Read More »Micron announces LPCAMM2, thinner and lighter laptop RAM that may replace SODIMM, the nearly 25-year-old standard, as Samsung, Dell, and more also make progress (Devindra Hardawar/Engadget)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: PerformYard, which offers staff retention, management, and upskilling tools, raised $95M from Updata Partners after being mostly bootstrapped besides a $3M seed  —  Employee performance reviews take time and effort — and aren’t always conducted very… Read More »PerformYard, which offers staff retention, management, and upskilling tools, raised $95M from Updata Partners after being mostly bootstrapped besides a $3M seed (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Thomas Germain / Gizmodo: X suspends several podcasters and journalists, including The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein and Texas Observer’s Steven Monacelli, with little to no explanation  —  Elon Musk’s “free speech” social media platform banned a number of accounts recently critical… Read More »X suspends several podcasters and journalists, including The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein and Texas Observer’s Steven Monacelli, with little to no explanation (Thomas Germain/Gizmodo)

Harry McCracken / Fast Company: Microsoft finds a material that could replace ~70% of lithium in a battery, by using Azure Quantum Elements HPC resources to run simulations and AI models  —  Recently, Microsoft built a clock.  —  Well, “built”… Read More »Microsoft finds a material that could replace ~70% of lithium in a battery, by using Azure Quantum Elements HPC resources to run simulations and AI models (Harry McCracken/Fast Company)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Luma, which is building AI models that generate 3D models from text prompts, raised a $43M Series B, a source says at a valuation between $200M and $300M  —  A couple of years ago, Alex Yu… Read More »Luma, which is building AI models that generate 3D models from text prompts, raised a $43M Series B, a source says at a valuation between $200M and $300M (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post: A profile of OpenAI VP of Global Affairs Anna Makanju, who helped transform Sam Altman from a startup darling to an AI ambassador and worked in Obama’s admin  —  This summer, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman… Read More »A profile of OpenAI VP of Global Affairs Anna Makanju, who helped transform Sam Altman from a startup darling to an AI ambassador and worked in Obama’s admin (Cat Zakrzewski/Washington Post)

Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal: Meta plans to start automatically restricting teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including posts about self-harm, in the coming weeks  —  Efforts to curb harmful material and reduce unwanted interactions with teen… Read More »Meta plans to start automatically restricting teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including posts about self-harm, in the coming weeks (Julie Jargon/Wall Street Journal)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Amazon announces Matter Casting, an Apple AirPlay-like feature to send video from different platforms to Amazon devices, initially supporting Echo Show devices  —  Amazon.com Inc. introduced a new feature that mimics Apple Inc.’s AirPlay while working… Read More »Amazon announces Matter Casting, an Apple AirPlay-like feature to send video from different platforms to Amazon devices, initially supporting Echo Show devices (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Charlotte Van Campenhout / Reuters: Dutch online grocery store Picnic raised €355M from the Gates Foundation, Germany’s largest supermarket group Edeka, and others to expand in France and Germany  —  Dutch online grocery store Picnic has raised 355 million euros… Read More »Dutch online grocery store Picnic raised €355M from the Gates Foundation, Germany’s largest supermarket group Edeka, and others to expand in France and Germany (Charlotte Van Campenhout/Reuters)