Tech Archive

How to watch today’s PlayStation State of Play showcase

Andrew WebsterJan 31, 2024

Victoria SongJan 31, 2024

Oura says it’s chill about Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, but here’s a new stress tracking feature anyway.

The smart ring maker’s Resilience metric rolls out today. It measures how well you handle physiological stress based on your day time stress load — and how well you recover from it.

Oura also had stats to share from its Daytime Stress and Reflections features, which launched in October. Mainly, its users are more stressed on weekends, experience an average of 95.6 minutes of daily stress, and half of all users report about three stressful days a month.

1/2Image: Oura

Nvidia RTX 4080 Super review: $999 is the main feature

Tom WarrenJan 31, 2024

The Vision Pro is a computer for the age of walled gardens

Adi RobertsonJan 31, 2024

How to watch Linda Yaccarino, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech CEOs testify in Congress

Adi Robertson and Lauren FeinerJan 31, 2024

Thomas RickerJan 31, 2024

TikTok’s moderation team is 400 times larger than Elon’s.

At least it will be once X, formerly Twitter, hires 100 employees into its new trust and safety team to moderate its roughly 500M global monthly users.

In the run-up to a child sexual exploitation hearing later today with tech CEOs at the US Senate, TikTok says it will spend more than $2 billion on trust and safety globally, administered by a team of more than 40,000 people. TikTok now has over 170 million monthly active users just in the US, up from 150 million last year, and about 1 billion users globally.

TikTok CEO Pledges $2 Billion to Protect 170 Million US Users

[Bloomberg]

The Indiglo button let there be light

Sean HollisterJan 31, 2024

Thomas RickerJan 31, 2024

FTC was like, totally going to block that Amazon iRobot deal.

Only the EU beat them to it.

Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of three Democrats that control the US antitrust agency, said at a Brussels conference on Wednesday that the FTC was already probing the transaction when Amazon dropped the deal.

Jess WeatherbedJan 31, 2024

RIP Adobe XD.

According to Bloomberg, Adobe won’t be reviving its XD software that was effectively killed during the company’s failed attempt to acquire Figma’s similar set of product design tools. Adobe says it’s open to finding new product design partners and has “no plans to further invest” in XD, though support for existing users is still available.

Adobe doesn’t say, but it could develop new software entirely, like the unnamed whiteboarding project it previously canceled.

Adobe (ADBE) Ends XD Effort After Figma Deal Fell Apart

[Bloomberg]

Thomas RickerJan 31, 2024

Samsung’s terrible financial year continues.

Net profit fell 73 percent last quarter resulting in its weakest annual earnings since 2009, according to the WSJ. The culprit, again, was memory chips, but demand is expected to recover in 2024. Samsung’s premium Galaxy S24 series also saw record preorders which could boost the bottom line if its AI deal with Baidu in China can increase Samsung’s negligible smartphone marketshare in the country it once dominated.

Samsung Posts Weakest Earnings in Over a Decade Despite Chip Recovery

[WSJ]

Lawmakers propose anti-nonconsensual AI porn bill after Taylor Swift controversy

Adi RobertsonJan 31, 2024

Amrita KhalidJan 31, 2024

Universal Music Group is set to pull its music from TikTok.

The corporate home to Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Drake is preparing to stop licensing its music to TikTok, due to disagreements over issues like artist compensation and AI, Variety reports.

In an open letter to the artist community, UMG claims “TikTok attempted to bully us into accepting a deal worth less than the previous deal, far less than fair market value and not reflective of their exponential growth.” Its current licensing agreement with TikTok expires on January 31.

Tom WarrenJan 31, 2024

Destiny 2’s game director is leaving Bungie next month.

Joe Blackburn, Destiny 2’s current game director, has just announced he is leaving Bungie next month. Tyson Green, who previously worked on Halo PvP, is taking over as game director. “Tyson has been a critical part of Bungie’s legacy since Myth II,” says Blackburn in a post on X. Blackburn’s departure comes months after Bungie was forced to delay its Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion to June, amid around 100 layoffs at the PlayStation studio.