Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:• The Big Read: Pickleball is the past—the tech elite is obsessed with padel. • Plus, an Americana-themed batch of Recommendations—our weekly pop culture picks: “The Americans,” “East of Eden,” “High Desert Daydream,” “Lonesome Dove,” USA vs. Belgium, and “The Twilight Zone.” The year’s midpoint is an apt moment for some studied reflection, and I’ve been thinking about how much has changed in the last six... Read more ›
0
Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees Microsoft’s sprawling research efforts, was briefing Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, and his deputies about a series of tests Microsoft had conducted of GPT-4, the then-unreleased new artificial intelligence large-language model built by OpenAI. Lee told Nadella Microsoft’s researchers were blown away by the model’s ability to understand conversational language and generate humanlike answers, and they believed it showed... Read more ›
0
The world’s top-selling electric vehicle makers, Tesla and China’s Byd, have one thing in common—they largely use inexpensive iron-based batteries in their cars. By contrast, legacy Western car manufacturers have stuck almost entirely with more costly nickel-based EV batteries. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis have said they will use iron batteries in some of their EVs, but they have declined to say when or how many.Now Ford has offered some specifics:... Read more ›
0
The most important acronym in business right now is AI, but another one—GPU—isn’t far behind. Today’s earnings forecast from chip designer Nvidia, which makes graphics processing units that power ChatGPT and its ilk, shows what surging demand for the data center chip is worth. Nvidia said it expected to generate about $11 billion in revenue in the current fiscal quarter, which ends in July, up 64% from the same period... Read more ›
124
Two influential shareholder advisory firms have taken an aggressive stance against Alphabet’s board of directors ahead of the company’s June 2 annual meeting, telling clients they should vote in favor of a majority of proposals submitted by shareholders to improve the company’s corporate governance—proposals the board hopes to squash. The advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, also called for voting out two directors, including the chair, John Hennessy.... Read more ›
193
Given that Amazon owns Twitch, you’d think that the live streaming service would have made commerce a key part of its product. That hasn’t been the case, though it’s tested features like affiliate links and even live shopping games. But Mike Minton, Twitch’s chief monetization officer, said it still has hopes for commerce—and live shopping may be a better fit. “We’re trying to balance and figure out what’s the right... Read more ›
39
Crypto fans are freaking out! What else is new? Over the past week, the crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger came under fire for a product update that customers worried could jeopardize the safety of their digital assets. That prompted an apology from the company over how the change was communicated. And this is a familiar rhythm for crypto startups, which increasingly are being forced to alter—or at least jump through... Read more ›
42
Several years ago, providers of open-source software had a beef with Amazon Web Services. They complained that AWS was selling cloud-based versions of their software, depriving them of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. The dispute was a public relations nightmare for AWS and risked inviting trouble from competition regulators. So the company found ways to make peace with the open-source providers—short of sharing revenue with them. More... Read more ›
26
Silicon Valley venture capitalists are coming to terms with a new reality: Their once-prized China investments may be victims of a simmering cold war. As tensions between the U.S. and China have risen, some firms have sought ways to distance themselves from China’s tech scene. NEA, a VC firm whose Chinese investments date back two decades and include TikTok parent ByteDance, hasn’t made a new investment in China since 2021,... Read more ›
6
It’s been refreshing to hear BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti declare that the era of media riding social media is over. But it’s depressing to hear his views on what’s next.Today, BuzzFeed announced a chatbot that helps people find recipes and said it hopes to charge subscription fees for similar services in the future. It’s part of the company’s pivot to focus more on revenue and profits and build a direct... Read more ›
36
At the University of Southern California, college kids aren’t just making TikTok videos for fun in their dorms: they’re teaching each other how to go viral. Reach, a social media and content creator club that started at USC, has cultivated a community of over 500 college students nationally who want to be influencers, digital marketers or work in social media. Running the show is Dylan Huey, a USC junior studying... Read more ›
3
My first SXSW was 11 years ago. Arriving there in 2012 with just an idea for my first company—a secure communications platform called Lisnr—was scary, to say the least. I wasn’t on any event lists. But more than that, there wasn’t any programming aimed at encouraging Black founders, or even seemingly any desire to do so. I kept attending SXSW over the years as both my company and the offerings... Read more ›
30
It’s the age-old refrain in American business: You have to spend money to make money. And it’s particularly true of the tech industry, where startups pour millions into untested new businesses and technologies. Investors usually don’t mind companies burning cash as long as they’re growing quickly—but some enterprise software companies aren’t growing fast even after burning money for many years. The Information looked at 90 of the best known publicly... Read more ›
30
The race between Google, OpenAI and Microsoft for chatbot supremacy has only just begun. But the companies may soon compete to put their artificial intelligence–powered chatbots in front of nearly 200 million people who use Mozilla’s Firefox web browser each month. Mozilla plans to prominently feature a chatbot like Google’s Bard or OpenAI’s ChatGPT in Firefox to give users a more conversational web-search experience, Chief Product Officer Steve Teixeira said... Read more ›
5
If you’re prone to narcolepsy, don’t try reading the European Data Protection Commission report on Meta Platforms’ data transfers, which led to today’s $1.3 billion fine of the Facebook owner. The report is so dry it makes the Sahara look like a rainforest. That’s a pity because it’s dealing with something of significance to everyone in the world—the free availability of internet services across borders. The European regular is fining... Read more ›
0
Pocket.watch, a TI 50 startup and entertainment company that helps young YouTube stars such as 11-year-old Ryan Kaji develop original shows, games and toys, is bringing its ad-free streaming service to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Stream platforms this summer. The move will bring kid creator content to Comcast’s 16 million customers.Ryan and Friends Plus, which costs $3.99 a month, is among the largest subscription-based independent kids and family services, with... Read more ›
99
TikTok’s leaders have spent much of this year telling Washington insiders the company was moving forward with Project Texas, a plan to run the viral video app in a way that alleviates U.S. government concerns about potential meddling by China. The reality isn’t so simple. Project Texas requires Oracle, the app’s cloud provider, to monitor for malicious activity as well as inspect the app’s prized algorithm, which decides which videos... Read more ›
0
When a U.K. antitrust regulator initially ordered Meta Platforms to sell Giphy 18 months ago, it hoped to ensure that the startup—a library for animated images known as GIFs—would prosper as an independent company. Instead, Giphy’s once-promising business has atrophied under Meta’s ownership, making finding a buyer a tall order. Meta killed Giphy’s nascent ad sales operation immediately after completing the purchase in May 2020. Making matters worse, the U.K.... Read more ›
0
In April 2022, Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. announced a blockbuster deal in Indonesia: With local partners, it would spend $6 billion on a complex on North Maluku island that would mine nickel, process it into electrodes and then manufacture electric vehicle batteries. There would even be a factory to recycle defects and production scrap.Though the project's ambitious scale was highly unusual for the nascent EV battery industry,... Read more ›
2
Hi, welcome to your Weekend.Not everyone can be Josh Harris, the private equity mogul who just dropped $6 billion to purchase the NFL’s Washington Commanders. Most people who want a piece of a pro sports franchise have to start a little lower. Enter pickleball. A sport you probably hadn’t heard of before it became a thing around five years ago is now the premier arena for celebrities and billionaires who... Read more ›
0
Is there anybody here who is afraid of AI taking their job?” Visual effects veteran James Blevins, whose credits include “The Mandalorian,” “Icarus,” “Air Force One” and “Space Jam,” was speaking last Wednesday to a crowd of several hundred people at the Hollywood offices of FYI, the productivity platform for creatives founded by Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am. Only one person—a reporter on assignment for a news organization (me)—raised his... Read more ›
0
Most popular sources
ScienceDaily
|
0% |
Tech Wire Asia
|
0% |
ArcticStartup
|
0% |
ReadWrite
|
0% |
AlleyWatch
|
0% |
| View sources » | |
LIKE us on Facebook so you won't miss the most important news of the day!
08.07.2026 03:30
Last update: 03:25 EDT.
News rating updated: 10:20.
What is Times42?
Times42 brings you the most popular news from tech news portals in real-time chart.
Read about us in FAQ section.
popular