Sunday, December 22, 2024

A look at the challenges facing Crunchyroll, as current and ex-staffers say its management is out of touch, amid Disney and Netflix's expansion into anime (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A look at the challenges facing Crunchyroll, as current and ex-staffers say its management is out of touch, amid Disney and Netflix's expansion into anime  —  Disney and Netflix are expanding in the popular Japanese cartoon genre  —  At first glance, Sony Group Corp.'s $1.2 billion acquisition …



A look at Amazon's revamped drone delivery program near Phoenix, Arizona, where the company's new MK-30 drones deliver dozens of packages a day to customers (Kevin Roose/New York Times)

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A look at Amazon's revamped drone delivery program near Phoenix, Arizona, where the company's new MK-30 drones deliver dozens of packages a day to customers  —  A recent visit to the company's overhauled drone delivery program in Arizona left me impressed by the drones, but skeptical that the public will welcome them.



Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a smart doorbell system with advanced facial recognition that can wirelessly connect and unlock third-party smart locks  —  Also: Company ramps up work on turning AirPods into a health device.



Preqin data: Southeast Asia's AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Preqin data: Southeast Asia's AI startups raised just $1.7B across 122 deals so far in 2024, out of ~$20B across 1,845 deals for the whole Asia-Pacific region  —  - While global tech expands in the region, its startups languish  — Its homegrown tech industry risks falling behind in AI



Saturday, December 21, 2024

Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November (Reuters)

Reuters:
Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November  —  Albania on Saturday announced a one-year ban on TikTok, the popular short video app, following the killing of a teenager last month …



As part of its remedies proposal, Google says it won't require device makers and other partners to distribute Gemini to US users for three years (Paresh Dave/Wired)

Paresh Dave / Wired:
As part of its remedies proposal, Google says it won't require device makers and other partners to distribute Gemini to US users for three years  —  Google dominated the last era of search.  Now the company and the US Justice Department are battling over how to set a fair playing field for generative AI.



The US awards a $4.75B CHIPS Act grant to Samsung and $1.6B to Texas Instruments for new factories in Texas and Utah, rounding out the program's largest grants (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
The US awards a $4.75B CHIPS Act grant to Samsung and $1.6B to Texas Instruments for new factories in Texas and Utah, rounding out the program's largest grants  —  - Incentives will go toward new factories in Texas and Utah  — Biden administration is racing to complete federal grants



A profile of AWS CEO Matt Garman, including his first few months on the job, what his stewardship means for the business, and his opportunities and challenges (Jason Del Rey/Fortune)

Jason Del Rey / Fortune:
A profile of AWS CEO Matt Garman, including his first few months on the job, what his stewardship means for the business, and his opportunities and challenges  —  Matt Garman joined Amazon Web Services as an intern nearly two decades ago.  But his appearance earlier this month …



Friday, December 20, 2024

The UK CMA says its phase one probe finds that chip designer Synopsys' $35B acquisition of 3D software maker Ansys could reduce innovation and increase prices (Reuters)

Reuters:
The UK CMA says its phase one probe finds that chip designer Synopsys' $35B acquisition of 3D software maker Ansys could reduce innovation and increase prices  —  UK's competition watchdog said on Friday it could approve chip design software maker Synopsys' $35 billion acquisition of Ansys if the regulator's concerns are resolved.



Bluesky updates its app to include a separate mentions tab in notifications, protections against username squatting, and new controls for replies sorting (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Bluesky updates its app to include a separate mentions tab in notifications, protections against username squatting, and new controls for replies sorting  —  Social network Bluesky has released a new update to its app that includes a separate mentions tab in notifications …



Malaysia says it has identified WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Telegram, WeChat, and TikTok as platforms that need to obtain a license by next year (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Malaysia says it has identified WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Telegram, WeChat, and TikTok as platforms that need to obtain a license by next year  —  The platforms include Meta Platforms Inc.'s WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram; Elon Musk's X; Google's YouTube; Pavel Durov's Telegram …



Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC sent a cease-and-desist order to Google (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC s...