Sources: Apple is trying to make the next Vision Pro more comfortable to wear and Meta is aiming to release true AR glasses in 2025 and a cheaper Quest (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is trying to make the next Vision Pro more comfortable to wear and Meta is aiming to release true AR glasses in 2025 and a cheaper Quest  —  Apple's Vision Pro and Meta's Quest 3 haven't even been released yet, but the two companies are already deep into work on follow-up products.

One in four people in the US who reported losing money to fraud between January 2021-June 2023 said it started on social media, resulting in losses worth $2.7B (Emma Fletcher/Federal Trade Commission)

Emma Fletcher / Federal Trade Commission:
One in four people in the US who reported losing money to fraud between January 2021-June 2023 said it started on social media, resulting in losses worth $2.7B  —  Scammers are hiding in plain sight on social media platforms and reports to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network point to huge profits.

The UK FCA plans to name firms violating its crypto promotion rules, which will be widened on October 8 to include cryptoasset providers regardless of location (Emily Nicolle/Bloomberg)

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
The UK FCA plans to name firms violating its crypto promotion rules, which will be widened on October 8 to include cryptoasset providers regardless of location  —  - Watchdog will add firms to warning list starting on Sunday  —  The UK's Financial Conduct Authority will move fast to name …

A research paper details how decomposing groups of neurons in a neural network into interpretable "features" may improve safety by enabling monitoring of LLMs (Anthropic)

Anthropic:
A research paper details how decomposing groups of neurons in a neural network into interpretable “features” may improve safety by enabling monitoring of LLMs  —  Neural networks are trained on data, not programmed to follow rules.  With each step of training …

IDC says Google shipped 37.9M Pixel phones between 2016 and 2023, suggesting the company shipped a record ~10M phones over the last 12 months (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
IDC says Google shipped 37.9M Pixel phones between 2016 and 2023, suggesting the company shipped a record ~10M phones over the last 12 months  —  Google Pixel is still a minor player in the global smartphone market, but the brand continues to move along.  As the Pixel 8 series launched this week …

Samsung announces OneUI 6.0, based on Android 14: All the details

Samsung has announced One UI 6, the latest version of its software for phones, at the Samsung Developer Conference 2023. The new software, based on Android 14, focuses on improving usability and enhancing photo and video editing capabilities. It includes features such as a revamped Quick panel, AI-powered Gallery app, multi-layer video editor, and improvements to various apps like Weather, Calendar, and Reminder. The beta program for One UI 6 is currently available for Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5 users. https://ift.tt/5qvunBH

Amazon's Alexa has been claiming that the 2020 election was stolen citing sources from Rumble and Substack; Amazon says the errors were fixed (Cat Zakrzewski/Washington Post)

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Amazon's Alexa has been claiming that the 2020 election was stolen citing sources from Rumble and Substack; Amazon says the errors were fixed  —  The popular voice assistant says the 2020 race was stolen, even as parent company Amazon promotes the tool as a reliable election news source — foreshadowing a new information battleground

The US adds 42 Chinese companies and seven companies from India, the UK, and other countries to an export control list over their support for Russia's military (Reuters)

Reuters:
The US adds 42 Chinese companies and seven companies from India, the UK, and other countries to an export control list over their support for Russia's military  —  The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday added 42 Chinese companies to a government export control list over their support …

A look at SoftBank-owned PayPay, which holds a two-thirds share of the QR-code payments market in Japan and could be next in the conglomerate's IPO pipeline (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
A look at SoftBank-owned PayPay, which holds a two-thirds share of the QR-code payments market in Japan and could be next in the conglomerate's IPO pipeline  —  - Firm chases gross merchant value growth of over 30% this year  — PayPay seen to be next in SoftBank's arsenal of possible IPOs

Samsung Galaxy S24 series may feature titanium frame design

Samsung is rumored to be launching its Galaxy S24 series with titanium frames, following Apple's lead. The series is expected to consist of three smartphones: Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is anticipated to feature a 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED LTPO display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, and a 200MP primary camera. The phone is rumored to run on Android 14 with One UI 6 and have a 5000mAh battery with 45W charging support. The launch is expected on January 18. https://ift.tt/CKq9YSQ

Former Facebook policy staff detail their experience with "jawboning", or informal government efforts to persuade platforms to change their moderation policies (Knight First Amendment Institute)

Knight First Amendment Institute:
Former Facebook policy staff detail their experience with “jawboning”, or informal government efforts to persuade platforms to change their moderation policies  —  Dispatches from two former tech platform employees.  —  A research initiative studying governmental efforts …

Realme reveals Android 14 early access roadmap: Here’s the list of all the Realme smartphones

Google has launched its new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones along with the Android 14 update. Realme has now announced the roadmap for its Android 14 beta update, with several models set to receive the update between September 2023 and Q2 2024. Realme GT 2 Pro will be one of the first to receive the update in September 2023, while other models such as Realme 11 Pro 5G and Realme GT Neo 3 will receive the update in November 2023. https://ift.tt/oUrLXT8

iPad mini refresh, two new iPad Air slated to release in coming months

Apple is expected to release new iPads, including a refresh of the iPad mini and two iPad Air models. The iPad mini refresh will likely receive a hardware upgrade, while the iPad Air models may come in different sizes or with different chip options. There is also a new generation iPad Pro with an M1 chip coming soon. These new iPads are expected to launch before WWDC next year. Additionally, new iPad Pro models with OLED displays and next-gen M3 chips are under development but won't be available until after next spring. https://ift.tt/BFZs9dK

Source: Microsoft plans to close its $68.7B Activision acquisition on October 13, with a final decision from UK's CMA allowing the deal expected next week (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Source: Microsoft plans to close its $68.7B Activision acquisition on October 13, with a final decision from UK's CMA allowing the deal expected next week  —  Microsoft is planning to finalize its $68.7 billion proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week.

White House urges the FCC to adopt strong rules next month to address "digital discrimination" in some communities as some ISPs warn against tough regulation (Todd Shields/Bloomberg)

Todd Shields / Bloomberg:
White House urges the FCC to adopt strong rules next month to address “digital discrimination” in some communities as some ISPs warn against tough regulation  —  - FCC to deliver rules by next month on ‘digital discrimination’  —  The Biden administration urged …