Unity plans to cut 265 jobs, or 3.8% of its staff, and end its services deal with VFX company Wētā FX to focus on its "core business" (Mike Seymour/fxguide)

Mike Seymour / fxguide:
Unity plans to cut 265 jobs, or 3.8% of its staff, and end its services deal with VFX company Wētā FX to focus on its “core business”  —  UPDATE: Scroll down for a statement from WētāFX:  —  Reuters is reporting that Unity Software (U.N) …

An in-depth reflection on Marc Andreessen's "techno-optimist manifesto": tech is amazing, the high cost of delays, AI and risk, d/acc, centralization, and more (Vitalik Buterin/Vitalik Buterin's website)

Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
An in-depth reflection on Marc Andreessen's “techno-optimist manifesto”: tech is amazing, the high cost of delays, AI and risk, d/acc, centralization, and more  —  Special thanks to Morgan Beller, Juan Benet, Eli Dourado, Sriram Krishnan, Nate Soares, Jaan Tallinn, Vincent Weisser …

A study of UK teenagers: 79% of online users aged 13 to 17 use generative AI, compared to 31% of internet users aged 16+; 51% of ages 7 to 17 use Snap's My AI (Ofcom)

Ofcom:
A study of UK teenagers: 79% of online users aged 13 to 17 use generative AI, compared to 31% of internet users aged 16+; 51% of ages 7 to 17 use Snap's My AI  —  Teenagers and children in the UK are far more likely than adults to have embraced generative artificial intelligence (AI) …

Meituan reports Q3 revenue up 22% YoY to ~$10.7B, narrowly beating est., and net income up nearly 3x to ~$507M, boosted by strong Chinese travel demand (Sarah Zheng/Bloomberg)

Sarah Zheng / Bloomberg:
Meituan reports Q3 revenue up 22% YoY to ~$10.7B, narrowly beating est., and net income up nearly 3x to ~$507M, boosted by strong Chinese travel demand  —  Meituan recorded a third straight quarter of profit, after strong travel demand helped the food delivery giant defy slowing growth …

Europol, the US, Ukraine, and other countries arrest members of a ransomware group in Ukraine linked to attacks on organizations in 71 countries (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Europol, the US, Ukraine, and other countries arrest members of a ransomware group in Ukraine linked to attacks on organizations in 71 countries  —  In cooperation with Europol and Eurojust, law enforcement agencies from seven nations have arrested in Ukraine the core members …

Redmi Book 2024 models, Redmi Watch 4, and Redmi Buds 5 Pro to launch on November 29 in China

Xiaomi announces launch of Redmi Book 14 and Redmi Book 16 2024 laptops, offering 47W performance and seamless integration with Xiaomi devices. Redmi Watch 4 features 1.97" AMOLED display, low power consumption, and over 200 stylish watch faces. Redmi Buds 5 Pro offers dual drivers, active noise cancellation up to 52dB, and professional audio certification. Redmi K70 series, including Redmi K70, Redmi K70 Pro, and Redmi K70E, also set to launch. https://ift.tt/1KfgUXO

Alibaba shutters its quantum computing research lab, donating the equipment to Zhejiang University, a sign of broader cutbacks, after revamping its cloud unit (Jane Zhang/Bloomberg)

Jane Zhang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba shutters its quantum computing research lab, donating the equipment to Zhejiang University, a sign of broader cutbacks, after revamping its cloud unit  —  - It follows Joe Tsai and Eddie Wu's ascension to the helm  — Cloud spinoff cancellation spurred speculation on next steps

A look at the growing usage of social media apps like Douyin among the elderly in China since the COVID-19 lockdowns, often to find companionship (Lavender Au/Wired)

Lavender Au / Wired:
A look at the growing usage of social media apps like Douyin among the elderly in China since the COVID-19 lockdowns, often to find companionship  —  As smartphone costs fall and society becomes more atomized, China's elderly are using apps like Douyin to find connection and companionship.

A look at Shein's NYC pop-up store, which resembled its website and may have only reinforced Shein's image of being quick, cheap, and not quite as it seems (Mia Sato/The Verge)

Mia Sato / The Verge:
A look at Shein's NYC pop-up store, which resembled its website and may have only reinforced Shein's image of being quick, cheap, and not quite as it seems  —  The Shein pop-up store in New York this month resembled the e-commerce giant's website, except picture-perfect.

Russia's interior ministry adds Meta's spokesperson Andy Stone to its wanted list, according to state-owned news agency TASS (Laura Kayali/Politico)

Laura Kayali / Politico:
Russia's interior ministry adds Meta's spokesperson Andy Stone to its wanted list, according to state-owned news agency TASS  —  The reason Andy Stone was added to the list was not indicated, according to the Russian news agency.  —  Russia's interior ministry has added the spokesperson …

Q&A with Slack CTO Cal Henderson on how the pandemic changed Slack and workplace habits, acquisition by Salesforce, generative AI, India market, and more (Vikas SN/Moneycontrol)

Vikas SN / Moneycontrol:
Q&A with Slack CTO Cal Henderson on how the pandemic changed Slack and workplace habits, acquisition by Salesforce, generative AI, India market, and more  —  The pandemic accelerated changes that were already happening in the workplace and took us forward five or 10 years in terms of workplace habits …

A look at Binance and CZ's "Bond villain" compliance strategy and how their settlements will allow the US to deflate Binance while minimizing collateral damage (Patrick McKenzie/Bits about Money)

Patrick McKenzie / Bits about Money:
A look at Binance and CZ's “Bond villain” compliance strategy and how their settlements will allow the US to deflate Binance while minimizing collateral damage  —  James Bond films have a certain formula to them.  It is more interesting when seen from the perspective of the villain.

A side-by-side teardown of the Steam Deck OLED and Lenovo Legion Go: both are designed to be repaired by users; Steam Deck OLED scores 9/10 and Legion Go 7/10 (Kevin O'Reilly/iFixit News)

Kevin O'Reilly / iFixit News:
A side-by-side teardown of the Steam Deck OLED and Lenovo Legion Go: both are designed to be repaired by users; Steam Deck OLED scores 9/10 and Legion Go 7/10  —  The holiday gaming season has brought us two cutting-edge handheld gaming devices.  In one corner, we have the upstart Legion Go …

Ahead of elections in India in December and 2024, political parties are courting social media influencers to reach rural voters while dodging media interviews (Yashraj Sharma/Wired)

Yashraj Sharma / Wired:
Ahead of elections in India in December and 2024, political parties are courting social media influencers to reach rural voters while dodging media interviews  —  Major political parties in India are courting social media influencers to reach rural voters, paying for reach and dodging tough questions.

Black Friday sale in India: Discounts on smartphones, laptops, TVs and more

Vijay Sales offers the Apple iPhone 15 Pro for Rs 1,27,900 and the Samsung Galaxy S23 5G for Rs 63,990. The Apple Watch Series 9 is priced at Rs 36,699. Croma sells the iPhone 15 starting at Rs 71,900, with laptops priced as low as Rs 25,000 and 4K smart TVs starting at Rs 19,999. Imagine Store provides discounts on Apple products, with an extra Rs 5,000 discount for HDFC cardholders and an exchange bonus of up to Rs 10,000. https://ift.tt/un1MTvX