Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Indian opposition leaders say Apple warned more than six of them of state-backed iPhone attacks; Apple confirms the notification but did not attribute the hacks (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian opposition leaders say Apple warned more than six of them of state-backed iPhone attacks; Apple confirms the notification but did not attribute the hacks  —  Apple has warned over a half dozen Indian politicians, other members of political parties and journalists of their iPhones …



Filings: China's Big Fund invests $1.99B in DRAM maker Changxin Xinqiao, or 33.15% of its total registered capital, part of plans to build 12-inch memory wafers (Reuters)

Reuters:
Filings: China's Big Fund invests $1.99B in DRAM maker Changxin Xinqiao, or 33.15% of its total registered capital, part of plans to build 12-inch memory wafers  —  China's state-backed chip investment fund has invested 14.56 billion yuan ($1.99 billion) in a memory chip company called Changxin Xinqiao, records showed.



Taiwan's Powerchip plans to build a $5.3B chip facility in northeast Japan with financing from SBI and Japan, aiming to produce 40nm to 55nm chips by 2027 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Taiwan's Powerchip plans to build a $5.3B chip facility in northeast Japan with financing from SBI and Japan, aiming to produce 40nm to 55nm chips by 2027  —  - Initial investment to be $2.8 billion on automotive chip plant  — Move bolsters Japan's domestic chip manufacturing capacity



WhatsApp is rolling out a message reaction filtering feature for channels: Here’s what it is

WhatsApp is rolling out a new message reaction filtering feature for its Channels in India. The feature allows channel admins to see individual reactions from their contacts, providing insights into audience engagement. Only channel admins can access this information, ensuring privacy. Additionally, WhatsApp is developing a feature that allows users to hide their locked chats, providing an extra layer of privacy and security. Users will be able to reveal locked chats by entering a secret code in the search bar. The feature is expected to be included in an upcoming app update. https://ift.tt/uXcmQsA

Monday, October 30, 2023

Filing: Thailand's Kasikorn Bank buys 97% of the Satang crypto exchange, operating in Thailand since 2017, for ~$102.8M and plans to rebrand Satang to Orbix (Sam Reynolds/CoinDesk)

Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
Filing: Thailand's Kasikorn Bank buys 97% of the Satang crypto exchange, operating in Thailand since 2017, for ~$102.8M and plans to rebrand Satang to Orbix  —  The move continues a trend of Thailand's major traditional financial institutions moving into crypto.  —  Register Now



Ad holding company Omnicom agrees to acquire Flywheel, the digital commerce arm of UK-based B2B media company Ascential, for a net cash purchase price of ~$835M (Megan Graham/Wall Street Journal)

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
Ad holding company Omnicom agrees to acquire Flywheel, the digital commerce arm of UK-based B2B media company Ascential, for a net cash purchase price of ~$835M  —  Flywheel, part of Cannes Lions owner Ascential, aims to help brands sell on digital marketplaces such as Amazon



Google details its research into audioplethysmography (APG), which can add heart rate sensing capabilities to ANC headphones "with a simple software upgrade" (Abner Li/9to5Google)

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google details its research into audioplethysmography (APG), which can add heart rate sensing capabilities to ANC headphones “with a simple software upgrade”  —  Google today detailed its research into audioplethysmography (APG) that adds heart rate sensing capabilities to active noise canceling …



WhatsApp users can now initiate group calls with up to 31 participants: Here’s how to do it

WhatsApp has launched a new feature that allows users to initiate group calls with up to 31 participants, a significant increase from the previous limit of 15. The update is currently available for iOS users. Additionally, WhatsApp is developing a feature that will allow users to hide their locked chats, providing an extra layer of privacy and security. This feature will enable users to hide the entry point to locked chats and reveal them by entering a secret code in the search bar. https://ift.tt/vOuTCfs

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Research details how vulnerabilities in signaling protocols used by mobile network operators for international roaming can be exploited to geolocate devices (The Citizen Lab)

The Citizen Lab:
Research details how vulnerabilities in signaling protocols used by mobile network operators for international roaming can be exploited to geolocate devices  —  Table of Contents  —  2. Geolocation Attacks Against Telecommunications Networks  —  4. Incentives Enabling Geolocation Attacks



The UK's policing minister Chris Philp encourages the police to double the use of retrospective facial recognition software by May 2024 to track down offenders (The Guardian)

The Guardian:
The UK's policing minister Chris Philp encourages the police to double the use of retrospective facial recognition software by May 2024 to track down offenders  —  Policing minister Chris Philp suggests target of more than 200,000 searches over next six months



Document: the G7 plans to agree to a voluntary, 11-point code of conduct on October 30 for companies developing advanced AI systems, seeking to mitigate risks (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Document: the G7 plans to agree to a voluntary, 11-point code of conduct on October 30 for companies developing advanced AI systems, seeking to mitigate risks  —  The Group of Seven industrial countries will on Monday agree a code of conduct for companies developing advanced artificial intelligence systems …



A look at physics-informed approaches to machine learning, which are in early stages and can help AI tackle hard problems in robotics, science, and engineering (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
A look at physics-informed approaches to machine learning, which are in early stages and can help AI tackle hard problems in robotics, science, and engineering  —  Adding what we know about the real world to artificial intelligence can make it more effective at solving some of the hardest and most essential problems



Saturday, October 28, 2023

Q&A with Discord's head of trust and safety John Redgrave on the content moderation challenges in the age of generative AI, exploring E2EE on Discord, and more (Reed Albergotti/Semafor)

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Q&A with Discord's head of trust and safety John Redgrave on the content moderation challenges in the age of generative AI, exploring E2EE on Discord, and more  —  Discord, the online messaging platform that started as a haven for gamers, became better known earlier this year as the site …



Instagram may allow friends to add photos to your posts

Instagram is testing a new feature that will allow users' friends to add content to their posts. Users will have the option to let followers submit their own photos and videos to be included in their posts. The feature will be especially useful for group vacations or collaborative photo collections. Users will have to approve each submission before it is added to the post. Instagram is also testing the ability to post selfie videos in Notes. https://ift.tt/qHD7dxo

ChatGPT vs Claude 2: Google to invest $2 billion in OpenAI competitor

Google, owned by Alphabet, plans to invest up to $2 billion in artificial intelligence company Anthropic. This investment will strengthen Google's position against Microsoft, a major backer of OpenAI. Anthropic also has investments from Salesforce, Zoom, and recently received a $4 billion investment from Amazon. Anthropic's founders, Dario and Daniela Amodei, were former executives at OpenAI. https://ift.tt/vYDK5oF

SpaceX launches Starlink in Indonesia to improve internet access in remote parts of the country, starting with three local health centers (Stefanno Sulaiman/Reuters)

Stefanno Sulaiman / Reuters : SpaceX launches Starlink in Indonesia to improve internet access in remote parts of the country, starting w...