Elon Musk reportedly told lenders they would not lose out on the $ 13 billion lending agreement to buy Twitter/X. As reported in the Financial Times, Musk is said to have made the assurances in private to lenders from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, BNP Paribas, Mizuho and Société Générale. X deal to
Read MoreAmanda Silberling / TechCrunch: YouTube creators MrBeast and Chucky Appleby launch ViewStats, which uses the YouTube API to unveil detailed stats about channels for creators and fans, in beta — The top YouTuber in the U.S., MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) co-founded the new analytics platform ViewStats, which is now available in beta.
Read MoreThe core promise of Chromebooks is that they’re less complicated than a Mac or a Windows PC, and for the most part, that’s true. But they’re still prone to basic computer problems sometimes, and that includes freezes. If your Chromebook is frozen for whatever reason, here’s how you can try to fix it. How to
Read MoreJames Titcomb / Telegraph: The UK approved Google’s selfie scanning tech to estimate a user’s age, per the Age Check Certification Scheme registry, ahead of Ofcom’s rules for adult sites — ‘Facial age estimation’ tool approved as Ofcom attempts to protect children online — Google has developed face-scanning technology …
Read MoreImage: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you haven’t enabled Bluetooth on your Stadia controller yet, you don’t need to rush. Google has extended the deadline for when its controllers will no longer work wirelessly from the end of this year to December 31st, 2024, as shown on its website (via @wario64). After Google
Read MoreWall Street Journal: Sources: DocuSign is working with advisers to explore a sale; DocuSign went public in 2018 and now has a market cap of $11B; DOCU jumps 13%+ — Suitors for the $11 billion company could include private equity and technology firms — E-signature company DocuSign is working with advisers to explore a sale
Read MoreImage: Microsoft Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now available to download for free on Meta’s Quest VR headsets, as reported by Android Central. They appear to be the web versions of the apps, so while there’s a lot that’s very familiar about them, after giving the apps a whirl from inside a Quest 3,
Read MoreFinancial Times: A look at the complex Microsoft-OpenAI alliance structure, which sources say entitles Microsoft to up to 49% of the earnings from OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary — ChatGPT-maker quietly clarifies that tech giant has no equity despite $13bn investment — but is in line to make big profits
Read MoreGetting a gift is about getting something that the lucky recipient doesn’t know they need, and a smart display fits squarely in that category. The new Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen) is one of Amazon’s latest smart home devices, and at 30% off in this deal, it’s at its lowest price since its release earlier
Read MoreCredit: Damien Wilde / Android Authority A leak may have provided new details on the Nothing Phone 2a. It appears the budget phone may get a design that helps separate it from the Nothing Phone 2. The Nothing Phone 2a might be the company’s first phone with a Mediatek SoC. Rumors of a cheaper Android
Read MoreCredit: Ryan Haines / Android Authority Voting for the Reader’s Choice Award for the best smartphone of 2023 has now closed. The two phones in the final round were the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Pixel 8 Pro. The results appear to be tight; we’ll tally everything and announce the winner this weekend. That’s a
Read MoreUpdate, December 15, 2023 (01:00 PM ET): Voting for the Reader’s Choice Award 2023 has now closed. The poll that appeared in this article has been removed to prohibit extra votes. We will now tally everything and announce the winner this weekend. Stay tuned! Original article: We are now in the third round of voting for
Read MoreFinancial Times: Sources: Elon Musk verbally guaranteed some US banks that they would not lose money on the Twitter deal; banks face serious losses on the “uninvestable” debt — Banks are facing serious losses on the debt as social media platform’s business deteriorates
Read MoreAsh Parrish / The Verge: Days after updating its content policy to permit certain kinds of sexual content, Twitch rescinds the “artistic nudity” portion, citing “community concern” — Mere days after Twitch updated its content policy to permit certain kinds of sexual content …
Read MoreCredit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Google has released a new design for the Play Store. The redesign removes the search bar from the top of the page and gives the store a dedicated search page accessed from the new search tab at the bottom. Some users didn’t get the search tab after the redesign,
Read MoreRonald D. Moore, the creator of the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind, has said there’s a seven-season plan for the show. He should be able to execute it.
Read MoreThis week, Elliot sat down with Dan for the penultimate podcast of 2023, and what a week it was. We started with news about Voyager; at T+46 years from launch, any news tends to be bad, and the latest glitch has everyone worried. We also took a look at how close the OSIRIS-REx mission came
Read MoreTyler Pathe / FinTech Futures: Toronto Stock Exchange operator TMX acquires a 78% stake in US-based indexing and analytics company VettaFi for $848M, after previously buying 22% for $175M — TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), has taken full ownership of VettaFi having acquired the remaining 78% stake …
Read MoreSaritha Rai / Bloomberg: Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, unveils India’s first multilingual LLM, capable of generating text in ten Indian languages — – Krutrim’s AI model can generate text in 10 Indian languages — Company will also develop data centers, super computers for AI
Read MoreCredit: OnePlus on Weibo OnePlus has officially confirmed that the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R will launch globally on January 23, 2024. The company has also confirmed that the OnePlus 12R will launch beyond India and China, indicating a wider global launch, possibly in other prominent Western markets. After wowing us with the OnePlus 11
Read MoreGlenn Fleishman / Retool: A look back at Yahoo Pipes, launched in 2007 to let users make custom data feeds by dragging elements in a web browser, influencing a generation of UI designers — Want to know whether the latest logged earthquakes were near you? Aggregate 100 top news sites, but only see items that
Read MoreEduardo Baptista / Reuters: China proposes a four-tier, color-coded system for data security incidents; for red and orange alerts the government must be notified within 10 minutes — China on Friday proposed a four-tier classification to help it respond to data security incidents, highlighting Beijing’s concern …
Read MoreDavid Gilbert / Wired: Researchers: Microsoft Copilot is responding to some political queries in the US and other countries with conspiracies, information, and out-of-date information — Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies and conspiracy theories.
Read MoreRemember Dieselgate, the scandal where certain diesel vehicles would detect an emissions test, and run cleaner for it, “cheating” the test? Traingate may just put that one into perspective. We’ll tell the story from the beginning, but buckle up for a wild and astonishing ride. It all starts with Polish trains getting a maintenance overhaul.
Read MoreJesse Hamilton / CoinDesk: The SEC rejects a Coinbase petition for formal rules for digital assets, arguing the “existing securities regime appropriately governs crypto asset securities” — The U.S. exchange had formally petitioned the agency to start writing comprehensive crypto rules, but after “careful” consideration, the SEC said no.
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