CyberTechMag

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge : An analysis of App Store rankings shows how market saturation for AI-based creative apps is making it harder to find good apps that use AI in more focused ways   —  Many high-ranking AI apps feel like an attempted cash grab, and it's not easy to spot the trash from the treasure. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/a9Z8Kw1 via IFTTT

Politico : Trump plans to appoint Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes to lead the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversees the US intelligence community   —  Nunes will also continue leading Trump Media & Technology Group, a public company with a nearly $8 billion market cap. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/aNezOf9 via IFTTT

Katie Tarasov / CNBC : An inside look at TSMC's $20B Arizona fab, which the company says is “dang near back” on schedule and will produce 4nm chips at a rate of 20K wafers per month   —  WATCH NOW  —  TSMC says first advanced U.S. chip fab ‘dang near back’ on schedule.  Here's an inside look. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/98NasJW via IFTTT

Wall Street Journal : Sources: the US is preparing rules restricting the sale of GPUs to some countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, to limit China's ability to access them   —  Washington plans rules limiting semiconductor shipments to some countries accused of supplying Beijing from Techmeme https://ift.tt/w4g8Gsi via IFTTT

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac : Report: Apple will stop selling iPhone SE and iPhone 14 series at the year's end in the EU, as the USB-C universal charging connector deadline comes into effect   —  As reported by iGeneration, Apple will stop selling the iPhone SE and the iPhone 14 series at the end of the year … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/VSoLevb via IFTTT

Bloomberg : Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says Klarna's investment in AI let it stop hiring a year ago and its headcount fell 22% to 3,500, mostly due to attrition   —  - Company has promised workers higher salaries in age of AI  — Klarna would like to become a bank in the US one day, CEO says from Techmeme https://ift.tt/c1JFDp4 via IFTTT

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg : Sources: Apple plans to roll out its own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip as part of Apple TV and HomePod mini updates in 2025, and in iPhones later in the year   —  - Company developing Proxima chip in separate move from modems  — New component will be part of Apple TV box and HomePod updates from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Tt6Sjl5 via IFTTT

The Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor, was released in 1971. With 2,300 transistors packed into 12mm2, it heralded a revolution in computing. A little over 50 years later, Apple’s M2 Ultra contains 134 billion transistors. The scale of progress is difficult to comprehend, but the evolution of semiconductors, driven for decades by Moore’s Law, has paved a path from the emergence of personal computing and the internet to today’s AI revolution. But this pace of innovation is not guaranteed, and the next frontier of technological advances—from the future of AI to new computing paradigms—will only happen if we think differently. Atomic challenges The modern microchip stretches both the limits of physics and credulity. Such is the atomic precision, that a few atoms can decide the function of an entire chip. This marvel of engineering is the result of over 50 years of exponential scaling creating faster, smaller transistors. But we are reaching the physical limits of how s...

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer : A global outage has hit Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, starting at approximately 12:40pm ET; Meta says it's working to resolve a “technical issue”   —  Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp suffered a massive worldwide Wednesday afternoon, with services impacted in varying degrees based on user's region. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/oY5HSxN via IFTTT

Alexander Maxham / Android Headlines : Sources: Google Pixel 9a will cost $499 for the 128GB model with Tensor G4, 8GB of RAM, a 6.3" screen with 2,700 peak nits, 5,100mAh battery, 23W wired charging   —  We're getting closer and closer to the Pixel 9a being announced by Google.  While we've already confirmed a number of specs about the device … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/a8tKLpe via IFTTT

Quentyn Kennemer / The Verge : The YouTube Kids mobile app gets a redesign that makes it look more like the standard YouTube app and lets users browse through videos in portrait mode   —  The YouTube Kids mobile app is getting a redesign that both makes it look and behave more like the standard YouTube app … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/AlySvVt via IFTTT

David Welch / Bloomberg : GM says Cruise will exit the robotaxi business, and Cruise and GM's technical teams will be combined to focus on autonomous tech for upcoming GM vehicles   —  Cruise and GM's technical teams will be combined into a single effort focused on developing autonomous technology to offer in future models sold by GM … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/32TYvtI via IFTTT

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg : Sources: 2025's Apple Watch Ultra is slated to get satellite connectivity for off-the-grid text messages, and it may also get a blood pressure sensing feature   —  - Company also working on blood-pressure tool for future model  — Apple is using MediaTek modems for first time in new watches from Techmeme https://ift.tt/tjDScEZ via IFTTT

MIT Technology Review ’s  How To   series helps you get things done .  Today, OpenAI released its video generation model Sora to the public. The announcement comes on the fifth day of the company’s “shipmas” event , a 12-day marathon of tech releases and demos. Here’s what you should know—and how you can use the video model right now. What is Sora? Sora is a powerful AI video generation model that can create videos from text prompts, animate images, or remix videos in new styles. OpenAI first previewed the model back in February , but today is the first time the company is releasing it for broader use.  What’s new about this release? The core function of Sora—creating impressive videos with simple prompts—remains similar to what was previewed in February, but OpenAI worked to make the model faster and cheaper ahead of this wider release. There are a few new features, and two stand out. One is called Storyboard. With it, you can create multiple AI-generated vide...

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : OpenAI says the depiction of minors is limited with Sora, and only a “subset” of users can create videos of a real person using uploaded footage of that person   —  OpenAI launched its video-generating tool, Sora, on Monday.  But the company's opting not to release a key feature for most users pending further testing. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3ZhR90l via IFTTT

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : In a mockup posted on GitHub, Bluesky teases Bluesky+, a $8 per month paid subscription offering profile customizations, higher video upload limits, and more   —  Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is working on subscriptions.  The company first announced plans to develop … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/PDZXbQd via IFTTT

ANDURIL Test quote block Test Author from MIT Technology Review https://ift.tt/2ORz3Xv via IFTTT

CBS News : FEC post-election filings: Elon Musk gave $239M to America PAC, $20.5M as a sole donor to RBG PAC, $10M to Senate Leadership Fund, $3M to MAHA Alliance, more   —  Elon Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to back President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, campaign finance records filed Thursday show. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/N65EvjT via IFTTT

Jeran Wittenstein / Bloomberg : Bloomberg Intelligence: the Magnificent Seven's combined profit growth is projected to slow from 34% in 2024 to 18% in 2025, or just 3% if Nvidia is excluded   —  - Magnificent 7's 2025 profit growth projected to slow to 18%  — Chip giant Nvidia is seen driving most of that profit growth from Techmeme https://ift.tt/CEpTXZA via IFTTT

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security : Study: gTLDs like .shop and .xyz, which had 11% market share for new domains, accounted for ~37% of cybercrime domains reported between Sep. 2023 and Aug. 2024   —  Phishing attacks increased nearly 40 percent in the year ending August 2024, with much of that growth concentrated at a small number … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/frZEaOT via IFTTT

Andrew Williams / Wired : A look at the opportunities India provides for smartphone companies, including its growing market for premium phones and as a manufacturing hub outside of China   —  A quarter of all iPhones could be made outside China by 2025, most likely in India—a rapidly growing market with hundreds of millions of potential customers. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/rKu4ch0 via IFTTT

Sharon Goldman / Fortune : David Sacks, who called OpenAI a “piranha for-profit company”, becoming AI czar comes at a delicate moment for OpenAI as it transitions to a for-profit   —  Sam Altman may be playing Santa with OpenAI's “12 days of shipmas” - a series of splashy product releases that kicked off Thursday … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/bVBOFDg via IFTTT

Alicia Diaz / Bloomberg : Linda Yaccarino says X worked with the authors of the Kids Online Safety Act to make changes to protect freedom of speech and urges the House to pass the bill   —  - Senate passed bill in a tech privacy package in July  — Changes to bill safeguard free speech, lawmakers say from Techmeme https://ift.tt/s8mZgv4 via IFTTT

Axios : Sources: the US has approved the export of advanced AI chips to a Microsoft-operated facility in the UAE as part of the company's partnership with G42   —  - Lawmakers have raised concerns over the partnership, saying there is a risk it could open up a back door for China to access the advanced technology. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/ntBuUPD via IFTTT

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : X adds Aurora, an AI image generator that appears to excel at photorealistic images and has few restrictions; it isn't clear if xAI trained Aurora itself   —  X, the Elon Musk-owned social network previously known as Twitter, has added a new image generator to its Grok assistant. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/7qvNIjs via IFTTT

Joel Khalili / Wired : A US teen faces backlash for making ~$50K via a “soft rug pull” on Pump.Fun, which made $250M+ in less than a year and is struggling to protect users from scams   —  In less than 10 minutes, a US teen made a small fortune selling off a memecoin he'd made on a lark. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/TpuWIlm via IFTTT

OpenAI : OpenAI expands its Reinforcement Fine-Tuning Research Program to let developers create expert models in specific domains with very little training data   —  What is Reinforcement Fine-Tuning?  —  This new model customization technique enables developers to customize our models using dozens … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/EelzuGV via IFTTT