Multiple Bethesda studios are being shut down by Xbox and gamers are worried. The new Pixel phone announcement yesterday that probably nobody heard about. What if OpenAI decides to go after web search? And the surprising fact that FTX investors could be made whole, and then some. With interest!

Links:

• Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda (IGN)
• US revokes licences for supply of chips to China’s Huawei (Financial Times)
• Exclusive: In Tesla Autopilot probe, US prosecutors focus on securities, wire fraud (Reuters)
• Google’s New $500 Pixel 8A Smartphone Will Get 7 Years of Software Updates (Wired)
• OpenAI Is Readying a Search Product to Rival Google, Perplexity (Bloomberg)
• ban-appeal.html">TikTok Sues U.S. Government Over Law Forcing Sale or Ban (NYTimes)
• FTX Has Billions More Than Needed to Pay Bankruptcy Victims (Bloomberg)

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All the headlines from today’s Spring Apple event. New iPads? M4 chip? I don’t actually know cause I’m recording this bit beforehand. I can tell you Apple might make its own server chips tho. Nintendo has outlined plans to replace the Switch. And Microsoft is training its own high-end LLM, separate from OpenAI.

Links:

• Apple Is Developing AI Chips for Data Centers, Seeking Edge in Arms Race (WSJ)
• Nintendo Teases Long-Awaited Switch Successor as Profit Slides (Bloomberg)
• Meet MAI-1: Microsoft Readies New AI Model to Compete With Google, OpenAI (The Information)
• Amazon’s Delivery Drones Won’t Fly in Arizona’s Summer Heat (Wired)
• China hacked Ministry of Defence, Sky News learns (SkyNews)

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Jack Dorsey abandoned Twitter and now he’s abandoned Bluesky as well. YouTube rolls out Jump Ahead. Threads launches post quote controls. More than 40 thousand books on Audible are now voiced by AI. The Air Force is planning more than a thousand AI fighter jets by the end of the decade. And if you’re listening to this on Apple Podcasts, please listen to the end for an important announcement.

Sponsors:

• 1Password.com/ride
• MackWeldon.com promocode: ride

Links:

• Jack Dorsey departs Bluesky board (TechCrunch)
• YouTube's AI-powered 'Jump Ahead' feature rolling out widely to Premium users (AndroidAuthority)
• Farewell, dunks? Threads launches quote controls for all users (TechCrunch)
• AI-Voiced Audiobooks Top 40,000 Titles on Audible (Bloomberg)
• An AI-controlled fighter jet took the Air Force leader for a historic ride. What that means for war (AP)
• Hugging Face launches LeRobot open source robotics code library (VentureBeat)
• Washed Out’s new music video was created with AI. Is it a watershed moment for Sora? (LATimes)

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Apple earnings are out and revenue was down almost everywhere. Boy, AI can’t come fast enough for them. Did you know you can send Bluetooth signals to satellites in space? The full Rabbit R1 reviews turned out exactly how we expected. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads suggestions.

Links:

• Apple Sales Fall as iPhone, China Businesses Remain Sluggish (WSJ)
• FDA Qualifies Apple’s AFib History feature as an MDDT (MyHealthyApple)
• Hubble Network makes Bluetooth connection with a satellite for the first time (TechCrunch)
• Coinbase’s First-Quarter Profit, Revenue Top Forecasts (Bloomberg)
• Rabbit R1 review: nothing to see here (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

• The Revenge of the Home Page (The New Yorker)
• Nick Bostrom Made the World Fear AI. Now He Asks: What if It Fixes Everything? (Wired)

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The music is back on TikTok with a new deal struck. Maybe a third of Americans were affected by that Change Healthcare hack. Why are companies suddenly cutting teams you’d think would be sacred cows? Airbnb wants you to stay in the house from the movie Up. And we finally know just how much Google pays Apple for the search default in iOS.

Sponsors:

• Kolide.com/ride

Links:

• TikTok and Universal Music Group Settle Royalty Dispute With New Licensing Agreement (Variety)
• UnitedHealthcare CEO says ‘maybe a third’ of US citizens were affected by recent hack (TechCrunch)
• ceo-says-company-paid-hackers-22-million-ransom.html">UnitedHealth CEO tells lawmakers the company paid hackers a $22 million ransom (CNBC)
• cuts-hundreds-of-core-workers-moves-jobs-to-india-mexico.html">Google lays off hundreds of ‘Core’ employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico (CNBC)
• iphone-ai-app-business-plan-to-compete-with-openai-announced.html">Amazon-backed Anthropic launches iPhone app and business tier to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT (CNBC)
• up-house-shrek-listings.html">In Latest Stunt, Airbnb Lists the ‘Up’ House. It Floats. (NYTimes)
• Google’s Payments to Apple Reached $20 Billion in 2022, Antitrust Court Documents Show (Bloomberg)
• Microsoft Concern Over Google’s Lead Drove OpenAI Investment (Bloomberg)

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Binance founder CZ looks like he’s heading to jail too, but for way less time than SBF. Is the Rabbit R1 just a fancy device for a glorified Android app? Has OpenAI floated a secret pre-release of GPT5? And finally, so much has happened, I decided we had to do an omnibus catch up with what’s going on in the world of Elon.

Links:

• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to four months in prison (The Verge)
• Rabbit R1, a thing that should just be an app, actually is just an Android app (Updated) (Android Authority)
• Powerful New Chatbot Disappears as Mysteriously as It Arrived (Gizmodo)
• Tesla conducting more layoffs, including entire Supercharger team (Electrek)

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The FCC has fined all the major telecom companies. You’ll never guess why. Why the DMA actions from the EU might be a constant thing. Devs, how about an AI-powered IDE? You’ll never guess why Peacock thinks it can raise prices again. And is Marquess Brownlee right about underbaked hardware releases?

Sponsors:

• ZocDoc.com/techmeme
• ConstantContact.com

Links:

• FCC fines AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon nearly $200 million for illegally sharing location data (The Verge)
• Meta Risks EU Fines Over Kremlin Lies on Facebook, Instagram (Bloomberg)
• How an empty S3 bucket can make your AWS bill explode (Maciej Pocwierz)
• Copilot Workspace is GitHub’s take on AI-powered software engineering (TechCrunch)
• Peacock Hikes Subscription Prices Ahead of 2024 Paris Olympics (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Rabbit R1 Review (MKBHD)
• Marques Brownlee slams another AI product as “barely reviewable” after Humane AI Pin controversy (Dexerto)

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Apple continues discussions with folks to partner for AI product. Will the upcoming iPad event kick off Apple’s AI strategy? Why does spending on AI seem to work for Google and Microsoft but not for Meta? Why were a bunch of Apple users signed out of their accounts this weekend? And has AI already ruined Meta’s family of apps?

Sponsors:

• CutsClothing.com/RIDE, promocode RIDE for 20% off
• YahooFinance.com

Links:

• Apple Intensifies Talks With OpenAI for iPhone Generative AI Features (Bloomberg)
• Apple Rivals Retool to Challenge the iPhone and Vision Pro (Bloomberg)
• Investors Cheer AI Spending Boom in Big Tech—Just Not at Meta (WSJ)
• The Financial Times and OpenAI strike content licensing deal (Financial Times)
• Apple users are being locked out of their Apple IDs with no explanation (9to5Mac)
• AI is making Meta's apps basically unusable (Fast Company)

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Net Neutrality has been voted back into existence. Earnings from Microsoft and Google, but it’s the YouTube numbers that continue to impress me. ByteDance claims it would rather be banned than sell US TikTok. The Onion finds a benevolent billionaire. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Links:

• net-neutrality-open-internet.html">F.C.C. Votes to Restore Net Neutrality Rules (NYTimes)
• Google parent announces first-ever dividend; beats on sales, profit; shares soar (Reuters)
• OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Other Tech Leaders to Serve on AI Safety Board (WSJ)
• Exclusive: ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say (Reuters)
• onion-sold.html">The Onion Is Sold by G/O Media (NYTimes)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

• The Chips Act has been surprisingly successful so far (Financial Times)
• Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation (The New Yorker)

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Meta’s earnings were fine, but it’s what Zuck warned about spending that has Wall Street nervous. Sub 2nm chips are on their way. An AI startup has a big new raise after its big raise just a month ago. Google Meet lets you jump devices. And the first reviews of the Rabbit R1 are out.

Links:

• Zuckerberg Asks for Patience as Meta’s AI Push Spooks Market (Bloomberg)
• Zuckerberg says it will take Meta years to make money from generative AI (The Verge)
• TSMC aims to produce ultra-advanced 1.6-nm chips by 2026 (NikkeiAsia)
• Six-Month-Old AI Coding Startup Valued at $2 Billion by Founders Fund (The Information)
• Google Meet will let you transfer calls between web and phone with ‘Switch here’ (9to5Google)
• A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget (The Verge)
• r1-hands-on-already-more-fun-and-accessible-than-the-humane-ai-pin-163622560.html">Rabbit R1 hands-on: Already more fun and accessible than the Humane AI Pin (Engadget)
• Rabbit’s R1 is a little AI gadget that grows on you (TechCrunch)

First Ones videos on YouTube

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