Tech Guest Posts

The hackers who breached data storage giant Western Digital claim to have stolen around 10 terabytes of data from the company, including reams of customer information. The extortionists are pushing the company to negotiate a ransom — of “minimum 8 figures” — in exchange for not publishing the stolen data. On April 3, Western Digital […].

Spain’s data protection authority, the AEPD, has followed Italy’s lead and announced a preliminary investigation of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI over suspected breaches of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). At the end of last month, Italy’s DPA ordered OpenAI to stop processing locals’ data — over a range of suspected breaches of the GDPR […].

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft plans to roll out Windows 11 to HoloLens 2 for free, improving app performance and letting developers integrate web technologies into native apps  —  Microsoft is bringing Windows 11 to its HoloLens 2 headset.  The update will be available free of charge, and Microsoft … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/nrVdj4x.

It’s been more than a decade since I first starting covering Bitcoin, and I feel like I’ve seen the ups and downs of crypto. From the Mt. Gox days through the ICO boom and the later NFT cycle, it’s been a fascinating ride: The web3 world that Bitcoin kicked off back in 2009 has been […].

About 10 months ago, Solana’s co-founder and CEO, Anatoly Yakovenko, announced the launch of Saga, a web3-focused Android smartphone. The phone is now being rolled out, and we got to test one ahead of its launch. Solana says Saga was launched to make crypto products and services more accessible for users by offering them through […].

Microsoft is integrating its Bing chatbot into its smartphone keyboard app SwiftKey on Android and iOS, the company announced on Thursday. The new integration lets users chat with the bot directly from their mobile keyboard and search for things without having to switch between apps. Bing boasts three major features on Swiftkey: Chat, Tone and […].

Ampersand, a startup that helps SaaS companies build user-facing integrations into their products, today announced that it has raised a $4.7 million seed funding round led by Matrix Partners. Base Case Capital, Flex Capital and 2.12 Angels also invested, along with numerous prominent angel investors. Today’s SaaS products, Ampersand co-founders Lauren Long and Ayan Barua […].

A new startup founded by a trio of SpaceX veterans — who happen to be brothers — aims to build an in-space transportation network, using reusable spacecraft propelled by water harvested from the Moon. Argo Space Corporation, founded by Robert Carlisle, Ryan Carlisle and Kirby Carlisle, is betting that lunar propellant will untether space activities […].

Stability AI, the startup funding a range of generative AI experiments, has released a new version of Stable Diffusion, the text-to-image AI system that was among the first to rival OpenAI’s DALL-E 2. Called Stable Diffusion XL, or SDXL, the new system — which is available in beta through DreamStudio, Stability AI’s generative art tool […].

In the past couple of weeks, already an ice-age ago in AI hype terms, a number of very well known names in tech (Elon Musk! Woz!) signed an open letter calling for a halt on the development of AI models more powerful that OpenAI-s GPT-4 — arguing humanity needs time for planning and management around […].

Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters: Nansen: ether worth $1.4B is stuck in a withdrawal queue after the Shapella upgrade; Ethereum can process ~$115M in ether withdrawals per day  —  Cryptocurrency investors are facing delays to withdraw funds deposited on the Ethereum blockchain after its major software upgrade … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Tl6RV1Z.

Toby Sterling / Reuters: European Data Protection Board sets up a ChatGPT task force, an important first step toward a common EU policy on setting privacy rules for AI  —  The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) on Thursday moved to create a task force on ChatGPT, the agency said in a statement. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/k1gt7ja.

Robotics is a fascinating topic. It can be frustrating, too. When I started covering the space nearly 15 years ago, there was a sense that something big was looming, just over the horizon. But roboticists are a pragmatic bunch, offering projects for adoption more than a decade into the future. There were times in the […].

Comixology was genuinely a gamechanger. Before the platform came along, I knew very few people who had ever read a comic on a phone or tablet. There was entirely too much friction in the process to prioritize screens over print. The app proved a viable option, courtesy of a stocked store and a clever UI […].

Spotify is embracing the iOS Lock Screen. The company announced today it’s introducing a new iPhone Lock Screen widget to all users running iOS 16 or later that allows you to tap on Spotify’s icon to launch the app directly before unlocking your phone. Support for Lock Screen widgets rolled out with iOS 16’s release […].

Joe Eskenazi / Mission Local: Sources: SFPD arrested tech executive Nima Momeni for Bob Lee’s killing; Momeni and Lee purportedly knew each other and were driving together before the killing  —  Mission Local is informed that the San Francisco Police Department early this morning made an arrest in the April 4 killing … from Techmeme […].

Spotify today is introducing new technology that will give radio broadcasters the ability to turn their existing audio content into podcasts, or what it’s calling “broadcast-to-podcast.” Based on IP Spotify acquired in late 2021 from an Australia-based podcast tech company Whooshkaa, the feature set will be integrated into Spotify’s enterprise podcast tech platform Megaphone, where it’s […].

We’ve spent the last century and a half pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and it’s clear that we’ll have to spend the coming decades removing a significant fraction of that. But then what do we do with it all? Some people are proposing pumping it underground. Others think we can make things from it, […].

When it comes to measuring SaaS success, companies look at a number of key metrics, including annual recurring revenue (ARR) and net revenue retention (NRR). The latter measures the amount of recurring revenue from existing customers. If it goes up, it means that customers are expanding their usage of the product, making it a key […].

There’s a long list of things corporations can do to lessen consumer electronics’ environmental impact. Making systems easier to repair is up there, along with encouraging device recycling and updating manufacturing and supply chain processes. Utilizing recycled material in the devices themselves is a big piece of this puzzle, as well – it’s good publicity […].