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Hello Insiders! Welcome to the Inside Tech newsletter. Here are today's top headlines: - Uber reports its first operating profit.
- New Relic to go private in $6.5B all-cash deal.
- Georgia nuclear power plant launches new reactor.
- Apple seeds the second public beta of iOS 17.
As you continue scrolling, you'll come across our question of the week, offering you an opportunity to share your thoughts and insights on our community site. It's free and anyone can sign up! This week's question is: Do you think that technology is making us more or less creative? Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Uber reported its first-ever quarterly operating profit of $326M in Q2 2023, after facing $31.5B in operating losses since 2014. Uber's profitable underlying operations since its 2009 founding didn't prevent a more than 5% share drop on Tuesday as its quarterly results missed revenue expectations, despite positive guidance By the numbers: - In Q2, Uber achieved its first quarter of free cash flow of over $1B and its first GAAP operating profit.
- The company reported a net income of $394M, compared to a net loss of $2.6B in the same quarter last year.
- "We plan to be profitable every quarter going forward," said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
More: - The company's largest business segments, rides and food delivery, showed positive growth in gross bookings.
- Despite the milestones, its 14% growth in revenue, to $9.2B, fell short of consensus estimates, trailing the pandemic-led surge.
- The company's gross bookings reached $33.6B, up 16% year-on-year.
- CFO Nelson Chai plans to leave the company in January 2024.
NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Uber. |     | |
| 2 | | The news: San Francisco software company New Relic has struck an agreement to sell to two private equity firms in an all-cash deal worth $6.5B. Details: The agreement is expected to be completed by early 2024, taking New Relic private after nearly nine years on the New York Stock Exchange. The buyers, Francisco Partners and TPG, will continue to operate New Relic, an IT infrastructure-monitoring firm. Still: Under the terms, New Relic has a 45-day "go-shop" period to consider other offers. If the deal is completed as planned, shareholders will receive $87 per share, a 17% premium over the stock's closing price Friday. Quotable: As a private company, New Relic will have the chance to reach its "full potential," said Brian Decker and Evan Daar, partners at Francisco Partners. What the numbers say: Private equity firms have been increasingly targeting tech companies for take-privates, with New Relic being the second-largest deal in the industry this year, Bloomberg reports. The largest software take-private deal so far is Silver Lake and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's acquisition of software firm Qualtrics for $12.5B. 
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| 3 | A new reactor at a Georgia nuclear power plant started commercial operation on Monday, the first to deliver power to the U.S. grid in almost seven years. The reactor is generating approximately 1,110 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power an estimated 500,000 homes and businesses. More: - The Unit 3 reactor at Plant Vogtle, near Waynesboro, Georgia, is primarily owned by Georgia Power.
- It's the first new reactor in the U.S. in over three decades and is expected to provide electricity to customers for the next 60 to 80 years.
- Unit 3 joins Units 1 and 2 operating at the plant, and its twin, Unit 4, is expected to go into service by March.
Zoom out: - According to nuclear energy scholars from Columbia University, the construction of Vogtle Unit 3 and Unit 4, which began in 2009, has experienced significant delays and cost overruns.
- Initially estimated to cost $14B and be operational by 2016 and 2017, the total costs have surged to over $30B, with Unit 4 still inactive.
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| 4 | | Apple on Monday released the second public betas of iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 to non-developers for testing. Anyone can sign up for Apple's Beta Software Program and access the beta operating systems via the Settings app. Apple plans to officially release the new software to the public this fall. More: - Some of iOS 17's new features include:
- Smarter autocorrect.
- Live voicemail transcripts on the Lock Screen.
- A new StandBy mode that acts as an information hub when iPhone is in landscape mode and connected to a charger
- Interactive widgets on the Lock Screen and Home Screen.
- NameDrop for quick contact sharing via AirDrop.
- "Check in" location sharing in the Messages app.
- iPadOS 17's features include:
- Customizable Lock Screen wallpapers.
- Interactive Widgets to do things like play music and dim the lights.
- The Health app optimized for iPad.
- Enhanced PDF AutoFill.
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| 5 | | YouTube is enhancing its TikTok competitor, Shorts, with new creator and user features. YouTube Shorts now has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users, up from 1.5 billion reported last year. TikTok reported 1 billion monthly users in September 2021. More: - A new Collab feature allows creators to record side-by-side split-screen videos with others, akin to TikTok's Duet.
- A new Q&A sticker lets creators interact with their audience by asking questions and receiving responses in the comments
- There is now the ability to save Shorts to YouTube playlists for curating videos with inspiring effects.
- YouTube will also begin testing recomposition tools to transform horizontal videos into vertical Shorts.
- It will also test inserting live videos into a new Shorts feed, similar to TikTok's approach.
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| 6 | | Google is working on an enhanced version of its voice Assistant, fueled by the latest generative AI technology. A dedicated team is already actively working on creating a mobile version of the advanced voice Assistant, according to an internal company email seen by Axios. More: - As part of the effort, Google is undergoing a restructuring that involves changing teams and a small number of layoffs.
- In the email, executives focused on delivering top-notch product experiences to users while harnessing the transformative potential of generative AI.
- Google's most recent I/O developer conference focused heavily on AI, with Bard, its AI chatbot, taking the spotlight over its 7-year-old Google Assistant.
- Assistant still claims around 700 million monthly users, whereas Bard remains in the early experimental phase.
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| 7 | | 
Community Corner Last week, we asked our tech community, "What fields do you see being taken over by AI in the future?" Here's a highlighted response we received: Lida Liberopoulou (p/lliberopoulou), Founder at ArchaeoXR, answered: There has been a lot of talk recently about AI taking over scriptwriting and acting (at least movie extras, it will probably take a while for a convincing protagonist to be AI-driven). But there is also the field of video game narrative that in my opinion will be eventually overtaken by AI. Soon video games will not have DLC and Updates but will have dialogue and stories that will continue to expand and evolve without the need for writers and narrative designers to work on them. They will be created on the fly as the player progresses through the game. And I'm sad to say that this might end up being an improvement compared to the stories most games have today. But for top-tier companies like Obsidian Entertainment or Rockstar Games, it could take a while before AI can outperform their narrative designers' craftsmanship. Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business, or contact you for more! ⭐️ | | | |
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by NO ACCOUNT ASSOCIATED WITH THE EDITOR | |
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