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| Here are today's top tech stories: - Apple is selling its smartwatches without a blood oxygen feature to avoid a U.S. import ban.
- The DOJ could file its antitrust lawsuit against Apple as early as March.
- Google's CEO has warned that more layoffs are coming.
- Reddit wants to launch its IPO as soon as March.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Apple is now selling its latest smartwatches in the U.S. without a blood oxygen monitoring feature, allowing the company to continue importing the devices as a court battle plays out. The International Trade Commission (ITC) previously found that the Apple Watch sensors for blood oxygen infringed on patents from Masimo, a medical device company. The ITC issued a ban on imports of the affected watches. More: - While the ITC decision remains under appeal, Apple has found a software workaround to avoid the U.S. import ban.
- It's now selling two of its watches — the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 — in U.S. Apple stores and online without the blood oxygen measuring feature.
- While a blood oxygen icon remains on the watches, tapping it shows a message telling users that the Blood Oxygen app is no longer available and they can learn more in the iPhone's Health app.
- The updated watches are denoted by part numbers ending in LW/A, according to Apple.
- Existing Apple Watches with blood oxygen features will not be affected, nor watches sold outside the U.S.
Zoom out: - U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently approved the new Apple Watch versions with the blood oxygen features removed.
- While a federal appeals court temporarily lifted the import ban last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has since lifted that injunction, allowing the ban to go back into effect this week while the case plays out.
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| 2 | | The U.S. Department of Justice could file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple as early as March, Bloomberg reports. Sources say the DOJ and Apple have held three meetings about the possible lawsuit, which would target Apple's alleged software and hardware restrictions on iPhones and iPads that could hinder competition in the market. More: - The DOJ hopes to file the complaint in Q1 of this year, though the timing could change as top antitrust officials haven't approved it yet.
- According to Bloomberg, the agency has been probing Apple since 2019 but chose to focus on its antitrust cases against Google.
- Apple has been under investigation for locking rivals out of iMessage, blocking cloud gaming apps from the App Store, and favoring its apps and services over those of third-party developers.
- The DOJ is also examining Apple's preferential integration of the Apple Watch with iPhones and how it excludes other financial firms from offering similar tap-to-pay services on the iPhone.
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| 3 | | Google's CEO has warned of additional job cuts this year, though the impact is expected to be on a smaller scale than last year's 12,000 layoffs. Alphabet, Google's parent company, had around 182,000 employees in September, though it has since trimmed its workforce by more than 1,000. 
The news: In a memo sent this week titled "2024 priorities and the year ahead," Google CEO Sundar Pichai informed employees of an upcoming downsizing, writing that "some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted." Pichai clarified that the cuts won't reach the scale of last year's job reductions, and not all teams will be affected. Zoom out: The announcement comes just days after Google laid off several hundred employees in its ad sales team, 100 employees in its YouTube unit, and another 1,000 workers across its central engineering, hardware, and Assistant teams. These latest job reductions are about "removing layers to simplify execution and drive velocity in some areas," according to Pichai. Tech companies like Discord, Meta, Amazon, Twitch, Humane AI, Unity, and Duolingo have also had layoffs this month, collectively letting go of over 7,500 employees, as reported by Layoffs.fy. | | | |
| 4 | | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, has postponed the opening of its second Arizona chip plant, following a delay in the first one. The second fab, which will produce chips for companies like Apple and AMD, is now scheduled to begin operations in 2027 or 2028, later than TSMC's earlier forecast of 2026. More: - The Taiwanese chipmaker is now in talks with the U.S. government regarding tax credits and incentives, as confirmed by CFO Wendell Huang.
- Due to the delay in the first fab, TSMC has also postponed its second facility, he said.
- During an earnings conference today, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said the company's decisions "are based on customer needs and the necessary level of government subsidy, or support."
- While TSMC had planned to make cutting-edge 3nm chips at the second factory, it now says the level of tech advancement will depend on what U.S. government incentives it receives.
Zoom out: - The facility in Phoenix, Arizona, is TSMC's first U.S. chip plant in over two decades.
- Last year, the company said it was facing challenges in finding skilled workers, causing a delay in mass chip production in the first plant from 2024 to 2025.
- Overall, TSMC plans to invest at least $40B in its U.S. capacity. It's aiming for 600,000 wafers a year by 2026, enough to meet all U.S. demand for advanced microchips.
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| 5 | | Reddit is reportedly preparing to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in March, which would make it the first major social media company to go public since Pinterest in 2019. The San Francisco-based firm plans to sell 10% of its shares in the IPO, and its valuation will be disclosed at the time of listing. More: - Reddit confidentially filed for its IPO in December 2021 but chose to postpone the debut until the company became profitable.
- Now, the plan is to submit its public filing in late February and complete the IPO in March, though the date could be pushed back, according to Reuters sources.
- The social media platform was last valued at $10B in a 2021 funding round.
- The company expected to generate $800M in ad revenue in 2023, up 20% YoY.
- However, it had yet to turn a profit as of June 2023, according to co-founder Steve Huffman.
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| 6 | | Google DeepMind has created an AI system that can solve geometry problems. The "AlphaGeometry" system solved as many geometry problems as an average human International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) gold medalist, who is typically a high-school mathematician. More: - AlphaGeometry combines a neural language model with a "symbolic deduction engine" to validate the former's ideas using mathematical rules.
- To train the model, DeepMind generated 100 million synthetic theorems and proofs.
- It then tested AlphaGeometry on 30 IMO geometry problems.
- The system successfully solved 25 of the problems within the 4.5-hour time limit, surpassing the previous best system that solved only 10.
- The results were published in a study in Nature this week. DeepMind has also open-sourced the code for AlphaGeometry.
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- Meta's former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, said she will depart the company's board when her term expires in May. Sandberg was Meta's COO from 2008 to 2022 and became a board member in 2012.
- Instagram has launched a "Nighttime Nudges" feature that prompts teen users to close the app if they spend over 10 minutes scrolling through Reels or DMs.
- The FDA has approved DermaSensor's handheld AI device for non-invasive skin cancer detection. Doctors can use the device to analyze suspicious skin lesions for basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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