Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
On this day, 19 years ago, the first mobile phone virus, Cabir, targeting Symbian OS, was discovered, showcasing its presence with a “Caribe” message and spreading itself via Bluetooth signals.
In today's Techpresso:
🔍 Vision Pro owners are reporting a mysterious crack in the front glass
🌕 Private company makes first US Moon landing in 50+ years
🍎 Apple says Spotify wants ‘limitless’ access to its tools without paying
🚀 SpaceX has aggressive plan for Starship in 2024
💰 Reddit files for IPO and will let some longtime users buy shares
🙃 FTC hits Avast with fine for selling customer data it promised to protect
🎁 + 8 other news you might like
🔮 + 4 handpicked research papers and tools
🔍 Vision Pro owners are reporting a mysterious crack in the front glassLINK
Vision Pro owners are experiencing a mysterious crack in the front glass of their headsets, with all reports indicating a vertical hairline crack above the nose bridge, observed first by MacRumors through the r/VisionPro subreddit.
There is speculation that the cracks may be due to heating issues when charging, manufacturing defects, or design flaws, but it remains uncertain if the cracks affect the headset's functionality beyond being a cosmetic issue.
Repairing the cracked front glass of the Vision Pro is costly, with fees ranging from $299 with Apple Care to $799 without it.
🌕 Private company makes first US Moon landing in 50+ yearsLINK
Intuitive Machines became the first private aerospace company to land a spacecraft, the robotic Nova-C "Odysseus" lander, on the Moon, marking the first US Moon landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The Nova-C Odysseus lander, described as a "hexagonal cylinder" on six legs, is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, carrying scientific payloads aimed at exploring the lunar south pole.
Odysseus is expected to operate for 14 days before shutting down due to the extreme cold of the lunar night, after capturing photographs including "selfies" with Earth and conducting scientific research with its onboard payloads.
🍎 Apple says Spotify wants ‘limitless’ access to its tools without payingLINK
Apple has accused Spotify of seeking "limitless" access to its tools without compensation, following a European Union investigation into alleged anti-competitive behavior regarding Apple's App Store rules.
Spotify filed a complaint against Apple with the EU in 2019, alleging that the App Store's fees and rules limit competition and unfairly benefit Apple's own music streaming service.
Apple defends its App Store policies, stating that Spotify has grown into the largest digital music service in Europe despite its claims and insists that there has been no evidence of consumer harm or anti-competitive behavior found by EU regulators.
🚀 SpaceX has aggressive plan for Starship in 2024LINK
SpaceX is aiming for "at least" nine Starship launches in 2024, seeking a waiver from the current five-launch limit set by the FAA after an environmental review.
The company's first Starship launch in April 2023 caused significant environmental damage, but the second launch in November saw improvements with a more successful flight and no ground damage.
The FAA, working closely with SpaceX to facilitate the Starship launch-licensing process, is also seeking additional resources to handle the increasing number of U.S. launches and spaceflight activities.
💰 Reddit files for IPO and will let some longtime users buy sharesLINK
Reddit has filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange with plans to let some longtime users buy shares using the ticker symbol RDDT.
CEO Steve Huffman expressed the intention for Reddit users and moderators, especially those with significant contributions and high karma scores, to have the opportunity to own shares in the company.
The company, which reported 500 million visitors in December and $804 million in revenue for 2023 but has not yet turned a profit, is exploring partnerships with AI companies to license its content.
🙃 FTC hits Avast with fine for selling customer data it promised to protectLINK
Avast, a cybersecurity firm, has been fined $16.5 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for secretly selling users' browsing data collected under the guise of privacy protection.
The FTC's investigation revealed Avast harvested and indefinitely stored customers' sensitive web browsing information from 2014 to 2020, selling it to over 100 third parties without user consent.
In addition to the fine, Avast is banned from selling or licensing browsing data for advertising purposes and is required to delete all web browsing data obtained through its Jumpshot subsidiary.
Other news you might like
Bluesky starts letting users host their own servers.LINK
Humane’s AI Pin is slightly delayed, now comes with months of free service.LINK
OpenAI updates GPT Store with ratings and expanded builder profiles.LINK
Reddit signs AI training deal with Google – and why OpenAI's Altman could be the winner.LINK
Google CEO says that AI tips the scales in favor of defenders “disproportionately”.LINK
No, Google is not closing down Gmail — it's a hoax.LINK
Google brings its generative AI writing aid to any website through Chrome.LINK
Google realized Google Pay and Google Wallet are the same thing, so it’s getting rid of one of them.LINK
Latest research and tools
Beyond A*: better planning with transformers shows how AI models can craft strategies more effectively than traditional methods.LINK
Apple Pkl Sonatype Repository: a storage space for the software artifacts and binaries created by continuous integration pipelines and related tools.LINK
Gemma.cpp: a lightweight, standalone C++ inference engine designed for experimenting with Gemma foundation models from Google, simplifying integration into research projects with minimal dependencies.LINK
PGlite: a WASM-based Postgres build wrapped in a TypeScript client library, allowing Postgres to run in browsers, Node.js, and Bun without extra installations, featuring a compact size of 3.7mb gzipped, supporting ephemeral in-memory or persistent databases, and developed by ElectricSQL with Neon without the use of a Linux VM.LINK
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