Your Hub for Tech News and Handy Online Tools.

Business & Technology

Amazon Reorganizes Audio Business, Shuts Down Wondery Podcast Studio, and Cuts 110 Jobs

Amazon is closing its Wondery podcast studio, which it acquired in late 2020, and laying off 110 employees as part of a larger restructuring of its audio division. The company intends to move existing Wondery series to Audible or a new 'creator services' team. Amazon's VP of audio, Twitch, and games, Steve Boom, noted that the podcasting landscape has changed significantly and that the rise of video has blurred the lines for podcast creators. This shift in strategy indicates that Amazon's podcasting efforts have not met expectations, prompting the company to adjust its approach to better compete with Spotify and YouTube as the industry increasingly incorporates video.

Business & Finance

Global Spotify Premium Price Increase Announced

Spotify has announced an increase in premium subscription prices for users in multiple markets across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Impacted subscribers will receive an email notification regarding the price increase, which will see monthly subscriptions rising from €10.99 to €11.99.

This decision follows a recent earnings report where Spotify missed revenue expectations, leading to an 11% drop in its stock price. Despite expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of the business, CEO Daniel Ek remains confident in the company's ambitions.

Following the price hike announcement, Spotify's shares experienced a 5% increase in pre-market trading.

Artificial Intelligence

Character.AI Launches Social Feed for AI Character Interactions

Character.AI is introducing a social feed to its mobile apps, enabling users to share AI characters and chat with others.

The feed allows users to share images, videos, and chatbots, as well as snippets of chats and AI-generated images.

Users can create video clips with text prompts and images using the AvtarFX generative video model.

The new feed aims to blur the line between creator and consumer, offering both content consumption and creative opportunities.

This move follows a trend of AI-native apps incorporating social media features, similar to Video generation app Pika.

Cybersecurity

North Korean Cyber Infiltration: Remote Workers Posing as Employees Exploit Western Companies

CrowdStrike reports a significant increase in North Koreans posing as remote IT workers to infiltrate Western companies, with over 320 incidents in the past year, a 220% increase from the previous year. These individuals use false identities and AI-generated resumes to gain employment, steal data, and generate funds for North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. Department of Justice is actively working to disrupt these operations by targeting facilitators and "laptop farm" operations in the U.S. One North Korean operation stole the identities of 80 individuals to gain remote work at over 100 U.S. companies between 2021 and 2024. Identity verification processes are crucial to preventing the hiring of sanctioned workers.

Robotics and AI

OpenMind's OM1: An Open-Source OS for Humanoid Robots

OpenMind, a Silicon Valley startup, is developing OM1, an open-source software layer for humanoid robots, aiming to be the "Android" of robotics. Founded by Stanford professor Jan Liphardt, OpenMind is creating a new protocol called FABRIC that allows robots to verify identity and share context with each other, enabling them to learn and adapt more efficiently.

The company's first fleet of OM1-powered robotic dogs is set to ship in September, with plans to iterate based on user feedback. OpenMind recently secured $20 million in funding to further develop its technology and integrate it into people's homes, focusing on rapid iteration and identifying optimal applications for robots in human environments.

Business and Transportation

Joby Aviation Acquires Blade's Ride-Share Business to Expand Air Taxi Operations

Joby Aviation is set to acquire Blade Air Mobility's helicopter ride-share business for up to $125 million. This acquisition includes the Blade brand and its passenger operations in the US and Europe.

Blade's CEO, Rob Wiesenthal, will continue to lead the business as a subsidiary of Joby. However, Blade's medical division will remain separate.

The deal provides Joby with a network of 12 terminals in key markets like New York City, including lounges and terminal bases at major airports.

Blade, founded in 2014, operates a digital network for booking private helicopter rides and flew over 50,000 passengers in 2024.

Joby Aviation, founded in 2009, aims to integrate its air taxi operations software into Blade's service, eventually transitioning to electric air taxis.

Artificial Intelligence

Apple's AI Ambitions: Developing a ChatGPT-Like 'Answer Engine'

Apple is developing an 'answer engine,' similar to ChatGPT, through a new team focused on AI-driven search and information retrieval. This project aims to create a standalone app or enhance Siri, Safari, and other Apple products with improved search capabilities. The company is actively recruiting talent with experience in search algorithms and engine development to support this initiative. This move could potentially impact Apple's existing search agreement with Google.

Gaming Industry

Game Platforms Face Payment Processor Pressure Over Adult Content

Recent crackdowns on adult content in games on platforms like Steam and Itch.io have sparked controversy.
Mastercard denies pressuring these platforms, stating they only require merchants to control unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content. However, Valve claims payment processors cited a Mastercard rule against "illegal or brand-damaging transactions" when rejecting Steam's content policy.
Itch.io is re-indexing free adult games while negotiating with payment processors like Stripe, which cites banking partner restrictions on sexually explicit content.

Business & Technology

SAP Enhances HR Suite with SmartRecruiters Acquisition

SAP has announced its acquisition of SmartRecruiters, a recruiting software company, aiming to enhance its HR solutions.
The integration of SmartRecruiters' user-friendly interfaces and streamlined workflows will provide customers with a comprehensive candidate lifecycle management system, from sourcing to onboarding.
The deal, expected to close in Q4, will allow SAP to offer a single system for recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI's Journey Towards General-Purpose AI Agents: Overcoming Reasoning Challenges

OpenAI is actively developing AI reasoning models and agents that can perform tasks like humans. The MathGen team played a vital role in improving AI's mathematical reasoning capabilities, leading to models that can compete at a high school level. These advancements are tied to reinforcement learning techniques, allowing models to learn from feedback and improve their performance.
The development of the o1 reasoning model marked a breakthrough, leading to the creation of AI agents. OpenAI aims to create general-purpose agents that can handle complex, subjective tasks, but faces challenges in training models for such tasks. The company is exploring new techniques to improve the performance and intuitiveness of AI agents, with the goal of building an AI system that can understand user needs and perform tasks autonomously.
While OpenAI was initially ahead, it now faces competition from other companies in developing AI agents.