Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.

In today's Techpresso:

📱 China considers selling TikTok to Elon Musk

🤖 Amazon plans to relaunch Alexa as an AI agent

🇺🇸 Apple to produce first USA-made iPhone chips

📈 Chinese social media app RedNote tops App Store chart ahead of TikTok ban

💥 Microsoft creates new AI engineering group led by former Meta exec

🚫 Meta blocks links to Instagram competitor

🎁 + 10 other news you might like

🔮 + 3 handpicked research papers and tools

📱 China considers selling TikTok to Elon Musk LINK

Chinese officials have reportedly discussed the possibility of ByteDance selling TikTok's U.S. operations to Elon Musk if the Supreme Court upholds a ban on the app in January.

While China prefers TikTok to remain under ByteDance's control, a sale to Musk's X could help align with incoming President Donald Trump’s administration, acquiring TikTok's vast American user base and ad revenue.

A TikTok spokesperson described the report as "pure fiction," and it remains unclear how informed ByteDance and TikTok are about these potential discussions involving Musk.

🤖 Amazon plans to relaunch Alexa as an AI agent LINK

Amazon plans to relaunch Alexa as an AI "agent" capable of performing practical tasks, addressing the challenges that have hindered its AI update.

Rohit Prasad, leading Amazon's AGI team, stated that Alexa must overcome issues like fabricated responses, response speed, and reliability before its release.

The transformation aims to evolve Alexa from handling simple tasks to serving as a personalized concierge, amidst competition from rivals integrating generative AI.

🇺🇸 Apple to produce first USA-made iPhone chips LINK

TSMC has begun producing Apple's A16 Bionic chips at its Arizona facility, and Apple is in the final stages of verifying these processors for use.

The Arizona factory employs over 2,000 staff, including experienced engineers from Taiwan, new American graduates, and U.S. military veterans, to handle production operations.

Beyond the A16 Bionic chips, the factory has also started producing Apple Watch chips using the same 4nm technology, with plans for future product integration.

📈 Chinese social media app RedNote tops App Store chart ahead of TikTok ban LINK

RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, has become the top app on the Apple App Store as a potential US ban on TikTok looms.

The app features a combination of photos, short videos, and text posts and has gained popularity among American users seeking an alternative to TikTok.

RedNote, established in 2013 with a shopping focus, now boasts over 300 million monthly active users and reported profits exceeding $1 billion last year.

💥 Microsoft creates new AI engineering group led by former Meta exec LINK

Microsoft has launched a new engineering organization called CoreAI, led by former Meta executive Jay Parikh, to develop AI applications for both internal and external clients.

CoreAI will integrate talent from various divisions within Microsoft, focusing on creating advanced AI applications that are dynamic, adaptable, and capable of acting on behalf of users.

CEO Satya Nadella envisions CoreAI transforming software development, with AI agents enhancing SaaS applications and enabling new UI/UX patterns and management layers for improved performance and safety.

🚫 Meta blocks links to Instagram competitor LINK

Meta is removing links to Pixelfed, a decentralized competitor to Instagram, by marking them as "spam" on Facebook and deleting them instantly.

Pixelfed, which operates on the same technology as Mastodon, has seen increased user interest recently due to Meta's controversial policy changes and is set to release an iOS app soon.

Pixelfed's creator, Daniel Supernault, has introduced an ethical charter for digital platforms, emphasizing privacy, fairness, and the absence of advertising or venture capital influence.

Other news you might like

Robinhood agrees to pay $45M in SEC settlement LINK

Free Our Feeds wants to build a social media ecosystem ‘resistant to billionaire influence’ LINK

Apple users facing new security risks after critical USB component hacked LINK

OpenAI presents its preferred version of AI regulation in a new ‘blueprint’ LINK

Meta is already working on Community Notes for Threads LINK

OpenAI’s AI reasoning model ‘thinks’ in Chinese sometimes and no one really knows why LINK

Automattic retaliates against WP Engine with a significant reduction in free WordPress support LINK

SpaceX is superb at reusing boosters, but how about building upper stages? LINK

Longevity-obsessed tech millionaire discontinues de-aging drug out of concerns that it aged him LINK

Latest research and tools

GITHUB • 281 points View Source
ZFS 2.3.0 released with ZFS raidz expansion: ZFS 2.3.0: a storage solution that now includes raidz expansion, allowing users to add more disks to boost storage capacity and performance without needing to rebuild the entire data structure.

GITHUB • 112 points View Source
Campsite is now open source: Campsite: an open-source app that lets users self-host and manage their own version of the platform for non-commercial projects, using various services for media uploads and real-time updates while providing reference code for learning.

GITHUB • 57 points View Source
Show HN: A blocklist to remove spam and bad websites from search results: BadWebsiteBlocklist: a tool that removes spam, AI-generated content, and misleading websites from search results to enhance browsing quality.

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