Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
👀 Meta's secret deal with Google
🫠 Humane's AI Pin daily returns are outpacing sales
🎮 Meta shuts down VR game studio in cost-cutting move
🏴☠️ 3 billion records leaked online in one of the biggest breaches ever
💥 Boeing Starliner crew might not return this year
🎁 + 8 other news you might like
🔮 + 3 handpicked research papers and tools
👀 Meta's secret deal with GoogleLINK
The Financial Times reports that Meta and Google ran a hidden campaign targeting 13 to 17-year-olds with Instagram ads on YouTube, despite Google's own rules against advertising to children.
Google allegedly used a loophole by directing ads to users in the “unknown” demographic, which often included younger audiences, to extend ad reach and bypass their policies.
The illicit campaign, executed in Canada and tested in the US, aimed to boost revenue as Google's ad earnings declined and Meta's young users shifted to platforms like TikTok, but has since been canceled following an investigation.
🫠 Humane's AI Pin daily returns are outpacing salesLINK
Humane has faced considerable challenges with the AI Pin, seeing more returns than purchases between May and August, with current customer holdings near 7,000 units.
The AI Pin received negative reviews at launch, leading to efforts by Humane to stabilize operations and look for potential buyers or additional funding from investors.
Humane's total sales of the AI Pin and accessories have only reached $9 million, which is significantly lower than the $200 million investment from prominent Silicon Valley executives.
🎮 Meta shuts down VR game studio in cost-cutting moveLINK
Meta has closed its game development studio, Ready at Dawn, known for creating the Echo VR series, effective immediately.
This closure comes nearly 18 months after Meta acquired Ready at Dawn, aligning with its plan to cut Reality Labs' budget by 20 percent by 2026.
Ready at Dawn, which developed games like Daxter, The Order: 1886, and multiple Echo VR titles, was shut down amid Meta's broader cost-cutting moves, including significant layoffs.
🏴☠️ 3 billion records leaked online in one of the biggest breaches everLINK
Hackers stole the sensitive personal data of 2.9 billion people from background-check company National Public Data, making it one of the largest breaches ever reported.
The exposed data includes full names, past and current addresses, Social Security Numbers, and information about relatives, dating back nearly 30 years.
The data breach came to light when a cybercriminal group named USDoD listed the database for sale on a dark web forum for $3.5 million, sparking a class action lawsuit against the company.
💥 Boeing Starliner crew might not return this yearLINK
NASA announced a backup plan to bring astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams back from the ISS using SpaceX's Crew-9 mission if Boeing’s Starliner can't be used, targeted for early next year.
The Boeing Starliner experienced notable issues, including thruster failures and helium leaks, which have caused significant delays and left the astronauts in orbit for over two months.
Should the backup plan be needed, SpaceX would launch in late September with two astronauts, reserving two return spots for Williams and Wilmore, potentially bringing them back to Earth by February 2025.
Other news you might like
Intel made a billion dollar blunder when it declined to invest in OpenAI.LINK
Sam Altman stokes rumors of new OpenAI foundation model ‘Strawberry’.LINK
Palmer Luckey's startup Anduril raises $1.5 billion to build a Tesla-style weapons factory.LINK
OpenAI reportedly leads $60M round for webcam startup Opal.LINK
A UK startup will hitch a ride with SpaceX to harvest — and sell — star data.LINK
YouTube tests Twitter-style community notes to fight misinformation.LINK
An 18-year-old Safari loophole exploited by hackers is finally being fixed by Apple.LINK
Paris 'flying taxi' flights scrapped during Olympics.LINK
Latest research and tools
Gazette: a cloud-native streaming platform designed for real-time data processing with millisecond-latency.LINK
Neon: a serverless, open-source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres that rearchitects PostgreSQL for the cloud by separating storage and compute, aiming to enhance scalability and efficiency.LINK
Mouse Pong: transforms a standard mouse into a gaming device that plays Pong using its cursor to display gameplay, with scores shown by cursor position and controlled through the scroll wheel, enhanced by custom firmware and hardware modifications.LINK
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