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Reuters:

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the
Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside
Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and
placed in custody, three sources told Reuters.

The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on
Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded
his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free
speech in Europe was under attack.

Such a warning is particularly rich coming from Russia so soon after the negotiated release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship,
was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into
allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of
moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a
third French police source said.

I don’t yet have enough information to form an opinion on this arrest, but I will emphasize one point. There’s a reaction going around that this is ridiculous because Telegram is “encrypted” and thus can’t be moderated so arresting Durov for failing to moderate Telegram is a backdoor way of arresting him for providing encrypted communication. This is the result of a yearslong propaganda campaign by Telegram to describe itself using adjectives like “encrypted” and “secure”. It’s not. But the propaganda campaign has been extraordinarily successful.

Here’s Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike back in February 2022, who, say what you will about Signal and the Signal Foundation, knows his shit about actual end-to-end encryption:

Telegram is the most popular messenger in urban Ukraine. After a
decade of misleading marketing and press, most ppl there believe
it’s an “encrypted app”

The reality is the opposite-TG is by default a cloud database w/ a
plaintext copy of every msg everyone has ever sent/recvd.

One-on-one chats in Telegram are not encrypted by default and group chats never are. Telegram employees have access to every single message ever sent to every group.

So, given how widely used Telegram is — perhaps especially in Ukraine — you can see why Russia is upset that Durov was arrested.

 ★ 

Reuters:

Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the
Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside
Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and
placed in custody, three sources told Reuters.

The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on
Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded
his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free
speech in Europe was under attack.

Such a warning is particularly rich coming from Russia so soon after the negotiated release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Durov, who has dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship,
was arrested as part of a preliminary police investigation into
allegedly allowing a wide range of crimes due to a lack of
moderators on Telegram and a lack of cooperation with police, a
third French police source said.

I don’t yet have enough information to form an opinion on this arrest, but I will emphasize one point. There’s a reaction going around that this is ridiculous because Telegram is “encrypted” and thus can’t be moderated so arresting Durov for failing to moderate Telegram is a backdoor way of arresting him for providing encrypted communication. This is the result of a yearslong propaganda campaign by Telegram to describe itself using adjectives like “encrypted” and “secure”. It’s not. But the propaganda campaign has been extraordinarily successful.

Here’s Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike back in February 2022, who, say what you will about Signal and the Signal Foundation, knows his shit about actual end-to-end encryption:

Telegram is the most popular messenger in urban Ukraine. After a
decade of misleading marketing and press, most ppl there believe
it’s an “encrypted app”

The reality is the opposite-TG is by default a cloud database w/ a
plaintext copy of every msg everyone has ever sent/recvd.

One-on-one chats in Telegram are not encrypted by default and group chats never are. Telegram employees have access to every single message ever sent to every group.

So, given how widely used Telegram is — perhaps especially in Ukraine — you can see why Russia is upset that Durov was arrested.

Read More 

Microsoft:

With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall
(preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we’re sharing
an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders
starting in October. As previously shared on June 13, we have
adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise
of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available
for all Copilot+ PCs. Security continues to be our top priority
and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we
will publish a blog with more details.

For years I stubbornly held onto the full word weblog, but eventually blog won out. But that’s talking about a blog as a publication, a site. It will never sound anything but idiotic to me to call a blog post a “blog”. It makes no sense. You write blogs on a blog?

Anyway, would be scary to consider what this Recall feature would have been like if security were not, as Microsoft repeats ad nauseum, the company’s top priority. The initial version was such privacy Swiss cheese that it’s enough to make you think Microsoft is full of shit that security is their top priority.

 ★ 

Microsoft:

With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall
(preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we’re sharing
an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders
starting in October. As previously shared on June 13, we have
adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise
of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available
for all Copilot+ PCs. Security continues to be our top priority
and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we
will publish a blog with more details.

For years I stubbornly held onto the full word weblog, but eventually blog won out. But that’s talking about a blog as a publication, a site. It will never sound anything but idiotic to me to call a blog post a “blog”. It makes no sense. You write blogs on a blog?

Anyway, would be scary to consider what this Recall feature would have been like if security were not, as Microsoft repeats ad nauseum, the company’s top priority. The initial version was such privacy Swiss cheese that it’s enough to make you think Microsoft is full of shit that security is their top priority.

Read More 

Jason Snell:

Netflix has been slowly rolling out a big catalog of
games, tied to a Netflix login. There are loads out now,
including the excellent Lucky Luna and Laya’s
Horizon (both from Snowman, developer of the excellent
Alto’s series of iOS games).

Maybe, a year (or years) from now, there will be a GamesIndustry story like this one about Apple Arcade, about Netflix: “Mobile Developers Describe Working With Apple Arcade as a ‘Very Difficult and Long Process’”.

But in the meantime, I think Netflix is doing what Apple claimed they were doing with Apple Arcade — except Netflix didn’t lose focus five minutes into the initiative. I know for a fact, knowing them personally, that there are game developers who are repulsed by casino-style pay-to-win monetization, who are basically desperate for a monetization path that is up-front and completely healthy to all players. And they realize that such paths go through mainstream subscription services.

Apple Arcade, on the surface, sounds like exactly what they’re asking for. And it would give Apple device exclusivity. But Apple has botched this. It’s hard to believe, but they have. The general gist among game developers is that Apple is a hard-driving partner with whom, mostly likely, you’ll break even at best. The hard-driving part is to be expected. That’s Apple. It would be really weird and alarming if they weren’t demanding. But the “break even at best” part is not.

 ★ 

Jason Snell:

Netflix has been slowly rolling out a big catalog of
games, tied to a Netflix login. There are loads out now,
including the excellent Lucky Luna and Laya’s
Horizon (both from Snowman, developer of the excellent
Alto’s series of iOS games).

Maybe, a year (or years) from now, there will be a GamesIndustry story like this one about Apple Arcade, about Netflix: “Mobile Developers Describe Working With Apple Arcade as a ‘Very Difficult and Long Process’”.

But in the meantime, I think Netflix is doing what Apple claimed they were doing with Apple Arcade — except Netflix didn’t lose focus five minutes into the initiative. I know for a fact, knowing them personally, that there are game developers who are repulsed by casino-style pay-to-win monetization, who are basically desperate for a monetization path that is up-front and completely healthy to all players. And they realize that such paths go through mainstream subscription services.

Apple Arcade, on the surface, sounds like exactly what they’re asking for. And it would give Apple device exclusivity. But Apple has botched this. It’s hard to believe, but they have. The general gist among game developers is that Apple is a hard-driving partner with whom, mostly likely, you’ll break even at best. The hard-driving part is to be expected. That’s Apple. It would be really weird and alarming if they weren’t demanding. But the “break even at best” part is not.

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Peter Baker, supposedly “reporting” from the DNC in Chicago:

When the crowd members in the United Center first chanted, “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” on Monday night, President Biden looked down, fought back tears and soaked in the admiration.

But he knew. He might not have wanted to admit it. But he knew. They were thanking him, yes, for what he accomplished during a lifetime in public service. But they were also thanking him, let’s be honest, for not running again.

It is hard to think of a more bittersweet moment for a president who spent more than a half-century on the stage only now to be involuntarily shown the exit. The warm bath of affection in Chicago, real as it may have been, could go just so far to salve the wounds of the past few weeks.

Fuck Peter Baker. What utter bullshit the word “involuntary” plays in that lede. Of course it was voluntary. Joe Biden is the President of the United States and is comfortable with the power that title affords. He was, even after his disastrous debate performance, only a few points behind in the polls. It was his call and his call alone to step aside — for the sake of his party, and more importantly, for the sake of the country he so obviously loves. And it’s now obvious he made the right call.

Very few presidents have ever been faced with such a clear decision between the good of the nation and the drive of their personal ambition. Biden’s ambition is legendary. Biden’s response to this moment was heroic.

The Times can give Peter Baker as much ink as they want as a columnist. But they should stop calling him a “reporter”. He’s nothing of the sort, and hasn’t been for a long time.

 ★ 

Peter Baker, supposedly “reporting” from the DNC in Chicago:

When the crowd members in the United Center first chanted, “Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!” on Monday night, President Biden looked down, fought back tears and soaked in the admiration.

But he knew. He might not have wanted to admit it. But he knew. They were thanking him, yes, for what he accomplished during a lifetime in public service. But they were also thanking him, let’s be honest, for not running again.

It is hard to think of a more bittersweet moment for a president who spent more than a half-century on the stage only now to be involuntarily shown the exit. The warm bath of affection in Chicago, real as it may have been, could go just so far to salve the wounds of the past few weeks.

Fuck Peter Baker. What utter bullshit the word “involuntary” plays in that lede. Of course it was voluntary. Joe Biden is the President of the United States and is comfortable with the power that title affords. He was, even after his disastrous debate performance, only a few points behind in the polls. It was his call and his call alone to step aside — for the sake of his party, and more importantly, for the sake of the country he so obviously loves. And it’s now obvious he made the right call.

Very few presidents have ever been faced with such a clear decision between the good of the nation and the drive of their personal ambition. Biden’s ambition is legendary. Biden’s response to this moment was heroic.

The Times can give Peter Baker as much ink as they want as a columnist. But they should stop calling him a “reporter”. He’s nothing of the sort, and hasn’t been for a long time.

Read More 

Michael Wayland, reporting yesterday for CNBC:

General Motors is laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees globally in its software and services division following a review to streamline the unit’s operations, CNBC has learned.

The layoffs, including roughly 600 jobs at GM’s tech campus near Detroit, come less than six months after leadership changes overseeing the operations, including former Apple executive Mike Abbott leaving the automaker after less than a year in March due to health reasons. […]

The job cuts represent about 1.3% of the company’s global salaried workforce of 76,000 as of the end of last year.

I’m starting to think GM has no idea what they’re doing with their car software.

 ★ 

Michael Wayland, reporting yesterday for CNBC:

General Motors is laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees globally in its software and services division following a review to streamline the unit’s operations, CNBC has learned.

The layoffs, including roughly 600 jobs at GM’s tech campus near Detroit, come less than six months after leadership changes overseeing the operations, including former Apple executive Mike Abbott leaving the automaker after less than a year in March due to health reasons. […]

The job cuts represent about 1.3% of the company’s global salaried workforce of 76,000 as of the end of last year.

I’m starting to think GM has no idea what they’re doing with their car software.

Read More 

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today announced the launch of a Podcasts on the web
feature, which works in Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
on Macs, PCs, and other devices. Podcasts on the web allows users
to search for, browse through, and listen to podcasts with access
to the Up Next queue and library when signed in to an Apple
Account.

The only use case for something like this is for users who spend a lot of time on Windows — presumably at work — and wish they could listen to their own podcast queue. That’s a big use case though! Overcast has had a web player for as long as I can remember — before Catalyst allowed Marco Arment to bring the iPad version of Overcast to Mac, it was the only way to listen to your Overcast podcast library on the Mac.

 ★ 

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today announced the launch of a Podcasts on the web
feature, which works in Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox
on Macs, PCs, and other devices. Podcasts on the web allows users
to search for, browse through, and listen to podcasts with access
to the Up Next queue and library when signed in to an Apple
Account.

The only use case for something like this is for users who spend a lot of time on Windows — presumably at work — and wish they could listen to their own podcast queue. That’s a big use case though! Overcast has had a web player for as long as I can remember — before Catalyst allowed Marco Arment to bring the iPad version of Overcast to Mac, it was the only way to listen to your Overcast podcast library on the Mac.

Read More 

Gillette CEO in an Onion op-ed 20 years ago: “Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades”.

 ★ 

Gillette CEO in an Onion op-ed 20 years ago: “Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades”.

Read More 

Mark Scott, reporting for Politico:

Thierry Breton, who oversees the bloc’s enforcement of new social
media rules, sent Musk a letter posted on X that warned the
tech mogul about spreading “harmful content,” ahead of Musk’s
livestreamed interview with Donald Trump.

The tech billionaire quickly clapped back. “To be honest, I really
wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme,” Musk wrote to
his almost 200 million followers on X, while posting a
curse-laden photo from the 2008 Hollywood blockbuster. “But I
would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible!”

Even the European Commission thinks he was a jackass for sending this letter:

Four separate EU officials, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said Breton’s warning to Musk had surprised many within
the Commission. The bloc’s enforcers were still investigating the
platform for potential wrongdoing and the EU did not want to be
seen as potentially interfering in the U.S. presidential election.

“The EU is not in the business of electoral interference,” said
one of those officials. “DSA implementation is too important to be
misused by an attention-seeking politician in search of his next
big job.”

The Financial Times:

“The timing and the wording of the letter were neither
co-ordinated or agreed with the president nor with the
[commissioners],” it said. An EU official, who asked not to be
named, said: “Thierry has his own mind and way of working and
thinking.” […]

Musk responded to the letter from Breton with a meme from the 2008
film Tropic Thunder, that showed one character yelling: “Take a
big step back and literally fuck your own face.”

But, Scott reports, we’ll still have Breton to kick around for the foreseeable future:

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron backed Breton to
serve another term at the European Commission. Breton has been
vocal in his eagerness to hold onto his digital files, according
to three EU officials with knowledge of the matter.

 ★ 

Mark Scott, reporting for Politico:

Thierry Breton, who oversees the bloc’s enforcement of new social
media rules, sent Musk a letter posted on X that warned the
tech mogul about spreading “harmful content,” ahead of Musk’s
livestreamed interview with Donald Trump.

The tech billionaire quickly clapped back. “To be honest, I really
wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme,” Musk wrote to
his almost 200 million followers on X, while posting a
curse-laden photo from the 2008 Hollywood blockbuster. “But I
would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible!”

Even the European Commission thinks he was a jackass for sending this letter:

Four separate EU officials, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said Breton’s warning to Musk had surprised many within
the Commission. The bloc’s enforcers were still investigating the
platform for potential wrongdoing and the EU did not want to be
seen as potentially interfering in the U.S. presidential election.

“The EU is not in the business of electoral interference,” said
one of those officials. “DSA implementation is too important to be
misused by an attention-seeking politician in search of his next
big job.”

The Financial Times:

“The timing and the wording of the letter were neither
co-ordinated or agreed with the president nor with the
[commissioners],” it said. An EU official, who asked not to be
named, said: “Thierry has his own mind and way of working and
thinking.” […]

Musk responded to the letter from Breton with a meme from the 2008
film Tropic Thunder, that showed one character yelling: “Take a
big step back and literally fuck your own face.”

But, Scott reports, we’ll still have Breton to kick around for the foreseeable future:

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron backed Breton to
serve another term at the European Commission. Breton has been
vocal in his eagerness to hold onto his digital files, according
to three EU officials with knowledge of the matter.

Read More 

Alex Cranz, writing for The Verge:

But then Gemini Live kept talking. And talking. The Verge team was
packed in a glass booth, and as Gemini Live droned on, a friendly
Google employee encouraged me to “go ahead and interrupt it.”

It felt weird! I don’t mind interrupting Google Assistant in my
car. In fact, I can be downright abusive to most of these bots. I
call them names and interrupt them with ease. But Gemini Live felt
different. The pleasing masculine tone of the voice, the easy way
it spoke. It felt a little too human for me to interrupt.

My next question led to a similar interaction. I asked for ideas
on how to entertain my dog, and Gemini Live just started talking.
The only way I could get it to stop was to interrupt it. Which I
did repeatedly. It was like talking to my 9-year-old godson. Like
him, Gemini Live doesn’t know how to read the cues on my face,
doesn’t know when to acknowledge that, actually, I don’t care as
much about the subject at hand as it does.

The comparison to a 9-year-old is apt. There’s no path to LLM assistants not being socially awkward without going through stages of sometimes-embarrassing awkwardness.

 ★ 

Alex Cranz, writing for The Verge:

But then Gemini Live kept talking. And talking. The Verge team was
packed in a glass booth, and as Gemini Live droned on, a friendly
Google employee encouraged me to “go ahead and interrupt it.”

It felt weird! I don’t mind interrupting Google Assistant in my
car. In fact, I can be downright abusive to most of these bots. I
call them names and interrupt them with ease. But Gemini Live felt
different. The pleasing masculine tone of the voice, the easy way
it spoke. It felt a little too human for me to interrupt.

My next question led to a similar interaction. I asked for ideas
on how to entertain my dog, and Gemini Live just started talking.
The only way I could get it to stop was to interrupt it. Which I
did repeatedly. It was like talking to my 9-year-old godson. Like
him, Gemini Live doesn’t know how to read the cues on my face,
doesn’t know when to acknowledge that, actually, I don’t care as
much about the subject at hand as it does.

The comparison to a 9-year-old is apt. There’s no path to LLM assistants not being socially awkward without going through stages of sometimes-embarrassing awkwardness.

Read More 

Joanna Stern, writing for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

I’m not saying I prefer talking to Google’s Gemini Live over a
real human. But I’m not not saying that either.

Does it help that the chatty new artificial-intelligence bot says
I’m a great interviewer with a good sense of humor? *Maybe. *But
it’s more that it actually listens, offers quick answers and
doesn’t mind my interruptions. No “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand
that” apologies like some other bots we know.

I had a nice, long chat with Google’s generative-AI voice
assistant before its debut on Tuesday. It will come built into the
company’s four new Pixel phones, but it’s also available to anyone
with an Android phone, the Gemini app and a $20-a-month
subscription to Gemini Advanced. The company plans to launch it
soon on iOS, too.

The catch:

When I asked it to set a timer, it said it couldn’t do that — or
set an alarm — “yet.” Gemini Live is a big step forward
conversationally. But functionally, it’s a step back in some ways.
One big reason: Gemini Live works entirely in the cloud, not
locally on a device. Google says it’s working on ways for the new
assistant to control phone functions and other Google apps.

It’s a fascinating — but unsurprising — strategic and culture difference that Apple Intelligence runs largely on device, and completely privately even when going to the cloud, and Google Gemini is currently only in the cloud, and with nothing like Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. To be clear, Google’s new lineup of Pixel 9 phones perform a lot of “AI” features on device, but not the Gemini voice assistant.

 ★ 

Joanna Stern, writing for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

I’m not saying I prefer talking to Google’s Gemini Live over a
real human. But I’m not not saying that either.

Does it help that the chatty new artificial-intelligence bot says
I’m a great interviewer with a good sense of humor? *Maybe. *But
it’s more that it actually listens, offers quick answers and
doesn’t mind my interruptions. No “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand
that” apologies like some other bots we know.

I had a nice, long chat with Google’s generative-AI voice
assistant before its debut on Tuesday. It will come built into the
company’s four new Pixel phones, but it’s also available to anyone
with an Android phone, the Gemini app and a $20-a-month
subscription to Gemini Advanced. The company plans to launch it
soon on iOS, too.

The catch:

When I asked it to set a timer, it said it couldn’t do that — or
set an alarm — “yet.” Gemini Live is a big step forward
conversationally. But functionally, it’s a step back in some ways.
One big reason: Gemini Live works entirely in the cloud, not
locally on a device. Google says it’s working on ways for the new
assistant to control phone functions and other Google apps.

It’s a fascinating — but unsurprising — strategic and culture difference that Apple Intelligence runs largely on device, and completely privately even when going to the cloud, and Google Gemini is currently only in the cloud, and with nothing like Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. To be clear, Google’s new lineup of Pixel 9 phones perform a lot of “AI” features on device, but not the Gemini voice assistant.

Read More