Daily Tech News 16 July 2023

• The Ninth Circuit has denied the FTC's appeal after the agency was denied an injunction blocking Microsoft's acquisition of Actilizard. (The Verge)
  
  Which is good. I think.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile the Fifth Circuit has granted a temporary stay on a preliminary injunction blocking one of the Biden Administration's largest censorship and propaganda efforts. (New York Times) (archive site)
  
  Not as good.

• Intel is preparing to offer 16nm FINFET production to third-party designers - as a budget node. (AnandTech)
  
  Simple chips like microcontrollers - the RP2040 in the Raspberry Pi Pico for example - are typically built on much older processes than the latest mainstream CPUs. While AMD's laptop chips are built on TSMC's 4nm process, the RP2040 is built on 40nm, with planar transistors rather than the more efficient FINFETs.
  
  So for that market 16nm would be a huge step forward if the price is right.
  
  
  
• If you're in Europe and want to use Instagram's Threads because, I don't know, you have multidrug-resistant neurosyphilis or something, you double can't. (Thurrott)
  
  Threads isn't available in Europe because it breaks every EU law regarding data collection and targeted advertising, and now Facebook has blocked access via VPNs as well.
  
  
  
• Bing is being sued because its miracle AI-powered news summaries accused an Air Force veteran and rocket entrepreneur of treason. (Reason)
  
  Turns out that Professor Jeffrey Battle of Battle Enterprises, while possibly ill-advised in representing himself in this suit, is not the same person as Jeffrey Leon Battle, who tried to enlist with the Taliban in the wake of 9/11.
  
  If Bing had merely linked to another website where this claim was made, Microsoft would be protected under DMCA Section 230. But this is their own work.
  
  Oops.
  
  
  
• Samsung is launching a new range of big, expensive Android tablets. (Liliputing)
  
  No small cheap ones. I have the A7 Lite, and it would be perfectly fine if the screen weren't a reject from 2012. But there is nothing better on the market right now except for Lenovo's Y700, which you can't buy.
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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