Stripe has cut about 3.5% of its workforce, mostly in product, engineering, and operations. Despite this, the company plans to continue hiring and increase its headcount by 17% by the end of the year. The payments company is currently valued at about $70 billion in private markets. Stripe's founders have intentionally steered clear of public markets and have given no indication of whether an offering is on the near-term horizon. Total payment volume at the company passed $1 trillion in 2023.
Streaming services commanded 43.3% of all TV viewing in the US in December.
2025.01.22·hollywoodreporter.com·2 min read·TLDR Ross Ulbricht operated the Silk Road marketplace on the dark web between 2011 and 2013.
Microsoft will have the 'right of first refusal' when OpenAI seeks additional capacity.
One in 11 developers reported new layoffs in the past year.
2025.01.22·links.tldrnewsletter.com·17 min read·TLDR Meta wants to tap into Oakley's cult-like following among various athlete groups.
2025.01.22·techcrunch.com·1 min read·TLDR Many of the early predictions about cloud computing were wrong, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a transformative technology.
2025.01.22·bitmasonsllc.blogspot.com·9 min read·TLDR Sponsored
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The iPhone Air may mark the biggest design shift for the line in many years. Rumors suggest that the super-thin iPhone will debut as part of the iPhone 17 lineup this fall. There are enough rumors to infer that something real is in the works. This article rounds up all of the current rumors about the upcoming device, which will sacrifice some function for a sleeker, slimmer design. Apple is likely using the device as a testing ground for new technologies, including its in-house wireless and cell modem chips and the smaller tech needed to eventually build a folding iPhone.
2025.01.21·theverge.com·5 min read·TLDR TikTok has been removed from app stores in the US despite the Biden administration issuing a statement that it didn't intend to try to enforce the law and Trump saying there would be no liability for ignoring the law while he tries to suspend the ban. The law allows for app stores to be fined $5,000 per user, which would be a massive blow even for a company of Apple's size. It is not clear whether Trump has the power to shield companies from this liability. The providers that have resumed service for TikTok are rapidly accruing tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars of liability.
2025.01.21·9to5mac.com·3 min read·TLDR A software engineer claims to have uncovered evidence of OpenAI's long-rumored Operator, an AI tool that can take control of users' PCs and perform actions on their behalf. OpenAI may be releasing the tool this month. The company's site and apps now contain hidden references to Operator. While AI agents are risky and speculative, tech giants are already touting them as the next big thing in AI. Analysts say the market for AI agents could be worth $47.1 billion by 2030.
2025.01.21·techcrunch.com·4 min read·TLDR Beijing is holding a marathon for humans and robots in its Daxing district in April. Around 12,000 humans will run alongside robots from more than 20 companies at the event. Prizes will be offered to the top three runners. China is ramping up efforts to develop artificial intelligence and robotics to gain an edge in its tech rivalry with the US and combat the challenges of an aging society and a falling birth rate.
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2025.01.21·advertise.tldr.tech·Sponsor·TLDR Chinese AI research lab DeepSeek has unveiled its latest reasoning models, DeepSeek-R1 and DeepSeek-R1-Zero. DeepSeek-R1 is fully open-source and distributed under the MIT license. The lab has released six distilled models, ranging from 32 billion to 70 billion parameters. They are designed to address tasks in math, code generation, and reasoning.
2025.01.21·analyticsindiamag.com·3 min read·TLDR This post looks at what makes people successful in QA/QAE/SDET/Automation. It covers mindsets, professional attributes, approaches to work, knowledge and growth, and personal properties. Successful candidates tend to have technical competency beyond just coding, prioritize problem-solving over pure coding ability, communicate clearly across technical leveling, take ownership of quality, have a deep understanding of the business domain, and possess a strong internal motivation. The post also shares a set of discussions gathered from various forums on the topic.
2025.01.21·links.tldrnewsletter.com·22 min read·TLDR This article contains an interview with the team that built X's Community Notes feature where they discuss the design process and the philosophy behind their approach to combating false information on the platform. The idea for Community Notes started around the end of 2019 with the observation that people wanted to get accurate information on social media while there was obvious misinformation going around. The main approaches that were used by other companies at the time were slow, didn't scale well, and suffered from a fundamental trust problem - people don't want a tech company deciding what is true. Wikipedia showed that crowdsourcing was a potential solution space, and follow-up studies by the team confirmed the idea was worth implementing.
2025.01.21·asteriskmag.com·40 min read·TLDR The Microsoft Excel World Championship was held last month in the Las Vegas e-sports arena. During the event, finance professionals fluent in spreadsheets gathered to solve complex Excel puzzles in front of an audience of around 400 people, with more watching on livestream. There was a $5,000 prize. The organizer, Andrew Grigolyunovich, hopes to turn competitive Excel into a popular e-sport where pros compete for million-dollar prizes.
2025.01.21·nytimes.com·11 min read·TLDR Kronotop is a Redis-compatible, distributed, and transactional document database that is horizontally scalable and sharded by default.
2025.01.21·github.com·GitHub repository·TLDR X is adding a video tab to the app's bottom bar for users in the US.
2025.01.21·techcrunch.com·2 min read·TLDR AWS bet on the Apache Iceberg open table format in response to demand from customers already using its popular S3 object storage.
2025.01.21·theregister.com·6 min read·TLDR Failure teaches you a lot, which makes you grow, and this can add up to a good life at the end of the day.
2025.01.21·blog.rongarret.info·25 min read·TLDR OSV helps developers identify known third-party open source dependency vulnerabilities.
2025.01.21·github.com·GitHub repository·TLDR This article looks at the various approaches that malicious extensions in the Chrome Web Store use to run unapproved code.
2025.01.21·palant.info·23 min read·TLDR Sponsored
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TikTok is restoring service to US users after Trump posted to Truth Social calling for it to remain available so he can broadcast his inauguration. Trump said that he will issue an executive order to extend the period of time before the law banning the platform takes effect so that his administration can make a deal to protect US national security. There will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark. Some Republicans have made statements that appear to contradict Trump on how things might play out, saying that he will try to force a true divestiture of the social media platform.
2025.01.20·nbcnews.com·5 min read·TLDR Perplexity AI has submitted a bid to ByteDance to create a new merged entity that will combine Perplexity AI, TikTok US, and new capital partners. The new structure would allow for most of ByteDance's existing investors to retain their equity stakes. Any potential transaction between Perplexity AI and ByteDance will likely take months to complete. ByteDance has publicly implied that it will not sell TikTok US, but Perplexity AI believes that it might be interested in a merger.
OpenAI trained a new AI model called GPT-4b micro with a longevity science startup called Retro Biosciences. Retro, which is backed by Sam Altman, is trying to extend the human lifespan by 10 years. The GPT-4b micro model tries to re-engineer proteins that can turn human skin cells into young-seeming stem cells. It is the first model by OpenAI custom-built for biological research. OpenAI and Retro plan to release research on the model and its outputs.
2025.01.20·techcrunch.com·1 min read·TLDR There are rumors that a top AI company will be announcing Ph.D.-level super-agents in the coming week. OpenAI's Sam Altman has scheduled a closed-door briefing with US government officials on January 30. The developments may explain why top AI developers have been talking publicly about AI replacing mid-level software engineers and other human jobs this year. A super-agent breakthrough could turn generative AI into a true replacement for human workers. While the AI world is full of hype, sources say that the coming advancement is significant.
2025.01.20·links.tldrnewsletter.com·5 min read·TLDR This post discusses how Railway built out its physical infrastructure. Railway used Google Cloud when it started, but the platform caused a multitude of problems that posed an existential risk to its business, so Railway decided to build its own data centers. The Railway Metal project kicked off last year with its first site in California. The company is currently building three more data center regions.
2025.01.20·blog.railway.com·15 min read·TLDR GitHub has released sub-issues, issue types, and advanced search for issues to everyone. It has also updated the issues frontend to enable developers to work faster. Sub-issues allow developers to break down and organize issues within a parent-child hierarchy. Issue types let developers classify and manage issues with a shared and consistent language across all repositories in an organization. Advanced search enables complex filters so that developers can find the exact set of issues they are looking for.
2025.01.20·github.blog·3 min read·TLDR Phoenix has been growing into an innovation hub over the past several decades. It has become the epicenter for semiconductor manufacturing and testing self-driving cars and drones. The city offers a favorable business environment, an ecosystem of companies, a close proximity to a university with a strong engineering program, and plenty of available talent. Technology companies are flocking to the city to capitalize on its perks.
While the job market looks as strong as ever, big companies are tightening remote-work policies, shrinking travel budgets, and cutting back on benefits. The balance of power between employers and employees has shifted as the labor market has gone from white-hot to merely solid. The power shift is evident across most of the labor market, but it is most prominent in white-collar roles. While the shift in leverage was displayed in layoffs and wage cuts in the past, it is now more subtle, often seen through changes to working conditions.
2025.01.20·links.tldrnewsletter.com·10 min read·TLDR Sponsored
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Google is requiring users to turn on JavaScript because it claims it helps the search engine better protect them against malicious activity and improve the overall experience.
2025.01.20·techcrunch.com·2 min read·TLDR Meta's Edits, set to launch next month on iOS (with an Android version following later), will come with a suite of creative video editing tools.
2025.01.20·techcrunch.com·2 min read·TLDR Devin, a fully autonomous AI software engineer, has a polished UI, but it rarely works.
2025.01.20·answer.ai·21 min read·TLDR Governments may be able to access the AI agents that we will eventually have on our phones.
2025.01.20·blog.cryptographyengineering.com·20 min read·TLDR There are rumors that a mystery company is planning to acquire Intel whole.
2025.01.20·finance.yahoo.com·1 min read·TLDR OpenAI had complete access to most of the problems and solutions for FrontierMath, so it could have, in theory, trained its models to solve them.
2025.01.20·links.tldrnewsletter.com·6 min read·TLDR Sponsored
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Nintendo has unveiled the Switch 2 with a trailer and promo website. The new device has a larger screen, a slightly more rounded edge on the top and bottom, an additional USB-C port on the top, and a wider kickstand that can support the system at a number of wider angles. The Joy-Cons are significantly larger than those on the original Switch. They have wider shoulder buttons and a new connector in the center. The Joy-Cons now snap in horizontally instead of having to slide in vertically. Pictures of the device are available in the article.
2025.01.17·arstechnica.com·3 min read·TLDR The ban on TikTok in the US may be delayed as the deadline falls on the MLK Day holiday weekend. Biden officials see the ban as an issue for the Trump administration, so there are no plans to intervene before the ban's January 19 deadline. An official has said that users should not expect the social network to shut down on Sunday. The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether to pause the law.
2025.01.17·techcrunch.com·2 min read·TLDR Blue Origin has reached orbit for the first time since its founding nearly a quarter of a century ago. The launch occurred on Thursday morning, a little more than an hour into its launch window. While the first stage did not successfully return to Earth, the debut launch of the New Glenn rocket was a smashing success. SpaceX required 19 launches before it finally landed an orbital rocket for the first time, so it was unlikely Blue Origin would have succeeded on the first attempt.
2025.01.17·arstechnica.com·3 min read·TLDR SpaceX caught Starship's Super Heavy booster for a second time on Thursday. However, an anomaly with the upper stage caused it to disappear after eight and a half minutes into the flight. The Federal Aviation Administration slowed or diverted a number of flights in the area where debris was spotted. SpaceX believes that the incident was caused by an oxygen/fuel leak inside Starship that built up too much pressure inside the cavity of the craft. A link to a video of the debris falling back to Earth shared by Elon Musk is available in the article.
2025.01.17·techcrunch.com·3 min read·TLDR