Livewire

• Spotify says support for external payments on iOS has already boosted subscriptions
  May 21, 2025 by Sarah Perez
  Spotify says its ability to direct its customers to external payment links in its iOS app has already had a positive impact on sales. In a newly filed amicus brief in support of Epic Games in its ongoing legal battle with Apple over external payments on the App Store, Spotify claims its internal data indicates […]
• LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M
  May 21, 2025 by Kyle Wiggers
  LM Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking project that major AI labs rely on to test and market their AI models, has raised $100 million in a seed funding round that values the organization at $600 million, according to Bloomberg. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and UC Investments, which manages an investment portfolio for the University of California, led the […]
• Wyden: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon weren’t notifying senators of surveillance requests
  May 21, 2025 by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
  Sen. Ron Wyden said in a letter that one U.S. phone carrier turned over Senate data to law enforcement without notifying the target.
• Spotify’s new ‘Upcoming Releases’ hub highlights future albums you may like
  May 21, 2025 by Aisha Malik
  Spotify is launching a new hub dedicated to keeping users informed about soon-to-be-released albums, the company announced on Wednesday. The hub, called “Upcoming Releases,” will feature personalized recommendations based on a user’s listening history. Users will be able to access it through the Search tab on mobile in the “Browse all” section. The hub will […]
• Jony Ive to lead OpenAI’s design work following $6.5B acquisition of his company
  May 21, 2025 by Kyle Wiggers, Maxwell Zeff
  OpenAI is acquiring io, the device startup that CEO Sam Altman and famed Apple designer Jony Ive have quietly been working on for two years, in an all-equity deal that values that startup at $6.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. As part of the unusual deal announced Wednesday, Ive and his design firm, […]

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