SF News SFPD Touts That Their New License Plate Readers Nabbed an Accused $3,400 Lululemon Thief Those new automated license plate readers about town just popped another retail theft suspect, as the cameras’ use led to the arrest of a woman accused of stealing $3,400 worth of Lululemon gear.
Business & Tech Marketer Survey Suggests Future Advertiser Losses For X The advertising woes at soon-to-be-no-longer-SF-based Xitter look to be persistent, and a woefully small segment of advertisers has any remaining faith that their brands are safe when they might end up appearing next to some offensive content.
Business & Tech Lyft Laying Off More Staff, Scaling Back Bike and Scooter Division SF-based Lyft is going through a restructuring, and making some changes in its bike and scooter division to become more profitable, which includes laying off 1% of its staff.
Business & Tech Bye, Elon!: Xitter to Exit the Twitter Building For Good on September 13 Finally shedding the last vestiges of the company once known — and still often referred to — as Twitter, Elon Musk is shutting the operation down for good at the Twitter Building on mid-Market Street on Friday the 13th of September.
Arts & Entertainment Oprah Winfrey Hosting Prime Time Special on AI Featuring Sam Altman, Bill Gates Oprah is taking on the topic of artificial intelligence, and she'll be airing a prime-time special on ABC in September to ask the question "AI: What is it?" and other things your parents and grandparents have been asking.
Business & Tech Google Says It's Fixed Gemini People-Generating Feature, Also It's Releasing Customizable Chatbots Google's AI project Gemini hit a snag earlier this year when its image-generating feature was found to create wild historical inaccuracies in the interest of diversity. Google says it's been working on that, and the new and improved people-generator will made available to some paid users soon.
Business & Tech Zuckerberg Once Again Capitulates to Conservatives Over COVID Misinformation, Hunter Biden Laptop Faced with right-wing criticism that taking down false posts somehow “censored Americans,” Facebook-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg threw in the towel and said that his social media companies will be more hands-off with misleading posts.
Business & Tech Amazon Submits Their Plans for That Mission Bay Delivery Warehouse They Had to Put On Ice The SF Board of Supervisors put Amazon’s proposed Mission Bay “fulfillment center” in a two-year time-out, but that pause is now finished, and Amazon just unboxed their plans for the facility at Seventh and Berry streets.
Business & Tech Apple Gears Up to Unveil First Generative AI Phone, the iPhone 16, on September 9 — But AI-Powered Siri Likely a Year Off It's once again about time for Apple's annual, post-Labor Day product launch event, and this year it comes with a semi-big new product, with a lot of caveats.
SF Politics Trouble for Trumper Silicon Valley Billionaires: Project 2025 Is Actually Pretty Anti-Tech Even though some of the biggest Silicon Valley venture capitalists are jumping on the Trump train, the Project 2025 that would apparently guide a second Trump term says that tech companies "prey on children, like drug dealers."
Business & Tech Beleaguered Self-Driving Car Company Cruise Teams Up With Uber for Their Comeback Bid Robotaxi company Cruise currently has its California permits suspended, but they are definitely plotting their comeback, and just announced they’re partnering to offer self-driving Cruise rides on the Uber app.
Business & Tech Elon Musk’s Secret List of Twitter Buyout Investors Made Public; It Includes Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter takeover was largely financed by a secret group of wealthy investors. Those investors’ names are now public, and the list includes Jack Dorsey, Larry Ellison, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
SF News Tesla Semi Truck Crash and Fire on I-80 Being Investigated By Feds A crash and subsequent battery fire earlier this week involving one of Tesla's semi trucks that shut down I-80 in both directions for most of an entire day is now being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Business & Tech WSJ: Elon Musk’s Deal to Buy Twitter Rated Worst Deal for Banks Since the 2008 Financial Crisis The seven major banks who lined up to finance Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in 2022 are still on the hook for $13 billion, setting unpaid debt records not seen since the 2008 Great Recession collapse. Let that sink in!
Business & Tech Mark Zuckerberg Has Very Strange Statue Commissioned of His Wife I’ve heard of a “trophy wife,” but this is ridiculous — zillionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled a towering, seven-foot-tall statue of his wife Priscilla Chan, depicting her in an aqua, sea-foam bluish-green hue.
SF Politics United Auto Workers Union Files Federal Labor Charges Against Trump and Elon Musk Over Anti-Union Comments Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s rambling Twitter Spaces interview Monday night is making more news, as the United Auto Workers union has now filed federal labor charges against both of them for saying striking workers should be fired.
Business & Tech Waymos Infuriate SoMa Neighborhood With Cacophony of 4AM Horn-Honking In today’s episode of robot cars seeming to be very confused, we have the story of a SoMa parking lot that gets taken over by Waymos every night, and keeps the neighborhood awake as the cars incessantly honk horns at each other around 4 am.
Business & Tech Elon Musk's Trans Daughter Continues Attacks, Calling Musk a 'Desperate,' 'Lying,' 'Serial Adulterer' Elon Musk's daughter Vivian Wilson will not stay silent any longer, and after he set her off by going on a conservative podcast with an anti-trans psychologist to talk about her, she has now gone viral again with a second rant about her estranged billionaire father.
Business & Tech Elon Musk’s Twitter/X Sues Advertisers for Not Advertising on Elon Musk’s Twitter/X So-called “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk apparently thinks that free speech means forcing advertisers to buy ads on his website by suing them, as his latest lawsuit has sued advertisers for pulling their ads from his platform.
Business & Tech Waymo Expands Robotaxi Service Onto the Peninsula, But Still Can’t Drive to SFO or on 101 Effective today, the self-driving taxi cars of Waymo are giving paid rides into Daly City and Colma, but they still can’t drive on US 101 or I-280, and they cannot drive you to the SF International Airport.
Business & Tech Google Has Illegal Monopoly Over Web Searching, Federal Judge Rules Google has been declared "a monopolist" in a landmark decision that may shake things up in Silicon Valley. The decision came down Monday in US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Makes Good on Threat to Close X/Twitter Offices In SF, Says Office Will Close In a Few Weeks While there was some suggestion that Xitter might let go of just a portion of its longtime office space at what quickly became known as The Twitter Building over a decade ago, it looks like Elon Musk is finally getting out of SF for good.
Business & Tech Chevron Announces They’re Leaving Their San Ramon Headquarters, Relocating to Houston The second-largest US oil company Chevron seemed to have one foot out the door of its national headquarters in San Ramon, but now they’re making it official and moving to Texas, though their smoke-spewing Richmond refinery is apparently staying put.
Business & Tech Founder of Social Media Startup IRL Charged With $170M Fraud Scheme The founder of the app IRL, which, pre-pandemic, sought to connect users with real-world events but later pivoted to online events and more social media features, has now been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
SF News After Many Waymo Near-Collisions at School Crossings, Mayor Breed Vows to Hold Waymo's Feet to the Fire An NBC Bay Area report in May detailed that 25% of SF school crossing guards said they or their school children had nearly been hit by self-driving Waymos, and now Mayor Breed is promising to hold the Google subsidiary more accountable.
