The Meta Connect keynote felt overscripted and “incredibly thirsty”, with its prolonged pitch for VR and the metaverse coming off as one of tech’s hardest sells (Darrell Etherington/TechCrunch)

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Apple releases iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, and macOS Ventura, with iCloud Shared Photo Library, Continuity Camera, Stage Manager for the Mac and the iPad, and more  —  Apple has released iOS 16.1, iPad OS 16.1 and macOS 13, as it announced it would do last week.

Amir Shevat / TechCrunch:
Former product head of Twitter’s developer platform details plans abandoned post-acquisition, like discovery tools and custom timelines, eroding developer trust  —  Twitter is where the world shares its opinions and aspirations; it’s where brands, celebrities, and politicians interact with people, live and in the open.

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Meta adviser and ex-Oculus CTO John Carmack expresses heavy skepticism at pushing for avatar fidelity, focusing on the Quest Pro to drive VR adoption, and more  —  Lonely lecture as a VR avatar is a far cry from last year’s “thousands of people” goal  —  Last year, former Oculus CTO …

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Stockholm-based Mavenoid, which offers human- and AI-enabled product support and troubleshooting tools for hardware companies, has raised a $30M Series B  —  Mavenoid, a Swedish company that provides both human- and AI-enabled support and troubleshooting tools for hardware companies …