Microsoft unveils the $349 Windows 365 Link, a mini PC for its Windows 365 cloud service running a “super hardened version of Windows”, shipping in April 2025
Microsoft is planning to launch a new purpose-built miniature PC for its Windows 365 cloud service next year.
Sources: Sony is in talks to acquire Kadokawa, the Japanese media powerhouse behind the Elden Ring game, in the coming weeks; Kadokawa had a ~$2.7B market cap
Sony (6758.T) is in talks to acquire Kadokawa (9468.T), the Japanese media powerhouse behind the “Elden Ring” game …
Sources: DOJ antitrust officials plan to ask a judge to force Google to sell Chrome, license Search data, uncouple Android from Search and Google Play, and more
- Antitrust officials also to seek data licensing, AI measures — Google says the proposals would harm consumers and developers
Two Baltic Sea internet cables, connecting Lithuania with Sweden and Finland with Germany, were suddenly disrupted, sparking concerns about Russian sabotage
Two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been suddenly disrupted, according to local telecommunications companies …
Instagram says it is testing letting users reset the algorithmic suggestions that power Feed, Reels, and Explore, and the update “will soon roll out globally”
The app will offer users a chance for a “fresh start” with the algorithm. — If your Instagram recommendations …
Bluesky is booming partly because it doesn't have bad ad tech, AI slop, throttled links, and largely hostile user experiences, unlike some of its big rivals
No bad adtech, no AI, no throttling links. Bluesky is a booming because it's everything big tech is not — Greetings all —
Microsoft debuts the Windows Resiliency Initiative to help avoid another CrowdStrike-like incident, and a Quick Machine Recovery feature for fixing PCs remotely
Now, Microsoft has some answers in the form of a new Windows Resiliency Initiative that's designed to improve Windows security and reliability.
Social media users criticize Coca-Cola over an AI-generated Christmas video; many creatives say it is distasteful to use AI tech instead of the work of artists
The video was meant to pay homage to a classic 1995 Coca-Cola commercial. — Coca-Cola is facing backlash online …
Microsoft debuts an AI interpreter in Teams in limited preview that can simulate speaker voices and offer near-real-time voice interpretation in nine languages
Danielle Abril / Washington Post :
Bluesky has 20M+ users after hitting 15M on Nov. 13; Appfigures: it's been #1 in US App Store since Nov. 13; Similarweb: its DAU gap with Threads is narrowing
Bluesky, the social network and X competitor has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter.
Microsoft announces Zero Day Quest, a Black Hat-like hacking event at its Redmond HQ in 2025 that it says will be the largest of its kind, and opens submissions
Tom Warren / The Verge :
Microsoft plans to bring the “full capabilities” of Windows 11 to Meta's Quest 3 and Quest 3S in December in public preview, promising only “seconds” to connect
If Windows in mixed reality sounds like your idea of a good time, rejoice.
Sources: Apple has started selling its own ad inventory for Apple News; publishers will get a 70% cut of the ad revenue generated by Apple within their articles
- Apple has been selling its own ad inventory in search and within its App Store for a while.
Microsoft and Atom Computing plan to ship quantum computers with 1,000+ physical qubits to enterprises in 2025 and detail a 24 entangled logical qubits record
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch :
Memo: Amazon employees find there is too much of a delay between asking the new LLM-based Alexa a question and getting a response or seeing it complete a task
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. — Amazon's race to create an AI-based successor to its voice assistant Alexa has hit more snags …
Microsoft unveils Azure AI Foundry to make switching between LLMs easier, says 60K customers use Azure AI, and updates 365 Copilot to automate repetitive tasks
Dina Bass / Bloomberg :
Microsoft unveils the Azure Boost DPU, its first data processing unit, and the Azure Integrated Hardware Security Module, its new in-house security chip
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch :
Smart ring maker Oura raised a $75M Series D from medical device company Dexcom at a $5B+ valuation, up from $2.6B in 2022
- Dexcom invests $75 million in the seller of fitness rings — Companies will integrate their apps and cross-sell products — Smart ring maker Oura Health Oy …
Sources: Apple has raised its offer to invest in Indonesia from about $10M to almost $100M, in a bid to persuade the government to lift its iPhone 16 sales ban
- Company increases investment proposal tenfold, sources say — Indonesia banned sales of iPhone 16 over local content rules
An interview with Meta's heads of design for wearables Joshua To and Michelle Pujals on Orion's design, aiming to make Orion the AirPods of AR, and more
Meta's heads of design for wearables tell the exclusive design story behind their upcoming Orion AR glasses. — Meta knows exactly what it doesn't want to do.
Internal doc: Amazon held talks on handling tasks on the LLM-powered Alexa with Uber, Ticketmaster, Vagaro, OpenTable, Grubhub, Instacart, Fodors, and Thumbtack
Eugene Kim / Business Insider :
Super Micro hires BDO USA as its new independent auditor and files a plan to come into compliance with the Nasdaq's listing requirements; SMCI jumps 20%+
- The company filed a plan to stay listed on the Nasdaq — Super Micro said it appointed a new auditor in press release
Kong, which helps customers manage APIs, raised a $175M Series E co-led by Tiger Global and Balderton at a $2B valuation, taking its total raised to $345M
- Startup develops application technologies for business clients — Backers include Andreessen, Index, CRV, Sapphire and Balderton
Microsoft says it has the largest enterprise AI agent ecosystem, with 100K+ orgs making or editing AI agents in Copilot Studio and “2x growth in just a quarter”
Microsoft has quietly built the largest enterprise AI agent ecosystem, with over 100,000 organizations creating …
Perplexity debuts a shopping feature that offers product recommendations, one-click checkout, and more for Pro subscribers in the US, plus a merchant program
AI-powered search engine Perplexity is venturing into e-commerce. On Monday, the company debuted a new shopping feature …
Source: Google is working on a multi-year project to fully migrate Chrome OS to Android, to better compete with the iPad
https://www.androidauthority.com/ ... reporting by @MishaalRahman Mishaal Rahman / @MishaalRahman@androiddev.social : A few months ago, I heard that Google was working on an Android laptop, but I did...
Mistral adds web search, image generation, Canvas for editing, and more to its Le Chat chatbot, and unveils Pixtral Large, a 124B-parameter multimodal model
Pixtral grows up. — Pixtral Large in short: — Frontier-class multimodal performance Mistral AI : Mistral has entered the chat Markus Kasanmascheff / WinBuzzer : Mistral Goes Multimodal to Challenge...
Sources: Trump Media is nearing an all-share purchase of Intercontinental Exchange's crypto trading platform Bakkt; DJT closed up 16.65% and BKKT up 162.46%
and options are coming out for bitcoin this week. Forums: r/Shortsqueeze : Donald Trump to buy BKKT microcap Crypto Exchange - 13% SI
The US Library of Congress says hackers accessed some email communications between congressional offices and library staff between January and September 2024
Niantic says it is using data generated by Pokémon Go players to create a large geospatial model, or LGM, that can navigate the real world and power robots
Niantic says it is using data generated by Pokémon Go players to create a “Large Geospatial Model” that can navigate the real world and power robots.
The UK CMA clears Google's partnership with Anthropic, finding that Google has not gained “material influence” over the AI startup, following a formal probe
Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg :
Amazon and SpaceX argued that the NLRB, which found issues at both companies, is unconstitutional; 5th US Circuit judges questioned the speed of their charges
Daniel Wiessner / Reuters :
Rox, which is developing AI-powered agents for salespeople, raised $50M across seed led by Sequoia and Series A led by General Catalyst
- Rox, an early-stage startup, raised $50 million from investors — Company completed seed and Series A deals while in stealth
Networking chip startup Enfabrica raised a $115M Series C led by Spark Capital and unveils a 3.2TB-per-second accelerated compute fabric of ACF SuperNIC chip
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE :
Sources: US officials are racing to deliver billions in CHIPS Act funding to Intel and others before Biden leaves office; nearly $30B is tied up in negotiations
Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal :
Sources: Huawei is designing its next two Ascend chips around a 7nm architecture, meaning its marquee chips will be stuck with aging tech until at least 2026
Bloomberg :
Xiaomi, the second largest smartphone vendor in India, plans to replace its app store there with one from PhonePe in January, amid ongoing geopolitical tensions
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Atomico: European startups are on track to raise $45B in 2024, down from $47B in 2023, with only $3B in IPO value and $10B in M&A through mid-November
but the sector is finally stabilizing Suhasini Srinivasaragavan / Silicon Republic : Despite a drop in VC funding, Europe on track for growth Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg : Funding for Europe's AI Startups ...
A look at emails between Elon Musk and Sam Altman from OpenAI's early days, discussing its Microsoft partnership, fundraising, staff compensation, AGI, and more
Kylie Robison / The Verge :
US federal data shows nearly 1.8M human warehouse workers, up 30% since early 2020, despite automation efforts, as robots struggle at crucial, simple tasks
Peter Eavis / New York Times :
Google and Nvidia say Google's Quantum AI division will use Nvidia's Eos supercomputer to speed up the design of quantum components
Ian King / Bloomberg :
Sources: Alibaba, ByteDance, and Meituan have been expanding their AI teams in Silicon Valley in recent months, despite US efforts to stymie Chinese companies
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times :
Los Angeles-based Moonvalley, which is developing “transparent” generative AI video tools, raised a $70M seed co-led by General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures
Building the next generation AI creative studio — ACTIVE — https://moonvalley.ai Moonvalley : AI company Moonvalley Raises $70 Million in Funding to Develop Future of Generative Media Amit Chowdhr...
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.