Meta froze hiring in its AI division last week with sources saying exceptions need Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang's permission; the freeze's duration is unclear
Company reorganizes its sprawling artificial-intelligence operation, whose spiraling cost has drawn investor scrutiny
Mustafa Suleyman says “Seemingly Conscious AI” is coming but is something to avoid, and that developers must build AI for people, not to be a digital person
Seemingly Conscious AI is Coming — I write, to think. More than anything this essay is an attempt to think through …
CBP data: between April and June 2025, CBP searched 14,899 devices carried by international travelers, up from a record 12,766+ between January and March 2022
Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike …
Apple raises the price of Apple TV+ in the US and some markets globally after previously raising the price in 2023; in the US, the price will rise $3 to $12.99
Apple TV+, the tech giant's money-losing streaming service, is bumping up its price by 30%: For U.S. customers, it will now be $12.99 per month, up $3 from $9.99.
Google releases a study saying a median Gemini text prompt uses 0.26mm of water and produces ~0.03g of CO2; critics: omitting indirect water use is misleading
Google shared a study of Gemini's environmental impact, but it omits some key data. … Amid a fierce debate about the environmental toll …
DeepSeek details V3.1 and says it surpasses R1 on key benchmarks and is customized to work with next-gen Chinese-made AI chips, after unveiling it on August 19
DeepSeek unveiled an update to an older model that it says surpasses the seminal R1 on key benchmarks, keeping the Chinese startup …
Halo, a startup founded by two former Harvard students who built a facial recognition app for Ray-Ban Meta glasses, introduces “always-on” AI glasses for $249
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Rebecca Bellan — Two former Harvard students are launching a pair of “always-on” …
Google expands AI Mode to 180 countries and territories in English, following the US, the UK, and India, and plans to add more languages and regions “soon”
After launching in three countries, Google is now bringing AI Mode to many more countries around the world …
India's lower house of parliament passes a sweeping online gaming bill that imposes a blanket ban on real-money games nationwide, threatening a ~$23B industry
India's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping online gaming bill that, while promoting esports …
Sources: China's H20 curbs were triggered by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's not selling China the “best stuff” remark, which officials found “insulting”
Comments by US commerce secretary trigger Chinese regulatory effort to stop tech groups buying H20 processors
In a UK tribunal filing, former Meta employee Samujjal Purkayastha alleges Meta misled advertisers by inflating its Shops ads metrics and bypassed Apple's ATT
After Apple rolled out its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in 2021, Meta executives scrambled for what they called …
Sources: Take-Two lays off 80+ staff at BioShock studio Cloud Chamber, or ~33% of its ~250 staff, and delays the next BioShock game to late 2026 or early 2027
Thirty percent of the studio was laid off this week, adding more years to the game's production
Q&A with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on starting the company, battling North Korean hackers, stablecoin adoption, the GENIUS Act, pro-crypto Congress, and more
Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what's happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers …
GFW Report: on August 20, China's Great Firewall blocked all TCP port 443 traffic, used for HTTPS, for ~74 minutes, an unusual move; the cause may be accidental
The cause of the incident could be intentional or accidental — Something weird happened with the Great Firewall of China …
SpaceX inks an Alaska Air deal for Starlink's Wi-Fi; sources: SpaceX is courting Middle Eastern airlines, a potential watershed moment against legacy operators
Signing deals with Middle Eastern airlines would mark a watershed moment for SpaceX's biggest revenue source
Sources: Crusoe is discussing raising $1B+ at a $10B valuation; the company, which is helping build OpenAI's first Stargate facility, had $250M revenue in 2024
Crusoe, the developer behind OpenAI's first Stargate data center, is discussing raising funds at a $10 billion valuation …
Masimo sues the US CBP, saying it exceeded its authority in an August 1 internal advice ruling that let Apple reactivate a Watch blood oxygen tracking feature
US Customs and Border Protection unlawfully let Apple Inc. reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches …
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar says that the startup hit its first $1B revenue month in July and that “the biggest thing we face is being constantly under compute”
Samantha Subin / CNBC :
Sony raises PlayStation 5's prices by $50 in the US due to the “challenging economic environment”: PS5 is $550, PS5 Digital Edition is $500, and PS5 Pro is $750
Here's When And How Much Andy Edser / PC Gamer : Sony has bumped up the US prices of the PlayStation 5 range by roughly $50 a piece, citing ‘a challenging economic environment’ Ethan Gach / Kotaku : G...
TRM Labs launches Beacon Network, a real-time alert system for illicit crypto activity, partnering with law enforcement and exchanges like Binance and Coinbase
An industry-wide project led by TRM Labs is officially going live, and includes law enforcement and the major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance.
Thoma Bravo agrees to acquire HR software provider Dayforce for $12.3B, paying $70 per share, a 32% premium to Dayforce shares before reports of a possible deal
Thoma Bravo has agreed to buy Dayforce, a Minneapolis-based HR software provider, for $12.3 billion.
Microsoft and Asus plan to launch the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds on October 16; leaks suggest the Ally and Ally X will cost €599 and €899, respectively
will this save gaming on Windows handhelds? The Economic Times : Microsoft re-joins handheld gaming fight against Nintendo's Switch Himani Jha / Digit : ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds launch ...
Google Photos will let users edit images via text or voice prompts, available first on Pixel 10 devices in the US, and will get C2PA Content Credentials support
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch :
Microsoft and the NFL extend their partnership to bring real-time game data and analysis to coaches and players using Copilot on Surface tablets and Azure AI
Key MSFT Trading Watchpoints Fortune : Why the NFL drafted Microsoft's gen AI for the league's next big play María José Gutierrez Chavez / Fast Company : Why the NFL just put AI on its roster Microsof...
NASA and IBM release Surya, an open-source machine learning model trained on over a decade's worth of NASA solar data to predict solar flares and solar winds
a new foundation model designed to help researchers protect infrastructure through accessible, accurate modeling of space weather. It's going to totally change how we forecast solar storms. See how.🧵 ...
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 for wearables, featuring satellite messaging support, improved GPS accuracy, better efficiency, and more
Michael L Hicks / Android Central :
Google announces Gemini for Home, a Google Home voice assistant with Gemini Live, available in early access in October and eventually replacing Google Assistant
what you need to know Nickolas Diaz / Android Central : Google's AI surprise gave a sneak peek at an all-new smart speaker Stephen Schenck / Android Authority : Gemini for Home is coming to replace As...
Google's new AI features for Pixel include Magic Cue for contextual suggestions across apps, Voice Translate for calls, and Visual Overlays for the camera
When we launched our first generation of Pixel in 2016, our goal was to bring everyone … Forums: r/Bard : Gemini Live: A more helpful, natural and visual assistant
A US judge sentences Scattered Spider member Noah Urban to 10 years in prison in connection with major hacks and crypto thefts, the first member to be sentenced
Margi Murphy / Bloomberg :
Alibaba-backed Z.ai, formerly Zhipu, launches a general-purpose AI agent app, which lets users use natural language to book hotels, order takeaway, and more
The Z.ai agent is free and available on the Android and iOS mobile platforms — Chinese artificial intelligence unicorn Z.ai …
Google unveils the $999+ Pixel 10 Pro and $1,199+ 10 Pro XL, with 6.3" and 6.8" OLED displays, Tensor G5 chips, and Zoned UFS storage, available from August 28
Starting with what's different at first glance. Morgan Truder / Shortlist : 5 things to know about the Google Pixel 10 — and what's on offer with the Fold Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends : Google Pixe...
Nine current and ex-Apple staffers accuse Apple VP of Fitness Tech Jay Blahnik of creating a toxic work environment; Apple settled a sexual harassment complaint
Three circular bands came to define fitness on the Apple Watch.Dünzl/Ullstein Bild, via Getty Images Bluesky: @quinnypig.com Bluesky: Corey Quinn / @quinnypig.com : “All nine were immediately fired an...
Autonomous driving tech startup Nuro closed its $203M Series E at a $6B valuation, adding $97M from Uber, Nvidia, and others to the $106M tranche from April
Rafe Uddin / Financial Times :
A look inside Google's Reliability Labs, where it stress-tests Pixel phones and watches; Google claims its Pixel 10 Pro Fold can withstand 10+ years of folding
www.wired.com/story/google...
An interview with GM SVP of Software and Services Engineering David Richardson on GM's new AI team, building factory “cobots”, or collaborative robots, and more
So far the team includes hires from Google, Meta, AWS and even a Pixar vet who is helping GM develop new factory ‘cobots’
Anthropic announces a subscription offering that adds Claude Code to Enterprise and Team plans; the tool was previously available only via individual accounts
just not unlimited usage X: Claude / @claudeai : Claude Code is now available on Team and Enterprise plans. Flexible pricing lets you mix standard and premium Claude Code seats across your organizatio...
Filing: Alibaba plans to spin off its Shanghai-based self-driving unit Banma through a Hong Kong IPO, reducing its stake from 44.72% to 30% post-IPO
Aileen Chuang / South China Morning Post :
A profile of Stability AI, which under CEO Prem Akkaraju and Chair Sean Parker has shifted from building frontier AI models to a Hollywood-focused SaaS company
Great reporting from @zoeschiffer.bsky.social here, including a a conversation with James Cameron, the man who came up with Terminator and Skynet, and who is now on the board of an AI company... www....
Analysis: Baidu's stock is trading at a forward P/E ratio of ~9.7, the lowest of any profitable Hang Seng Tech Index company, amid AI competitiveness concerns
Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg :
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.