Techmeme: Munich-based RobCo, which makes low-cost and modular robots that suit smaller factories, raised a $42.5M Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (Amy Feldman/Forbes)

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February 26, 2024, 7:05 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple has considered a fitness ring, smart glasses, and adding cameras and more advanced AI to AirPods, but is not actively developing these devices — Apple has explored the idea of developing new wearable devices — including a fitness ring, smart glasses and even AirPods with cameras …

Steve Dent / Engadget:

Samsung unveils Galaxy Ring at MWC 2024; the device is centered around health and wellness, comes in three colors, and will be available later this year — After teasing it (again) yesterday, Samsung has finally shown off the Galaxy Ring in physical form at Mobile World Conference (MWC 2024) and revealed some additional details.

More: CNET, Samsung Newsroom, The Verge, Android Authority, 9to5Google, Android Police, PCMag, Phandroid, KnowTechie, T3, Android Headlines, CNBC, SamNews 24, SamMobile, Sammy Fans, Android Central, Bloomberg, Benzinga, SamMobile, nextpit, Gadgets & Wearables, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Wccftech, Gizchina, Gizmochina, and GSMArena.com

X: @imparkerburton and @sondesix. Forums: r/Android

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Qualcomm unveils AI Hub, a new library of 75+ pre-optimized AI models, X80 5G modem, and FastConnect 7900, a chip that integrates Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth, and UWB — Qualcomm unveiled a suite of AI, 5G, and Wi-Fi devices at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Omdia estimates that the bill of materials for Apple Vision Pro is $1,542, with both of the 1.25-inch Micro OLED displays from Sony costing about $228 each — - Apple's Vision Pro headset starts at $3,499. — The Vision Pro includes lots of pricey state-of-the-art parts.

More: MacRumors, iMore, Benzinga, Wccftech, PhoneArena, PCMag, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, and NewsBytes

Mastodon: @Techaltar@mas.to. X: @benbajarin and @rustybrick. Forums: r/apple

Cheyenne MacDonald / Engadget:

Google announces new Android features, including Gemini integration with Messages, AI-powered text summaries for Android Auto, and AI-generated image captions — The Android updates announced at MWC also include new accessibility features and casting controls for Spotify.

More: The Keyword, Business Standard, Android Central, Livemint, Android Police, Gizmodo, Android Authority, PCMag, The Verge, ZDNet, 9to5Google, Google Help Center, Tom's Guide, Android Central, PhoneArena, Android Headlines, Pocket-lint, Phandroid, Droid Life, and How-To Geek

Threads: @backlon. X: @mishaalrahman and @rsarver. Forums: r/Android

Alex Seitz-Wald / NBC News:

A consultant working for Rep. Dean Phillips, who challenged Biden in NH's primary, admits to producing the deepfake robocalls, saying anyone can do it for $500 — Steve Kramer acknowledged Sunday that he created the fake Joe Biden robocall at the center of a multistate investigation after NBC News reported about his involvement.

More: Axios, The Overspill, The Hill, and Associated Press. Forums: r/politics

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Amy Feldman / Forbes:

Munich-based RobCo, which makes low-cost and modular robots that suit smaller factories, raised a $42.5M Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners — Small- and medium-sized factories have lagged their larger counterparts on automation. Munich's RobCo sees a big opportunity there for its low-cost, modular robots.

More: FinSMEs, Silicon Canals, RobCo, and Lightspeed Venture Partners

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Nvidia launches RTX 500 and RTX 1000, its new laptop GPUs for on-the-go AI processing powered by the Ada Lovelace architecture, available in Spring 2024 — Nvidia launched its RTX 500 and 1000 Ada Generation laptop graphics processing units (GPUs) for on-the-go AI processing.

More: SiliconANGLE, NVIDIA, VideoCardz.com, TechPowerUp, and MSPoweruser

Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:

PeckShield warns that MicroStrategy's X account has been compromised; ZachXBT: the hacker stole about $440K from users that were scammed by the phishing post — - PeckShield flags compromise of MicroStrategy account — Attackers hoodwinked users by offering free new tokens

More: CoinGape, CoinDesk, Coinspeaker, Blockonomi, CryptoSlate, Watcher Guru, Bitcoinist.com, CryptoPotato, Cryptopolitan, Metaverse Post, Crypto Briefing, Nairametrics, crypto.news, Milk Road, The Block, and Cointelegraph

Clothilde Goujard / Politico:

A year after EU governments moved to restrict TikTok over security concerns, politicians are flocking to the app to attract the youth vote in upcoming elections — A year after banning the Chinese-owned app, Europe's politicians are popping up on TikTok to fight for re-election.

More: Euractiv, Benzinga, and Egypt Independent. X: @gateklons

Allison Johnson / The Verge:

Xiaomi launches Xiaomi 14 Ultra with a 6.73" LTPO 120Hz display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and 50MP camera with a 1-inch-type Sony LYT-900 sensor, starting at €1,499 — Xiaomi is using MWC to launch two of its flagships for a global audience — though not including the US, as usual.

More: 9to5Google, Moneycontrol, CNET, Ubergizmo, GSMArena.com, Tech Advisor, PhoneArena, Wccftech, Android Headlines, and HotHardware

X: @ishanagarwal24, @leijun, @maxwinebach, @maxwinebach, @cristianoamon, @xiaomi, @williamluxiaomi, @maxwinebach, and @maxwinebach

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Honor announces global availability of Magic 6 Pro with a 6.8" 120Hz OLED display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and 5,600mAh battery, set to retail for €1,299 in Europe — A month and a half after debuting the Magic 6 Pro in China, Honor is announcing global availability of its latest flagship at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

More: Livemint, MySmartPrice, Notebookcheck, Gizmochina, Nikkei Asia, Wccftech, Tech Advisor, Gizchina, Reuters, Android Headlines, and Android Authority

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From Mediagazer

Jasper Ward / Reuters:

Filing: a US judge dismisses with prejudice Trump's defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal regarding a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein signed by Trump

Reuters:

Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta plans to shut down after 30+ years, following pressure from Russian authorities and the persecution of its reporters

Gavin Blair / The Hollywood Reporter:

The Association of Japanese Animations: Japan's anime industry revenue grew 15.8% YoY to a record ~$28.5B in 2025, with overseas revenue reaching ~$16B

More News

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:

Sources: Indian government is evaluating $21B of chip proposals, including a $9B from Tower Semiconductor and an $8B from Tata Group for new plants in Gujarat

More: Data Center Knowledge and DigiTimes

Liz Hoffman / Semafor:

Q&A with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the meme-stock craze, launching in the UK and EU, becoming customers' primary financial institution, and more

Lauren Feiner / The Verge:

A preview of the NetChoice cases to be argued at SCOTUS on February 26, about the constitutionality of Texas and Florida laws regulating social media content

More: The Hill, New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Washington Post, Livemint, Politico, Chamber of Progress, Balls and Strikes, and Tech Policy Press

Threads: @renee.diresta. X: @lauren_feiner. LinkedIn: Kirk T. Schroder. Forums: r/technews

Earlier Picks

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

PermitFlow, which develops end-to-end workflow and automation software for construction permitting, raised a $31M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins

More: Robots.net, BNN, The SaaS News, and FinSMEs

X: @josh_coyne, @kimmaicutler, @abarrallen, and @ycombinator

LinkedIn: Samuel K. Lam and Mary Ann Azevedo

David Jeans / Forbes:

In a letter to Elon Musk, Rep. Mike Gallagher says SpaceX may be in breach of DOD contracts after sources say Starshield is inactive around Taiwan for US troops

More: Wall Street Journal, Interesting Engineering, and CNBC

Threads: @kazweida, @lorakolodny, and @alexrkonrad

X: @davidjeans2, @alexrkonrad, and @phelimkine

Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, and r/EnoughMuskSpam

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Filing: Google said Microsoft offered to sell Bing to Apple in 2018, but Eddy Cue said Microsoft had search quality issues and was investing less than Google

More: PYMNTS.com, AppleInsider, iMore, Benzinga, TechCrunch, The Register, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, Forbes, TweakTown, PhoneArena, Neowin, NewsBytes, and United States District Court

Mastodon: @nixCraft@mastodon.social. Bluesky: @justinpalmer.bsky.social. X: @rustybrick and @rogoswami

Forums: r/apple and r/technology

Milana Vinn / Reuters:

Sources: Broadcom is nearing a $3.8B deal to sell its end-user computing unit to private equity firm KKR

More: Network World, The Register, TechRadar, Bloomberg, SiliconANGLE, and CRN

LinkedIn: Jason Ruby, Kyle Davies, and Pramod Gosavi

Financial Times:

How tensions between past and present leaders of Sequoia, which had a reputation for quiet competence, have spilled into the open with the Klarna boardroom spat

More: The Information. X: @bedouincap, @jessicalessin, @kateclarktweets, @jdan, @ivanlevingston, and @hkanji

Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:

Many redditors say they are not enthusiastic about Reddit's IPO and expect CEO Steve Huffman to run the site into the ground while trying to make it profitable

More: Matt Mullenweg, The Verge, Cryptopolitan, and Bloomberg

Threads: @moskov, @alexheath, @alexheath, @nixcraft, @trevorcroker, @aeromunch, @barbarosozturk, and @mike_isaac

Mastodon: @Cefr@beige.party, @stefan@stefanbohacek.online, and @dangillmor@mastodon.social

X: @buccocapital, @eshear, @eshear, @eshear, @levie, @eshear, @jonahlupton, @therealdavey2, @sdw, and @carnage4life

Forums: r/technology and Beehaw