Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
February 19, 2025, 12:00 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple unveils the $599+ iPhone 16e with a 6.1" display, A18, 48MP camera, Apple Intelligence, and Apple-designed 5G cellular modem, the C1, shipping February 28  —  Apple has officially taken the wraps off of the all-new iPhone 16e.  The device features an all-new design paired with the A18 chip inside …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple unveils its first-ever in-house cellular modem, the C1, to replace Qualcomm modem chips, saying it is “the most power-efficient modem ever on an iPhone”  —  After years of development, Apple has unveiled what it calls C1, its first-ever in-house cellular modem.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils the Majorana 1, its first quantum processor that uses the Majorana particle instead of electrons, that can potentially fit a million qubits  —  Microsoft has spent 17 years researching a new material and architecture for quantum computing.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Signal updates its app with phishing protections after Google warned Russia-linked hackers are using fake QR codes for group invites to trick Ukrainian soldiers  —  Google warns that hackers tied to Russia are tricking Ukrainian soldiers with fake QR codes for Signal group invites that let spies steal their messages.
VentureBeat:
Sources: Chinese game publisher NetEase has been directed to divest its overseas holdings, starting with hit game Marvel Rivals, which laid off its Seattle team  —  Chinese game publisher NetEase raised fears with recent moves that it is unloading as much as all of its overseas holdings …
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
HP plans to acquire assets from Humane for $116M, wind down Humane's Ai Pin business, and add Humane's team, including its founders, as an AI-focused division  —  - Humane's Ai pin business to be wound down after rocky launch  — New unit at HP will focus on implementation of AI in devices
Aaron Souppouris / Engadget:
Humane says Ai Pin's online features will stop working at 12PM PT on February 28, when it will delete all customer data, and it will refund some newer customers
Bloomberg:
Sources: Niantic is in talks to sell its video games unit to Saudi Arabia-owned Scopely for ~$3.5B; the deal would include Pokémon Go and its other mobile games  —  A deal could be announced in coming weeks.  The price being discussed is about $3.5 billion, according to one of the people.
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Sources: X is in talks to raise funds at a $44B valuation, matching the price Elon Musk paid for Twitter in 2022, as his proximity to Trump alters X's prospects  —  - Valuation is the same as Musk's 2022 Twitter acquisition  — Billionaire has recently tapped private markets for big sums
Danny Nelson / CoinDesk:
Source: in text messages, Libra co-creator Hayden Davis bragged he could “control” Argentine President Javier Milei by making payments to Milei's sister, Karina  —  A key player behind the Libra token bragged about buying access to Argentine President Javier Milei's inner circle months …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces Muse AI, a first-of-its-kind generative AI model that can generate a game environment based on visuals, players' controller actions, or both  —  Microsoft Research and Xbox game studio Ninja Theory have partnered to create a new AI model for gaming.
Emilia David / VentureBeat:
OpenAI researchers build the SWE-Lancer benchmark and find that real-world freelance software engineering work remains challenging for frontier language models  —  Large language models (LLMs) may have changed software development, but enterprises will need to think twice …
Ina Fried / Axios:
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati unveils AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, which she's leading as CEO, with Barret Zoph as CTO and John Schulman as chief scientist  —  - “Instead of focusing solely on making fully autonomous AI systems, we are excited to build multimodal systems that work …
Erik Larson / Bloomberg:
TMTG and Rumble sue a Brazilian Supreme Court Justice in Florida for allegedly illegally suppressing the US social media activity of conservative Brazilians  —  - Suit targets a supreme court justice who has clashed with Musk  — Brazilian judge has long attacked ‘fake news,’ disinformation
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
French privacy startup Murena unveils the €539 Murena Pixel Tablet, running its open-source, forked /e/OS, after releasing a “deGoogled” smartphone in 2022  —  Murena, the French privacy firm that's forked Android to deliver so-called deGoogled smartphones, has repeated the trick with a tablet.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Baseten, which helps companies launch open-source or customized AI models, raised $75M led by IVP and Spark Capital at a $825M valuation and claims 100+ clients  —  Baseten, a startup that runs artificial intelligence models for clients on their cloud infrastructure, has raised $75 million in funding, the company said Wednesday.
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Cambridge, MA-based OpenEvidence, which offers an AI chatbot to help physicians, raised $75M from Sequoia at a $1B valuation, its first outside funding round  —  AI startup OpenEvidence is raising a fresh round of capital from Sequoia to scale its chatbot for doctors.
Krystal Hu / Reuters:
Lambda, which offers cloud services and computers to train AI, raised a $480M Series D, sources say at a $2.5B valuation, taking its total funding to $863M  —  Lambda, a cloud computing firm specializing in providing hardware and services to power artificial intelligence development …
Reuters:
President Trump says tariffs on semiconductors would start at “25% or higher” and that he planned to provide some time for chip makers to set up US factories  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he intends to impose auto tariffs “in the neighborhood of 25%” …

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
How Zoho Workplace makes your Zoho CRM lighter  —  If you use Zoho CRM daily, you already know it's powerful.  It handles pipeline management, forecasting, automation, reporting, and everything that makes …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
 Senator Mark Warner: Nobody's Ready for What AI Could Do To Us
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
 Ron Conway from SV Angel
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 Why Prediction Markets Are Turning Everything Into a Bet
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Cheeky Pint:
 The 20-year journey to fully autonomous cars with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Invest Like the Best:
 Mitchell Green - Lessons from Cold Calling 10,000 Companies
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:00 PM ET, February 19, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Noor Ibrahim / Marie Claire:
Q&A with Wendy McMahon, who resigned last year as CEO and president of CBS News and Stations, on CBS under Bari Weiss, the pace of change for news, and more

Michael Savage / The Guardian:
The BBC names ex-Google executive Matt Brittin as its next director general, replacing Tim Davie, as the BBC negotiates its funding; Brittin left Google in 2025

Jon Creamer / Televisual:
Sony Pictures plans to close VFX and virtual production company Pixomondo and integrate some of its resources into other areas; Sony purchased Pixomondo in 2022

More News

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Internal documents, emails, and federal data suggest Indian IT giant TCS has used L-1A manager visas in ways that raise concerns about undercutting US workers
Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica:
Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: the ~$2,300 convertible tablet's integrated GPU in its AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip offers performance comparable to a GeForce RTX 4060
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Play Books for iOS now lets users complete their e-book or audiobook purchase on the Google Play website, under Apple's “reader apps” exception
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Intel's stock closed up 16.1% days after a February 15 report that Broadcom and TSMC are potentially weighing independent deals that could split the chipmaker
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter