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February 26, 2025, 11:40 AM
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| Wes Davis / The Verge: |
Amazon unveils Alexa+, a generative AI update with vision capabilities and more, in preview in March 2025 for $20 per month or free to Prime subscribers — Arriving more than a year after it was first announced, Alexa is finally catching up to Google's Gemini.
More: About Amazon, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, ZDNET, T3, The Sun, Business Insider, TechCrunch, PhoneArena, CNN, Tom's Guide, BGR, Mashable, Cord Cutters News, and The Shortcut
Bluesky: @tomwarren.co.uk. X: @ajassy, @mgsiegler, @markgurman, @edludlow, @raywongy, @drbarnard, @joannastern, @joannastern, @mattswider, @joannastern, @maxwinebach, @markgurman, and @markgurman. Forums: Slashdot
| Bloomberg: |
Amazon's Panos Panay demoed Alexa+ in a flowing ongoing conversation and says it can book concert tickets, make restaurant reservations, and text a babysitter — Amazon.com Inc. has rebooted Alexa with artificial intelligence. — The rollout is the biggest overhaul of the voice-activated …
More: TechCrunch and CNBC
Bluesky: @quinnypig.com. X: @mgsiegler, @panos_panay, @mattswider, @mattswider, @kantrowitz, @caro_milanesi, and @maxwinebach
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Amazon says Alexa+ is “model agnostic”, using Amazon Nova models and Anthropic's models, and picks the “best” AI model for a task, drawing on Amazon Bedrock — Amazon says that the new and improved Alexa unveiled on Wednesday, Alexa+, is powered by a “model agnostic” …
X: @maxwinebach, @joannastern, @maxwinebach, and @stevemoser
| The Verge: |
A live blog of Amazon's Alexa event — Amazon's set to announce a big update to Alexa. … Amazon is set to announce new Alexa features beginning at 10AM ET this morning — and we hope a few devices accompany them. There isn't a way to watch the event remotely, but our team is here in person …
More: The Verge, ZDNET, TechRadar, Engadget, The Verge, Tom's Guide, 9to5Toys, Business Insider, TechRadar, and TechCrunch
| Hadriana Lowenkron / Bloomberg: |
Trump says “Apple should get rid of DEI rules, not just make adjustments to them” in a Truth Social post, after Apple investors rejected a proposal to end DEI — - Investors turned down outside proposal to scrap DEI efforts — Trump escalates campaign against diversity hiring practices
More: The Hill, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Reuters, BBC, Engadget, Forbes, Fortune, Time, The Japan Times, Fast Company, Newsmax, and Irish Independent
X: @magaresource and @trumpdailyposts
| Carly Page / TechCrunch: |
Lasso: 20,000+ once-public GitHub repositories from Microsoft, AWS, Google, IBM, Tencent, and 16,000+ other companies are still accessible via Copilot — Security researchers are warning that data exposed to the internet, even for a moment, can linger in online generative AI chatbots …
More: Moneycontrol, Ghacks, and TechIssuesToday.com
| Reuters: |
Sources: DeepSeek, which planned to release R2 in May 2025, now wants R2 out as soon as possible; DeepSeek owner High-Flyer built a 10K A100 GPU cluster in 2021 — DeepSeek is looking to press home its advantage. — The Chinese startup triggered a $1 trillion-plus sell-off …
More: Ubergizmo, BGR, WinBuzzer, TechNode, Analytics India Magazine, and Capacity Media. Forums: Slashdot
| Anissa Gardizy / The Information: |
Sources: Meta is in talks to build a new data center campus for AI that could cost over $200B, based on the number of chips and the amount of power for the site — Meta Platforms is in talks to build a new data center campus for its artificial intelligence endeavors that would dwarf anything … | Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: |
How the hackers behind the $1.5B Bybit crypto heist used UI manipulation of employee devices and social engineering to gain control of ETH multisig cold wallets — The cryptocurrency industry and those responsible for securing it are still in shock following Friday's heist, likely by North Korea …
More: The Trail of Bits Blog, Check Point Research, MEDIANAMA, and The Crypto Times
Bluesky: @patrickhowelloneill.com and @Edent.mastodon.social …
Forums: r/Buttcoin, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum
| Sean Hollister / The Verge: |
Framework Desktop hands-on: the tiny 4.5-liter gaming desktop looks cool, good frame rates at 1440p thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI Max CPU, expandable I/O, and more — Is this neat thing a new sub-category or a one-off? … Framework's mission is to “fix consumer electronics, one category at a time” …
More: TechCrunch, Android Headlines, Gizchina.com, PCMag, and Press Start. Mastodon: @seanhollister@mastodon.world
| Andrew E. Freedman / Tom's Hardware: |
| Faris Mokhtar / Bloomberg: |
Indonesia says Apple signed a deal to invest in Indonesia and will issue it a permit, paving the way for resuming iPhone 16 sales after a five-month tussle — The agreement was announced by Minister for Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in a media briefing in Jakarta on Wednesday, as reported by Bloomberg Technoz.
More: TechCrunch, Seeking Alpha, Hindustan Times, Nikkei Asia, Reuters, Phandroid, Android Headlines, and Mobile World Live. Bluesky: @mgsiegler.com
| New York Times: |
Apple says it is working to fix an issue after users said its automatic dictation system was transcribing the word “racist” as “Trump”, before correcting itself — The company said it was working to fix the problem after iPhone users began reporting the issue.
More: New York Post, Wall Street Journal, PCMag, The Guardian, BBC, MacRumors, CNN, Sky News, Gizmodo, Variety, Associated Press, NBC News, Quartz, PinkNews, Mashable, TechRadar, Fox News, The Standard, Mirror, Business Standard, Creative Bloq, Mashable India, The Independent, Raw Story, Telegraph, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, Fox News, TechIssuesToday.com, The Economic Times, Financial Times, New York Daily News, The Verge, Infowars, Business Today, Axios, iDeviceHelp on YouTube, International Business Times, iClarified, Deadline, Engadget, Macworld, Daily Mail, 9to5Mac, Benzinga, AppleInsider, Hindustan Times, inkl, Times Now, PhotoNews Pakistan, The Express Tribune, TMZ.com, Breitbart, RedState, TMZ.com, and Fox News
Bluesky: @emilprotalinski, @davelee.me, and @hypervisible
Threads: @carnage4life and @crumbler
X: @realalexjones, @krassenstein, @tiffanyfong_, @catturd2, @stevesi, @realalexjones, @reddit_lies, @realalexjones, @realalexjones, and @apollozac
Forums: r/applesucks, r/iphone, r/politics, r/MarchAgainstNazis, r/apple, r/Conservative, and MacRumors Forums
| The Verge: |
A survey of 2,000 US adults finds 42% say that search engines like Google are becoming less useful, 60% view the state of social media negatively, and more — - Platform Shifts — Defining Connection — Content Matters (Especially in Communities) — Brands Matter.AI May Complicate
Forums: r/technology
| Jonathan Randles / Bloomberg: |
Court records: FTX paid nearly $948M to 12+ firms working on its bankruptcy, one of the costliest Chapter 11 cases in US history; users are set to get back 118% — - Lack of records, corporate controls sent adviser fees higher — Most creditors poised to get back 118% of what they were owed
More: CoinGape
| Financial Times: |
Survey: 92% of UK undergrad students use AI to help them with their studies, up from 66% a year ago, raising questions about how universities assess their work — Rapid spread of technology raises questions about how to assess undergraduate work — The number of UK undergraduate students … | Parmy Olson / Bloomberg: |
Apple removing ADP in the UK is a pyrrhic victory for Apple, and UK users' muted response suggests they may not care about privacy as much as the company thinks — If the tech giant hopes that killing encryption will cause public upset and deter other governments, it's probably wrong.| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
YouTube says it now has 1B+ monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide; users watched 400M+ hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices in 2024 — Podcasts started as an audio-only phenomenon. … According to the Google-owned video giant, YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide.| Jason Schreier / Bloomberg: |
WBD closes three game studios and cancels a highly anticipated Wonder Woman title in a bid to boost the profitability of its interactive entertainment business — - Company halts work on highly anticipated Wonder Woman title — Closures follow several disappointing releases last year
More: Kotaku, IGN, Polygon, The Verge, TheGamer, Windows Central, GameSpot, TheGamer, Radio Times, PlayStation LifeStyle, The Hollywood Reporter, Ghacks, Engadget, AIPT, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, TrueAchievements, Creative Bloq, Gameranx, Mashable, Game Rant, 80 Level, TechRadar, Pure Xbox, Game File, Deadline, IGN, Dexerto, TweakTown, Cord Cutters News, Blue's News, Aftermath, PlayStation LifeStyle, Neowin, Press Start, Push Square, Reuters, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, PC Gamer, GeekWire, Gizmodo, Gameranx, Gematsu, Screen Rant, GameSpot, Video Games Chronicle, Destructoid, XboxEra, and Variety
Bluesky: @jasonschreier, @jasonschreier, @biologicalriley, @ianipoos.com, @ethangach, @jasonschreier, and @jasonschreier
X: @ethangach, @stephentotilo, @photoshop_gy, @autrewolf, @jmaine518, @cs11__, @jawmuncher, @mroutsid3r, @ethangach, @ethangach, @thequiver_, @wario64, @vinciusmedeiro6, @tomwarren, @gmanlives, @synthpotato, @okami13_, and @shinobi602
Forums: r/gamernews, r/WarnerBros, r/Games, r/pcgaming, r/kindafunny, r/RingerVerse, r/DCcomics, and Slashdot
| Sean Hollister / The Verge: |
Valve's Steam Deck, launched in 2022, has been dominating the handheld PC gaming market, with about 50% market share in 2024, according to IDC — Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw: The Steam Deck is bigger than them combined. … Today is the third anniversary of Valve's Steam Deck …
More: The Shortcut, PC Gamer, Metro.co.uk, Push Square, Gameranx, TelecomLead, GamingBolt, TechSpot, Pocket-lint, and Forbes
Bluesky: @tomwarren.co.uk. X: @rodimus_j, @genepark, @loganopiano, @carygolomb, @playeressence, and @stealth40k
Forums: r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, r/pcgaming, r/Games, r/gaming, r/SteamDeck, and r/Steam
| Charles Rollet / TechCrunch: |
After backlash, YC deletes a demo video from X and LinkedIn of Optifye.AI, a startup it backs that is building AI performance monitoring for factory workers — A demo from Optifye.AI, a member of Y Combinator's current cohort, sparked a social media backlash that ended up with YC deleting it off its socials.
More: 404 Media, StrictlyVC, Gazetteer SF, Ritik Gulabrani on YouTube, The San Francisco Standard, and San Francisco Business Times
Bluesky: @carnage4life, @samleecole, and @jasonkoebler
X: @neverhimself, @mashcr0ft, @nexuist, @growing_daniel, @vcbrags, @adamlerman5, @archiexzzz, @litcapital, and @miranda_nover
Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, and r/technology
| CJ Haddad / CNBC: |
AppLovin's stock falls 10%+ after two short sellers released reports questioning the integrity of the company's AI-powered AXON ad software — Shares of AppLovin tumbled 13% Wednesday as two short-seller reports cast doubt on the integrity of the company's AI-powered AXON advertising software …
More: Bloomberg, Fuzzy Panda Research, and Investor's Business Daily
| Julia Alexander / Posting Nexus: |
Patreon's 2025 creator economy report shows the future may be direct-to-fan instead of direct-to-consumer, but the hurdles in place are more seismic than ever — The future may be direct-to-fan instead of direct-to-consumer, but the hurdles in place are more seismic than ever — Beware all studies.| Ellen Barry / New York Times: |
The American Psychological Association warns the US FTC that AI chatbots “masquerading” as therapists could drive vulnerable people to harm themselves or others — The nation's largest association of psychologists this month warned federal regulators that A.I. chatbots … | Anup Kaphle / Rest of World: |
Q&A with Jürgen Schmidhuber, the controversial AI pioneer and director of AI at Saudi Arabia's KAUST, on the kingdom's AI ambitions, DeepSeek, AGI, and more — With a long track record of groundbreaking research, outspoken opinions, and grand visions, Jürgen Schmidhuber … | Reuters: |
Alibaba releases Wan 2.1, a family of open-source AI models for generating images and videos, available globally on Alibaba Cloud's ModelScope and Hugging Face — Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba (9988.HK) said on Wednesday its video- and image-generating artificial intelligence model Wan 2.1 …
More: Engadget, South China Morning Post, WinBuzzer, Benzinga, The Information, CNBC, and Tech in Asia
| Jacklyn Wille / Bloomberg Law: |
A US federal judge dismisses a lawsuit against TikTok and YouTube over “choking challenge” videos, saying the case failed on its merits and citing Section 230 — Mothers who sued TikTok and YouTube over “choking challenge” videos that allegedly led to their children's deaths failed … Sponsor Posts
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