Techmeme
April 17, 2025, 11:05 PM

Top News

David McCabe / New York Times:
A US judge says Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in some online advertising tech, the second time in a year a court found Google acted illegally  —  The ruling was the second time in a year that a federal court had found that Google had acted illegally to maintain its dominance.
More: United States District Court E.D. Va., Reuters, Washington Post, MacRumors, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Wired, Axios, Computerworld, CNN, Reuters, Vox, NZ Herald, Associated Press, OSnews, Wall Street Journal, Search Engine Roundtable, PhoneArena, ABA Journal, Wall Street Pit, Barron's Online, The Independent, Newser, SammyGuru, Watcher Guru, 9to5Google, MediaPost, Shacknews, Big Tech on Trial, Deadline, PYMNTS.com, Common Dreams, KQED, Silicon UK, Euractiv, Tubefilter, MarTech, Gizmodo, State of California, Hindustan Times, Skift, UPI, Search Engine Journal, TWiT.tv, The Western Journal, SFist, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, New York Post, Variety, Engadget, and The Information
Axios:
The DOJ and 17 US states that brought the antitrust case seek to force Google to sell off its “network” ad business, which is ~12% of Alphabet's total revenue  —  Google's dominance of the online advertising and ad-tech markets violates U.S. antitrust laws, a federal court ruled Thursday …
Bloomberg:
In her ruling, Judge Brinkema says Google did not meet the monopoly definition for tools used to buy display ads, but did for ad exchanges and website ad tools  —  Google illegally monopolized some online advertising technology markets, according to a federal judge, whose ruling marked …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue up 12.5% YoY to $10.54B, vs. $10.51B est., net income of $2.89B, and stops reporting subscriber numbers on a quarterly basis  —  Netflix is no longer reporting number of subscribers on a quarterly basis.  But it's still motoring on a hot growth engine …
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Sources: the CFPB terminated more than 1,400 workers, leaving about 200 employees and effectively gutting the agency that Elon Musk previously said to “delete”  —  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated the positions of 1,400 of the agency's 1,700 employees …
Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica:
Google rolls out Gemini 2.5 Flash in preview, with support for Canvas for working on text or code; developers can disable thinking or set a token limit for it  —  Google's Gemini AI may have had a slow start, but it has been anything but in 2025.  Barely a week goes by that another model …
Steve Dickson / Bloomberg:
Justin Ling / Wired:
New Jersey's AG sues Discord, alleging the platform's features to keep children under 13 safe from sexual predators and harmful content are inadequate  —  The New Jersey attorney general claims Discord's features to keep children under 13 safe from sexual predators and harmful content are inadequate.
Washington Post:
Sources: Tim Cook spoke to the US Commerce Secretary last week about how tariffs could affect iPhone prices before Trump exempted products from Apple and others  —  Administration officials insist that no companies received special exemptions.  Trump said he “helped Tim Cook recently.”
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
US consumers are flocking to Chinese shopping apps DHgate and Taobao, which let them buy direct from manufacturers, as Shein and Temu prices rise amid tariffs  —  The Chinese e-commerce marketplace app DHgate, which is now the No. 2 free iPhone app in the U.S., isn't the only one that's oddly benefiting …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google is offering its Google One AI Premium plan for free to US college students until spring 2026; students have until June 30, 2025, to sign up  —  That's more than a year of free access to Gemini tools.  —  Google is the latest AI service provider to court users in higher education.
Kyle Barr / Gizmodo:
Framework Laptop 13 review: it's modular and customizable, has a great keyboard and improved thermals, but it's pricey and the screen's brightness can be better  —  The Framework 13 now feels like a laptop that's more than a modular, repairable novelty.  It's now a device that's a joy to both build and use.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple Intelligence features, such as Writing Tools, are no longer available in Meta's iOS apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Threads  —  Apple Intelligence was announced with iOS 18 and has been available since last October, when Apple released iOS 18.1 to the public.
Financial Times:
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrived in China on April 16 and visited Beijing on April 17, a source says to meet officials to discuss Trump's new chip export rules  —  Meetings with Chinese vice-premier and DeepSeek founder come after US clamps down on chipmaker's sales to China
Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:
TSMC reports Q1 net income up 60.3% YoY to $11.1B, beating estimates, as customers stockpiled chips anticipating global trade disruptions spurred by US tariffs  —  And it stuck with a capital spending projection of $38 billion to $42 billion for 2025.  TSMC's US stock rose 4.7% …

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Earlier Picks

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Jakob McWhinney / Voice of San Diego:
Dan Shipper / Every: