Techmeme
May 6, 2025, 11:25 PM

Top News

Matt Simons / Courthouse News Service:
A US jury awards Meta nearly $168M in damages from NSO Group in connection with the 2019 spyware attack on more than 1,400 WhatsApp users' phones  —  Although NSO Group will likely appeal, the jury's award represents a significant win for privacy advocates and critics of the notorious spyware vendor.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts the $899+ Surface Laptop 13, with a smaller 13" screen, an 8-core Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB/512GB options, shipping from May 20  —  The new Surface Laptop 13-inch ditches the Surface Connect port and Windows Hello camera for a smaller footprint.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:
Amazon updates its iOS Kindle app to add a prominent orange “Get book” button, enabling purchases via the mobile browser, after the recent Epic v. Apple ruling  —  Amazon has updated its Kindle iOS app to take advantage of recent changes to Apple's App Store rules.
Logan Kilpatrick / Google Developers Blog:
Google unveils Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview I/O Edition with “significantly” improved capabilities for coding and building interactive web apps, before I/O on May 20  —  We've seen developers doing amazing things with Gemini 2.5 Pro, so we decided to release an updated version a couple …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk's attorney says OpenAI's nonprofit reversal is “a transparent dodge that fails to address the core issues” and “the founding mission remains betrayed”  —  Elon Musk's attorney said OpenAI's decision to partly walk back its plan to restructure as a for-profit business …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon's Zoox says it temporarily paused all driverless vehicle operations after a crash in Las Vegas on April 8 and issued a software recall for 270 robotaxis  —  Amazon's Zoox issued a software recall for 270 of its robotaxis after a crash in Las Vegas last month, the company said Tuesday.
Micah Lee / micahflee:
Analysis: TM SGNL, TeleMessage's modified version of Signal used by senior Trump officials, could send plaintext chat logs to TeleMessage's archive server  —  Despite their misleading marketing, TeleMessage, the company that makes a modified version of Signal used by senior Trump officials …
Bloomberg:
DoorDash plans to acquire NYC-based hospitality tech company SevenRooms for $1.2B in cash, set to close in H2 2025; SevenRooms works with 13K+ restaurant groups  —  In a matter of five hours, the US delivery firm DoorDash Inc. announced two multibillion-dollar acquisitions that stand to turn …
Financial Times:
Mark Hachman / PCWorld:
Microsoft officially removes VR and MR support for Minecraft, after announcing its plans to sunset it in October of last year  —  If you ever thought about virtually wandering through Minecraft's Overworld in a VR headset, think again.  Those days are over, at least from Microsoft's perspective.
More: The Verge, Minecraft.net, and Engadget
Bluesky: @marypcbukForums: r/Minecraft
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Chainalysis: ~2M wallets have bought the $TRUMP memecoin, of which ~764,000 wallets have lost money and 58 have made over $10M each, totaling ~$1.1B in profits  —  WATCH NOW  —  About 764,000 wallets that purchased President Donald Trump's $TRUMP meme coin have lost money on the investment …
Financial Times:
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD reports Q1 revenue up 36% YoY to $7.4B, vs. $7.12B est., Data Center revenue up 57% to $3.7B, vs. $3.66B est., and forecasts Q2 sales above estimates  —  The guidance stems from an export restriction imposed in April that targeted AMD's MI308 chips, the company said during an earnings call on Tuesday.
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
EA reports Q4 net bookings up 8% YoY to $1.8B, vs. $1.56B est., and forecasts FY 2026 bookings above estimates; EA jumps 5%+ after hours  —  Electronic Arts shares rose more than 5% after the company topped fiscal fourth-quarter bookings estimates and issued upbeat guidance.
Larry Dignan / Constellation Research:
ServiceNow launches ServiceNow CRM to take on Salesforce and automate many common workflow steps and “human middleware” with AI  —  ServiceNow unveiled ServiceNow CRM in a move that aims to expand its total addressable market, leverage its ability to automate workflows with AI and couple selling …
Ariel Wittenberg / Politico:
Environmental groups: xAI's Memphis plant now has ~35 gas turbines, and xAI has no Clean Air Act permits; Elon Musk said turbines were necessary to train Grok 3  —  The company's turbines — enough to power 280,000 homes — run without emission controls in an area that leads Tennessee in asthma hospitalizations.
Natasha Mascarenhas / The Information:
Sources: Periodic Labs, which is building a “ChatGPT for material science”, is seeking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation of at least $1B  —  Periodic Labs, a startup founded by Liam Fedus, a former vice president of post-training research at OpenAI …
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Samsung updates Samsung Wallet to add a “Tap to Transfer” feature that lets US users quickly exchange money between themselves, rolling out “later this month”  —  Samsung Wallet is adding a clever new “Tap to Transfer” feature that lets you quickly exchange money between friends …

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Wall Street Journal:
Ramsey Al-Rikabi / Bloomberg:
Leo Sands / Washington Post: