Techmeme
May 7, 2025, 4:35 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
US v. Google: Eddy Cue says Apple is actively looking at reshaping Safari to focus on AI search and, in a first, Safari searches dropped in April; GOOG down 8%+  —  Apple Inc. is “actively looking at” reshaping the Safari web browser on its devices to focus on AI-powered search engines …
John Koblin / New York Times:
Netflix unveils a new homepage design for TVs, its first major update since 2013, featuring fewer titles but more video and animation, rolling out next week  —  The implications for the industry could be significant, given that most other streaming services have copied Netflix's design.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Netflix unveils its ChatGPT-powered search that lets users express preferences using natural phrases, to be rolled out this week to iOS users as an opt-in beta  —  After hinting at a new AI-powered search experience during its recent earnings call, Netflix officially unveiled the feature at its tech and product event on Wednesday.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI unveils OpenAI for Countries, an initiative to help build out AI infrastructure and customize OpenAI's products for specific languages and local needs  —  OpenAI plans to invest in efforts outside of the US to develop the infrastructure necessary to run artificial intelligence systems …
Dean Seal / Wall Street Journal:
Memo: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz says the company will cut ~500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, and expects to incur $36M to $56M in severance charges  —  Cybersecurity company will continuing to hire customer-facing and product-engineering roles  —  CrowdStrike said it will cut about 500 jobs …
James D. Walsh / New York Magazine:
How ChatGPT and other AI tools enable systemic cheating in college, unravelling the entire academic project; one student says “the ceiling has been blown off”  —  ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.  —  Chungin “Roy” Lee stepped onto Columbia University's campus …
Sarah Butler / The Guardian:
Amazon unveils Vulcan, a sorting robot with a sense of touch that will be able to grab ~75% of its warehouse items, rolling out globally in the next few years  —  Vulcan device ‘capable of grabbing three-quarters of items in warehouses’ fuels fears of mass job losses
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Uber reports Q1 revenue up 14% YoY to $11.5B, Gross Bookings up 14% YoY to $42.8B, below $43.1B est., trips up 18% YoY to 3B, and $1.8B in net income  —  Uber Technologies Inc. reported weaker-than-expected quarterly gross bookings, citing lower US inbound travel that's led to slower gains in its rideshare business.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Washington Post:
Internal messages show how the US State Department, in conjunction with trade talks, pushed nations facing tariffs to clear regulatory hurdles for Starlink  —  Some countries have turned to the satellite internet firm in conjunction with trade talks, State Department staffers wrote.
VideoCardz.com:
FCC listings show two new Asus ROG Ally 2 handhelds with an Xbox button, AMD chips, 64GB of RAM, larger grips, and two USB-C ports, likely set for Computex 2025  —  ROG Ally 2 leaks: new design, larger screen and Xbox version  —  ASUS is about to announce a new generation of gaming handhelds …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Mistral releases Medium 3, which it says focuses on efficiency without compromising performance, for $0.40 per 1M input tokens, and launches Le Chat Enterprise  —  French AI startup Mistral is releasing a new AI model, Mistral Medium 3, that's focused on efficiency without compromising performance.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Sen. Blumenthal says the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations opened an inquiry into Trump's crypto empire, calling his memecoin dinner “pay-for-play”  —  Democrats turned up the pressure on President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency ventures this week and the fortune …
Bloomberg:
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Muyao Shen / Bloomberg:
Sources: Robinhood plans a blockchain-based platform to let retail investors in Europe trade US securities, and considered partnerships with Arbitrum and Solana  —  The venture will be likely launched through a partnership with a digital-asset firm, according to the people.
Daniel Kuhn / The Block:
New Hampshire becomes the first US state to pass a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill, permitting public fund investment in bitcoin, either directly or via an ETF  —  - New Hampshire has become the first state to pass a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” bill, according to Satoshi Action Fund founder Dennis Porter.
Counterpoint Research:
In 2024, Apple Watch sales fell 19%, the second consecutive year of decline, mainly driven by a drop in North America; no new Watch SE models weighed on sales  —  - The lack of a new SE model weighed most on shipment growth.  — Fewer upgrades to the latest Watch Series 10, more competition …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Microsoft says it will support Google's Agent2Agent spec, known as A2A, in Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio and will join A2A's working group on GitHub  —  Microsoft says that it's embracing Google's recently launched open protocol for allowing AI “agents” to communicate with each other.
More: Microsoft
Lucy Colback / Financial Times:
A look at the hype and reality surrounding AI agents, currently used primarily by companies to boost efficiency and cut costs, rather than drive top-line growth  —  An in-depth look at the hype and reality around “agentic AI” — the use of AI agents that perform tasks autonomously.
More: Gadgets 360

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Earlier Picks

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