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May 20, 2025, 6:45 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Epic Games announces that Fortnite is back on the App Store in the US for iPhone and iPad users, and on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the EU — After a nearly five-year hiatus, Fortnite is back on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users in the United States.
More: The Verge, App Store, Reuters, Engadget, MacRumors, AppleInsider, BGR, and Tom's Guide
X: @fortnite, @markgurman, @drbarnard, @mgsiegler, @loudmouthjulia, @aaronp613, @rjonesy, @zaidjilani, @markgurman, @jason_kint, @zollotech, @shiinabr, @aaronp613, @nickeh30, and @timsweeneyepic. Forums: r/FortNiteBR
| Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: |
Google's AI Mode, its chatbot for Search, rolls out to everyone in the US and will include features like Deep Search, agentic capabilities, and chart generation — Google has begun rolling out AI Mode to every Search user in the US. The company announced the expansion during its I/O 2025 conference.| Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch: |
Google says Project Astra will power new capabilities in Search, including a new Search Live feature, as well as in the Gemini AI app and third-party products — Google announced on Tuesday during Google I/O 2025 that Project Astra — the company's low latency, multimodal AI experience …
More: Financial Times, The Keyword, The Verge, T3, Washington Post, Hindustan Times, SiliconANGLE, ZDNET, Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Axios, Bloomberg, Livemint, Constellation Research, MobileSyrup, Yahoo Finance, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Adweek, Android Central, Pocket-lint, and Mashable
Bluesky: @hypervisible and @danhon.com
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google launches Google AI Ultra, a subscription plan with the highest usage limits and access to its most capable models, rolling out in the US for $250/month — To date, AI Premium is how you access the latest features from Google. At I/O 2025, that subscription tier is being renamed to …
More: The Keyword, Android Police, How-To Geek, Moneycontrol, Phandroid, Engadget, Droid Life, Neowin, PhoneArena, ZDNET, Mashable, The Verge, TechCrunch, Sharecafe, PCWorld, SammyGuru, Gizmodo, Android Headlines, BetaNews, MobileSyrup, Tom's Guide, Android Central, and TechEBlog
Forums: Hacker News, r/singularity, and r/Bard
| Emma Roth / The Verge: |
Google will soon let users shop in AI Mode, unveils agentic checkout, and updates its virtual try-on feature in Search Labs for clothes shoppers in the US — There's also a new way to find products you're looking for in AI Mode. … Google is taking its virtual try-on feature to a new level.| CNBC: |
Google announces new video and image generation models Veo 3 and Imagen 4, alongside a new AI filmmaking tool Flow and expanded access to Lyria 2 — Google on Tuesday announced Veo 3, an AI video generator that can also create and incorporate audio. — The artificial intelligence tool competes …
More: The Keyword, The Keyword, Android Police, The Verge, 9to5Google, Moneycontrol, Digit, TechCrunch, Engadget, WebProNews, The Decoder, PetaPixel, MobileSyrup, Android Authority, Android Central, SiliconANGLE, and iPhone in Canada
X: @swyx, @mattvidpro, @ednewtonrex, @mkbhd, @google, @kylebrussell, @saboo_shubham_, @googledeepmind, and @google
Forums: Hacker News and Slashdot
| Taryn Plumb / VentureBeat: |
Google debuts Deep Think, an enhanced reasoning mode in Gemini 2.5 Pro that it says excels at math and coding, available to “trusted testers” via the Gemini API — Google is moving closer to its goal of a “universal AI assistant” that can understand context, plan and take action.
More: The Keyword, Ars Technica, The New Stack, Neowin, Financial Express, SiliconANGLE, ZDNET, TechCrunch, Engadget, Chrome Unboxed, MediaPost, The Decoder, PhoneArena, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, Android Central, and Beebom
X: @officiallogank, @archit_sharma97, @jack_w_rae, @tunguz, and @googledeepmind. LinkedIn: Thomas Kurian. Forums: Hacker News
| Emilia David / VentureBeat: |
More: The Keyword, InfoWorld, Visual Studio Magazine, Beebom, The New Stack, Mashable, The Decoder, and BGR
| Jay Peters / The Verge: |
Google unveils Gemini in Chrome, which initially works across just two tabs but will eventually support many and be agentic, for Google AI Pro and Ultra users — Google's AI assistant will be able to help you while you browse. … Google is adding its Gemini AI assistant to Chrome, the company announced at Google I/O on Tuesday.| Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch: |
Google rolls out Project Mariner, its web-browsing AI agent, to Google's AI Ultra plan, and brings its capabilities to the Gemini API and Vertex AI — Google announced during Google I/O 2025 that it's rolling out Project Mariner, the company's experimental AI agent that browses and uses websites, to more users and developers.
More: Engadget, ZDNET, Hindustan Times, 9to5Google, The Verge, Android Central, and Investor's Business Daily
Mastodon: @glinden@sigmoid.social. Threads: @thekenyeung. X: @sundarpichai, @joshwoodward, @jacalulu, and @jacalulu
| Victoria Song / The Verge: |
Google says it is partnering with Samsung, Gentle Monster, Xreal, and Warby Parker to create Android XR smart glasses, offering AI assistance via Gemini — With smart glasses, Google seems to be taking a page out of Meta and Ray-Ban's book. … Google's second era of smart glasses is off to a chic start.
More: The Keyword, Gizmodo, MacRumors, The Verge on YouTube, Road to VR, CNET, Android Authority, SiliconANGLE, Livemint, Engadget, UploadVR, MarketWatch, WWD, ZDNET, Android Police, PhoneArena, Lowpass, Mashable, Phandroid, TipRanks Financial, Trusted Reviews, MobileSyrup, Android Central, BGR, and iPhone in Canada
Bluesky: @robpegoraro.com and @harrymccracken.com
Threads: @davidimel, @0oyukao0, and @wongmjane
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Xreal unveils Project Aura, expected to be the first Android XR glasses, powered by a separate puck with a Qualcomm chip, slated to launch by early 2026 — Alphabet Inc.'s Google has entered the glasses race by partnering with Xreal Inc. on the first spectacles to run an augmented-reality version of its operating system.
More: CNET, VentureBeat, Engadget, 9to5Google, Android Central, UploadVR, How-To Geek, XDA Developers, CNBC, ZDNET, Android Police, The Verge, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, TechRadar, XREAL, TechRadar, Digit, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, Yahoo Finance, Laptop Mag, Android Central, Droid Life, Android Headlines, and MIXED Reality News
X: @scobleizer, @markgurman, @parkerortolani, @mikeisaac, @arian_ghashghai, @heaney555, @scobleizer, and @xreal_global. Forums: r/Android
| Amanda Kooser / CNET: |
More: Forbes, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, ZDNET, Road to VR, The Verge, Business news, MobileSyrup, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, Android Central, Constellation Research, The Keyword, BGR, and Pocket-lint. Bluesky: @edzitron.com
| Samantha Subin / CNBC: |
More: TechCrunch, The Information, investors.warbyparker.com, Benzinga, Wall Street Journal, and Business Wire. Bluesky: @quinnypig.com
| Google on YouTube: |
A recording of the Google I/O 2025 keynote — It's time to I/O! Tune in to learn the latest news, announcements, and AI updates from Google.
More: Google Workspace Blog, Tech Advisor, The Keyword, Android Police, The Register, Mercury News, Thurrott, The Verge, The Algorithmic Bridge, Neowin, Google on X, Chrome Unboxed, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Techstrong.ai, Android Faithful, iPhone in Canada, The Keyword, TechRadar, Wired, Android Central, and Tom's Guide
Bluesky: @mgsiegler.com, @fredericl, and @mgsiegler.com
Threads: @natolambert and @benedictevans
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Apple plans to unveil at WWDC an SDK and related frameworks to let third-party devs build AI features based on LLMs it uses for Apple Intelligence — Apple Inc. is preparing to allow third-party developers to write software using its artificial intelligence models … | Jay Peters / The Verge: |
Google announces Gmail's smart replies will use AI to pull context from Gmail inbox and Drive, launching in Google Labs in July and available first in English — Smart replies are getting smarter. … Gmail's smart replies, which suggest potential replies to your emails …
More: OSnews, 9to5Google, Android Authority, PCWorld, TechCrunch, and Digit. Threads: @technologizer
| Billy Steele / Engadget: |
| Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media: |
Civitai blames a “configuration issue” for allowing users to generate non-consensual porn; it appears that users can still create such videos of non-celebrities — 404 Media found that people were using Civitai to create nonconsensual AI porn videos of anyone for a small price.| Ben Thompson / Stratechery: |
The ad-supported web is dying, and the next development to accelerate this may be the agentic web, which Microsoft is pushing via NLWeb and MCP support — Ethan Zuckerman wrote in The Atlantic in 2014: … Marc Andreessen, who was there when the web was born, explained in a 2019 podcast …
More: The Verge. Bluesky: @glinden, @miasato, and @nycsouthpaw
X: @sriramk, @jeffjohnroberts, @stratechery, @dkthomp, and @packym
| Financial Times: |
UK tech unicorn Builder.ai, backed by Microsoft, Qatar, and others, says it is entering insolvency proceedings due to financial and past leadership “problems” — Once high-flying group founded by Sachin Dev Duggal says its was unable to recover from ‘past decisions’
More: TechCrunch, PitchBook, Tech.eu, and Bloomberg
Bluesky: @bondhack.ft.com, @papafazuul, @jeff-notheotherone, @barryrichards, and @prietschka. Mastodon: @glinden@sigmoid.social
LinkedIn: Robert Smith and Alexandra Heal
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Sam Altman had for months sought to delegate more responsibility before hiring Fidji Simo, an adept and detail-oriented manager, in contrast to Altman — Fidji Simo is leaving Instacart for a newly created role at Sam Altman's startup as it prepares for a potential public offering| Ryan S. Gladwin / Decrypt: |
Michael Arrington says Coinbase's recent data breach “will lead to people dying”, calls for KYC rules reassessment and prison for execs failing to protect users — The founder of online news publication TechCrunch has claimed that Coinbase's recent data breach “will lead to people dying …
More: TheStreet, Bitcoin Insider, and Coinpedia Fintech News
X: @arrington, @arrington, @lukeyoungblood, and @zlok
| Natalie Lung / Bloomberg: |
DoorDash ended its AI-powered voice ordering product for restaurant clients in April 2025, after launching it in August 2023 — DoorDash Inc. ended a pilot of its voice-ordering product for restaurant clients, a year after it poached talent from an artificial intelligence startup to bolster the product.
Bluesky: @seosavvyagent.com
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