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August 21, 2025, 8:10 AM
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Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Meta froze hiring in its AI division last week with sources saying exceptions need Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang's permission; the freeze's duration is unclear  —  Company reorganizes its sprawling artificial-intelligence operation, whose spiraling cost has drawn investor scrutiny
Matt Swider / The Shortcut:
Google unveils the $349+ Pixel Watch 4 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with a curved display, a Snapdragon W5 Gen 2, and SOS satellite service, shipping from October 9  —  ✅ Pros  — ⌚ New Acuta 360 display offers a curved screen, not just domed glass
Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:
Google launches its first magnetic wireless charging accessories under the Pixelsnap brand; the Pixel 10 phones are compatible with Qi2 and MagSafe accessories
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google unveils the $1,799+ Pixel 10 Pro Fold, with a Tensor G5 chip, new hinge with a gear-less design, and 6.4" outer and 8" inner screens, shipping October 9  —  They actually did it. … Finally, a foldable to take to the beach.  The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is official …
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google unveils the $999+ Pixel 10 Pro and $1,199+ 10 Pro XL, with 6.3" and 6.8" OLED displays, Tensor G5 chips, and Zoned UFS storage, available on August 28
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Google's Pixel 10 gets a 10.8 MP telephoto lens, and the 10 Pro and Pro XL get an AI-driven Pro Res Zoom capable of up to 100x zoom; all models get AI features
Bloomberg:
DeepSeek details V3.1 and says it surpasses R1 on key benchmarks and is customized to work with next-gen Chinese-made AI chips, after unveiling it on August 19  —  DeepSeek unveiled an update to an older model that it says surpasses the seminal R1 on key benchmarks, keeping the Chinese startup …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
CBP data: between April and June 2025, CBP searched 14,899 devices carried by international travelers, up from a high of 12,766+ between January and March 2022  —  Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike …
Mustafa Suleyman:
Mustafa Suleyman says “Seemingly Conscious AI” is coming but is something to avoid, and that developers must build AI for people, not to be a digital person  —  Seemingly Conscious AI is Coming  —  I write, to think.  More than anything this essay is an attempt to think through …
Financial Times:
Sources: China's H20 curbs were triggered by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's not selling China the “best stuff” remark, which officials found “insulting”  —  Comments by US commerce secretary trigger Chinese regulatory effort to stop tech groups buying H20 processors
TechCrunch:
Halo, a startup founded by former Harvard students who developed a facial recognition app for Ray-Ban Meta glasses, introduces “always-on” AI glasses for $249  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Rebecca Bellan  —  Two former Harvard students are launching a pair of “always-on” …
Made by Google on YouTube:
A recording of the Made by Google 2025 event hosted by Jimmy Fallon  —  Tune in to see something special.  Watch the #MadeByGoogle live show on August 20 at 1pm ET.Available in:American Sign Language - https://youtube.com/watch?v= ...
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony says it is raising PlayStation 5 prices by $50 for all models in the US due to a “challenging economic environment”, starting on August 21  —  The prices will go up by $50 for all three models. … Sony is raising the price of all PS5 models by $50 in the US due to a …
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Google announces Gemini for Home, a new voice assistant for Google Home, with support for Gemini Live, coming later this year and replacing Google Assistant  —  The all-new, more powerful assistant will arrive on Nest smart speakers and displays later this year.
Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
In a UK tribunal filing, ex-Meta employee Samujjal Purkayastha alleges Meta misled advertisers by inflating Shops ads' performance and bypassed Apple's ATT  —  After Apple rolled out its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in 2021, Meta executives scrambled for what they called …
John Collison / Cheeky Pint:
Q&A with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on starting the company, battling North Korean hackers, stablecoin adoption, the GENIUS Act, pro-crypto Congress, and more  —  Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what's happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google's new AI features for Pixel include Magic Cue for contextual suggestions across apps, Voice Translate for calls, and Visual Overlays for the camera  —  With the launch of the new Pixel 10 series, Google is rushing ahead of Apple to deliver AI-powered smartphones to consumers.
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
TRM Labs launches Beacon Network, a real-time alert system for illicit crypto activity, partnering with law enforcement and exchanges like Binance and Coinbase  —  An industry-wide project led by TRM Labs is officially going live, and includes law enforcement and the major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's lower house of parliament passes a sweeping online gaming bill to impose a blanket ban on real-money games nationwide, threatening a $23B industry  —  India's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping online gaming bill that, while promoting esports …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sources: Take-Two lays off 80 staff at BioShock studio Cloud Chamber, or ~33% of its 250 staff, and delays the next BioShock game to late 2026 or early 2027  —  Thirty percent of the studio was laid off this week, adding more years to the game's production  —  Take-Two Interactive Software …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:10 AM ET, August 21, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

The Hollywood Reporter:
Nexstar says it has closed its Tegna acquisition after the DOJ and FCC approved it; CEO Perry Sook says Nexstar is grateful to Trump and the FCC's Brendan Carr

Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Hachette cancels the US release of the novel Shy Girl and is discontinuing its UK edition after readers claimed the author relied heavily on AI to write it

Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
The ProPublica Guild, representing ~150 employees, voted 92% in favor of a strike authorization after negotiating for over two years for its first contract

More News

Christopher Yasiejko / Bloomberg Law:
Masimo sues the US CBP, saying it exceeded its authority in an August 1 internal advice ruling that let Apple reactivate a Watch blood oxygen tracking feature
Ali McCadden / CNBC:
Microsoft and the NFL extend their partnership to bring real-time game data and analysis to coaches and players using Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Photos will let users edit images using text or voice prompts, first on Pixel 10 devices in the US, and will add support for C2PA Content Credentials

Earlier Picks

Michael L Hicks / Android Central:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 for wearables, with a new satellite messaging feature, improved GPS accuracy, better efficiency, and more
Peter Hall / MIT Technology Review:
NASA and IBM release Surya, an open-source AI model trained on over a decade's worth of NASA solar data to predict solar flares and winds
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google unveils a new Gemini-powered personal health coach for Fitbit, rolling out as a preview in October for Fitbit Premium users in the redesigned Fitbit app
Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:
Sources: NSA Director William Hartman unsuccessfully tried to protect Vinh Nguyen, an expert in AI and cryptology, from being fired on President Trump's orders
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Asus plan to launch the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds on October 16; leaks suggest the Ally and Ally X will cost €599 and €899, respectively
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