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August 21, 2025, 9:45 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
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 record 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
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 …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google unveils the $1,799+ Pixel 10 Pro Fold, with a Tensor G5, a hinge with a gear-less design, and 6.4" outer and 8" inner screens, available from 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 from August 28
Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
In a UK tribunal filing, former Meta employee Samujjal Purkayastha alleges Meta misled advertisers by inflating its Shops ads metrics and bypassed Apple's ATT  —  After Apple rolled out its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in 2021, Meta executives scrambled for what they called …
TechCrunch:
Halo, a startup founded by two former Harvard students who built 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” …
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  —  US Customs and Border Protection unlawfully let Apple Inc. reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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= ...
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.
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.

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From Mediagazer

CNN:
Sources: Pete Hegseth pushed for two F-15 crew members rescued from Iran to join a 60 Minutes story; Bari Weiss lobbied Hegseth to give CBS exclusive access

Max Tani / Semafor:
A look at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's tense relationship with financial media, sources say after Bloomberg's 2025 story on his two “principal residences”

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Board letter: Comcast and Paramount Skydance are launching a “review of strategic options” for their European joint venture streaming service SkyShowtime

More News

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

Earlier Picks

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
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
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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