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August 21, 2025, 10:00 AM
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Top News

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
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 …
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
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
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” …
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
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 …
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
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 that imposes 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= ...
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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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:00 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

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Financial Times:
OpenAI hopes the Disney deal boosts Sora, which has high costs and limited traction; Sensor Tower: users average 13 minutes per day on Sora vs. 90 on TikTok

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs

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
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

Earlier Picks

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
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Google announces Gemini for Home, a Google Home voice assistant with Gemini Live, available in early access in October and eventually replacing Google Assistant
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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