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Techmeme
August 21, 2025, 2:30 PM
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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
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Nine current and ex-Apple staffers accuse Apple VP of Fitness Tech Jay Blahnik of creating a toxic work environment; Apple settled a sexual harassment complaint  —  Three circular bands came to define fitness on the Apple Watch.Dünzl/Ullstein Bild, via Getty Images
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple raises the price of Apple TV+ in the US and some markets globally after previously raising the price in 2023; in the US, the price will rise $3 to $12.99  —  Apple TV+, the tech giant's money-losing streaming service, is bumping up its price by 30%: For U.S. customers, it will now be $12.99 per month, up $3 from $9.99.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google expands AI Mode to 180 countries and territories in English, following the US, the UK, and India, and plans to add more languages and regions “soon”  —  After launching in three countries, Google is now bringing AI Mode to many more countries around the world …
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 …
Justine Calma / The Verge:
In a study, Google says a median Gemini app text prompt uses 0.26mL of water and produces 0.03g of CO2 equivalent; critics say Google is omitting some key data  —  Google shared a study of Gemini's environmental impact, but it omits some key data. … Amid a fierce debate about the environmental toll …
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 …
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” …
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 …
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 …
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
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
Bloomberg:
Sources: Anthropic is in talks to raise $10B, significantly above the previously reported $5B, due to strong investor demand  —  Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise as much as $10 billion in a new round of funding, according to people familiar with the matter, a higher than expected sum …
Tony Stubblebine / The Medium Blog:
Medium's CEO explains how the platform's AI policy has evolved as it adopts some AI tools while prioritizing human curation and inviting community feedback  —  How we are navigating the role AI does and doesn't play in our mission to deepen understanding.  —  ·  —  Just now

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:30 PM 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

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Money manager Mario Gabelli said it's “highly likely” he will tender his clients' WBD shares to Paramount in an effort to spark a bidding war for WBD

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney nominates former Apple COO Jeff Williams to its board; he retired from Apple in November after overseeing the design team, supply chain work, and more

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Email: USA Today EIC Caren Bohan has abruptly left the company, the second editor in chief to do so in less than two years; she became EIC in September 2024

More News

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
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

Earlier Picks

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 Copilot on Surface tablets and Azure AI
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Photos will let users edit images via text or voice prompts, available first on Pixel 10 devices in the US, and will get C2PA Content Credentials support
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
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony raises PlayStation 5's prices by $50 in the US due to the “challenging economic environment”: PS5 is $550, PS5 Digital Edition is $500, and PS5 Pro is $750
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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