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September 30, 2025, 12:20 PM
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Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amazon unveils the $220 Echo Studio, its high-end speaker for audiophiles, 8" and 11" Echo Show for $180 and $220, and the $100 Echo Dot Max, all with Alexa+  —  New speakers include revamped look, upgraded silicon and integration with Alexa+ subscription service.
Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:
Amazon updates the Kindle Scribe, including a $630 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft with a larger 11-inch E Ink display, lower weight at 400g, and a 5.4mm thin body  —  The Kindle Scribe is getting a big redesign this year. … Amazon announced new versions of the Kindle Scribe today including …
Ryan Epps / Tom's Guide:
Amazon launches new Fire TVs and a $40 Fire TV Stick 4K Select with a new OS called Vega and built in Alexa+
Spotify:
Spotify says Daniel Ek will step down as CEO and become executive chairman in January 2026, and names CPTO Gustav Söderström and CBO Alex Norström as co-CEOs  —  Today, Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) announced that Founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek will transition to the role …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amazon's Ring unveils the $200 Outdoor Cam Pro, $250 Spotlight Cam Pro, $280 Floodlight Cam Pro with Retinal Vision, a Search Party tool to find pets, and more  —  Company also rolls out new TV sets and upgraded home security products from Ring and Blink.  —  Amazon.com Inc. is revamping …
Wall Street Journal:
Filing: YouTube will pay $24.5M to settle a 2021 Trump lawsuit over suspending his account after January 6, the last Big Tech company to settle his lawsuits  —  Google subsidiary is the last of three Big Tech companies to resolve personal litigation Trump filed against social-media platforms
Chase DiFeliciantonio / Politico:
California Governor Gavin Newsom signs SB 53 into law; the first-in-the-nation AI safety law requires AI companies to disclose their safety testing regimes  —  “California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
A Russian YouTuber posts an unboxing of the alleged M5 iPad Pro, which looks identical to the M4 model; the same YouTuber leaked the M4 MacBook Pro in 2024  —  Remember last year when an unboxing video of the M4 MacBook Pro leaked before it was even announced?  Well, it's happened again.
Financial Times:
How Jared Kushner and Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban brokered the EA takeover using Kushner's deep Saudi Arabia ties; sources: Kushner's firm will own ~5% of EA  —  Trump's son-in-law used deep ties in Saudi Arabia to help pull off the largest buyout  —  Antoine Gara, James Fontanella-Khan …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Saudi Arabia's PIF is the largest contributor to the $36B in equity to finance the EA deal; the PIF will roll over its $5B EA stake into the new entity
Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica:
Open-source Android app store F-Droid says Google's new requirement for all Android developers to verify their identity threatens to kill alternative app stores  —  Google plans to begin testing its recently announced verification scheme for Android developers in the coming weeks …
Bloomberg:
Analysis: US wholesale electricity now costs as much as 267% more for a single month than it did in 2020 in areas located near significant data center activity  —  Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers.  That's being passed on to customers.
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Adobe launches its Premiere video editing software on iPhone for the first time; general editing is free, but Adobe charges for credits to generate AI content  —  Adobe Inc. said Tuesday that it's bringing its Premiere video-editing software to the iPhone for the first time …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google updates AI Mode to make searching through images using vague descriptions easier and says the tool will “provide a relevant set of shoppable options”  —  Users in the US can now shop for products using natural language descriptions and reference images.
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Periodic Labs, co-founded by ChatGPT co-creator Liam Fedus, poaches 20+ researchers from Meta, OpenAI, DeepMind, and others to use AI for scientific discoveries  —  Founded by a co-creator of ChatGPT, Periodic Labs aims to build artificial intelligence that can accelerate discoveries in physics, chemistry and other fields.
Wired:
Sources: OpenAI plans a stand-alone social app powered by Sora 2, featuring a TikTok-like vertical feed with entirely AI-generated videos  —  The platform appears to closely resemble TikTok and is powered by Sora 2, OpenAI's latest video generation model.  —  OpenAI is preparing to launch …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI told studios that it plans to release a new version of Sora that creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out
Chris Welch / Bloomberg:
Apple-owned Beats announces the $200 Powerbeats Fit, with a redesigned wingtip, IPX4 rating for the case, ANC, and Apple's H1 chip, available October 2  —  Beats, the Apple Inc.-owned audio brand, unveiled new Powerbeats Fit earbuds on Tuesday, giving consumers another in-house alternative to the popular AirPods line.
Bloomberg:
CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator says the company signed a deal to supply Meta with up to $14.2B worth of computing power, including access to Nvidia GB300 chips  —  CoreWeave Inc. has signed a deal to supply Meta Platforms Inc. with as much as $14.2 billion worth of computing power …
Bloomberg:
Source: Meta is acquiring AI chip startup Rivos, as it seeks to reduce reliance on Nvidia; Rivos was reportedly seeking new funding at a $2B valuation in August  —  Meta Platforms Inc. is acquiring chips startup Rivos Inc., according to a person familiar with the deal, part of an effort …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google launches a new AI ransomware detection feature for Drive on desktop, trained on millions of real victim files encrypted by various ransomware strains  —  Google has launched a new AI-based protection in Drive for desktop that can shut down an attack before it spreads—but its benefits have their limits.
Bloomberg:
Education software maker Anthology files for bankruptcy, listing $1B to $10B in both assets and liabilities after its Blackboard merger debt became unmanageable  —  Anthology Inc., the Veritas Capital-backed education-software provider, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US …
Paayal Zaveri / Bloomberg:
Vercel, which offers cloud tools to make web and AI apps, raised $300M led by Accel and Singapore's GIC at a $9.3B valuation and considers a ~$300M tender offer  —  Artificial intelligence startup Vercel raised $300 million in a new funding round led by Accel and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:20 PM ET, September 30, 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

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
R. Bruce Dold, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune, where he became editor-in-chief and publisher, is dead at 70

More News

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
DoorDash unveils delivery robot Dot, standing 4-foot, 6-inches tall and able to carry up to 30lb of cargo at up to 20mph, and a smart scale for restaurants
Mahfouz Zubaide / BBC:
NetBlocks: Afghanistan is experiencing a “total internet blackout” as the Taliban imposes a telecom shutdown; an official says it will last until further notice

Earlier Picks

Ana Ionova / New York Times:
How Brazil's Pix digital payment system, adopted by 80%+ of citizens, became a target of the Trump administration, which says it unfairly undercuts US companies
More: Business Today and The Week
X: @brij and @bgurley
Bluesky: @ddayen and @piyushmittal
Forums: r/Brazil and r/neoliberal
CNBC:
A US judge sentences Frank founder Charlie Javice to 85 months in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase by overstating how many customers the fintech company had
Crypto in America:
Sources: asset manager Vanguard, which has historically been critical of cryptocurrencies, prepares to allow access to crypto ETFs on its brokerage platform
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
OpenAI rolls out Instant Checkout to let users make single-item purchases directly in ChatGPT, starting with US Etsy sellers, and plans to add Shopify merchants
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