Techmeme
October 3, 2025, 8:45 PM

Top News

Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Google and Apple removed Red Dot, an app for reporting ICE agent sightings, from their app stores; Google says the app shared the location of a vulnerable group  —  Both Google and Apple recently removed Red Dot, an app people can use to report sightings of ICE officials, from their respective app stores, 404 Media has found.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Apple's removal of ICEBlock raises questions about the limits of what the company will resist under the Trump administration's increasingly outrageous demands  —  Ashley Oliver, reporting for Fox Business: … Fox, in its opening paragraph, describes Bondi as having “asked” …
Ashley Oliver / Fox Business:
More: 404 Media, New York Times, The Verge, Business Insider, CNBC, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, NPR, CNN, Breitbart, TheStreet, CBS News, TechCrunch, BBC, Forbes, New York Post, HotAir, The Hill, Reason, Townhall, Daily Kos, Quartz, One America News Network, BonTech Labs, Techstrong IT, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Western Journal, Gizmodo, The Information, The Post Millennial, iDrop News, ZeroHedge News, Straight Arrow News, iPhone in Canada, FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth, UPI, Cult of Mac, RedState, Dallas Express, The Independent, thesun.my, The A.V. Club, International Business Times, Mobile World Live, PCMag, WinBuzzer, SFist, AppleInsider, Scripps News, Neowin, Bloomberg, and Axios
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
OpenAI's invite-only Sora app becomes the top free app in the US App Store three days after its launch, ahead of Gemini in second and ChatGPT in third  —  OpenAI now has two of the top three free apps in Apple's App Store, and its new video generation app Sora has snagged the coveted No. 1 spot.
Newcomer:
Varun Shetty, OpenAI's media partnerships head, says OpenAI didn't put too many guardrails in Sora because it didn't want to “be at a competitive disadvantage”  —  Plus, Ex-Sequoia partner Matt Miller launches a London-based fund & Mira Murati's AI lab releases its first product
New York Times:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Coinbase applies for a national trust company charter, says it “has no intention of becoming a bank” and the charter will allow expansion in areas like payments  —  Coinbase Global Inc., the largest US crypto exchange, is seeking a national trust company charter from the Office …
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
OpenAI acquires AI-powered personal finance app Roi; source: CEO and co-founder Sujith Vishwajith is the only member of Roi's four-person team joining OpenAI  —  OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance app.  In keeping with a recent trend in the AI industry, only the CEO is making the jump.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft is testing ad-supported games streaming internally, allowing employees to play select titles for free without an Xbox Game Pass subscription  —  Microsoft employees can now access an ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming ahead of a public test.
Greg Bensinger / Reuters:
Rob Williams, Amazon's VP of Device Software and Services and a member of the S-team advising CEO Andy Jassy, steps down and plans to leave Amazon by 2025's end  —  - VP Rob Williams to retire from Amazon, remains advisor through 2025  — Panos Panay announces team consolidation, Tapas Roy promoted
Politico:
CISA 2015, the key law that helps the federal government guard against cyber threats to US critical systems, expired when the government shut down on October 1  —  “We are without this critical line of defense,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee …
TechCrunch:
Lapsus$ publishes a data leak site on the dark web that threatens to release ~1B records allegedly stolen from dozens of companies' Salesforce-hosted databases  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Zack Whittaker  —  A notorious predominantly English-speaking hacking group has launched a website …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft putting some of its top titles on Xbox Game Pass is cutting into its higher-margin game sales, giving up $300M+ in Call of Duty sales in 2024  —  Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox division surprised many video game enthusiasts this week when the company announced a 50% price hike …
Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:
Moonlake AI, which offers tools to help users “vibe code virtual worlds”, including for gaming, animation, and filmmaking, comes out of stealth with a $28M seed  —  Plus: Hollywood rejects an “AI actress.”  —  Welcome back to The Prompt. … Artificial intelligence is facing an existential crisis.
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
Sources: former Databricks VP of AI Naveen Rao is in talks to raise $1B led by a16z at a $5B valuation for his new AI hardware startup Unconventional  —  Naveen Rao, who was formerly the head of artificial intelligence at Databricks, is in talks to raise a $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation …

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Earlier Picks

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