Techmeme
October 8, 2025, 9:30 PM

Top News

Victoria Song / The Verge:
Google Pixel Watch 4 review: a significant leap in Google's smartwatch lineup with a nice domed display, but Gemini is unreliable, and GPS maps are still wonky  —  Five years ago, I used to groan when it came time to review an Android smartwatch.  Back then, anything that wasn't a Samsung watch was disappointing at best.
Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica:
Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold review: nice display and most AI features run on device, but cameras are a step down from other Pro Pixels, Tensor G5 shows small gains  —  Google delivers another phone that is slightly better than its predecessor—is that enough?  —  When the first foldable phones …
Billy Steele / Engadget:
Bloomberg:
Nvidia's and OpenAI's wave of deals is escalating concerns that the $1T+ AI boom is being artificially propped up by interconnected business transactions  —  A wave of deals and partnerships are escalating concerns that the trillion-dollar AI boom is being propped up by interconnected business transactions.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Apple has removed Eyes Up, which archives video evidence of ICE abuses, from the App Store; unlike ICEBlock, it doesn't share ICE officers' real-time locations  —  Apple removed an app for preserving TikToks, Instagram reels, news reports, and videos documenting abuses by ICE, 404 Media has learned.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Filing: Elon Musk and X settle a lawsuit by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, and others over $128M+ in unpaid 2024 severance  —  The settlement agreement over withheld severance is dependent on Musk meeting ‘certain conditions.’
Michael Kan / PCMag:
Verizon signs a commercial agreement with AST SpaceMobile to offer satellite-to-phone connectivity in cellular dead zones starting in 2026; ASTS closes up 8.6%  —  As SpaceX races to dominate satellite-to-phone services, Verizon is doubling down on rival AST SpaceMobile instead.
Logan Hitchcock / Decrypt:
YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, announces a $1B Builder Fund to support long-term founders developing on BNB Chain in areas like trading, AI, and DeFi  —  YZi Labs, the venture office of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao and formerly known as Binance Labs, is creating a $1 billion fund …
Los Angeles Times:
Prosecutors say the evidence against a man accused of starting what became the Pacific Palisades fire includes a ChatGPT-generated image of a burning city  —  - Authorities have arrested a suspect in the Palisades fire after a nine-month investigation into the blaze that killed 12 people.
Dasha Afanasieva / Bloomberg:
US House lawmakers criticize ASML, Tokyo Electron, KLA, and other equipment makers for selling to the Chinese military and helping build China's chip industry  —  Semiconductor companies including Applied Materials Inc. and ASML Holding NV fell after a US House committee said that the industry …
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Relace, which makes tools and specialized language models to help AI agents code faster for customers like Lovable and Figma, raised a $23M Series A led by a16z  —  Countless startups sell tools to software engineers, such as version control systems to track who's making changes to a codebase …
Alex Konrad / Upstarts Media:
New York-based Crosby, a law firm that uses AI to help speed up the contracts process, raised a $20M Series A co-led by Index Ventures, BCV, and Elad Gil  —  Crosby, led by lawyer turned founder Ryan Daniels, has raised a $20 million Series A from Index and Bain Capital Ventures to expand its AI-assisted legal work.
Suzanne Smalley / The Record:
German officials say they will vote against the EU's “Chat Control” proposal, signaling the bloc will not have enough support to pass the measure on October 14  —  German officials on Wednesday said they will vote against a European Union proposal to allow the scanning …
CryptPad Blog:
Sam Clark / Politico:
Mark Hallam / DW News:
Germany's Federal Cartel Office opens an investigation into whether Temu is influencing the pricing of third-party merchants, potentially stifling competition  —  Germany's competition watchdog has announced an investigation of Chinese discount online retail site temu.com, suspecting it of influencing retailers' prices.
More: Reuters
John Revill / Reuters:
SoftBank Group agrees to acquire ABB's robotics business, which generated $2.3B in sales in 2024, for $5.4B; ABB expects the deal to close in mid-to-late 2026  —  SoftBank Group (9984.T) said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB (ABBN.S) in a $5.4 billion deal.
Barbara Moens / Financial Times:
Sources: Meta and Apple are close to settling two EU antitrust cases and agreeing to a deal to change their business practices after a total €700M in DMA fines  —  US Big Tech groups in final stages of agreeing deal with Brussels to avoid series of escalating fines
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Discord estimates 70,000 users globally may have had government ID photos exposed in a September 20 third-party customer service data breach  —  Discord claims that the attackers are circulating inaccurate information about the breach of a customer service provider as part of an extortion attempt.
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
David AI, which sells audio data sets for AI training, raised a $50M Series B, sources say at a $500M valuation, up from ~$100M from its $25M Series A in May  —  David AI Labs Inc. a startup selling audio data sets to help train artificial intelligence models, has raised $50 million …
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Amazon announces Amazon Pharmacy kiosks to quickly dispense medications to patients after an appointment, initially rolling out in its One Medical offices in LA  —  Amazon is erasing the distance between the doctor's office and the pharmacy with the introduction of new Amazon Pharmacy kiosks …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's unifying vision, infrastructure deals, the investor mindset, ChatGPT apps, Instant Checkout, Sora, copyright, feedback, and more  —  Today's Stratechery Interview is with OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.  I have interviewed Altman twice before …
Danny Park / The Block:
MetaMask launches in-app perpetual futures trading powered by Hyperliquid, and plans to integrate Polymarket's prediction markets later this year  —  - MetaMask launched its in-app perpetuals trading feature today, powered by Hyperliquid.  — Further expanding its roadmap …

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Pew Research Center:
Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block:

Earlier Picks

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Washington Post:
Engineering at Meta:
More: InfoWorld, React, The Linux Foundation, SD Times, and OpenJS Foundation
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Financial Times:
Kunal Manchanada / Entrackr: