Techmeme
October 23, 2025, 5:50 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
President Trump pardons convicted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family's World Liberty Financial  —  Pardon follows months of efforts by Changpeng Zhao to boost Trump crypto company  —  President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Mico, a character that responds with real-time expressions when talked to, now on by default in Copilot's voice mode in the US, UK, and Canada  —  Copilot now has its own virtual character for its voice mode. … It's been nearly 30 years since Microsoft's Office assistant …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Brooke Singman / Fox Business:
Apple's Houston manufacturing facility, originally scheduled to open in 2026, is now shipping AI servers that power Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute  —  Apple's Houston manufacturing facility is operating ahead of schedule  —  EXCLUSIVE: Apple is now building and shipping American …
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI acquires Software Applications Incorporated, which is building an AI-powered user interface for macOS and raised $6.5M from Sam Altman and others  —  OpenAI has acquired Software Applications Inc., a startup building an AI-powered user interface for Mac desktops …
Kate Rogers / CNBC:
Trump says he canceled plans for a “surge” of National Guard to San Francisco after speaking to “great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others”  —  President Donald Trump said in a post on Thursday that the federal government was preparing to “surge” …
Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget:
Amazon relaunches its game streaming service Luna, available at no additional cost for Prime subscribers, and adds new beginner-friendly multiplayer games  —  The big addition is a collection of multiplayer games that can be controlled with a smartphone.  —  After detailing its plans …
Sam Tobin / Reuters:
The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal rules against Apple in a lawsuit accusing it of abusing its dominant position by charging a 30% App Store commission  —  Apple (AAPL.O) on Thursday lost a London lawsuit accusing the U.S. tech company of abusing its dominant position by charging app developers …
Bloomberg:
Sources and docs: the US DOJ charged an ex-director of zero-day vendor L3Harris' Trenchant with stealing secrets from two companies to sell to a Russian buyer  —  A director at a company that sells computer vulnerabilities has been charged with stealing secrets to sell to an unspecified buyer in Russia …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft asked its Xbox unit to hit 30% profit margins, well above the industry average, prompting product cancellations, price hikes, and job cuts  —  Management's goal of 30% profit margins for gaming has led to job losses, canceled projects  —  Microsoft Corp. is asking …
Dane Stuckey / @cryps1s:
Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and other quantum computing companies are in talks to give the US Commerce Department equity in exchange for $10M+ funding each  —  Discussions signal Washington's wider involvement in key parts of the economy  —  WASHINGTON—Several quantum-computing companies …
Katie Roof / The Information:
Sources: Adobe held talks to acquire Synthesia, which makes AI tools that generate video avatars of people, for ~$3B; the startup was valued at $2.1B in January  —  Adobe in recent months held talks with Synthesia, a London-based maker of artificial intelligence software that generates video avatars …
More: The Times
Wall Street Journal:
Top AI researchers and executives in Silicon Valley are working 80 to 100 hours per week, driven by competition, as AI's progress compresses product timelines  —  With expertise in the field scarce, workers in Silicon Valley are pushing themselves to extremes day after day
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Email: Indian crypto exchange WazirX plans to resume operations on October 24, following a court-approved restructuring, after hackers stole $230M in July 2024  —  That was the final step in a process that began after a massive security breach last year froze assets, shuttered withdrawals …
James Reddick / The Record:
Starlink VP Lauren Dreyer says the company “proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centers’” in Myanmar  —  SpaceX says it has disabled more than 2,000 Starlink devices connected to scam compounds in Myanmar …
Nick Turner / Bloomberg:
Filing: Applied Materials plans to cut ~4% of its global workforce and expects the layoffs to cost $160M to $180M; it had 36,100 employees as of the end of July  —  Applied Materials Inc., the largest US producer of chipmaking equipment, plans to cut 4% of its global workforce as it copes with a sales slowdown and trade turmoil.
More: Reuters
Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNET:
Anthropic says Claude's memory feature, initially available for Team and Enterprise users, is rolling out to Pro and Max subscribers  —  ZDNET's key takeaways  — Anthropic Pro and Max subscribers have access to Memory.  — The feature creates a more intuitive experience with AI that knows you.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Eight Sleep adds an outage mode to its smart beds after complaints they were stuck at sweltering temperatures and in inclined positions during the AWS outage  —  Thousands of Eight Sleep owners were unable to adjust temperatures or bed positions while while Amazon's servers were down.
Ray Maker / DC Rainmaker:
Filing: Strava voluntarily dismissed its patent lawsuit against Garmin, for allegedly infringing its heat map and segments features, just 21 days after filing  —  Strava's multifaceted legal (and social media) attack on Garmin was short-lived.  Just 21 days after filing …
More: Engadget, Bloomberg Law, and T3
LinkedIn: David Callahan and Mohammed IqbalBluesky: @stradicatMastodon: @rvaughnmd@med-mastodon.com
Forums: r/Garmin and r/Strava
Rocket Drew / The Information:
Source: SoftBank held talks about acquiring Agility Robotics for $900M+ before participating in Agility's funding round valuing the startup at $1.75B pre-money  —  SoftBank's Masayoshi Son has long predicted a future where robots would outnumber people and take over many jobs from humans.

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Financial Times:
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: