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January 14, 2026, 1:25 AM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
Meta confirms it is laying off Reality Labs staff and will “reinvest the savings” in wearables; CTO Andrew Bosworth says 1,000+ staff will be notified Tuesday — Meta Platforms Inc. is beginning to cut more than 1,000 jobs from the company's Reality Labs division …
More: Video Games Chronicle, Gematsu, The Hans India, Kotaku, Gizmodo, Engadget, Reuters, Polygon.com, Mashable, Proactive, SFGATE, Android Headlines, Sharecafe, Road to VR, MediaPost, Forbes, Bloomberg, Thurrott, iPhone in Canada, GamesIndustry.biz, PC Gamer, Entrepreneur, WinBuzzer, Forbes, International Business Times, Road to VR, PYMNTS.com, PCMag, Silicon Republic, Social Media Today, GeekWire, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, The Verge, New York Times, and Axios
X: @nathievr, @sadlyitsbradley, @ibrews, @thejobchick, @grummz, @stocksavvyshay, @cixliv, @amitisinvesting, @scobleizer, @vladtheinflator, @benz145, @xuwu, @samsolid57, @mikeisaac, @eringriffith, @p_remarks, @caktusjaxk1, @mikeisaac, and @anshelsag
LinkedIn: Emil Protalinski and John Thompson
Bluesky: @ohheymarc, @ianbetteridge.com, @gematsu.com, @handpressed.net, @elucidating …, and @quinnypig.com
Threads: @jank0, @wongmjane, @karissabe, and @firerock31
Forums: r/TwoBestFriendsPlay, r/SonicTheHedgehog, r/PSVR, r/virtualreality, r/Games, r/Slycooper, r/augmentedreality, and Slashdot
| Jay Peters / The Verge: |
As part of its Reality Labs cuts, Meta is closing three VR gaming studios and will stop developing new content and features for its VR fitness app Supernatural — Developers from Twisted Pixel Games and Sanzaru Games have posted about their studios being closed down.
More: Sources, UploadVR, Digit, Game Developer, Engadget, GameSpot, TheSixthAxis, WebProNews, TechRaptor, Shacknews, and VG Charts
X: @andythps, @afoxdesign, @thedowd, @pranavdixit, @bmfshow, @tomwarren, @sophiebaybey, @asychov, @raeljamsesh, @jasteinerman, @victor_lucas, @dbloodworth2, @killian_c_u, @bangbangclick, @glitchfandango, @hero_kvatch, @mauronl3, @vescosein, @neogamespark, and @karn_ex
Bluesky: @davelee.me, @marioprime, and @themoonis.gay
Threads: @kathrynyu and @denny_cloudhead
Forums: r/pcgaming and r/Games
| Bloomberg: |
The US Senate passes the Defiance Act that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images, amid furor over Grok images — The US Senate unanimously passed legislation Tuesday that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images …
More: The Atlantic, The Verge, Engadget, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin …, The 19th, CBS News, Global News, Fast Company, and The Economic Times
Bluesky: @themilfmag.net and @themilfmag.net
Forums: r/goodnews and Slashdot
| Maya Perez / WebProNews: |
Bandcamp bans music and audio that is “generated wholly or in substantial part by AI”, hoping to build trust with fans that the music they find was human-made — Bandcamp has banned music substantially generated by AI to uphold human artistry and authenticity, amid rising concerns over AI flooding platforms like Spotify.
More: Bandcamp Updates, PC Gamer, Consequence, Stereogum, and BrooklynVegan
X: @danielraffel and @future_of_music
Bluesky: @ripridermusic, @2mello.net, @colinhemphill.com, @nowplaying.cool, @mwl.io, @bandcamp.com, @negativeagent, @lesterlee, @lauramarie, @davidgerard.co.uk, @mmmmmmuhh, @rrrrroseazerty …, and @logicalnuisance
Forums: Hacker News, r/BandCamp, and r/TIdaL
| The Information: |
A source details how Apple's Gemini deal works: new Siri features will launch in spring and at WWDC, Apple can finetune Gemini, no Google branding, and more — In another AI win for Google lately, Apple announced on Monday that it will use Google's Gemini models to power … | Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: |
More: Bloomberg, The Keyword, 9to5Mac, VICE, WebProNews, Unite.AI, Tech Brew, Creative Strategies, Redmond Pie, Deal N Tech, AppleInsider, Daring Fireball, TechRadar, Reuters, Washington Post, BetaNews, CNBC, BleepingComputer, MacDailyNews, Neowin, Macworld, Moneycontrol, Android Headlines, and Search Engine Land
X: @newsfromgoogle, @erfon, and @neilcybart
Bluesky: @eighthdayarts and @uzionmain
Forums: r/privacy, r/google, r/technology, r/Applelntelligence, and MacRumors Forums
| Reuters: |
The US gives a formal green light to sales of Nvidia's H200 chips to China, which cannot receive more than 50% of the total amount of chips sold to US customers — The Trump administration on Tuesday gave a formal green light to China-bound sales of Nvidia's (NVDA.O) second most powerful AI chips … | Bloomberg: |
More: The Register, Outlook India, Reuters, DigiTimes, Times of India, Wall Street Journal, Agence France-Presse, and DatacenterDynamics
X: @ohlennart, @eastland_maggie, @kakashiii111, @ohlennart, @samsolid57, @chorzempamartin, and @dnystedt. Bluesky: @awpiitr. Forums: r/politics
| Todd Bishop / GeekWire: |
Microsoft changes its data center approach, pledging to pay its own power costs, reject tax breaks, and replenish more water than it uses, amid local opposition — President Trump was right about Microsoft — but he only leaked part of the story. — Microsoft is changing its approach …
More: Microsoft, Seattle Business Journal, Network World, The Hill, PCMag, The Register, Wired, SiliconANGLE, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Finance, The Seattle Times, DatacenterDynamics, Proactive, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Washington Post, New York Times, Times of India, and Business Insider
LinkedIn: Noelle Walsh and Gaby DelaGarza. Bluesky: @carnage4life. Truth Social: @realDonaldTrump …. Forums: Slashdot
| Hayden Field / The Verge: |
Anthropic shakes up its C-suite: CPO Mike Krieger will become the co-lead of its Labs incubator, and head of product Ami Vora will take over Krieger's duties — Chief product officer Mike Krieger will change roles and join the “Labs” team. … Mike Krieger, the Instagram co-founder …
More: The Information and Anthropic
X: @anthropicai, @omarshaikdev, @yenkel, @mikeyk, and @shensi_. LinkedIn: Hayden Field. Forums: r/ClaudeAI
| Pew Research Center: |
Survey: 41% of US teens aged 13 to 17 support a ban on middle and high school students from using phones in class while 51% oppose it; 73% oppose a full-day ban — Schools nationwide are cracking down on students' cellphone use. At the same time, support for cellphone bans is rising among U.S. adults.| Google Research: |
Google announces MedGemma 1.5 with improved medical imaging support, and MedASR for medical dictation, both available on Hugging Face and Vertex AI — Daniel Golden, Engineering Manager, and Fereshteh Mahvar, Software Engineer, Google Research — We are updating our open MedGemma model with improved medical imaging support.
X: @_philschmid, @kimmonismus, @mahmoudhsssnn, @osanseviero, @sundarpichai, and @googleaidevs
Forums: r/singularity and r/LocalLLaMA
| Luz Ding / Bloomberg: |
Z.ai releases GLM-Image, an open-source multimodal AI model trained on Huawei chips that it says is China's first to be fully trained using domestic chips — Chinese AI startup Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC Ltd. released a new multimodal model that it says is the country's … | John Sakellariadis / Politico: |
President Trump renominates Sean Plankey to be the next director of CISA, which has been running without a full-time chief since Trump's return to office — Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) scotched Plankey's confirmation in 2025, reportedly due to a Coast Guard ship-building contract.| Nikkei Asia: |
Sources: Apple and Qualcomm are scrambling to secure glass cloth fiber, used in chip substrates and PCBs, as the AI boom boosts demand for the component — TAIPEI/TOKYO — It looks something like heavy-duty plastic wrap and is buried so deep in the guts of an iPhone that most users don't even know it exists.| Loni Prinsloo / Bloomberg: |
Holistic Resilience, a US group that helps Iranians secure internet access, says SpaceX has waived Starlink subscription fees amid a days-long internet blackout — Elon Musk's SpaceX is now offering free Starlink satellite service in Iran amid deadly protests and a days-long internet blackout.
More: Financial Times, Benzinga, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, Newser, CNN, Crikey, Forbes, Ars Technica, Washington Examiner, New York Times, ZeroHedge News, and PCMag
X: @zachweinberg. Forums: r/crime, r/neoliberal, r/PERSIAN, r/Starlink, r/circled, r/SpaceXLounge, r/thedavidpakmanshow, and r/YAPms
| Aishwarya Jain / Reuters: |
Defense Unicorns, which provides open-source air-gapped software to the US DOD, raised a $136M Series B led by Bain Capital, bringing its valuation to $1B+ — Defense Unicorns, which is a software provider to the U.S. Department of War, said on Tuesday it has completed a Series B funding …
More: SiliconANGLE, Defense Unicorns, Pulse 2.0, and FinSMEs
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Google makes improvements to Veo 3.1's Ingredients to Video feature to make videos “more expressive”, and adds native vertical video generation and 4K upscaling — Videos should now be more consistent with the images they're based on, including those in portrait orientations.| Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: |
A look at Confer, an open-source AI assistant project from Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike that is designed to provide end-to-end encryption for AI chats — Moxie Marlinspike—the pseudonym of an engineer who set a new standard for private messaging with the creation of the Signal Messenger …
More: Gizmodo. X: @jasoncrawford, @moxie, @sandeepssrin, and @moxie. Bluesky: @smcgrath.phd
Mastodon: @tommorris@mastodon.social, @dangoodin@infosec.exchange, @tomgag@infosec.exchange, and @mattburgess@infosec.exchange
Forums: Hacker News, r/signal, r/privacy, r/technology, Lobsters, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum
| Iain Martin / Forbes: |
Checkr, which offers employee background checks, says its revenue grew to $800M, up 14% from 2024, amid a surge in AI-generated CVs and fake financial documents — San Francisco-based Checkr, which got its start running criminal record checks on Uber drivers and gig workers …
X: @forbes
| Matthew Griffin / Bloomberg: |
Caterpillar hits a $300B market cap for the first time, driven by demand for its data center power generation equipment; CAT is up 12% in 2026 to a record ~$640 — Caterpillar Inc. shares extended a turbocharged rally fueled by bets on the industrial giant's artificial intelligence prospects …
More: Barron's Online
| Ben Weiss / Fortune: |
Polygon buys crypto startups Coinme and Sequence for a total of $250M+, as it seeks to bolster its stablecoin and fintech infrastructure and compete with Stripe — The blockchain developer Polygon Labs has closed deals to buy the crypto startups Coinme and Sequence.| Bloomberg: |
Taiwan issues an arrest warrant for OnePlus CEO Pete Lau for allegedly illegally hiring 70+ Taiwanese engineers, as it tries to stop China from raiding workers — Prosecutors in Taiwan issued an arrest warrant for the chief executive officer of Chinese smartphone company OnePlus … | The Information: |
Sources: AI chipmaker Cerebras is in talks to raise ~$1B, valuing the startup at $22B before the new investment, up from an $8.1B valuation in September 2025 — AI chip startup Cerebras Systems is in talks to raise about $1 billion, valuing the company at $22 billion before the new investment …
More: DigiTimes, SiliconANGLE, and Bloomberg
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Apple unveils Apple Creator Studio, a “groundbreaking collection” of creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro for $13/month or $129/year — Apple has announced Apple Creator Studio, which it describes as a “groundbreaking collection of powerful creative apps designed …
More: Apple, Ars Technica, Appleosophy, 9to5Mac, Business Standard, MacRumors, AppleInsider, The Verge, AppleInsider, Six Colors, Hindustan Times, Digit, Gizchina, Tao of Mac, The Mac Observer, Neowin, iDrop News, The Mac Observer, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, WebProNews, Michael Tsai, AppleInsider, Digital Trends, TechRadar, Techsponential, Gizmodo, Mashable, Variety, Daring Fireball, Redmond Pie, PCMag, Livemint, CNET, Computerworld, Thurrott, Creative Bloq, and TechCrunch
X: @gregjoz, @markgurman, @stufflistings, @socoloffalex, @zollotech, @otsukimiotsu, @tomwarren, @leakerapple, @aaronp613, @markgurman, @dylanmcd8, @film_girl, @lukemiani, @stevemoser, @stephenrobles, @zollotech, @geerlingguy, @stevemoser, @mweinbach, @bruvimtired, @sankew06, @thecomputerclan, @samhenrigold, @mweinbach, and @avstorm
LinkedIn: Alexa Joyce, PhD, Jonathan Hadida, Klaas Schoenmaker, and John Danty
Bluesky: @cachiporra, @hilarybaumann.com, @parkerortolani.com, @kithrup, and @zollotech. Threads: @parkerortolani
Mastodon: @marcoarment@mastodon.social, @stroughtonsmith …, @geerlingguy@mastodon.social, @Migueldeicaza@mastodon.social, @ernie@writing.exchange, and @stroughtonsmith …
Forums: r/mac, r/finalcutpro, r/technology, r/LogicPro, r/pixelmator, and r/apple
| Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: |
The US FCC waives a rule that forced Verizon to unlock phones 60 days after they are activated, which could make it harder for people to switch from Verizon — The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement …
More: Fierce Network, SamMobile, Android Police, Droid Life, Tom's Guide, Android Headlines, WebProNews, iClarified, 9to5Mac, and The Verge
X: @brendancarrfcc, @kobeevance, @verizonpolicy, @agomezfcc, @roslynlayton, @jeffreywestling, @kwiens, @agomezfcc, @rogerentner, @peter_adderton, @steveforbesceo, and @jackposobiec
Forums: r/NowInTech, r/politics, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum
| David Gilbert / Wired: |
Roblox's AI-powered age verification system, which expanded globally last week using tech from a company called Persona, faces criticism for misidentifying ages — Kids are being identified as adults—and vice versa—on Roblox, while age-verified accounts are already being sold online.
More: Engadget
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