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February 18, 2026, 5:20 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| The Keyword: |
Google rolls out Lyria 3, a generative music model that can make 30-second tracks with Nano Banana-made cover art, in beta in the Gemini app in eight languages — The Gemini app now features our most advanced music generation model Lyria 3, empowering anyone to make 30-second tracks using text or images in beta.
More: The Register, Engadget, The Verge, Android Police, Gizmodo, Thurrott, CNBC, Mashable, MarkTechPost, Music Business Worldwide, Mercury News, Android Central, MobileSyrup, Campaign Middle East, PCMag, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, Android Authority, Android Headlines, Mix 1049, iPhone in Canada, SQ Magazine, Tom's Guide, 9to5Google, Music Ally, Neowin, Ars Technica, EFTM, Droid Life, and Sherwood News
| The Record: |
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues TP-Link, alleging it deceptively markets its products as secure while allowing the CCP to hack into consumers' devices — Texas is suing networking equipment company TP-Link Systems for allegedly allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to hack into consumers' devices …
More: The Register, Texas Attorney General, StateScoop, Engadget, Reuters, The Epoch Times, and Bloomberg Law
| Todd Haselton / The Verge: |
Google unveils the $499 Pixel 10a, with a Tensor G4 and 8GB of RAM like the Pixel 9a, Satellite SOS, an 11% brighter screen, but no Pixelsnap, shipping March 4 — Google's midrange Pixels have been our top pick for budget Android phones for a while. They offer good cameras and most of what you need at a budget-friendly price.
More: The Keyword, Engadget, TechCrunch, Android Headlines, The Shortcut, Thurrott, Android Central, PhoneArena, Livemint, Trusted Reviews, Droid Life, Business Standard, iPhone in Canada, Android Authority, Engadget, T3, Wired, MobileSyrup, Tom's Guide, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, XDA Developers, Digit, and GSMArena.com
X: @google, @redlaysdedo, @thegalox_, and @mkbhd
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
More: Google Support, HotHardware, CNET, iPhone in Canada, Android Headlines, nextpit, PhoneArena, Thurrott, and Notebookcheck
| Alicia Tang / Bloomberg: |
Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raised $1B from Autodesk, a16z, Nvidia, AMD, Sea, and others to build its world models for robotics, scientific discovery, and more — World Labs, a startup from artificial intelligence pioneer Fei-Fei Li, raised $1 billion in a new round of funding to pursue a novel approach to AI development.| CNBC: |
Social media addiction trial: Mark Zuckerberg says increasing engagement on Instagram is not a company goal and that Meta removes underage users it identifies — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back against the notion that the social media company made increasing time spent on Instagram a company goal.
More: The Guardian, New York Times, NPR, The Information, Breitbart, International Business Times, Axios, The National, Le Monde, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, LAW.com, CNN, CBS News, ABC, Fox News, One America News Network, New York Post, Digital CxO, Forbes, GMA News Online, The American Bazaar, The Olympian, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Wrap, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Overturned, Tech Oversight Project, Android Headlines, Deseret News, BBC, The Sun, Sky News, NBC News, FOX 13 Seattle, RTÉ, Center for Countering …, Quartz, NewsNation, MS NOW, The Independent, Bloomberg Law, Economic news, and Moneycontrol
LinkedIn: Kelly Stonelake and Nicki Petrossi
Bluesky: @theresistanceco and @davelee.me
Forums: r/technology, r/politics, r/LegalNews, and r/NPR
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Audible launches an “immersion reading” feature that lets readers switch between ebook and audiobook versions of a title in their Audible and Kindle libraries — Only days after Spotify announced its foray into physical book sales, which included an audiobook feature that lets …
More: Audible.com, ZDNET, Android Authority, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Good e-Reader, Publishers Weekly, TechRadar, Mashable, and Jane Friedman
| Krystal Hur / Wall Street Journal: |
A Las Vegas federal appeals court rejects Kalshi's emergency bid for an administrative stay on Nevada's push to block the platform, a major setback for Kalshi — A federal appeals court rejected Kalshi's bid, setting the stage for Nevada's civil-enforcement proceedings| Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: |
Microsoft confirms a bug that let Microsoft 365 Copilot summarize confidential emails from Sent Items and Drafts folders, and deployed a fix in early February — Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug has been causing the AI assistant to summarize confidential emails since late January …
More: TechCrunch, The Register, Neowin, Inc.com, Cyber Security News, Windows Latest, PCWorld, and Eschaton
Bluesky: @hypervisible.blacksky.app. Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/BetterOffline, r/privacy, and Slashdot
| Bloomberg: |
Saudi-backed AI startup Humain invested $3B in xAI, becoming a “significant minority shareholder” in a deal that completed just before SpaceX's xAI acquisition — Saudi Arabian artificial intelligence company Humain has invested $3 billion into Elon Musk's xAI …
More: HUMAIN, Observer, Capital Brief, Tech in Asia, Financial Times, The Information, Dow Jones Newswires, arabnews.jp, New York Times, Reuters, Semafor, Nairametrics, and Türkiye Today
X: @humain, @tareqamin_, and @elonmusk
| OpenAI: |
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities — Making smart contracts safer by evaluating AI agents' ability to detect, patch, and exploit vulnerabilities in blockchain environments.
More: The Block, CoinDesk, CoinGape, The Crypto Times, Paradigm, Coinmonks, and Crypto Briefing
X: @scaling01, @0xalpo, and @openai
| Leo Schwartz / Fortune: |
Sports-focused prediction market Novig raised a $75M Series B led by Pantera Capital at a $500M valuation; Novig is commission-free for retail traders — As the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket dominate the attention of investors and regulators, a sports-focused challenger called Novig …
More: Wall Street Journal, PYMNTS.com, Sports Business Journal, Axios, The Crypto Times, Ventureburn, Economic news, Sportico, Forbes, Forerunner, FinSMEs, and Blockonomi
X: @novig, @franklinbi, and @masonnystrom
| Niko Gallogly / New York Times: |
eBay agrees to acquire secondhand clothing app Depop from Etsy for ~$1.2B in cash; Etsy bought Depop in 2021 for $1.6B; ETSY jumps 17%+ after hours — The $1.2 billion deal comes as eBay looks to expand its appeal among younger users. — Secondhand clothing apps hit a stride during …
More: CNBC, Wall Street Journal, eBay Inc., and Benzinga
| New York Times: |
Meta plans to spend $65M in 2025 to boost state politicians friendly to AI; filings: Meta started two super PACs, one backing the GOP and another for Democrats — Meta's biggest election investment aims to prevent state legislation that it fears could inhibit artificial intelligence development.
More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Originally Reported …, Benzinga, and Political Wire
X: @jdcocchiarella, @teddyschleifer, @teddyschleifer, @thegreenebj, @nathantbernard, @leehepner, @ryangrim, and @hbendaas. Bluesky: @sachalouise
Forums: r/technology and r/politics
| David Singleton / flurries of latent creativity: |
Dreamer, founded by former Stripe CTO David Singleton, Hugo Barra, and others, launches in beta to let technical and non-technical users build agentic AI apps — Dreamer is the name of the platform and company I started with Hugo, Nicholas and others a little over a year ago.
More: /dev/agents and Dreamer
X: @joannastern, @dps, @bentossell, @hbarra, @mikeyk, @dps, @paraga, @dps, @dreamer, and @dreamer
Bluesky: @martinsfp and @edzitron.com
| Joe Miller / Financial Times: |
How US citizens, clergy, and elected officials in conservative communities like Missouri are leading a grassroots rebellion against the Trump-backed AI boom — Republicans fear backlash against White House agenda could undermine support in this year's midterm elections
X: @joemillerjr. Bluesky: @henrymance.ft.com, @justinhendrix, and @henrymance.ft.com. Forums: r/politics
| Alex Heath / Sources: |
Sources: while Meta offered OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger more money than OpenAI, he ultimately aligned more closely with OpenAI's overall vibe and vision — Less than a week before he ultimately joined OpenAI, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger talked about the two job offers …
More: Inc, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur. Bluesky: @alexeheath.com
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple adds support for third-party voice-based conversational apps in CarPlay starting with iOS 26.4, letting CarPlay users access apps like AI chatbots — With iOS 26.4, CarPlay users will be able to use third-party chatbots with CarPlay. AI services like Claude, Gemini …
More: Apple, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, The Olympian, iClarified, iPhone in Canada, BGR, and heise online News
| George Hammond / Financial Times: |
Sources: Ineffable Intelligence, founded by former Google DeepMind Principal Scientist David Silver, is raising a $1B seed led by Sequoia at a ~$4B valuation — Funding deal would value David Silver's start-up Ineffable Intelligence at $4bn — David Silver, one of Britain's top AI researchers …
More: PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, The Times, Sifted, David SIlver, Telegraph, The Economic Times, Implicator.ai, Capacity, and Tech Funding News. X: @etnshow
| Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: |
Perplexity says it has no plans to further pursue ads, which it introduced in 2024, after phasing them out in late 2025 over fears they would erode user trust — Leading start-ups have recently embraced sponsors as they search for revenue — AI start-up Perplexity has abandoned advertising … | Jyoti Mann / The Information: |
Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AI — Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter.| Julia Black / Vanity Fair: |
OpenAI hires Instagram's VP of global partnerships, Charles Porch, as its first VP of global creative partnerships, seeking to win over a skeptical Hollywood — Charles Porch's newly created role as OpenAI's VP of global creative partnerships signals the AI giant's new focus on the entertainment industry
More: The Hollywood Reporter. X: @fidjissimo, @kate_rouch, @whatdotcd, @alexeheath, @mjnblack, and @zck. Threads: @robertdenning. Instagram: charlesporch
| Jordan Novet / CNBC: |
Figma reports Q4 revenue up 40% YoY to $303.8M, vs. $293.15M est., and forecasts Q1 revenue above estimates; FIG jumps 15%+ after hours — Figma shares jumped as much as 20% in extended trading on Wednesday after the design software maker reported robust results and quarterly guidance than Wall Street had predicted.
More: The Information, Bloomberg, Figma, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Fortune, Sherwood News, and Benzinga
| Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: |
At India's AI Summit, Alphabet announces the America-India Connect Initiative, which will build new fiber optic lines between India, the US, and other countries — Alphabet Inc. unveiled several new initiatives to support its expansion in India, including new fiber-optic routes that will connect … | Abu Sultan / Reuters: |
More: PC Gamer, Benzinga, DatacenterDynamics, CNN, Blockonomi, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Digit, Fortune India, Hindustan Times, CNBC, Tech in Asia, Economic news, Get Down and Shruti, Moneycontrol, and The Economic Times. Forums: r/technology
| Bloomberg: |
Robinhood launches an IPO for Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a $1B closed-end fund to provide retail investors access to private markets, offering 40M shares at $25 — Robinhood Markets Inc. is seeking to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering of a closed-end fund designed … | Samantha Subin / CNBC: |
DoorDash reports Q4 revenue up 38% YoY to $3.96B, vs. $3.99B est., total orders up 32% to 903M, and forecasts Q1 adjusted EBITDA below estimates — Doordash's stock dropped 10% after the food delivery platform issued disappointing fourth-quarter results and guidance as it ramps up its investments in new technology.
More: Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswires, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Business Wire, and Benzinga
| Eugene Kim / Business Insider: |
Sources: Amazon shut down Blue Jay, a multi-armed robotic system launched in October 2025 for same-day delivery warehouses, to focus on small modular warehouses — - Amazon halts Blue Jay robot project amid strategic shift in warehouse technology. — Blue Jay faced high costs and complexities … | Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: |
Efficient Computer, which is developing AI chips with a “spatial dataflow” architecture to minimize energy consumption, raised a $60M Series A — Efficient Computer Co. says it's going to make the dream of low-energy artificial intelligence computing a reality after raising $60 million in early-stage funding today.| Bloomberg: |
Remitly co-founder Matt Oppenheimer steps down as CEO, will be succeeded by Banco Santander executive Sebastian Gunningham — Matt Oppenheimer is stepping down as chief executive officer of payments network Remitly Global Inc. and will be succeeded by Banco Santander SA's Sebastian Gunningham.Sponsor Posts
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