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February 20, 2026, 7:00 AM
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| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Google rejected 1.75M policy-violating Android apps and blocked 80K+ developer accounts from Google Play in 2025, down from 2.36M apps and 158K accounts in 2024 — Fewer bad actors are targeting Google Play with malicious apps, the company says, a shift that the tech giant credits … | Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Pro, which it says is “a step forward in core reasoning”, for all users in the Gemini app; the .1 increment is a first for Google — In November, Google introduced Gemini 3 Pro in preview, with Gemini 3 Flash following a month later.
More: The Keyword, VentureBeat, Google DeepMind, The Register, Tom's Guide, The Rundown AI, Business Standard, ANI News, Ars Technica, Moneycontrol, TechCrunch, Digit, Ukrainian National News, Livemint, The Deep View, Verdict, CNET, SiliconANGLE, Rohan's Bytes, WinBuzzer, InfoWorld, Android Authority, The GitHub Blog, Chrome Unboxed, Simon Willison's Weblog, GSMArena.com, MarkTechPost, Digital Trends, The New Stack, eWeek, iClarified, Implicator.ai, Techgenyz, Wion, Mashable, ZDNET, The Decoder, iPhone in Canada, Neowin, The Economic Times, Thurrott, Crypto Briefing, Constellation Research, TestingCatalog, and Google Cloud Blog
X: @artificialanlys, @brendanfoody, @jeffdean, @sundarpichai, @yuchenj_uw, @simonw, @kat_kampf, @triswarkentin, @misilo_jakub, @jmsvid, @srkdan, @priyaaryav, @arcprize, @kimmonismus, @shresbm, @_mohansolo, @advaitonline, @noamshazeer, @demishassabis, @oriolvinyalsml, @google, @google, @scaling01, @officiallogank, @koraykv, @scaling01, @ai_for_success, @mweinbach, @harrisonfjobe, @geminiapp, @officiallogank, @geminiapp, @googledeepmind, @_philschmid, @joshwoodward, and @scaling01
LinkedIn: Carlos Udina Martin, Maor Shlomo, and Philipp Schmid
Forums: r/Bard, r/GeminiAI, r/singularity, and Slashdot
| Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: |
Sources: Amazon's AI tools caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December after its Kiro AI deleted and recreated an environment — Tech giant blames ‘user error, not AI error’ for incident in December involving its Kiro tool — Amazon's cloud unit has suffered …
More: The Decoder, Reuters, Proactive, The Information, Economic news, and Tech in Asia
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Forums: r/programming and r/webdev
| Robert Burnson / Bloomberg: |
A US grand jury indicted three people, including two former Google engineers, for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to Pixel's Tensor processor — Two former Google engineers and one of their husbands were indicted for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the company's Tensor processor for Pixel phones.| Jay Peters / The Verge: |
Meta says it is “explicitly separating” Quest VR from its Worlds platform, making Worlds “almost exclusively mobile” and setting it up to compete with Roblox — Horizon Worlds is now going to be a platform that's ‘almost exclusively mobile.’
More: Meta, PocketGamer.biz, UploadVR, GamesBeat, Business Insider, Engadget, Digital Trends, and Kotaku
| Financial Times: |
Sources: Nvidia nears an equity investment of up to $30B in OpenAI, replacing last year's long-term $100B commitment; the deal could be closed this weekend — Chipmaker swaps last year's complex framework with AI start-up in favour of equity cheque — Nvidia is close to finalising …
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| Jason Schreier / Bloomberg: |
Sony shuts down Bluepoint Games, the PlayStation subsidiary behind remakes of older games like Demon's Souls and Uncharted; ~70 employees will lose their jobs — The PlayStation subsidiary previously made remakes of games like 'Demon's Souls' — Sony Group Corp. is shutting down Bluepoint Games …
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X: @nuhre_, @stealth40k, @okami13_, @zuby_tech, @tomwarren, @domsplaying, @shpeshal_nick, @pirat_nation, @realradec, @neogamespark, and @modernvintageg
LinkedIn: Rich Vogel and Jason Schreier
Bluesky: @stealth40k and @peteskerritt.com
Forums: r/digitalfoundry, r/bloodborne, r/pcgaming, and r/TeamIco
| Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal: |
Uber's market cap fell to ~$150B, down ~25% in six months, as investors weigh robotaxi disruption, viewing it as a two-horse race between Waymo and Tesla — Waymo's momentum is undeniable, but Uber's scale is being undervalued in AI-driven selloff — Uber can't seem to emerge from the shadow of what's to come.| Natalie Lung / Bloomberg: |
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Forums: r/SelfDrivingCars, r/waymo, and Slashdot
| Maxwell Zeff / Wired: |
Perplexity's retreat from ads signals a strategic shift as it recognizes its product is not for a mass audience and expects growth to come from enterprise sales — The AI search startup once predicted advertising would be a massive business. Now it's betting on a smaller, more valuable audience.| Nikkei Asia: |
Sources: SoftBank plans to form a consortium to build a $33B power plant in Ohio, set to produce 9.2 GW for AI data centers, as part of the US-Japan trade deal — TOKYO — SoftBank Group will form a consortium to carry out a $33 billion gas-fired power plant project in the U.S. …
More: Bloomberg and TechCrunch
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
General Catalyst plans to invest $5B in India over five years, an increase from the $500M to $1B previously announced, after merging with a local VC in 2024 — General Catalyst, a Silicon Valley-based venture firm with more than $43 billion in assets under management, has announced it plans …
More: Entrackr, The Economic Times, VCCircle, Inc42, Tech in Asia, and Moneycontrol
| Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: |
Sources: Meta cuts its annual distribution of stock options by ~5% for most of its staff, equating to tens of thousands of employees, after a ~10% cut in 2025 — Most employees will receive 5% less in equity rewards as Mark Zuckerberg slashes costs to fund huge AI spending
More: Reuters, The Information, Tech in Asia, Economic news, Ukrainian National News, and Benzinga. Forums: r/technology
| Makena Kelly / Wired: |
Docs: DHS has signed a five-year, $1B blanket purchase agreement with Palantir, allowing agencies like ICE to skip the competitive bidding process — “If you are interested in helping shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir's work across DHS, please reach out,” a Palantir executive wrote …
More: SiliconANGLE, Joe.My.God., 404 Media, and Gothamist
Bluesky: @brucedlittle, @rulesfortitans, @schwindter, @markhurst, @makenakelly, and @lenticulus. Mastodon: @Ashedryden@xoxo.zone
Forums: r/politics, r/technology, r/LeopardsAteMyFace, r/nottheonion, and r/nottheonion
| Jonathan Lloyd / NBC Los Angeles: |
Los Angeles County sues Roblox, alleging it engaged in deceptive business practices that exposed children to sexual content, exploitation, and online predators — Roblox faces a lawsuit by Los Angeles County that alleges the gaming platform engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices … | Evan Halper / Washington Post: |
Tech companies are increasingly building private power plants to fuel off-grid data centers, a move some warn faces reliability challenges and climate risks — Tech companies are building data centers with their own private power plants, a risky bet that will increase carbon emissions and other pollution.
More: This is Not Cool, Barron's Online, The Independent, Heatmap News, and Solar Power World
X: @oilfield_rando and @washingtonpost
Bluesky: @marypcbuk, @shiraovide, @kostyack, and @justinhendrix
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