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April 15, 2026, 3:35 PM
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| Bryce Elder / Financial Times: |
Shoe company Allbirds, which sold last week for $39M after its valuation fell from $4B+ in 2021, says it aims to become an AI compute provider; BIRD jumps 800%+ — Ah, zeitgeist: — Allbirds is a San Francisco maker of wool trainers that was once valued at more than $4bn.
More: Allbirds, Inc., CNBC, TechCrunch, CNN, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, DatacenterDynamics, Straight Arrow News, San Francisco Chronicle, NBC News, Reuters, The Verge, Mercury News, Washington Times, Fast Company, Engadget, Constellation Research, UPI, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, CBS News, Yahoo Finance, Pulse 2.0, Barchart.com, Bloomberg, The Daily Wire, SFGATE, WWD, SFist, The Shortcut, Proactive, Capital Brief, Decrypt, Forbes, PC Gamer, Barron's Online, Wired, CoinDesk, ZeroHedge News, Aftermath, Newser, Sherwood News, The Information, Crypto Briefing, Kotaku, and Watcher Guru
X: @mdudas, @packym, @mollyjongfast, @dylandittrich, @dogetoshi, @ashleymayer, @negligible_cap, @upslopecapital, @agentchud, @krishnanrohit, @dylandittrich, @shaughnessy119, @buysellsmb, @edels0n, @kakashiii111, @geiger_capital, @tracyalloway, @firstadopter, @pitdesi, @mikeisaac, @bullandbaird, @doublewidecap, @deepsailcapital, @thestalwart, @negligible_cap, and @samro
LinkedIn: Hana Kajimura, Kevin Chaplin, Teresa Mastrangelo, Scott Newton, Ehsan Etezad, and Craig Reishus
Bluesky: @nicholasgrossman, @vincemancini, @seldo.com, @nickharkaway.com, @blindeke, @coachfinstock, @mims, @damonberes.com, @jakeweindling, @shiraovide, @stevekovach, @ernie.tedium.co, @bendwalsh, @caseynewton, @ryancordell.org, @baddestmamajama, and @davidtaggart. Threads: @tomgara. Mastodon: @itamarst@hachyderm.io
| Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg: |
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says the company plans to lay off ~1,000 full-time employees, or 16% of its global workforce, to cut costs and achieve profitability — Snap Inc. is laying off roughly 1,000 full-time employees, or 16% of its global workforce, part of an effort by Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel …
More: Snap Newsroom, The Guardian, Silicon Valley Business …, San Francisco Chronicle, Business Insider, Breitbart, Sources, Reuters, BBC, PCMag, Engadget, The Verge, Yahoo Finance, iPhone in Canada, Los Angeles Times, Mashable, CNBC, GB News, Allwork.Space, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Fast Company, The Next Web, Proactive, TechCrunch, The Independent, Associated Press, The Wrap, Dow Jones Newswires, Variety, Inc.com, Digit, Neowin, Newser, Deadline, The Information, Investor's Business Daily, The Indian Express, Implicator.ai, Techstrong.ai, Road to VR, and Quartz
X: @buccocapital, @stocksavvyshay, @wallstengine, @stocksavvyshay, @anjneymidha, @markpinc, and @highyieldharry. LinkedIn: Krystal Yoniak. Bluesky: @carnage4life. Threads: @carnage4life. Forums: r/LosAngeles
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
Adobe unveils Firefly AI Assistant, which can orchestrate and execute multistep tasks across Creative Cloud apps, available in public beta in the coming weeks — Last October, Adobe previewed a new assistant under the “Project Moonlight” moniker that could do tasks for you by tapping different Adobe apps … | Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google launches a Gemini Mac app, featuring a keyboard shortcut, screen sharing for better context, image generation with Nano Banana, and more — Gemini now has a native Mac app in the first expansion from Android and iOS. — This “native desktop experience” is launched via an Option + Space keyboard shortcut.
More: The Keyword, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, MacRumors, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, T3, Android Authority, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada, and TechRadar
X: @joshwoodward, @shishirshelke1, @stufflistings, @geminiapp, @sundarpichai, and @parkerortolani. Forums: r/Bard
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
More: ZDNET, Google Search, The Keyword, iPhone in Canada, iClarified, MobileSyrup, Neowin, PCMag, Pureinfotech, Moneycontrol, Engadget, Phandroid, Digital Trends, PCWorld, Android Authority, XDA Developers, Neowin, The Verge, The Economic Times, Thurrott, iPhone in Canada, and Wired
X: @zachtratar, @omooretweets, and @rajanpatel
| Rachel Scharf / Billboard: |
A US judge issues a $322.2M judgment against pirate library Anna's Archive for scraping Spotify, a largely symbolic victory as the site is anonymously operated — At least for now, the court judgment is largely a symbolic victory, as no one has identified the anonymous internet users behind Anna's Archive.
More: TorrentFreak, Dexerto, and Music Business Worldwide
| Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: |
ASML reports Q1 net sales of €8.8B, above €8.5B est., a €2.8B net profit, above €2.5B est., and raises its 2026 net sales forecast from €34B-€39B to €36B-€40B — ASML stock fell 6% on Wednesday despite raising its sales forecast for 2026 and beating first-quarter revenue and profit expectations.| David McCabe / New York Times: |
WPP, Dentsu, and Publicis settle with the FTC over claims they colluded on misinformation policies that denied ad revenue to conservative publishers — WPP, Dentsu and Publicis settled claims they colluded on policies to combat misinformation, denying ad revenue to publishers on the right.| Gian Volpicelli / Bloomberg: |
The EU unveils an open-source age verification app, which requires showing ID, to shield kids from harmful content, setting the standard for verification tech — The European Union has unveiled an app to confirm users' age online, setting the standard for verification technology …
More: Politico, The Next Web, Agence France-Presse, Reclaim The Net, Reuters, European Commission, CNET, RTÉ, and Mashable
X: @vonderleyen, @vonderleyen, @wallstreetmav, @skylermzx, @tutaprivacy, and @f4micom
| Steven Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNET: |
Cal.com, which provides scheduling software, is moving its core open-source codebase to a closed repository, citing the dangers of AI hacking its open code — ZDNET's key takeaways — Cal is reluctantly moving away from open source for security. — This move isn't about Mythos, but risks from modern AI tools.
More: The New Stack and Implicator.ai
X: @migueldeicaza, @mjackson, @pumfleet, @johnonolan, @steipete, @xlr8harder, @simonw, and @mitsuhiko
| Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch: |
Spotify launches a feature to buy physical books in the US and UK, powered by Bookshop.org, and expands its Page Match scanning tool to support 30+ languages — In February, Spotify made an exciting (and a bit unusual) move when it entered the world of physical book sales.
More: Spotify, Engadget, Android Police, Android Central, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Good e-Reader, Thurrott, Mashable, PCMag, BOOK RIOT, and Android Authority. Forums: r/books
| Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg: |
Tel Aviv-based eToro agrees to acquire crypto wallet provider Zengo, a source says for ~$70M, mostly in cash; Zengo lets traders swap between tokens and fiat — EToro Group Ltd. has agreed to acquire Zengo, a crypto wallet provider, as the trading and investment platform expands its reach into decentralized finance.
More: eToro, Decrypt, FinSMEs, DL News, Blockchain.News, The Block, The Crypto Times, CoinDesk, Cryip, The Hans India, CTech, Crypto Briefing, Cointelegraph, and Blockonomi
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Apple endorses the ~$11.6B Amazon-Globalstar deal, noting that it has a “proven track record” with Amazon infrastructure; Apple holds a ~20% stake in Globalstar — Amazon.com Inc.'s takeover of Globalstar Inc. is poised to benefit one of the company's biggest rivals in hardware devices: Apple Inc.
More: Amazon, Financial Times, Fortune, Implicator.ai, Blockonomi, Silicon Republic, CNBC, The Next Web, and The Information
X: @tmfassociates and @markgurman
| Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg: |
The European Commission issues a supplementary statement of objections threatening Meta with an interim ban on WhatsApp policies that allegedly block AI rivals — Meta Platforms Inc. has been threatened with an interim European Union ban on policies that allegedly block rival AI firms …
More: The Economic Times, Associated Press, European Commission, and Reuters
| Google DeepMind: |
Google DeepMind introduces Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6, a model for robots that it says shows significant spatial and physical reasoning improvements over ER 1.5 — For robots to be truly helpful in our daily lives and industries, they must do more than follow instructions, they must reason about the physical world.| Rebecca Torrence / Bloomberg: |
Accel raised $5B, including a $4B Leaders fund, focused on writing large checks to late-stage startups globally, and a $650M sidecar fund, taking AUM to $36B — Accel, the venture capital firm that's backed artificial intelligence companies including Anthropic, Cursor and Perplexity …
More: TechCrunch, Entrackr, Benzinga, The Next Web, Investing.com, The Mac Observer, and Accel
| Pew Research Center: |
A survey of US teens: ~90% say entertainment is a reason they use TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat, 57% Snapchat message daily, and 37% say TikTok impacts sleep — Teens largely turn to TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat for fun and connection. But experiences around messaging, screen time and cyberbullying vary.
More: Engadget, iPhone in Canada, MediaPost, Business Insider, Pew Research Center, and Mashable
| Madison Mills / Axios: |
Hilbert, whose AI software connects data across teams to help companies make decisions from a single system, raised a $28M Series A led by a16z — Hilbert, an AI startup rethinking how companies drive growth, raised a $28 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, the startup told Axios exclusively.| Dwarkesh Patel / Dwarkesh Podcast: |
Q&A with Jensen Huang on Nvidia's supply chain moat, competition from ASICs like Google's TPU, investing in AI labs and neoclouds, selling to China, and more — “If our next several years are a trillion dollars in scale, we have the supply chain to do it”| Natalie Breymeyer / Axios: |
London-based Gizmo, which uses AI to turn young students' notes into gamified study materials, raised a $22M Series A led by Shine Capital and reports 13M users — Gizmo, an AI educational platform, raised a $22 million Series A, CEO Petros Christodoulou tells Axios exclusively.| IDC: |
Global smartphone shipments fell 4.1% YoY in Q1, the first drop since mid 2023, amid memory constraints; only Samsung and Apple grew shipments, at 3.6% and 3.3% — Limited memory supply and record high memory prices increase pressure on smartphone OEMs to reduce shipments and increase prices that dampen demand.
More: 9to5Mac, The Mac Observer, iPhone in Canada, Thurrott, PhoneArena, Fierce Network, and Bloomberg
| Matthias Bastian / The Decoder: |
Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS, a text-to-speech model with support for over 70 languages and audio tags that give developers granular speech control — The company says it's the most natural and expressive voice output it has shipped to date. The big new feature is audio tags … | Molly Taft / Wired: |
The US Energy Information Administration plans to implement a mandatory nationwide survey of data centers focused on their energy use — In a letter obtained by WIRED, the Energy Information Administration tells two senators that it plans to develop a mandatory assessment of data centers' energy use.
More: TechCrunch. X: @andymasley, @andymasley, and @mollytaft
Bluesky: @mrsdeborahlynn and @timmarchman
| Bloomberg: |
Filings: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz donated $25M to pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, bringing the group's total cash on hand to over $51M — Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz poured $25 million into a pro-artificial intelligence super political action committee … | Matt Burgess / Wired: |
A look at publicly reported incidents of deepfake sexual abuse that have impacted more than 600 students at 90 schools around the world since 2023 — An analysis by WIRED and Indicator found nearly 90 schools and 600 students around the world impacted by AI-generated deepfake nude images—and the problem shows no signs of going away.
More: Indicator. LinkedIn: Dr. Rebecca Portnoff. Bluesky: @mantzarlis.com, @dell, @lutzfernandez, @mantzarlis.com, @mantzarlis.com, @davidgilbert, @ryanlcooper.com, @couts, @mantzarlis.com, @timmarchman, @mattburgess1, and @katie-drummond
Forums: Hacker News, r/UnderReportedNews, r/WomenInNews, r/TrueReddit, and r/Feminism
| Tim Fernholz / TechCrunch: |
AI cloud infrastructure company Parasail raised a $32M Series A led by Touring Capital and Kindred Ventures, bringing its total funding to $42M — “Give me tokens. Just give me tokens. I want them fast. I want them cheap. I want them now." — That's the mantra for developers building software … | David Ingram / NBC News: |
Letter to Senators in January: Apple said it told X it may remove Grok from the App Store for not stopping the app from generating nude and sexualized deepfakes — In a letter to senators sent in January, Apple detailed how it responded to Grok's ability to generate sexualized deepfakes.
More: AppleInsider, PCMag, New York Post, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Business Today, iDrop News, The Verge, The Independent, The Indian Express, and The Mac Observer
Forums: Hacker News, r/apple, and MacRumors Forums
| Sharon Goldman / Fortune: |
Artemis, which aims to replace rule-based cybersecurity systems with an AI-driven centralized “brain”, emerges from stealth with a $70M Series A led by Felicis — Artemis, a new cybersecurity startup trying to help defenders fight AI-powered attacks with AI, emerged from stealth today … | Juro Osawa / The Information: |
ByteDance launches its Seedance 2.0 video model to enterprise clients in 100+ countries, excluding the US amid legal disputes, after a February launch in China — ByteDance's cloud computing unit has made the company's Seedance 2. AI video generation model available globally to enterprise customers …
More: Hello China Tech
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