|
April 15, 2026, 4:10 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| 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, CNN, TechCrunch, On my Om, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, DatacenterDynamics, Straight Arrow News, NBC News, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Mercury News, The Verge, WPXI-TV, Washington Times, Fast Company, Constellation Research, Engadget, UPI, Yahoo Finance, WNYW-TV, Benzinga, Pulse 2.0, CBS News, Barchart.com, Bloomberg, The Daily Wire, PYMNTS.com, SFist, The Shortcut, Proactive, WWD, SFGATE, PC Gamer, Forbes, Barron's Online, Wired, ZeroHedge News, Aftermath, Newser, Sherwood News, Decrypt, CoinDesk, The Information, Crypto Briefing, and Kotaku
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, Scott Newton, Ehsan Etezad, Craig Reishus, and Teresa Mastrangelo
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 …, Business Insider, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Sources, BBC, Engadget, Breitbart, The Verge, Yahoo Finance, PCMag, iPhone in Canada, CNBC, Mashable, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New York Post, Fast Company, GB News, The Next Web, Proactive, Allwork.Space, Associated Press, The Independent, 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, and TechCrunch
X: @buccocapital, @stocksavvyshay, @wallstengine, @stocksavvyshay, @anjneymidha, @markpinc, and @highyieldharry. LinkedIn: Krystal Yoniak. Bluesky: @carnage4life. Threads: @carnage4life. Forums: r/LosAngeles
| NBC News: |
A jury finds that Live Nation and Ticketmaster illegally maintained monopoly power in the ticketing market, in a case brought by state AGs after the DOJ settled — The federal government struck a settlement with Live Nation in March, requiring Ticketmaster to divest up to 13 amphitheaters …
More: The Verge, New York Times, Associated Press, The Hill, Axios, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC, Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard, Business Insider, CNN, Forbes, Consequence, Courthouse News Service, and Deadline
Forums: r/JusticeServed, r/law, and r/Music
| 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, 9to5Mac, Thurrott, T3, Android Authority, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada, and TechRadar
X: @joshwoodward, @geminiapp, @shishirshelke1, @sundarpichai, @parkerortolani, and @stufflistings. Forums: r/Bard
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
More: Google Search, ZDNET, The Keyword, Ars Technica, The Deep View, 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.
More: Bloomberg, ASML, Yahoo Finance, Motley Fool, Watcher Guru, Benzinga, Implicator.ai, Reuters, Quartz, Proactive, Taipei Times, Silicon Republic, and Financial Times
| 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”| 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, Android Police, Engadget, Android Central, WeRSM, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Thurrott, Good e-Reader, Mashable, PCMag, BOOK RIOT, and Android Authority. Forums: r/books
| 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
| 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
| 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, FinSMEs, DL News, Decrypt, 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, Silicon Republic, Blockonomi, CNBC, The Next Web, and The Information
X: @tmfassociates and @markgurman
| 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, Pew Research Center, Business Insider, and Mashable
| 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, Benzinga, Pulse 2.0, The Next Web, Entrackr, Investing.com, The Mac Observer, and Accel
| 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.
More: SiliconANGLE and Interesting Engineering
| 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.
More: a16z
| Natalie Breymeyer / Axios: |
London-based Gizmo, which uses AI to turn 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, PhoneArena, Thurrott, 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 … | 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 … | 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 … | 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
| 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, 9to5Mac, New York Post, Business Today, iDrop News, The Verge, The Independent, The Indian Express, The Mac Observer, and MacRumors
Forums: Hacker News, r/apple, and MacRumors Forums
| 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
Sponsor Posts
ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs — You know us for voice. Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency. Hear it for yourself.
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs — You know us for voice. Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency. Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data — Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics. Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
World models need real-world data — Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics. Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Common mistakes to avoid when implementing an intranet — Implementing an intranet can improve communication and make information easier to access across your organization. But without the right approach …
Common mistakes to avoid when implementing an intranet — Implementing an intranet can improve communication and make information easier to access across your organization. But without the right approach …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
The Pentagon's AI Plan + Behind the Anthropic Fight — With Under Secretary of War Emil Michael
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Great Chat:
Developer marketing when everyone is a developer
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
The Social Radars:
Justin Kan, Cofounder, Twitch
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Cheeky Pint:
The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Invest Like the Best:
Scott Nolan - SpaceX, Founders Fund, and Rebuilding American Uranium Enrichment
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:10 PM ET, April 15, 2026.
The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.
From Mediagazer
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:David Folkenflik / NPR:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
Earlier Picks
| Financial Times: |
More: The Verge, Reuters, Tech Funding News, Jalopnik, Barron's Online, Sherwood News, and Barchart.com
| Ben Bergman / Business Insider: |
More: TechCrunch, The Next Web, Bloomberg, The American Bazaar, The Decoder, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, and Financial Times
X: @alexrkonrad and @nmasc_
| Laura Bratton / The Information: |
More: Benzinga and Business Insider
X: @cdpetty, @virtualmilin, @dwlz, @altcap, @clementdelangue, @ericvishria, @cto_junior, @chamath, @tunguz, and @anissagardizy8
Bluesky: @selectric.space and @edzitron.com
| Sean Hollister / The Verge: |
More: PCMag, Netgear, Cybersecurity Dive, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Quartz, Tom's Hardware, 9to5Mac, MakeUseOf, Tech Times, Digital Trends, and Engadget
Bluesky: @karlbode.com. Forums: Hacker News, r/politics, r/technology, r/DailyTechNewsShow, r/hardware, and r/technology