Techmeme
January 22, 2025, 4:40 PM

Top News

Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Samsung announces the $800 Galaxy S25 with a 6.2" screen and the $1K 6.7" Galaxy S25 Plus, with 12GB of RAM, Snapdragon 8 Elite, “Qi2 Ready”, and more  —  If the Galaxy S24 series heralded the triumphant arrival of Galaxy AI, then the S25 and S25 Plus may be a bit of a comedown …
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Samsung unveils the $1.3K Galaxy S25 Ultra with a 6.9" QHD+ AMOLED screen, up from 6.8", 50MP sensor for the ultra-wide camera, a small S Pen downgrade, more  —  Samsung's latest fad is the introduction of AI agents.  —  Senior Writer, Reviews  —  Last year Samsung embraced artificial intelligence …
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
A live blog of Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025, where Samsung announced the Galaxy S25 lineup, new Galaxy AI features, and more  —  We're expecting the first major Android flagships of the year in the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra.  —  The start of Samsung's Samsung Unpacked event is imminent …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Samsung teases the Galaxy S25 Edge; an exec says it aims to sell the ultra-thin phone in the US and other markets by the middle of 2025, priced under $1,300  —  Samsung Electronics Co. plans to launch an ultrathin version of its Galaxy S25 phone in the first half of this year, beating Apple Inc. to a promising new category.
Samsung on YouTube:
A recording of Samsung Galaxy Unpacked January 2025  —  #GalaxyUnpacked is now LIVE.  Join us.  #GalaxyAI #SamsungWatch our ASL stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/QhhG6Q- XWFMTo view the YouTube streams on a deskto...
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Google's Gemini will be the default on-device assistant for the new Galaxy S25 series, and gets the ability to work across multiple apps in a single prompt  —  Google's AI assistant Gemini is now able to carry out tasks across multiple apps in a single interaction, in an update announced today alongside …
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
A look at The Stargate Project: lots of unanswered questions, PR wins, SoftBank only has ~$30B in cash, many projects are old, and Musk trolled the announcement  —  If John ‘Hannibal’ Smith loves it when a plan comes together, I love it when a plan comes together hastily.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
David DiMolfetta / Defense One:
Sources: Trump administration dismissed the members of CSRB, which investigates major cybersecurity incidents, likely disrupting the Salt Typhoon hacks probe  —  The Department of Homeland Security advisory committee was investigating a Chinese hack into U.S. telecommunications.
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Insomniac Games founder and CEO Ted Price plans to step down from the Sony-owned studio after 30+ years; a trio of Insomniac veterans will serve as co-heads  —  Taking over for Price, who will be staying with the PlayStation Studio through March, are a trio of Insomniac vets who will serve …
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Source: OpenAI plans to release a new ChatGPT feature called Operator this week to automate complex tasks typically done via a web browser  —  OpenAI is preparing to release a new ChatGPT feature this week that will automate complex tasks typically done through the Web browser …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
YouTube adds experimental features for Premium users, including higher audio bitrate of up to 256kbps for music videos and faster playback on mobile  —  YouTube said Wednesday that it is adding new experimental features for Premium users, including high-quality audio, faster playback speed option on mobile …
Financial Times:
Sources: Google is investing $1B+ more in Anthropic, which is also nearing a further $2B round from Silicon Valley VCs led by Lightspeed at a ~$60B valuation  —  Artificial intelligence group closes in on $60bn valuation  —  Google is making a fresh investment of more than $1bn into OpenAI rival Anthropic …
The Cloudflare Blog:
In 2024, Cloudflare's autonomous DDoS defense systems blocked ~21.3M DDoS attacks, up 53% YoY, and 420+ DDoS attacks in Q4 2024 exceeded 1Tbps, up 1,885% QoQ  —  Welcome to the 20th edition of the Cloudflare DDoS Threat Report, marking five years since our first report in 2020.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Samsung launches a kid-friendly mode for the Galaxy Watch 7, letting children call and text trusted contacts, and parents track kids via GPS  —  Samsung dropped some wearable news ahead of its Unpacked event later today: parents can now use the cellular Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 as a smartwatch for their kids.
New York Times:
Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, a crypto and libertarian cult hero serving a life sentence since 2015 on money laundering, drug charges, and more  —  Ross Ulbricht was serving a life sentence for creating a site in a shady corner of the internet to sell heroin, cocaine and other illicit substances.
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Google unveils classroom and accessibility ChromeOS features, and rolls out a tool that lets users control their computer with their head and facial expressions  —  Google is announcing a variety of classroom and accessibility-focused ChromeOS features today, and one of the standouts …
Washington Post:
Sources: a deep philosophical rift over how DOGE should operate spurred Vivek Ramaswamy's exit, with Donald Trump's January 20 EO embodying Elon Musk's vision  —  A deep philosophical rift between the two billionaire leaders of the “Department of Government Efficiency” left Musk to run the group.

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Earlier Picks

Danny Park / The Block:
Financial Times:
Financial Times:
Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: