Techmeme
February 26, 2025, 11:20 AM

Top News

Wes Davis / The Verge:
Amazon unveils Alexa+, a generative AI update trained to detect tone and mood, with vision capabilities, after first planning to “supercharge” Alexa in 2023  —  Arriving more than a year after it was first announced, Alexa is finally catching up to Google's Gemini.
The Verge:
A live blog of Amazon's Alexa event  —  Amazon's set to announce a big update to Alexa. … Amazon is set to announce new Alexa features beginning at 10AM ET this morning — and we hope a few devices accompany them.  There isn't a way to watch the event remotely, but our team is here in person …
Bloomberg:
Amazon's Panos Panay demoed Alexa+ in a flowing ongoing conversation and says it can book concert tickets, make restaurant reservations, and text a babysitter  —  Amazon.com Inc. has rebooted Alexa with artificial intelligence.  —  The rollout is the biggest overhaul of the voice-activated …
Hadriana Lowenkron / Bloomberg:
Trump says “Apple should get rid of DEI rules, not just make adjustments to them” in a Truth Social post, after Apple investors rejected a proposal to end DEI  —  - Investors turned down outside proposal to scrap DEI efforts  — Trump escalates campaign against diversity hiring practices
Andrew E. Freedman / Tom's Hardware:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
How the hackers behind the $1.5B Bybit crypto heist used UI manipulation of employee devices and social engineering to gain control of ETH multisig cold wallets  —  The cryptocurrency industry and those responsible for securing it are still in shock following Friday's heist, likely by North Korea …
Anissa Gardizy / The Information:
Sources: Meta is in talks to build a new data center campus for AI that could cost over $200B, based on the number of chips and the amount of power for the site  —  Meta Platforms is in talks to build a new data center campus for its artificial intelligence endeavors that would dwarf anything …
New York Times:
Jonathan Randles / Bloomberg:
Court records: FTX paid nearly $948M to 12+ firms working on its bankruptcy, one of the costliest Chapter 11 cases in US history; users are set to get back 118%  —  - Lack of records, corporate controls sent adviser fees higher  — Most creditors poised to get back 118% of what they were owed
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Valve's Steam Deck, launched in 2022, has been dominating the handheld PC gaming market, with about 50% market share in 2024, according to IDC  —  Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, MSI Claw: The Steam Deck is bigger than them combined. … Today is the third anniversary of Valve's Steam Deck …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
WBD closes three game studios and cancels a highly anticipated Wonder Woman title in a bid to boost the profitability of its interactive entertainment business  —  - Company halts work on highly anticipated Wonder Woman title  — Closures follow several disappointing releases last year
Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
After backlash, YC deletes a demo video from X and LinkedIn of Optifye.AI, a startup it backs that is building AI performance monitoring for factory workers  —  A demo from Optifye.AI, a member of Y Combinator's current cohort, sparked a social media backlash that ended up with YC deleting it off its socials.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube says it now has 1B+ monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide; users watched 400M+ hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices in 2024  —  Podcasts started as an audio-only phenomenon. … According to the Google-owned video giant, YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide.
Noah Shachtman / Wired:
A profile of Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian tech executive involved in a $93M insider trading scheme and released by the US in a 2024 prisoner swap with Russia  —  In the epic US-Russian prisoner swap last summer, Vladimir Putin brought home an assassin, spies, and another prized ally …

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More News

Wall Street Journal:
Ina Fried / Axios:

Earlier Picks

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Rick Whiting / CRN:
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk:
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Tom Warren / The Verge: