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March 20, 2025, 12:50 AM
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Top News

Barbara Moens / Financial Times:
The EU Commission orders Apple to open iOS to third-party connected devices, and in preliminary findings charges Google with breaking the DMA in search and apps  —  EU continues Big Tech crackdown under landmark Digital Markets Act  —  Brussels is pressing ahead with regulatory action …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google says more changes to Search in the EU would “reduce traffic to European businesses” and changes to the Play Store may expose users to “malware and fraud”  —  Google Search and its Play Store app marketplace are suspected of breaching the European Union's Digital Markets Act …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple says new EU interoperability rules “wrap us in red tape”, force “us to give away our new features for free”, and are “bad for our products” and users  —  In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple firmly rebuked the EU decision announced today …
Bloomberg:
SoftBank agrees to acquire Ampere Computing for $6.5B in cash, with Oracle and Carlyle selling their stakes as part of the deal, expected to close in H2 2025  —  SoftBank is buying Ampere in an all-cash transaction that values the Santa Clara, California-based firm at $6.5 billion, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google unveils the $499+ Pixel 9a, with no camera bump, a 48MP rear camera, a 6.3" display, a Tensor G4 chip, and IP68 water resistance, shipping in April 2025  —  Google is confirming what we learned from a slew of leaks. … Google just announced the Pixel 9A, surprising nobody because it's been leaked to all heck.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google says it is “checking on a component quality issue” for the Pixel 9a, delaying its release from March to sometime in April; pre-orders are not yet open
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Google Pixel 9a hands-on: an iPhone 16e rival with a 120Hz display and water drop-inspired camera bump, priced for $300 less than the Pixel 9 with few tradeoffs
Reuters:
Jensen Huang says Nvidia has not been approached about purchasing a stake in Intel, following a report about a consortium with TSMC to operate Intel's factories  —  Nvidia (NVDA.O) CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday that his company had not been approached about purchasing a stake in Intel (INTC.O).
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI launches o1-pro, which uses more compute than o1 for “consistently better responses”, to some devs for $150/1M input tokens and $600/1M output tokens  —  OpenAI has launched a more powerful version of its o1 “reasoning” AI model, o1-pro, in its developer API.
Rebekah Valentine / IGN:
A group of cross-discipline video game workers in the US and Canada announce a direct-join union called the United Videogame Workers, organizing with the CWA  —  The group unveiled itself at the Game Developers Conference this week.  —  Today, a group of cross-discipline video game workers …
Bloomberg:
Sources: X has raised close to $1B in new equity in a deal that gives the company an enterprise value of roughly $44B; Musk also participated in the raise  —  Elon Musk's social network X has raised close to $1 billion in new equity from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Verizon says its satellite messaging service is now available to owners of Pixel 9 and Galaxy S25 series phones at no extra charge  —  Texting via satellite comes to customers with recent Pixel and Galaxy phones starting today. … Verizon's previously announced satellite messaging service …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Plex is increasing Plex Pass prices for the first time in a decade and making remote playback for personal media a paid feature at $1.99/month or $19.99/year  —  Streaming service and software maker Plex is raising its prices.  The company announced on Wednesday its first price increase …
CoinDesk:
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the US SEC is set to drop its appeal in its case against Ripple, nearing the end of a legal battle over XRP ongoing since 2020  —  Earlier reports said that the long-standing legal battle between Ripple and the agency is nearing its end.  —  What to know:
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
A three-judge panel in US appeals court ruled, in a case involving AI generated poetry, that the Copyright Act requires human authorship for registration  —  A computer scientist who tried to register an artwork that credited an artificial intelligence system as the sole author lost his appeal on Tuesday.
Akash Sriram / Reuters:
BlackRock, Microsoft, and Abu Dhabi's MGX say Nvidia and xAI joined a consortium to build AI infrastructure in the US; investors committed $100B for deployment  —  Nvidia and Elon Musk's xAI have joined a consortium backed by Microsoft, investment fund MGX and BlackRock to expand AI infrastructure …
Hyunsoo Rim / Sherwood News:
Analysis: Etsy's stock, which peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, has lost its pandemic-era gains, while eBay's stock is up ~85% since January 2020  —  Tariffs are threatening global supply chains, but homemade and pre-loved goods could be insulated from the e-commerce chaos.  —  14H
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
AI startups Intology and Autoscience submitted AI-generated studies at a conference without disclosure and face criticism of co-opting peer review for publicity  —  There's a controversy brewing over “AI-generated” studies submitted to this year's ICLR, a long-running academic conference focused on AI.

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From Mediagazer

Matthew Belloni / @mattbelloni:
Sources: Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers are leaving Netflix for Paramount; the deciding factor was Paramount's support for theatrical releases

Free Press:
A coalition of press freedom groups urges Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to release Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara, detained by ICE for two months

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Memo: PBS is cutting its current budget by 21% and reducing dues paid by local stations by $35M to deal with Congress' decision to eliminate ~$500M in funding

More News

Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Razer launches Wyvrn, a service with tools for game developers, including AI QA Copilot, for game testing, and AI Gamer Copilot, for real-time tips and guides
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Sources: Nvidia acquires Gretel, which offers synthetic data tools, for more than its most recent $320M valuation; Pitchbook: Gretel had previously raised $67M+
Variety:
Q&A with Netflix's Ted Sarandos on his 25-year anniversary at Netflix, his cameo on Apple TV+ series The Studio, competing with suppliers like Disney, and more

Earlier Picks

The Citizen Lab:
A look at Israeli spyware company Paragon, which makes Graphite: suspected deployments in Australia, Canada, Israel, and others, a WhatsApp zero-click, and more
Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
A look at Nvidia's GTC 2025 announcements, including a focus on addressing the scaling of pre-training, post-training, and inference working in tandem
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
A look at Waymo's progress, from Alphabet's “moonshot” project to achieving commercial robotaxi deployment in three US cities in 2024, and its expansion plans
More: New York Post, ZeroHedge News, Jalopnik, and Axios
Bluesky: @davidzipper.  Mastodon: @harrymccracken@mastodon ….  Forums: r/waymo
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