Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
June 26, 2025, 8:25 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple overhauls EU App Store to comply with DMA: developers can push offers and alt payments, and the Core Technology Fee will be swapped for tiered commission  —  Apple has announced several major changes to its App Store guidelines in the European Union as part of its ongoing efforts to comply with the Digital Markets Act.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is in advanced talks to buy PlayAI, which uses AI to replicate voices for interfaces that are as “responsive as a conversation between two people”  —  Meta is expected to acquire the Palo Alto, California-based startup's technology and some of its employees …
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Source: Meta has hired highly influential OpenAI researcher Trapit Bansal to work on its AI reasoning models under the company's new AI superintelligence unit  —  Meta has hired a highly influential OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on its AI reasoning models under the company's …
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Meta has poached three researchers from OpenAI's Zurich office, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, for its superintelligence efforts
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Internal emails: ICE is using Mobile Fortify, an app that uses facial recognition and fingerprint scanning via phone cameras to identify people in the field  —  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a new mobile phone app that can identify someone based on their fingerprints …
Brian Merchant / Blood in the Machine:
Workers at Google, TikTok, Adobe, Dropbox, CrowdStrike, and other tech firms recount how managers used AI to justify firing them, speed up their work, and more  —  “What will AI mean for jobs?” may be the single most-asked question about the technology category that dominates Silicon Valley, pop culture, and our politics.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Sources: Uber is in talks with Travis Kalanick to help fund his acquisition of Pony.ai's US arm; Pony.ai has permits to operate robo taxis in the US and China  —  The ride-hailing company is in talks to help Mr. Kalanick, who was forced out in 2017, purchase an autonomous vehicles start-up as robot taxi service Waymo gains momentum.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall, a Google Ad Manager tool to help publishers generate revenue beyond ads, including via micropayments  —  Google's AI search features are killing traffic to publishers, so now the company is proposing a possible solution.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft plans to replace the Blue Screen of Death in Windows 11 with a simplified black screen “providing better information” in an update “later this summer”  —  Microsoft is saying hello to the Black Screen of Death error message instead.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Swift, a coding language developed by Apple, is working to add Android support; Android apps are generally coded in Kotlin  —  Apple usually doesn't give Android the time of day, but that's not stopping the company's Swift coding language from expanding over to Android app development.
Bloomberg:
Marc Benioff says “AI is doing 30% to 50% of the work at Salesforce”, like software engineering and customer service, and its AI product has hit ~93% accuracy  —  Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said his company has automated a significant chunk of work with AI …
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Kraken launches Krak, a payments app that lets users send funds P2P across 110 countries using 300+ assets, including crypto, stablecoins, and fiat currencies  —  The Krak app allows users to instantly transact across borders for almost no cost, while earning competitive rewards on their account balances.
Callan Quinn / Decrypt:
Kraken secures a MiCA license from the Central Bank of Ireland to offer crypto services across the EU, following Coinbase's approval in Luxembourg last week
Bloomberg:
Sources: Senate Parliamentarian raised concerns that the tax bill's ban on states from enforcing AI regulations may violate Senate rules, advising a rewrite  —  Republicans' latest attempt to use President Donald Trump's massive tax package to ban US states from enforcing artificial intelligence regulations …
The Information:
Sources: Instagram and TikTok are working on versions of their apps customized to run on TV screens, following YouTube's success in attracting a TV audience  —  Rejoice, couch potatoes.  TikTok and Instagram, following YouTube's lead, are working on ways to make it easier for viewers to watch videos from their apps on TV screens.
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
A look at The Browser Company's AI-first browser Dia, which merges AI models and hides that complexity for end users, pointing to the future of web browsing  —  About a week ago, I bit the bullet.  Reading the writing very clearly on the wall, I abandoned the Arc browser and jumped ship over to Dia …
Anthony Robledo / USA Today:
The Trump Organization replaces T1 Phone's “made in America” language on Trump Mobile's site with “brought to life right here in the USA” and “proudly American”  —  President Donald Trump's newly launched cellular service is defending its claims …
Muyao Shen / Bloomberg:
UAE-based Aqua 1 Foundation buys $100M worth of tokens from Trump's World Liberty Financial, becoming its largest individual investor ahead of Justin Sun  —  A little known crypto fund bought $100 million of World Liberty Financial Inc. tokens, the second Middle East-based investor to put money …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A federal judge rejects a joint motion by Ripple Labs and the US SEC to approve a reduced $50M fine to settle a lawsuit over XRP sales, and chastises both sides  —  A federal judge on Thursday rejected an unusual joint motion by Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: CoreWeave is in talks to acquire bitcoin miner Core Scientific, which has a market value of ~$3.7B; Core Scientific rejected CoreWeave's bid in 2024  —  A bid last year was rejected by Core Scientific as too low  —  CoreWeave is in talks to acquire Core Scientific …
Megan Morrone / Axios:
Anthropic releases preliminary results showing users who discuss emotional issues with Claude tend to grow more positive as conversations progress  —  People who talk to Anthropic's Claude chatbot about emotional issues tend to grow more positive as the conversation unfolds …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple execs have discussed starting a theatrical distribution unit; Warner Bros. is distributing the F1 movie and getting a share of box office revenue  —  Six years after getting into entertainment, Apple lags behind its rivals in streaming subscribers and mainstream appeal, despite lavish spending on A-list stars
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Creative Commons debuts CC Signals, a framework that lets dataset holders detail how machines can or cannot reuse their content, such as for training AI models  —  Nonprofit Creative Commons, which spearheaded the licensing movement that allows creators to share their works while retaining copyright, is now preparing for the AI era.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Reimagine your photos with a prompt  —  Our new native image generation and editing is state-of-the-art, and ranked #1 in the world.  Try it for free in the Gemini app.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI chips, robotics, stablecoins, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 50 topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
Capture attention with visual messaging: How to leverage MMS for sales  —  This is a guest blog by CRM Messaging.While SMS remains a reliable way to reach your audience directly, modern consumers expect more than just plain text.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Decoder with Nilay Patel:
 Sal Khan is hopeful that AI won't destroy education
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Grit:
 Airtable's AI Reboot with CEO Howie Liu
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
 How AI is reshaping the product role | Oji and Ezinne Udezue
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
 Google's Best Week Ever, AI's Rising Costs, Putin and Xi's Immortality Quest
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.
Hard Fork:
 A.I. School Is in Session: Two Takes on the Future of Education
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Social Radars:
 Founder Mode: Chris Best, Founder & CEO, Substack
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.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 PM ET, June 26, 2025.

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

Glenn Garner / Deadline:
After a USTA memo, ABC appeared to mute the audience booing President Trump before the US Open Men's Final on September 7, playing music over his appearance

Max Tani / Semafor:
Mehdi Hasan's Zeteo plans to launch a newsletter written from a progressive perspective this month, and has hired several political reporters from Rolling Stone

Ad Age:
Amazon VP of Global Video Advertising Krishan Bhatia is leaving; Bhatia joined Amazon in April 2024 after more than a decade as an ad sales leader at NBCU

More News

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
YouTube launches an AI Overviews-like carousel for searches related to shopping, places, and things to do in a specific place, for Premium users in the US
Bloomberg:
EU competition chief Teresa Ribera rejects claims DMA enforcement could be traded to avoid Trump's tariffs, and urges mutual respect for each side's regulations
BBC:
Aylo, which owns Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube, will add “government approved age assurance methods” in the UK by July 25 to comply with the Online Safety Act
Stephen Totilo / Game File:
Sony says its PlayStation Plus three-tier overhaul has “surpassed our expectations” and that the $160/year Premium tier has grown 18% in the past 12 months

Earlier Picks

Berber Jin / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Microsoft is pushing to remove the AGI clause from its OpenAI contract, which lets OpenAI limit Microsoft's access to its IP once its systems reach AGI
Amber Neely / AppleInsider:
US senators reintroduce the bipartisan Open App Markets Act to try to break Apple's and Google's app store dominance; the 2021 version never came up for a vote
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
A group of authors sue Microsoft in a NY federal court, claiming the company used nearly 200,000 pirated books without permission to train its Megatron AI model
Isaiah Poritz / Bloomberg Law:
A US judge rules that Meta's use of books to train Llama is protected by fair use but says his opinion is more a reflection of the plaintiffs' poor arguments
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Google launches Gemini CLI, an agentic AI tool that lets developers make natural language requests in terminals by connecting Gemini models to local codebases
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter