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February 14, 2025, 2:00 PM
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| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Meta plans major investment in AI-powered humanoid robots, with an initial focus on household chores, and has formed a new team within Reality Labs — - Company is aiming to be the engine powering humanoid market — Ex-Cruise CEO Marc Whitten to run new group in Reality Labs
More: Reuters, The Verge, The Information, Quartz, Neowin, iPhone in Canada Blog, TweakTown, Digital Trends, and ZeroHedge News
X: @garymarcus, @scobleizer, @markgurman, @markgurman, and @markgurman
| Jason Koebler / 404 Media: |
The doge.gov website tracking Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government pulls from a database that anyone can edit, say two sources who found the vulnerability — The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database …
More: Ars Technica, The Verge, Techdirt, Wired, WinBuzzer, Engadget, PCMag, New Republic, Futurism, Mediaite, Fortune, Raw Story, Mashable, and Alternet.org
Bluesky: @karlbode.com, @josephcox, @lmatsakis, and @jasonkoebler.mastodon …
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Mastodon is working on a quote posts feature, which it says is a “source of concern” for some and “highly requested” by others — Mastodon, the decentralized alternative to X, is going to adopt a controversial feature from the platform formerly known as Twitter: quote posts.
More: Mastodon Blog
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Apple and Google restore TikTok to their US app stores after its January 18 removal, following Trump admin assurances that a ban won't immediately be enforced — - Companies had removed the app to abide by US legislation — Trump signed executive order to delay a potential ban
More: TikTok, NPR, TechCrunch, How-To Geek, HotHardware, PYMNTS.com, New York Times, 9to5Google, Reuters, PCMag, Android Police, Associated Press, Wired, Washington Post, Fast Company, The Wrap, San Diego Reader, Hollywood Life, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Headlines, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Mac, Daring Fireball, Politico, AzerNews, Forbes, NBC News, Entrepreneur, WinBuzzer, Axios, BGR, Ghacks, Marketing Dive, MarketWatch, Proactive, en.ain.ua, Silicon Republic, TechSpot, TechNode, Livemint, Mashable, MEDIANAMA, TipRanks Financial, BSS, Newser, Al Jazeera, MakeUseOf, RTTNews, Silicon UK, indy100, Fortune, CMU, Retail TouchPoints, Pocket-lint, Tech.co, UPI, MSPoweruser, KEYE, Gizchina.com, Tom's Guide, PocketGamer.biz, Techreport, International Business Times, MediaPost, Neowin, Fox Business, CNBC, Drapers, LBC, The National, Sky News, The News International, Nairametrics, Cult of Mac, Just The News, Times of India, Gulf Times, CBS News, Phone Scoop, Digital Music News, Sherwood News, Comic Book, The Independent, USA Today, Sharecafe, Reclaim The Net, Hypebot, Dexerto, The Boston Globe, BBC, Adweek, Financial Times, KTVU-TV, The Desk, Digital Trends, China.org.cn, Variety, Engadget, Appleosophy, 9News, Mobile World Live, AppleInsider, The Wrap, Business Insider, The Information, Anadolu Ajansı …, MacRumors, Deadline, ABC7, iClarified, KSLA-TV, and ABC News
X: @timsweeneyepic, @theapplehub, @trungtphan, @michaelsobolik, @alexeheath, @markgurman, and @markgurman. LinkedIn: Navah Hopkins
Forums: r/Android, r/google, r/technology, r/apple, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Apple plans to launch its AI features in China as early as May 2025, using its own on-device models and Alibaba software to censor or filter the output — - Company to use own models, with help from Alibaba and Baidu — Work includes system to censor or block content for government
More: Engadget, CNET, iDownloadBlog.com, The Independent, Neowin, MSPoweruser, MacRumors, PhoneArena, BGR, Sherwood News, AppleInsider, Mobile World Live, 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews, Tech in Asia, and Yahoo Finance
Forums: r/apple and MacRumors Forums
| Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: |
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg cozying up to President Trump has made employees uncertain and is part of an effort to shift antitrust scrutiny off Meta and onto Apple — Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2025 with an Instagram video that outlined his vision for what he called restoring “free expression” … | Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments; Instagram will not show a dislike count and dislikes may eventually count toward ranking comments — After users noticed a new button on Instagram to downvote or dislike comments, the company confirmed that it is testing a way for users …
More: The Verge, New York Post, Baller Alert, Daily Mail, and TechIssuesToday.com
| Lauren Feiner / The Verge: |
Sources: around 20 technologists at CFPB were fired on Thursday, gutting a team that specialized in understanding Big Tech's entrance into financial products — The terminations leave a gaping hole in the oversight of financial institutions and tech firms venturing into financial technology.| New York Times: |
Sources: banks sold ~$4.7B of X's debt on February 13, more than the $3B that they originally intended to sell, leaving ~$1B of X debt on their balance sheets — The social media company is attracting investor interest because of Elon Musk's close ties to President Trump and a recent jump in revenue.| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
The UK renames its AI Safety Institute to AI Security Institute, in a pivot to cybersecurity, and is exploring ways to use Anthropic's Claude in public services — The U.K. government wants to make a hard pivot into boosting its economy and industry with AI, and as part of that …
More: GOV.UK, GOV.UK, eWeek, Infosecurity, Tech Monitor, Fortune, Reuters, TechRadar, ITPro, Silicon Republic, Verdict, The Stack, AI Now Institute, Maginative, The Times, Bloomberg Law, The Independent, and UKTN
Bluesky: @ewaluger. Mastodon: @jonpsp@mstdn.social. LinkedIn: Thomas Reuner, Azeem Azhar, Ajit Jaokar, and Jeremy Kahn
Forums: r/singularity and Slashdot
| Scharon Harding / Ars Technica: |
In an AMA, Steve Huffman says Reddit is planning to roll out paid subreddits in 2025 and is “laying the foundation” to monetize commerce within subreddits — Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with “exclusive content or private areas” that Reddit users would pay to access.
Bluesky: @peopledied2vote. Forums: r/apple, r/business, r/technology, Beehaw, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum
| Bloomberg: |
Memo: Meta hires the former CEO of luxury goods marketplace The RealReal as its VP of Retail, as it seeks to boost Quest, Ray-Ban Meta, and AI wearables sales — - Company hires John Koryl as retail VP reporting to its CTO — Meta wants to improve retail experience for new AI wearables| Financial Times: |
The European Commission's digital chief, Henna Virkkunen, says the EU is reducing regulation to boost AI investments, not due to US Big Tech or Trump pressure — Henna Virkkunen says efforts to cut red tape are not prompted by US pressure — The EU is cutting back tech regulation …
More: TechCrunch, European Commission, European Commission, and Politico
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google's Gemini can now recall and “reference past chats for more tailored help”, rolling out in English for Advanced subscribers on the web and in the app — Google today is rolling out a new Gemini app feature for Advanced subscribers that can recall and “reference past chats for more tailored help.”| Reuters: |
Sources: the White House plans to renegotiate some Chips Act awards after changing current requirements, and has signaled delays to some upcoming disbursements — The White House is seeking to renegotiate U.S. CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements … | Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz: |
Ubisoft reports revenue for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, down 31.4% YoY to €990M, net booking down 34.8% to €944M, but remains optimistic about Q4 — Firm also experienced a 51.8% drop in net bookings during its third quarter — Ubisoft has released its financial results …
More: Game World Observer, Gameranx, PC Gamer, Reuters, 80 Level, and PC Games Insider
Forums: r/Games, r/PS5, r/pcgaming, r/gaming, r/RDCWorld, and r/pcgaming
| Brody Ford / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Dell nears a $5B deal to provide servers with Nvidia's GB200 chips for xAI's supercomputer project in Memphis — - Musk's AI startup developing supercomputer project in Memphis — Dell working to win large share of xAI's Memphis build-out — Dell Technologies Inc … | David Heaney / UploadVR: |
EssilorLuxottica says it has sold 2M+ Ray-Ban Meta glasses since their Q4 2023 launch, and plans to raise annual production capacity to 10M by the end of 2026 — Ray-Ban Meta glasses have sold 2 million units so far, and the annual production capacity is being increased to 10 million by the end of 2026.
More: Next Reality and Reuters
| Reuters: |
Sources: President Xi will chair a symposium on February 17 to boost private sector sentiment, with Tencent CEO Pony Ma and other tech executives set to attend — Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to chair a symposium to boost private sector sentiment next week that will be attended …
More: Agence France-Presse and Yahoo Finance
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