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February 20, 2025, 10:30 AM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
Amazon plans to discontinue its app store for Android and its Coins digital currency, used to purchase games and apps, on August 20, 2025 — Amazon will discontinue its app store for Android on August 20 this year. The company sent a notice to developers indicating that they will no longer be able to submit new apps to the store.
More: Amazon, Thurrott, Android Police, Android Authority, and Verdict
| Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
Global Witness: ahead of German elections, TikTok's and X's For You feeds showed a substantial far-right bias; 78% of TikTok's recommendations supported the AfD — Recommendation algorithms operated by social media giants TikTok and X have shown evidence of substantial far-right political bias … | Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg: |
Palantir's stock fell 10% on February 19 after the WaPo reported US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to cut military spending; PLTR is up 50%+ in 2025 — - Spending shift would affect 8% of US defense spending — AI-focused Palantir has become major government contractor
More: Washington Post, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, CoinGape, Seeking Alpha, Watcher Guru, ZeroHedge News, CNBC, NDTV, and New York Post
| Nikkei Asia: |
Tokyo-based Sakana AI details its AI CUDA Engineer, which it says can speed up AI training and inference by 10x to 100x by “breeding” efficient instructions — TOKYO — Tokyo-based startup Sakana AI says it has developed a system capable of accelerating artificial intelligence development …
More: Sakana AI, pub.sakana.ai, Hugging Face, and Analytics India Magazine
| Ben Schoon / 9to5Google: |
Google is removing Gemini support from the main Google app on iOS, pushing users to download the standalone Gemini app that launched in November 2024 — Google is informing iOS users that it will be removing Gemini support from the main Google app as it pushes users over to the full Gemini app.| Adamya Sharma / Android Authority: |
More: The Keyword, MacStories, Search Engine Roundtable, 9to5Google, Tech Advisor, Digit, GSMArena.com, The Indian Express, Trusted Reviews, Android Central, The Verge, Android Headlines, Engadget, How-To Geek, MakeUseOf, Neowin, Thurrott, AppleInsider, Chrome Unboxed, The Irish Sun, Pocket-lint, Search Engine Land, Tom's Guide, Android Central, BGR, Cult of Mac, CNET, TechRadar, PCMag, Search Engine Journal, Android Police, PhoneArena, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, and TechCrunch
Mastodon: @glenngabe@mas.to. X: @googlechrome, @richontech, @google, and @newsfromgoogle. LinkedIn: Max Christoff
| Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: |
CISA and the FBI: attackers deploying Ghost ransomware breached victims from multiple industry sectors across 70+ countries, including critical infrastructure — CISA and the FBI said attackers deploying Ghost ransomware have breached victims from multiple industry sectors across over 70 countries … | Andy Chalk / PC Gamer: |
Valve releases a Team Fortress 2 SDK with the game's client and server code, letting users build new Team Fortress 2-based games licensed for non-commercial use — Valve has also released major updates to all Source-engine multiplayer games adding 64-bit support, scalable HUDS, “and a lot of other improvements.”
More: TF2 Official Blog, Ars Technica, Game Rant, TheGamer, Eurogamer.net, Neowin, GameSpot, OC3D, ReadWrite, Engadget, CyberInsider, Digital Trends, Destructoid, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, GamesRadar, TechSpot, 80 Level, and PC Games Insider
Bluesky: @steinmakesgames. X: @xradicald, @jonsyishere, @heyitscookie, @phisnom, @4g_b4nny, @micahtischler, @interneth0f, @ultr4nima, @ultr4nima, @ultr4nima, @skyminslash, @shoun1c, @teamfortress, and @steamdb
Forums: r/Chivalry2, r/gaming, r/pcmasterrace, r/Steam, and Slashdot
| Wired: |
Investigation: Google's Display & Video 360 ad platform lets users target Americans' sensitive personal data, despite Google's rules against such practices — Google enables marketers to target people with serious illnesses and crushing debt—against its policies—as well as the makers … | Pew Research Center: |
US survey: views of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk tilt negative; Democrats and Republicans view Zuckerberg unfavorably; Musk is polarizing along party lines — Americans' views of two prominent tech executives - Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg - tilt more negative than positive.
More: New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Poynter, TechSpot, PCMag, and Mediaite
Bluesky: @justinbaragona, @mims, @paularmstrongtbd, @kenlowery, @stevierea, @daveweigel, @ericcolumbus, and @stevierea
X: @johngramlich, @sr_lazarus, @johngramlich, @brianstelter, and @maxwelltani. Forums: r/EnoughMuskSpam
| Wes Davis / The Verge: |
Rabbit R1 maker Rabbit demos its “generalist Android agent”, showing it controlling apps on a tablet, building on its LAM Playground, a “generalist web agent” — Watch Rabbit's AI agent, but not the Rabbit R1, do things in Android apps.| Kate Rooney / CNBC: |
OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap says the company hit 400M weekly active users in February 2025, up from 300M in December 2024, and 2M paying enterprise customers — OpenAI appears to be growing quickly despite increasing competition. — The San Francisco-based tech company had 400 million weekly active users …
More: TechCrunch, Reuters, and Quartz
| Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg: |
AI hiring startup Mercor, founded by 21-year-old Thiel fellow Brendan Foody, raised $100M led by Felicis at a $2B valuation, up from $250M in September 2024 — - Mercor uses AI to help with hiring for employers and workers — Felicis, General Catalyst and Menlo backed $100 million deal
More: TechCrunch and CNBC
| Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: top X executives hinted to Interpublic and other ad firms that not spending on X could lead to legal woes, due to X's lawsuit against some advertisers — Interpublic recently signed an advertising agreement with the platform; other agencies are also in negotiations
More: TVNewsCheck. Bluesky: @wikisteff, @whetmoser.com, @chronotope.aramzs.xyz, @pppgrifter, @mediaevan, and @baymama
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Spotify will begin accepting AI-narrated audiobooks recorded using ElevenLabs software; Spotify already allows AI-recorded audiobooks, with several restrictions — A new ElevenLabs partnership aims to help authors bring AI-narrated audiobooks to Spotify listeners.
Mastodon: @mloxton@med-mastodon.com
| RT Watson / The Block: |
Nansen: 86% of traders lost $251M in total on the Solana memecoin Libra that Argentine President Milei promoted, while the remaining traders profited $180M — - Citing onchain data, Nansen Research said that through Tuesday, 86% of traders lost a total of $251 million on the LIBRA token … | Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: |
Nvidia launches Signs, a new AI platform to teach American Sign Language and create a validated dataset for sign language learners and ASL app developers — Nvidia has unveiled a new AI platform for teaching people how to use American Sign Language to help bridge communication gaps.| Kim Zetter / Wired: |
Source: 19-year-old Edward Coristine and Kyle Schutt, both DOGE engineers, are now on staff at the CISA; Coristine was briefly an intern for Neuralink — DOGE technologists Edward Coristine—the 19-year-old known online as “Big Balls”—and Kyle Schutt are now listed as staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
More: Nextgov/FCW. Bluesky: @couts and @kimzetter
X: @watermanreports and @erratarob
LinkedIn: Rick Barnes and Mikael Ekman
Forums: r/politics, r/craftofintelligence, and r/espionage
| Paayal Zaveri / Bloomberg: |
Together AI, which provides users access to AI computing, raised $305M co-led by General Catalyst and Saudi Arabia's Prosperity7 at a $3.3B valuation — Startup Together AI, which provides users access to artificial intelligence computing, has raised $305 million from investors in deal led … | Dominic Preston / The Verge: |
Oppo launches the Find N5, the world's thinnest foldable at 8.93mm closed and 4.21mm open, with IPX6, X8, and X9 ratings, in Europe and Asia for ~$1,870 — Oppo's Find N5 is the thinnest book-style foldable yet, and it's launching worldwide — but it's another foldable the US just won't get.
More: Tech Advisor, CNET, 9to5Google, Multicore, The Verge, The Verge, ZDNET, Android Authority, Android Police, T3, Engadget, TalkAndroid.com, Android Headlines, Gizchina.com, Mashable, Android Central, CNBC, PhoneArena, and GSMArena.com
X: @bencsin, @oppo, @alexmaxham, @bencsin, and @345triangle
| Jon Keegan / Sherwood News: |
Perplexity open sources R1 1776, a version of the DeepSeek R1 model that Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says was “post-trained to remove the China censorship” — But shortly after its release, attention turned to how compliant the model was with Chinese censorship laws.
More: Perplexity, WinBuzzer, TestingCatalog, Sherwood News, The Decoder, Moneycontrol, Neowin, and Analytics India Magazine
Bluesky: @edzitron.com. X: @bill_drexel, @localghost, @nathanbenaich, @perplexity_ai, @perplexity_ai, @perplexity_ai, @aravsrinivas, and @aravsrinivas. LinkedIn: Ipek Ceylan
| Reuters: |
The European Commission approves €920M in German state aid to Infineon to build a new chip plant in Dresden, set to reach full capacity in 2031 — The European Commission said on Thursday it had approved a 920 million euro German state aid to Infineon for the construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden.
More: European Commission, electrive.com, eeNews Europe, Seeking Alpha, and TechPowerUp
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Twitch plans to implement a 100-hour storage cap for Highlights and Uploads from April 19, automatically deleting content from streamers who exceed the limit — Streamers who have exceeded this limit will have their content automatically deleted until it meets the threshold.| Lawrence Bonk / Engadget: |
Twitch rolls out changes to its violation enforcement system, including letting minor infractions expire after 90 days and serious ones in one or two years — Depending on severity, this will take 90 days to two years. — Twitch has rolled out a number of changes to its violation enforcement system.
More: Twitch Safety Center, Dexerto, The Verge, Tech Times, Game Rant, Dexerto, and Dexerto
| Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg: |
Meta says Mark Zuckerberg went to the US Capitol on February 19 to lobby Senators on AI and talk about issues like US tech leadership — Zuckerberg met with senators one day after his personal charity announced it was ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
More: Cryptopolitan and Tech in Asia
| Sherry Qin / Wall Street Journal: |
Chinese game giant NetEase reports Q4 net profit up 33% YoY to ~$1.2B, above ~$1.05B est., and revenue down 1.4%, a sign its gaming business is turning around — The company's revenue fell 1.4% but was slightly better than analysts' expectations — Chinese videogame giant NetEase returned …
More: NetEase, Inc., Video Games Chronicle, Game Developer, and TechRaptor
| Alexander Saeedy / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: a US grand jury is investigating criminal misconduct at fintech Synapse, where up to $96M in user funds went missing, and has questioned an executive — Former executive testifies before New York grand jury investigating fraud and other possible feloniesSponsor Posts
Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation — UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation — UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Savoir for Zoho Books — App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools. Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
App Spotlight: Savoir for Zoho Books — App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools. Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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.
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.Featured Podcasts
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Apple's Coming For The Meta Ray-Bans
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