Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Techmeme
March 19, 2025, 1:45 PM

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 …
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.
Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
A look at Nvidia's GTC 2025 announcements, including a focus on addressing pre-training and post-training scaling and inference time scaling working in tandem  —  The Reasoning Token Explosion  —  AI model progress has accelerated tremendously, and in the last six months, models have improved more than in the previous six months.
Tobias Mann / The Register:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Samsung plans to roll out its Android 15-based One UI 7 from April 7 on the Galaxy S24 series, Z Fold6, Z Flip6, and more, with a simpler UI and new AI features  —  Less than two weeks ago, Samsung said to expect One UI 7 next month, and the Android 15 update is now set for Monday, April 7.
Financial Times:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google updates Google Wallet to let kids with Android phones tap to pay in stores in the US, the UK, Australia, Spain, and Poland, with parental supervision  —  Google announced on Wednesday that kids with Android phones can now tap to pay at stores using Google Wallet in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Poland.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Current and former FTC staff say the FTC removed 300+ Biden-era business guidance blog posts, including info on AI consumer protection and its Big Tech lawsuits  —  Business-guidance content published during the Biden administration has been removed from the Federal Trade Commission website.
New York Times:
The Citizen Lab:
A look at Israeli spyware company Paragon, which makes Graphite: suspected deployments in Australia, Canada, Israel, and more, a WhatsApp zero-click, and more  —  Key Findings  — Introducing Paragon Solutions.  Paragon Solutions was founded in Israel in 2019 and sells spyware called Graphite.
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:
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+  —  Nvidia has acquired synthetic data startup Gretel to bolster the AI training data used by the chip maker's customers and developers.
More: UKTN
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  —  In a few weeks, Ted Sarandos will make his acting debut — playing Ted Sarandos.  The co-CEO of Netflix is lampooning himself …
Kamila Wojciechowska / Android Authority:
A source details how Google built the Pixel 10's Tensor G5 chip without Samsung's help, using in-house and off-the-shelf IP, and partnering with Arm and others  —  The Tensor G5 won't be all that different from the previous generations.  —  •  —  •  —  •  —  TL;DR
Counterpoint Research:
Global VR headset shipments fell 12% YoY in 2024, with Meta's market share hitting 77%; Vision Pro shipments fell 43% QoQ in Q4, but its enterprise sales grew  —  - Global VR headset shipments fell 12% YoY in 2024, marking their third consecutive year of declines due to the continued weak consumer demand.
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  —  Waymo is already notching 200,000 rides a week in cities across the U.S. No other self-driving car company comes close.
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 …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
6 Tips to Unlock Revenue with Transactional Emails  —  This is a guest post by Tabular.You might think of transactional emails as boring necessities, but the truth is, they're far more powerful than you realize.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Acquired:
The Steve Ballmer Interview
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
Subscribe to Acquired.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why Uber's CPO delivers food on weekends | Sachin Kansal
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Big Meta/Anduril Deal Is A Big Deal
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Social Radars:
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)
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.
Hard Fork:
The A.I. Jobpocalypse + Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger + Hard Fork Crimes Division
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 Logan Bartlett Show:
Rick Smith (CEO, Axon): The Wild Ride From Near-Bankruptcy to $50B+
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:45 PM ET, March 19, 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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Bloomberg: