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March 19, 2025, 8:30 PM
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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 …
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
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.
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 …
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:
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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  —  Key Findings  — Introducing Paragon Solutions.  Paragon Solutions was founded in Israel in 2019 and sells spyware called Graphite.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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  —  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.
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  —  Also, its AI voice-in-your-ear helper has a new name and is headed for release. … It encompasses dev-focused automation tools …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:30 PM ET, March 19, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

Luc Cohen / Reuters:
A jury convicts two men, whom US prosecutors say are Russian mobsters, of involvement in an Iran-backed plot to kill US-based journalist Masih Alinejad

Reuters:
UK's CMA fines Sky, BT, IMG, ITV, and the BBC a combined £4M+ after they admitted “to breaking the law” by “colluding” on pay rates for freelancers

Katherine Hamilton / Wall Street Journal:
Activist investor David Hoffmann, who owns ~10% of Lee Enterprises after investing in October, proposes acquiring the company; $LEE rose ~18% on March 20

More News

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

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
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
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