Techmeme
April 17, 2025, 9:15 PM

Top News

David McCabe / New York Times:
A US judge says Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in some online advertising tech, the second time in a year a court found Google acted illegally  —  The ruling was the second time in a year that a federal court had found that Google had acted illegally to maintain its dominance.
More: United States District Court E.D. Va., Reuters, Washington Post, MacRumors, TechCrunch, Axios, Computerworld, AppleInsider, Wired, Vox, CNN, OSnews, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, TWiT.tv, Search Engine Roundtable, KQED, Tubefilter, MediaPost, The Boston Globe, PhoneArena, ABA Journal, Wall Street Pit, Barron's Online, The Independent, Newser, Engadget, Patently Apple, SammyGuru, Watcher Guru, 9to5Google, Shacknews, Big Tech on Trial, Deadline, PYMNTS.com, Common Dreams, Silicon UK, Euractiv, MarTech, Gizmodo, State of California, Hindustan Times, The Hill, Skift, UPI, Search Engine Journal, The Western Journal, SFist, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, The Information, and Variety
Axios:
The DOJ and 17 US states that brought the antitrust case seek to force Google to sell off its “network” ad business, which is ~12% of Alphabet's total revenue  —  Google's dominance of the online advertising and ad-tech markets violates U.S. antitrust laws, a federal court ruled Thursday …
Bloomberg:
In her ruling, Judge Brinkema says Google did not meet the monopoly definition for tools used to buy display ads, but did for ad exchanges and website ad tools  —  Google illegally monopolized some online advertising technology markets, according to a federal judge, whose ruling marked …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix reports Q1 revenue up 12.5% YoY to $10.54B, vs. $10.51B est., net income of $2.89B, and stops reporting subscriber numbers on a quarterly basis  —  Netflix is no longer reporting number of subscribers on a quarterly basis.  But it's still motoring on a hot growth engine …
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Sources: the CFPB terminated more than 1,400 workers, leaving about 200 employees and effectively gutting the agency that Elon Musk previously said to “delete”  —  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated the positions of 1,400 of the agency's 1,700 employees …
Justin Ling / Wired:
New Jersey's AG sues Discord, alleging the platform's features to keep children under 13 safe from sexual predators and harmful content are inadequate  —  The New Jersey attorney general claims Discord's features to keep children under 13 safe from sexual predators and harmful content are inadequate.
Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica:
Google rolls out Gemini 2.5 Flash in preview, with support for Canvas for working on text or code; developers can disable thinking or set a token limit for it  —  Google's Gemini AI may have had a slow start, but it has been anything but in 2025.  Barely a week goes by that another model …
Washington Post:
Sources: Tim Cook spoke to the US Commerce Secretary last week about how tariffs could affect iPhone prices before Trump exempted products from Apple and others  —  Administration officials insist that no companies received special exemptions.  Trump said he “helped Tim Cook recently.”
Steve Dickson / Bloomberg:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google is offering its Google One AI Premium plan for free to US college students until spring 2026; students have until June 30, 2025, to sign up  —  That's more than a year of free access to Gemini tools.  —  Google is the latest AI service provider to court users in higher education.
Financial Times:
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrived in China on April 16 and visited Beijing on April 17, a source says to meet officials to discuss Trump's new chip export rules  —  Meetings with Chinese vice-premier and DeepSeek founder come after US clamps down on chipmaker's sales to China
Kyle Barr / Gizmodo:
Framework Laptop 13 review: it's modular and customizable, has a great keyboard and improved thermals, but it's pricey and the screen's brightness can be better  —  The Framework 13 now feels like a laptop that's more than a modular, repairable novelty.  It's now a device that's a joy to both build and use.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Instagram launches Blend, an invite-only, personalized Reels feed for users and their friends in a group chat with new content every day  —  Instagram on Thursday announced that it's rolling out Blend, a new feature that lets you create a custom, personalized reels feed for you and your friends.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple Intelligence features, such as Writing Tools, are no longer available in Meta's iOS apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Threads  —  Apple Intelligence was announced with iOS 18 and has been available since last October, when Apple released iOS 18.1 to the public.
Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:
TSMC reports Q1 net income up 60.3% YoY to $11.1B, beating estimates, as customers stockpiled chips anticipating global trade disruptions spurred by US tariffs  —  And it stuck with a capital spending projection of $38 billion to $42 billion for 2025.  TSMC's US stock rose 4.7% …

Sponsor 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.
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:
Building a more inclusive web experience: Our journey toward better accessibility  —  Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)Technology has the power to connect, empower, and transform lives, but only if it's built for all.
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

Hard Fork:
Ed Helms Answers Your Hard Questions
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.
Great Chat:
Are VC jobs truly AI Proof? (Marc thinks so)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(Bonus) World Cup Of Entrepreneurs Part 1
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Lenny's Podcast:
How Revolut trains world-class product managers: The "local CEO" model, raw intellect over experience, and a cultural obsession with building wow products | Dmitry Zlokazov (Head of Product)
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Qasar Younis from Applied Intuition
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:15 PM ET, April 17, 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

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Jakob McWhinney / Voice of San Diego:
Dan Shipper / Every: