Techmeme

AI inference chip startup Etched raised $700M led by its new server rack customer Jane Street at a $21B valuation, up from $10.3B after raising $300M in July (Robbie Whelan/Wall Street Journal)
Sources: China orders some state-linked entities to uninstall a government-tailored version of Windows 10, ahead of its February 2027 retirement timeline (Bloomberg)
Google unveils Operation Blue Skies, a £5M trial to re-route North Atlantic aircraft to reduce contrail-induced warming using Google's AI atmospheric forecasts (Madeleine Cuff/New Scientist)
Baidu reports Q2 revenue down 2% YoY to ~$4.62B, below ~$4.69B est. and its fifth straight quarterly decline, and net income of ~$341M, as it lags AI rivals (Bloomberg)
Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.7 RC has references to unreleased products: a Home Hub, home accessories, new Beats, AirPods Pro 4, Apple Intelligence in China, and more (Juli Clover/MacRumors)
In filings, Apple acknowledges App Store regulatory changes are weighing on its $100B+ services business; US App Store spend fell 6% YoY in Q2, per Sensor Tower (Michael Acton/Financial Times)
Rogue Studio, which calls itself a "playground for creative ethical mischief", launches Rogue 1.0, an AI video tool to make adult content of Hollywood quality (Jason Parham/Wired)
Sources: AI-drafted bills are swamping the US House's Legislative Counsel, which now spends more time fixing them than it would spend to draft them from scratch (Owen Dahlkamp/Politico)
Discord suspends livestreams in Brazil, after the country's data protection authority ordered it last week, saying Discord failed to protect children and teens (Associated Press)
Sources: Google has told suppliers it plans to move all Pixel phone, smartwatch, and wireless earbud manufacturing out of China in 2027 amid US-China tensions (Lauly Li/Nikkei Asia)
A short video in Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate appears to show a man demoing camera-equipped AirPods using Visual Intelligence and Siri (Juli Clover/MacRumors)
Sources: Situational Awareness offered part of its $5B Anthropic stake at a 20% discount as it scrambled for cash; word of its trouble left it "being hunted" (Wall Street Journal)
David Sacks says "Dario Amodei believes frontier AI is too powerful to distribute; we believe it is too powerful to centralize" after Amodei shared policy ideas (David Sacks/@davidsacks)
Pornhub parent company Aylo agrees to pay $120M to settle two 2021 class action lawsuits in California and Alabama alleging it profited from CSAM (Samantha Cole/404 Media)
Sources: Crusoe is in IPO talks with at least four Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan, which is advising on its $3B pre-IPO fundraise set to value it at $35B (Alan Neuhauser/Axios)

Wired

The Cop Who Took On Flock
The Powerful Chinese Model Experts Warned About—and Waited for—Is Here
Best Merino Wool Clothing (2026): Base Layers, Hoodies, Jackets
SteelSeries Coupon Codes: 15% Off in August 2026
Noom Promo Codes: 50% Off Best Deals & Free Trials for August 2026
Hydrow Discount Code: Save Up to $150 | August 2026
1Password Coupon: Score a Free Trial in August 2026
Womanizer Coupons: Save 15% in August
Vivid Seats Promo Codes and Deals: Get 10% Off
Western Digital Promo Code: 15% Off
Logitech Promo Codes and Deals: Up to $100 Off
Ring Promo Code: 50% Off
What Is El Niño, and What Does It Mean for Weather, Water, and the Global Economy?
This R-Rated Film Studio Wants to Be the HBO of AI
7 Best Cheap Laptops to Buy in 2026 (and Some to Avoid)
CookUnity Prepared Meal Delivery Review (2026): Chef-Centric Meals
Skylight Buddy Review (2026): Kid Routines Just Got Easy
El Niño and Saharan Dust Silence Atlantic Hurricane Season
Election Officials Are Preparing for Prediction Markets to Sow Chaos in the Midterms
There’s a New Link Between Gut Health and Alzheimer’s Disease
Astronomers Discover the Existence of a Black Hole Star
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra Review: The Right Shape
It’s Never Too Early to Start Planning for the Next Two Solar Eclipses
Someone Finally Fixed Installing Apps on a Mac
TerraMow V1000 Review: Show Your Lawn Some Love
Inside the Experimental Traps Scientists Set for Ghostly Neutrinos
The Best Cat Water Fountains of 2026: Petlibro, Petkit, Oneisall
Retrospec Joe Rev 2 Review (2026): Putting the ‘Joy’ in Joyride
This Beautifully Weird Necklace Is Secretly a USB Drive
Instapaper, the Original Read-It-Later App, Just Got a Huge Upgrade
6 Best Apple Watch Accessories to Upgrade Your Watch (2026)
Auk Mini 2 Indoor Smart Garden Review: Better Where It Counts
Zyzz Was the Original Looksmaxxer. His Rise and Untimely Death Feel More Relevant Than Ever
5 Best Apple Watch Bands: Nike, Nomad, and Hermés (2026)
Puerto Rico Is Rationing Water. It Could’ve Avoided It by Harvesting Rainwater
Amazon Can Use Your Twitch Content to Train Its AI—Unless You Opt Out
Google Workspace Promo Codes: 14% Off for August 2026
New York City Lawmakers Push to ‘Ban the Scan’ at MSG
The Best Movies to Stream This Month (August 2026)
The Next Big Influencer Is This 4-Foot-Tall Robot From China
Tech Visionary Says the Big AI Labs Don’t Get What People Want
Best Wireless Chargers (2026): My Picks After Testing 100+
The 4 Best Planners of 2026: Roterunner, Hobonichi, Cloth & Paper
FTC Strikes Deals to Ignore Unlawful Credit Discrimination
These ‘Masturbation Consultants’ Were Hired to Pleasure Themselves With AI
Best Pixel 10 Cases and Accessories (2026): Mous, dbrand, Bellroy
I Wore an Electrical Muscle Stimulation Body Suit to Zap Myself Into Fitness
People Are ‘Marrying’ Chatbots. These Lawmakers Want to Stop Them
Inside WIRED’s Brain Week
Best Computer Monitors (2026): The Home Office Upgrade You Need

Engadget

Google is reportedly planning to move all Pixel production out of China
Apple appears to have leaked its camera-equipped AirPods
Why flash drive capacity keeps increasing (and why small drives are rarely sold today)
What are your retro game consoles worth?
YouTube public view counts will likely get higher starting next week
Reddit is experimenting with video and audio versions of posts
Sonos put speaker controls on your iPhone's lock screen (again)
Why curved TVs failed but curved gaming monitors thrived
Apple is forced to stop favoring its own apps in personal data collection prompts
Why 4K Blu-ray always beats 4K streaming for picture quality
Apple is reportedly expanding Apple Wallet IDs to four more states
Samsung might be making a new foldable that's even wider than the Galaxy Z Fold 8
ByteDance agrees to reel in its AI models to protect Hollywood IPs
If you're ignoring iPhone focus modes, you're missing out on Apple's best productivity tool
Uber aims for 1 million daily drone deliveries with Zipline partnership
Is an iPhone 15 still worth your money in 2026?
That Apple Screen Sharing bug has now been seen in the wild, so please update macOS
GitHub was down for most of the day
How to get the best audio out of your PC
Meta faces a $1.4 trillion reckoning in latest trial over social media addiction

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Cached on Atlas at August 18th 10:27 AM