Made by Google this week Here’s everything we learned at Google’s biggest hardware event. Google unveiled its new Pixel 9 lineup of phones, including the $1,799 Pixel 9 Fold Pro. It also unveiled the new Pixel Buds Pro 2, which are infused with advanced AI-powered photo editing tools, Gemini AI. The company also announced Gemini Live, a conversational AI voice assistant that will compete with OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode, but it’s not the only one. There were a few issues with the live demo.
Epic Games Launches Competitive iOS App Store Launched in the European Union. It has launched with games like Fortnite, Rocket League, Sideswipe, and Fall Guys, and is working with developers to bring their games to the Epic Games Store in the future. Fortnite’s return to iOS comes more than four years after Apple first removed the game from the App Store, following years of legal battles and regulatory changes under the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
X released the Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini. This is a beta version with improved inference. The new Grok AI model can now generate images on X, but access is currently limited to the social network’s Premium and Premium+ users. However, Grok’s image generation feature does not appear to have any protections against creating images of politicians like similar products. Many users are taking advantage of this.
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tidings
The “Most Colossal Failure” award goes to: Crowdstrike Def Con's Pwnie Awards won the Most Epic Fail award, just weeks after a software update caused a worldwide IT meltdown. At least they showed good sportsmanship about it. Read more
Waymo puts driverless robotaxis on the highways: Waymo will begin testing fully autonomous robotaxis on freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area after receiving approval from California regulators to charge fees for self-driving cars on highways. Read more
20 years of competition with Google Maps: OpenStreetMap, a community-driven platform that provides maps so businesses and software developers can be less reliant on proprietary products like Google, just celebrated its 20th anniversary. Read more
Be as productive as you want: If you want to stay productive while staying away from the usual tech giants, we've rounded up some open-source alternatives to popular productivity apps like Calendly, Zoom, and Substack. Read more
The FBI is chasing the radar: The FBI has seized servers belonging to a ransomware and extortion gang called Radar (aka Dispossessor), a rare victory for the FBI, which has struggled to contain and curb the growing threat posed by ransomware. Read more
The score ends: The dating app for people with good or excellent credit shut down in early August, the company told TechCrunch. It was supposed to be a pop-up app, but interest from users was so strong that it lasted for six months before eventually shutting down. Read more
Apple Attacks Patreon: Apple has threatened to remove Patreon from the App Store if creators use unsupported third-party billing options instead of the in-app purchase system for Patreon subscriptions, or if the company disables transactions on iOS. Read more
California supports digital ID. Resident of California is set to begin supporting digital IDs in the coming months, which will allow the state to store driver’s licenses and state IDs in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet apps. Read more
More bad news for Byju's: India's top court has stayed a tribunal's decision that halted Byju's bankruptcy proceedings, a ruling that would have been favorable to U.S. creditors seeking to recover $1 billion from the once-popular but now-defunct education technology startup. Read more
Make money with Telegram: Telegram has announced new ways for creators to monetize their platform, including a monthly paid subscription service that allows users to access additional content from creators using the app's digital currency. Read more
This is just horrible to me: Palo Alto Networks is under fire for a recent trade show appearance that featured two women posing with lampshades on their heads. CEO Nikesh Arora apologized in a LinkedIn post, saying it “didn’t align with our values.” Read more
analyze
Will AI Change Art as We Know It? The latest AI models can make great demos, but will they really change the way people make movies and TV? A panel at SIGGRAPH explored the potential for generative AI and other systems to change the way media is made today. Filmmakers and VFX experts believe the utility of these tools could pave the way for movies in the short term, but in the long term, they could change the medium beyond recognition. Read more
Pour one into CrowdTangle: Journalists, researchers, and politicians are mourning the closure of CrowdTangle Meta, a tool used to track the spread of misinformation on Facebook and Instagram. Critics say alternative tools are less accessible and less functional, and many are questioning why such a useful tool would be removed just three months before a contentious U.S. election that is already under threat from AI and misinformation. Read more
