Timef 05/14/2025

Pinterest has now publicly apologized for the wave of moderation issues that have swept across the social network over the past few weeks, leading to account bans and Pin removals that users said were unwarranted. In posts published to social media Tuesday, the company took responsibility for the issue, saying that an “internal error” led […]

U.S. lawmakers introduced Wednesday the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The bipartisan legislation – introduced by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), Aviation Subcommittee Chair Troy Nehls (R-TX), and Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) – would allow supersonic travel, provided no audible sonic boom […]

OpenAI is reportedly considering building data centers in the United Arab Emirates to greatly expand its Middle East footprint. A deal could be announced as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg. As Bloomberg notes, OpenAI has a long relationship with the UAE. In 2023, the company partnered with Abu Dhabi’s AI firm G42, which […]

A new system that combines Gemini’s coding abilities with an evolutionary approach  improves datacenter scheduling, chip design, and fine-tune large language models.

Google’s AI R&D lab, DeepMind says it has developed a new AI system to tackle problems with “machine-gradeable” solutions. In experiments, the system, called AlphaEvolve, could help optimize some of the infrastructure Google uses to train its AI models, DeepMind said. The company says it’s building a user interface for interacting with AlphaEvolve, and plans […]

TikTok announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its suite of accessibility tools by rolling out AI-generated ALT text for photos, a high contrast mode, and support for device-level bold text preferences. TikTok introduced support for ALT text for photos a few weeks ago, allowing creators to provide descriptive text for photos to help users with […]

Ride-hail and delivery giant Uber is introducing cheap, fixed-route rides along busy corridors during weekday commute hours in major U.S. cities – one solution to a world that feels, for most people, more expensive everyday.  Starting Wednesday, riders in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco will be able to save […]

Three years ago, I wrote about the Amazonification of Uber, an evolution of the transportation company into a closed business loop that feeds customers back into other Uber channels. At the time, the focus was on how Uber creates customer stickiness by, for example, actively cross-selling food delivery customers into grocery, and grocery into alcohol, […]

Two years after Warner Bros. Discovery rebranded its streaming service Max, the company is reverting back to its old name. The company announced the good news at its Upfront presentation on Wednesday.  This story is developing

Gemini, Google’s AI-powered chatbot, can now connect to GitHub — for users subscribed to the $20-per-month Gemini Advanced plan, that is. As of Wednesday, Gemini Advanced customers can directly add a public or private codebase on GitHub to Gemini to allow the chatbot to generate and explain code, debug existing code, and more. Users can […]

JackRabbit’s Pro generation of tiny ebikes is zippier, goes farther, and makes you popular with strangers.

The CyberGuy has advice to protect information from cybercriminals who are finding new ways to gain login credentials and full control of computers and bank accounts.

AI-powered notetaking app Granola is raising $43 million in funding at a $250 million valuation. It is also launching a team sharing feature.

As of May 14, you can pick up Eight Sleep's newest innovation in the Pod 5, which employs new AI-powered features for sleep tracking and temperature regulation.

The JetBlue "Book It Before It's Hot" sale has one-way flights for as low as $59

Enterprises want access to new software and AI tools but can’t risk sending their sensitive data out to a third-party software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. Tensor9 looks to help software companies land more enterprise customers by helping them deploy their software directly into a customer’s tech stack. Tensor9 converts a software vendor’s code into the format needed […]

Eargo’s latest hearing aids are lightweight and have great audio quality, but the high price doesn’t make sense in a tightly competitive market.

Data analytics platform Databricks said on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Neon, a startup building an open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres, for about $1 billion. Databricks said acquiring Neon’s tech would let it combine the startup’s serverless relational database management system with its own data intelligence services to let its customers […]

As of May 14, the Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS, 46mm) is on sale at Amazon for $359. It's usually listed for $429, so you're saving 16%.

This e-paper Android phone has a physical keyboard and will successfully get you off social media, if you can survive screen ghosting and an awful camera.

TensorWave, a data center provider building facilities primarily with AMD hardware, has raised $100 million as it seeks to further build out its data center infrastructure. The funding round was led by Magnetar and AMD Ventures, and brings the company’s total capital raised to $146.7 million, according to Crunchbase. Maverick Silicon, Nexus Venture Partners and […]

With the active ingredients in drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound no longer in shortage, access to medicine for millions who had come to rely on compounded versions is increasingly uncertain.

ZTE's new Nubia Z70S has achieved what Apple has (reportedly) long sought: A flawless display.

As of May 14, the iPad mini (128GB, WiFi, A17 Pro) is on sale at Amazon for $399.99. Usually it's listed for $499, so you're getting 20% off.

Microsoft is laying off three percent of its workforce, which amounts to around 6,000 people, according to a CNBC report.

Mirokaï the humanoid robot turns ordinary moments into memorable ones with advanced artificial intelligence, storytelling and a dash of charm.

Security researchers are publishing 1,000 email addresses they claim are linked to North Korean IT worker scams that infiltrated Western companies—along with photos of men allegedly involved in the schemes.

As of May 14, the roborock Q7 Max Robot Vacuum and Mop is on sale at Amazon for $159.99. Normally it's listed for $299.99, so you're saving 47%.

Save 25% on the Garmin Forerunner 955 at Amazon.

Students call it hypocritical. A senior at Northeastern University demanded her tuition back. But instructors say generative A.I. tools make them better at their jobs.

As the Soviet Union's Kosmos 482 took its last space laps, a German radar station spotted the uncrewed capsule passing over its antenna.

The Retropian handheld console has 10,000+ classic games pre-loaded, and it's only $80

We're more politically divided than ever, and this is affecting how singles date.

Enjoy better efficiency with the AOC 15.6" USB 3.0 Portable HD LED Monitor, now only $49.99 (reg. $124.99).

Take care of your online security with a limited time lifetime subscription to FastestVPN Pro Plan, now just $34.97 for coverage on 15 devices (reg. $600) through June 1

Save 16% on the Beats Fit Pro at Amazon.

Save 30% on the Waterpik Cordless Pulse at Amazon.

Answers to each clue for the May 14, 2025 edition of NYT's The Mini crossword puzzle.

Enjoy discounts on HP laptops, printers and more with these HP offer codes.

This Microsoft Office licence is discounted to only £22.56 through May 18. It has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more for Windows computers.

Hints and answers to today's Hurdle all in one place.

Free AI courses. Find the best free online AI courses in May 2025.

Connections: Sports Edition is a New York Times word game about finding common sports threads between words. How to solve the puzzle.

Connections is a New York Times word game that's all about finding the "common threads between words." How to solve the puzzle.

The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.

Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1425 on May 14 as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.

We’re excited to announce a big surprise for the AI community — TechCrunch Sessions: AI is getting a limited-time discount to broaden the number of people who can attend and learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry. For just $292, you can get a general admission ticket — plus a 50% discount […]

Google is testing a redesign of its Search homepage in which “AI Mode,” the experimental AI-powered search feature the company rolled out earlier in May, replaces its longstanding “I’m Feeling Lucky” button under the Search bar. A company spokesperson confirmed to The Verge, which was the first to report the change, that the feature began […]

At long last, digital consumer bank Chime has moved forward with its IPO by filing its S-1 paperwork Tuesday. Chime had reportedly filed confidential S-1 paperwork back in December. S-1 filings typically reveal all kinds of information, covering financial, legal, and other risk factors. But Chime’s S-1 documents still have a lot of blank spaces. […]

Airbnb announced a new app and numerous new offerings at a flashy media event in Los Angeles.

Google Find My Device rebrands as Find Hub to track people, devices, and luggage.

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework, as noted by watchdog group The Midas Project. xAI isn’t exactly known for its strong commitments to AI safety as it’s commonly understood. A recent report found that the company’s AI chatbot, Grok, would undress photos of women when […]

VPNSecure’s lifetime plan didn’t survive after new ownership took over. Now customers are hopping mad.

Will your phone support Android 16? The new mobile OS from Google will be available on many new and old phones from Samsung, Motorola, Pixel, and OnePlus.

The deal could be a way for OpenAI to gain a foothold among programmers, who are rapidly embracing A.I. technologies.

Shop home, tech, and beauty gifts for the lucky lady in your life.

Work-Bench, whose portfolio includes unicorns Spring Health and Socure, just raised a $160 million Fund IV to quadruple down on backing companies in New York City. The firm announced the raise in a blog post on Monday, saying the latest fund will support seed-stage founders building enterprise software. Checks will range from $2 million to […]

Yuga Labs, known as the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club and other notable NFTs, sold its iconic CryptoPunks to the nonprofit NODE Foundation, which focuses on preserving digital art. The deal details are undisclosed, and a representative declined to comment. Back in April, NODE announced it received a $25 million grant to “build the […]

Popular legal AI tool Harvey will now be using leading foundation models from Anthropic and Google, moving beyond strictly using OpenAI’s, Harvey announced in a blog post on Tuesday. This is noteworthy because Harvey is one of the OpenAI Startup Fund’s most successful early-backed portfolio companies. The OpenAI Startup Fund is an OpenAI-associated fund to […]

The landmark trial between WhatsApp and NSO Group unearthed several new revelations. We recap some of them here.

Here's everything that was announced at Google's Android Show I/O Edition 2025.

VPNSecure cancelled lifetime plans for customers who paid for the service years ago.

What's new with Android 16 vs. 15? With one week to go before Google I/O, here's what we've learned so far.

Fabled startup investor and accelerator Y Combinator has some choice words for Google in an amicus brief it just submitted in the U.S.’s monopoly case against the search giant. In the brief, YC charged that Google is a “monopolist” that has “stunted” the U.S. startup ecosystem by making VC firms like itself hesitate to fund […]

Amazon says it will work with Humain, the AI company recently launched by Saudi Arabia’s ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, to invest “$5 billion-plus” in a strategic partnership to build an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia. The AI Zone will include dedicated Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI infrastructure, servers, networks, and training and certification programs, according […]

At Google's Android event, the company announced Gemini integration with Wear OS, Google TV, and Android Auto in the coming months.

A new extra-secure mode for Android 16 will let at-risk users lock their devices down.

As part of a broader app update, Airbnb on Tuesday introduced a new feature that allows travelers to book services and experiences, like getting a massage, haircut, or chef-prepared meal, or taking part in some activity. These new offerings can be added to your stay, but they can also be booked independently, Airbnb says. For […]

CEO Brian Chesky is spending hundreds of millions to relaunch his travel company as an everything app. Fitness! Food! Microdermabrasion? A WIRED exclusive.

How to watch the Eurovision Song Content 2025 live and online (potentially for free).

At The Android Show on May 13, we got our first look at Material 3 Expressive. That's the nonsensical name for the new look coming to Pixel devices with Android 16.

Android 16 comes with a lot of Gemini updates, a more customizable look, and a new way to track your devices.

WizardLM, a Beijing-based Microsoft AI research group, appears to have joined Tencent, the Chinese company that owns WeChat and blockbuster games like PUBG Mobile. In a post on X on Tuesday, Can Xu, a senior AI researcher who led a number of projects within WizardLM, said that he and the team left Microsoft to join […]

TikTok is launching its first image-to-video AI feature, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature is called “TikTok AI Alive” and allows users to turn static photos into videos within TikTok Stories. The feature is only accessible via TikTok’s Story Camera and uses AI to create short-form videos with “movement, atmospheric and creative effects,” […]

Influencer mom Meghety Foudoulian talks about building her online brand, finding her voice in motherhood, and how becoming a mom made her a bigger contributor at work.

Federal railroad regulators are in talks with Elon Musk’s tunneling firm, The Boring Company (TBC), over a multi-billion Amtrak project, according to The New York Times.  Citing sources familiar with the matter, the NYT reports that Federal Railroad Administration officials have spoken with TBC to learn whether the Musk-owned company could save the agency money […]

As serial entrepreneur Joel Milne founded, scaled, and then successfully sold mobile auto repair service startup RepairSmith to AutoNation, he was plagued by a persistent problem.  The automotive retail industry has a communication problem. And it’s an expensive one. Thousands of dealerships and mechanic shops — each one with an array of software systems — […]

Android users will have more ways to find their devices and other items, Google announced on Tuesday during the Android Show, a week before Google I/O 2025. The company says its Find My Device feature, which allows Android users to locate lost phones and other devices, will become known as “Find Hub,” as it rolls […]

During the Android Show leading up to Google I/O, Google on Tuesday offered a brief update on the adoption of the RCS (Rich Communication Services) protocol, an upgrade to SMS that offers high-resolution photos and videos, typing indicators, read receipts, improved group chat, and more. The company shared that the messaging standard now supports over […]

At the Android Show on Tuesday, ahead of Google I/O, Google announced new security and privacy features for Android. These new features include new protections for calls, screen sharing, messages, device access, and system-level permissions. With these features, Google aims to protect users from falling for a scam, keep their details secure in case a […]

At the Android Show, ahead of Google I/O 2025, Google announced that it is adding new device-specific features to its Advanced Protection program, which is designed to protect public figures such as politicians or journalists from different digital threats, with the Android 16 release. The new features include a new way of storing device logs […]

Google on Tuesday unveiled its new Android design language, Material 3 Expressive, at the Android Show ahead of Google I/O. The update is designed to make your phone more customizable and fluid, the tech giant says. Material 3 Expressive brings new springy animations that Google says will make your phone feel more fluid. For example, […]

During the Android Show on Tuesday, leading up to Google I/O, Google announced that it’s bringing Gemini to Wear OS smartwatches and Google TV. The announcement is part of Google’s plans to replace Google Assistant with Gemini across all of its devices and platforms. Tuesday’s announcement doesn’t come as a surprise, as users have been […]

Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to all cars that support Android Auto in the next few months, the company announced at its Android Show ahead of the company’s 2025 I/O developer conference. The company says adding Gemini functionality to Android Auto and, later this year, to cars that run Google’s built-in operating system, […]

Android’s “Scam Detection” protection in Google Messages will now be able to flag even more types of digital fraud.

Google teased all the new features coming to its mobile operating system ahead of next week’s I/O conference.

For a limited time, you can score Microsoft's latest and most advanced operating system, Windows 11 Pro, for only A$23 (reg. A$311).

At the Android Show, taking place ahead of Google I/O 2025, Google announced that it is adding new device-specific features to its Advanced Protection program, which is designed to protect public figures such as politicians and journalists from different digital threats, with the Android 16 release. The new features include a new way of storing […]

The Nespresso VertuoPlus in white is on sale for just $118.99 at Target. That's 30% in savings as of May 13.

Microsoft is about to trim its worldwide workforce by 3%, CNBC reports. The company had around 228,000 employees worldwide as of June, it says, meaning more than 6,500 could be affected by the cuts. It would be one of the company’s largest staff reductions since it cut 10,000 people in 2023. A Microsoft spokesperson told […]

Microsoft is about to trim its worldwide workforce by 3%, CNBC reports. The company had around 228,000 employees worldwide as of June, it says, meaning more than 6,500 could be affected by the cuts. It would be one of the company’s largest staff reductions since it cut 10,000 people in 2023. A Microsoft spokesperson told […]

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership […]

Don't use the internet without protection — AdGuard VPN makes it affordable, with a five-year subscription for just $39.97 ($359.40) through June 1.

The Anker Soundcore 2 portable Bluetooth speaker is on sale for $29.98 at Amazon, down from the normal price of $44.99. That's a 33% discount.

Right now, get the Samsung 49" Odyssey Curved Gaming Monitor on sale for $1,149.99 and save $650.

Russia’s war in Ukraine and President Donald Trump’s reluctance to support NATO allies has led to a boost in funding for European defense tech. And across industries, startups are leveraging the opportunity. One such company could be UK-based startup Vertical Aerospace, which is developing eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft mainly for air taxi […]

A new partnership between Apple and neurotech startup Synchron is working on brain implants for the disabled community that can be used to control devices with their minds.

As of May 13, pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and get $140 off the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro.

Slate went viral a couple of weeks ago. The reservations have piled up.

Apple Music is introducing a new “audio wellness” collection of songs called Sound Therapy. Designed in partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), the feature combines songs that subscribers already know with other sound waves that promote focusing, relaxing, or sleeping. Songs may include auditory beats or colored noise, sound waves where the intensity varies at […]

Apple Music is introducing a new “audio wellness” collection of songs called Sound Therapy. Designed in partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), the feature combines songs that subscribers already know with other sound waves that promote focusing, relaxing, and sleeping. Songs may include auditory beats or colored noise, sound waves where the intensity varies at […]

After a week or so of rumors, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) formally rescinded the Biden Administration’s Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule days before it was set to go into effect. The Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule, which was introduced by former president Joe Biden in January and set to come into force on May 15, […]

After a week or so of rumors, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) formally rescinded the Biden administration’s Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule days before it was set to go into effect. The Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule, which was introduced by former president Joe Biden in January and set to come into force on May 15, […]

House Republicans’ axe has fallen in places both expected and surprising.

Hasan Piker, one of the most popular left-wing political creators in the U.S., says he was detained and questioned at the Chicago O’Hare Airport upon returning to the U.S. after a trip to France. In a stream in which he addressed the experience, Piker claims that he was questioned about his views on Trump, Hamas, […]

Audible, Amazon’s audiobook service, announced on Tuesday that it’s partnering with select publishers to convert print and e-books into AI-narrated audiobooks. This initiative aims to quickly expand its catalog as it competes with Apple, Spotify, and others in the rapidly growing audiobook market. Audible is leveraging Amazon’s AI capabilities to assist publishers in producing audiobooks. […]

Grab the Soundcore Boom 2 outdoor Bluetooth speaker while it's on sale for $119.99 and save $20.

Amazon Pet Day is running from May 13 to 14, and features up to 30% off in savings on pet tech, toys, and more. Here are all the best deals we could find.

Save on the Blueair Blue Pure 211i Max air purifier at Amazon. Get this air purifier for $259.99 to save $90 and keep your seasonal allergies at bay.

Right now, the Samsung HW-B650/ZA 3.1 Channel Soundbar is on sale for $229.99 for a savings of $170 off, or 43%.