Anika Begay
Made by Google was this week, with a full slate of reveals from Google’s biggest hardware event yet. Google unveiled its new Pixel 9 lineup of phones, including the $1,799 Pixel 9 Fold Pro; advanced AI-powered photo editing tools; and the new Pixel Buds Pro 2, which are infused with Gemini AI. The company also announced Gemini Live, a conversational AI voice assistant to rival OpenAI’s advanced voice mode, though the live demo had some hiccups.
Epic Games has launched its own rival iOS app store in the European Union. It will launch with games like Fortnite, Rocket League, Sideswipe, and Fall Guys, and is working with developers to launch their games on the Epic Games Store in the future. Fortnite’s return to iOS comes more than four years after Apple first removed the game from its App Store, years of legal battles, and regulatory changes brought on by the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
X launched Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini in beta with improved reasoning. Grok’s new AI model can now generate images on X, although access is currently limited to the social network’s Premium and Premium+ users. However, Grok’s image generation functionality does not appear to have any security barriers when it comes to creating images of political figures like similar products, and many users are taking advantage of it.
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News
The “most epic fail” award goes to…: Crowd strike received the Most Epic Fail award at Def Con’s Pwnie Awards, just weeks after its software update triggered a global computer meltdown. At least they were very good sports about it. Learn more
Waymo Takes Its Driverless Robotaxis to the Highway: Waymo will begin testing its fully autonomous robotaxis on San Francisco Bay Area highways after winning approval from California regulators to charge for autonomous rides on highways. Learn more
20 years of competition with Google Maps: OpenStreetMap is a community-driven platform that provides maps to businesses and software developers so they can rely less on proprietary products like Google. It just celebrated its 20th birthday. Learn more
Productivity your way: If you want to stay productive without giving up the usual Big Tech sleuthing, we’ve put together some open source alternatives to popular productivity apps like Calendly, Zoom, and Substack. Learn more
FBI is chasing Radar: The FBI has seized the servers of a ransomware and extortion gang called Radar (aka Dispossessor). It’s a rare victory for the FBI, which has struggled to contain and mitigate the growing ransomware threat. Learn more
The score goes out: The dating app for people with good or excellent credit shut down in early August, the company told TechCrunch. What was supposed to be a pop-up app received so much interest from users that it remained active for six months before finally shutting down. Learn more
Apple attacks Patreon: Apple threatened to remove Patreon from the App Store if creators used unsupported third-party billing options or disabled transactions on iOS, instead of using its in-app purchasing system for Patreon memberships. Learn more
California supports digital IDs: Residents of California will soon be able to store your driver’s license or state ID in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet apps as the state works to launch support for digital IDs in the coming months. Learn more
More bad news for Byju’s: India’s top court has stayed a court ruling that blocked Byju’s insolvency proceedings, a victory for U.S. creditors seeking to recover $1 billion from the once-popular, now-disgraced edtech startup. Learn more
Make money on Telegram: Telegram has announced new ways for creators to earn money on its platform, including paid monthly subscriptions that users can purchase using the app’s digital currency to gain access to a creator’s extra content. Learn more
This is a yikes from me: Palo Alto Networks is getting a lot of flak for a recent trade show where two women posed with lampshades on their heads. CEO Nikesh Arora apologized in a LinkedIn post, saying it wasn’t “consistent with our values.” Learn more
Analyses
Will Artificial Intelligence Change Art As We Know It? The latest AI models may produce great demos, but will they really change the way people make movies and TV shows? A panel at SIGGRAPH explored the potential of generative AI and other systems to change the way media is created today. While filmmakers and visual effects experts think the utility of these tools could pave the way for filmmaking in the short term, it could also change the medium beyond recognition in the long term. Learn more
Donate one to CrowdTangle: Journalists, researchers and politicians are mourning Meta’s shutdown of CrowdTangle, a tool used to track the spread of misinformation on Facebook and Instagram. Its replacement is less accessible and has fewer features, critics say, leading many to question why the company would kill the useful tool just three months before a contentious U.S. election that is already under threat from artificial intelligence and misinformation. Learn more
