VLC crosses 7 billion downloads
In our world of expensive streaming platforms, the very free and offline VLC media player has crossed 7 billion downloads.
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Sources: TechCrunch, The Verge
Clipto uses AI to search terabytes of video and is now valued at $250M
The three-year-old startup says it reached $15 million in ARR and profitability before raising its latest $15 million round.
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Debian won’t ban AI code from its Linux distribution
Debian voted to allow developers to use AI tools in their contributions to the Linux distribution's "development, maintenance, [and] documentation." The new policy on AI acknowledges that "responsible" use of AI can improve developers' productivity, and goes on to say,…
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Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are back down to their lowest price
Sony is one of many companies offering Labor Day discounts on tech products, though its week-long sale on the last-gen WH-1000XM5 is one of the most attractive deals I found upon logging in this morning. The comfy over-ear headphones offer some of the best sound quality and…
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How AI could make it harder for governments to use hacking tools
AI is proving effective at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities. Some say this will make it harder for governments to use hacking tools and spyware and could reignite calls to backdoor devices.
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Nvidia’s $3.5B MediaTek bet reveals its plan for tackling Big Tech’s AI chip buildout
Nvidia invests $3.5 billion into Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek. The deal shows how Nvidia plans to stay essential to AI infrastructure as Big Tech begins to build its own AI chips.
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MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1 in Navigation after refusing to rename Lake Ontario
MapQuest is getting an unexpected boost from its decision to defy President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario.
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New York governor to 3D-printed gun leader: ‘tell Cody I will get ahead of him’
Cody Wilson, the creator of the first 3D-printed gun, announced a tool last week aimed at skirting a New York law that prevents 3D printers from making firearms - and taunting governor Kathy Hochul in the process. But Hochul isn't having it. In this week's episode of Decoder,…
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ChatGPT to face tougher regulation in the EU
OpenAI will soon be held accountable for mitigating risks related to ChatGPT's impact on minors, user mental health, and the spread of illegal content in the European Union. That's because ChatGPT is now considered a Very Large Online Search Engine under the EU's Digital…
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be ‘less evil’
Today, I’m talking with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and I’ll just warn you — this episode moves really fast. It’s an election year, after all, with a shocking amount of tech policy at stake, and Governor Hochul has taken strong positions on almost every major tech issue…
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Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human
Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot. It's also renaming the "AI creator" label to "AI-generated profile" to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that's not a real human…
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Meeting note-taker Circleback adds a free tier to attract more customers
Circleback is also introducing new pricing plans starting from $14 per month.
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The US is building barriers around drones and robots, but China has scale to get around them
The U.S. is shutting out more foreign-made drones and robots. China’s scale means the global competition may simply move elsewhere.
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Grindr wants to be the everything app for gay men; investors are still deciding whether it can pull it off
George Arison is done letting Wall Street's "Grindr discount" go unchallenged — in a wide-ranging Q&A, the CEO walks us through how AI, a controversial $350-plus EDGE tier, and a bet on healthcare and long-distance matchmaking are turning Grindr into the "gayborhood in your…
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Professor Murder Rides the Subway is a forgotten slice of dance punk perfection
I recently dug out my CDs and started reripping them all. I've found a few forgotten gems in there, but few hit harder for me than the beautifully concise Professor Murder Rides the Subway EP. There was a period of time in the mid-aughts in NYC where it seemed like every indie…
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Enormous 12TB Steam leak includes abandoned Half-Life 2: Episode 3 assets
Over 12 terabytes of data, containing builds of every game uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013, has been leaked. We don't know everything in the archives yet because of its massive size. But people have already dug up assets related to the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3,…
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Liux’s Big microcar bets on sustainability to take on Chinese rivals
The Liux Big microcar is made in Spain. The startup thinks it can compete in a crowded market with its tiny electric car built around sustainability.
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Musk’s faster path to more gas turbines comes with pollution problem
Elon Musk says a secretive new SpaceX foundry will let him cast his own turbine blades and get gas power online 18 months faster than anyone else — but it's a bet on a fuel source that's already triggering lawsuits and health studies everywhere his (and others') turbines have…
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