Travis Kalanick kicks off another round of VC bashing: ‘1% are helpful’
After raising $1.7 billion for his new robotics company Atoms, Travis Kalanick is introspective about the role VCs have played in his career.
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Sources: TechCrunch, The Verge
Rillet raises $100M Series C at $1B valuation — 2 years after emerging from stealth
AI-native account startup Rillet became a unicorn, led by Iconiq, after it doubled its ARR in the past three months, it said.
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Gwyneth Paltrow allegedly set to throw dinner in honor of Sam Altman
The actress' firm Kinship Ventures is an investor in the company.
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Sennheiser’s new Momentum 5 earbuds feature easily replaceable batteries
Sennheiser announced the next version of its flagship wireless earbuds with a major redesign focusing on sustainability. The company claims the new design improves the Momentum True Wireless 5's "comfort, stability, and portability," but a more compelling reason to upgrade is…
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Gambling on the Little League World Series? Sports bettors have gone too far
Have we tried turning off society and turning it back on again?
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Nielsen is leaning more on wearables to hear what people are watching
In order to beef up its ability to accurately measure viewership data in the streaming era, Nielsen is moving forward with a plan to use more information gathered from its partners' wearable devices. Today, Nielsen announced "a number of key enhancements" that are being added to…
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AI was supposed to win people over by now — it hasn’t
As AI becomes harder to avoid, consumers are growing more wary of the technology — and Silicon Valley is discovering that widespread adoption doesn’t necessarily lead to acceptance.
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Google packs Search and Gemini with new AI study tools
The launch of the new study features marks Google's latest effort to make Gemini the AI assistant that students turn to when learning and studying, as it continues to compete with companies like OpenAI.
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Google Gemini is getting a dedicated student hub
As we're gearing up for back-to-school season, Google is rolling out a new dedicated student hub in Gemini. It's a one-stop repository for collecting research in a study notebook, creating flashcards, taking practice quizzes, and more. Google is also enhancing its study…
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Researchers say OpenAI revoked their access to limited cyber program
The idea behind OpenAI's Trusted Access for Cyber program is to give trusted defenders better models so they can report bugs and vulnerabilities to companies, with the aim of getting flaws patched faster.
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Watch Valve set up the Steam Frame in its own leaked videos
Valve just leaked several new videos showing the Steam Frame's unboxing, setup process, and various accessories. The videos apparently appeared on the ARM Steam client following an update, but they were "quickly pulled after that," according to the Steam Hardware Updates account…
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The wearable future is stuck in weird, experimental, existential limbo
This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here. For the past week, I've been testing the Google Pixel Watch 5.…
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Grab an iPad Air M4 for its lowest price since the June increase
Almost everything with high-end memory or storage is more expensive these days, and tablets are no exception, so we’re glad to see that Amazon and Best Buy have the most recent 11-inch iPad Air with the M4 chip on sale for $649. That’s $100 lower than the new retail price that…
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We reviewed the new Pixel lineup, ask us anything
The embargo has lifted on Google's Pixel 11 series, as well as for its Pixel Watch 5. Now we get to talk smack - just kidding, the new hardware is good. We have four reviews live on the site that you can peruse at your leisure. We're giving subscribers a chance to engage with us…
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Meet the startup helping Wall Street put a price on AI compute
The AI buildout shows no signs of slowing. And with hundreds of billions of dollars a year going into data centers and GPUs, compute has become the single biggest cost for anyone building AI products. But for all that spending, there…
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T-Mobile ‘chopped a cable’ to expel Chinese hackers from its network
The U.S. phone provider escaped a large-scale breach of its network after identifying Chinese-backed hackers early on.
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OpenAI hit the brakes. Now what?
With a looming IPO, intense competition from Anthropic, and Chinese and open-weight rivals nipping at its heels, OpenAI has plenty of reasons to move fast. Instead, it hit the brakes. On Tuesday, the company said it had slowed the pace of some AI development while it tightened…
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GTA VI keeps leaking ahead of its gameplay premiere
Clips of what appears to be Grand Theft Auto VI have hit the internet, possibly spoiling aspects of the game ahead of Rockstar Games' deep dive debuting on Netflix next week and its long-awaited launch in November. I've seen three clips seemingly showing off the game, though two…
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