The controversial anonymous messaging app NGL, which was fined $5 million by the FTC and banned from minors, has been acquired. Its new owner is Mode Mobile, a startup that makes money by bombarding its users with advertisements.
Google has filed a lawsuit against data scraping company SerpApi. The suit alleges SerpApi bypassed Google’s SearchGuard protection by making hundreds of millions of automated queries appear to come from human users.
Starbucks has hired Amazon’s grocery technology and supply chain leader, Anand Varadarajan, as its new Chief Technology Officer. He starts January 19, 2025, as the coffee chain pushes a major restructuring and focuses on its digital order systems.
TikTok has finalized a deal to spin off its U.S. operations into a new joint venture. Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will each own 15%, with ByteDance retaining a 19.9% stake. The move aims to resolve longstanding national security concerns.
New data from Cloudflare reveals the most popular internet services of 2025. Google and Facebook remain on top, but generative AI tools are seeing meteoric growth. The year was also marked by significant outages and cyberattacks.
Google is expanding its AI detection tools in the Gemini app to include videos. The catch? It only works on videos created with its own SynthID watermarking system. This move highlights the fragmented battle against AI-generated content online.
OnePlus is pushing out the first software updates for its just-announced OnePlus 15R and OnePlus Pad Go 2. The updates bring a host of stability improvements, camera tweaks, and new features like enhanced video editing.
Researchers scanned over 2 million pre-print papers and found a surge in output after authors started using AI. But there’s a catch: those AI-polished papers are actually less likely to get published in peer-reviewed journals, despite their more complex language.
Google is rolling out a surprise second software update for Pixel phones this December, following the regular monthly patch. The small size suggests it’s a critical fix, while a separate engineer comment confirms a long-awaited “pocket mode” is coming soon.
The team behind the SBC OS Armbian has launched its own image flashing application. It’s a direct competitor to tools like Raspberry Pi Imager, but with a focus on flashing Armbian to over 300 different boards.
