Sunday, July 13, 2025

YouTube and Netflix are increasingly locked in a battle over TV in the US; Nielsen: YouTube accounted for 12.5% of all TV viewing time in May and Netflix 7.5% (John Koblin/New York Times)

John Koblin / New York Times:
YouTube and Netflix are increasingly locked in a battle over TV in the US; Nielsen: YouTube accounted for 12.5% of all TV viewing time in May and Netflix 7.5%  —  The two giant video companies have far different strategies, but the same goal: controlling your TV set.



With Tim Cook likely to lead Apple through this decade, a look at Apple's executive succession challenges as many of Cook's direct reports near retirement age (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
With Tim Cook likely to lead Apple through this decade, a look at Apple's executive succession challenges as many of Cook's direct reports near retirement age  —  Also: The company is scaling back the iOS 26 Liquid Glass revamp; a look at upcoming devices; and Meta poaches Apple's top AI models executive.



Portola, which develops the Tolan app featuring AI companions, raised a $20M Series A led by Khosla Ventures; the app has 3M+ downloads and 100K+ paid users (Kurt Schlosser/GeekWire)

Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Portola, which develops the Tolan app featuring AI companions, raised a $20M Series A led by Khosla Ventures; the app has 3M+ downloads and 100K+ paid users  —  GeekWire's startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene.  Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter …



A look at Xiaomi AI Glasses, launched in China on June 26 with a starting price of ~$278, featuring a 12MP ultra-wide camera and powered by Qualcomm's AR1 chip (Ben Jiang/South China Morning Post)

Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post:
A look at Xiaomi AI Glasses, launched in China on June 26 with a starting price of ~$278, featuring a 12MP ultra-wide camera and powered by Qualcomm's AR1 chip  —  The Xiaomi AI glasses are handy for hands-free photography and videography, which is ideal for situations like cycling



Saturday, July 12, 2025

Pump.fun raised $500M via a sale of PUMP tokens, which sold out in 12 minutes; it offered 12.5% of its total token supply at a fully diluted valuation of $4B (Zack Abrams/The Block)

Zack Abrams / The Block:
Pump.fun raised $500M via a sale of PUMP tokens, which sold out in 12 minutes; it offered 12.5% of its total token supply at a fully diluted valuation of $4B  —  - Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun raised $600 million through its public sale of PUMP tokens, which fully sold out in just 12 minutes.



Belkin's move to brick Wemo devices highlights how little accountability IoT companies face when abandoning connected products customers paid for (Scharon Harding/Ars Technica)

Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
Belkin's move to brick Wemo devices highlights how little accountability IoT companies face when abandoning connected products customers paid for  —  In a somewhat anticipated move, Belkin is killing most of its smart home products.  On January 31, the company will stop supporting the majority …



Stanford study: LLMs struggle to respond appropriately to questions about delusions, suicide, and OCD, but AI could play valuable supportive roles to therapists (Benj Edwards/Ars Technica)

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Stanford study: LLMs struggle to respond appropriately to questions about delusions, suicide, and OCD, but AI could play valuable supportive roles to therapists  —  When Stanford University researchers asked ChatGPT whether it would be willing to work closely with someone who had schizophrenia …



Studios like Do Big are buying Roblox games for $1M+ in a thriving secondary market; Naavik: seven of the 15 highest-earning games in June have been acquired (Cecilia D'Anastasio/Bloomberg)

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Studios like Do Big are buying Roblox games for $1M+ in a thriving secondary market; Naavik: seven of the 15 highest-earning games in June have been acquired  —  Game service spawns a busy after market for the most-popular titles … It sold a few months later for more than $3 million.



Friday, July 11, 2025

Airalo, which offers affordable eSIM roaming packages for travelers, raised $220M at a $1B+ valuation (Kelsey Warner/Semafor)

Kelsey Warner / Semafor:
Airalo, which offers affordable eSIM roaming packages for travelers, raised $220M at a $1B+ valuation  —  A startup looking to address steep roaming charges with lower-cost digital SIM cards is the telecom industry's latest unicorn.  Airalo has raised $220 million in new funding …



RealSense spins out from Intel after 14 years as the chipmaker's robotics camera unit, and raises a $50M Series A with participation of Intel Capital and others (Samantha Subin/CNBC)

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
RealSense spins out from Intel after 14 years as the chipmaker's robotics camera unit, and raises a $50M Series A with participation of Intel Capital and others  —  Intel is spinning out its artificial intelligence robotics and biometric venture as more companies bet big on automation tools.



Sources: Alibaba-backed Chinese AI startup Zhipu plans to raise ~$300M in an IPO in Hong Kong, after previously considering listing in mainland China (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Alibaba-backed Chinese AI startup Zhipu plans to raise ~$300M in an IPO in Hong Kong, after previously considering listing in mainland China  —  Chinese AI startup Zhipu is considering shifting its planned initial public offering to Hong Kong instead of mainland China …



Shenzhen-based Even Realities, a startup that makes smart glasses without cameras, raised a $150M pre-Series B led by Meituan and Tencent (Kate Park/TechCrunch)

Kate Park / TechCrunch : Shenzhen-based Even Realities, a startup that makes smart glasses without cameras, raised a $150M pre-Series B l...