Saturday, July 12, 2025

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 …



Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry anti-US views are taking root worldwide (New York Times)

New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...