Google says the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will get new features, including dynamic ANC and sleep sync, via a software update in September, and adds a new Olive color (Will Sattelberg/9to5Google) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Google Pixel 11 series hands-on: a $100 hike, minimal design changes, a new HiLight status light, new colors, and small camera and performance improvements (The Shortcut) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Google unveils the $399 Pixel Watch 5 with a satin pyrite case finish, offline Gemini, proactive AI suggestions, better GPS maps, and insulin resistance trends (Victoria Song/The Verge) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Google unveils the $1,899+ Pixel 11 Fold, with a stronger hinge, inner and outer displays that are 20% brighter, Tensor G6 chip, and an updated 48MP camera (Jessica Conditt/Engadget) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

AT&T says open models currently account for ~25% of its AI usage, and it targets 70% to 80% over time; AT&T uses an average of 45B AI tokens per day (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

AI code review startup CodeRabbit raised a $143M Series C co-led by Atomico and Smash at a $1.5B valuation, after raising a $60M Series B in September 2025 (Prakhar Srivastava/Reuters) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Thrive Capital's Thrive Holdings, which acquires traditional service businesses and adds AI, raised $2B from SoftBank, D1, and others at a $12B valuation (Michael J. de la Merced/New York Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Amsterdam-based neocloud Nebius reports Q2 cloud revenue up 514% YoY to $575M and total revenue of $582M, above $557M est.; NBIS rises 15%+, and is up 131% YTD (Paula Doenecke/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Skan AI, which is building a "context graph of work" by observing staff using enterprise software, raised a $63M Series C co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell (Michael Nuñez/VentureBeat) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

A look at AI news website RuntimeWire, which costs $100/day to run and "beat" human reporters to OpenAI's Black Hat disclosure, favoring quantity over quality (Kate Knibbs/Wired) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

African e-commerce company Jumia raised $50M, including $25M from the World Bank's IFC; Jumia's US-listed shares have fallen from $60+ in 2021 to $6 now (Loni Prinsloo/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

The NYC Council sent letters to Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan to investigate alleged deceptive marketing practices and targeting minors (Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

AI code-testing startup Blacksmith raised a $45M Series B led by Peak XV Partners at a $550M valuation, up from $60M after it raised a $10M Series A in 2025 (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Q&A with Redwood Research Chief Scientist Ryan Greenblatt on AI R&D, RSI, whether human expert data is bottlenecking progress, token prices, alignment, and more (Dwarkesh Patel/Dwarkesh Podcast) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

A look at the challenges facing incoming Google DeepMind head Koray Kavukcuoglu, who joined DeepMind in 2012 and will oversee Gemini and frontier AI research (Kai Nicol-Schwarz/CNBC) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Former Alibaba star researcher Junyang Lin launches Shanghai-based Pragmatik Labs to build digital and physical AI agents; Pragmatik hit a $2B valuation in June (Juro Osawa/The Information) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Foxconn reports Q2 revenue up 41% YoY to ~$78.4B, with cloud and networking products contributing 50%+ for the first time, and net profit up 35% to ~$1.86B (Sherry Qin/Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$30.4B, above ~$30B est., and net income of ~$8.3B, driven by surging WeChat advertising and resilient game spending (Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Stockholm-based AI coding startup Lovable raised $400M at a $13.3B valuation, up from $6.6B in December 2025, becoming one of Europe's most valuable startups (Ben Dummett/Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Sources: AI coding startup Cognition is in early talks with investors to raise $1B+ at a $40B+ valuation, after raising $1B at a $26B valuation in May (Rebecca Torrence/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Some health and fitness obsessives are using AI for hyperpersonalized training, building custom dashboards and tools to analyze their sleep, workouts, and diet (Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Briter: Africa-focused startups raised $3.3B in H1 2026, up 73% YoY, driven by Zipline's $950M raise; US- and UAE-incorporated entities raised half the capital (Nduka Orjinmo/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Bengaluru-based Yulu, which gets ~95% of its revenue from renting e-bikes to gig workers, raised a $93M Series C, sources say at a ~$170M post-money valuation (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Sources: Singapore-based data center operator DayOne confidentially files for a US IPO, aims to list as soon as next quarter, and is considering raising ~$5B (Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Researchers say suspected Chinese hackers used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool that compromised Taiwanese government websites in July (Tom Wilson/Financial Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

OpenAI VP of Global Policy Ann O'Leary says AI policy in the US is anchored in the states and informed by California's AI transparency law passed last year (Chase DiFeliciantonio/Politico) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

A look at Candy Crush's continued popularity 15 years after its launch, with an estimated 81.5M MAUs and in-app revenue of $876.5M in fiscal year 2025 (Alanna Okun/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

A profile of Suno, which has been used by more than 100M people since 2023 and has 2M+ paid subscribers, as it faces copyright lawsuits from UMG and Sony Music (Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

OpenAI launches a ChatGPT desktop app for Linux in preview, supporting ChatGPT Work, Codex, and more; Computer Use outside the in-app browser is not available (Frederic Lardinois/The New Stack) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

The CFTC uses its "emergency authority" to order Kalshi to continue operating in New York after the state filed a lawsuit in July seeking to shutter Kalshi (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink