Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is prioritizing developing a tabletop home device with an iPad-like display and a robotic limb, aiming for a release in 2026 or 2027 for ~$1,000  —  – Executive who oversaw car project is leading the effort  — Device would offer twist on home products from Amazon and Meta

Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:
A look at some of the victims of the now-ubiquitous deepfake video scams; an analysis of 2,000+ deepfakes found Elon Musk was featured in ~25% of such scams  —  “It’s shifting now because organized crime has figured out, ‘we can make money at this,’” according to Lou Steinberg, the founder of CTM Insights, a cybersecurity research lab.

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says app developers can offer NFC contactless transactions using the iPhone’s Secure Element, separate from Apple Pay and Wallet, starting with iOS 18.1  —  Apple has announced that it is opening up the iPhone’s NFC chip using the Secure Element to allow for third-party contactless payments …

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
The main takeaway from the Google Pixel event is Android’s primacy, and Google’s integration with Android is worth preserving if the goal is spurring innovation  —  The original Pixel was released in 2016 at the end of interesting, at least when it came to smartphones.

Bloomberg:
Interviews with 48+ people detail Snowflake and Databricks’ intense rivalry, jockeying to be the dominant platform to organize AI data, and fear of Microsoft  —  Secret codenames, pugnacious billboards and deal drama mark the competition for data supremacy  —  Snowflake Inc. was looking for acquisitions.

Troy Hunt:
A look at the National Public Data breach, first noted in April 2024 and posted publicly last week, and efforts to establish if “nearly 3B people” were exposed  —  I decided to write this post because there’s no concise way to explain the nuances of what’s being described as one of the largest data breaches ever.

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
SAG-AFTRA strikes a deal with Narrativ for voice replicas in digital ads, letting union members add themselves to the AI startup’s database and negotiate fees  —  Union says agreement sets ‘a new standard’ for ethical use and makes it easy to performers to give consent and get paid

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Tencent says it is exploring with Apple ways to offer in-app transactions via iOS’ payment system, the first acknowledgment of talks with Apple  —  The Chinese company is exploring ways to offer in-app transactions via Apple’s iOS payment system, Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell told analysts on an earnings call.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
EliseAI, which offers AI property management tools for landlords, raised a $75M Series D led by Sapphire at a $1B valuation, taking its total funding to $140M  —  EliseAI, a company developing a suite of AI-powered property management tools for landlords, has raised $75 million in a Series D round that values the startup at $1 billion.

Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X review: the Zen 5 flagship chips are fine for highly threaded productivity workloads, but gaming issues need to be fixed  —  Earlier this month, AMD launched the first two desktop CPUs using their latest Zen 5 microarchitecture: the Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X.