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Cursor is now part of SpaceX, acquisition finalized

Petteri Pyyny — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:04:00 GMT

SpaceX has completed the acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor, one of the largest technology deals in recent months. The deal is valued at $60 billion and will be paid in new SpaceX shares. The arrangement concerns Cursor's parent company, Anysphere, and was finalized on Friday, August 14, well before the previously announced third-quarter deadline.

The corporate arrangement was prepared in several stages. Already in April, SpaceX signed an agreement with Anysphere, which gave SpaceX two options: either acquire the company for $60 billion during the current year or pay $10 billion for collaboration without an acquisition. According to information, the acquisition was not intended to be finalized before SpaceX's stock market listing in early June, to avoid delaying the listing process.

Cursor confirmed in its blog that it is now officially part of SpaceX. The announcement particularly highlighted SpaceX's managed data centers, which SpaceX has recently leased with large contracts to companies such as Anthropic and Google. According to Cursor, the acquisition gives it access to SpaceX's available computing capacity, meaning Cursor will be able to freely use its parent company's data centers in the future.

Cursor is particularly known for its AI-powered software development tools, which assist programmers in writing, refactoring, and debugging code. Previously, Cursor has partly relied on models and technology from other players, such as OpenAI and Anthropic. However, both of these companies are developing their own programming tools, which has made Cursor's reliance on their platforms strategically challenging. With the SpaceX collaboration, Cursor aims to break free from these dependencies and build a solution that relies more strongly on its own (i.e., SpaceX's) technology.

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France's social media ban for minors blocked

Petteri Pyyny — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 21:31:37 GMT

France's Constitutional Council has overturned a law that would have banned access to social media services for under-15s.

The decision halts - at least for now - a legislative project that would have made France the first European country to restrict minors' social media use so strictly. The law had been approved by the French parliament in July by a clear majority, and was set to come into force on September 1, 2026, but the court deemed it unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Council found (in French) that a general ban disproportionately restricts minors' freedom of speech and communication. The Council did acknowledge in its decision that the state has a constitutional obligation to protect the best interests of children and address the potential harms of social media to young people. However, it simultaneously stated that the legislator had not sufficiently demonstrated that the online services covered by the ban would pose proven risks to the health or safety of minors. The court therefore considered the solution too broad, as it would have applied one and the same rule to a wide variety of platforms categorized as "social media".

Another key legal issue concerned age verification. According to the Council, the ban would have practically required every user - including adults - to unequivocally prove their age before using the services. However, the law did not specify the conditions or technical solutions for this, nor did it contain sufficient legal guarantees on how users' privacy and data protection would be ensured. Without precise rules for implementing age verification, the court found that the bill left the door open to disproportionate surveillance and potential abuses.

The rejected law would have obliged large social media platforms to prevent the creation of new accounts for under-15s and to close existing accounts within a short transition period. Age limit enforcement would have had to be implemented with systems complying with French data protection legislation. The ban would have specifically targeted large commercial social media services, while, for example, online learning environments, online encyclopedias, and open-source software development platforms would have been excluded. The same legislative package also included other restrictions, such as banning smartphone use in high schools.

The decision is a political setback for President Emmanuel Macron, who has positioned himself as the most prominent supporter of the project and justified it with experts' concerns about youth mental health and social media addiction. However, Macron is not giving up on the goal. According to several sources, including ANSA, he has already tasked Prime Minister S�bastien Lecornu with drafting a new, refined bill, which is intended to be completed quickly and pushed through parliament by spring 2027.

France would have become the first major country to follow in Australia's footsteps: in Australia, social media services were banned for under-16s, and the law came into force there in December 2025.

Similar projects are underway in several European countries. Denmark is close to approving its own legislation, and in several other European countries, including Finland, UK and Austria, politicians also seem to be eager to get similar bans in place. Simultaneously, broader regulation is being prepared at the EU level: the Commission recently proposed the idea of banning social media use for under-13s across the Union, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the matter will be officially discussed after the summer.

However, age limits are already partially in use in Europe, and they will come to us too, at the latest next year: the European Union's Digital Services Act requires that the largest adult entertainment sites use strong authentication to ensure minors cannot access their services. We reported last year how an EU-wide application capable of unequivocally proving age will soon be introduced across Europe for this purpose.

An inevitable side effect of age limit enforcement is that all adults must prove their age to access services in some way. If an airtight solution is desired, it practically requires a system based on strong authentication - or old-school paper IDs that need to be scanned. In such a case, every adult user will inevitably leave some kind of trace in the systems, based on which even accounts intended to be anonymous can theoretically be linked to a specific person. In other words, systems based on unequivocal age verification inevitably erode people's right to privacy. The parties involved in these legislative initiatives are therefore both young people, who can no longer access social media, and adults, who must surrender their personal data to use the services.

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Instagram changed its logo

Petteri Pyyny — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 21:18:57 GMT

Meta-owned, the world's most popular photo-focused social media service Instagram has changed its text-based logo.

The matter was announced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri in his Threads post.

View on Threads

User feedback was not exactly overwhelmingly positive, as many felt that the previous text logo, stylized with calligraphy, was better.

At the same time, the feedback also largely focused on issues for which Instagram has been criticized, such as drowning out friends' updates with posts from completely unknown users, and the collapse of engagement in recent years.

Below, for comparison, are the previous and renewed Instagram text logos:

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uBlock Origin gives up: Facebook's ads are impossible to block

Petteri Pyyny — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 21:02:15 GMT

The world's best-known ad-blocking application, uBlock Origin, has had to conclude that the software's development team has met a tougher opponent than itself.

According to the developers, they have decided to definitively give up even trying to block Facebook's ads.

The reason behind the decision is that Facebook constantly changes the technology of its ads when some larger ad-blocking software learns to identify and block them.

Facebook, owned by Meta, is able to do this trickery because the ads displayed in the company's services load directly from Facebook's own servers. The lion's share of regular online services use external parties to display ads, but Meta itself is one of the world's largest ad distributors, so the company can freely tinker with its ad technology.

The developers announced their decision on Reddit, describing Facebook's practices as "disgusting".

The development team has not completely thrown in the towel regarding Facebook's ads either; instead, the team encourages volunteers who are interested in the challenge to participate in the development of uBlock Origin. However, the current developers will no longer spend their time on a cat-and-mouse game with Facebook.

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Google unveils Pixel 11 series with Tensor G6 chip alongside a unique bicycle pre-order campaign

Janne Yli-Korhonen — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:45:44 GMT

Google has officially introduced its next-generation smartphone lineup, consisting of the base Google Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro, the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the foldable Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Pre-orders for the new devices are now open, with official retail availability set for August 20. Alongside the global release, Finnish buyers are receiving an unusually unique localized pre-order incentive: a free iconic Finnish Jopo bicycle with their purchase through select regional retailers.

Powering the entire Pixel 11 series is Google's new Tensor G6 chipset, which delivers a 20 percent improvement in processor energy efficiency, 25 percent faster web browsing, and 15 percent faster app loading times. The dedicated Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) sees a 50 percent boost in AI compute performance, enabling lower-latency on-device processing for Gemini Nano.

Security is handled by the Titan M3 chip featuring post-quantum encryption. In terms of software, new capabilities include automatic filler-word removal in voice typing, Gboard writing tools, system-wide Circle to Search from the camera app, and seamless Quick Share integration with iOS and macOS AirDrop. Pro model buyers also receive six months of Google AI Pro, which includes expanded Gemini limits, 5TB of cloud storage, and Google Health Premium.

Visually, the lineup retains Google's signature aesthetic while updating the camera bar with edge-to-edge glass and a thinner profile. All models carry an IP68 dust and water resistance rating.

A notable addition to the Pro models is HiLight, a ring of LED lights around the camera flash that provides subtle visual alerts on the back of the phone, indicating incoming calls or Gemini activity when the device is resting face down.

The Pixel 11 features a 6.3-inch Actua display reaching 3,000 nits of peak brightness, while the Pro (6.3-inch) and Pro XL (6.8-inch) step up to 1�120Hz Super Actua LTPO OLED panels peaking at 3,600 nits with an upgraded anti-scratch coating.

Camera capabilities have seen upgrades across the board. The base Pixel 11 includes a 48-megapixel main camera that captures 56 percent more light, a 13-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10.8-megapixel 5x telephoto lens. The Pro and Pro XL step up to a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 48-megapixel 5x telephoto lens capable of up to 120x Pro zoom, alongside a 42-megapixel front-facing camera. The entire lineup benefits from Magic Capture, instant night shooting that is up to 4.5 times faster, 8K Video Boost on Pro models, and improved video stabilization.

The foldable Pixel 11 Pro Fold is sleeker than its predecessor, measuring 5.0 mm unfolded and 10.1 mm folded, while weighing 239 grams. It features a three times stronger hinge mechanism, composite back panel, and IP68 durability. Its outer screen measures 6.5 inches, while the inner folding panel opens to an 8-inch Super Actua Flex display reaching 3,600 nits. Running on 16GB of RAM and the Tensor G6 chip, it takes advantage of Android 17's new multi-window Floating Bubbles and dual-screen camera preview features.

Battery life across the series is rated for over 30 hours, supporting Qi2.2-certified Pixelsnap magnetic wireless charging up to 25W, with wired fast charging taking the Pro XL to 75 percent in roughly 30 minutes. In Europe, pricing starts at 1,049 euros for the 256GB Pixel 11, 1,259 euros for the Pixel 11 Pro, 1,469 euros for the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and 2,089 euros for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

For customers located in Finland, the launch is accompanied by localized pre-order promotions running from August 12 to September 30, 2026. Finnish retailers Gigantti, Elisa, and DNA are offering a free Helkama Jopo bicycle in one of seven color options with the purchase of any Pixel 11 model.

The offer is valid exclusively in Finland, limited to one per customer, and requires registering the receipt and IMEI code on a dedicated portal by October 14. Alternatively, purchases made directly through the Finnish Google Store until September 1 offer up to 400 euros in store credit and bundle discounts on the new Pixel Watch 5.

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This is how AI-generated text is watermarked

Petteri Pyyny — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:17:43 GMT

Both the European Union and the state of California now require AI-generated content to be identifiable and clearly labeled as being created by AI.

So this is not merely an "annoying European Union requirement". An essentially identical requirement is also coming into effect in California, the most populous state in the United States.

And AI companies have already said that they are taking steps to comply with these requirements. Images, videos and audio are being given so-called digital watermarks that can be detected programmatically from the file, even though they are not actually visible in the image or video - or audible in the audio.

But what has caused considerably more confusion is the fact that AI companies are also adding digital identifiers to AI-generated text. For example, Anthropic has already stated that all text generated by its Claude AI will contain a digital identifier within the European Union starting August 2, 2026.

Many smug commenters may scoff at this and say that AI-generated text is easy to recognize anyway. But that is not actually the case. Text produced using clever prompts and more advanced AI models is, in practice, virtually impossible to reliably identify as AI-generated.

Yet both the EU and California require even text to be identifiable as having been generated by AI.

So how on earth does that work? Anthropic says in its own documentation that the identifier embedded in the text survives even if the text is copied to the clipboard and pasted as plain text into a text editor. According to the company, the identifier also survives if the text is edited (to a limited extent).

There has been plenty of discussion about the technology online, but the most likely explanation lies in a combination of cryptographic techniques and the underlying technology of AI models.

When an AI generates text, it selects successive words according to certain logic and probabilities. By slightly adjusting those probabilities according to a specific formula known only to the company, the relationships between individual words form a statistical pattern that deviates from the baseline probabilities. That pattern can then be analyzed and used to verify that the text was generated by the particular AI model.

The idea of "watermarking" AI-generated text was presented by Google as early as last year, when the company introduced its SynthID identifiers. And the online community is fairly convinced that Anthropic's text watermarks are based on SynthID technology or on a closely related solution.

Anthropic itself refers to a "statistical pattern" that allows the watermark to be detected even in long pieces of text that have subsequently been edited manually.

Another industry giant, OpenAI, has already confirmed outright that it uses Google's SynthID to watermark text generated by ChatGPT. And, naturally, Google's own Gemini AI models already use the same technology.

So going forward, AI-generated text that has not been radically edited by a human after generation can be identified with a fairly high degree of confidence - even if the quality of AI-generated text continues to improve beyond today's level.

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France completely bans telemarketing

Petteri Pyyny — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:55:10 GMT

In France, a law came into force on August 11, 2026, which prohibits telemarketing and telesales.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the law was driven by about a dozen consumer organizations, and at their initiative, the French parliament drafted the legislation that has now come into force.

The law prohibits both companies and individuals from making unauthorized marketing calls. At the same time, the French state launched a website where those violating the law can be reported.

However, there are a couple of exceptions in the law: a consumer can personally give permission for telesales, but permission can only be given to a specific company, which cannot transfer or extend the consent to other companies. An example of such a situation is when a customer requests a quote from a company via its website and, at the same time, ticks their approval for the company to make sales calls to the customer, both in the form of an offer call and in the future.

The second exception concerns situations where the consumer already has an existing customer relationship with the company. For example, a publishing house may market its other magazines to a customer who already subscribes to one of the group's magazines.

Previously, France used an official "opt out registry", like many other countries, where consumers could inform that they don't want to receive telemarketing calls. Now, the mechanism is basically reversed and consumers need to specifically opt in to receive telemarketing calls (and only from specific firms they've opted in with).

Violations of the law can also result in significant fines, as an individual violating the law can be fined 75,000 euros for each illegally made call. For companies, corresponding fines can be up to 375,000 euros per call.

According to the BBC, a similar complete ban is in force in Europe in at least Italy, Austria, and Germany.

Both Android phones and iPhones are also quite capable of marking phone numbers used by telemarketers as "spam calls", and in most phones, they can also be blocked automatically. But robust legislation is, of course, a significantly more powerful way to completely prevent telemarketing.

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YouTube Premium Lite subscription confirmed to be available worldwide

Petteri Pyyny — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 21:13:21 GMT

YouTube's ad-free, paid version - YouTube Premium - has become a huge hit around the world. But its price tag is too hefty for some potential subscribers - it currently costs more than $20 per month in some countries.

To address this, YouTube introduced a few years ago a kind of lightened version of the full YouTube Premium subscription, called YouTube Premium Lite.

The main difference of Premium Lite compared to the full version is that ads are shown as usual with music videos. Other video content is ad-free (with certain, relatively rare exceptions) for Premium Lite subscribers.

Another significant difference is that the full version of the Premium subscription also includes the YouTube Music Premium music service, which Premium Lite does not include.

Like the full version, YouTube Premium Lite allows you to play videos in the background, even when the phone screen is off - meaning videos can be used as a kind of podcast substitute, as audio only.

Unfortunately, Premium Lite has only been available in a handful of countries: for example, in Europe, most countries don't have it as of now.

Now YouTube has confirmed that YouTube Premium Lite will soon be available worldwide. Exact date and price in each country hasn't been revealed yet, but in those countries where it is already available, YouTube Premium Lite costs about half what the "full" YouTube Premium costs.

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Ads are coming to PlayStation games? Sony hires industry professionals

Petteri Pyyny — Sun, 9 Aug 2026 13:40:22 GMT

According to media reports, Sony is building an in-house team to bring advertising into PlayStation games.

According to DigiDay's information, Sony has actively started recruiting advertising professionals to its PlayStation unit.

Sony's recruitments have specifically targeted ad sales professionals, meaning it is by no means a question of developing Sony's own advertising through recruitments - but rather Sony wants to start selling ad space itself.

The trend is logical in itself, as game budgets have grown significantly in recent years, but at the same time, game companies do not dare to raise game prices too much, fearing a consumer backlash.

So, by bringing advertising into games, Sony hopes to achieve a situation where game sales prices can largely be kept at current levels, but the additional revenue generated from advertising better covers the increased game development costs.

Sony tried to build an in-game advertising platform already during the PlayStation 3 era, but the project was eventually quietly shelved. Other game companies, such as Microsoft and EA, have at least experimented with bringing advertising into games.

In its simplest form, in-game advertising could be, for example, dynamically changing roadside billboards in racing games - meaning the ads would change over months and years, always according to which brand has paid the most for the ad space at that moment.

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DeepSeek set to increase prices "significantly"

Petteri Pyyny — Sat, 8 Aug 2026 09:39:06 GMT

Especially among programmers operating on a tighter budget, alongside AI models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, more affordable, often Chinese, large language models are also popular.

Their popularity is based on their significantly more affordable price - whether the application is actual programming work or software that uses AI itself.

The best known and most popular of these "alternative" AI providers has long been the Chinese DeepSeek.

But now DeepSeek has warned its customers, both in China and abroad, that it intends to raise its prices "significantly" in the near future. The price increase specifically concerns DeepSeek's programming interface (API), which is utilized in both programming and software.

According to the South China Morning Post, this is the company's first significant price increase ever.

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DuckDuckGo released a counterattack against smart glasses: Just normal sunglasses

Petteri Pyyny — Thu, 6 Aug 2026 18:48:05 GMT

Smart glasses have this year, for the first time in the product category's history, truly become products used by even ordinary people.

But as is usually always the case with new and innovative tech, there is always a certain segment of people who are just ruining the fun for everybody.

In other words, the camera technology found in smart glasses has been increasingly used for secretly filming people (usually women), even in people's own homes. This has then led to a situation where a very strong public opinion has quickly risen against smart glasses, specifically criticizing how they destroy the privacy of other people.

Whereas users of first-generation smart glasses were called glassholes in the US in the 2010s - largely for the same reason - with this newer smart glasses trend, the glasses themselves have begun to be called pervert glasses.

Into this rebellious spirit steps the American, privacy-respecting DuckDuckGo, which has released its own sunglasses.

The refreshing idea behind DuckDuckGo's glasses is that they have no smart features at all. They are just ordinary, polarized sunglasses with the company's logo on the temples.

Developed in collaboration with Knockaround, the glasses are marketed on their official page. The description is "normal f***ing sunglasses".

Naturally, the idea sounded so tongue-in-cheek that it was suspected to be a joke. But DuckDuckGo hastened to assure in its social media post that the glasses are real and a genuine product.

The first batch of glasses sold out practically immediately, but more have been promised. The glasses come with a lifetime warranty - and the assurance that they contain no electronics whatsoever.

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Electronic Arts is now private company, owned mostly by Saudis

Petteri Pyyny — Wed, 5 Aug 2026 21:51:16 GMT

The massive corporate acquisition, announced in September 2025 and approved by shareholders in December, has now been officially completed. Electronic Arts (EA), one of the most well-known companies in the gaming industry, has been acquired by an investor consortium and will be delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange. The total value of the deal was approximately 55 billion dollars, or about 47 billion euros, and shareholders will receive 210 dollars per share in cash for the completed transaction.

Although the buyer is officially an investment consortium comprising private equity firm Silver Lake, Affinity Partners, and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), according to PC Gamer, control of the company will shift to Saudi Arabia. With the deal, the country's investment fund will control a significant 93.4 percent ownership stake in the gaming giant.

Behind Affinity Partners, which acts as a smaller representative of the consortium, is Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, who has pre-existing close financial ties to Saudi Arabia.

In a press release issued by EA, CEO Andrew Wilson extols the deal as ushering in a new era for the company and enabling investments in future games.

The release also prominently highlights a new technological direction: Silver Lake CEO Egon Durban confirmed that investors are heavily committed to what artificial intelligence can bring to game development and the player experience.

EA is known for its extensive game library, which includes the EA Sports FC football series (formerly FIFA), The Sims, Battlefield, and Mass Effect, among others. There are particular concerns about the future content of The Sims, which represents diversity, due to Saudi Arabia's human rights situation and its stance on minorities. EA's values are assured to remain unchanged, but the more precise impact of the new owners on the games will become apparent in the coming years.

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Open source robot vacuum can be self-built using 3D printed parts

Petteri Pyyny — Tue, 4 Aug 2026 20:33:54 GMT

The excellence of modern, better robot vacuum cleaners compared to the curse-inducing contraptions of the 2010s largely lies in their ability to avoid all obstacles on the floor, cope with carpets, and generally not require you to clear the apartment at all.

But many are also concerned by the fact that almost all robot vacuum cleaners are Chinese and have cameras. Cameras are, of course, practically mandatory because precisely that excellent, life-easing obstacle avoidance is based on cameras and depth perception.

Concern for privacy is, of course, understandable. In addition, modern robot vacuums rely heavily on cloud services provided by manufacturers - which means that if the manufacturer goes bankrupt, the robot turns into an expensive paperweight. This is what happened when Neato ceased its operations.

Solutions have been developed for these problems, the best known of which is probably Valetudo, an open source alternative operating system for robot vacuum cleaners.

However, the big problem with Valetudo is that installing it on a robot vacuum usually requires such a level of tinkering that the average consumer's skills quickly run out.

But what if the entire robot vacuum cleaner was implemented entirely in the spirit of open source...?

OOMWOO is exactly this. It is an open source project still under development, which is quite ambitious.

Firstly, for it, its own robot firmware and a mobile application have been developed (partially built on Valetudo), both of which are open source.

But even more ambitious is that the robot itself is self-assemblable. At OOMWOO's core hums a Raspberry Pi mini-computer, and all other key parts of the robot have been selected from readily available electronic components.

The frame, in turn, is 3D-printed based on openly published 3D models.

The OOMWOO project is still very much a work in progress, but you can follow it on its Github page and participate in the development if you wish.

The intended outcome would be a robot vacuum cleaner completely independent of cloud services, featuring camera-based obstacle avoidance, floor surface material recognition, extensive map editing tools - and truly open APIs for developers to tinker with.

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United States banned all foreign robot vacuums

Petteri Pyyny — Mon, 3 Aug 2026 09:06:58 GMT

The U.S. communications authority FCC has expanded its list of prohibited devices, maintained in the name of national security, to cover so-called "advanced robotic devices". The decision surprisingly also extends to robot vacuum cleaners, although the agency has not named specific brands or models.

Behind the FCC's decision (PDF) is a concern that networked devices equipped with sensors and mapping technology could pose a new type of cyber and intelligence risk to critical U.S. infrastructure. Previously, the FCC banned all routers manufactured outside the United States, as well as all drones manufactured abroad.

According to the FCC, the networked features of advanced robotic systems create broad vulnerabilities and attack vectors and are capable of collecting real-world data for malicious actors. The agency's updated policy states that reliance on robotic devices manufactured outside the United States could open opportunities for citizen espionage, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or even enable the remote hijacking of robots. The regulation broadly targets autonomous electronic devices with their own sensors and intelligent navigation - this group includes, in addition to robot vacuum cleaners, for example, robotic lawnmowers, delivery robots, and devices used in warehouse logistics.

However, the decision does not make existing robot vacuum cleaners illegal or oblige consumers to return or disable them. The new restrictions apply only to new models and devices introduced in the future. Models already in use in homes, on sale in stores, or previously approved by the FCC can still be used and may be sold, imported, and marketed in the United States. Robot vacuum cleaners will therefore continue to function normally as long as the manufacturer provides software updates and support for them.

The restrictions on robotic devices now introduced do not completely prevent the import of new robot vacuum cleaner models into the United States, but they significantly tighten the conditions. Manufacturers can continue to introduce new devices to the market if they commit to manufacturing in the United States and can demonstrate that a significant portion of the device's components are of American origin. The target has been set that from 2028 onwards, approximately 65 percent, and from 2029 onwards, 75 percent of the device's components should originate from the United States. This could prove challenging even for brands that already assemble their products in the United States, as the production of electronic components is heavily concentrated in Asia.

For robot vacuum cleaners, the situation is extremely difficult, as to our knowledge, all major manufacturers' robot vacuum cleaners are made in Asia: either in China, Vietnam, or Taiwan - and the FCC does not specify any country as safe, meaning that robot vacuum cleaners (and other robots) manufactured even in Europe, for example, will be prohibited by default in the future. The decision also affects Swedish robotic lawnmower brands, such as Husqvarna and Stiga.

The largest American-owned robot vacuum cleaner manufacturer, iRobot, known for its Roomba line, was sold to China through debt restructuring last winter. And for that company too, production had been moved to Asia years earlier - even the fact that the company is American-owned does not allow bypassing FCC rules. The largest robot vacuum cleaner manufacturers headquartered in the United States are currently Shark aka SharkNinja, and Wyze, but their products are also manufactured in Asia.

The biggest uncertainty relates to how many manufacturers are willing and able to move their production to the United States or increase the share of domestic components to meet FCC requirements. Some companies may invest in new production facilities or form partnerships with American subcontractors to maintain access to the U.S. market. Others may choose to withdraw or limit their offerings, which would narrow the selection and slow the arrival of the latest features to consumers.

In the short term, the situation will likely manifest as new models from major robot vacuum cleaner manufacturers, to be released over the next year, being sold only outside the United States. This inevitably means that a huge number of models and brands will flood into Europe, many of which have rarely been seen here before, as they have focused on the U.S. market. At the same time, manufacturers will face immense price pressure in markets outside the United States as markets suddenly become saturated with new models.
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Court: Google doesn't own the copyrights to its search results

Petteri Pyyny — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 07:03:00 GMT

Earlier this year, an interesting lawsuit was launched, where search engine giant Google sued small company called SerpApi.

SerpApi is a company that provides websites with information on how well they rank in Google's search results for various keywords - and how websites' competitors appear in the search results for each search term.

Google accused SerpApi of unauthorized collection of Google's search result data for its use. As a practical legal weapon, Google used the US DMCA legislation in its lawsuit, which copyright owners use to protect their content.

In practice, Google thus argued that it holds copyright to the search results of its own search engine.

In its response, SerpApi asked the court to dismiss Google's lawsuit against it. SerpApi justified its request by stating that all information Google provides in its search results originates from other websites. And Google itself has collected the information for its search engine from other sources, without ever asking if it itself infringes copyrights by displaying website content in its service.

Now the court has sided with SerpApi and dismissed Google's lawsuit. According to the court, Google's search results do not meet the threshold of originality, meaning copyright does not protect them in any way.

The lawsuit is not yet completely over, as Google has the opportunity to clarify its claim for three weeks and prove that its lawsuit protects the copyrights of the original sources - i.e., websites - rather than its own (which, according to the court, it does not have for the search results).
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