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Today — 3 July 2025Tech News

Blackbird’s elevate.io raises £2M to disrupt legacy video editing software

3 July 2025 at 13:42

Blackbird just topped up its war chest with a fresh £2 million raise to scale elevate.io — its browser-based collaborative video editor that’s aiming to shake up how creators work. The raise, which was fully subscribed, will help elevate.io move […]

The post Blackbird’s elevate.io raises £2M to disrupt legacy video editing software first appeared on Tech Startups.

Pixelated 060: Much Ado About Nothing

3 July 2025 at 13:30

Welcome to episode 60 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will talk through Nothing’s latest launch event, including the company’s first flagship Android phone, the Nothing Phone (3). From its divisive design to its new Glyph Matrix display, there’s a lot to take in, as the company seemingly pivots towards a more premium market.

The trio also speculate on what Gemini’s new four-color icon could mean for the future of Google as a company. Is this simply about aligning the logo with Google’s standard theming, or does it tell us something about where Search and Gemini are headed in the future?

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Congress passes budget to expand mass deportations, cut social services, and stall clean energy

3 July 2025 at 13:27
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R_TX) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) pose for a selfie.

The Republican-controlled US Congress has passed a budget bill that includes cuts to social programs like Medicaid and more funding for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside provisions that discourage wind and solar energy production. Passed after a marathon debate in both houses, it will allow President Donald Trump to realize policy goals he’s so far attempted to push through executive orders and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump intends to sign the bill in a 5PM ET ceremony on Friday, July 4th.

The new budget moves funds away from Medicaid, clean energy tax credits, and other public services and toward Trump’s attempt to mass-deport both documented and undocumented immigrants. The bill extends a number of tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy Americans while reducing spending and eligibility for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), likely kicking millions off both programs despite objections from some initial Republican holdouts. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who ultimately voted for the bill, expressed concerns that “we can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities.” 

During a period of intense demand for electricity — including from companies like Meta, OpenAI, and other Silicon Valley AI giants — the budget also makes it more difficult for wind and solar companies to receive tax credits. It winds down tax credits for EVs, likely rendering electric options more expensive for car buyers. And it requires the FCC to sell 800MHz of spectrum that will likely be drawn from the 6GHz band, which is currently left free to provide more capacity for Wi-Fi services.

While much of the budget fight concerned Medicaid and the national debt, there were also protracted negotiations over a planned 10-year moratorium on states regulating AI systems. Lawmakers ultimately voted against that rule, which was opposed by not only Democrats but many state-level Republican politicians. An excise tax on wind and solar power companies that couldn’t meet strict requirements barring “material assistance” from certain foreign entities including China was similarly removed, although the bill still deals a serious blow to the renewable energy industry. Congress also scrapped a ban on Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care, though it will deny Medicaid funding to reproductive health care group Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, the budget provides $45 billion for immigration detention facilities and around $30 billion for ICE personnel and operations costs, on top of tens of billions of dollars in other immigration enforcement-related funding that the nonprofit American Immigration Council says will overall make ICE “the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the entire federal government.”

This increase will allow Trump to continue an ever-expanding mass deportation program, which has seen masked ICE agents target immigrants in workplaces, courtrooms, and on city streets. The administration has widened its net to catch not only undocumented residents, but people who hold visas or green cards or were granted temporary protected status, as well as naturalized citizens; Trump mused earlier this week that his “next job” could be expelling native-born citizens for crimes like murder and said he would consider deporting his former “First Buddy” Elon Musk. Since the Supreme Court recently denied a nationwide injunction on Trump’s termination of 14th Amendment birthright citizenship, the administration could even target a freshly created class of stateless newborn babies later this month.

In addition to expanding arrests, the funding will likely also help continue the creation of new surveillance and detention systems, like a centralized national citizen database that has been reportedly constructed with help from DOGE. As Congress debated the budget bill this week, Trump toured a newly opened Florida detention center built with FEMA funds; the rapidly erected facility — which Republicans celebrated by releasing merchandise with the nickname “Alligator Alcatraz” — flooded during a rainstorm soon after.

Rumor Replay: New MacBook with iPhone chip, Apple Glasses, more

3 July 2025 at 12:35

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: rumors of a cheaper ‘MacBook’ coming soon, Vision products roadmap, iPad Pro redesign, and more. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

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Provider of covert surveillance app spills passwords for 62,000 users

The maker of a phone app that is advertised as providing a stealthy means for monitoring all activities on an Android device spilled email addresses, plain-text passwords, and other sensitive data belonging to 62,000 users, a researcher discovered recently.

A security flaw in the app, branded Catwatchful, allowed researcher Eric Daigle to download a trove of sensitive data, which belonged to account holders who used the covert app to monitor phones. The leak, made possible by a SQL injection vulnerability, allowed anyone who exploited it to access the accounts and all data stored in them.

Unstoppable

Catwatchful creators emphasize the app's stealth and security. While the promoters claim the app is legal and intended for parents monitoring their children's online activities, the emphasis on stealth has raised concerns that it's being aimed at people with other agendas.

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Today’s Android app deals and freebies: Dune Imperium, Raiders of the North Sea, Everdell, more

By: 9to5Toys
3 July 2025 at 11:21

We are now ready to scope out all of the best Android game and app deals ahead of the July 4th holiday tomorrow. Just remember to go secure your FREE $50 Samsung credit by dropping your email down here (no commitments to buy anything) and check out the ongoing $300 in FREE credit you can score on the new Samsung Smart Monitors. We also have a new all-time low on the Kindle Scribe tablet-meets-reader as well as 20% off the official Galaxy Watch Ultra Marine Band, and Google Pixel Watch 3 at up to $132 off. As for the apps, you’ll find everything waiting for you down below. 

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