It’s Friday, July 18, 2025, and we’re back with your top startup and tech funding news roundup for the week ending July 18. The venture engine isn’t slowing down—this week delivered another high-voltage run of funding activity across AI, defense, […]
The post Top Startup and Tech Funding News Roundup for the Week Ending July 18, 2025 first appeared on Tech Startups.
Happy Friday. I'm back from vacation and still getting caught up on everything I missed. AI researchers moving jobs is getting covered like NBA trades now, apparently.
Before I get into this week's issue, I want to make sure you check out my interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Decoder this week. It's a good deep dive on the main topic of today's newsletter. Keep reading for a scoop on Substack and more from this week in AI news.
So far, when most people think of the modern AI boom, they think of a chatbot like ChatGPT. Now, it's becoming increasingly clear that the web browser is where the next p …
We saw recently that many Gen Z people have a much more relaxed attitude to location privacy than the rest of us, happily sharing their location 24/7 with entire groups of friends.
But for those of us who prefer a more restrained approach to sharing our location, I’d like to see one basic change, and a couple of intelligent features added to the Find My app …
more…In a new note to investors, HSBC says that the slow rollout of the AI features Apple introduced at WWDC 2024 has so far “failed to trigger significant improvement in user experience,” and that unless Apple gets back on track, users could end up pushing off their next iPhone upgrade. Here are the details.
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Welcome to episode 62 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we’re prepping for all things Pixel 10. With Made By Google officially announced for August 20th, we have less than five weeks to go until new Google hardware hits our desk. From phones to wearables, earbuds to foldables, there’s a lot to look forward to — and frankly, it might all boil down to some software secrets we don’t know much about yet.
Audiobook access on Spotify has always been limited to the account owner, meaning that even for Premium Family or Duo subscriptions, only the person who set up the plan could actually use the included hours each month. That’s about to change, depending on where you live.
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Apple has a big fall launch season up ahead, with 15+ new products coming. But per various reports and rumors, there are three particular products launching that we’ve been waiting a long time for.
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This has been a good week for the US space agency in terms of the federal budget.
On Tuesday, a committee in the US House of Representatives passed a $24.8 billion budget bill for the coming fiscal year. Then, two days later a Senate committee passed a $24.9 billion budget for NASA. Both of these measures would keep funding more or less at the level of the current fiscal year and, for the most part, keep the space agency's programs going on their current trajectories.
These bills are not final. Both must move through the full House and Senate, and then be reconciled before going to President Trump for his signature. And time is running out, with fiscal year 2026 set to begin on October 1, just a little more than ten weeks from now.
© Getty Images | Tom Williams
Keeping multiple devices charged while traveling usually means packing several wall warts and cables. Thanks to the clever design of the Twelve South Butterfly SE 2-in-1 Qi2 Charger, however, you can power two devices with a single, compact accessory. Best of all, the foldable charger is now on sale at Amazon and Best Buy starting at $40.99 ($59 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen.
The Butterfly SE features two soft-touch charging discs, one that delivers up to 15W for your phone and another that provides up to 5W for your smartwatch. The two discs are connected by a flexible strap, and they snap together magnetically for travel, folding down to roughly the size of an AirPods Pro case. The versatile charger can also fold into a stand, allowing you to display the iPhone in StandBy mode, which transforms the device into a bedside clock or photo frame.
Each purchase comes with a color-coordinated woven USB-C cable, though it doesn’t include a wall adapter. For this kit to work, you’ll need a 30W charger (this one from Anker is currently down to $12.29 at Amazon). Twelve South also offers an aluminum version of the Butterfly, which is also on sale for $79.99 ($50 off) at Amazon. Build quality aside, the so-called Butterfly 2-in-1 MagSafe Charger is essentially the same thing, but it includes the necessary 30W power adapter and four international adapters.
Correction, July 18th: An earlier version of this article misstated that the Twelve South Butterfly SE can power two Qi2-compatible devices at once. Only the main charging pad is Qi2-compatible.
