Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.

In today's Techpresso:

🕵️‍♂️ Whistleblower claims Facebook once built a censorship tool for Chinese government

🤝 Trump says 4 groups in talks to buy TikTok

🫠 Saudi Arabia's futuristic city turns into a financial disaster

📱 iPad Air M3 review: It's just a spec bump

🤔 Manus probably isn't China's second 'DeepSeek moment'

🎁 + 8 other news you might like

🔮 + 2 handpicked research papers and tools

FROM OUR PARTNER

• Whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams filed a complaint with the SEC alleging Facebook developed a censorship tool to enter China, despite being blocked there since 2009.
• Wynn-Williams, a former global policy director at Facebook, claimed the company created "Project Aldrin" in 2014 to comply with Chinese laws and discussed content moderation with local firms.
• Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed past interest in China, but stated efforts were abandoned in 2019, while Mark Zuckerberg now emphasizes "free expression" on Meta platforms.

• President Donald Trump announced that his administration is negotiating with four different groups regarding the sale of TikTok, expressing optimism that a deal could be reached soon.
• The app's future has been uncertain since Trump extended the deadline for the TikTok ban by 75 days, raising questions about its ownership.
• Potential buyers include a consortium led by billionaire Frank McCourt and supported by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, along with other interested parties like Microsoft, Oracle, and former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

• The Neom project, a futuristic city in Saudi Arabia, is facing significant financial challenges, with an internal audit revealing a potential total cost of $8.8 trillion over 55 years.
• Saudi Arabia has already invested $50 billion into the development, but the project is plagued by delays, cost overruns, and logistical issues such as insufficient labor and inadequate infrastructure.
• Despite the setbacks, consulting firm McKinsey & Company is reportedly benefiting financially, earning over $130 million annually for its involvement in planning and financial validation.

• The latest iPad Air is nearly identical to last year's model, with the only major update being the inclusion of the M3 chip, which offers a 16% performance boost over the previous M2 chip.
• Users can expect excellent multitasking, gaming, and video playback performance from the M3-powered iPad Air, with no noticeable impact on battery life compared to its predecessor.
• While the iPad Air remains a strong alternative to the iPad Pro, its screen lacks the higher refresh rates found in competing devices, and it continues to use Touch ID instead of the more convenient Face ID.

• Manus, an AI platform, has generated significant excitement, with its Discord server quickly reaching over 138,000 members and invite codes selling for high prices on the Xianyu app.
• The platform uses a mix of existing AI models like Anthropic's Claude and Alibaba's Qwen, but its performance has been inconsistent, often failing to complete tasks like ordering food or booking flights.
• Despite claims of superior capabilities, early users and testers have reported issues such as error messages and factual inaccuracies, indicating that the excitement may not be fully justified at this stage.

Other news & articles you might like

• Apple pulls iPhone 16 ad showing delayed Apple Intelligence Siri features LINK

• Consumer Reports finds popular voice cloning tools lack safeguards LINK

• Apple's smart home hub hit project by Siri-related delay LINK

• Colossal CEO Ben Lamm says humanity has a 'moral obligation' to pursue de-extinction tech LINK

• Some Chromecasts are giving 'Untrusted device' errors today LINK

• X outage affects thousands of users LINK

• Apple's foldable iPad rumored to get under-display Face ID LINK

• Foxconn unveils its own large language model distilled from Meta's Llama 3.1 LINK

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