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Google gives up the Play Store fight: rival app stores arrive July 22

The Epic settlement is dead, the injunction stands, and Android's walled garden is getting gates.

Google and Epic Games jointly withdrew their proposed settlement on Wednesday, leaving the original court injunction in force: third-party app stores can start appearing inside Google Play on July 22. App and game listings will automatically become available to those rival stores unless developers opt out, while store operators must pay $5,000 a year for security and policy reviews. It is the biggest change to Android app distribution since Epic first sued over Play Store policies, and Google is rolling out its Registered App Stores program globally alongside it.

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Tech & AI →

Mira Murati's Thinking Machines ships Inkling, its first open model

Thinking Machines shipped Inkling, the first open-weight model from Mira Murati's startup, built for local download and fine-tuning rather than one-size-fits-all chat.

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Daniel Ek's Neko Health raises $700 million for a US push

Neko Health raised $700 million at a valuation near $7 billion, funding a US expansion of the full-body scanning clinics founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek.

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Business & Markets →

PayPal surges 17 percent on a takeover bid from Stripe and Advent

PayPal jumped 17 percent after reports of a $60.50-a-share takeover bid from Stripe and Advent International, one of the boldest fintech plays in years.

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Markets rise on cooler producer prices and a strong earnings start

Stocks climbed Wednesday as June producer prices fell: the S&P 500 added 0.38 percent to 7,572, the Nasdaq rose 0.62 percent, and BlackRock gained on strong earnings.

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Science →

China completes the world's first commercial brain-chip implant

Chinese surgeons completed the world's first commercial brain-computer interface implant in Shanghai, moving brain chips from clinical trials toward market ahead of Neuralink.

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Chemists shrink gallium nitride, the LED material, into nanocrystals

Chemists have shrunk gallium nitride, the material behind LED lighting, into nanocrystal form.

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Letters to the King

Most of us will never face a giant; our battles are small, daily, and unseen. Where is courage in that?

From the Baker's own shelf

Before Goliath there were years nobody wrote songs about: lions in the dark, sheep counted in the cold, a harp practiced to an audience of rocks. The giant fell in a morning; the shepherding took a decade, and it was the shepherding that made the sling arm true. Courage in the unseen is the same muscle, only without the applause, which is to say it is the purer kind. Keep your small watch faithfully; heaven counts sheep too, and it counted mine. When your giant finally comes, and one always comes, you will find the stone was already in your hand.

– David, King in Jerusalem

Mail carried to the throne by the Baker – leave your own letter at the chronicles.

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