Tootfinder

An interview with Google SVP of Devices Rick Osterloh on Googlebooks, which he calls "the ultimate focusing move" for Google, future Pixel Googlebooks, and more (David Pierce/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/997972/googlebook-laptop-chromeos-…

The long dream of the Googlebook
By merging ChromeOS and Android, Google has found a new kind of laptop that it thinks can compete with Mac and Windows.

VidCon is leaving Anaheim and combining with Lions Creators to hold VidCon x Lions Creators events, starting in Nashville in 2027; Informa bought VidCon in 2024 (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/vidcon-leaving-anaheim-li…

VidCon's Annual Creator Confab Is Leaving Anaheim After Merging With LIONS, Parent of Cannes Lions
VidCon is leaving its home of Anaheim after 16 years in Southern California after merging with the digital creator business of LIONS, parent of Cannes Lions.

Microsoft begins merging its consumer and commercial Copilot apps into a single app, with a mobile and web rollout in mid-August and desktop in mid-September (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/microsoft-st

Microsoft starts merging its Copilot consumer and business apps in advance of ‘Super App’ rollout
Microsoft is combining its consumer and business Copilot apps into a single app, in a gradual transition starting this week. Copilot Podcasts, Group Chat and Deep Research will be retired beginning Aug. 18, along with Mico, the animated character added to Copilot's voice mode last year.

Sources: Uber and Rapido discussed merging their India ride-hailing operations in May; talks collapsed after disagreements over the proposed deal's structure (The Economic Times)
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/t

Uber, Rapido held talks to combine India ops; deal collapsed over control: sources
Uber and Rapido discussed merging their India ride-hailing operations in May, sources told us. Talks collapsed after disagreements over the proposed deal's structure. Uber sought to combine operations with Rapido running the combined entity while Rapido countered with an acquisition proposal which Uber rejected. The failed merger highlights intense competition in India's mobility market.

Football meets international football: Ranking every NFL soccer-style crossover jersey from 1-32 https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7444316/2026/07/14/nfl-soccer-jerseys-fanatics-world-cup/

Conservative economist Andy Hall offers a damning condemnation of conventional politicians (although he is apparently oblivious of the import of his argument) 👇
Hall writes:
"Politicians do not respond mechanically to shifts in public sentiment
—they answer to donors, activists, and primary challengers,
not just median voters…
and sometimes they stake out new positions well before the public asks for them,
or refuse to move long after it has"

AI is the Democratic Party's Next Villain
We analyze roughly 280,000 candidate fundraising emails to trace the rise of anti-billionaire populism in the Democratic party and see how it is slowly merging with a new kind of anti-AI populism.

Football meets international football: Ranking every NFL soccer-style crossover jersey from 1-32 https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7444316/2026/07/14/nfl-soccer-jerseys-fanatics-world-cup/

Football meets international football: Ranking every NFL soccer-style crossover jersey from 1-32 https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7444316/2026/07/14/nfl-soccer-jerseys-fanatics-world-cup/

Would any of y'all be interested in an archival curation tool that can handle merging large collections of files?
I'm in the middle of designing something — git is inspiration but the wrong tool for this job — but that allows reintegrating diverged collections of materials, and propagating enough information that if you were to merge two folders, you'd get a relevant set of questions about the contents to successfully and meaningfully merge them.
It's aware of the fact that embedded metadata changes.
My goal is to make a library simple enough that one could embed it in an operating system's file browser to surface intelligent behavior, and that it could form the basis of media servers too, taking the scanning-and-recording-files duties.

Exploring the biggest construction site in Europe: ESMC Dresden, a Taiwanese-German #chip joint venture.
More water diverted? There’s enough for all, we learn. More housing? That’s for the market to tackle. Energy needs? Complex. Workers on site? Many from eastern Europe. Fascinating

California's Rob Bonta and a 13-state group challenge the appointment of current and recent Nexstar personnel to Tegna's board, after a preliminary injunction (State of California)
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases

Attorney General Bonta to Court: Nexstar/Tegna Violating Court Order to Stop Merging
Files motion for clarification and other compliance relief SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 13 attorneys general, filed a motion for clarification in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, raising concerns about actions by Tegna Inc. (Tegna) and Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nexstar) that are in apparent violation of the court’s hold-separate order.

Memo: Microsoft is merging the consumer and enterprise versions of its Copilot chatbots into a single app featuring AI agents dubbed AutoPilot and coding tools (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-memo-details-ai-…

Microsoft Memo Details AI App Overhaul to ‘Earn the Right to Exist’
Microsoftis merging its consumer and enterprise Copilot apps and cutting unwanted features to ‘earn the right to exist’ in the eyes of customers, an executive told staff Thursday morning. In a 1,200-word memo, Jacob Andreou, an executive vice president, said the new unified app will also feature ...

I do lots of long-ish horizon work (e.g. OpenSSL PRs I can't actually use for years after merging). Remarkable how bad LLMs are at even considering this as an option. Quick fix every time, even if there's a clear long-term right answer we should do instead. Does not bode well for the ecosystem...

Sources: PIF is considering combining EA with Savvy Games to better coordinate its gaming assets, but not before Savvy closes its $6B Moonton acquisition (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-10/saudis-…

Back with the Taiwanese colleagues to explore the #semiconductor industry, now in #Dresden. We started with vanished #chip histories, moved to promised silicon futures and will now venture out – a…

"How heat domes form, intensify, and what they do to the body"
#US #UA #America #Weather

How heat domes form, intensify, and what they do to the body | The Optimist Daily
Two heat domes are merging over the eastern US by July 4, driving heat indexes above 110 degrees Fahrenheit from the mid-South to the Gulf Coast.

Sources: ByteDance is merging coding platform Trae and agent-building tool Coze into Doubao, and plans to launch Doubao Work to compete with Tencent's WorkBuddy (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-…

Anthropic merges the memory systems for Claude chat and Claude Cowork, making Claude chat history available to Cowork unless users opt out (David Gewirtz/ZDNET)
https://www.zdnet.com/article/anthropic-claude-and-cowork-share-memories-now-unles…

Anthropic's Claude and Cowork will share memories about you now - unless you opt out
Anthropic is merging Claude chat and Cowork memory, raising privacy questions about what AI remembers and if it's worth the tradeoff.