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Daily Tech News Roundup - 2025-12-19

1. TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US
Source: https://www.theverge.com/23651507/tiktok-ban-us-news
Summary: After briefly going dark in the US to comply with the divest-or-ban law targeting ByteDance that went into effect on January 19th, TikTok quickly came back online. It eventually reappeared in the App Store and Google Play as negotiations between the US and China continued, and Donald Trump continued to sign extensions directing officials not […]

2. TikTok agrees to deal to cede control of US business to American investor group
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/18/tiktok-agrees-to-deal-to-cede-control-of-u-s-business-to-american-investor-group/
Summary: The deal closes a long-running drama in which U.S. authorities have sought to compel ByteDance to divest.

3. Apple becomes a debt collector with its new developer agreement
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/18/apple-becomes-a-debt-collector-with-its-new-developer-agreement/
Summary: Apple says it can now collect any money a developer owes the tech giant at any time.

4. The TikTok US sale is finally happening
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/847858/tiktok-sale-deal-memo-january-close
Summary: TikTok has finalized a deal to sell enough of its US business satisfy the divest-or-ban law, as initially reported by Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. According to a memo sent from CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees (included in full below) on Thursday, they are targeting a closing date of January 22nd, 2026. Once […]

5. Threads wants to be the app you can’t wait to open in the morning
Source: https://www.theverge.com/column/847806/head-of-threads-interview
Summary: This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. By all measures, Meta's Threads app had a very good year. The app was Apple's second-most-downloaded iOS app of the year, trailing only ChatGPT. Threads now has 400 million […]

6. Oh snap, I have a new favorite phone grip
Source: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/847777/oh-snap-i-have-a-new-favorite-phone-grip
Summary: In 2022, we called a simple magnetic ring from Anker the best MagSafe phone grip, but things have evolved dramatically since then! You can buy two or even three magnetic rings joined at the hip these days to wield your iPhone, recent Pixel, or really any phone if you stick a magnetic case or included […]

7. Steam’s annual winter sale is here — these are the best games to get
Source: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/846242/best-steam-winter-sale-game-deals
Summary: If you’re lucky enough to have a bit of time off around the holidays, we have great news: Steam’s annual winter sale kicked off today, and will run through Monday, January 5th at 1PM ET. Now’s a great time to stock up on some of the best games of 2025 at a solid discount, or […]

8. OpenAI and Anthropic will start predicting when users are underage
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/847780/openai-anthropic-teen-safety-chatgpt-claude
Summary: OpenAI and Anthropic are rolling out new ways to detect underage users. As OpenAI has updated its guidelines on how ChatGPT should interact with users between the ages of 13 and 17, Anthropic is working on a new way to identify and boot users who are under 18. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT's Model […]

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