Gemini with Audio Support

☕ Good morning,

Maybe today's the day to stop asking "what would the experts do?" and start asking "what would actually work?" The best solutions often come from people who are too busy building to worry about whether they're following the rulebook correctly.

_{—Here’s to the first sip.}

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1. MiniCPM 4.0: Ultra-efficient on-device AI, now even faster

2. Ada: Your own AI data analyst

3. YouMind: The first AI creation studio where learning meets writing

TODAY IN AI
Google adds audio to Gemini app

Google rolled out three fresh Gemini updates aimed at making its AI tools more useful. The Gemini app now lets users upload audio files the most requested feature capped at 10 minutes for free users and up to three hours for Pro and Ultra subscribers. You can even drop in multiple files, including ZIPs, to build prompts.

Search’s AI Mode is also expanding with support for five more languages: Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese. That means more users can now ask complex, multi-step queries in their native language while pulling results from across the web.

Finally, NotebookLM is getting smarter with new report formats. Beyond study guides and briefing docs, it can now generate blog posts, flashcards, and quizzes in over 80 languages, giving users more control over style and tone.

 FAST BARISTA

● Australia says AI chatbots that push suicide or sexual content are a serious danger to kids. From December, new rules will force social media, gaming, porn, and AI apps to add strict age checks. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube must ensure under-16s can’t access harmful material. Violators face fines up to A$50M as regulators move to protect children online.

● STIM in Sweden has launched the world’s first license letting AI firms train on copyrighted songs legally. The deal ensures royalties for 100,000+ songwriters, composers, and publishers. It comes as lawsuits mount over AI firms using music without consent or pay. Songfox is the first startup to use the license, creating legal AI-generated tracks and covers.

TECH BARISTA
Signal finally adds backups feature

Signal finally added backups, something users have been begging for. Until now, if you lost your phone, your entire chat history was gone. With the new update, you can back up all your texts and the last 45 days of media for free. If you want everything, Signal’s rolling out its first paid feature $1.99 a month for up to 100GB of storage.

The important part is how they’re handling it. Backups are encrypted with a 64-character recovery key that only you have. Signal doesn’t see it, can’t reset it, and if you lose it, your data’s gone. It’s very on-brand for an app that puts privacy first.

Right now, this is in beta for Android, but it’s coming to iOS and desktop soon. Signal also says you’ll eventually be able to pick where your backups live and even transfer history across platforms. It’s not the flashiest feature, but for people who rely on Signal, it’s a big quality-of-life upgrade.

MORE TO KNOW

● WhatsApp is testing a new iOS feature that finally lets users share Live Photos in their original form. Before, Live Photos were sent as still images or GIFs without sound, losing the full effect. Now, they keep both motion and audio, and show a Live Photo icon so friends know it’s dynamic. The update also works across iOS and Android, turning Live Photos into motion photos and vice versa.

● Discord restored service after a major U.S. outage hit over 100,000 users Monday. At its peak, Downdetector logged more than 102,000 reports of problems. By evening, issues dropped to about 1,300 as systems came back online. The company confirmed all systems are now operational on its status page.

GADGETS BARISTA
Vivo X300 series teases new camera look

Vivo is slowly pulling back the curtain on the X300 series, and this time it’s about design. Product manager Han Boxiao says the new phones will be slimmer, lighter, and more compact, even while packing upgraded camera hardware.

One big change is the camera bump instead of the chunky ring from the X200 series, the X300 goes with a tapered edge that looks sleeker. Vivo is also using a new cold-sculpting process to keep the body thin, claiming just 7mm thickness without the bump.

On top of that, the X300 Pro is confirmed to have a flat display, and both models will feature noticeably thinner bezels than before. Vivo seems to be betting on refinement.

FAST FLASH

● Phison says Windows 11 isn’t to blame for recent SSD failures tied to its controllers. The issue comes from outdated or preview firmware and BIOS, not Microsoft updates. Tests on consumer SSDs with final firmware showed no crashes or failures. Microsoft also said it found no link between its security updates and the reported problems.

● Xiaomi has confirmed the 15T and 15T Pro will launch on September 24 in Munich. The tagline “far closer” hints at powerful zoom cameras, likely on the Pro model. Both phones are expected to feature Leica cameras and flagship MediaTek chips. The launch coincides with Oktoberfest, adding extra buzz to the event.

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Exa raises $85M to build AI-first search engine

Exa has raised $85 million Series B at a $700M valuation to build a search engine designed for AI, not humans. Backed by Benchmark, NVIDIA’s NVentures, Lightspeed, and Y Combinator, the startup already powers thousands of AI apps and enterprise tools.

Unlike Google, Exa strips out ads and SEO clutter, offering fast, customizable, full-content search with zero data retention. Its “Websets” feature can pull massive datasets, while its API delivers sub-450ms latency for AI workflows.

With the new funding, Exa plans to scale its GPU clusters, expand indexing across the web, and grow its team all toward its bigger goal of creating “perfect search” for the AI era.