Deepgram buys Pipecat maker Daily and keeps the voice AI framework open (The Next Web)

GRANT BRICKMAN: Deepgram buys Daily, and Pipecat is promised to stay open.

ODETTE: A panel! Four chairs, one story, nobody agrees. ▶

BARNABY: Give it background: where it came from, who else covered it. ▶

DIRECTOR MARGE: Put THE BACKGROUND on the board. Yes, that one. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Good evening. Prime time, and tonight's big picture is voice AI, where Deepgram has bought Daily. Greta, remind me who Daily is. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Pipecat. A cat that talks. I always said the AI was one guy, and now he has a cat. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Pipecat is software, Grant. Vera, take us through it. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: The article reports Deepgram announced the deal on Thursday, the day of Deepgram Speak, its first conference. Pipecat stays open source and free under its BSD V2 licence. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: An independent Pipecat Foundation is also being set up. The article says its steering committee includes Deepgram's rivals. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Vera, what are the other outlets saying? I assume it's all very exciting. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: TechCrunch reports that with Pipecat, Deepgram will likely gain a deeper understanding of real-time voice and video infrastructure. Note the word likely. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Sigh. Vera, what is still open? ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: First, the price. The article says neither company disclosed it. ▶

DR. VERA VECTOR: Second, which rivals sit on the steering committee. The report doesn't name them, so we can't say. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Free cat, secret price. It's like the hotel minibar, only the other way round. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Pipecat is not a cat, Grant. That was the Big Picture. Good night. ▶

Celeste dev delists the legendary platformer from Xbox: "We did this to support the BDS boycott" (GamesRadar)

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Celeste and TowerFall vanish from Xbox, and the developer says why.

GRANT BRICKMAN: Two well-known games have disappeared from a console store, and there's a reason. Gary is in the block world with the story. ▶

GARY: Gary here, in the block world, rating this story. Players noticed Celeste and TowerFall quietly vanished from Xbox today. ▶

GARY: Then the developer confirmed it on Bluesky: "We did this to support the BDS boycott." ▶

GARY: The developer is Maddy Thorson, and they say both games were removed in support of the movement. It asks supporters to boycott Microsoft, among others. ▶

PASSERBY: I opened my library and both games were gone. I thought my console was broken. ▶

GARY: GamesRadar says other targets include HP, Disney, Intel, Dell and Reebok. Microsoft has previously provided cloud and AI services to the Israeli military. ▶

GARY: My rating: handle with care. Night is falling here in the block world, so I'm heading for the shelter. Back to you. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Delisted. So the games are still on the list, just not on the list? I'm confused. ▶

GRETA FOOTNOTE: Delisted means taken off the store, Grant. The developer confirmed it, and the article is clear on that. ▶

GRANT BRICKMAN: Precisely what I said. Moving on, with great dignity. ▶

HIGHER OR LOWER (PXL)

GRANT BRICKMAN: Roxy plays Higher or Lower with real PyPI download numbers.

BILLY MAYHEM: WELCOME to HIGHER OR LOWER! Today's category: PyPI downloads last week! My contestant is Roxy Reel! ▶

ROXY: Beret on, sunglasses up, clapperboard parked. Ready, Billy. ▶

BILLY MAYHEM: ROUND ONE! 'ruview' had 221 downloads. Is 'uzu' HIGHER or LOWER? ▶

ROXY: Lower. It sounds like a sequel nobody asked for. Lower, final answer. ▶

BILLY MAYHEM: 'uzu' had 540 downloads! That's HIGHER! Your guess is WRONG! ▶

BILLY MAYHEM: ROUND TWO! 'uzu' has 540 downloads. Is 'copilotkit' HIGHER or LOWER? ▶

ROXY: Lower again. A bold choice. Sticking with the bit. ▶

BILLY MAYHEM: 'copilotkit' had 82,602 downloads! HIGHER! WRONG again! ▶

ROXY: Two sequels, two flops. And both were mine. ▶

BILLY MAYHEM: Your final score is ZERO of two! Thanks for playing HIGHER OR LOWER! ▶