Gadget & Tech News — 2026-08-20
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Gadget & Tech News — August 20, 2026
The day's most relevant tech news for gadget buyers and smart-home builders, curated by GadgetSmart Pro.
1. Stripe didn’t really buy OpenRouter because of the ‘singularity’
What does a payments giant want with a startup that routes prompts between different AI models? Stripe says it's because of "the singularity" but it's really for a far more real and powerful reason.
2. Waymo’s cheaper, next-gen robotaxi is now open to all riders in these three cities
The next-generation robotaxi, called the Waymo Ojai, is central to the company's push towards mass scale, and eventually, profitability.
3. OpenAI seeks to one-up Anthropic with new customer privacy protections
A competition is developing between OpenAI and Anthropic over who can provide the best privacy protections for enterprise customer data.
4. Cognition CEO denies report that SpaceX tried to acquire the startup
SpaceX was reportedly in talks to buy AI coding startup Cognition. SpaceX has already acquired Cursor as it races to catch up to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in enterprise AI.
5. Travis Kalanick kicks off another round of VC bashing: ‘1% are helpful’
After raising $1.7 billion for his new robotics company Atoms, Travis Kalanick is introspective about the role VCs have played in his career.
6. Valve Steam Frame videos show how to wear the headset, perfect the fit and sign in
Eight leaked Steam Frame videos are informative and kinda silly.
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