Microsoft raises its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription price from $19.99/month to $29.99/month, rebrands Xbox Game Pass Core and Standard plans, and more
Microsoft is also adding PC games and cloud access to its new Xbox Game Pass Essential and Premium plans.
Google unveils Gemini for Home, replacing Google Assistant on smart speakers, with new voices and improved conversational skills, and a redesigned Home app
Gemini for Home does more than just replace Google Assistant on smart speakers and displays. Featuring a rebuilt Home architecture …
Meta says it will use users' AI chatbot conversations to help personalize ads and content, starting on December 16, but not in the UK, South Korea, or the EU
While users won't be able to opt out from the new policy, the content of some conversations will be automatically excluded
Satya Nadella hands off some of his duties to Judson Althoff, who will become CEO of Microsoft's commercial business, so that he can focus on technical work
Microsoft Corp. is giving its longtime sales chief oversight of marketing and operations in a reorganization designed to free …
Sources: the UK Home Office issued an order to Apple in early September to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time targeting only UK users
Order issued in September comes after Trump administration said London had backed down in fight over encryption
SAG-AFTRA criticizes AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood, the subject of a viral UK TV show parody, saying it opposes replacing performers with “synthetics”
SAG-Aftra, the union of film and TV industry actors, criticized the AI-generated character Tilly Norwood …
Amazon unveils updates to Luna, including adding AAA games like Hogwarts Legacy and new GameNight original party games, available to Prime subscribers
Amazon is revamping its cloud-gaming service Luna to offer a wide variety of top-tier games, including “Hogwarts Legacy” and Xbox's …
OpenAI launches Sora 2, a text-to-video model it says may be “the GPT‑3.5 moment for video” as it can follow intricate instructions spanning multiple shots
Our latest video generation model is more physically accurate, realistic, and controllable than prior systems.
Google unveils new Home products: a $99 Google Home Speaker, set for spring 2026, a third-gen $100 Nest Cam Indoor, a second-gen $150 Nest Cam Outdoor, and more
Chris Welch / Bloomberg :
Microsoft makes Xbox Cloud Gaming generally available, removing its beta tag after over five years, adds 1440p support, and raises the bitrate quality to 27Mbps
Tom Warren / The Verge :
Epic says Apple's iOS 18.6 “updated user experience” for alt app marketplaces increased installations “for the first time”, cutting drop-offs from 65% to ~25%
But Google still makes them intentionally difficult to install.
Google Home Speaker hands-on: the new $99 speaker is around the same size as a HomePod mini, but wider and flatter, and Gemini is a vastly improved assistant
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge :
Peloton unveils its Cross Training Series, including a $1,695 Bike and $6,695 Tread Plus, and AI-based Peloton IQ to track workouts on new and old machines
The fitness company is aiming for a comeback with new bikes, treadmills, AI, and higher prices — Peloton has been angling …
Z.ai releases GLM-4.6, an open-weights model with a context window of up to 200K tokens, claiming near parity with Claude Sonnet 4 on coding and reasoning tasks
Today, we are releasing the latest version of our flagship model: GLM-4.6. Compared with GLM-4.5, this generation brings several key improvements:
Oura unveils colorful ceramic Oura Ring 4 versions for $499+ in four finishes with enhanced durability and a thicker 3.51mm design, and a $99 charging case
The company is also introducing health panels for blood work, a recycling program, and multi-ring device support.
Sam Altman signs a letter of intent with Samsung and SK Hynix to supply Stargate; Samsung and SK Hynix say demand from OpenAI could hit 900K wafers per month
Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Co. have forged initial agreements to supply chips and other gear to OpenAI's Stargate project …
Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 review: an unobtrusive eye-level camera, improved battery, and lots of frames, but some may feel uncomfortable with a face-mounted camera
The second-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses aren't too different from the first. The biggest change is that they have a better battery life …
Q&A with Pavel Durov on Telegram, his arrest, censorship, not using a phone, Romanian elections, VK, encryption, Edward Snowden, spring 2018 poisoning, and more
- Watch the full YouTube version of the podcast — Table of Contents — Here are the loose “chapters” in the conversation.
Apple files a motion to dismiss xAI's lawsuit, which alleges that Apple's ChatGPT integration stifles competition, saying it plans to integrate other chatbots
Apple Inc. says it did nothing wrong in choosing to partner with OpenAI — rather than Elon Musk's xAI — when it added generative …
The White House withdraws Brian Quintenz's nomination to lead the CFTC; the Winklevoss twins pressured Trump in July to reconsider his nomination
The White House withdrew Brian Quintenz's nomination to be a board member and chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission late Tuesday …
Amazon unveils Amazon Grocery, a new private-label brand that offers 1,000+ grocery items largely priced below $5, available online and at Amazon Fresh stores
Amazon.com Inc. launched a private-label brand that offers a range of grocery items largely priced below $5 in a bid to attract inflation-stung shoppers.
Sources: Qualcomm adopts Arm's latest v9 architecture for its new generation of PC and phone chips, joining rivals like MediaTek and, analysts believe, Apple
- Qualcomm adopts Arm's v9 architecture, with features for AI performance — Move follows legal battle between Qualcomm and Arm
A Delaware court dismissed Arm's last claim against Qualcomm, ruling that Qualcomm and subsidiary Nuvia didn't breach license agreements; Arm plans to appeal
U.S. court rejects Arm's lawsuit, confirms Qualcomm's can use Oryon cores acquired via Nuvia Qualcomm : Qualcomm Achieves Complete Victory Over Arm in Litigation Challenging Licensing Agreements Gavin...
Yale and Brookings study: generative AI is reshaping US jobs slightly faster than computers and the internet did, with little evidence of job loss so far
Research shows little evidence that cutting-edge tech such as chatbots is putting people out of work
How live sports betting has exploded in popularity in the US, accounting for more than half of the money wagered on FanDuel and DraftKings in recent quarters
As the Oklahoma City Thunder were on their way to winning the decisive Game 7 of this year's N.B.A. Finals, a flurry of shadow games …
Wikimedia Deutschland launches the Wikidata Embedding Project, a vector-based semantic search database with nearly 120M entries, to make data accessible to AI
On Wednesday, Wikimedia Deutschland announced a new database that will make Wikipedia's wealth of knowledge more accessible to AI models.
Stripe launches Open Issuance, a Bridge-powered platform that lets companies create its own stablecoins, used by crypto wallet Phantom to issue its CASH token
a new stablecoin created with stripe + bridge w/ baked in developer rewards, stripe merchant support, and new phantom $ features, launching on solana. [video] Ryan Rasmussen / @rasterlyrock : Stripe w...
Q&A with Marc Andreessen and investor Charlie Songhurst on Silicon Valley's past, present, and future, AI, productivity, Stripe, crypto, Musk, media, and more
Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz, sits down for a Cheeky Pint with John Collison and Charlie Songhurst …
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company plans to distribute its new USAT token on Rumble to capture US market share; Tether holds a 48% stake in Rumble
Tether Holdings SA will lean on conservative video streaming platform Rumble Inc. to help distribute tokens as it seeks to conquer an increasingly competitive US crypto market.
Taiwan's vice premier, who is leading US negotiations, says Taiwan would not agree to a 50-50 split in chip production, adding no such condition was discussed
trade discussion to be focused on Section 232 investigation for preferential deal on semiconductors DigiTimes : Taiwan rejects US proposal for 50-50 chip production split John Liu / CNN : Taiwan says ...
Sora 2 is available for free with usage limits for users with an invite code, while ChatGPT Pro subscribers have access to the higher-quality Sora 2 Pro model
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat :
Axiom Math, which aims to build an “AI mathematician” and has recruited researchers from Meta, raised a $64M seed led by B Capital at a $300M valuation
Axiom Math, which has recruited top talent from Meta, has raised $64 million in seed funding to build an AI math whiz.
Spotify and Amazon Ads announce a global partnership to give advertisers using Amazon DSP programmatic access to Spotify's streaming audio and video inventory
Spotify competes directly with Amazon Music for subscribers and ad dollars — but now Spotify is teaming up with a different division …
Anthropic's System Card: Claude Sonnet 4.5 was able to recognize many alignment evaluation environments as tests and would modify its behavior accordingly
at a rate *much* higher than previous AI models. In one instance, while being tested the model said “I think you're testing me ... that's fine, but I'd prefer if we were just honest about what's happe...
A California jury finds Uber not liable for a woman's alleged sexual assault by her driver, in the first trial out of 500+ consolidated lawsuits in the state
Viktor Kopylov, PhD, CFA
Tel Aviv-based Commcrete, which makes handheld satellite comms devices and software, raised a $21M Series A led by Greenfield, sources say at a $100M+ valuation
Resilience Media :
President Trump signs an executive order directing his administration to invest $50M in AI-driven pediatric cancer research
www.axios.com/2025/09/30/t...
Interviews with 50+ people detail how the Trump administration seized control of Biden's $7.4B Natcast chips initiative, a move that many consider shortsighted
The Biden team was faulted for being too legalistic and slow. — The Trump team accuses them of being too political - as an excuse to get both sloppy and slow. — www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
Fermi, a data center real estate investment trust co-founded by former US Energy Secretary Rick Perry, raised $682.5M in its US IPO, valuing Fermi at $12.46B
and Trump Fermi America : Fermi America Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
AWS and the NBA announce a multi-year partnership to launch new AI-powered features and data insights from games, including an NBA Inside the Game platform
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters :
Swedish AI startups Lovable, Legora, and Sana, which is set to be acquired by Workday, highlight a dilemma in European tech: sell out or bet on getting big
Swedish start-ups show dilemma over choosing between selling up or betting on becoming huge — Anton Osika's AI start …
Russia's Ukraine war spurred a new generation of defense tech investors and startups like Helsing, applying a profit-driven model to Europe's military buildup
Patricia Cohen / New York Times :
Vibe.co, a self-serve platform for businesses to run targeted ads on streaming services, raised a $50M Series B led by Hedosophia at a $410M valuation
This is our story. — Singular Hedosophia Elaia
Assort Health, which is developing voice AI agents for healthcare, raised a $76M Series B led by Lightspeed, bringing its total funding to $102M
Allie Garfinkle / Fortune :
How Amazon's 48% stake in Indian supermarket chain More is becoming a strategic asset in the e-commerce giant's patient grocery delivery expansion across India
and positions the e-commerce giant perfectly should New Delhi ease ownership rules https://indiadispatch.com/...
China's Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou showcased robots, EVs, and a self-driving yacht, but questions remain over the US-China trade dispute and profits
Andrew Higgins / New York Times :
US chipmaker Wolfspeed's shares close up 29.41% after the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and achieved its goal of reducing overall debt by ~70%
A look at Nvidia's uncertain future in China, a critical market at the forefront of every technology wave enabled by its GPUs, as rivals like Huawei rise
Financial Times :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.