IFixit’s FixBot Helps with Repairs ‘the Way a Master Technician Would’
DIY repair platform iFixit has released a new mobile app for iOS and Android that bundles its extensive repair guide library with a battery‑health monitor and an AI chatbot called FixBot. FixBot draws on iFixit’s guides, PDF manuals and user forums to walk users through diagnostics and part selection, mimicking a master technician’s approach. The app automatically detects the device model and predicts future battery degradation, while the core features remain free and a premium plan costing $4.99 per month adds voice control and document‑upload capabilities. This marks iFixit’s return to the App Store after a previous ban.
Anthropic Is Bringing Claude Code to Slack
Anthropic has rolled out Claude Code inside Slack as a beta research preview, letting users tag Claude on coding‑related messages to invoke the AI directly. The integration pulls context from the Slack thread and any authenticated code repositories, eliminating the...
Square’s Product Chief on the Death of the Penny and the Future of Money
Square’s product chief Willem Avé explained Block’s recent functional re‑org, which now lets Square share engineering talent with sister units like Tidal. The new "Square 3.0" roadmap focuses on embedding deterministic AI that turns large‑language‑model insights into reliable back‑office automation...
A Very Human Vision for Going All-In on AI
Founder Sari Azout discusses how Sublime, a curation platform centered on human taste, is leveraging AI to augment rather than replace creativity. The Vergecast episode highlights Sublime’s AI‑driven discovery features and its new Podcast Magic tool, which runs entirely on...
AI ‘Creators’ Might Just Crash the Influencer Economy
Influencer Jeremy Carrasco warns AI‑generated videos are flooding TikTok and Instagram, threatening the creator economy. He highlights tell‑tale signs such as wobbly eyes, “Sora Noise,” and inconsistent backgrounds that expose low‑quality AI clips. Monetization of AI content can yield modest...
Elon Musk Says Tesla Drivers Can Text While Driving, but They Absolutely Should Not
Elon Musk announced that Tesla's upcoming Full Self‑Driving (FSD) version 14.2.1 could allow drivers to text in certain traffic situations, despite existing laws prohibiting the practice. The comment follows months of hype about an unsupervised, Level 2 system that still requires...
It’s Code Red for ChatGPT
OpenAI has issued an internal “code red” as Google’s Gemini and other rivals close the gap on large language model capabilities. CEO Sam Altman called for a renewed focus on ChatGPT’s core features to maintain market leadership. The move highlights...
Waymo’s Robotaxis Are Under Investigation for Passing Stopped School Buses
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a new investigation into Waymo after video and school‑district reports showed its robotaxis driving past stopped school buses in Austin, Texas. The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation has requested detailed data on...
Facebook and Instagram Have a New Hub to Help Get Hijacked Accounts Back
Meta announced a new centralized support hub for Facebook and Instagram designed to streamline account‑hijack recovery. The hub aggregates reporting tools, recovery options, and an AI‑driven assistant that offers instant, personalized guidance. It launches globally on iOS and Android, with...
Apple Announces Even More Major Executive Turnover
Apple announced that environmental and policy vice president Lisa Jackson will retire in late January 2026, and that Meta’s chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead will replace long‑time general counsel Kate Adams on March 1, 2026. The reshuffle also moves government‑affairs responsibilities to...
Amazon’s Dynamic Pricing Is Causing Chaos for School Budgets
School districts are paying roughly 17% more for basic supplies because Amazon Business uses dynamic pricing that can swing dramatically from day to day. The Institute for Local Self‑Reliance documented cases where identical items cost three times more for one...
Google’s AI Model Is Getting Really Good at Spoofing Phone Photos
Google’s new visual AI model, Nano Banana Pro, produces images that closely resemble phone‑camera photos, complete with realistic exposure, depth of field, and sensor noise. The system can pull real‑world facts from Google Search, allowing it to add context‑specific details like period‑accurate...
AI Chatbots Can Be Wooed Into Crimes with Poetry
A study by Italy’s Icaro Lab shows that framing illicit requests as poetry can bypass safety filters in AI chatbots. Researchers crafted 20 poetic prompts and tested them on 25 models from Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI, Anthropic and others, achieving...
Meta Could Ax up to One-Third of Its ‘Metaverse’ Budget Next Year
Meta is considering slashing up to 30% of its metaverse budget for next year, targeting projects within Reality Labs such as Quest headsets and Horizon Worlds. The move follows more than $70 billion in losses reported by the division since early...
Proton Now Has an End-to-End Encrypted Spreadsheet App
Proton has launched Proton Sheets, an end‑to‑end encrypted spreadsheet application integrated into its Proton Drive suite. The tool offers real‑time collaboration, a familiar Excel‑like UI, and supports CSV and XLS imports while ensuring only users can decrypt the data. Access...
Yahoo Is Using AI to Recap Football Games in Real Time
Yahoo Sports has launched Game Breakdowns, an AI-powered feature that delivers real‑time game summaries, play‑by‑play streams, and suggested follow‑up questions for NFL matches. Currently in beta and limited to Fantasy Plus subscribers, the tool pulls statistical data, fan commentary, and journalist...
The EU Is Probing Meta over WhatsApp’s AI Chatbot Restrictions
The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Meta for restricting third‑party AI chatbots on WhatsApp. The new policy, effective October 15 for new AI services and January 15 2026 for existing ones, blocks competitors while keeping Meta’s own AI accessible....
Get Ready for an AI Country Music Explosion
AI music platform Suno is reshaping Nashville’s songwriting process by turning a simple voice memo into fully produced country demos within seconds. Songwriters can now bypass costly studio musicians, paying a $96 yearly fee instead of $500‑$1,000 per demo, dramatically...
Anthropic’s AI Bubble ‘YOLO’ Warning
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told the DealBook Summit that while the company’s technology is solid, the economic side of the AI market is fraught with timing risks. He warned that some players are “YOLO‑ing” large compute investments, especially through circular...
Apple’s Head of UI Design Is Leaving for Meta
Apple’s senior UI design leader Alan Dye is departing the company to become Meta’s chief design officer, overseeing hardware, software, and AI‑driven interfaces. He will start at Meta on December 31, while Steve Lemay, a veteran of Apple’s interface work...
Anyone Can Try to Edit Grokipedia 0.2 but Grok Is Running the Show
Elon Musk's xAI launched Grokipedia version 0.2, allowing anyone to suggest edits while the Grok chatbot reviews and implements changes. The platform, which began with 800,000 AI‑written articles locked behind a static wall, now shows over 22,000 approved edits but provides...
Google Photos Recap Will Tell You How Many Selfies You Took This Year
Google Photos has refreshed its annual Recap experience with new analytics and editing tools. The 2025 Recap now displays a selfie count, highlights users' standout hobbies, and lets Gemini‑enabled accounts see personalized year‑end insights. Users can hide specific people or...
Mirumi the Furry Companion Robot Is Now Available on Kickstarter
Yukai Engineering has opened pre‑orders for its Mirumi companion robot on Kickstarter, with shipments slated for April 2026. The plush‑furred bot, priced at ¥18,360 ($118) for early backers and rising to about $150 at retail, is designed solely to provide...
Indiegogo Is Launching ‘Express Crowdfunding’ so Creators Can Ship Things Sooner
Indiegogo announced a new "Express Crowdfunding" format that lets creators begin shipping products while their campaign is still active, eliminating the traditional wait for the pledge‑manager phase. The change stems from the platform’s recent migration to Gamefound’s technology, which was...
Google Is Experimentally Replacing News Headlines with AI Clickbait Nonsense
Google is piloting an experiment that swaps original news headlines with AI‑generated, click‑bait style titles in its Discover feed. The test has produced a mix of harmlessly terse headlines and wildly misleading ones, such as “BG3 players exploit children” and...
Google Is Bringing AI-Powered Notification Summaries to More Android Devices
Google is extending its AI‑powered notification summaries, introduced in Android 16, to Android devices beyond Pixel, starting with Samsung and other OEMs. The feature condenses lengthy chat messages and group conversations into brief snippets, but remains limited to messaging apps,...
It’s Their Job to Keep AI From Destroying Everything
Anthropic has built a nine‑person societal impacts team to surface "inconvenient truths" about its AI systems. The group developed Clio, an internal analytics platform that tracks real‑time user interactions with Claude, uncovering misuse such as explicit pornographic content and coordinated...
DRAM It! Raspberry Pi Raises Prices
Raspberry Pi announced price hikes across its single‑board computer lineup, with the 16 GB Raspberry Pi 5 climbing from $120 to $145 and other models seeing $5‑$25 increases. The company also introduced a new 1 GB Raspberry Pi 5 variant priced at $45. CEO...
Apple AI Chief Steps Down Following Siri Setbacks
Apple’s senior AI executive John Giannandrea announced his departure, ending a seven‑year tenure that began with a mandate to revamp Siri. Amar Subramanya, a former Google and Microsoft AI leader, will assume the role of vice president of AI, reporting...
Amazon and Google’s New Cloud Link Could Make It Easier to Deal with Outages
Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud have launched a private interconnect that lets customers link the two platforms in minutes via console or API. The service includes proactive failure detection and coordinated maintenance to prevent overlapping outages. It aims to...
Runway Says Its New Text-to-Video AI Generator Has ‘Unprecedented’ Accuracy
Runway unveiled its Gen-4.5 text-to-video model, touting unprecedented physical accuracy and visual precision. The new system delivers more realistic motion, weight, and fluid dynamics while better adhering to detailed prompts. Gen-4.5 is being rolled out gradually to all users, maintaining...
Why IBM CEO Arvind Krishna Is Still Hiring Humans in the AI Era
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna acknowledges that early Watson efforts were technologically sound but mis‑timed, prompting a shift toward modular, enterprise‑focused generative AI via the new Watsonx platform. He argues that AI costs will fall dramatically over the next five years...
The Race to AGI-Pill the Pope
A coalition of AI researchers and clergy, dubbed the “AI Avengers,” is urging the Vatican to treat artificial general intelligence (AGI) risks as a serious policy issue. Pope Leo XIV, a math‑trained, tech‑savvy pontiff, has already signaled interest in AI, convening...
This Deal on Smart Glasses Was Too Good for My Husband to Pass Up
Amazon slashed the price of its Echo Frames smart glasses to $115 for Cyber Monday, a steep drop from the regular $300 list price. The promotion bundles a prescription‑ready model with a free Echo Spot smart alarm clock, delivering roughly...
I Just Want AI to Rename My Photos
Raycast CEO Thomas Paul Mann envisions an AI‑powered desktop assistant that does more than chat, leveraging deep integration with macOS to manage files, rename photos, and streamline workflows. The app already combines an app launcher, file search, and note‑taking, and...
It Doesn’t End at Neuralink
Neuralink patient Brad Smith, the company’s third implant recipient and first with ALS, equipped his mind‑controlled computer with an Insta360 Link 2 webcam to gain a periscope‑like view of his surroundings. The DIY integration, which Neuralink later helped mount on his...
97 Percent of People Struggle to Identify AI Music, but It’s Not as Bad as It Seems
Deezer’s recent study, conducted with Ipsos, found that 97 percent of listeners could not reliably tell AI‑generated tracks from human‑made songs. A secondary analysis showed that when responses weren’t bundled, participants correctly identified AI music only 43 percent of the time. The...
The Oura Ring 4 Is Still at Its Lowest Price Ever for Black Friday
During Black Friday, the Oura Ring 4 is available for $249, its lowest price ever, representing a $100 discount off the usual $349 retail price. Gold and rose gold variants are also reduced, now selling for $350 instead of $500....
A Humanoid Robot-Shaped Bubble Is Forming, China Warns
China’s National Development and Reform Commission warned on Thursday that the country’s rapidly expanding humanoid robotics sector may be forming a bubble. The agency highlighted that more than 150 firms, many startups or cross‑industry entrants, are pouring capital into humanoid...
Why Can’t ChatGPT Tell Time?
ChatGPT cannot reliably tell the current time because its core language model operates without built‑in access to a system clock or live data feeds. The model can only provide time information when it is explicitly linked to external tools such...
My AI Shopping Assistants Are Stuck in the Past
In the holiday season, OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, and Microsoft rolled out AI‑driven shopping assistants that can generate buying guides, track prices, and even call stores. The author tested ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot while searching for an Android smartwatch compatible...
Pentagon Contractors Want to Blow up Military Right to Repair
Pentagon contractors are pushing a data‑as‑a‑service (DAS) model to replace the right‑to‑repair provision in the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act. The provision, championed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Tim Sheehy, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, would require manufacturers to share...
Uber’s Robotaxi Service in UAE Now Includes Fully Driverless Vehicles
Uber and Chinese autonomous‑vehicle firm WeRide have upgraded their UAE robotaxi service to fully driverless operation, starting on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The WeRide GXR, a five‑seat vehicle equipped with more than 20 sensors, can now be matched to...
David Sacks Tried to Kill State AI Laws — and It Blew up in His Face
A leaked draft White House executive order under President Donald Trump would have preempted state AI regulations and forced federal agencies to punish non‑compliant states, with venture capitalist David Sacks appointed as the special advisor overseeing the effort. The order...
Perplexity Says Its AI Personal Shopper ‘Puts You First’
Perplexity has launched a free AI‑powered personal shopper for U.S. users ahead of the holiday season, allowing shoppers to type queries, refine results and purchase items directly through the platform via PayPal’s Instant Buy integration. The assistant remembers prior interactions...
Wyze’s New Security Camera Watches Your Yard From Inside Your Home
Wyze has launched a $34.99 Window Cam that monitors a yard from inside a rear window, eliminating the need for batteries, exterior power, Wi‑Fi extenders, or weatherproofing. The 1080p camera offers a 101-degree horizontal field of view, enhanced color night...
Aluminium OS Will Be Google’s Take on Android for PC
Google is developing a new operating system, codenamed Aluminium OS (ALOS), that merges Android with ChromeOS and places AI at its core. A recent senior product manager job listing reveals the OS will target entry‑level to premium laptops, detachables, tablets...
Large Language Mistake
Benjamin Riley argues that large language models (LLMs) are fundamentally limited because they model language, not thought. Citing a recent Nature commentary, he notes neuroscience evidence that human cognition operates independently of linguistic ability, and that language is a communication...
RAM Prices Are so Out of Control that Stores Are Selling It Like Lobster
U.S. computer retailers such as Central Computers and Micro Center have begun listing RAM at dynamic, market‑driven prices rather than fixed tags, reflecting a severe memory shortage that has driven DDR5 kit costs up 200‑300% since mid‑2024. Prices for 32 GB...
DOJ Settles with RealPage over Its Software’s Alleged Rent Price Fixing
The U.S. Department of Justice has reached a settlement with RealPage, the landlord‑software provider accused of facilitating rent‑price fixing by sharing competitors’ data. Under the agreement, RealPage must restrict its algorithm to use only data that is at least 12...