Winter 2026
The Winter 2026 issue of FedTech Magazine surveys the federal government’s tech agenda, spotlighting AI‑enabled zero‑trust, cloud‑first modernization, and legacy hardware like NASA’s GRiD Compass. It features a Q&A with Palo Alto’s Eric Trexler on identity‑first, AI‑secure cyberdefenses, and examines whether Trump‑era agencies will lean more on commercial‑off‑the‑shelf (COTS) solutions. The publication also highlights 24 influential federal IT leaders, FedRAMP adoption, and practical guidance for hybrid‑work security and backup strategies. Together, these pieces map the evolving landscape of federal IT policy and practice.
Grid Operators Demand Flexibility for 100% Renewable Future
“Grow your own and buy local”: Networks seek change and flexibility to manage a 100 pct renewable grid #energysky -- via Renew Economy: https://t.co/Gezxtk3hln https://t.co/9Ooj4rP7GJ
This Viral Wireless Dongle Lets You Share Your Audio on a Flight - How It Works
Twelve South’s AirFly Pro 2 is a compact Bluetooth dongle that turns any 3.5 mm audio source—such as an airplane’s entertainment jack—into a wireless feed for personal headphones. The device supports dual‑headphone pairing, features an upgraded Qualcomm chip for clearer sound and...
ML Kit Detects Faces, Not Persistent Identity Recognition
“At its core, ML Kit is designed to detect faces, not reliably recognise people over time.” This is such an important, well-reported story. 👇 https://t.co/a96ojsmLOw
Youi Appoints Veridooh As Its Exclusive OOH Independent Verification Partner
Australian insurer Youi has appointed out‑of‑home verification platform Veridooh as its exclusive independent verification partner. Veridooh’s SmartCreative technology will provide real‑time tracking, measurement and verification of Youi’s OOH campaigns, aligning metrics with the insurer’s digital KPIs. The partnership enables mid‑campaign...
Continuous-Flow VAD Keeps Patients Alive Pre‑Transplant
Life Without a Pulse: Continuous-Flow VAD That Sustains Patients Awaiting Transplants by @Doctors__squad #HealthTech #Innovation #EmergingTech #Tech #Technology #TechForGood https://t.co/KoRFzmH3lQ
Star Systems International Transponders Used in Thailand's Toll System
Star Systems International is supplying its Chara transponders for Thailand’s new M‑Flow tolling system, which seeks to replace manual cash payments with electronic toll collection (ETC). The transponders, OmniAir‑certified and engineered for high‑speed, extreme‑temperature environments, will work in tandem with...
AI Tool Catches Tax Error, Saves $1,441
.@grok just saved my sister $1,441 on her taxes. I had it check the turbotax output and it found a mistake. Seriously - 4.20 is very good with taxes.
CEPI Says Recycling Sector Ready for ‘Made in Europe’ Policy
European paper industry group CEPI says the continent’s recycling infrastructure is ready to underpin a ‘Made in Europe’ policy that ties bio‑based materials to industrial competitiveness. With an 87 percent recycling rate for paper packaging and sustainably managed forests, the EU...
French Aircraft Carrier Charles De Gaulle Tracked via Strava Activity in OPSEC Failure
Le Monde reported that a French Navy officer unintentionally disclosed the real‑time position of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle by uploading a public Strava run from the deck. The data showed the carrier sailing in the Mediterranean near Cyprus...
Mydeposits and Reposit Join Forces
mydeposits has partnered with Reposit to let letting agents manage both traditional tenancy deposits and Reposit’s fee‑based alternative on a single platform. The integration combines mydeposits’ government‑authorised protection scheme with Reposit’s model where tenants pay a one‑week‑rent fee and landlords...
AI Education Secures the Future Talent Battle
The country that trains its next generation on AI wins the entire talent war. https://t.co/cjVAvnQItC
NSE to Cut Response Time to Nanoseconds, Targeting 100 Million Trades per Second
The National Stock Exchange of India will slash system latency to the nanosecond range on April 11, enabling roughly 100 million transactions per second. CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said the upgrade will deliver near‑real‑time finance while warning that the speed jump amplifies cyber‑risk,...
Why Disabling the SQL Server Sa Account Still Matters in 2026
Even with SQL Server’s 2026 security enhancements, the built‑in sa account remains a critical attack vector. Attack tools still assume sa exists and brute‑force its password, giving adversaries immediate sysadmin control. Because sa bypasses many modern access controls, compromising it...
Guggenheim Keeps $26 Target on Larimar as FDA Breakthrough Boosts Outlook
Guggenheim Securities reaffirmed a Buy rating on Larimar Therapeutics and held its $26 price target after the company disclosed a $115 million public offering and FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for its Friedreich's ataxia drug. The analyst’s confidence comes amid a cash...
AI-Driven Analytics Cut Ratios and Boost Premiums for North American Insurers
WTW's 2026 Advanced Analytics and AI Survey shows that property‑and‑casualty insurers in the United States and Canada that intensified AI and advanced‑analytics investments lowered combined ratios by six percentage points and outpaced peers on premium growth by three points between...
AI Market to Top $1 Trillion in Two Years
In less than 2 years, the AI market will be over $1Trillion. If you want to get rich, go all in on AI.
Seer Fixes Seer: How Seer Pointed Us Toward a Bug and Helped Fix an Outage
On February 21, 2026 Sentry’s AI‑powered Seer service suffered an 80‑90% failure rate in its EU Issue Summary API after a Google Cloud Vertex AI Gemini outage triggered a bug in Seer’s region‑fallback logic. The bug blocklisted the provisioned‑throughput region europe‑west1,...
Lab-Grown Oesophagus Restores Pigs’ Ability to Swallow
Scientists at University College London have engineered bio‑grown oesophageal segments using patient‑derived stem cells and implanted them into minipigs, restoring normal swallowing. The grafts were seeded onto decellularized scaffolds, covered with a biodegradable mesh, and integrated functional muscle, nerves, and...
Shift Gears: 10 Stories Redefining Enterprise IT
Red Hat unveiled a suite of production‑ready tools aimed at simplifying enterprise AI, container, and virtualization workloads for 2026. Highlights include the Sovereignty Readiness Assessment, an enterprise‑grade Podman Desktop, and a migration toolkit that accelerates VM moves tenfold. The company also...
Solve Multi-Controller Contention with Red Hat OpenShift Networking
Red Hat OpenShift now supports governed multi‑controller load balancing using the Kubernetes loadBalancerClass field. By assigning a class to external services, enterprises can separate MetalLB’s internal load‑balancing from hardware‑based solutions like F5 BIG‑IP, preventing controller contention. The approach eliminates race conditions, ensures deterministic...
From the Microsoft Power Platform Blogs: Low-Code Plug-Ins for Copilot; Power Pages Plug-In and Claude Code; Connect External Barcode Scanner...
Microsoft’s Power Platform blog roundup highlights four new developer resources. A step‑by‑step guide shows how low‑code Dataverse plug‑ins can be exposed as actions inside Copilot agents, enabling natural‑language driven billing calculations. Rajeev Pentyala demonstrates the Power Pages plug‑in for GitHub...
From the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Blogs: Audit Permissions; Payables Agent; Approval Workflows; API Pages vs API Queries
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central version 28 introduces a Permissions Overview page, giving administrators a single pane to audit and manage user and group rights across all apps and extensions. The same release also launches an AI‑driven Payables Agent that captures invoices...
The Mandarin Live: Future Ready Public Service Canberra
The Mandarin Live: Future Ready Public Service summit will take place on 17 June 2026 in Canberra and online, gathering senior Australian Public Service (APS) leaders to address the next phase of digital reform. The event emphasizes stewardship, systemic integrity and scaling...
Deeptune Raises $43M to Accelerate AI Learning Through Virtual Training Gyms
Deeptune Inc. announced a $43 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, aimed at scaling its AI "training gyms" that simulate professional workflows. The New‑York startup creates high‑fidelity reinforcement‑learning environments for tasks ranging from DevOps to customer support, turning data collection...
Davidson: It’s Time for Naked 2.0
AI and automation are driving down the cost of media execution, exposing a mismatch in traditional agency billing that bundles strategic thinking with operational work. The article argues for separating these functions: pricing execution on measurable outputs while charging a...
NASA's Artemis Missions Promise a Return to the Moon—But When?
NASA’s Artemis II crewed lunar flyby is slated for April 2026, marking the first human deep‑space mission in over five decades. The program’s flagship landing mission, Artemis III, has been pushed back, with a crewed touchdown now expected in 2028 under the Artemis IV...
X Adds AI Article Summaries In-Stream
X introduced an AI‑powered “Summarize” button for native X Articles, delivering concise TL;DR bullet points and an AI‑generated audio version. The feature, initially limited to Premium+ members, is now available to all paying subscribers as part of a broader push...
X Adds Comment Downvotes to Improve Algorithmic Ranking
X is testing a new comment downvote button for replies, available only to Premium subscribers. Users can select one of five reasons—Not interested, Incorrect, AI generated, Spam, or Report—when downvoting, but the count won’t affect the like total. The move...
NSF Awards $11M to Expand AI Training for K-12 Teachers
The National Science Foundation has awarded $11 million to the Computer Science Teachers Association to launch a multistate professional development program that equips K‑12 teachers with foundational computer science and artificial intelligence skills. The two‑year initiative will roll out in six...
Pinterest Shares Tips on How to Utilize Its AI-Powered Ad Options
Pinterest has released new guidance for its AI‑driven Performance+ campaigns, which automate creative, targeting and budgeting. Launched in October 2024, the fully automated solution leverages Pinterest’s engagement data to optimize ad delivery. Internal tests show advertisers achieve more than 10%...
AI Brings Val Kilmer Back To Life In New Movie
The Australian Football League’s 2026 season, running March 5‑September 26, will be streamed live and free on the 7plus platform. Although 7plus is geo‑blocked to Australia, viewers worldwide can bypass restrictions using a VPN, with ExpressVPN highlighted as the top choice. The...
Drug Development Is Booming in China. Should the U.S. View It as a Threat or an Opportunity?
China’s biotech sector is experiencing a rapid surge, now hosting more CAR‑T cell trials than the United States. The growth is driven by a dual‑track regulatory framework that enables fast‑track, investigator‑initiated trials with minimal red tape. U.S. experts warn that...
Singapore, Japan Align IoT Security Frameworks for Digital Resilience
Singapore and Japan have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to mutually recognise each other’s IoT cybersecurity labelling schemes. The agreement lets devices certified in one country obtain the other’s Level 1 label through a streamlined process, cutting duplicate testing. It also...
Dollar General, Five Below Each Seek to Enhance Omnichannel Experiences
Discount retailers Dollar General and Five Below used their Q4 earnings calls to outline new digital initiatives aimed at strengthening omnichannel experiences. Dollar General reported a 4.3% same‑store sales increase and highlighted its expanded delivery network, upgraded search, and a...
Amelia Van Camp: Preparing for Agentic Commerce Now and for the Future
At the Mirakl Summit in London, Head of Agentic Commerce Amelia Van Camp highlighted how AI is reshaping marketplace ecosystems. She explained Mirakl’s strategy for embedding large‑language models into category mapping, customer experience, product sourcing and retail media. The discussion...
The Future Is Now, Almost
Digital government in Australia is a patchwork of progress and lag, with basic services still relying on paper and fax while some regions experiment with AI. Victor Dominello, former NSW minister, outlined a four‑stage evolution—Government 1.0 to 4.0—culminating in agentic...
Colorado Adopts AI Framework Ensuring Notice, Correction, Human Review
I’m grateful to the task force for developing a framework to guide how Colorado uses AI. Under this proposal, Coloradans would get upfront notice when AI is used in major decisions, the ability to correct errors, and the right to...
Anthropic Likely to Launch Claude Super App First
Won't be surprised if Anthropic ships their Claude super app before Open AI. This AI war is fantastic.
Australia: Facial Recognition Aids Regulatory Oversight, Compliance
Australian authorities in New South Wales have issued guidelines for deploying facial‑recognition systems in venues that host electronic gaming machines. The technology is intended to verify identities in real time, enforce self‑exclusion registers, and bolster broader financial‑crime monitoring. Advanced AI...
Eastman Opens 800 MW Solar Module Plant in India
Eastman launches 800 MW solar module plant in India #energysky -- via pv magazine global: https://t.co/VPIu82w0jy
Automation Replaces White‑collar Work, Turning Us Into Data‑gathering AI Slaves
Sorry we automated all the cool white collar jobs But now you can be an AI agent slave to collect data
China Considers Volcanic Site For Its First Moon Landing
China is targeting a crewed lunar landing in 2030 and has identified the volcanic Rimae Bode region as the preferred site after evaluating 106 candidates and narrowing them to 14. The area’s mix of dark pyroclastic deposits, mare basalts, rille...
Ensure Every Student Advances with Playlist Strategies
😖 Worried about your students not making progress on a playlist? You’re not alone—& there are also specific strategies we can use to ensure all students are making progress. 🙌 Learn more about the playlist model on my blog: https://t.co/ZwfhaMP1cK #edchat #k12 https://t.co/Fr7X2Yg43h
X AI Recommendation Algorithm Update Goes Live, Open‑source
Major update to the 𝕏 AI recommendation algorithm rolling out next week. This will be open sourced at the same time.
Future Fun Becomes AI‑Driven Data Collection
in the future, everything is fun and interactive gamified entertainment, carefully designed to generate training data the ai has decided it needs
Google's Changes Signal Shift From Search to Platform
Google removing call buttons Google hiding links to websites It's almost like Google isn't a search engine anymore
Regulators Must Adapt Quickly to Home Battery Surge
Regulators will have to be nimble to deal with home battery boom and bigger solar systems, says Kean #energysky -- via Renew Economy: https://t.co/LohMGAbbTF https://t.co/mkFw1WzyQN
Space Force Still Lists Deorbited Haven Demo as Orbiting
Space Force failed to issue a decay notice for VAST's Haven Demo, which was removed from orbit on Feb 5. It's still in the US satellite catalog as 'in orbit'.
True Ambition Means Launching Thousands of Space Data Centers
If you don't plan to launch tens of thousands of data centers in space are you even trying? https://t.co/8d1zTwMr7A
