Minnesota Got One Thing Right on Distributed Storage — but It Missed the Bigger Opportunity
Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission approved Xcel Energy’s Capacity*Connect program, allowing the utility to own and deploy up to 200 MW of front‑of‑meter battery storage funded by a $430 million ratepayer budget. The approval marks a regulatory acknowledgment that distributed storage can bolster resource adequacy, grid resilience, and defer transmission upgrades. However, the pilot is limited in scale, uses an untested service provider, and keeps the project within a utility‑owned monopoly model. Advocates argue that broader, competitive private‑capital deployment is needed to meet the nation’s 100‑GW storage target.
AWS Demos AI Tools to Deliver Vertical Video
Amazon Web Services is showcasing a suite of AI‑driven tools at the NAB Show aimed at delivering vertical video streams for mobile‑first audiences. The centerpiece, AWS Elemental Inference, can generate a vertical feed from live encoding with only a six‑to‑10‑second...
Live Event Technology Expands Fan Engagement
Germany‑based ASB GlassFloor’s LED sports flooring system, which can display graphics during games, was showcased at the Big 12 tournament and highlighted at the NAB Show as part of a broader push toward immersive, interactive venues. System integrators such as Advanced...
Audio Systems Get Boost From Cloud and AI
At NAB 2026, leading audio‑technology vendors showcased cloud‑centric and AI‑enhanced mixing solutions that decouple the console from physical racks. Telos Alliance introduced its flexAI automixer, while Wheatstone, SSL and Lawo demonstrated virtual consoles and containerized workflow platforms that run on...
Beats Brings Back Its Sold-Out JENNIE Headphones in a Stealthy New Colour
Beats is reviving its popular Beats Solo 4 – JENNIE Special Edition, swapping last year’s sold‑out Ruby Red finish for an understated Onyx Black version. The limited‑edition headphones launch on April 24 with exclusive black bows, UltraPlush cushions featuring JENNIE‑inspired symbols, and a matching...
WWO: Guidelines for Using AI to Build Your Media Plans
Westwood One’s Audio Active Group released guidelines for local advertisers on leveraging artificial intelligence in media planning. Cumulus Media president of operations Bob Walker emphasizes that AI can be useful but must be used with precise prompts, reputable sources, and...
Anthropic's Mythos Raises the Stakes for Security Validation
Anthropic showcased Claude Mythos, an autonomous AI that discovered and chained zero‑day vulnerabilities across major operating systems in hours, a task that would normally take elite researchers weeks. The demonstration highlights a growing risk: probabilistic, agentic tools excel at discovery...
Alesi Surgical Raises £7M to Clear the Air in Operating Theatres with Next-Gen Smoke Management Tech
Alesi Surgical announced a £7 million ($9 million) funding round led by IW Capital to accelerate its Ultravision smoke‑management platform. The technology uses electrostatic precipitation to clear surgical smoke up to 225‑times faster than conventional suction, already deployed in over 50,000 minimally...
Boonray Signs Cooperation Deal with Vale Indonesia Following Successful Electric Mining Truck Trial
Shanghai Boonray Intelligent Technology and PT Vale Indonesia have signed a strategic cooperation agreement after a successful trial of Boonray’s all‑electric mining trucks. The trial demonstrated stable operation and more than 50% reduction in energy costs, prompting Vale to become...
A Conversation with GF’s Pioneer Silicon Photonics Leader and Optica Fellow Dr. Yusheng Bian
Dr. Yusheng Bian, GlobalFoundries’ silicon‑photonic pioneer, was recently named an Optica Fellow for his decade‑long work turning silicon photonics from research into high‑volume CMOS production. He explains how AI‑driven data‑center demand is displacing copper interconnects with pluggable and co‑packaged optical...
What’s the Impact of AI on Analog Design
The article argues that the impact of AI on analog design is still uncertain, noting that past technology forecasts have often missed the mark. It highlights two concrete AI applications: using generative tools to streamline component selection, such as choosing...
The Quiet Infrastructure Play on Small-Bank Survival
Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY) remains a quiet powerhouse for roughly 7,400 community banks and credit unions, delivering core‑banking, payments and digital‑channel solutions. In fiscal Q2 2025 the company posted $619.3 million revenue, up 7.9% YoY, and net income surged 27.4%...
Re: Alzheimer’s Drugs Targeting Amyloid Do Not Produce Clinically Meaningful Effects, Concludes Cochrane Review
A recent Cochrane review concluded that amyloid‑targeting drugs for Alzheimer’s disease do not deliver clinically meaningful benefits, prompting disappointment among researchers, investors, and caregivers. In a BMJ rapid response, emeritus professors Elaine and Robert Perry argue that cholinergic therapy—available for...
Tata Steel, SMS Group Join Hands for New Technology to Cut Carbon Footprint
Tata Steel has signed definitive agreements with SMS Group’s Paul Wurth to install the world’s first electrically‑assisted syngas smelter (EASyMelt) at its Jamshedpur ‘E’ blast furnace. The phased industrial demonstration aims to slash carbon emissions by more than 50% compared with...
John Ternus’ First Big Problem Is AI
Apple announced that longtime hardware chief John Ternus will replace Tim Cook as CEO on September 1, 2026. The transition marks the first hardware‑focused leadership change in three decades, yet the announcement omitted any AI roadmap. Apple has fallen behind rivals...
Med-Tech Tourism Startup CureMeAbroad Raises Pre-Seed Round
CureMeAbroad, an AI‑first medical‑tourism discovery platform, closed a $600 K pre‑seed round backed by five angel investors. The funding will accelerate development of its AI cost estimator, clinical‑matching models, and a multilingual patient‑intelligence layer. The startup already hosts a directory of...
Volkswagen Announces Voice AI in Its Chinese Cars From Later This Year
Volkswagen announced that all vehicles built on its China platform will feature AI-powered voice assistants starting in the second half of 2026. The in‑car agents, sourced from technology partners such as Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu, run on a locally trained...
Tenaska, TVA Sign Agreement for 225 MW Battery Project in Tennessee
Tenaska's Bobwhite Energy Storage, a 225 MW/900 MWh battery project, has signed a 20‑year agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority. Construction is slated for 2027 with commercial operation expected by late 2029, bringing a $300 million investment to Hawkins County. The deal raises...
In Regulating Digital Gold, India Should Look to Britain
India’s digital‑gold market surged to roughly ₹16,000 crore ($2.2 bn) in 2025, driven by the convenience of electronic gold receipts. SEBI’s current framework only covers platforms that issue EGRs, leaving major fintech apps such as Paytm, Google Pay and PhonePe unregulated. This...
Why IBM Says Every Brand Now Needs a GEO Playbook
IBM warns that AI‑driven agents will dominate search, estimating 75% of visibility shifting to machine answers within two years. To stay discoverable, brands must adopt a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) playbook, a 12‑component system covering content, technical foundations, citation strategy,...
What Effective Oversight Looks Like in an Agent-Driven World
Enterprises are confronting a governance gap as AI agents move from answering queries to autonomously initiating workflows, updating records, and making decisions at machine speed. Traditional oversight—built around human roles, approvals, and periodic audits—cannot keep pace with the real‑time, cross‑system...
Tesla Submits Plans for First Robotaxi-Only Supercharger Stations
Tesla filed permits for two private V4 Supercharger stations in Chandler and Mesa, Arizona, dedicated exclusively to its Robotaxi fleet. The Chandler site will host 56 stalls, while a second location in Mesa adds additional capacity, and neither will be...
Merck, Eisai’s Keytruda Triplet Fails to Improve Survival in Kidney Cancer
Merck and Eisai announced that their Phase 3 LITESPARK‑012 trial of a three‑drug regimen—Keytruda, Welireg and Lenvima—failed to improve overall survival or progression‑free survival in first‑line renal cell carcinoma. The control arm received the approved Keytruda‑Lenvima doublet, which also did not...
Amperon Launches Probabilistic Forecasting Tool for Solar and Wind Assets
Amperon unveiled a new probabilistic forecasting service for solar and wind assets, delivering hourly and sub‑hourly generation probabilities up to 15 days ahead. The tool provides 19 percentile bands from P5 to P95 via an API, allowing operators to see...
This Samsung Soundbar With Dolby Atmos Is Now $350 Off
Samsung’s HW‑Q800F 5.1.2‑channel soundbar is now priced at $749.99 on Amazon, a drop of more than 30% from its $1,099.99 list price. The unit delivers wireless Dolby Atmos, a dedicated subwoofer, HDMI 4K 60 Hz passthrough, and Samsung’s Q‑Symphony TV‑soundbar integration. It...
Meta’s AI Push Has Made Its Way Into Ad Creative. Not All Marketers Are Happy About It
Meta has been automatically applying AI‑generated tweaks to advertisers' creative assets, often without the brands’ knowledge. Snag Tights discovered altered ads that misrepresented its products, prompting the company to request a shutdown of Meta’s AI testing on its account. Other...
Your Next Customer Will Find You Using AI. Now What?
AI‑powered large language model (LLM) search is reshaping how consumers discover products, with 44% of U.S. online buyers now starting their journey in an LLM or AI tool. Adoption is twice as fast among Gen Z and millennials, but the trend...
Key Trends and Developments in White Collar Litigation and Investigations
The 2026 white‑collar litigation outlook highlights a surge in individual accountability, AI‑driven enforcement, and heightened scrutiny of cryptocurrency, sanctions and ESG disclosures. Federal agencies are deploying advanced analytics to detect fraud while prosecutors push cooperation credits tied to swift individual...
What New Roku TVs and Roku Players Are Coming in 2026? Here Is What We Know
Roku is expected to refresh its streaming hardware in 2026, with the most likely candidates being a new Streaming Stick 4K that could add Dolby Vision support and an updated Roku Ultra box. Both products typically see a fall‑season refresh,...
HVMG Expands Elevate Renovations + Development Platform
Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG) announced the expansion of its Elevate Renovations + Development platform, a third‑party project‑management service for hotel owners. Elevate has overseen more than $80 million in renovations, including the recent public‑space overhaul of the Castle Hotel, Autograph...
SaNOtize - 727784 - 04/17/2026
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to SaNOtize, the maker of “NOWONDER™ Nasal Cleanser,” on April 17, 2026. The agency determined the product is an unapproved new drug because its labeling and website claim nitric‑oxide‑based immune benefits, violating sections 505(a)...
Pro Numb Tattoo Numbing Spray, LLC - 722589 - 04/14/2026
The FDA issued a warning letter to Pro Numb Tattoo Numbing Spray, LLC for multiple Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) violations, including failure to test finished drug batches, inadequate raw‑material verification, and lack of stability data. The firm also marketed...
Siemens and OnLogic Partner to Bring Industrial Edge to the Harshest Environments
Siemens and OnLogic have formed a strategic partnership to extend the Siemens Industrial Edge platform onto OnLogic’s fanless, ruggedized edge computers, enabling deployment in extreme environments such as mines and energy sites. The collaboration combines Siemens’ automation software with OnLogic’s...
BSC Meeting with Latin American Presidents Focuses on AI, Digital Sovereignty
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) hosted the presidents of Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico to deepen AI and digital‑sovereignty collaboration across Latin America. Leaders toured the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer and its quantum partition, discussing joint projects such as the EU‑LAC supercomputing network...
Introduction to ProSeries® Tax
Intuit’s ProSeries tax platform, used by more than 65,000 tax professionals, offers a comprehensive training course that highlights its time‑saving and accuracy‑boosting features. The curriculum covers 27 automated tools, including auto‑entry of 1099s, W‑2s, and stock sales, as well as...
SiFly – Senior Flight Controller SW Engineer
SiFly announced a senior Flight Controller Software Engineer opening to advance its long‑endurance UAV platform. The role centers on hands‑on development within the open‑source PX4 stack, MAVLink integration, and full‑cycle validation from simulation to live flight. Candidates must bring at...
France’s Engie Discussing Refund for US Offshore Wind Projects with Trump Administration
French utility Engie is negotiating with the Trump administration for a possible refund on its U.S. offshore wind lease payments after the president’s anti‑wind stance led the company to pause three projects and record impairments. Engie's CEO Catherine MacGregor said an...
Snowflake Offers Help to Users and Builders of AI Agents
Snowflake announced upgrades to its Snowflake Intelligence and Cortex Code platforms, aiming to serve as a unified control plane for enterprise AI agents. The enhancements let business users automate tasks with natural‑language prompts, add new Model Context Protocol connectors, and...
Introducing Index Cloud: Bring Your Own Intelligence Inside the Exchange
Index Exchange unveiled Index Cloud, a neutral compute layer inside its global data centers that lets partners run custom models, data and applications directly within the real‑time auction. Using containerized workloads, partners can process impression‑level signals in under five milliseconds,...
O9 Survey Reveals Summer Shopping Will Be Omnichannel and Youth-Driven, Putting Pressure on Retail Inventory and Supply Chain Agility
The o9 Solutions survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers shows 69% will shop both in‑store and online this summer, while only 12% of Gen Z and 9% of Millennials plan to shop exclusively online. Younger shoppers are driving higher summer spending, especially...
B2B Ecommerce Powers Africa Retail
African consumer ecommerce is hampered by high acquisition costs and fragmented delivery, prompting a pivot toward B2B platforms that supply physical retailers. Companies like Nigeria’s TradeDepot and the MaxAB‑Wasoko merger are turning trucks into high‑density supply nodes while also offering...
Dutch Warship Compromised with $5 Tracker and a Postcard
A journalist mailed a $5 Bluetooth tracker hidden inside a postcard through the Dutch military postal system, and it arrived aboard the HNLMS Eversten without detection. The frigate, currently supporting France's carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Eastern Mediterranean, passed...
impact.com Expands Creator Management Capabilities with YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API
impact.com announced an expanded collaboration with YouTube as an early adopter of the Creator Partnerships API, letting brands discover creators, manage sponsorships, and pull performance insights. The integration offers end‑to‑end campaign management and access to verified audience and engagement data....
Brunel Develops AI-Backed Stock Lending Tool to Protect Stewardship Efforts
Brunel, a UK asset‑servicing firm, has launched an AI‑driven stock‑lending platform designed to safeguard stewardship objectives. The tool uses machine‑learning models to vet borrowers, flag ESG‑related risks, and monitor loan‑level activity in real time. The launch coincides with a UK...
NEURA Robotics and Amazon Web Services Enter Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate Physical AI at Scale
NEURA Robotics and Amazon Web Services have signed a strategic agreement to accelerate Physical AI at scale, combining NEURA's cognitive robotics platform with AWS's cloud and AI services. The partnership will integrate NEURA Gym training environments with Amazon SageMaker and...
Alight Named a Leader Across All Market Segments in the 2026 Nelsonhall Neat Assessment for Benefits Administration
Alight, a leading benefits‑administration provider, has been named a Leader in all six market segments of NelsonHall’s 2026 Benefits Administration NEAT assessment. The recognition follows a consecutive‑year ranking and highlights Alight’s digital platform, AI‑enabled health navigation, and extensive global capabilities....
Vercel Confirms Cyber Incident After Sophisticated Attacker Exploits Third‑Party Tool
Vercel, the Next.js and cloud infrastructure provider, confirmed a cyber‑incident involving a highly sophisticated attacker. The breach originated from an employee’s use of the third‑party tool Context.ai, which allowed the threat actor to commandeer the employee’s Google Workspace account. Through...
Modular DAQ System Supports GPS and PTP Synchronization
B&K Precision has launched the DAS1820, a portable high‑speed data acquisition system that uses a dual‑slot modular architecture compatible with its D18 plug‑and‑play ecosystem. It can sample up to 1 MSa/s per channel across eight channels, handle ±1500 VDC/1000 Vrms with CAT III/IV safety...
Podcast Data Firm Bumper Unveils Audience Verification Metric to Boost Advertiser Confidence
Bumper, a podcast data and growth firm, launched the Bumper Score, a new audience verification metric that rates podcasts on a 0‑200 scale with 100 as the industry average. The score aggregates first‑party hosting data, verified listener information from major...
Fashion Retailer Quince Tops Podcast Ad Spending, Sports and Comedy Dominate Genre Placements in March
Fashion retailer Quince led March 2026 podcast advertising with an estimated $6.57 million spend, primarily on comedy programs. BetterHelp, Amazon, Meta, and T‑Mobile rounded out the top five, each allocating roughly $5‑6 million, with a strong preference for sports podcasts. Magellan AI’s...