Author: News Room

It has been another busy week. GPT-5 appears to be just around the corner…This week, I decode the meaning behind Mark Zuckerberg’s “personal superintelligence” manifesto, and what it means for the broader AI race. Keep reading for my chat with a Figma exec on the company’s IPO day, a bunch of good links, and some feedback from last week’s issue.What “personal superintelligence” really means to MetaMeta has given up on trying to beat ChatGPT at its own game.If you read between the lines, that’s the message behind Mark Zuckerberg’s “personal superintelligence” manifesto. For the past year, he pushed the Meta…

Apple CEO Tim Cook boasted about the potential of AI and the company’s approach to developing it in a rare all-hands today that was reported on by Bloomberg. Apple has been slow to roll out some of its AI features and has stumbled with a planned AI-powered upgrade to Siri, which it delayed earlier this year.The executive gathered staff at Apple’s on-campus auditorium Friday in Cupertino, California, telling them that the AI revolution is “as big or bigger” as the internet, smartphones, cloud computing and apps. “Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to…

In the week’s least surprising news, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that the company is exploring ways to bring ads to Alexa Plus, its new generative-AI-powered voice assistant. During a conference call following the company’s second-quarter earnings report, Jassy said that “there will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multiturn conversations [with Alexa Plus], to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery, and also as a lever to drive revenue.”Basically, people will talk more to Alexa, so there will be more ways to push ads at them. He also hinted that Alexa Plus, which is…

Reddit is pausing its plans to let people make subreddits with content behind a paywall, CEO Steve Huffman said as part of Thursday’s earnings. The company is making the change as part of a shift in how it’s prioritizing its resources.Huffman said last year that the company was looking into a way for users to make subreddits with “exclusive content or private areas,” and he hinted at the possibility of those subreddits having a paywall. Earlier this year, he said the feature was set to arrive in 2025.But now, “to stay focused on what matters most, we’re shifting resources away…

Finding peace among the chaos on campus can be more challenging than a midterm. But a quality pair of over-ear headphones can block out distractions when it’s time to lock in. If that sounds like you, we’ve found a deal on the Bose QuietComfort Headphones, which are currently down to $229 ($130 off) at Amazon, Bose, and Best Buy. That’s within $30 of the lowest price we’ve seen all year.The Bose QuietComfort Headphones are part of the company’s revamped lineup of headphones and earbuds, which also includes the pricier QC Ultra Headphones, QC Ultra Earbuds, and entry-level QC Earbuds, the…

Apple has been the target of a fair amount of criticism over the past year, from its AI missteps to a strong distaste for its new design ethos. But the numbers don’t lie, and if Apple knows how to do anything it’s sell iPhones. Specifically, three billion of them, as CEO Tim Cook announced on the company’s earnings call today.That’s an impressive number on its own, but it’s even wilder when you consider that Apple is picking up the pace. The iPhone was introduced in 2007 and the company reached 1 billion iPhones sold nine years later in 2016. Getting…

Apple is spending a lot on President Donald Trump’s tariffs. During an earnings call on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the duties could add $1.1 billion to its costs during the September quarter.Cook says Apple has already spent around $800 million during the June quarter, which is less than the $900 million that the company predicted in May. “The bulk of the tariffs that we paid were the IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs that hit early in the year, related to China,” Cook said.Trump’s sweeping tariffs have impacted all of Apple’s devices, which are mainly manufactured in…

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company is “open” to mergers and acquisitions as it “significantly” increases its investment in AI, as reported by CNBC. Cook’s statements were made alongside the release of Apple’s third-quarter earnings results, which revealed that the iPhone-maker raked in $94 billion between April and June, marking a 10 percent increase over the same period last year.The remarks come as Apple continues to be seen as behind the AI race, with its efforts on Apple Intelligence lagging relative to its peers and Meta poaching some of its top engineers. The company is increasingly turning to AI…

We knew DJI had a hard time importing its drones into the United States to the point that many shelves have gone bare, but it’s not just drones anymore. Today marks the first time it’s formally skipping the US with a non-drone product, its 8K Osmo 360 camera — and it’s not clear if it will ever officially stock it here, DJI confirms to The Verge.B&H and Adorama are already taking pre-orders for both the $549.99 Osmo 360 and its $699.99 “Adventure Combo,” as well as an exhaustive range of accessories:If you’re interested, you might also try to call: last…

Following an appeals court victory on Thursday, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted that “the Epic Games Store for Android will be coming to the Google Play Store.” This is despite Google’s plan to appeal the Ninth Circuit panel’s decision, which declined to overturn a 2023 jury verdict that Google’s app store and payment system had become illegal monopolies.Epic may not be the only company to put a rival app store inside of Google’s Play Store in the near future. The Ninth Circuit appears to have lifted a stay on the entire permanent injunction that Epic won against Google’s app store…