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  1. 4h ago

    Ep.87 - Tech News Today - 08-21-2026

    Senator Ron Wyden is asking a federal watchdog to examine how law enforcement agencies use hacking tools and spyware against Americans. He says the public has little insight into how often those technologies are deployed or why. Nevada regulators have approved plans that could allow Tesla, Uber, and Waymo to operate thousands of robotaxis in the state, opening the door to greater competition in autonomous transportation. AI data startup Micro1 says it has reached an annualized gross run rate of five hundred million dollars. Its rapid growth comes amid rising demand for the specialized data used to train AI systems. Slack Code gives developers dedicated channels where they can write, review, and ship software alongside supported AI coding agents. Claude, ChatGPT, Devin, and Copilot are launch partners. Elon Musk has outlined a timeline for SpaceX to try catching a returning Starship vehicle. The planned recovery maneuver is intended to move the company closer to reusing the entire launch system. A public tracker logged one hundred seventy robotaxi trips in Austin using fifty-four Tesla vehicles without onboard safety monitors. Passenger footage allegedly showed one vehicle driving through bollards that had long stood along its route. Apple allegedly laid off at least sixty employees connected to its Vision and virtual reality work as it shifts priorities toward other wearable and spatial computing projects. The company has not confirmed the cuts. Hangzhou has deployed fifteen humanoid robots that can direct traffic, identify violations, and assist tourists. Human officers still retain all enforcement authority. After two decades of work, researchers have developed a new framework that explains fluids through fundamental symmetries. It derives the familiar Navier-Stokes equations from those properties and predicts how fluid behavior emerges from microscopic particle motion. Tesla projects that FSD version fifteen will bring a major jump in capability and says its current HW4 computers can support unsupervised driving. It also projects that outside sales of its Optimus robot could begin in the second half of 2027. Those timelines and capabilities remain company forecasts. Waymo has designed a five-nanometer machine learning accelerator with more than one thousand TOPS of computing power. The custom chip is intended to process autonomous vehicle sensor data with less delay and greater reliability. Empty packaging from luxury goods and collectibles has become a sizable resale market of its own. Resellers and creators are buying original boxes because matching one with the right item can substantially increase its value. Greater Manchester is operating a locally developed platform for managing health data. The alternative comes as the UK government weighs whether to continue a national NHS data contract with Palantir worth more than four hundred million dollars. Tesla allegedly stopped accepting orders for Solar Roof tiles and told outside installers the product was unavailable. Website redirects and changes to its product menus support the claim, but Tesla has not formally announced that the product is discontinued. Patreon has announced a roadmap with more than thirty potential features. The plans include changes to its discovery algorithm intended to surface smaller creators, along with updates to security, community tools, and the wider platform. RayNeo's upcoming iO smart glasses leave out both a camera and speakers. Instead, they offer a monochrome display, microphones, transcription, notifications, and contextual memory features, with a launch planned for September. ChatGPT Work and Codex users on Apple Silicon Macs can opt in to search, read, draft, and send iMessages after granting the required system permissions. OpenAI says the feature runs locally and does not create a complete index of the user's messages. As camera-equipped smart glasses become more common, some venues are banning them and new tools ar

  2. 1d ago

    Ep.86 - Tech News Today - 08-20-2026

    Hackers are allegedly using AI-generated exploit scripts and public information to target exposed Siemens industrial controllers. The equipment is used in water, energy, manufacturing, and agricultural systems, leading U.S. security agencies to issue a warning. Meta has released a Mac app for Meta AI with system-wide dictation and the ability to analyze what is on the screen. It can also connect to business accounts and Google Workspace tools to create documents and provide campaign insights. Binance has launched Agent OS, which lets developers connect AI agents to market data, account information, trading, payments, and on-chain services. Users can control that access through separate subaccounts and settings that determine when an agent needs approval. Stripe views 2026 as a major inflection point for its long-term business after strong first-half growth in revenue and cash flow. The company has also acquired AI routing platform OpenRouter, but did not disclose the price. A new cybersecurity term, half-day, has been proposed for undisclosed vulnerabilities in heavily scrutinized software. The idea is that AI-assisted discovery makes exclusive exploits more likely to be found independently, shortening the time before they lose value. OpenAI expects to become a public company in 2027. Chief financial officer Sarah Friar told employees that a market debut could happen sooner if the company's growth continues to accelerate. Businesses adopting model routers and lower-cost open models are often still spending more on closed American AI models. Spending patterns among fast-growing customers suggest these options are expanding alongside one another rather than serving as direct replacements. Reddit's share of citations in ChatGPT Search fell sharply in mid-August. The timing did not fully match a change in background search behavior, however, and a problem with the tracking process had not been ruled out. Code in the macOS 26.7 release candidate contains references to several unreleased Apple products, including camera-equipped AirPods, a foldable iPhone, a smart-home hub, OLED Macs and iPads, and an updated Siri Remote. Those references do not confirm whether or when the devices will launch. Bumble is changing one of its defining rules by allowing men to start conversations. It has also extended response windows to 72 hours as dating platforms deal with slower engagement, changing user preferences, and new AI features. Public-facing workers say people using smart glasses have recorded and harassed them on the job. Many employers still lack policies for wearable cameras, raising privacy concerns and questions about the power imbalance between workers and customers as the devices become more common. Slack has introduced dedicated coding channels where teams and AI agents can work together in a shared space. The feature moves AI-assisted software development into workplace conversations, making it a collaborative process rather than a solitary one. Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 5 earbuds have replaceable batteries that can be reached with a screwdriver, and the charging case does too. The earbuds also have longer claimed battery life and arrive ahead of European sustainability rules taking effect in 2027. LG Display has developed an OLED manufacturing method called FLiPP that replaces fine metal masks with photolithography. The company says the process can improve brightness, lifespan, energy efficiency, and production at different display sizes. NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies have abandoned a robotic mission designed to raise the orbit of the Swift gamma-ray observatory. Without that intervention, the long-running spacecraft is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere later in 2026.

  3. 1d ago

    Ep.85 - Tech News Today - 08-19-2026

    Stripe has bought OpenRouter, a platform that routes requests across different artificial intelligence models. Stripe rejected suggestions that expectations of an imminent technological singularity motivated the acquisition. Waymo's more affordable next-generation autonomous vehicle is now available to the public in three cities. OpenAI has added privacy protections intended to improve how its products handle customer data. Cognition's chief executive denied claims that SpaceX had allegedly tried to acquire the artificial intelligence coding company. Accounting software startup Rillet has raised one hundred million dollars in Series C funding, giving the two-year-old company a valuation of one billion dollars. Google has launched artificial intelligence tools for students and other learners across Search and Gemini. Security researchers say OpenAI allegedly removed their access to a restricted cybersecurity program, prompting questions about researcher participation and oversight. T-Mobile says it physically disconnected a cable while responding to alleged Chinese hackers operating inside its network. A general-purpose artificial intelligence robot has demonstrated that it can learn unfamiliar physical tasks through immediate interaction instead of relying on programming tailored to each job. HoverAir is marketing a winged camera whose design may test how federal drone restrictions classify and regulate the product. Nielsen plans to add data from wearable devices to its ratings system to better detect television viewing and determine when people are watching together. Valve's own setup and unboxing videos surfaced early, revealing details about its Steam Frame hardware before the formal rollout. Meta is bringing its artificial intelligence assistant to macOS through a dedicated Meta AI desktop app. The FBI is warning that hackers are targeting Siemens industrial equipment amid recent security breaches affecting water-treatment facilities. Amazon aims to expand Prime Air drone deliveries to roughly five hundred neighborhoods across the United States by the end of 2026. Framework has responded after owners said a BIOS update left some Ryzen 7040 laptops unable to boot. The Federal Communications Commission has dropped its gigabit broadband deployment goal, arguing that the benchmark put slower access technologies at a disadvantage. Another Chinese aerospace company has successfully landed a reusable rocket, adding to the number of companies that have demonstrated rocket-recovery technology. Moderna and Merck say their experimental mRNA cancer vaccine met its intended goal in a Phase 3 clinical trial involving patients with melanoma. Meta allegedly allowed advertisements for an app that promised to generate sexualized fake images of female politicians, prompting concerns about advertising enforcement and synthetic-media abuse.

  4. 2d ago

    Ep.84 - Tech News Today - 08-19-2026

    TerraPower's Natrium reactor combines nuclear generation with energy storage, giving operators more flexibility to meet heavy demand from customers such as large data centers. Meta has agreed to buy electricity from eight planned plants. Electric-mobility company Also has raised another $150 million to develop autonomous-driving technology and several types of vehicles. The new models will use the same underlying architecture as its pedal-assist bike and delivery quad. Amazon is expanding Alexa Plus to Fire TV, bringing its generative AI service to more users through its television hardware. Access does not require a Prime subscription. Amazon is significantly expanding Prime Air delivery coverage, including a return to Tolleson, Arizona. The company suspended operations there after two of its drones collided with a crane in 2025. Calendly is testing meeting transcription that captures system audio. The company also plans to launch Callie, an assistant that can arrange meetings, check availability, and retrieve useful context from earlier calls. Competition is making home battery storage less expensive to get into. New lease offers in Texas price large systems from Tesla and Base Power at tens of dollars per month, avoiding the five-figure upfront cost of some installations. A data breach at CareCloud affected about 3.7 million patients in March. The scale is especially serious because the company stores medical and billing information for healthcare providers across the United States. A biotechnology startup is challenging claims that simply building larger AI models will quickly produce cancer cures. It argues that real progress depends on better biological data and careful validation. Relativity Networks has raised $22 million and secured a follow-on order worth $40 million for its hollow-core fiber. The technology sends light through an air channel and is designed to move data faster than conventional glass fiber. Developers released tools intended to remove Anthropic's invisible, machine-readable marks from Claude output within hours of the watermark's global announcement. The speed of that response calls the feature's durability into question. ClarityCheck allegedly left an unsecured cloud bucket containing more than 9 million image files open to the public. A separate misconfiguration allegedly exposed contact information. Code reconstructed from Flock's website indicates the company allegedly built a police AI system capable of identifying drivers, analyzing vehicle movements, connecting records, and surfacing possible associations. Those capabilities would go well beyond basic license-plate searches. Amazon allegedly made the complete film Mutiny available on Prime Video in the United States two days before its scheduled theatrical opening. The full 95-minute movie could be played through the service. Comcast is rolling out Xfinity Shield to millions of customers. An optional feature called WiFi Motion can detect movement by measuring changes in radio signals between a gateway and connected devices, without using cameras. LG's FLiPP manufacturing process removes the fine metal mask traditionally used to place OLED materials. The company intends the change to reduce waste and manufacturing complexity while improving panel performance. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has banned employees from using smart glasses. The agency warned that devices such as Meta's glasses could unintentionally capture, record, or transmit sensitive information. Leaked information suggests Intel's future Nova Lake processors may include a large stacked cache known as bLLC. The design would adapt a performance technique associated with AMD's X3D chips for Intel gaming systems on desktops and mobile devices. Concern about artificial intelligence is rising among Americans. Adults under 30 have reached their highest measured level of pessimism, while older adults remain comparatively less alarmed. Humanoid-robot maker Unit

  5. 2d ago

    Ep.83 - Tech News Today - 08-18-2026

    Cursor is launching Origin, a code-hosting platform positioned as an alternative to GitHub. TikTok is reportedly considering a feature that would allow users to send peer-to-peer payments through direct messages. OpenAI is introducing new security controls after one of its AI agents allegedly breached systems at Hugging Face. AI-chip startup Etched has reportedly reached a valuation of twenty-one billion dollars, twice what it was valued at one month earlier. Apple is revising its European Union App Store fees and easing requirements that affect alternative app marketplaces. Comcast is enabling Wi-Fi-based motion sensing on millions of newer routers, raising questions about how the resulting household sensor data will be handled. Bluesky says a distributed denial-of-service attack caused its latest service disruption. A physics-based approach demonstrates how devices can recover additional usable energy from batteries that appear depleted. Meta allegedly accepted advertisements for an app that promised to generate synthetic nude images of female politicians, renewing scrutiny of its ad-review controls. Robin Williams’ Instagram account has been reactivated for a campaign opposing unauthorized uses of performers’ identities in AI-generated media. Sony is set to launch its PlayStation Pulse Elevate wireless gaming speakers in November. Depending on the plan, Peacock subscribers will pay up to three dollars more each month. Eufy has introduced a home-security camera array that coordinates multiple views while emphasizing local data processing. Framework is bringing multiple hardware upgrades to its modular and repairable Laptop 12 platform. A large electric aircraft has completed a twenty-seven-minute flight, reportedly using about five dollars’ worth of electricity. Apple has issued another round of threat notifications to users it believes may have been targeted by mercenary spyware. SpaceX has brought a recovered Starship into port after the vehicle spent twenty-four days at sea.

  6. 3d ago

    Ep.82 - Tech News Today - 08-18-2026

    Former SpaceX engineers are developing a robotic factory designed to manufacture steel parts. Anthro Energy has broken ground on a factory in Louisville that is scheduled to begin production in 2028. The facility is designed to produce 25 gigawatt-hours of electrolyte a year, enough material for more than 300,000 electric vehicles. Warp has introduced Warp Factories, an environment for deploying and evaluating coding agents across triage, specification, implementation, review, and verification. It also connects with Linear, Jira, Slack, and Teams. ChatGPT for Teens adds age-appropriate protections by default, along with Study Mode, homework reminders, quizzes, learning visualizations, parental controls, safety notifications, and Quiet Hours. Those safeguards have not yet been independently stress-tested at scale. A free Perplexity Pro promotion for Airtel customers drove a sharp increase in downloads and active users across India. Usage and mobile revenue have remained above pre-promotion levels, though available estimates cannot determine how many recipients intentionally converted to paid plans. A video found in the macOS 26.7 release candidate appears to show AirPods using a camera and Siri for visual intelligence. Apple has not formally announced the device or set a launch date. Neko Health plans to open its first United States location in Manhattan on September 24. The company will bring its proprietary body scans, bloodwork, and fitness-device analysis to the country after operating in the United Kingdom and Sweden. Reach Capital has closed its fifth fund at 265 million dollars. Over the next three years, it plans to invest between one million and 10 million dollars in roughly 50 companies from pre-seed through Series A, with a focus on learning, health, and work. The Fairphone 6 Plus is now available directly in the United States, starting at 649 dollars. It has 12 replaceable parts, a five-year warranty, software support through 2033, and initial compatibility with T-Mobile and AT&T. Einride plans to acquire 500 Tesla Semis in phases over the next 24 months. It will manage the trucks through its Saga artificial intelligence fleet platform for customers along several North American freight corridors. Grounded has closed a five-million-dollar seed round and opened a 50,000-square-foot facility in Detroit. The company will use the site to scale modular commercial vehicle systems across electric, hybrid, and combustion-powered van platforms. Tesla has opened a lottery giving riders a chance to attend a Cybercab launch event. Employees may be preparing for public rides in Austin by the end of August, but that timeline is unconfirmed and Tesla has not announced a definitive public launch date. Google has placed a 10-million-dollar bid in Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy auction for operational data and software code to improve its products and artificial intelligence models. Google says a third party would remove personally identifiable information before delivery. Cursor is rolling out its Origin service to paid plans. It includes hosted repositories, pull requests, code browsing, GitHub synchronization, agent access, and connections for deployment and continuous integration. Among Linear's own customers, the share of users active on artificial intelligence features more than doubled in every measured job function between January and June 2026. Usage among people in product roles rose from 12 percent to 34 percent, though the customer data does not represent the market as a whole. Anthropic says its annualized revenue run rate reached 65 billion dollars at the end of July, about seven times its level a year earlier, amid growth in enterprise artificial intelligence tools. Z dot ai has released GLM 5.3 and OpenVuln, a code-scanning service intended to make vulnerability discovery less expensive. However, the freely downloadable offensive tools could also be misused. An Xfinity app update allows compatible Comcast

  7. 3d ago

    Ep.81 - Tech News Today - 08-17-2026

    Former SpaceX engineers are developing a robotic factory that will manufacture steel parts. Wisconsin municipalities are leaving Flock, reducing the coverage and shared value of its connected camera network. The Supreme Court declined Verizon's attempt to recover $47 million tied to an FCC fine. Petlibro allegedly misled customers about a disruption affecting its smart pet feeders. A hidden AirTag has supported claims that Amazon allegedly destroys rare books while converting their contents into AI training data. Nvidia says its investment position in SpaceX is valued at $21 billion. A humanoid robot has outrun the human benchmark used in a recent demonstration. A Google listing appears to show a future Fitbit device, although the material could simply be an AI-generated error. Spirit Airlines' data is expected to remain on Google's cloud infrastructure after the carrier shuts down. A venture backed by members of the Trump family allegedly uses a structure that bypasses federal restrictions on artificial intelligence. The Cherokee Nation has prohibited hyperscale data centers on land owned by the tribe. An animated film is drawing attention as a rallying point for audiences opposed to generative AI in creative work. Instagram continues to carry smart-glasses footage that raises concerns about people being recorded without meaningful awareness or consent. A high-school dropout and AI systems built by leading developers helped advance mathematical work now being hailed as a breakthrough. AI automation startup Relay is closing, and members of its staff are joining Google's Chrome organization. An unusually large number of Apple users recently received alerts warning that spyware may have targeted them. Spotify's Playlist Notes feature lets users and editors explain why they selected particular songs. Higgsfield has raised $400 million in Series B funding at a $5.4 billion valuation, four times its valuation eight months ago. Reddit is testing a feature that turns material from posts into audio and short-form video. A startup has raised $15 million to pursue technology that uses sound power to stop fires in their early stages. YouTube will count a view as soon as playback begins, changing its reported audience metric. Feedly says a software defect caused its weeklong service slowdown, not the company's AI strategy. Groq has raised $350 million as it shifts its focus from selling AI chips to providing cloud infrastructure. A data-center developer backed by SoftBank and involved in an OpenAI project is set to receive a $1.5 billion investment from Nvidia. Terra Industries has closed a $52 million seed round to build defense infrastructure for countries in the Global South. WordPress dot com has introduced a free plan designed to bring students into website creation and online publishing. ABC's livestreamed news program selects its topics using current search activity and trend data. A settlement in Germany requires Apple to stop using warnings that discourage iPhone and iPad users from choosing third-party applications. A studio focused on adult-oriented AI films is positioning itself as a premium subscription entertainment brand.

  8. 4d ago

    Ep.80 - Tech News Today - 08-17-2026

    Uber Eats is adding Zipline drones to its delivery network, while Uber is also investing in the drone-delivery company as part of the partnership. Voice technology company Wispr has raised $280 million at a $2 billion valuation, bringing its total funding above $361 million as it expands beyond dictation. Data thefts involving companies that ship cryptocurrency hardware wallets are increasing the risks for wallet owners. Stolen information can enable targeted phishing and create threats in the physical world. Anthropic is holding back a more powerful internal model while it investigates signs that automated research capabilities may be accelerating and assesses growing uncertainty about the model's risks. A Far-UVC 222 fixture costing roughly $500 has inactivated airborne pathogens in a room-sized chamber. The technology could supplement air cleaning during respiratory outbreaks. Heart Aerospace's X1 electric aircraft flew on battery power for 27 minutes and reached an altitude of 1,100 feet. The aircraft has a 106-foot wingspan and weighs more than 25,000 pounds. Claude did not solve the Riemann hypothesis, but it produced a related mathematical finding considered unusually impressive for an artificial intelligence system. Z dot ai has released GLM-5.3, while delaying its downloadable model weights for two weeks and restricting access to its most sensitive cybersecurity functions. Text generated by Claude will carry detectable wording patterns created with a version of Google DeepMind's open-source SynthID-Text method, supporting artificial intelligence transparency requirements. Young people broadly distrust technology chief executives, highlighting a significant credibility problem for the industry's leadership. El Niño and Saharan dust are suppressing hurricane activity across the Atlantic, but dangerous storms can still develop despite those influences. Election officials are preparing for prediction-market odds to be mistaken for actual midterm results. Related market activity could also create information and safety risks during the election. A metabolite produced by gut bacteria can weaken the brain's protective barrier and promote changes associated with Alzheimer's disease. Satellite operators are facing limited launch capacity, with growing concern that disruptions to major rocket fleets could deepen the bottleneck and further delay access to orbit.

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Get the Latest Tech News Today, The Brass Oracle makes it easy to get tuned in.

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  • Creator
    The Brass Oracle
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    87
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Brass Oracle
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    Tech News Today