GoKawiil
Tech News
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the company will shrink its workforce by about 10%, or roughly 3,300 employees, marking its biggest round of job cuts since the pandemic. The move focuses heavily on middle management roles, part of a broader corporate trend of flattening organizational structures.
Counterpoint Research reports that global smartphone retail prices have risen 15% in 2026, driven by rising component and memory costs, but US prices have climbed only 5% on average. Price-sensitive markets like India, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East/Africa have seen much steeper increases of 16-21%, while Europe and China saw 7% and 10% hikes respectively.
Apple's watchOS 27 beta eliminates the long-standing feature where double-clicking the Digital Crown quickly toggled between two recently used apps or the last app and the watch face. Instead, a single or double click now brings up the same new 'dynamic app grid' showing Siri plus five suggested apps, meaning the quick-switch shortcut has no direct replacement. The writer flagged this to Apple as early as June and again during the July public beta, but the behavior persists as of the current beta.
Joe Drygas, Vice President of AT&T's Global Enterprise Business, describes how he rose through the company over 25 years by treating each new role as requiring a reinvented version of himself, comparing the approach to how elite athletes adapt their training as their roles evolve. He also credits deliberate scheduling of personal routines, like workouts and sleep, with reducing uncertainty and improving his leadership clarity.
CrowdStrike says the China-linked group OVERCAST PANDA physically entered hotel rooms of executives attending an agricultural conference on Hainan Island between March and May 2026, booting their unattended laptops from a USB drive to install the FlowCloud backdoor while the victims were at dinner. No phishing, credential theft, or network intrusion was involved—the attackers relied entirely on physical access to unlocked, unattended devices. CrowdStrike's OverWatch team detected and disrupted the intrusions and expects the group to keep using this method.
Billionaire investor Leon Black skipped a scheduled sworn deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, instead filing a federal lawsuit seeking to block subpoenas tied to the panel's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Committee leaders responded by saying they would consider holding Black in contempt of Congress.
TikTok is adding several new comment features: voice comments up to 60 seconds long for users 18 and older, rolling out over the next month; comment polls with up to five options that creators can track results for, already live globally; and photo comment upgrades including live photo uploads available now and the ability to post up to nine images in a carousel comment within the next month.
Hyundai's new Pleos Connect infotainment system pairs a center touchscreen with a 9.9-inch instrument cluster, but the automaker is charging extra for that driver display on two new models. In Korea, the base Avante requires a $255 add-on for the screen, while the entry Ioniq 3 EV omits it entirely unless buyers upgrade to a pricier trim costing roughly $5,000 more.
An opinion piece critiques a recent open letter from over 100 tech firms—including OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google—warning that AI will make cyberattacks cheaper and more frequent. The author praises the letter's factual basis, citing a real August incident where federal agencies found AI-generated exploit scripts targeting Siemens industrial controllers, but argues the letter fails to address who is actually responsible for defense. A think tank's counterpoint is cited: criminals adopt new tools mainly when old revenue streams dry up, not simply because new technology exists.
Crystal Temptations issued a recall of its Chocolatey Eyeballs product after the FDA flagged a safety concern, reportedly tied to undisclosed allergens that could pose serious health risks. The candy was sold at major retailers including TJ Maxx and Marshalls across 13 states. The FDA has advised consumers who purchased the product to destroy it rather than consume or return it.
A developer known as LouD has built USBSID-Pico, an open-source hardware board that connects genuine MOS Technology SID chips (6581/8580) from the Commodore 64 to modern computers, phones and media players via USB, MIDI and ASID protocols. Built around the Raspberry Pi Pico's rp2040 and rp2350 microcontrollers, the device can currently drive up to two real SID chips or compatible replacements, with support for four planned.
The Trump administration enacted tariffs on foreign drones this week, with thermal-imaging or heavier models facing a 100 percent duty and smaller consumer drones facing 25 percent. Allied nations including the UK, EU, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan face tariffs ranging from 10 to 15 percent, while a broader 25 percent levy on non-sensitive drones takes effect in 2027.