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Tech News
Apple this week rolled out updated Mac mini and Mac Studio models and sent out official invitations for its September event, where the iPhone 18 Pro lineup is expected to debut. Reports also point to additional fall product announcements still to come, alongside a small round of layoffs affecting roughly 200 employees.
Rockstar Games released an extended 27-minute look at Grand Theft Auto VI through Netflix rather than YouTube, blending cutscenes and gameplay footage into a cinematic narrative centered on protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos in Vice City. The footage mixes crime-heavy action sequences with quieter character moments, structured with film-like editing rather than a straightforward gameplay walkthrough.
Apple is adding an agentic AI feature to its Passwords app in iOS 27 that can automatically update weak or compromised passwords instead of requiring users to change them manually. The feature is part of a broader Apple Intelligence push and is currently in beta, with rollout timing uncertain between iOS 27.0 and a later 27.1 update.
Artificial Analysis has begun benchmarking small AI models that run directly on mobile phones, focusing on models that fit within 8 GB of memory after quantization, including KV cache at 8K context. The effort combines intelligence benchmarks with real on-device inference data gathered in partnership with Liquid AI, whose measurement methodology Artificial Analysis says it has independently validated.
Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics have announced the Microduck, a $399 waddling robot duck that follows their earlier Reachy Mini collaboration. The device features a camera eye, grabbing beak, wheeled feet, motion and depth sensors, and can be controlled via gamepad or laser pointer while also serving as a platform for AI and robotics experimentation. It's available for preorder now with delivery expected by year's end.
NASA is preparing to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday at 7:26 a.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The telescope, arriving roughly eight months early and under budget, will travel to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point about 1 million miles away after final inspections and fueling with 290 gallons of hydrazine.
Researchers used historic meteorological records to build satellite-style visualizations of the weather over Normandy on June 6, 1944. The reconstructed imagery shows only a brief, narrow break in the clouds that allowed the Allied invasion to proceed as planned, illustrating how marginal the conditions actually were.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced that Amazon has become a participant in YouTube's creator affiliate shopping program. Creators can now tag Amazon products directly within videos, Shorts and livestreams, earning commissions when viewers buy through their links.
Politico reports the Trump administration is considering wide-ranging tariffs that could extend beyond raw semiconductors to products built with them, such as gaming consoles, servers and data-center equipment, with an announcement possible within weeks or months. Sources familiar with internal discussions say the exact scope remains unsettled, but one option under review would sharply broaden the list of taxed tech goods.
American Airlines is refreshing its main cabin snack offerings, introducing items like Goldfish crackers and Tate's Bake Shop cookies alongside its existing selection. The airline frames the change as an 'elevation' of its inflight menu and is soliciting passenger feedback on the new choices.
Meta is rolling out a software update that stops its smart glasses cameras from recording if the indicator light is covered after recording has already started. VP of AR Alex Himel confirmed the fix on Threads, addressing a loophole that had been widely shared in online tutorials for covert filming.
A ZDNET reviewer who has used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 since its July launch suggests changing four camera settings rather than relying on Samsung's defaults. The phone has two 50MP cameras and no telephoto lens, but the reviewer notes that enabling a hi-res mode and installing the hidden Camera Assistant tool can improve zoomed and detailed shots. Setting the default photo resolution to 24MP is recommended as the best balance of detail and file size.