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Tech News
HTeaO, a family-owned iced tea chain based in Amarillo, Texas, reported over $147 million in sales in 2025, a 26.7% jump from the prior year, and now operates 178 locations across eight states. The company has named Brian Wise, formerly of Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, as its new CEO to guide further expansion, with backing from Crux Capital and Trive Capital.
Isar Aerospace has opened a weeklong launch window starting Friday at Andøya Spaceport to try again to send its Spectrum rocket to orbit carrying small CubeSats. The German company's first orbital test failed shortly after liftoff last year, and repeated attempts since January have been delayed by technical issues and range availability. The launch comes as Norway observes a period of mourning for King Harald V, though officials say the mission can proceed as planned.
Starting in November, Xbox will limit how many hours Game Pass subscribers can stream games via its cloud service before requiring extra purchases. Ultimate subscribers get 15 hours monthly, Premium users get 10, and Essential tier members get just five, after which additional playtime must be bought.
RugOne unveiled the Xsnap 7 Pro, a rugged smartphone with IP68/IP69K ratings whose rear camera module detaches to work as a standalone action cam shooting 2.7K video at 30fps. The device launches on Kickstarter September 7 for €799 in limited quantities before a global release in October priced at $999.
OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra on Thursday, calling it the company's most capable model to date. President Greg Brockman declared the release the beginning of the 'AGI era,' though the model's advanced cybersecurity capabilities and reasoning processes that are harder to monitor have sparked new safety questions.
Google has ended the beta period for its Gemini-powered voice assistants across Gmail, Docs and Keep, opening them to all paying Google AI subscribers. Gmail Live lets users ask natural-language questions about their inbox and follow up conversationally, Docs Live drafts and organizes documents using information from Drive, Chat, Gmail and the web, and Keep Live transcribes spoken notes into structured lists.
A former startup CEO who has raised tens of millions in VC funding argues that traditional venture capital, once about backing founders to build companies, has been co-opted by a small group of extremely wealthy investors. He says this cohort now operates with little accountability to markets, regulators, or voters, using the VC label to pursue a broader ideological agenda rather than genuine innovation.
MAMMOTION used IFA 2026 to introduce two new robotic mowers: the LUBA 4 AWD series for residential lawns and Maston, its first commercial-grade mower. Marking its 10th anniversary under the theme 'To The Edge,' the company says both machines are designed to better handle slopes, garden beds, and tight edges that typically trip up robotic mowers.
Sequoia Capital chairman Doug Leone, worth an estimated $11.7 billion, told his dentist to perform a root canal without novocaine so he wouldn't miss a scheduled meeting. He described gritting through the drilling by comparing it to a soldier's battlefield injuries, then went straight to his meeting before changing his sweat-drenched shirt.
Yum! Brands has finished divesting Pizza Hut, selling its non-China operations to private equity firm LongRange Capital for $1.5 billion after already selling Pizza Hut China to Yum! China Holdings for $1.2 billion. Yum! could earn up to $75 million more by 2030 if Pizza Hut meets performance benchmarks, while CEO Chris Turner said the move frees the company to focus on KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill.
Tom's Hardware ran Capcom's new RE Engine title Onimusha: Way of the Sword through its built-in benchmark across 31 CPUs, from Intel's newly released Core Ultra 7 270K Plus down to AMD's decade-old Ryzen 7 2700X. AMD's X3D chips outperformed flagship processors by roughly 10%, while the 270K Plus underperformed compared to Intel's older Raptor Lake Refresh parts, and AMD's newer 12-core Ryzen 9 chips also lagged unexpectedly.
TSMC executive Cliff Hou revealed that the chipmaker's projected need for semiconductor manufacturing tools rose from a baseline estimate late last year to 1.5 times that figure by Q1 and 1.9 times by July, driven by new fabs in Taiwan and the U.S. plus upgrades to existing plants. Despite the near-doubling in equipment requirements, TSMC's 2026 capital expenditure guidance has only risen from an initial $52-56 billion range toward roughly $64 billion, a far smaller percentage increase.