GoKawiil
Tech News
Uber cut about 3,300 corporate jobs last week, roughly 10% of its corporate workforce, in its largest reduction since the pandemic. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that savings from the cuts and reduced insurance costs would be reinvested, including lowering fares for riders, while more than $1 billion is earmarked for Uber's self-driving car efforts.
Nintendo is holding a Customer Appreciation Sale from September 13-26, offering 30% discounts on games, DLC, Amiibo and accessories across the eShop, Nintendo Store and retailers. The company says the promotion is funded partly by roughly $300 million in tariff refunds it recovered from the US government, rather than passing those refunds directly back to customers.
A longtime startup operations executive with no coding background describes building an AI-powered assistant to handle administrative and organizational tasks, running it for roughly $25 daily. The project marks a shift for someone who spent two decades on the business side of startups without ever building software themselves.
Mistral AI has struck a partnership with data platform provider Cloudera aimed at reaching more enterprise customers, particularly in regulated industries. The tie-up is designed to help Mistral's AI models integrate more easily into corporate data environments that businesses already use to manage compliance and operations.
A Maine business that sold fox and coyote urine to hunters as a cover scent noticed an unusually large order from a lawn and garden store outside hunting season. A phone call revealed the retailer's customers were gardeners using the same product to scare rabbits away from vegetable patches, uncovering an entirely new customer base the founder hadn't realized existed.
A consumer describes using Anthropic's Claude, including its Chrome extension, to file complaints, draft phone scripts, and pursue refunds across ten separate disputes ranging from a missing cheese packet to IRS penalties and a car warranty claim. The person reports winning every case attempted, some still pending, with total recoveries exceeding $12,000, including $6,813 in waived IRS penalties and a roughly $2,000 warranty repair.
Framework has secured a limited supply of Micron 32GB and 64GB LPCAMM2 memory modules at a lower cost than its recent price increase, and is passing the savings to customers. The company is refunding the price difference to buyers who already received laptops at the higher rate and adjusting pricing for pending preorders through Batch 10, with an option to upgrade RAM configurations at the reduced cost. DIY Edition owners can also request a switch to the new pricing.
Sony Japan published a policy on September 1 defining customer harassment and warning it will restrict or suspend support for customers who cross the line, including abusive language, excessive demands, or intimidating behavior toward staff. The move comes after intense customer anger over Sony's plan to stop producing physical PlayStation discs by January 2028, a decision already facing several lawsuits.
An Entrepreneur opinion piece argues that most chief executives mismanage their company's search engine presence, viewing it as a static reputation gauge rather than an active revenue source. The author notes that page one of search results functions as an informal vetting tool for prospects, investors and job candidates before any direct contact occurs. Citing data showing 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, the piece calls for continuous, deliberate management of digital search visibility.
As brands hand more customer-facing tasks to AI systems, research shows consumers remain willing to embrace this shift only up to a point. Trust hinges on clearly marking where automated decision-making stops and human judgment takes over.
Startup Voicebox, led by CEO Karan Gupta, lets customers give feedback by speaking into their phones after scanning a QR code or tapping an NFC chip, with voice automatically transcribed and analyzed for sentiment on a company dashboard. The company has partnered with airport terminals and was used at a Lena Dunham book event, where attendees left spoken reactions instead of typed reviews.
Trezor has revised the scope of its August data breach, now saying 81,000 customers were affected instead of the roughly 14,000 first reported. The increase stems from logistics partner ShipMonk failing to delete older records as its contract required, exposing details of 67,000 additional U.S. customers who ordered between November 2019 and August 2021.