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Tech News
Amazon announced new high-end Alexa tablets ranging from $230 to $550, available for preorder and shipping from October 14. The company also revealed it will phase out its lower-cost Fire tablets, shifting focus toward more expensive devices. This move marks a strategic change aimed at increasing profit margins on its hardware offerings.
Panos Panay, Amazon's SVP of Devices and Alexa, revealed plans for more Alexa-branded hardware and a new design language called 'Neo.' He confirmed that the recently announced Alexa Tablet series marks Amazon's first product explicitly branded with Alexa, hinting at future devices. Panay also mentioned ongoing development of a new interface style, suggesting a broader redesign effort across Amazon's hardware lineup.
Prosecutors in Taiwan have charged ten company executives over the illegal export of military-grade chips from US manufacturers Texas Instruments and Analog Devices to China. The chips, falsely declared as made in Taiwan and ordered under the guise of Taiwan defense institute names, were allegedly diverted to Chinese military projects including missile and radar systems. The investigation revealed that the chips originated from multiple countries and were shipped through Taiwanese distributors using forged documentation to bypass export restrictions.
Pre-orders for Nvidia's RTX Spark devices are now available from brands including Asus, Microsoft, Lenovo, HP, and Dell, with shipping starting October 16. The lineup features various configurations, such as the Surface Laptop Ultra with up to 48GB of memory priced at $3,999, and other models like the Asus ProArt P16 and HP OmniBook series supporting up to 128GB of memory. Pricing varies widely depending on specifications and brand.
An IT professional named Nomad discovered his parents' smart coffee maker had generated 1TB of data traffic over 10 days while monitoring their home network remotely. Most of the traffic stayed within the home network rather than going out to the internet, but it was enough to overwhelm part of their Wi-Fi access point. Nomad attributed the issue to a likely bug in the device and decided to disconnect it rather than investigate further.
Xreal revealed on Wednesday that its Project Aura display glasses, which pair with a processing puck running Android XR, will cost $1,279, though it has not set a release date. The device is expected within the next month or two and is currently limited to customers who placed a $100 preorder hold earlier this year, with broader availability coming soon. It undercuts the timing of Meta's upcoming $1,299 Meta VR Glasses, due next year.
Seattle Mountain Rescue volunteers have begun field-testing powered hip-and-leg exoskeletons to see if the devices improve speed and endurance during search operations. Similar wearable exoskeletons are already used by IKEA, Ford, Boeing and Mazda Toyota on assembly lines, by Finnish rescue and firefighting crews under the ExoPELA project, and by Ukrainian soldiers carrying artillery shells, according to Colonel Vitalii Serdiuk.
TP-Link's Deco 7 BE25 BE500 Wi-Fi 7 mesh dual-pack is now priced at $149.99 on Amazon, down from $199.99, while the triple-pack is listed at $198.19, a cut from $299.99. The system delivers combined speeds up to 5,012 Mbps, covers up to 4,600 or 6,600 square feet depending on pack size, and supports more than 150 connected devices.
Minut has introduced Crowd Detect, a feature that uses passive signals from nearby iOS devices to estimate how many people are present in a rental property. Hosts can set an occupancy limit, and Minut sends an alert if that threshold is exceeded, letting them know when to check in or intervene.
A leaker known as "pdfu" on X has shared new details about smart home hardware LG is reportedly building for Apple, following a Bloomberg report on the partnership. The lineup includes a Smart Deadbolt Lock with a rotating keypad, automatic unlocking and backup mechanical keys, plus a Smart Thermostat with a "Far Sight Display" and a companion temperature/humidity sensor for other rooms. Pricing and release dates remain unknown, though the devices are said to work with Apple's rumored smart home hub expected around October 13th.
Amazon's fall Prime Day sale includes discounts on Alexa speakers, Kindles, and Fire tablets, but WIRED notes Amazon raised prices across its device lines at the end of August before applying these markdowns. A WIRED reviewer who has tested Amazon's Alexa speakers since 2012 evaluated the sale items to identify which discounts are genuinely worthwhile versus which merely restore prices closer to pre-hike levels.
Google unveiled EmbeddingGemma 2, a multimodal on-device AI model that can process text, images, video frames and audio locally. Alongside it, the company released AI Edge Foresight, a macOS app that expands shorthand bullet points into polished meeting notes and answers questions live during meetings, all without sending data off the device.