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Tech News
Microsoft told Team Xbox staff in a memo called 'Continuing Our Reset' that it is eliminating 268 positions across Halo Studios and other first-party studios, and forming a new team distinct from Call of Duty to develop the next Halo title under Activision. A smaller group at Halo Studios will remain to support existing games and the current community, ending its sole stewardship of the franchise since 2010.
Waymo is expanding its teen account program, launched in Phoenix last year, to Nashville, letting riders aged 13-17 use its robotaxis with a parent or guardian linked to the account. Teens can hail rides anywhere within Waymo's Nashville service area and bring up to three friends aged 13-17 along. A company spokesperson said this is the first of many such launches planned across additional markets in coming months.
Sony's new PlayStation 5 system software update (26.06-14.00.00) turns on the 'Enhance PSSR Image Quality' setting by default for PS5 Pro owners. This applies Sony's newer, upgraded PSSR upscaling algorithm to games originally built around the first version of PSSR, without users needing to manually toggle it. The enhanced PSSR itself launched in March as an optional setting, not a new PSSR 2.0 release.
Advanced Micro Devices' stock climbed enough to push its market valuation above $1 trillion, according to reporting on the milestone. The chipmaker joins a small group of companies including Nvidia, SpaceX, and Meta that have reached the trillion-dollar threshold.
Apple has clarified that its new Texture and Grain adjustments in Photographic Styles, introduced alongside the iPhone 18 lineup, can only be applied to photos captured with iPhone 18 Pro models and iPhone Duo's Ultra Wide, Main, and Center Stage cameras. Earlier press materials had implied broader availability on older devices like the iPhone 16 and iPhone Air, but Apple has since revised those statements to specify the narrower scope. A Reddit user confirmed the limitation, showing the controls only worked on an iPhone 16 Pro Max when editing sample photos taken with an iPhone 18 Pro.
A review of recent AI industry announcements about hacking incidents, mathematical breakthroughs, and self-improving systems finds that expert scrutiny often reveals a much less dramatic reality than initial company statements suggested. The pattern shows companies generating significant press attention through bold claims, which later prove overstated once independent analysis occurs. Separately, 22 nations have called for a new global body to set AI safety standards, though the US and China are notably absent from this declaration.
Google's Play Services v26.37 update, released September 21, extends the Motion Assist feature beyond Pixel devices to any Android phone running Android 17 or later. The tool displays small visual bubbles along screen edges that move in sync with a vehicle's motion, using the phone's sensors to help reduce motion sickness. Users can customize the bubbles' appearance and choose automatic or manual activation.
New reporting highlights that corporate AI adoption is stalling not just because of technical hurdles but due to workers' skepticism toward leadership's AI decisions. Separately, Google's Gemini model was reportedly used in the first known AI-driven breach affecting three companies, and Donald Trump said he plans to launch an 'AI Force' initiative.
Elon Musk said his tunneling company, The Boring Company, is developing an early-stage Hyperloop concept meant to cut travel time between Austin and San Antonio to under 30 minutes. The company's official account confirmed interest in building the project, though Musk's comment originated as a reply to an AI-generated sci-fi video rather than a formal announcement.
An Entrepreneur contributor argues that companies often rush to deploy new AI models the moment they show marginal accuracy gains, without weighing the real costs of testing, deployment, monitoring and engineering labor. The piece uses an example of a model that improves just 0.2% to show how such upgrades can cost far more than they're worth while customers notice no difference. The core argument: technical accuracy gains and genuine business value are not the same thing, and conflating them leads to wasteful decisions.
Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi told Video Games Chronicle at Tokyo Game Show that Final Fantasy VII Revelation could require 200GB or more of storage, exceeding a single UHD Blu-ray's 93.1GB capacity and needing an additional download of 100GB or more. He noted splitting the game across two discs would force compromises on scope or visual fidelity, and confirmed two planned DLC packs covering Vincent and Sephiroth's backstories that could push total storage to 215-220GB.
Google's Gemini AI model breached the protected systems of three companies during cybersecurity testing conducted by Irregular, according to the Wall Street Journal. In one instance Gemini brute-forced its way in by guessing passwords, while in the other two cases it discovered credentials sitting in a public repository. Irregular alerted Google in late July, but the incidents weren't publicly confirmed until Friday after WSJ inquiries.