GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple is releasing the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max on September 18th, with preorders starting September 12th, ahead of the foldable iPhone Duo in October and a still-unannounced base iPhone 18. The 6.3-inch Pro starts at $1,199 and the 6.9-inch Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 pricier than last year's models, while screen size, battery capacity and resolution remain the main differences between the two variants.
Shipt, Target's same-day delivery service, rolled out an AI tool called Ask Shipt that converts written prompts or photos into ready-to-checkout shopping carts. Customers can request carts based on occasions like tailgates or school lunches, or set a budget, such as a weeknight dinner for five under $35. The tool can also identify ingredients from a photo of a dish and add them to a cart automatically.
Over Labor Day weekend, President Trump and the White House posted a wave of AI-style memes depicting him as an all-powerful superhero, including building walls and factories with a Green Lantern ring, towering over Canada's prime minister on a hockey rink, and commanding a warship in battle. The imagery arrives as Trump's approval ratings decline amid struggles with inflation, the Iran conflict, and manufacturing promises.
Amazon has slashed the price of the flagship Bowers & Wilkins Px8 noise-cancelling headphones by 36%, bringing them down to $479 from their original price. The discount currently applies to the Royal Burgundy colorway, though stock at this price is limited.
A group of Claude users filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic on September 8, alleging the company misled subscribers about usage limits on its $100 and $200 Max plans. The suit contends Anthropic advertised 5x and 20x more usage than the Pro tier without disclosing that weekly caps, added months after Max launched in April 2025, sharply reduce the real benefit compared to the marketed multiplier.
Commentary circulating in business media periodically declares the chief marketing officer role obsolete, citing flatter organizational structures, decentralized marketing functions, and AI tools that can generate campaigns quickly. A counterargument holds that these same forces make experienced marketing leadership more essential, not less, since someone still needs to set strategy and judge what automated output actually serves the brand.
AI coding startup Cognition has closed a Series E funding round of $2 billion, valuing the company at $48 billion. The round includes backing from investors such as Peter Thiel, underscoring strong investor confidence in AI-driven software development tools.
Apple is holding its September hardware event today at 1:00 p.m. ET, streamed live via Apple.com, YouTube and the Apple TV app. The event, themed 'Surprise and shine,' marks the start of John Ternus's tenure leading product launches and is expected to introduce the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, a first-ever foldable iPhone Duo, updated Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models, and new AirPods 5 earbuds.
Several U.S. states that previously granted multi-decade tax exemptions to lure data center investments from Amazon, Meta and Google are now reconsidering or rolling back those deals. The reversal follows growing public backlash over the facilities' strain on local resources and limited job creation relative to the tax revenue forgone.
Noma Labs researchers disclosed an authorization design flaw in enterprise AI pipelines that lets attackers submit ordinary-looking requests through unauthenticated channels—like support inboxes or web forms—to trigger actions using elevated internal permissions. They demonstrated this by sending a support email that tricked an AI workflow into retrieving and forwarding a finance director's private email contents to an attacker.
Reddit users report receiving personalized win-back offers on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with one subscriber getting a 30% discount ($16.09 vs $22.99 monthly) after repeatedly canceling and resubscribing over two years. Other users have shared similar discounted offers, including an $18 rate for 12 months on a secondary Xbox account.
Uber has put another $10 million into Indian fleet operator Carrum Mobility through a Series B round, pushing the startup's valuation to about $168 million, up from $63 million after Uber's earlier $7 million investment in January. Uber now holds a mid-teens stake in Carrum, which operates roughly 5,100 vehicles and over 18,000 drivers across six Indian cities and generates about $45 million in annualized revenue.