A veteran product leader who left a decade-long healthtech career to become a part-time fractional product leader reports ongoing burnout even after her health issue resolved and her workload dropped to its lightest in years. She sought coaching after struggling repeatedly in job interviews for enterprise roles, question whether her burnout was blocking her performance or whether she had overestimated her own skills. Standard fixes like rest, PTO, and quitting for a new company failed to resolve her exhaustion.
Diesel prices in the United States climbed to an unprecedented average of $5.85 a gallon on Friday, driven by disruptions to global fuel supplies stemming from the six-month conflict with Iran. Regular gasoline also rose, averaging $4.15 a gallon, though still below its 2022 record, according to AAA data.
Microsoft introduced Project Zenith, a decluttered version of Windows 11 aimed at developers doing local AI work, initially available on AMD's Ryzen AI Halo mini-desktop with 64GB of RAM. The build comes preloaded with developer tools and languages, enables settings like visible file extensions by default, and is designed to let users run large AI models locally without cloud costs.
Jacob Stokes, a former Obama national security official now at the Center for a New American Security, published a report titled 'Superpowers and AGI' urging the US to prepare drastic responses if China reaches artificial general intelligence first. His proposed options range from cyberattacks to sabotage AI systems up to kinetic military strikes on physical data centers, which he acknowledges carries the highest risk of escalation.
GoPro published an open letter addressing customer concerns that its planned merger with Starman could shift focus away from consumer and professional cameras. The company said the deal will strengthen its finances and enable continued investment in new cameras, accessories and software, pointing to its history of over 2,500 patents as evidence of ongoing innovation.
AT&T is offering Samsung's Galaxy S26 FE for as low as $2.43 monthly over a 36-month installment plan for customers who add a new line online, with no device trade-in needed. Business customers get even steeper discounts, including a $0-per-month option on a new line, plus perks like an Enterprise Edition with extended warranty and Samsung Knox Suite.
Non-fizzy ready-to-drink cocktails like Surfside and Boston Beer's Sun Cruiser now account for 38% of new launches in the $22 billion premixed drink category, up from 27% in 2021. Startups such as Mom Water, launched in 2021 by Jill Morrison and Bryce Morrison, are also riding this wave, projecting over 1 million cases sold this year. Meanwhile, Gallo's Lucky One Lemonade with Dave Portnoy sold 1 million cases in seven months, signaling a shift away from carbonated hard seltzers.
TechCrunch is giving companies until midnight Pacific time tonight to apply to host an official Side Event during Disrupt 2026, which runs October 10–16 in San Francisco. Approved hosts get promotion through TechCrunch's Side Events page, agenda, mobile app, attendee emails and social channels, plus a 25% ticket discount to offer their network.
Alan Waldenberg, longtime outside counsel to Cerberus Capital Management and personal trust manager for Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, also served as the Pentagon's lawyer on its $400 million equity stake and $150 million loan to rare earth miner MP Materials. Feinberg, Cerberus's founder, now holds vast sway over Pentagon budgets and contracts, and reportedly picked Waldenberg himself to work on the deal. The arrangement surfaced amid a broader Pentagon push, now exceeding $2 billion, to invest directly in critical minerals and battery firms to counter China.
HP's HyperX Omen 15 replaces the Victus 15 as the company's mainstream gaming laptop, pairing a Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 15.3-inch 1800p OLED screen with strong gaming benchmarks. Tom's Hardware found the as-tested unit costs about $2,100, a few hundred dollars more than its closest rival, and noted the build relies on an aluminum lid but cheap, flexible plastic for the rest of the chassis.
Roland has released Melody Flip, a digital audio workstation plug-in that uses generative AI to create musical building blocks rather than finished songs. The tool draws from roughly 250 genre-based 'Palettes' to generate melodies, chord progressions, basslines, or drum patterns, either from scratch or based on a reference track fed in by the user. Outputs come as simple MIDI loops with basic instrument sounds, meant to be exported into a DAW and refined with other synths.
SmallRig has released two power banks, the Nano 36 and Nano 72, designed specifically for camera rigs rather than pockets. Both include 1/4"-20 threaded holes and V-mount plates so they can attach directly to cages, tripods, and gimbals within SmallRig's accessory ecosystem. The Nano 36 offers 10,000mAh with 45W output for lighter tasks, while the Nano 72 packs 20,000mAh with 100W bi-directional charging for heavier, longer shoots.