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Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics have announced the Microduck, a $399 waddling robot duck that follows their earlier Reachy Mini collaboration. The device features a camera eye, grabbing beak, wheeled feet, motion and depth sensors, and can be controlled via gamepad or laser pointer while also serving as a platform for AI and robotics experimentation. It's available for preorder now with delivery expected by year's end.
NASA is preparing to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday at 7:26 a.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center, using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The telescope, arriving roughly eight months early and under budget, will travel to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point about 1 million miles away after final inspections and fueling with 290 gallons of hydrazine.
Researchers used historic meteorological records to build satellite-style visualizations of the weather over Normandy on June 6, 1944. The reconstructed imagery shows only a brief, narrow break in the clouds that allowed the Allied invasion to proceed as planned, illustrating how marginal the conditions actually were.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced that Amazon has become a participant in YouTube's creator affiliate shopping program. Creators can now tag Amazon products directly within videos, Shorts and livestreams, earning commissions when viewers buy through their links.
Politico reports the Trump administration is considering wide-ranging tariffs that could extend beyond raw semiconductors to products built with them, such as gaming consoles, servers and data-center equipment, with an announcement possible within weeks or months. Sources familiar with internal discussions say the exact scope remains unsettled, but one option under review would sharply broaden the list of taxed tech goods.
American Airlines is refreshing its main cabin snack offerings, introducing items like Goldfish crackers and Tate's Bake Shop cookies alongside its existing selection. The airline frames the change as an 'elevation' of its inflight menu and is soliciting passenger feedback on the new choices.
Verizon's MVNO Visible introduced Visible One, a bundle merging its mobile service with Verizon Fios-based fiber internet under one bill. The base tier costs $55/month for 300Mbps fiber plus standard mobile service, while Visible+ Pro One costs $75/month for 1Gbps fiber and premium mobile with 5G Ultra Wideband and a smartwatch line. Both plans skip added taxes, fees, contracts, and credit checks, but require homes to already have an inactive Fios ONT installed.
Meta is rolling out a software update that stops its smart glasses cameras from recording if the indicator light is covered after recording has already started. VP of AR Alex Himel confirmed the fix on Threads, addressing a loophole that had been widely shared in online tutorials for covert filming.
A ZDNET reviewer who has used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 since its July launch suggests changing four camera settings rather than relying on Samsung's defaults. The phone has two 50MP cameras and no telephoto lens, but the reviewer notes that enabling a hi-res mode and installing the hidden Camera Assistant tool can improve zoomed and detailed shots. Setting the default photo resolution to 24MP is recommended as the best balance of detail and file size.
Nvidia has formed a political action committee to make donations to federal candidates, marking a new step in its efforts to build lobbying and political influence in Washington. The PAC will be funded through voluntary, capped contributions from eligible employees rather than corporate treasury funds. The move comes as Congress and the Trump administration debate a national AI regulatory framework ahead of the midterm elections.
LinkedIn introduced a feature letting users flag posts they suspect are low-quality AI-generated content, and more than a million people used it within the first two weeks. Chief product officer Hari Srinivasan said member views of flagged AI content have dropped 40% since the tool launched, though he acknowledged more work remains.
A valuation framework called the Financial Truth Ladder, developed by TEOL Capital, describes how institutional buyers actually assess a business before assigning it a price. Rather than starting with EBITDA multiples, buyers first test whether the company's financials, earnings, and cash flow can be trusted, then examine owner dependency and future predictability. Each of the five questions either builds buyer confidence or introduces doubt that affects the final offer.