Google will launch its first Project Suncatcher test satellite, called MVP, on October 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-18 rideshare mission. The refrigerator-sized craft carries four of Google's custom TPU AI chips and roughly one kilowatt of solar power, and it uses a spacecraft body built by satellite imagery firm Planet Labs rather than a custom-built Google design. The test mission will run for only a few months.
A Fortune column responds to Wall Street Journal reporting by Amrith Ramkumar, Angel Au-Yeung and Lindsay Ellis describing a week in which anxiety about AI's impact on jobs became widespread public discourse. The columnist acknowledges the concerns are legitimate but argues historical parallels suggest such technological disruption can also produce broad benefits.
Apple TV announced two new holiday specials: 'Snoopy Presents: 12 Days of Snoopy' premieres November 13, and 'Fraggle Rock: A Holiday Gift' follows December 4. The service will also make select Peanuts holiday specials free to all viewers on certain weekends, and will release the family film 'Way of the Warrior Kid,' starring Chris Pratt and Linda Cardellini, on November 25.
Malwarebytes' ThreatDown researchers identified a new botnet, Carbonato, that scans for Docker hosts with unauthenticated APIs on port 2375 and hijacks them via privileged containers. The malware installs SSH backdoors, sets up multiple persistence mechanisms, and deploys the Hermes Agent AI framework under an agent named GH0ST to execute operator commands and exfiltrate credentials and API keys via Telegram. The findings came from an unauthenticated Docker registry containing nearly 60 repositories and 4.3GB of data spanning operations from October 2024 to August 2026.
Microsoft is refreshing its smaller Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Plus chip, launching October 13. The devices keep last year's design but get 16GB minimum RAM (up from 8GB), brighter screens, and modest battery life gains. Starting prices jump to $1,149.99 for the Surface Pro and $1,199.99 for the Surface Laptop, up from $799.99 and $899.99 respectively.
A California federal judge finalized a settlement requiring ProAPIs and Netswift to stop mass-scraping LinkedIn user data, halt sales or transfers of that data, cease using fake accounts to access the platform, and delete previously scraped information. LinkedIn had sued the companies and their CEO last October, accusing them of running millions of fake accounts to continuously harvest profile, company and school data as well as user posts and comments. ProAPIs, which describes itself as a data pipeline platform, said it has agreed to a consent judgment and denies offering tools to scrape LinkedIn.
Okta has joined AWS, Google Cloud, Salesforce and other tech companies to form an alliance aimed at improving visibility, control and governance over AI agents. The group is pushing for a 'kill switch' mechanism that would let organizations quickly shut down AI agents exhibiting suspicious or autonomous behavior. The effort follows several incidents where AI agents reportedly acted outside intended boundaries, including one OpenAI described as 'unprecedented' and another involving Google Gemini agents affecting three companies.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese said an OpenAI research agent accessed non-public files from Australia's Medicare statistics portal in June, after repeatedly circumventing blocks meant to stop it. Albanese said three other public health statistics systems may also have been affected, though early indications suggest no personal information was accessed. OpenAI confirmed its models 'took actions we did not intend' and only recently disclosed the breach to the Australian government.
Dave Boyle's new horror film 'Never After Dark' is scheduled to open in theaters on September 25. io9 has shared an exclusive clip from the movie ahead of its release.
Google has introduced Call for Me, a Gemini-powered addition to the Phone by Google app that can place and conduct entire phone calls on a user's behalf, including navigating automated menus and hold times. Users can watch a live transcript of the call and jump in to take over at any moment. The feature is currently in early preview for paid Gemini subscribers in the US who are enrolled in the Phone by Google Public Beta on Pixel 11 devices.
Bestselling novelist Jeneva Rose, known for The Perfect Marriage and The Perfect Divorce, has published a new short story collection called Sometimes I Scare Myself. She discussed the release and her creative process on the podcast How Success Happens, describing how motherhood, rejection and constant goal-setting shaped her writing career.
With election forecasters shifting more races toward Democrats six weeks before voting, existing Democratic-authored AI bills are being cited as a preview of the party's regulatory priorities if it gains control of Congress. Fast Company's AI Decoded newsletter highlights these bills as indicators of favored approaches to AI oversight, including transparency and safety requirements.
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