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A leaker named pdfu spotted changes to Apple's HomePod 2 product page, including a glow effect matching the HomePod mini 2's Siri AI visuals and alt text describing a 'multi-colored Siri AI glow on top.' The HomePod mini 2 itself ships with Siri AI support enabled by its S10 chip, while the original HomePod mini lacks this capability.
According to Tim Culpan, Elon Musk's Terafab chip project will receive its first ASML EUV lithography scanner in mid-2027. SemiAnalysis notes the development fab's shell at Giga Texas won't be finished until late 2027, meaning the tool could sit unused for months before installation begins.
Apple has published out-of-warranty repair pricing for its foldable iPhone Duo, with costs ranging from $49 for cover layer damage up to $999 for inner display damage and $1,499 for unspecified "other damage." With AppleCare Plus, which costs $19.99 monthly, $199.99 yearly, or $399 flat, many repairs drop sharply, including $0 battery service and $99 for inner display or other accidental damage. The device starts at $1,999, launching October 23rd with preorders beginning Friday.
Several restaurants and retailers, including 7-Eleven and Kroger, are offering promotions and discounts on sweets to mark National Dessert Day, observed October 14. The offers range from free items to discounted treats across participating locations.
Microsoft has officially unveiled the Xbox Nano, a smaller, lighter controller aimed at younger players or those with smaller hands who want portable gameplay. Priced at $49.99, it measures just over five inches, includes a rechargeable battery, Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, and a customizable Action Button. It's available for pre-order now and ships in November.
The piece traces a matching-pennies experiment back to engineer David Hagelbarger's 1950s Bell Labs machine SEER, which tracked only a handful of facts about recent rounds to guess a human opponent's next move better than chance. Claude Shannon built a similar device shortly after, crediting Hagelbarger's design and describing it as a simplified model of the same idea. The modern 'Aaronson Oracle' is a descendant of these relay-based machines, now implemented as software.
A federal jury in Delaware ruled that Arm breached its Architecture License Agreement with Qualcomm and intentionally interfered with Qualcomm's business relationship with Meta, but awarded only $2 in nominal damages after a five-day trial. The jury rejected several other claims Qualcomm had brought against Arm. Both companies claimed victory in the ruling, which follows Qualcomm's earlier win in the related Nuvia licensing dispute.
DARPA has launched a $73 million initiative to create long-lasting, dried versions of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells for battlefield use. The program aims to have these dried blood products ready for field deployment by 2029, though researchers still face open questions about the safety and effectiveness of synthetic blood alternatives.
Samsung Health is updating its Sleep Coaching feature so users can begin the program after just three days of sleep data within a two-week period, down from a full consecutive week per month. The update applies to Galaxy Watch 4 and later, Galaxy Fit 3 and Galaxy Ring users, and combines a sleep habits survey with tracked data to assign a personalized 'Sleep Animal' and a four- to eight-week coaching plan. Samsung also updated its Running Coach app, expanding training tiers from 10 to 12 levels and adding social sharing features and a new fitness platform partnership.
On October 11, 1999, Nvidia shipped the GeForce 256, the first product it labeled a 'GPU,' featuring a hardware transform-and-lighting engine. Offloading graphics work from the CPU wasn't new—Commodore and 3dfx had done similar things earlier—but Nvidia coined and popularized the GPU term with this release. The card particularly benefited systems with weaker CPUs like low-end Celerons.
Microsoft researchers published a study in Nature describing a machine learning system that corrects bias in existing physics-based and AI weather models, improving forecast accuracy two to six weeks ahead. The tool, now available as open-source software, can run on standard CPUs rather than requiring supercomputers or powerful GPUs.
WhatsApp has rolled out a guest calling feature that lets users invite people to a call without requiring them to have a WhatsApp account, by sending a call link that works in a browser. Guests get access to features like screen sharing, hand raising, and emoji reactions under end-to-end encryption, but must wait for host approval and can't see other participants' phone numbers or add others to the call. Meta says Google and Outlook calendar integrations for WhatsApp calls are coming later this year via a plugin.