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A CNET reviewer who used the iPhone 17 Pro Max extensively while traveling says the newly unveiled iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max address key frustrations. The updated Dynamic Island can now display three live activities at once instead of two, and the phones feature a redesigned vapor chamber along with camera improvements aimed at competing with Android flagships.
Spotify is broadening its podcast partner program this fall to 35 additional regions, including Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. Podcasters in these markets will be able to earn revenue from both ad and Premium subscriber activity across video and audio formats, while retaining sponsorship income and freedom to distribute elsewhere.
Mastercard has signed a new deal aimed at letting AI-driven shopping agents complete purchases using customer payment credentials. The move comes as rivals Visa and American Express are also preparing their own systems to support autonomous, AI-powered shopping bots.
A report from nonprofit watchdog C4ADS outlines three main routes Chinese buyers use to obtain export-restricted Nvidia AI chips like the H100, A100 and Blackwell models: direct purchases through research institutions, rerouting shipments through third countries in Southeast Asia, and layered shell-company transactions. The group notes its findings only cover documented cases, so the real volume of smuggled hardware is likely much larger.
DJI has introduced SDR Transmission II, a wireless video system for professional productions that transmits 4K 60 fps HDR footage at 50Mbps over distances up to 2.5 miles, doubling the bitrate and extending range compared to its predecessor. The system allows one transmitter to link with up to eight receivers, and larger setups can scale to five transmitters and 40 receivers for complex multi-camera shoots.
USB 3.0's successors were renamed using confusing 'Gen' labels tied to speeds of 5, 10 or 20 Gbps, making printed USB 3.2 labels unreliable indicators of actual performance. USB-C ports add convenience but say nothing about speed, since USB-C devices can still run at USB 2.0 rates. Real-world tests, like Kingston's DataTraveler Max hitting up to 1,000 MB/s versus Samsung's Fit Plus write speeds of just 58.4 MB/s, show huge gaps hidden behind similar branding.
Apple's Series 12 keeps the same screen size and case dimensions as the Series 11 but adds a returning Ceramic case option in white or blue, Ceramic Shield 2 on aluminum models, and new color choices including dark bronze and radiant gold. The bigger change is an overhauled 'health sensing system' with a larger skin-contact area and more diodes, electrodes and sensors packed into the same footprint.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul's administration released a Community Investment Framework advising local governments on negotiating with data center developers. The guide recommends towns demand roughly $1 million per megawatt of power demand in community investment, alongside plans covering long-term maintenance, site abandonment, and phased funding timelines.
Reuters reports that SK Hynix, which supplies Apple with RAM and flash memory, is discussing a deal with Intel to produce chips at Intel's planned Ohio facility, potentially leasing part of the site. This would mark the first time the South Korean company manufactures memory chips on US soil, though sources say details remain unclear and nothing has been finalized.
Polish developer Pawel Szydlowski launched an iPhone app called Zuckoff that uses Bluetooth signals to detect and estimate the distance of Meta's AI smart glasses, which have faced criticism for enabling covert recording. The app has attracted about 5,000 users and interest from EU regulators, while separately Meta is reportedly developing a camera-free version of its glasses and rolling out paid subscription tiers for its social apps to offset heavy losses at its Reality Labs division.
A group called stegan0gram removed a Flock roadside camera and dissected its Android storage, finding an encryption key inside the 'media' partition that unlocked another partition holding all recorded files. That data included about 1.6 million images and 27,321 short video clips gathered over 21 days, capturing roughly 50,200 vehicles and 11 people.
Newegg is offering a two-item combo pairing AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D gaming CPU with an MSI MAG X870E Gaming Max Wifi motherboard for $578.99, down from $727.99. The deal also throws in a free Cooler Master Elite Liquid 240 AIO cooler worth $80, and the discount effectively makes this the cheapest way to get the 9800X3D.