Bloomberg's Mark Gurman outlines Apple's near-term product roadmap, saying six devices should ship before year's end, including touchscreen MacBook Pro models, an updated non-touch 14-inch MacBook Pro, a refreshed iMac with an M6 chip, a HomePod mini 2 and Apple TV 4K with Siri AI, and an OLED iPad mini. The long-rumored HomePad smart display remains unconfirmed for this window, with Gurman calling its timing still fluid. He also previews a first-half-2027 wave covering an iPhone Air 2, an OLED iPad Air, and mostly iterative chip upgrades across iPhone, MacBook Air, MacBook Neo and iPad Pro lines.
Spotify has introduced a new setting that lets users prevent music played for children from influencing their personalized recommendations and year-end Wrapped summary. The toggle allows adults sharing an account with kids to isolate nursery rhymes and children's music from skewing their listening data.
Major AI labs have moved their attention from building ever-larger models to running inference—the process of using trained models to generate text, code, and images. This shift is driven by growing real-world use of large language models, the rise of reasoning models that repeatedly reprompt themselves, and autonomous AI agents that run continuously rather than just responding to single queries. Amazon Web Services, for instance, has split inference tasks between its Trainium chips and Cerebras's wafer-scale hardware.
Mastercard's newly appointed marketing chief is reworking the company's longtime 'Priceless' branding into a global campaign centered on small businesses. The initiative comes as small firms grapple with rising energy costs tied to Middle East conflict, tariff-driven supply chain disruptions, and increasing labor expenses.
Priority Pass, the airport lounge membership program, announced plans to broaden its benefits over the next year, including more fast-track security lanes at airports, additional partner lounges, and personalized recommendations powered by artificial intelligence. The changes aim to extend the program's value beyond simply granting lounge access before flights.
Fleet Device Management has been admitted to Project Glasswing, Anthropic's controlled-access program for its Claude Mythos Preview model. Fleet will use the early access to explore how frontier AI could help IT teams detect and remediate device vulnerabilities faster, aiming to shrink the delay between when threats appear and when organizations patch them.
Yamaha has unveiled the B200A, a compact soundbar measuring just 23.5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall, designed to fit under monitors or mount on walls. Despite having only two drivers and a built-in subwoofer, Yamaha claims it delivers 3D immersive Dolby Atmos sound, complete with a Bass Extender mode and Clear Voice dialogue enhancement. It ships in November with a single HDMI port, a 3.5mm jack, and Bluetooth streaming, priced at $250.
Uber has updated its senior accounts feature to let older riders manage their own accounts without needing a linked family member, an option that was previously required. The update also introduces a new settings page letting seniors customize arrival signals, enable a simplified interface, and flag mobility aids like canes or walkers to drivers. Separately, Uber is piloting an 'Easy Entry Vehicle' option in nine unnamed markets for riders who need cars without a high step to enter.
Spotify introduced a new settings option letting users exclude kids and family music, such as nursery rhymes or movie soundtracks, from shaping their Discovery Weekly, Daily Mix and Wrapped. The toggle works retroactively, so previously played kids' tracks can be scrubbed from a user's taste profile, and it's available to both free and premium accounts.
Apple's MagSafe charging technology, first introduced in 2006 and revived after being dropped for USB-C in 2015, offers a magnetic, snap-on connection that reduces the risk of a MacBook being pulled off a surface if the cord is tugged. However, it remains a proprietary cable that only charges MacBooks, unlike USB-C cables which charge multiple devices and connect displays, drives and other peripherals.
Spotify has rolled out a new global mobile setting for Free and Premium users that lets them remove children's and family music from their taste profile. Once toggled off in settings, songs from kids' movies, nursery rhymes and family show themes will no longer factor into personalized features like Wrapped, Discover Weekly, or Daily Mix, even retroactively. Users can still search, play, and playlist that music without it affecting their recommendations.
Rune Kvist, a former Anthropic employee, and Rajiv Dattani, ex-COO of AI safety group METR, launched a startup called Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company (AIUC) that builds a third-party audit and certification system for AI agents, modeled on the SOC 2 cybersecurity standard. The company, whose clients include Cursor, Lovable, Harvey, and ElevenLabs, just raised a $40 million Series A led by Ribbit Capital with First Harmonic, adding to a prior $15 million seed round, bringing total funding to $55 million.
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