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Tech News
Amazon is boosting minimum starting pay for its core U.S. operations staff, including delivery drivers and fulfillment center workers, to $20 per hour, pushing average hourly pay to nearly $24. The company is also adding perks like access to a low-cost banking service called Day 1 Financial, a credit union membership, and discounts on Whole Foods purchases both in-store and online.
Relay, a five-year-old AI workflow automation startup positioned as a Zapier alternative, ceased operations this week. The company struggled to justify its existence as a standalone product once larger platforms like OpenAI and Google began building similar email and task automation directly into their own tools.
Analyst Jeff Pu reports that most iPhone 18 Pro models are shipping immediately, with the Pro Max facing delays of at most three to four weeks depending on color and storage configuration. He interprets this as a sign of softer demand compared to prior iPhone launches, based on pre-order availability data.
A Caijing Magazine investigation, translated by ChinaTalk, details how Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing personally controls minute product decisions—from material colors to screw lengths—to drive down costs. This hands-on, cost-obsessed approach has helped Unitree sell some of the cheapest humanoid and quadruped robots on the market, including a $13,500 G1 model and a $4,900 R1 model, though employees say it has come at the expense of quality control.
With hiring conditions described as historically difficult, career experts are pointing to a less obvious trait that can set candidates apart: being genuinely interesting. The quality isn't about flashy self-promotion but stems from counterintuitive habits and traits that make someone memorable and valuable to employers.
Nike will be removed from the S&P 100 index on September 21, ending an 18-year run, as its market capitalization has fallen from a 2021 peak of $264 billion to about $57 billion today. The sportswear giant remains in the broader S&P 500, but its removal from the top-100 index reflects a sustained decline, including a 36% drop in market cap in 2026 alone. Honeywell Aerospace, Simon Property Group and Colgate-Palmolive are also exiting the index the same day, replaced by tech firms like Dell, Palo Alto Networks, Arista Networks and Sandisk.
A roundup of insights from 25 business leaders outlines how they maintain team alignment during unpredictable economic conditions. The leaders emphasize clarity, consistent communication, and a strong sense of purpose as tools to keep employees productive and motivated despite external turbulence.
German startup Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket into low-Earth orbit on its second attempt, flying from a Norwegian spaceport in the Arctic Circle. Founded in 2018 by three university students, the company has raised roughly $1 billion and grown to nearly 500 employees over eight years to reach this milestone.
Luxury housing prices have declined for 29 consecutive months across every high-end price tier, according to new market data. Despite the extended price slide, luxury homes are now selling faster than they did a year ago, suggesting buyer demand remains resilient even as sellers accept lower prices.
ResiClub reports that 18 states have surpassed their 2019 pre-pandemic active housing inventory levels, marking a milestone in the market's recovery from pandemic-era shortages. Nationally, total housing inventory rose 3.8% year-over-year between August 31, 2025 and August 31, 2026.
Google's 2025 DORA report finds 90% of developers now use AI daily, but the tool mainly magnifies existing habits rather than automatically improving output quality. Separate data shows 66% of developers spend extra time fixing AI-generated code that's 'almost correct,' while GitClear found an eightfold rise in code duplication since AI adoption became widespread. The piece argues that cheaper development means weak feature ideas can ship as fast as good ones unless teams deliberately slow down to validate problems first.
A shopper known as @whateversunnyfinds bought a $30 Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 expansion card at Kuwait City's Souq-al-Juma flea market and discovered three 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSDs concealed beneath its heatsink. Each drive currently retails for roughly $400-$500, meaning the find could be worth $1,300-$1,500 despite one of the card's four M.2 slots being empty.