GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple has increased the education price of the MacBook Neo to $649, just $50 below its standard retail price. The laptop launched at $599 with a $499 education price, but both prices rose by $100 in June, and the student discount has now shrunk further, putting it $150 above its original education price.
Apple's new touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at $2,899, but a fully configured 16-inch model with the M5 Max chip, 128GB memory, and a 16TB SSD reaches $14,549, according to MacRumors' analysis of Apple's online configurator. The 14-inch equivalent tops out at $14,249. Preorders begin October 30, with units shipping November 6.
A software engineer's essay recalls working at Runa, an early-stage startup that tried to offer dynamic pricing to small online retailers using Clojure and HBase, which never achieved the scale it expected and was eventually acquired by Staples mainly for its 'innovation' credentials before being shut down. The essay also describes a subsequent role at Factual, which built a global index of places using Java, embedded JavaScript, and later Clojure.
Apple's newly announced MacBook Pro with OLED display and touchscreen starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch model and $3,399 for the 16-inch model, but fully upgraded configurations reach $14,249 and $14,549 respectively. The top prices include an M5 Max chip, nano-texture glass, 128GB of memory, and 16TB of storage.
Apple has raised the MacBook Neo's Education Store starting price to $649, a $50 increase, after an earlier $100 bump in June. The entry configuration still includes 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM but lacks Touch ID, and the student discount off the regular $699 price is now only $50 instead of the previous $100.
The American Economic Liberties Project says Kroger's proposed $1.65 billion acquisition of Giant Eagle, which would add over 200 stores to Kroger's existing 2,700, could do more than reshape grocery competition. The advocacy group warns the merger could also combine or expand surveillance infrastructure, including Flock cameras and Cooler Screens technology, across a larger customer base. Kroger has denied using facial recognition for pricing but acknowledges using it for security at some locations; neither company responded to requests for comment.
Portuguese retailer MegaPC briefly listed Motorola's unannounced Signature 27 and Razr Flex 27, revealing specs, colors and prices ahead of any official announcement. The Signature 27 with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage appeared priced at €1,594.90, up from €999 for the same configuration of the original Signature. The listing also showed a Razr Flex 27 with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage priced at €1,510.90.
Evernote's top annual subscription tier has risen from $130 to $250 under owner Bending Spoons, which acquired the note-taking app in 2023. The increase mirrors steep price hikes at other long-running consumer apps, including Plex, Quicken, Robokiller and Inkdrop, some of which have doubled or more in cost over the past decade.
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by 20 states, filed suit against Dollar General in federal court in Tennessee, alleging the retailer repeatedly charged customers more at checkout than the prices shown on shelf tags and in advertisements. The complaint cites more than 29,000 consumer pricing complaints and says the overcharges cost shoppers millions of dollars despite the company's awareness of the issue.
A transcription company founder writes that clients who pick vendors based solely on the lowest price frequently end up paying more when the work must be redone. The piece distinguishes price, cost and value, noting the author's firm regularly gets hired to fix botched transcriptions originally done cheaply elsewhere.
Between June and September 2026, OpenAI and Anthropic each cut prices on multiple models: OpenAI dropped GPT-5.6 Luna pricing by 80% and GPT-5.6 Sol by about 20% for three months, while Anthropic made its temporary Claude Sonnet 5 launch pricing permanent and cut cache-read costs by 75% on the newly released Fable 5.1. The moves followed mixed reception to some new releases, including Claude Sonnet 5 and Opus 5, even as benchmark claims for some models reportedly exceeded larger competitors.
A financial services CFO writing for Entrepreneur argues that revenue figures alone don't reveal which customers are actually profitable. Two accounts generating similar revenue can produce very different economic outcomes once late payments, servicing costs, discounts, exceptions and credit exposure are factored in. The author cites examples across manufacturing, software, distribution and consumer businesses where high-revenue customers quietly drain more resources than they return.