Amazon unveiled an updated Echo Studio with Home Camera, a $249.99 speaker featuring a built-in camera for room monitoring, showing items to Alexa, and eventually video calls on Fire TV. The speaker also adds 'Advanced Room Adaptation' and 'Adaptive Volume' audio features, while the standard camera-less Echo Studio remains available at $219.99. Amazon also refreshed the Echo Dot, now $99.99, with a custom AZ3 chip, a fourth microphone, a built-in Zigbee/Matter/Thread smart home hub, and an Eero Wi-Fi extender.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-28
Apple announced AI-powered updates across its Creator Studio suite, including built-in MotionVFX effects for Final Cut Pro, a beta AI assistant for Logic Pro built with Apple and OpenAI models, and a generative fill tool for Pixelmator Pro. Keynote, Pages and Numbers are also gaining new AI assistants, with the updates arriving as a free update for Creator Studio subscribers in November.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-27
Apple has released an update to its Creator Studio suite, integrating MotionVFX effects, themes, and color grading tools directly into Final Cut Pro following its acquisition of the company earlier this year. The update also adds text-to-image AI editing in Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro, plus a new OpenAI-built assistant in Logic Pro, Keynote, Pages and Numbers that can generate music, vocals, and automate app tasks from text prompts.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-27
A modified version of WineVDM, called OTVDM, enables users to run legacy 16-bit Windows executables (from Windows 1.x through 3.1) directly on modern 64-bit Windows systems, which natively lack support for 16-bit code. The tool works by emulating the CPU and LDT functions, converting Win16 API calls to Win32 equivalents, redirecting Windows directory file writes, and even emulating DOS environments. Users can install it via a setup script or run executables directly by dragging them onto the included otvdm.exe.
github.com
· 2026-10-27
The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max chip, 36GB of RAM and 2TB of storage has dropped to $3,499, a 20 percent discount and $400 less than it cost just days earlier. Retailers say this is $150 below any previous sale price for this configuration, even after Apple raised prices across the lineup in June.
wired.com
· 2026-10-25
To mark iPhone Duo's shipping launch, retailers are discounting related Apple gear: AirPods Pro 3 are $50 off at $199, Apple Pencil (USB-C)—the only stylus iPhone Duo supports—is down to $69 (or $61 used-like-new), and the new Apple TV 4K remains available at a pre-order discount. Additional savings cover leather cases, power banks, and the new Mac Studio and M6 Mac mini.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-23
Apple has launched an 'Intelligent Assistant' feature across its iWork apps—Pages, Keynote and Numbers—available in beta to Apple Creator Studio subscribers. The assistant can draft content, generate images, shapes, slides, tables and formulas, and pull in up-to-date information using natural language commands. It currently requires iOS 27 or later and is limited to US English.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-22
Showrunner Bartosz Sztybor said the Netflix sequel series was deliberately built to avoid replicating the look of the first season. He said CD Projekt Red and animation studio Trigger pushed for a stronger retro anime influence and a grittier, less glamorous depiction of Night City.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-21
BioWare announced on social media that after more than three decades it is closing, with early development on the next Mass Effect project halted. The shutdown followed a Bloomberg report that parent company Electronic Arts is cutting 400 jobs companywide, including 50 at BioWare. EA executives told staff the moves aim to align talent and investment toward areas of greatest growth opportunity.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-21
A leaked internal EA memo outlines a strategic realignment focused on three priorities, with leadership citing intensifying competition and shifting player habits as reasons for reshaping its studio portfolio. The memo, addressed to staff, discusses concentrating talent and investment where EA sees the biggest growth opportunities, including changes to its Shooters business, with reports indicating BioWare is being shut down as part of these moves.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-21
Apple has bought Samplab, a company that made audio editing tools for musicians, in a move likely tied to its Logic Pro app. This follows earlier 2025 acquisitions of MotionVFX and Color.io, both of which added effects and color-grading tools used in Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-20
Apple has expanded its Self Service Repair program to cover the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, the M5 Max/M5 Ultra Mac Studio, and the M6/M5 Pro Mac mini. Customers can now buy individual parts—such as displays, batteries, cameras, logic boards, and enclosures—along with the tools needed to install them, or rent the tools instead. The update coincided with Apple's announcement of new and expanded US supplier partnerships for iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo components.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-20
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