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Tech News
Drone delivery company Zipline has closed a new funding round that boosts its valuation, alongside an expanded delivery partnership with Walmart. Specific financial terms of the raise were not detailed in available reporting.
Meta's AI shopping assistant Muse is running into resistance from major retailers when it tries to complete purchases on users' behalf. Amazon has deliberately blocked Muse from shopping on its site, according to TechCrunch, while Walmart says its verification checks weren't designed to target the assistant but are tripping it up anyway.
Jackery unveiled the Explorer 100D, a compact lithium iron phosphate power station measuring 4.6 by 3.4 by 3.4 inches and weighing 1.87 pounds, with 96Wh (30,000mAh) of capacity. It launches November 15th at Walmart for $99, with a two-pack already available at Costco for $179.99. The device offers two 140W USB-C ports and one 18W USB-A port, capped at 158W total output, plus support for up to 100W of solar charging.
JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, Amazon, Neiman Marcus and Kohl's are blocking AI personal agents from acting on customers' behalf, while Walmart has opened its site to such bots, pricing products the same for agents as for humans. A Billions Network audit of 51 large U.S. retailers found only 11 have deliberately set a policy on AI agents, with most blocking them unintentionally via older anti-scraper rules.
A Reddit user reported buying two CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme gaming desktops from a Walmart store shelf priced at $1,099 each, despite the listed retail price of $2,299 on Walmart's website. The store reportedly honored the lower price for both units, though it remains unclear whether this was an intentional sale or a pricing error. Each system includes an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPU, an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD.
Walmart is selling Vizio's Mini LED Quantum TV at a discount, with the 65-inch model priced at $358 and the 85-inch at $698. The sets run Vizio OS by default but allow users to disable the smart TV software during setup, enabling use of external streaming devices instead. Testing found the mini-LED panel reaches up to 936 nits of brightness, though the IPS panel has weaker black levels and some motion blur.
Walmart is selling the ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming desktop for $849, a $350.99 cut from its $1,199.99 list price. The configuration pairs an Intel Core 5 Processor 120 with an Nvidia RTX 5060 (8GB VRAM), 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD.
The Federal Trade Commission has sent formal information requests to nine companies, including Walmart, Uber and Delta, demanding details on how they use consumer data to set prices. The agency says it wants to determine whether firms are charging individual consumers the highest price they are willing to pay based on personal data collected about them.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for Nintendo Switch 2 is set to release on November 5th, and retailers Amazon and Walmart are currently offering the physical edition for $10 off its $59.99 list price. Once the game launches, the physical version is expected to rise to $69.99, while the digital edition will remain at $59.99.
Amazon Prime Air is expanding its drone delivery operations to nearly 500 US cities and towns and has launched service near Darlington in England, while smaller drone delivery operators are also spreading across US cities for food and treats. Residents near these operations are reporting that drone noise, though often quieter than traffic overall, stands out sharply because of its pitch and low-altitude, direct-overhead flight paths.
Walmart surveyed its 2.1 million associates in June on their comfort with AI, drawing over 1.7 million responses. The retailer found 77% of office-based workers and 84% of U.S. frontline associates reported confidence using AI or digital tools, which Walmart credits to training partnerships with Google and OpenAI launched over the past 13 months.
The FDA has issued a recall of more than 44,000 cans of Great Value fruit cocktail sold at Walmart, citing concerns about elevated lead levels. The affected cans were shipped to stores across seven US states.