28 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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News Archive

Archives for October 2026

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
OpenAI staffer accused of planting bug was allegedly in “frequent” communication with a Saudi royal.

The suspect, Abdulrahman Alfozan, used WhatsApp to communicate with the unnamed royal throughout 2025 and 2026, according to a court filing spotted earlier by CNBC.

Among other things, the individual [Saudi Royal Family member] told the defendant [Alfozan] that an artificial intelligence initiative was being launched in Saudi Arabia and wanted the defendant to join it.

Alfozan allegedly contacted the individual on October 5th, just days before he was arrested on suspicion of planting a bug in an OpenAI conference room.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Analogue’s upgraded SNES and Genesis consoles go up for preorder today.

If you missed the original versions, starting at 9AM PT/11AM ET today you’ll be able to preorder Analogue’s new Super Nt Plus and Mega Sg Plus retro consoles compatible with the cartridges from each respective platform. The new Plus versions come with several quality of life improvements including built-in wireless controller connectivity, USB-C power ports, and cartridge hot swapping.

The Analogue Super Nt Plus and Mega Sg Plus consoles surrounded by games and controllers.
Image: Analogue
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
TP-Link plans to assemble Wi-Fi routers in the US.

Following an FCC ban on consumer routers made outside the US last March, TP-Link announced today that it has entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the US-based Key Tronic to “bring next-generation product assembly to the United States.“ Starting as early as next year, pending US regulatory approval, Key Tronic will begin assembly of TP-Link’s Wi-Fi 8 networking products in Corinth, Mississippi.

A TP-Link Wi-Fi router on a desk in bright sunlight next to a laptop.
Image: TP-Link
Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
The iPhone Duo’s battery is bigger than in any of Samsung’s foldables.

The Duo’s imminent release means the EU released its energy and durability ratings, including its rated battery capacity of 4,883mAh. Rated capacities are lower than typical marketed capacities, so this battery is bigger than in either the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Z Fold 8 Ultra, but still smaller than in foldables from Oppo and Honor.

Robert Hart
Robert Hart
In case you couldn’t tell, the House of Mouse was in on Character.AI’s bankruptcy from the start.

Wired reports that Character filing for bankruptcy and agreeing to sell assets to Disney last week was the second of “two interrelated and integrated” transactions. The first, which took place in September, involved Disney hiring a “majority” of the chatbot startup’s employees, a familiar move from the “acquihire” playbook.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Elon Musk says he’ll give every American child a SpaceX share.

What’s not to trust about this X post, given the vague deadline of “next year,” and track record of broken promises? Actually doing this would require Musk to give away more than $10 billion worth of shares, but I guess that’s more feasible than President Trump’s $1.3 trillion plan to sway voters.

A screenshot of Elo Musk promising to give every child in the US a SpaceX share.
He’s even pinned this post, because of course he has.
Image: @elonmusk
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Japan is launching a Mars moon probe later today.

The Martian Moons eXploration mission is scheduled to launch at 2:41PM ET and, if successful, should return to Earth in 2031 carrying samples from Phobos. It’ll study both Phobos and Deimos on its journey to shed some light on how they came to exist, and hopefully provide new insights into both Mars and Earth.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Amazon Luna in Prime Video is coming to more countries.

Amazon started letting US and UK users stream games from Luna inside Prime Video in July, and today the feature will be available in Canada, France, Italy, and Spain to Amazon Prime subscribers on Fire TVs, Amazon says.

In November, Luna in Prime Video will launch in the remaining countries where Luna is available that don’t already have the feature: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Anthropic is committing 5 percent of its shares to a ‘Public Benefit Fund’

The new Anthropic Public Benefit Fund will be a wholly owned LLC, which the company says will give it “flexibility.” It offered little information about how it would use the money, other than saying it wouldn’t fund lobbying or political donations. It offered limited examples of what it might do:

… we might explore large donations to traditional nonprofits or direct distributions to specific populations.

One example is labor market impacts. AI may generate enormous economic value, but it could also cause instability for many workers. Anthropic has already committed $200 million to studying and addressing this issue, but given the pace of AI progress, bolder approaches may be needed.