5 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Tech Archive

Archives for October 2026

Anthropic’s business plan: Build God or die trying

Anthropic faces intense competitive pressure and huge fixed costs. Can Claude build itself fast enough to succeed?

Elizabeth Lopatto
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Meta will now notify parents if their child searches for self-harm-related terms on Facebook.

These alerts, which Meta first brought to Instagram in February, also apply to conversations about self-harm with its AI chatbot across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.

If you or anyone you know is considering self-harm or needs to talk, contact the following people who want to help: In the US, text or call 988. Outside the US, contact https://www.iasp.info/.

Image: Meta
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Bluesky is restricting links to the massive DHS leak.

On Wednesday, the nonprofit DDoSecrets published a database of more than 41,000 employee records stolen from the DHS. Bluesky, which has strict policies against sharing someone’s personal information, tells Wired that it’s blocking links to the archive because they contain people’s email addresses and phone numbers “shared without their authorization.”

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Jensen Huang and the AI spies.

The New York Times reports that US intelligence officials believe an executive at one of Nvidia’s data center customers, Megaspeed, may be a “Chinese intelligence asset,” and has a “close relationship” with Nvidia CEO Huang. Details are sparse in the article, especially on how close that relationship was — Nvidia says she’s just one of “thousands of customer executives” Huang meets every year.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
JerryRig the Trump phone.

JerryRigEverything belatedly got hold of a Trump phone for a midterm special durability test, including a blunt recounting of the president’s track record so far. It features more evidence that the T1 Phone is an HTC in disguise, including a repeat of iFixit’s clever trick of swapping motherboards to prove the phones are identical inside and out.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
This cargo was delivered from orbit by a giant SpaceX hockey puck.

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has successfully tested SpaceX’s disc-shaped Starfall reentry capsule in an effort to determine the viability of point-to-point rocket cargo deliveries. Starfall carried AFRL-developed cargo pods that were recovered after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, containing essential survival kits that might be needed on real emergency missions.

<a href="https://x.com/AFResearchLab/status/2114723191901782017">AFRL posted on X:</a> “Each pod contained representative mission equipment to study the effects of temperature, shock, and vibration of the cargo environments during launch and reentry.”
<a href="https://x.com/AFResearchLab/status/2114723191901782017">AFRL posted on X:</a> “Each pod contained representative mission equipment to study the effects of temperature, shock, and vibration of the cargo environments during launch and reentry.”
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AFRL posted on X: “Each pod contained representative mission equipment to study the effects of temperature, shock, and vibration of the cargo environments during launch and reentry.”
Image: US Air Force Research Laboratory
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Cinema 4D will “soon” turn sketches into 3D models.

Developer Maxon is teasing a new AI tool generating a model based on an uploaded image, alongside options to reference text and sketches. It’s not clear how the image and sketch options will differ, but 3D creatives are reacting in the comments with other questions: Will it let you turn anyone’s art into a model?

Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Just a smidge thinner.

The new touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro’s redesigned chassis is only slightly thinner than the Mini LED model — especially comparing the 14-inchers, shown here. It’s when you pick them up that you really notice and can appreciate the lighter weight.

Your wallet will be much lighter too.

<em>The 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED Display (left) is 0.02 inches / 0.5mm thinner than the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 (right).</em>
<em>The 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED Display (left) and the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 (right).</em>
<em>You gotta love a light-up lid though.</em>
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The 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED Display (left) is 0.02 inches / 0.5mm thinner than the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 (right).
Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
iFi’s wireless headphone dongle can transmit audio to your car’s stereo, too.

Similar to Twelve South’s recently launched Airfly View dongle that can connect wireless headphones to non-Bluetooth devices, iFi is introducing a new version of its UP Travel dongle that can wirelessly receive audio, too. The $129 UP Travel Max adds Bluetooth 5.4 and support for the aptX Lossless codec, plus Auracast for broadcasting to an unlimited number of listeners with compatible headphones.

Correction: The Airfly View can also wirelessly receive audio.

The iFi UP Travel Max dongle against a white background.
Image: iFi
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
“It doesn’t work.”

Now that Apple’s touchscreen MBP is here, let’s roll back to what Steve Jobs had to say about touch on laptops.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google is working on a new agentic AI experience for consumers.

The company launched a new Gemini agent for enterprise earlier this month, and Google will bring that “same experience” to consumers later this year, starting with the Gemini app, CEO Sundar Pichai said on today’s Q3 2026 earnings call.

I’m curious how it will differ from Google’s Gemini Spark agent, which I tested in May, but given the launch window provided by Pichai, we may not have to wait too long to find out.