177 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Getting approved for a loan from Apple could depend on how much gear you’ve bought.

    The details are apparently coming out as Apple tests its “buy now, pay later” service with employees. The service was supposed to launch last year.

    From Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman:

    The Apple Pay Later service — announced last year but still in the testing phase — will evaluate borrowers based on their spending history and even which of the company’s devices they own. The program, which lets shoppers make purchases and then pay over installments, also will look at whether customers have applied for an Apple Card credit card and the other cards they have linked to their Apple Pay accounts.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    This $15,000 GPU doesn’t even have modern ray tracing or AI built-in.

    Last year’s big GPU price drop doesn’t apply to a prototype version of the never-officially-released 3DFX Voodoo 5 6000 that sold on eBay over the weekend (via Videocardz.com).

    Representing the potential top of the line in 2000-era video card tech, the listing says it has four GPUs and 128MB VRAM onboard and claims it’s been reworked to handle 8X FSAA.

    eBay listing for a prototype 3DFX Voodoo 5 6000 graphics card
    Image: gtastuntcrew302 / eBay
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Green light.

    The Super Bowl is over, and all the advertisements are now easily available on YouTube (for movie trailers other than The Flash, check Polygon’s roundup linked below).

    Did you check out Fox’s 1080p HDR-upconverted-to-4K broadcast? How’d it look?

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Fox shares Elon Musk’s real-time coordinates -- the kind of thing that gets journalists banned on Twitter.

    He’s in a luxury box at the Super Bowl, next to Rupert Murdoch (who also knows the pain of wasting money on a social media site you’ve purchased and run into the ground, even if MySpace only cost Fox $580 million instead of $44 billion).

    But at least no one can tweet where Elon’s private jet is.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    You might be able to see SpaceX test the Starship launch system on this stream.

    During an event on Wednesday, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company would attempt a 33-engine static fire test today.

    Naturally, the folks at NASA Spaceflight have their cameras trained on the test stand in Rocketland / Boca Chica, TX, and the livestream has caught signs that the time of the test is approaching soon.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Green light.

    So, what do you think of Microsoft’s new AI-enhanced search? Check out what it’s telling us in our first tests, and let us know in the comments if there are any other questions we should be asking.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Satya Nadella explains why Microsoft is taking on Google now.

    You’ve seen the presentations, so you know what Microsoft and Google have shown when it comes to AI chatbot search.

    Now take 20 minutes and see what Satya Nadella said on Decoder about Microsoft’s big plans for OpenAI and ChatGPT.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Green light.

    Microsoft’s first shot across the bow in the new AI search wars rang out yesterday afternoon, and now it’s Google’s turn. We know it already uses AI and machine learning, but what’s new for that technology in Google’s tools?

    (Update — we did find out. Google has set its stream to private, but you can see the chatbot demo here and Google’s other AI search news here.)

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Watch Satya Nadella talk about “conversational intelligence agents.”

    If you’re curious about what Microsoft is building with OpenAI and ChatGPT, its CEO is the person to tell you about the new features in Bing and Edge.

    And, like Google’s plans to offer businesses an API connection to the LaMDA tech powering its AI, CNBC reports Microsoft is working on ways for companies to build their own custom versions.

    We’ll find out what Google has to say about it tomorrow.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Green light.

    All eyes will be on Microsoft’s event at 1PM ET. We don’t have details on what to expect, but the stage is set for a 2023 battle of AI tech, with Microsoft vs. Google taking top billing, and this could just be the first round.