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Technology
What the world is talking about, with sources. Every piece is prepared with artificial intelligence, and every claim links to where it came from.
PlayStation 5 Pro vs a Matching Gaming PC: Price and Performance Compared
Sony launched the PlayStation 5 Pro at $699.99 in November 2024, but according to Engadget's reporting its US price had climbed to roughly $900 by April 2026, and one October 2026 SlashGear estimate puts it near $1,580. A PC built around the GPU and CPU that benchmarkers consider closest to the console costs roughly $1,050 to $1,530 depending on the parts chosen, according to SlashGear and BGR testing.
Best Android Apps and Utilities You Can Get Outside Google Play Store
Android users are not limited to Google Play: the open-source repository F-Droid, the anonymous Google Play client Aurora Store, the update tracker Obtainium, and the Shizuku-based catalog ShizuStore all distribute apps that the official store does not list or allow. Here are nine stores and utilities worth knowing, based on their own listings and reporting from MakeUseOf and Pocket-lint.
iPhone Duo vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Foldable Phones Compared
Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Duo, went on sale October 23, 2026 at a starting price of $1,999 — one cent below Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold7 ($1,999.99). The two book-style foldables differ mainly in screen size, camera hardware, weight and charging speed, while landing at nearly identical entry prices more than a year apart in release.
Apple's iPhone Duo Foldable: Specs, Price and How It Stacks Up to Samsung
Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, went on sale October 23, 2026, starting at $1,999, after preorder demand pushed shipping estimates into 2027 within minutes. The book-style device pairs a titanium hinge and IP68 water resistance — a first for this type of foldable — with a custom Samsung Display panel, intensifying competition with Samsung's existing Galaxy Z Fold line.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang Dismisses Fears of a 2029 Memory Chip Glut
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC on October 22, 2026, that he sees no sign of a memory chip oversupply by 2029, pushing back on a theory that had helped trigger a sharp selloff in Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron shares. Speaking at Nvidia's GTC conference in Berlin, Huang said demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) would keep rising and that having more memory available was beneficial rather than risky.
Why Big Tech Is Spending $730 Billion on AI Infrastructure in 2026
Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta plan to spend roughly $730 billion combined on AI data centers and chips in 2026, up about 78% from 2025. The spree pushed Meta's free cash flow negative for the first time since its 2012 IPO and triggered a sharp tech-stock sell-off as investors question when, and whether, the spending will pay off.
Smart TV Tracking: What Viewers Report and How to Limit Data Collection
Consumers describe smart TVs tracking viewing habits and, in one disputed case, ambient sound, pushing some to disconnect their sets entirely. A Northeastern University study found that Samsung, Vizio and Roku TVs kept sending automatic-content-recognition traffic after owners switched tracking off, while LG, Sony, Amazon Fire TV and VIDAA honored the opt-out in tests.
Anthropic Launches Claude Duet, a Proactive AI Agent, to Rival OpenAI and Meta
Anthropic introduced Claude Duet on October 21, 2026, a proactive AI agent that monitors a user's connected apps, sends daily briefings and carries out tasks after approval. The research-preview tool, built on Claude Opus 5.5, is open to Pro and Max subscribers in the United States via waitlist, joining OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse in an intensifying race among "always-on" AI agents.
T-Mobile Keeps 5G Standalone Lead as AT&T and Verizon Trail, Opensignal Finds
T-Mobile customers connect to true 5G standalone (SA) service 71.2% of the time, versus 20.2% for Verizon and just 4.4% for AT&T, according to new Opensignal analysis published in October 2026. AT&T posts the fastest download and upload speeds among the three carriers, but on a much smaller slice of its network footprint.
Electronic Arts to Shut Down BioWare, Cut 400 Jobs Company-Wide
Electronic Arts said on October 21, 2026, that it will close BioWare, the Edmonton studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, as part of roughly 400 job cuts across the company. The move cancels BioWare's next, unannounced Mass Effect project and comes about two and a half months after EA went private in a $55 billion, Saudi-backed buyout.
EU Opens Formal Digital Services Act Probe Into Booking.com Over Scams and Fake Listings
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into Booking.com under the EU's Digital Services Act, examining whether the platform did enough to stop fraudulent listings and phishing scams that exploit guest data. The probe also looks at whether paid "boosted" listings are clearly labeled as advertisements. It is the first formal DSA case brought against Booking.com.
Meta's AI Spending Surge: How Capex Growth Is Squeezing Profitability
Meta has raised its 2026 artificial-intelligence infrastructure spending guidance three times, from an initial $115–135 billion to as much as $130–145 billion, nearly double the $72.2 billion it spent in 2025. The buildout pushed free cash flow near breakeven in the second quarter and triggered sharp share-price drops, setting up heightened investor scrutiny ahead of Meta's third-quarter 2026 results on October 21.
Gemini's Renamed Features: What Spark/Task, Skills, and Scheduled Actions Actually Do
Google has renamed and restructured several Gemini AI tools in late 2026: the background agent "Spark" is now called "Task," custom bots called "Gems" are being replaced by "Skills," and recurring prompts run as "Scheduled Actions." Each name change comes with interface changes, not just new labels, affecting how users automate tasks in the Gemini app.
How AI Personalization Is Reshaping Travel and Shopping, Via Naver's Papago
On October 19, 2026, Naver added a "Trend" feature to its Papago translation app that recommends popular Korean products and places to foreign tourists, built from AI analysis of image-translation data. The update is a concrete example of a wider shift in which AI systems increasingly shape what travelers and shoppers discover, not just what they translate or search.
Microsoft exits Nscale's flagship Essex AI datacentre deal over UK grid delays
Microsoft has withdrawn as anchor tenant from a planned £2 billion AI datacentre that British firm Nscale is building in Loughton, Essex, after UK Power Networks said it could not connect the site to the grid until the early-to-mid 2030s. Nscale says it remains committed to Loughton and is looking at alternative power sources, including on-site generation, while pursuing a planned stock market listing.
Data Centers: Why Power, Not Chips, Is the Real Bottleneck for AI Growth
Data centers are the physical buildings that store, process and move the data behind AI chatbots, cloud storage and streaming services. The sector has become a global flashpoint in October 2026 after Microsoft withdrew as anchor tenant from the UK's largest planned AI data center because the local power grid cannot supply it until the 2030s.
How AI Cracked a 217-Year-Old Napoleon Military Cipher in Six Hours
An AI engineer at the cybersecurity firm SentinelOne used OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model to decode a homophonic-substitution cipher that Napoleon Bonaparte's headquarters sent to General Auguste de Marmont in March 1809. Working from a single scanned image, the system transcribed, analyzed and solved the 217-year-old code in roughly six hours, a task that had defeated cryptographers for more than two centuries.
How 6G Could Be Monetized: Sensing Data and Physical AI Services
Telecom operators and vendors say 6G's revenue will not come from raw speed, as 5G's did, but from selling network sensing data and low-latency AI services to robots, drones and other "physical AI" systems. Early versions of these services are already being tested on existing 5G and 5G-Advanced networks ahead of 6G's commercial arrival, which industry sources now target for 2029–2030.
iPhone Duo: Apple's $1,999 foldable sells out, shipping pushed to 2027
Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, starts at $1,999 for 256GB and opened preorders on October 16, 2026. Demand was strong enough that delivery estimates in the US and Germany slipped from the October 23 launch to around January 25, 2027, within about 30 minutes of ordering.
iPhone Duo Preorders Overwhelm Supply, Shipping Dates Slip to January 2027
Apple opened preorders for its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, on October 16, 2026, and within about an hour all storage configurations in the U.S. online store showed a shipping estimate of January 25, 2027. The slide from a planned October 23 launch to a three-month wait reflects both strong demand and constrained production, according to Apple's own order page and reporting from Macworld and MacRumors.
Verizon and Ericsson Complete First Outdoor 6G Field Call in Concord, California
Verizon and Ericsson said on October 15, 2026, that they completed the first outdoor 6G field call using pre-standard equipment in the 7 GHz band at a Verizon commercial site in Concord, California. The companies stressed the test was a proof-of-concept demonstration, not a commercial 6G launch, and both VZ and ERIC shares rose the following day.
Meta Releases Open-Weight AI Model Muse Spark for Coding and AI Agents
Meta released Muse Spark Open on October 15, 2026, an open-weight AI model with 816 billion total parameters that the company calls "the most capable US open-weight model to date." Built for coding and agentic workflows, it is also designed to run locally on linked Apple M5 Ultra Mac Studio hardware.
Tesla's New Roadster Uses SpaceX-Style Thrusters: How the System Works
Tesla unveiled a redesigned second-generation Roadster on October 15, 2026, at a SpaceX test site in Texas, fitted with cold-gas thrusters adapted from rocket hardware. The system stores compressed air in carbon-fibre tanks rather than rocket propellant, and Tesla says it will let the car perform rapid acceleration bursts and aerial maneuvers; production is targeted for 2028.