Latest news, developments and reporting on Products & Applications.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the China beta of Apple Intelligence will launch later this month without Siri AI, while Sspai also reported new AI, security, gaming and keyboard-PC products from SpaceXAI, Microsoft, HP and Step.
Tesla unveiled its long-delayed Roadster in Texas, showing thruster jumps, upside-down driving and hovering. Production: 2028.
KDE's Plasma 6.8 celebrates its 30th anniversary and ends native X11 sessions, with legacy apps still running via XWayland.
At its Elevate event in Chicago, LogicMonitor outlined AI-governed automation for enterprise observability, citing a 98% cut in alert noise at GlobalFoundries and efficiency gains among managed service providers.
Apple’s French site lists an unreleased iPad mini Smart Folio, model A3632, before a rumored OLED iPad mini launch.
BYD has launched the Han, a flagship electric sedan in China, priced at 235,900 yuan and offering almost 630 miles of CLTC range, nine-minute fast charging, and luxury features aimed at premium rivals.
Apple has won approval to bring its first Apple Intelligence features to users in China in a beta later this month, Tim Cook said in Shanghai, with Alibaba's Qwen model set to power the experience. DeepSeek, TSMC, Anthropic and Ramp also reported major developments.
Samsung Electronics said Friday that three products—the Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone, the Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator and the Odyssey G8 G80HS gaming monitor—were named in TIME magazine's Best Inventions of 2026 list.
Intero Biosystems won TechCrunch Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026, with Apate runner-up after 20 startups competed.
Shield AI expects its first full-scale X-BAT VTOL combat drone by the end of October 2026 and flight tests later this year, after the U.S. Navy added $150 million to bring external funding to $200 million.
Cal AI founder Zach Yadegari says paid influencers drove viral growth and over $30 million in two-year revenue before MyFitness acquired the app in March.
TechRadar released daily hints and answers for Quordle #1726, NYT Connections #1223 and NYT Strands #957 on October 15, 2026, covering solutions and themed groups for Friday's puzzles.
Withings now requires accounts created after October 13 to join its $100-a-year Withings+ plan to automatically sync data with Apple Health and other third-party apps, drawing criticism from customers on its support forum.
Valve is adding achievement sets to Steam, letting developers split a base game's achievements and its DLC's into separate groups with their own progress bars and completion trophies.
Ramp said it raised $1.85 billion in a Dragoneer-led Series G round at a $60 billion valuation, months after a $750 million raise, as it expands beyond finance software.
OpenAI has upgraded the ChatGPT extension for Google Chrome so it can view and use open browser tabs when users tag Chrome in ChatGPT's web or desktop app, according to The Verge. The update also brings ChatGPT's full conversation history to the sidebar and lets ChatGPT Work control tabs for tasks such as filling out forms and sending messages.
Amazon's 2026 Kindle Paperwhite is thinner and lighter and adds a new color, but older models remain at the same price.
Jura has launched the C9, a compact bean-to-cup espresso machine that brews a milder coffee at around 60C so it can be drunk immediately, TechRadar reports.
Strava is rolling out coach-designed strength workouts with guided animations, form tips and live set and rep tracking for subscribers, plus new guided running workouts and future import tools.
pgEdge CEO says AI coding agents have made PostgreSQL the default for agent-generated apps, driving a surge in demand.
Plex partners with Fandango to sell movie theater tickets to U.S. users through movie title pages.
Trump shared a White House restoration photo on Truth Social that The Verge says was flagged as AI-edited.
Vinci4D says its physics-driven AI software can run hardware simulations up to 1,000 times faster than conventional tools, allowing engineers to test design changes in a day instead of two weeks.
The October 15, 2026 episode of 9to5Mac Daily covered OpenAI's claim that a former employee took confidential device files to Apple, iPhone Duo repair costs, Apple's Switch to Safari campaign, and Apple Intelligence's reported China launch without Siri AI.