Microsoft confirms Copilot ‘super app’ coming this year
Microsoft is working on an AI "super app" that combines Copilot's chat, coding, and agentic capabilities. During an earnings call on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the app will span "both consumer and commercial experiences" when it launches this year.
"Copilot is evolving rapidly from chat to Cowork to Autopilots," Nadella said. "This quarter, we are bringing these Copilot experiences together, including code, in one super app… This is a major step forward, and I look forward to sharing more soon."
Nadella's confirmation comes months after a report from Fortune revealed that Microsoft is working on a super app that blends its …
Mark Zuckerberg is planning a big push into personal AI agents
Meta is all-in on AI, and sometime soon, the company is going to make a big push into personal AI agents that can do things on your behalf.
On Wednesday's Q2 2026 earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg previewed a high-level vision of how the company is thinking about personal agents and what it will do to make them viable for users - and how it will convince less technical people to give them a shot:
Soon we will have agents that can work 24/7 on your behalf to help you achieve your goals and improve your life, your health, your relationships, your finances, whatever you want. The first domain that agents have really taken off in is coding. …
Qualcomm is raising phone chip prices starting September 1st
RAMageddon won't be the only reason your next phone costs more - Qualcomm is about to raise prices on all its processors, as well. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said on Wednesday that "prices are going to go up" on the company's products starting on September 1st, CNBC reports. The price hikes were rumored last week to be "a percentage in the double digits."
Qualcomm announced the planned price increases while reporting a 20 percent year-over-year drop in revenue from its handset business, the lowest it's reported since 2021. In its quarterly earnings presentation, Qualcomm said this drop is due to "unprecedented increases in memory pricing …
xAI’s last-minute scramble to stop Minnesota’s anti-nudification app law
xAI is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison over a law passed back in May that broadly targets "nudification" apps, claiming that the statute's punitive provisions leave the company with "no practical choice but to restrict Grok Imagine's image-editing features in various ways." The law, the company argues, violates the First Amendment.
Back in January, Grok flooded the internet with millions of sexually explicit deepfakes, including images of minors. In another era, a content moderation disaster of this magnitude would have had the CEO flipping the kill switch on the product within hours. But in Elon Musk's brave new world, the …
Cyberpunk 2077 packs a lot of fun into its discounted $20 price
Over the last few years, CD Projekt Red put a ton of work into fixing Cyberpunk 2077, squashing bugs, polishing content, and even launching new DLC in 2023, Phantom Liberty. As a result, this game has gone from a source for funny, glitch-fueled videos to a world I’ve returned to a number of times to live out my futuristic fantasies. A big discount happening across almost all platforms makes it a lot more accessible.
Usually $59.99 for the standard edition, the game is priced at $17.99 at Steam. Its Ultimate Edition, which includes the Phantom Liberty DLC (usually $29.99 on its own), is discounted to $33.10. Xbox has the standard edition for $17.99 (usually $59.99), and the Ultimate Edition for $33.60 (usually $79.99). Sony is selling the base game for PS4 and PS5 for $19.99 (usually $49.99), while the Ultimate Edition on PS5 is $35.49 (usually $70.99).
GameStop sells pre-owned physical copies of Cyberpunk 2077 for $18.99 for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (we can’t link directly to the pre-owned copies, so you’ll have to manually select the option). The older copies will automatically upgrade to their current-generation versions for free when played on an Xbox Series S/X or PlayStation 5.
It’s generous to say that the ambitious RPG was only a bit buggy at launch. In fact, its performance issues were glaring enough to cause both Sony and Microsoft to offer extended refunds. After all the bug fixes and improvements, the game is now a commonly-used performance benchmark for PC and console gaming. While its most advanced ray tracing modes are reserved for few platforms, it’s a visually-stunning game no matter where you play it. Plus, continued updates have given players more options for getting the most out of their time in Night City.
Xbox revenue drops 10 percent as Microsoft’s cloud and AI business surges
Xbox is having yet another tough quarter, as revenue from content and services like its Game Pass subscription dipped 10 percent over the past few months. At the same time, Xbox hardware sales declined 13 percent, according to Microsoft's fourth-quarter earnings report released on Wednesday.
The news comes just weeks after Xbox head Asha Sharma announced a "reset" plan for Xbox that included sweeping layoffs and the spinoff of four games studios, including South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games and Psychonauts creator Double Fine Productions.
Sharma has also made some other big changes to Xbox, including lowering GamePass prices, tes …
What’s the catch with the Apple Upgrade program?
Apple's new Upgrade program is here, allowing you to lease select models of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Watches with a relatively low monthly payment. The company promises you won't pay more than the full price of the device over the course of the one- to three-year lease, and in some cases, you'll pay hundreds of dollars less.
The basics of the program make it sound like an amazing deal… so surely there must be a catch, right?
The answer basically depends on how you use the Upgrade Program. At least with current pricing, a diligent user really should be able to make a monthly payment, swap in their phone a year or more later, and move along …
OpenAI president says it’s ‘building a family of devices’ for its AI chatbots
In an interview with our friend Joanna Stern on her YouTube channel, OpenAI president Greg Brockman said the company is working on a "family of devices" for interacting with its AI models. However, Brockman didn't confirm reports that one of those devices is a smart speaker OpenAI's rumored to be launching in 2027, or earlier rumors that the device might be a wearable like the Humane AI pin. He didn't give a release date, either, only saying that "you can expect them soon."
When asked about whether Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI could impact the devices it's working on with former Apple designer Jony Ive, Brockman said, "We are focused on o …
The US government just banned Roombas
When the Trump administration announced yesterday that it was banning "advanced robotic devices" from entering the United States, the headlines were all about humanoids. But spying doesn't require legs - and neither does the FCC's robot ban.
The robot ban will sweep up robot vacuum cleaners too, FCC media relations director Katie Gorscak confirms to The Verge.
It's not coming for your existing Roomba, and companies can keep importing and selling already approved ones. But the government claims that future foreign robots pose a national security risk, and even robovac companies are suddenly being asked to commit to US manufacturing.
Whi …
Full school day cellphone bans are more popular than ever
As schools across the country continue to implement cellphone bans, a new Pew Research Center survey shows they continue to gain support.
Seventy-seven percent of US adults support banning cellphones in middle and high school classes, and 48 percent support banning them for the entire school day. That's the first time more Americans have supported, rather than opposed, so-called bell-to-bell bans. Two years ago, just 36 percent of American adults supported an all day ban.
Across all age groups over 18 that were surveyed, most respondents support in-class bans. That support is lower but still at least half for all-day bans across most age …