Tech news picked on 2026-10-13
Spotify says iPhones with iOS 27 can play music with Siri without adding 'on Spotify'
- Spotify announced on 2026 October 13 (Tuesday) that on iPhones with iOS 27 installed, users no longer need to add 'on Spotify' when asking Siri to play music.
- According to the original article, this works not only for specific songs, albums, podcasts, and audiobooks, but also for broad requests such as 'play music for working out' and calls to Spotify features such as 'play DJ.'
- Spotify explains that Siri learns the user's music app preferences and automatically routes voice requests to Spotify when the user keeps using it. This is Spotify's own explanation and was not independently confirmed in the original article.
- The feature is available on iPhone 15 Pro and later models when Apple Intelligence is turned on in Settings, and according to the original article it can be used in several regions excluding the EU.
Rust compiler bug that lets code pointing to already-freed data compile, reported 11 years ago
- The Rust compiler must block code that points to data after that data is gone. GitHub rust-lang/rust issue 164250 reports that placing a short-lived reference in a struct field can bypass this check.
- In the original example, the program compiled and printed a memory value that had already been freed. The issue author wrote that when AddressSanitizer, a memory address checking tool, was enabled, the program stopped with a stack-use-after-scope error. This is the result the author reported.
- The author wrote that it reproduces on nightly (pre-release test builds) and on stable versions 1.85.0 and later. The claim that the same code compiled after 1.18.0 is an experience reported by a commenter.
- The issue body classifies this problem as P-high (high priority) and explains that exploiting it requires a deliberately built Drop implementation. This is the judgment of the issue authors. The original text does not confirm any fix code or a released version that contains a fix.
Apple HomePod mini 2 Pre-Orders Open, Release Planned for October 30
- Apple has released a new HomePod mini after about 6 years. The price is 149, and it is scheduled to ship on Friday, October 30. The source says it can be pre-ordered now through Apple.
- According to the source, this speaker includes the S10 chip, which first appeared in the Apple Watch Series 10. When playing music, the LED on the top of the speaker also shows a light pattern modeled on album art.
- The source says Siri AI support will be available after a future update, not at launch. Buyers should distinguish features available right after purchase from those added later.
- The source explains that the new Apple TV 4K and four speakers can form a surround system. It also says that on Macs supporting Wi-Fi 6E, this speaker can be used as the Mac's speaker.
- Janas keeps model files on disk and reads from the SSD only the expert parts needed to generate each answer, so it can run mixture-of-experts models larger than memory on a laptop. A mixture-of-experts model uses only some of its many expert parts, and frequently used parts are kept in memory.
- The development team reported, from measurements on its own laptop (Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, 32GB memory, NVMe SSD), that the generation speed for the 80B-class Qwen3-Next model was 24 tok/s with the draft function turned off, while llama.cpp was 2.8 tok/s. tok/s means tokens generated per second. The original says these are the team's measurements and results may differ on other devices.
- Executable files for Linux x86-64 (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12 or later), Windows 10 (1903 or later) and 11 are posted on GitHub Releases, and models are obtained from Hugging Face in converted form. The source code is published under the GPL-3.0 license.
No Man's Sky available on iPhone and iPad from October 28
- Developer Hello Games has announced an iOS version of its space exploration game No Man's Sky. According to the source, the iPhone and iPad versions will be available from October 28.
- Sean Murray, who made the announcement, said the mobile version contains nearly the entire game experience. It includes all updates released so far and the large Voyagers expansion, but leaves out multiplayer and planetary settlement features.
- According to the source, the download is about 5GB, and it runs on iPhone 11 and later 3 generation models and iPad Air or newer. It offers newly designed touch controls, and on iPad it also supports controllers, screen mirroring, and mouse and keyboard.
- Murray said a great deal of effort went into battery life and heat management. This is the developer's own explanation, and the source contains no independent measurement results. A free trial is reportedly available at launch, but the official sale price has not yet been announced.
Intel D270 GPU pitches expanded AI inference server capacity with up to 480GB memory per card
- The Intel GPU D270 is a data center graphics processing unit that focuses on producing answers in live services from finished AI models, rather than training new models. Intel's product page describes agentic AI environments with multi-step model calls and growing long inputs as its main target.
- According to Intel's product page, each card has up to 480GB of LPDDR5X memory, draws 350W, and is air cooled. It says the card can be installed in servers with the existing PCIe 5.0 standard and does not require separate liquid cooling changes.
- The source says the card has 32 Xe3P cores and 256 XMX matrix engines. It explains that this configuration helps the prefill stage, which reads input text first, but the source gives no numeric figure for the actual throughput gain.
- The performance comparison with RTX Pro 6000 is based on public data and Intel internal analysis and is stated as of 2026 February. The memory capacity comparison was made under similar bandwidth conditions, the source adds.
- In Play Store v53.6, asking Ask Play about an app can return a summary drawn from real user reviews and quoted original text, according to the original article.
- Google Wallet added a way to scan and add receipts, plus an in-app message center. Google Pay for Android in Chrome can skip the payment request screen if name, email, and phone number are provided, the article says.
- Android WebView v156 adds a new API that can enable cross-origin isolation features such as SharedArrayBuffer, but only for trusted origins that developers have registered on an allowlist. This mainly affects app developers.
ONLYOFFICE 10.0, AI tab inside the document editor and 4 free apps, including 35 security fixes
- An AI tab and chat feature will be added to the document, spreadsheet, presentation, and PDF editors. The company says users can draft, summarize, translate, and format without leaving the file, and gives examples such as summarizing a contract or creating a pivot table.
- The source says cloud users can connect AI through OpenRouter, and self-hosted server users can connect the models they want, including local models. OpenRouter is a relay service that gives access to many AI models from one place.
- Four apps, AI Agents, Forms, Files, and Rooms, are offered free of charge and extend ONLYOFFICE Docs under the AGPL v3 open-source license. The article says they are on by default in the cloud and can be installed with a single command on servers.
- The company announced that it fixed 35 vulnerabilities in this update. The source does not say that the security effect was verified by a 3 party.
- Ultrahuman signed a 2-year memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi's public health center to develop and validate a model that estimates how fast a person is aging, combining wearable device data with clinical indicators such as blood tests.
- According to the company, the model is designed to accept data not only from its ring but also from wrist devices, straps, and patches. Later, individuals plan to view their health age through the government health platforms TAMM and Sahatna, but the company did not say when it would expand nationwide.
- CEO Mohit Kumar said the model will not be retrained on UAE data. Instead, an algorithm built on existing data will be applied to UAE data. He also said the program will not give Ultrahuman access to personally identifiable information, but this is the company's own statement.
- Googlebook is an Android-based laptop that lets you use Android apps directly on the laptop and open apps installed on your phone from the laptop. The author said they tested Asus and HP models for a week.
- In the author's test, few apps were optimized for desktop use. The Slack mobile version was hard to use in a desktop environment, and Chrome lacked profile switching, split tab view, and custom search engine shortcuts. The author said Bluesky and Oakta could not be installed from the Play Store.
- The author said phone app connection requires both devices to be on the same Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to be on, and does not work offline. File transfer took several minutes to open a single 5MB photo, while sending the same file with Quick Share finished in a few seconds.
Google unveils Fitbit Edge with a screen and automatic workout tracking, priced at 179.99
- Google has unveiled the Fitbit Edge. It is priced at 179.99 and adds an OLED screen to the thin band of the Fitbit Air. According to the source, the screen can show turn-by-turn navigation, notifications, weather, and music controls.
- The health coach uses Google Health Coach, which is based on Gemini, and requires a Google Health Premium subscription. It reportedly builds weekly routines and exercise plans based on fitness, health, and medical information, and adjusts them to fit the user's schedule.
- Google says it automatically recognizes and records up to 100 activities, including running, cycling, and walking. The company claims its built-in GPS is 40% more accurate than the previous generation, and that sleep stage detection is 15% more accurate. These are company claims, and the measurement conditions are not stated in the source.
- Battery life is up to 7 days on a single charge, and water resistance is 50 meters. Pre-orders are open on the Google Store, and in-store availability starts October 27. Colors are Obsidian, Fog, Olive, and Canyon, and the Stephen Curry special edition is priced at 219.99.
AI startup says it can create building permit drawings from 2D sketches in minutes
- Blueprints AI says that when users upload a 2D sketch or PDF, it can produce drawings usable for building permit applications within minutes. According to the company, the product automates part of the drafting work.
- The 2 generation product creates architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and interior design drawings all at once. When one part of the design changes, all drawings are updated together, and the article reports that it checks compliance with local building codes.
- Founder Al Dram said architects spend about 80% of their working time on drawing work and about 20% on design. This is the founder's own claim, and the source does not show that it was confirmed by a separate study.
Microsoft's Brad Smith: "The UK is well placed to lead AI safety rules"
- Microsoft President Brad Smith described AI on a BBC podcast as both a weapon and a tool that could threaten cybersecurity, and argued that the time has come to create common global safety rules.
- Smith said the UK should be well positioned to lead these rules, citing that the UK AI Security Institute (AISI) can receive major models from leading US frontier AI companies before release, and that it has quickly taken a leading position in AI safety testing.
- The original article reports that last month President Trump asked Anthropic and OpenAI not to give new models to UK testers. AISI confirmed on Monday that it can access and test the latest models.
- Smith called the voluntary commitments that major AI companies signed at a White House event "a good step," but he felt they have limits because voluntary regulation is only followed by responsible companies.
Elon Musk donated over $276 million to Republican-linked groups for this year's midterm elections
- According to a report citing the New York Times, Musk has reportedly given at least $276 million to Republican-linked groups since July.
- Of that, $158 million went to the super PAC Senate Leadership Fund, which aims to keep the Republican Senate majority, and this fund is also active in defending Texas Senate seats.
- Over $76 million was also donated to America PAC, the super PAC Musk created in 2024. This group works to reach Republican voters who are hard to contact.
- The article says that money sent to federal committees in the 2025~26 election cycle was about $366 million, and compares it with the $290 million he gave to help Trump return to the presidency in 2024. It notes that Musk said he would cut political spending, but that promise was not kept.
Meta releases new AI models Muse Wonder and Wonder Full, available first to paid subscribers
- Meta has released Muse Wonder and Wonder Full, new AI models that read and respond to text. According to the source, Muse Code subscribers can use them starting that day, and Wonder is also accessible to developers through the Meta Model API.
- Meta claims that both models are comparable to OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra and Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Fable 5.1. The basis is several industry benchmark results from Meta's internal tests, and the source does not include 3-party verification results.
- Meta said it plans to power its Muse agents with Wonder and to build specialized models in the future. It said the change would first apply to subscribers, but did not disclose specific details or a timeline.
- According to the source, a performance comparison with Google's Gemini 4 Argon is not yet clear.
Drop in Yandex bot traffic after outage is likely unrelated to Russian disinformation bots
- The source reports that a Ukrainian drone attack halted Russian data centers. Over the past week, most Yandex systems still appear offline, and Yandex Pay is blocked for transfers, balance checks and payments. Dima Pirogov, head of Yandex fintech, could not say when service would be restored.
- A chart circulating on social media cited Cloudflare data and showed only activity related to Yandex services. antibot4navalny, known for exposing bot farms, claimed the chart measured requests from Yandex's automated web crawler; this is that account's claim.
- According to Cloudflare, overall bot activity in Russia did not change much before and after the data center attack. A chart on AfD shared by a member of the European Parliament was questioned by computer scientist Raphael Wimmer over suspected AI generation. Its source could not be confirmed, and he pointed out that it includes data dated October 15, which is in the future.
US Air Force signs contract to buy up to $49 million worth of civilian weather balloon data
- The US Air Force has signed a contract to buy atmospheric data collected by WindBorne Systems' weather balloons. The balloons drift while adjusting their altitude to measure atmospheric conditions. The source gives the maximum contract value as $49 million.
- The contract works on an order-as-needed basis. The Air Force can place orders by region and time, and so far the amount ordered is $1.7 million. The source says more orders are expected.
- The company keeps about 700 balloons aloft around the world, sells the data to customers, and feeds it into its own weather forecasting model WeatherMesh 6. The claim that this model is more accurate than the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model is the company's own explanation.
- Co-founder and CTO Andrey Sushko said the contract was signed without competitive bidding. He explained that the government determined the company was the only one that met its requirements for this kind of global data collection.
Codex CLI: Report Says a Background Daemon Stays Running After the Window Closes, Enabled by Default
- Since 0.157.0, opening an interactive session in the terminal starts a background program (daemon), according to the issue author. It keeps running after the window closes until the daemon stop command or a reboot.
- According to the author, the daemon copies the entire installed npm package (about 374MB) under ~/.codex/packages and runs from that copy. A separate updater fetches new releases every hour starting 5 minutes later and restarts the backend. The author writes that a restart may interrupt work in progress.
- The daemon keeps the proxy environment variables from the first session it started. Reports say that later proxy changes in other sessions are not applied. The author thinks this has the same cause as related issues.
- The author's temporary workaround is to turn off the daemon_auto_start feature, run daemon stop, and stop the updater process separately. The issue links to a commit that disables the default (title: codex: disable daemon auto-start by default), but the source alone does not show whether it was merged or released.
A study finds AI coding agents increased code output but not finished software
- According to the source, the amount of AI-written code rose sharply, but because people spent longer reviewing that code, the resolution rate of tasks registered in the Jira issue tracker did not change in a statistically clear way.
- Harvard researchers Fiona Chen and James Stratton analyzed data from Jellyfish, a service that measures development activity. The records cover more than 700 companies and more than 700,000 employees, from 2021 through March 2026.
- At companies that adopted AI coding agents, lines of code generated rose by an average of 30%, commits by 20%, and pull requests by 23%. In the same period, average pull request review time rose by 49%, the researchers wrote.
- The share of pull requests with requested changes nearly doubled, and comments per pull request rose by 35%. The share of staff assigned to review work rose by 14%, but the researchers said it is hard to attribute the employment change to AI.
Five new products coming soon, including the foldable iPhone Duo and Galaxy Tab S12 October
- The Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+ goes on sale in US stores on October 7, starting at 1,199.99 dollars. The S12 Ultra, with a 14.6-inch screen, starts at 1,399.99 dollars, and both models include an S Pen as standard. The source says Photoshop comes preinstalled and includes a 4-month free subscription.
- The Apple iPhone Duo starts at 1,999 dollars. US pre-orders open on October 16, and it launches on October 23. The unfolded screen measures 7.6 inches, and the iPhone gets split view for the first time, showing two apps side by side on one screen. The source says Apple Pencil support has been delayed to later this year.
- The Microsoft Surface Pro 12-inch 2th generation launches in some markets on October 13, with a starting price of 1,149.99 dollars. It uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus chip and a 500-nit screen. The claim that brightness is about 25% higher than the previous model comes from Microsoft. The keyboard and Slim Pen are sold separately.
- The HP Google Book 14 starts at 1,199.99 dollars, and many configurations sell for 1,299 dollars. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor and a 14-inch 3K OLED touchscreen. The source explains that Google's Quick Access and Cast My Apps features let you open files from an Android phone on the laptop and run apps without reinstalling them.
- The Amazon Kindle Colorsoft 2026 model launches on October 28. The base model costs 289.99 dollars with 16GB, and the Signature Edition costs 319.99 dollars with 32GB. The source says it opens books 30% faster than the previous model and is 1 millimeters thinner. This figure is based on the product description.
ONLYOFFICE Docs 10.0 release adds AI tools to PDF, document, spreadsheet and presentation editors
- AI tools have been added to all 4 editor types (PDF, documents, spreadsheets, presentations). Users can choose tasks that read and process file content, such as summarizing, translating and generating formulas, from the AI tools tab or the AI chat.
- According to the source, the release includes about 50 new features, more than 1,000 bug fixes and about 35 security vulnerability fixes. These figures are based on the company's announcement, and the source does not include independent verification.
- Cloud users turn on the ONLYOFFICE AI service by adding funds to their Wallet. In the server edition, users can connect an AI model of their choice, and the source also mentions connecting local models. The open-source version does not include built-in AI, and AI tools must be installed separately.
- The source explicitly states that quick AI actions and the AI assistant are currently available only in the document editor.
Refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets hit by cyberattack, leading to food waste
- French retailers E. Leclerc, Intermarche and Cooperative U confirmed to AFP that they were hit by a cyberattack. According to the source, the temperature of refrigeration equipment rose sharply, and some stores had to throw away fresh and frozen food.
- The source says more than 300 Intermarche-affiliated stores (including Netto), more than 100 Cooperative U stores, and several E. Leclerc stores were attacked. These figures are what each company told AFP.
- Danfoss said most of the affected equipment is an older model that no longer receives security updates, and explained that AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 refrigeration controllers were mainly affected. It did not disclose the number of affected units.
- The Paris prosecutor's office said it opened an investigation into a large-scale cyberattack and is examining whether food losses at affected stores are linked to a fire. The remote defrosting report by BFM TV is media reporting, and the source does not confirm it.
Mechanism's Switch 2 case, a 3D-printed back panel and grip can be swapped in
- Basecase is a cover case priced at 49 that fits over the Switch 2 body. The author says the stand opens fully, and the ports, buttons, and fan vents remain usable.
- The Joy-Con grip has a rubber ledge that reduces the chance of the console falling when you lift it by the controllers alone. The author rates this based on their own hands-on use.
- The back panel can be replaced with a panel printed on a 3D printer. The article shows an example with places to attach LEGO bricks and an example with a slot for game cards. The original text says LEGO compatibility is not official. Print files are available from Makerworld and Printables.
- Docking requires a separate conversion cable, and the author wrote that installation was not as easy as the marketing suggests. If you use a 3 party dock such as Jsaux or Genki, you do not need this part.
Honeyjar unveils an AI PR tool to help write press releases and find reporters
- The source introduces Honeyjar as a tool that automates PR work such as drafting announcements, finding reporters who may cover a story, and finding speaking opportunities. The founders say their goal is to let anyone use the judgment of professional PR staff.
- According to the source, the tool can draft emails and social posts in the user's voice, but users must send and publish them themselves. The company says it will not take people out of the loop.
- CEO Michelle Mashik said the company opened a waitlist and that 10,000 people signed up within 24 hours. The source says beta testers include PR agencies such as Nextdoor, Coco Robotics, Bloomberg Beta, Mission North, and Full Picture. This is the company's own announcement.
- The source also covers reporters' concern that they already receive many PR emails, many written with AI chatbots, and that the tool could add more of them. The company says it is also training its product on the judgment of other PR professionals through Comms Lab.