Author: admin
Finnish phone maker HMD today launched its first smartphone, called the Vibe 2 5G, which comes preloaded with Indian AI company Sarvam’s chatbot Indus. Both companies had first announced the partnership during the India AI summit held in New Delhi in February. The Indus app is powered by Sarvam’s locally trained 105-billion-parameter model — a measure of the AI’s scale and sophistication — and launched at the AI summit. The app supports 22 Indic languages and mid-sentence code-switching (the ability to fluidly mix languages mid-conversation, like switching between Hindi and English), which helps the assistant better understand the context of a…
For users, Spotify has been a place to consume podcasts made by other creators. The company wants to change that by introducing a personal podcast feature, which uses AI to generate podcasts for users based on an idea or a custom prompt. Earlier this month, the company released a GitHub-based command-line tool for Claude Code and Codex that allows users to create a podcast and save it to their own Spotify library. The company said that, soon, users would be able to create podcasts directly within the Spotify app. They can also schedule them to create daily or weekly briefs…
Google is about to look really different, and if you’re not a fan of the AI Overviews feature, then you’re not going to like what’s coming. At the Google I/O 2026 keynote this week, the company announced that it is overhauling Search to embrace a conversational, AI-driven approach, even inviting users to enlist AI agents to automatically notify them if, for example, their favorite band were to go on tour. “This is the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago,” said Elizabeth Reid, leader of the Search organization at Google. Now, when you…
An international coalition of law enforcement agencies announced Thursday that they took down a popular virtual private network service used by cybercriminals and arrested its administrator. The FBI said in an alert that First VPN was so popular that “at least” 25 ransomware gangs used the service to hide their malicious activity. Cybercriminals also relied on the VPN to scan the internet, run botnets, launch distributed denial-of-service attacks, and for running scams. First VPN operated servers across 27 different countries, according to the bureau. Europol said in an announcement that, apart from offering anonymous connections, First VPN offered cybercriminals anonymous…
The person leading the Department of Labor’s controversial monthly worship services has now taken over one of the agency’s most important offices.Kenneth Wolfe, the director of the DOL’s faith center, is now also leading the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the office tasked with making sure that federal contractors comply with anti-discrimination laws. Wolfe’s appointment was quietly announced earlier this month, after the agency released its proposed 2027 budget in April, which would eliminate the office entirely.Because it oversees federal contractors, the OFCCP had jurisdiction over “roughly 20 to 25 percent of the American workforce,” says Keir Bickerstaffe,…
Elon Musk has incredible sway over the companies he leads. And while he already calls himself “TechnoKing” at Tesla, he is a real ruler over SpaceX, wielding an unprecedented level of control over one of the most valuable companies in the world. Musk’s monarchical grip on SpaceX was finally laid bare in the company’s IPO filing made public on Wednesday. Post-IPO, Musk will be CEO, CTO, and chairman of SpaceX’s board. His current 85% voting power will drop following the IPO, but it will still be above 50%, giving him the ability to appoint directors as he sees fit. He…
Designed for yoga, Pilates, strength training and any exercise that involves light movement, the Play Mat comes in both a 5-mm version for everyday flow and an 8-mm version to provide support for more energetic workouts.Bala products are unapologetically playful in design—just take a look at the mat’s bubblegum pink finish that matches Bala’s complementing accessories, including the Bala Beam and the versatile weighted Bala Bangles. After spotting the mat’s unmistakably pink Barbie-esque design on the socials of celebs such as Reese Witherspoon and Victoria Beckham, my superficial self just had to give it a go.The mat, accessories, and accompanying Bala…
SpaceX has scrubbed the first launch of its third-generation Starship rocket system from its headquarters in Starbase, Texas. The company is expected to make another attempt on Friday. It’s a crucial launch for the company — and not just because it’s the first real test of the upgraded Starship V3 hardware; it also comes at a pivotal moment for SpaceX financially. The company recently filed for an IPO and is expected to go public within weeks, putting added pressure on SpaceX to demonstrate that its next-generation rocket program is making meaningful progress. This launch — Starship’s 12th — will mark…
Other Models We TestedLG 12,000 BTU Air Conditioner for $379: The LG 12,000 BTU Smart Window Air Conditioner offers efficient large-room cooling at a surprisingly low price. It weighs 90 pounds and requires professional installation with a bracket. Its 60-decibel operation places it squarely in the middle of the pack on noise. This said, WIRED reviewer Lisa Wood Shapiro found it blends into a room well with its white-on-white design, and that the filter replacement indicator light is useful. The app was laggy and difficult to use during Wood Shapiro’s testing, but there is a remote.Friedrich Kuhl Air Conditioner for…
Waymo has now paused service in four cities because its robotaxis are struggling to deal with heavy rain and flooded roads, a problem that already prompted the company to issue a recall last week. One of Waymo’s robotaxis was spotted driving through a flooded street in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday before it ultimately got stuck for about an hour, according to local news reports. The vehicle was recovered and removed from the scene, Waymo told TechCrunch. Waymo says it paused service in the city, just like it has in San Antonio, Texas, while it figures out a solution. “Safety is…
Three months ago, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman told me his concerns about a mounting public relations crisis facing artificial intelligence companies: Despite the popularity of tools like ChatGPT, an increasingly large share of the population said they viewed AI negatively. Since then, the backlash has only intensified.College commencement speakers are now getting booed for talking about AI in optimistic terms. Last month, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s San Francisco home and wrote a manifesto advocating for crimes against AI executives. No one has more to lose from this reputation crisis than OpenAI.The person tasked with…
Elon Musk has incredible sway over the companies he leads. And while he already calls himself “TechnoKing” at Tesla, he is a real ruler over SpaceX, wielding an unprecedented level of control over one of the most valuable companies in the world. Musk’s monarchical grip on SpaceX was finally laid bare in the company’s IPO filing made public on Wednesday. Post-IPO, Musk will be CEO, CTO, and chairman of SpaceX’s board. His current 85% voting power will drop following the IPO, but it will still be above 50%, giving him the ability to appoint directors as he sees fit. He…
The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday that Cox Media Group and two other marketing companies, MindSift LLC and 1010 Digital Works, have agreed to collectively pay nearly $1 million to settle allegations that they deceived their customers—other businesses—by claiming that they could help target ads based on audio recordings collected from consumers’ smart devices via a marketing service called Active Listening.In a statement to WIRED, a spokesperson for CMG says, “We are pleased to have this matter resolved. Our local marketing team relied on marketing materials provided to us by a third-party vendor about their product. We withdrew the…
While there are some shocking revelations in SpaceX’s S-1 as it gets ready to become a public company, Elon Musk’s total control of the company perhaps isn’t one of them. I could argue that the oddball provision where Elon Musk gets up to a billion more shares to add to his already oversized, company-controlling cache once a million people are living on Mars (yes, really), is perhaps the most jaw-dropping. It is also fairly unserious. Musk controls and can vote those shares now, by the way. But even a billion extra super-voting rights shares are immaterial in this company’s setup…
Photograph: Jordan Michelman4222 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood, (818) 980-8000“The Valley” isn’t just one place, either—a collection of unique cities and subcultures that occupy the environs north of LA proper, this is the land of Paul Thomas Anderson films, immortalized in the music of Tom Petty and Frank Zappa. If you’re in the Southlands for events in and around the television and film industry, or to check out the Universal Studios theme park complex, you’ll save time and money by staying close.The Garland is your Valley adventure home port. This place manages the neat trick of being both hip and eminently…
$50 Million Sponsorships, Sky-High CPMs: Welcome to the 2026 World Cup U.S. men’s soccer head coach Mauricio Pochettino speaks with the media before an international friendly match against Portugal in March.Omar Vega/Getty Images Cannes Lions is where the biggest ideas take center stage. Join ADWEEK for must-see conversations, top industry leaders, and the moments everyone will be talking about. The World Cup is hitting some major pricing goals for Fox and Telemundo in 2026.As the Men’s World Cup kicks off in June in North America, with matches in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, advertisers are…