FixBot is a new AI app from iFixit that can figure out what’s wrong with broken devices and guide you through the repair using hands-free instruction, visual analysis, and instant access to the world’s repair knowledge. Available from the App Store and Google Play, the FixBot is optimized for mobile. Free on launch, the company is developing an alternate Enthusiast tier that will cost $4.99 per month or $50 per year and include perks like voice and document upload. FixBot is iFixit’s second attempt at a repair app, following an attempt that ran from 2011 to 2015. Since it went dark, the company’s community kept asking for a more mobile-friendly redux. Continue reading iFixit’s AI-Powered FixBot Puts Expert Advice in Your Pocket

Apple Music Replay 2025 is here, and this year the platform takes a more granular approach to its users’ listening habits, an attempt to keep pace with Spotify Wrapped. The usual song stats are amplified with a deeper look at each subscriber’s personal music journey. This year, Apple highlights artists discovered this year, loyalty to favorites and comebacks. The company has also morphed its Apple Music for Artists analytics to Artist Replay, which includes the usual business intelligence but adds visual shareable insights encouraging performers to participate in the viral year-end celebration. Continue reading Apple Music Replay 2025 Is More Personalized, Also for Artists

Tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, is reviving Vine in an AI-free iteration that welcomes back 100,000 archived clips while barring generative AI content. The new app, diVine, maintains the concept of six-second continually looped videos, letting past users reclaim their old accounts while inviting new members — though there’s already a waitlist. In order to manage “AI slop,” diVine will identify suspected generative AI videos and prevent them from being uploaded. The refreshed app will draw on the decentralized elements Dorsey deployed in his other social media platform, Bluesky, including customizable content moderation controls and choice of feed algorithms. Continue reading Dorsey’s Vine Relaunch, diVine, Embraces Nostalgia, Shuns AI

Apple had its first $100 billion quarter thanks to the new iPhone 17 series and a strong performance by services, up 15 percent from 2024. Revenue for fiscal Q4, ended September 27, totaled $102.5 billion, up 8 percent year-over-year. Profit surged 86 percent to $27.5 billion (due mainly to a 2024 tax hit). Q4 results capped a record fiscal year with revenue of $416 billion. Sales of the iPhone 17s brought in $49 billion for the three months. The company sold 100 million more units than last year during the same period despite “supply constraints” on some 2025 models. Design changes drove iPhone sales up 6 percent from Q4 of last year. Continue reading Apple Reports a Strong Quarter Propelled by iPhone 17 Sales

OpenAI has launched Atlas, a free web browser that uses ChatGPT as its search engine and integrates with the company’s other products. Initially released for Apple’s macOS, OpenAI says support for Windows, Android and iOS is coming soon. News that OpenAI was developing the product surfaced in April as part of the Google antitrust trial, where OpenAI executive Nick Turley testified the company was interested in buying Chrome. Now the ChatGPT Atlas browser is available for download, challenging Chrome and others. Rather than type queries, people can chat with Atlas, something Chrome and Perplexity’s new Comet browser also allow. Continue reading OpenAI Enters Browser Market with Launch of ChatGPT Atlas

Charter Communications, the nation’s largest cable TV operator, is launching the Spectrum App Store for its flagship TV brand. The digital storefront — accessible through the My Spectrum App and on Spectrum.net — will allow Spectrum customers without a traditional TV package to manage and purchase streaming apps à la carte. The move is an effort to appeal to younger audiences, which cable has been losing to streaming standalones like YouTube for the past 10 years. Charter also announced Spectrum is partnering with Apple to present a slate of immersive 2025-26 season L.A. Lakers games on the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. Continue reading Charter Announces Spectrum App Store, Lakers on Vision Pro

Adobe is bringing a free “pro quality” version of Premiere to iPhone, so YouTubers, filmmakers, music video editors, commercial producers and other creators can edit video on the fly. While tools like ByteDance’s CapCut and Meta’s Edits have become popular for mobile, Adobe’s move marks a major productivity step for those aspiring to more than social video, particularly through integration with the entire Adobe tools ecosystem. The Adobe Premiere mobile app features what Adobe promises are “studio-quality audio enhancements, perfectly timed AI sound effects, precision editing on a multi-track timeline, AI content generation and more.” Continue reading Adobe’s Pro Quality Premiere Video Editor Is Free for iPhones

Anthropic has released its latest frontier AI model, Claude Sonnet 4.5, built for high-performance coding and building complex agents. Anthropic claims it is “the best coding model in the world” and “the best model at using computers,” with substantial gains in reasoning and math. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is distinctive in that it can build “production-ready” applications and is not limited to prototypes, Anthropic says, describing it as a major gain over previous models. The new model also excels in research as well as enterprise basics like cybersecurity and finance, per Anthropic. Continue reading Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 Good at Coding and Collegiality

Amazon has revamped its flagship hardware, updating design and adding new intelligence. Four new Echo devices have been updated with new Omnisense intelligence and the next-generation Alexa+, the latter also now in Ring cameras. The company also unveiled three thinner and lighter Kindle Scribe tablets, including the Colorsoft, the first with a color screen. The sleeker form factors prompted Bloomberg to suggest Amazon plans “to take on Apple in the AI era.” One plain-looking device that got a lot of attention was the $40 Fire TV Stick 4K Select that Amazon calls the fastest streaming dongle on the market. Continue reading Amazon Emphasizes Design & Intelligence at Hardware Event

Apple has reportedly developed a ChatGPT-like iPhone app for internal use in testing its AI overhaul of Siri. Apple’s AI unit is using the app to assess new features for its famous conversational assistant, putting it through its paces for tasks like sifting through personal data, including documents, audio and emails, and performing actions including photo and video editing, according to reports. Called Veritas, Latin for “truth,” the developmental software is garnering attention as a pivotal tool in Siri’s highly anticipated AI makeover, expected to make its public debut next year. Continue reading Apple Creates an AI Chatbot to Help Train the Next-Gen Siri

Google Labs is experimenting with a new AI feature called Mixboard that lets people explore and develop design ideas. Users can visualize concepts ranging from home decor to event themes, or just about anything, for DIY projects or other creative pursuits. New projects can be launched from a text prompt or selected from pre-populated boards and developed by uploading images or using AI to generate them. “Create new versions of your ideas with one-click options like ‘regenerate’ and ‘more like this’,” explains Google, noting you can generate text based on content from any of the board’s images. Continue reading Mixboard: Google Labs Testing Gemini AI Design Tool in Beta

Apple is touting a major security upgrade for its recently unveiled iPhone 17 devices, which come with always-on protection called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) aimed at making it more difficult to get spyware onto the four new models. The result of five years of research and development, MIE leverages both Apple silicon and iOS software. The company is calling the results “the most significant upgrade to memory safety in the history of consumer operating systems.” The upgrade targets “mercenary spyware,” the origins of which are “vastly more complex than regular cybercriminal activity and consumer malware.” Continue reading Apple Introduces Major Security Upgrade to Its iPhone 17 Line

In one of the largest cloud computing deals ever, OpenAI has contracted with Oracle for $300 billion in processing power over five years starting in 2027. Oracle has committed to 4.5 gigawatts of capacity. A typical nuclear plant caps at 1 gigawatt of output generated at any given instant. The deal involves risk for both companies. OpenAI’s annual revenue of about $10 billion is far short of the amount needed to cover this tab. Oracle’s exposure comes with depending on a small number of large customers for so much revenue and the expense of expanding infrastructure to fulfill the obligation. Continue reading OpenAI Signs $300 Billion Cloud Computing Deal with Oracle

During its latest live-streamed event yesterday, Apple debuted new product models, including the iPhone 17 Air, the company’s first ultra-slim smartphone. Made of titanium, it’s priced at $1,000. The entry level of the group, the iPhone 17, costs the same as the iPhone 16, at $800, with an improved display and double the storage (256GB). Fully loaded, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the company’s most expensive phone ever at $2,000 with 2TB of storage and a 6.9-inch OLED screen. All four models come with a 48MP rear camera, while the new A19 Pro chipset powers the 17 Pro, Pro Max and Air. Apple also unveiled a new collection of smartwatches and the AirPods Pro 3. Continue reading Apple Unveils New iPhone 17 Line, Watches and AirPods Pro

Apple is reportedly working on an AI-powered search tool that would initially be integrated with Siri and eventually added to the Safari browser and Spotlight, a search app launched from the iPhone home screen. Known internally as World Knowledge Answers, it is expected to debut next spring, possibly with help from Google, which is said to have built a model to power Apple’s AI search. Google is a longtime Apple partner, providing the default search engine for Apple devices. The move is intended to make Apple’s search offerings more competitive with products from OpenAI and Perplexity. Continue reading Apple Said to be Working with Google on AI-Powered Search