TechCapsules

Halo Studios is being reduced to a skeleton crew of roughly 20 employees after a restructuring that placed the franchise under Activision’s ownership and created a new development team. The cutbacks affected more than 200 staff members, many of whom were laid off. The move follows a period of declining reception for recent Halo titles, with critics citing launch problems, missing features, and unsatisfying remakes such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, which relied heavily on outsourced contract work. [...]

Oppo and Xiaomi unveiled flagship smartphones in China within days of each other, pricing them near $1,000. Oppo’s Find X9 Ultra features three 200‑megapixel rear cameras, delivering uniform image quality across wide, ultra‑wide and telephoto lenses, and is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro 2 nm processor. Xiaomi’s 18 Pro Max pairs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 2 nm chip with a 2.9‑inch rear display, an 8,500 mAh silicon‑carbon battery, and 100 W wired charging. While Oppo emphasizes photographic consistency, Xiaomi focuses on a [...]

Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero,” released in early November in Japan, the US and the UK, follows the 2023 sequel “Minus One” by shifting the focus from Godzilla to the newly introduced Ghidorah, a flying kaiju that can assimilate DNA and unleash lightning‑breath. Set two years after the original, the film expands the human narrative, adding meteorologist Makoto Aoyama and naval engineer Kenji Noda to a broader disaster‑response team while still tracking Kōichi Shikishima’s family struggles. The Shikishima family remains central, [...]

North-East Frontier Railway (NFR) has deployed an artificial‑intelligence system called Project DRISHTI to monitor freight‑wagon doors, locks and seals, developed with IIT Guwahati. The launch took place on September 25 at NFR’s headquarters in Maligaon, Assam, and was announced by Chief Public Relations Officer Kapinjal Kishore Sharma. DRISHTI uses high‑speed cameras, intelligent lighting, secure networking and AI to read wagon numbers, inspect closures and flag irregularities as trains pass designated checkpoints, creating a record for response. NFR General Manager Chetan [...]

PNOĒ, a Massachusetts‑based startup, will release the PNOĒ 2.0 mask on Oct. 1, a portable device that measures oxygen consumption and carbon‑dioxide exhalation to calculate VO₂ max, resting metabolic rate and other biomarkers. Unlike its predecessor, the new mask can be operated by the user without a trained technician, allowing placement in gyms, pharmacies and other public venues. The eight‑minute test records 23 metabolic indicators and delivers personalized nutrition and training advice through companion software. Developed with Design Group Italia, [...]

Samsung is accelerating hiring in the United States as its new semiconductor fab in Taylor, Texas moves toward full‑scale production. The company has invested billions of dollars in the site, imported advanced manufacturing equipment and begun test runs, targeting mass production of 2‑nanometer chips by 2027. Orders already exist from major customers such as Tesla for the U.S.-made 2nm devices. To staff the plant, Samsung posted openings for process, facility and quality engineers, including etching, metal, ion‑injection, [...]

Tesla unveiled its Semi Class 8 truck at the opening of a new Nevada production facility, but CEO Elon Musk was absent, appearing only via a pre‑recorded video. The event highlighted the Semi’s strong market reception and Tesla’s expanding manufacturing footprint. Musk’s remote participation coincided with his attendance at a White House dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping, a high‑profile diplomatic gathering. At the same time, Tesla faces escalating legal challenges, including a California civil rights lawsuit alleging racial discrimination [...]

Bitdeer, a Nasdaq‑listed Bitcoin miner, sold 288.4 BTC in the week to September 25, slightly exceeding the 288.1 BTC it mined and leaving the company with zero Bitcoin holdings. The sales occurred as Bitcoin hovered near USD 85,000, a price JPMorgan identifies as the industry’s average mining cost. On September 25 the cryptocurrency traded around USD 84,187, just below that benchmark, a level that can pressure miners’ cash flow and influence selling behavior. Bitdeer’s approach of immediately liquidating newly mined coins contrasts with firms that [...]