TechCapsules

Australia’s new‑vehicle market slipped 1.8 % in September 2026, barely below the 2.0 % year‑to‑date growth. The decline would have been steeper—down 2.0 %—if not for the surge from two Chinese brands. Geely’s sales jumped 870.3 % YoY, adding 4,473 vehicles, while BYD’s rise to second place contributed a 1.2 % lift. Excluding both brands would have produced a 5.2 % YoY drop for September and a 2.2 % YTD decline, underscoring their outsized impact on the market.

XREAL announced that its first Android XR glasses, the XREAL Aura, will retail for $1,279, under the company’s “under $1,500” target. The Aura combines a see‑through lens with a top‑mounted display, allowing users to view content from a USB‑C source without cameras. The base model features 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, with larger sizes available at no extra cost. Pre‑orders require a $199 priority deposit, and initial shipments are slated for before the holidays, with [...]

Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched the first generation of ProLiant Gen 13 servers, designed for AI‑centric workloads. The new line features AMD’s 6th‑generation Epyc “Venice” CPUs, up to 256 cores per chip, and supports eight double‑wide GPUs in a 10U DL585a chassis. A 1U DL525 model offers a single 256‑core CPU for high‑throughput inference and analytics. HPE emphasizes enhanced security, performance, and power handling to meet the growing demands of enterprise AI and agentic workloads. [...]

Helmut Kohl, former telecom executive and current family‑office manager, warned at a German family‑office conference that artificial intelligence represents a transformative force rivaling the atomic bomb and the moon landing. He estimates AI models now serve about three billion users—roughly a third of the global population—yet notes that many cannot access them due to age, geography, or infrastructure gaps. Kohl highlighted the rapid obsolescence of training infrastructure and urged companies to embed AI into core operations, or [...]

BMW unveiled its first iX4 electric crossover, offering a coupe‑like body and a range of up to 428 miles on the 50 xDrive model. The vehicle shares a 112.2‑kWh battery and 463‑hp dual‑motor setup with the iX3, yet delivers six miles less range. It supports 400‑kW DC fast charging, adding 183 miles in ten minutes, and comes with a 15.4‑kW on‑board charger. In March 2027, a higher‑performance M60 variant will add 603 hp and a 0‑60 mph time [...]

Europol and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released reports urging rapid adoption of post‑quantum cryptography (PQC). The GAO’s October 6 report, based on a September 2025 document, cites 89 recommendations to 23 agencies, noting that none of the 24 agencies fully address three core PQC areas: expertise, inventory processes, and testing plans. Europol’s October 7 reports warn of “harvest‑now, decrypt‑later” attacks on encrypted communications and the vulnerability of cryptocurrency wallets. Both agencies call for immediate upgrades [...]

Dell Technologies announced the XPS 16 Creator Edition, the first XPS laptop to feature NVIDIA’s RTX Spark superchip. The chip integrates a 6,144‑core Blackwell RTX GPU, a 20‑core Grace CPU, and up to 128 GB of Unified Memory, enabling 3D rendering, 8K video editing, and large‑scale AI model training on a single silicon package. The device supports Windows applications such as Blender, DaVinci Resolve, and Adobe Creative Cloud, offers a 3.2K OLED display with full DCI‑P3 coverage, and includes advanced [...]

Zaplox, a Swedish SaaS provider of digital guest solutions, has been selected to run a mobile‑key proof of concept (PoC) with an undisclosed major hotel group. The PoC will integrate Zaplox’s mobile key technology into the hotel’s own app, allowing the chain to test performance and guest satisfaction before a potential full rollout. The initiative follows Zaplox’s recent launches of mobile keys in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet and mirrors earlier successes, such as a PoC that [...]