TechCapsules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower‑court verdict that cleared Apple and director M. Night Shyamalan of copyright infringement claims over the Apple TV+ thriller Servant. The series, starring Lauren Ambrose and Rupert Grint, was alleged by filmmaker Francesca Gregorini to have copied the plot of her 2013 independent film The Truth About Emanuel, a suit that sought up to $81 million. A 2022 jury found the creators had no access to Gregorini’s work and ruled for Apple. Gregorini appealed, arguing [...]

On October 6, the European Space Agency conducted a system‑level drop test of a full‑scale Space Rider prototype over Sardinia. The vehicle’s drogue parachute deployed correctly, but the main steerable parafoil detached during deployment, causing the mock‑up to free‑fall and crash. ESA confirmed the anomaly and launched an independent investigation, noting that the failure does not affect the remaining qualification tests, which are not on the critical path for the program. Space Rider, Europe’s first reusable, wingless orbital spacecraft, [...]

Google is updating Chrome with new Safe Browsing alerts that warn users about suspicious or dangerous sites when Enhanced Protection mode is on. A pop‑up in the address bar will say “this site doesn’t seem right” for pages showing deceptive patterns, while a full‑screen red warning will appear for sites Google is confident are malicious. The changes roll out to desktop and Android versions and also add protection against ClickFix, a social‑engineering trick that forces users to [...]

Mixx Technologies, founded in 2023 by former Intel and Broadcom engineers Vivek Raghuraman and Rebecca Schaevitz, unveiled its first product, the SxC connector, which consolidates 64 optical fibers into a single 800 mm² interface. The company argues that as GPU racks such as Nvidia’s NV72 expand to hundreds of GPUs, traditional copper flyovers become untenable and dense fiber management is essential. Mixx’s roadmap includes near‑packaged optics (NPO), co‑packaged optics (CPO), optical circuit switches, and a software control plane [...]

Apple released an update for its iWork suite—Pages, Keynote and Numbers—on Thursday, adding iPhone Duo support ahead of its October 23 launch and introducing a new open Interchange Format (.keyx) to simplify Keynote editing in third‑party apps. The primary focus is Apple Intelligence features, available only to subscribers of the Apple Creator Studio bundle. Each app now includes a beta Intelligent Assistant, which requires a device set to US English and iOS 27 or later; the assistant [...]

Andreessen Horowitz announced Thursday that its crypto-focused venture arm will be renamed a16z Frontier, reflecting a shift away from pure blockchain investing. Led by Chris Dixon, the unit has raised nearly $10 billion across five funds since its 2018 launch and backed notable successes such as Coinbase. The rebrand signals a broader mandate that will include artificial intelligence, robotics and “new kinds of networks” linking humans and machines, while still acknowledging blockchain’s role in providing native economic capabilities [...]

Fort Bend County commissioners unanimously approved a suite of tax incentives for Tesla’s proposed $10.1 billion solar‑cell factory, known internally as “Project Crystal Sun,” near Needville, Texas. The package includes a property‑tax abatement within Reinvestment Zone 34, a Chapter 381 economic‑development agreement, a foreign‑trade‑zone non‑objection with payments in lieu of certain taxes, and a “true‑up” payment agreement. The 3,000‑acre site would produce ingots, wafers, cells and finished modules, creating 9,712 permanent jobs by 2033 and aiming for commercial operation in [...]

Microsoft revealed that the China‑aligned threat actor Storm‑0940 exploited the ARTEX AI framework to compromise the ConnectWise Cloud Backup supply chain. Using ARTEX, the group performed rapid scanning, password spraying, and OAuth abuse, targeting over 2,250 tenants at 2,900 attempts per minute. The attack, active since 2021, reached privileged cloud access within hours, affecting sectors from aerospace to finance. The incident underscores the growing use of AI‑driven tools for automated, high‑speed cyber intrusions.