TechCapsules

Microsoft announced that the misleading “Windows 11 Speed Test” shortcut, which previously opened Bing’s search page, will be removed in an upcoming Windows 11 update. The shortcut, discovered in early 2023, appeared in the Start menu and led users to a Bing‑powered web page that claimed to benchmark system performance, prompting criticism that Microsoft was covertly promoting its search engine. In a blog post, the company said the feature will be replaced with a genuine performance‑monitoring tool that integrates [...]

OpenAI unveiled “dots,” an always‑on AI personal assistant, at its September developer day, positioning it as the next evolution of its Codex coding tool. Alexander Embiricos, head of the enterprise product team, explained that dots reframes the underlying large‑language model as a single, continuous conversation rather than discrete prompts, aiming for intuitive, proactive assistance. In testing, the assistant flagged calendar conflicts and even detected a drone‑delivery outage before the user noticed, though timing remains imperfect. Unlike Meta’s [...]

Apple expanded Siri AI to five new languages—French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish—during the iOS 27.2 update, increasing the assistant’s reach from a single language to six. The company also announced that four additional languages will be added by year‑end, likely with the upcoming iOS 27.3 release in December, whose beta may appear soon. While Siri AI will support Traditional Chinese, it remains unavailable in China, where Apple plans to launch other AI features later in the [...]

Microsoft released its first firmware update for the Surface Laptop Ultra on October 22, addressing key issues reported since the device’s launch. The update, titled “Microsoft Corporation System Hardware Update (200.0.7.0),” fixes long reboot times and eliminates screen flickering, though ghosting remains. Additional improvements include performance boosts and fewer unexpected restarts. The Ultra, priced at $2,599 and powered by RTX Spark, is expected to receive firmware updates for six years until 2032.

Apple released iPadOS 27.2, adding a new Siri AI feature that appears when users select text with a trackpad or mouse. The contextual “Ask Siri” popup, already present on macOS, also brings back Writing Tools commands such as rewrite and proofread. Siri now supports French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. The update introduces Apple TV user profiles on iPad, anniversary reminders during calls, and yearly App Tracking Transparency prompts for EU users. The Health app redesign will return [...]

Bedrock Robotics secured $600 million in a Series C round, valuing the autonomous‑vehicle startup at $4.1 billion. The funding, led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, follows the company’s first commercial deployments of self‑driving excavators at sites in Nevada, Texas, and a large civil project with Zachry Construction. Founded in 2024 by former Waymo and Anki leaders, Bedrock has raised nearly $1 billion to date and plans to expand its kit‑based autonomous system across construction sites to address operator shortages. [...]

The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded Helion Energy and Commonwealth Fusion Systems a combined $260 million under the CHIPS and Science Act to develop advanced semiconductors for reactor control. Helion received $175 million and CFS $85 million, but both companies must issue non‑voting government shares in exchange. The equity stakes give the federal government roughly a 1 % position in Helion, based on its $15.5 billion Series G valuation; CFS’s share size is undisclosed. These grants mark the most sizable federal infusion into [...]

Apple’s fall rollout introduced iOS and macOS 27, the iPhone Duo, and upcoming Mac updates. The Duo, Apple’s first device with a dual‑screen form factor, has drawn the most buzz, offering a larger display and new multitasking modes. Craft, a cross‑platform productivity app that merges notes, tasks and documents, launched a Duo‑optimized version the same day the phone shipped, redesigning its interface to exploit the split screen. The company also rolled out incremental enhancements for Craft on [...]