TechCapsules

Counterpoint Research reports that the iPhone 18 Pro’s global sales rose 3.1% over the iPhone 17 Pro, driven largely by a 29% year‑over‑year increase in China during the first three weeks after launch. Apple’s larger initial inventory and a decline in local Android sales boosted demand in China, offsetting weaker performance in the U.S. (down 4%) and Japan (down 27%). The iPhone 18 Pro Max dominated sales worldwide, accounting for 56% of units sold. The study cautions that China’s surge [...]

SpaceX lifted off a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:25 a.m. EDT on Oct. 27, delivering 27 Starlink Group 15‑16 satellites to low‑Earth orbit. The first‑stage booster B1082 performed a controlled separation after 2.5 minutes, steered toward the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship and touched down at T+8:23, marking its 21st Starlink flight and 26th overall mission. The upper stage reignited 53 minutes post‑launch for a brief three‑second burn to circularize the orbit before deploying the payload. The [...]

On October 15, Google Quantum AI unveiled the first hardware implementation of magic‑state cultivation on its Willow superconducting chip, achieving a 40‑fold error reduction and 99.99 % logical fidelity for T‑states. A week later Nvidia demonstrated a 104‑qubit simulation of the same technique on Jupiter, Europe’s inaugural exascale system powered by GH200 GPUs, claiming a 90 % qubit‑usage reduction versus traditional methods. Magic‑state cultivation, introduced by Google in 2024, refines noisy states into high‑fidelity resources without discarding large volumes, [...]

Microsoft is rolling out a built‑in internet speed test for Windows 11 via the Quick Settings panel, replacing the previous shortcut that opened Bing’s speed‑test page in Edge. The preview, available on the Experimental channel with build 26340.9767, lets users measure download, upload and ping directly from Quick Settings, the Wi‑Fi or Cellular flyout, or by right‑clicking the network icon. Results appear within the OS interface, using the active connection. If the option is missing, users can enable it [...]

Apple’s newly launched iPhone Duo has sparked a wave of social‑media complaints about screens cracking along a consistent horizontal line near the device’s hinge. Early teardowns point to a flat internal element that snaps during folding, compromising the OLED panel. Fine M‑Tec, a supplier of internal hinges and metal support plates for foldable displays and a vendor to Samsung Display, issued a statement on October 26 denying that its components cause the failures and warned against a “witch [...]

Nvidia has led a $14 million Series B round for Indian AI‑inference startup Simplismart, valuing the four‑year‑old company at roughly $100 million. The Bengaluru firm offers software that automatically tailors AI model deployment to existing GPU infrastructure, allowing customers to balance speed, cost and performance and, in some cases, run workloads with fewer GPUs. Clients such as InVideo, HeyGen and cloud provider Yotta have reported significant reductions in GPU serving expenses, with InVideo cutting costs by 56 percent. Simplismart’s platform can [...]

Instagram has begun testing a new long‑form horizontal video format called Features, allowing creators to upload up to 90‑minute videos. The pilot targets podcasters, comedians, and other long‑form content producers, with a link‑back system that lets short Reels lead viewers to full episodes. The feature is currently available to select U.S. creators after initial trials in Brazil and will be promoted on Explore and other app sections. Instagram aims to monetize this format through brand partnerships and [...]

Apple released visionOS 27.2, a minor update focused on bug fixes and small OS changes rather than new features. The update skips the 27.1 version, which was reserved for iPhone Duo, and includes expanded Siri AI language support in French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. EU users will see an annual App Tracking Transparency prompt. The Vision Pro hardware remains unchanged, and users can install the update automatically or manually via Settings → General → Software Update.