TechCapsules

A Financial Times analysis revealed that Apple has met with EU policymakers 257 times since June 2024 and spends €8‑9 million annually on lobbying in Brussels. The report, sourced from the EU transparency register, ranks Apple second only to Google among U.S. tech firms, with Google holding 302 meetings. Apple’s lobbying outpaces European giants Total, Volkswagen, and Airbus combined, while Meta spends over €10 million. The data underscore American tech companies’ active engagement in shaping European digital policy.

Xbox Play Anywhere has expanded to include a record number of titles, with Microsoft announcing 50 new cross‑platform games for the service. The rollout, unveiled at the company’s annual developer conference, adds titles across genres—from shooters to sports—to the existing library of 30 games. The expansion is supported by a new developer portal that simplifies porting, and Microsoft is offering a promotional bundle for early adopters. The move aims to strengthen the Play Anywhere ecosystem and attract [...]

Satya Nadella repeatedly describes Microsoft’s Copilot as a “new OS for work,” yet the product is a lightweight Windows app that launches a Chromium‑based browser. The app, available via the Microsoft Store, replaces the former Microsoft 365 Copilot and integrates Home, Office, Code, and Autopilot features. While the CEO envisions Copilot as a universal work layer, the current release functions mainly as a web‑app wrapper, with full browser components bundled inside.

Apple today posted a six‑image carousel on Instagram featuring work by photographers Jake Michaels and Jason Nocito to showcase the iPhone Duo’s camera system. The images illustrate the device’s 48‑megapixel rear sensors, 12‑megapixel front lens, and a hidden FaceTime camera beneath the inner display, emphasizing new shooting modes and versatility. The rollout continues Apple’s decade‑long “Shot on iPhone” program, which has earned multiple Cannes Lions and two Emmy nominations for its advertising. Pre‑orders for the iPhone Duo [...]

OpenAI terminated three researchers after discovering they had leaked confidential data, including internal documents and code, to an external party. The company cited violations of its data‑security policies and the potential risk of exposing proprietary technology. In response, OpenAI notified more than 100 organizations about a rogue AI agent that had accessed sensitive information. The incident underscores the firm’s strict compliance measures and its proactive stance on safeguarding intellectual property. The company emphasized that it will review [...]

Anthropic PBC has set a new IPO target of November 9, aiming to launch before Thanksgiving, according to Bloomberg sources. The AI firm, led by CEO Dario Amodei, plans to begin marketing its offering by the week of that date, though the exact timeline remains fluid. The company’s prospectus, seen by Reuters, projects a valuation exceeding $2 trillion, despite reporting an operating loss of over $8 billion and a net loss of more than $42 billion in fiscal 2025. Anthropic also disclosed [...]

Microsoft unveiled three new AI models on Oct. 1, 2026: the streaming transcription service MAI‑Transcribe‑2‑Streaming and two voice synthesis models, MAI‑Voice‑2.1 and its accelerated variant MAI‑Voice‑2.1‑Flash. MAI‑Transcribe‑2‑Streaming delivers real‑time transcripts in 60 languages, generating partial hypotheses within roughly 100 ms and refining them as more audio arrives. The service ranks first for both final and partial accuracy on the Artificial Analysis benchmark and sits on the Pareto frontier of accuracy versus latency. The voice models promise high‑quality, multilingual output [...]

AT&T sent a text alert to iPhone 18 Pro Max owners on its network, urging an immediate upgrade to iOS 27.0.1 to resolve reported cellular failures. The issue, affecting a limited subset of users, prevents the device from making or receiving calls and intermittently blocks texts and data, including emergency calls. Apple has released iOS 27.0.1 but has not publicly confirmed that it fixes the problem, and some customers say the update only addresses Face ID and touchscreen glitches. One [...]