TechCapsules

Mistral announced its new 1‑trillion‑parameter model, Mistral Large 4 (ML4), dubbed “le Chonk.” The company claims it is the strongest open‑weight AI model built outside China, surpassing competitors by a substantial margin. ML4 was trained on 4,000 Nvidia Grace‑Blackwell GPUs over two months in Mistral’s European data centers. It is currently in preview for developers, cybersecurity teams, and governments, with a wider public release planned for later this month. Mistral says the model will rank among the top open‑weight [...]

Beginning October 23, Apple TV will stream Formula 1 races in Dolby Atmos on supported devices, starting with the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin. Apple and Dolby Laboratories announced the partnership to add immersive spatial audio alongside Dolby Vision, aiming to place fans “at the heart of the action.” The feature will include team radio, commentary, engine roars, and pit‑lane sounds. Apple’s U.S. streaming rights cover only domestic races and do not require an extra subscription beyond [...]

Elon Musk’s net worth surged to $1.04 trillion after an 8% jump in SpaceX shares, making him the world’s richest person by a wide margin. The rise came as Morgan Stanley analysts labeled the stock “cheap,” citing potential AI products, Starship progress, and new cloud contracts. Musk owns roughly 4.76 billion shares of SpaceX, plus 1.3 billion unvested shares, boosting his fortune from $976.9 billion. Even if he distributed $89.40 to every one of 8.3 billion people, he would still retain about [...]

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra, a high‑end Windows notebook powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark system‑on‑chip. The device ships in two configurations: an 18‑core model with 32 GB unified memory and Windows 11 Home, and a 20‑core version paired with up to 128 GB memory and Windows 11 Pro. Both variants feature a 2,000‑nit HDR display and are marketed to rival Apple’s forthcoming M5 Max‑equipped MacBook Pro. Microsoft emphasizes local artificial‑intelligence workloads, claiming the Ultra can run large language models of up to 120 billion parameters [...]

Jez Corden, a lifelong content creator and internet personality, has become a prominent voice in the Xbox and broader Microsoft ecosystem. He maintains a substantial following on X, co‑hosts the gaming podcast TheXB2, and serves as Executive Editor at Windows Central. Corden’s early work involved building web communities linked to animation sites such as Newgrounds and Explosm, followed by a career in IT, corporate network infrastructure, and web design after high school. His hobby‑blogging on Microsoft platforms [...]

Google is expanding a redesign of its Android Wallet app that replaces the carousel view of stored payment cards with a stacked list layout. The new interface displays a full‑size preview of the primary card and a sliver of the next card, allowing users to tap or swipe down for a fullscreen view that reveals most of each card and a gear icon for settings. Card management, including reordering and setting a default, remains accessible via a [...]

Bridge Neurotech announced its launch with $13.5 million in venture funding, including backing from General Catalyst. The San Francisco‑based startup aims to commercialize a wearable brain‑computer interface (BCI) that uses ultrasound to detect blood‑flow changes linked to neural activity, positioning itself as a non‑surgical alternative to implant‑based systems such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Founder and CEO Will Biederman, who contributed to Neuralink’s early chip design during his PhD, says the goal is broader accessibility, noting that only about 100 [...]

Amazon’s “Your Shopping Preferences” page reveals personalized assumptions derived from users’ purchase histories, ranging from benign interests to intimate remarks such as “has flat buttocks.” The feature, accessible via the “Hello, [Name]” menu on desktop or the account section in the mobile app, lets shoppers view and edit inferred traits, shoe size, dietary choices, and more. A Threads user discovered the “flat buttocks” label after buying butt‑scrunch leggings, shared the finding, and sparked a viral response with over [...]