Vertical video and AI search are coming to Peacock in its biggest mobile update yet — and I’m wincing at the idea of both

androidcentral.com Nov 13, 2026

Vertical video and AI search are coming to Peacock in its biggest mobile update yet — and I’m wincing at the idea of both

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Nov 13, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

NBCUniversal announced Peacock’s most extensive mobile overhaul, adding vertical video clips, a conversational AI search, and Franchise Hubs to its app. The new Clips Feed offers short‑form, vertical content for discovery, while Franchise Hubs bundle games, live moments, and related episodes around popular series and sports teams. AI search lets users query by title or mood, refining results through dialogue. Peacock plans to test these features through 2027, aiming to deepen engagement and transform viewing into a more interactive experience.

💡 Why It Matters

· By integrating AI‑driven search and vertical video, Peacock seeks to keep users longer on its platform, a critical strategy as streaming services battle for attention in an oversaturated market.

AI Apps Capsules

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How Rhoda AI is using video data to create generalized AI models…

Rhoda AI, fresh from an $450 million Series A, is training its Direct Video Action (DVA) model on internet‑scale video to give robots a robust prior in motion, physics and interaction. CEO Jagdeep Singh says the approach tackles the “messiness” of real‑world deployments across automotive, manufacturing, logistics and e‑commerce by feeding the model hundreds of years of diverse footage—from sports to natural scenes—so it can predict short‑term video futures and convert those predictions into robot actions. After pretraining, customers add only 10‑20 hours of task‑specific fine‑tuning, enabling robots to perform manipulation and mobility tasks that previously failed outside laboratory settings. Early pilots show the system grasping irregular objects, navigating cluttered aisles and adapting to new tools without reprogramming, promising faster integration for enterprises.

💡 By turning the entire internet into a physics classroom, Rhoda AI compresses months of robot training into hours, accelerating real‑world automation adoption.

appleinsider.com · Nov 13

Siri AI is coming to Apple TV 4K, including models from 2021

Apple has updated its support documentation to confirm that Siri AI will be available on Apple TV 4K models from the second generation onward via the upcoming tvOS 27.2.1 update. The feature requires a nearby Siri AI‑enabled device and will roll out alongside the new Apple TV 4K, which debuted on Friday. While iOS, macOS, and watchOS received the 27.2.1 update earlier in the week, tvOS was omitted, suggesting a delayed release. No official release date has been announced, but the update is expected soon.

💡 Enabling Siri AI on older Apple TV models expands voice‑controlled functionality across a broader user base, potentially driving higher adoption of the new 4K hardware.

techcrunch.com · Nov 13

ChatGPT’s new Wallet lets AI agents shop and check out for you

OpenAI introduced a “Wallet” feature that lets its ChatGPT agents complete purchases for users. Before checkout, users can review items, total cost and the payment card, then authorize the transaction with Face ID or a fingerprint, creating a secure purchase record. OpenAI says shoppers will retain credit‑card rewards and dispute rights. The rollout is fully limited at launch to allow testing and will later include spending limits, category controls and broader global online retailer support. Meta’s Muse already reports AI‑assisted shopping as a top activity among its 10 million users, while DoorDash and Uber see few AI orders. OpenAI also published a Commerce Partner Playbook to help retailers accommodate agentic commerce, noting Amazon’s ban on third‑party AI agents in favor of Alexa.

💡 By embedding checkout into conversational AI, OpenAI turns chat into a direct sales channel, forcing retailers to rethink how they secure and monetize interactions with bots.

9to5mac.com · Nov 13

Mount Thor raises $45 million to build Mac data centers for AI…

Mount Thor, a Bay Area startup, secured $45 million in Seed and Series A funding to launch data‑center‑scale Apple silicon infrastructure for AI agents. Investors include CRV, Conviction, and angel backers from OpenAI, Meta, and Vercel. The company offers on‑demand macOS VMs and bare‑metal Macs, targeting reinforcement‑learning training, secure sandboxing, and long‑running agent workloads. Funding will build inference labs for open‑source models on Apple silicon, leveraging the new M5 Ultra Mac Studio’s high memory and power efficiency.

💡 By scaling Apple silicon for autonomous agents, Mount Thor opens a niche where AI workloads can run natively on macOS, potentially reducing reliance on GPU‑centric cloud services and accelerating agent development.

androidcentral.com · Nov 13

“Hey Google” has had a good run, but “Hey Gemini” is officially…

Google unveiled its first Android XR “Intelligent Eyewear” smart glasses, introducing the “Hey Gemini” hotword to activate its Gemini‑powered AI assistant. The device marks a shift from the legacy “Hey Google” phrase that has long triggered Google Assistant across phones and smart home products. Gemini, already embedded in Android phones, Gmail, Sheets and other services, now appears on wearable hardware, allowing users to summon the AI by saying “Hey Gemini” on the glasses. While the new hotword is currently limited to the XR glasses, Google has not confirmed plans to replace “Hey Google” on other platforms. The launch follows the retirement of Google Assistant last year and signals Google’s broader strategy to rebrand its AI experience around Gemini.

💡 The new hotword positions Gemini as the primary AI interface, hinting at a unified brand that could reshape how users interact with Google’s ecosystem across future devices.

techcrunch.com · Nov 13

Phota Labs uses AI to turn everyday photos into professional-looking shots

Phota Labs, an a16z‑backed startup founded by former Adobe engineers Cecilia Zhang and Zach Xia, released an iOS app that acts as a personal AI photo assistant. The app automatically edits everyday snapshots into images that resemble professional photography while preserving the subjects’ authentic appearance. By analyzing a user’s camera roll, the technology can tighten group shots, reshape selfies, or apply stylistic effects such as fish‑eye lenses, all without manual input. Unlike generic generative tools, Phota’s proprietary identity model learns each person’s features to avoid unrealistic alterations, and it embeds invisible watermarks to signal AI‑enhanced content. Launched to build a base, the service targets heavy social‑media sharers and plans a future Android release after a $5.6 million seed round led by a16z.

💡 It gives everyday users professional‑grade photo quality without sacrificing personal authenticity, turning casual snaps into shareable memories.