Audiobook, e-book, or both? Now, you won’t have to choose. The Scribd-owned reading subscription service Everand wants to make the choice unnecessary. On Tuesday, the company took the wraps off a combined subscription that brings together Everand’s catalog of over 1.5 million audiobooks and e-books with the social book club app Fable, which Everand acquired in 2025, into a single plan, directly challenging Amazon’s dominance in digital reading. The new subscription is available to the two apps’ 5 million combined readers and provides access to the over 1.5 million-title library of audiobooks and e-books, plus Fable’s nearly 200,000 online book…
Author: Olsi
Use of artificial intelligence by big companies is exploding—and the soaring cost has some of them pumping the brakes in a way that could complicate AI’s triumphal march across the economy. Uber caps employee AI spending after blowing through budget in four months AI is getting expensive, and some companies are cutting back on usage in an attempt to moderate costs. That cohort includes Uber, which recently instituted internal usage caps as a way to cut down on its exorbitant AI spend. Bloomberg reports that the company has instituted a new rule that places a monthly $1,500 cap per employee…
If you already spend a good chunk of your day listening to audiobooks, Audible wants to start rewarding you for it. The company has launched Audible Rewards, a new program that turns your everyday listening habits into perks, discounts, and exclusive goodies. It is free to join through the Audible app, website, or Amazon.com, and it is available to both Standard and Premium plan members in the US starting today across iOS, Android, and web. The program works through several earning mechanisms that stack up over time. Listening Day Rewards lets you accumulate listening days by tuning in for at…
Yes, advancements in AI help people from different walks of life, but they have some cons. One of the most exploited con has been AI voice cloning. Over the years, it has reached the point where most people can no longer tell a deepfake voice from a real one. Scammers already know this, and they’ve been spoofing users’ contacts, cloning their voice, and committing financial frauds for quite some time. Android’s new fake call detection is designed to stop that exact scenario before it costs you. How does fake call detection actually work? Fake call detection is an industry-first feature.…
The Anker SOLIX S2000 is a new ~2 kWh portable power station that Anker is positioning less as a general “battery box” and more as a home backup system optimized for refrigerator runtime. What it is The headline claim: “up to 35 hours fridge backup” Anker’s marketing and lab testing suggest it can run a standard refrigerator for up to ~35 hours under controlled conditions. That number is based on: Why it lasts longer than typical 2 kWh stations The S2000 is not just “bigger battery = longer runtime.” Its main advantage is efficiency: 1. Very low idle consumption (~6W)Most…
For the past two years, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series has largely been limited to notebooks. The chips delivered strong battery life and competitive performance, but never had a true desktop platform to challenge compact systems like the Mac mini or higher-end machines such as the Mac Studio. The ASUS Ascent QN10 changes that. Packing the 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite processor alongside an integrated Adreno GPU, the compact desktop becomes the first mini PC to deliver up to 80 TOPS of AI performance through its dedicated Hexagon NPU. In effect, ASUS is introducing a new desktop form factor for Qualcomm’s most…
ASUS is continuing its push into health-focused wearables with the launch of the new VivoWatch 6 Plus at Computex 2026. And unlike many smartwatches currently flooding the market with vague AI promises and fitness buzzwords, ASUS is aiming for something more practical: real-time health tracking backed by medical-style sensors and AI-driven wellness guidance. The VivoWatch 6 Plus arrives with built-in ECG monitoring, blood pressure tracking, body composition analysis, sleep monitoring, and stress tracking packed into a relatively compact smartwatch design. ASUS is also heavily promoting the watch’s new AI-powered wellness coach, which analyzes health data and offers personalized recommendations based…
OpenAI pushes Codex deeper into enterprise work OpenAI is expanding Codex beyond software development, positioning it as a broader tool for knowledge work inside organizations. The company reports Codex now has 5M+ weekly active users, growing rapidly since its desktop launch. While developers still dominate usage, knowledge workers now make up ~20% of users and are growing more than 3x faster. What’s new: OpenAI is rolling out six job-specific plug-ins inside Codex: Each bundle includes integrations, instructions, and context designed to approximate real workplace roles out of the box. Other major updates: Bigger shift: This move reflects a broader strategy…
In early 2026, the AI community was briefly captivated by OpenClaw, an experimental agent framework that spread rapidly among researchers and developers. Though the project’s momentum slowed after its founder was reportedly acquired by OpenAI, its influence has continued to shape product development across the industry — most notably at Microsoft. Today, Microsoft announced Scout, a new AI assistant designed to bring agentic, adaptive workflows into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. A Persistent, Personalized AI Agent Scout is described as an “always-on” assistant built on ideas from the OpenClaw framework. Unlike traditional copilots, it is designed to maintain a persistent identity,…
In 2025, electric vehicles reached a major global milestone: roughly one in four cars sold worldwide was electric. Yet in the United States, EVs account for closer to one in ten sales—and momentum appears to be slowing rather than accelerating. The contrast is sharp. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global EV sales surpassed 20 million units in 2025, growing by around 20% year-on-year. At the same time, falling battery costs—down roughly 8% on average due to cheaper raw materials and wider adoption of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry—have helped push prices lower in many markets. But the US…
