Tech

Japan launches a probe to bring back the first samples from a Martian moon

4 pages

An H3 rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on Oct 20. It placed the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft in its planned orbit.

A US F-22 directs an autonomous combat drone in flight

6 pages

Earlier in October, an F-22 pilot gave high-level tactical commands to a YFQ-44A drone. Its onboard software turned them into manoeuvres and simulated combat tasks in real time.

Dimitri Hon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

A Google Cloud outage disrupts online banking in the U.K.

5 pages

The outage began on Tuesday just after 2 a.m. ET, or 6:08 a.m. GMT, and was centred on London.

Austin McKinley · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

A bug makes some Google Home speakers download hundreds of gigabytes of data

6 pages

Owners report speakers that download data nonstop in the background, one of them more than 200 GB a day.

Jonathan Schilling · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Microsoft says AI agents should be watched like insider threats

5 pages

Microsoft on Monday introduced Guardian Agents, a feature that monitors the AI agents a company uses, as part of new security tools for businesses.

Meta creates a new class of shares to fund its AI buildout

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The new stock carries no vote on company decisions and will be given to existing shareholders as a stock dividend. Trading is set to begin in 2027.

Airbnb bans hosts from making guests do dishes and take out the trash

5 pages

New Airbnb rules limit what hosts may ask of guests, who already pay a cleaning fee. They apply to reservations booked on or after Nov 20.

Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Tesla plans to sell Cybercabs by year end and starts building Optimus robots

5 pages

Tesla will start selling the Cybercab, a two-seat autonomous car with no steering wheel, to customers by the end of the year. Elon Musk said most will stay Tesla-owned and run as a ride-hailing service.