China probes Qualcomm’s acquisition of Autotalks China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has launched an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm’s acquisition of Israeli V2X (vehicle-to-everything) chipmaker Autotalks, alleging Qualcomm may have failed to disclose certain deal details under China’s anti-monopoly laws. Key points Qualcomm agreed to buy Autotalks in 2023 to expand its Snapdragon automotive portfolio into V2X safety and communication technologies. The acquisition was previously scrutinized by US and UK regulators and the deal was temporarily paused in early 2024 amid antitrust reviews. SAMR’s probe follows a broader pattern of China tightening oversight of foreign tech acquisitions amid ongoing US–China trade and technology negotiations. China recently also flagged Nvidia’s Mellanox deal for regulatory breaches — analysts say such actions may be intertwined with wider trade leverage strategies. Timeline 2023…

AirPods 4 Deal — $89 (non‑ANC) / $120 (ANC) Apple's AirPods 4 are on sale: the standard (non‑ANC) model is available for about $89 and the ANC model for around $120. These are some of the lowest prices we've seen recently and a solid buy if you prefer open‑ear AirPods or want the Pro‑like features without the Pro price. Why consider the AirPods 4? H2 chip — brings Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Personalized Spatial Audio and improved processing. Call quality — Voice Isolation for clearer voice on calls; FaceTime supports 48kHz audio. Sound — Better low end and wider sound stage vs AirPods 3; Dolby Atmos & non‑spatial content both improved. Battery — ~5 hours per charge (non‑ANC); ~4 hours with ANC on. Charging case extends total to ~30 hours.…

Control: Ultimate Edition coming to iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro — early 2026 Remedy Entertainment has announced that Control: Ultimate Edition will be available on the iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro in early 2026. Players can use touch controls (including hand-tracking/gestures on Vision Pro) or controllers. The Ultimate Edition bundles the base game with both major expansions: The Foundation and AWE (Altered World Events), the latter linking Control to Remedy’s Alan Wake universe. Quick facts: Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro (early 2026 — no firm date yet) Controls: touch/hand-tracking or controllers Includes: Base game + The Foundation + AWE expansions Current availability: Control: Ultimate Edition is already listed on the Apple/Mac App Store (macOS release launched earlier) Remedy originally released Control in 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox…

Apple AirTag 4‑Pack — Now $65 (34% off)Good Apple deals can be rare — right now a 4‑pack of Apple AirTags is available for $65 (about $16.25 each), a 34% discount from its usual price. These compact Bluetooth trackers are ideal for keys, wallets, backpacks and luggage.Why AirTags?Works with the Find My network of iPhones, iPads and Macs to help locate lost items.Built‑in speaker can play a tone to help you find nearby items.Ultra Wideband (UWB) precision finding on iPhone 11 and newer shows directional guidance on compatible iPhones.Lots of accessories (loops, holders, keyrings) make them easy to attach to almost anything.LimitationsAirTags rely on being near other Apple devices to update their location. They do not have a built‑in GPS and require proximity to participating devices to be located.BuySearch or…

Minecraft Movie sequel set for July 23, 2027Warner Bros. has scheduled a sequel to The Minecraft Movie for July 23, 2027. Jared Hess is returning to direct and co-write. Details on plot and cast are limited so far.ContextThe first Minecraft Movie was a commercial success.The sequel's production reflects the studio's confidence in the franchise's box-office potential.More: AJC coverage

Project Amethyst: Sony and AMD tease future GPU techSony and AMD unveiled early research called Project Amethyst, showcasing machine learning-based rendering (Neural Arrays), Radiance Cores for ray tracing, and Universal Compression to improve memory bandwidth and efficiency. The work is still at the simulation/research stage.Why it mattersThese techniques could cut memory bandwidth needs and improve ray tracing/upscaling in future consoles.Project Amethyst suggests the next PlayStation may rely heavily on ML-driven rendering and compression.Read more: GameSpot coverage

Nintendo's "Close to You" animated short updated to show PikminNintendo released an updated version of its "Close to You" short via the Nintendo Today app that clearly shows Pikmin moving toys and a pacifier — confirming the teaser's connection to the Pikmin franchise. Nintendo Pictures appears to be behind the short, marking an expansion into animated content.TakeawaysThe updated short is currently available on the Nintendo Today app.Nintendo has not confirmed whether the short teases a game, movie, or other media yet.Fans are speculating about new Pikmin projects or marketing tie-ins.Read more: Nintendo Life coverage

Ferrari Elettrica — Ferrari's first production EVFerrari's Elettrica promises over 1,000 hp, 0-62 mph in ~2.5 seconds, a top speed around 193 mph, and a unique approach to sound design that preserves emotional feedback via mechanical vibrations. Designed by Jony Ive, deliveries are set to begin in late 2026.Highlights122 kWh structural battery, 800V architecture and 350 kW fast-charging capability.Sound design uses accelerometers to amplify mechanical vibrations rather than mimic ICE notes.Multiple driving modes and a Torque Shift Engagement system for driver control.More details: Car & Driver coverage

Tensor Robocar: "Lyft-ready" from the factoryTensor and Lyft announced that Tensor's Robocar will be sold "Lyft-ready," allowing owners to add their AVs to Lyft's network. Lyft is also reserving hundreds of Tensor vehicles for its fleet, with deployments planned from 2027.What to knowRobocar features include extensive sensor suites and NVIDIA-powered systems.Owners can potentially monetize their vehicles by joining ride-hail networks.Lyft's deployment signals a move toward owning and operating autonomous vehicles directly.Read more: Lyft blog on the partnership

Study: ~250 malicious documents can implant backdoors in LLMsResearchers (Anthropic, UK AI Security Institute, Alan Turing Institute) show that inserting roughly 250 poisoned documents into pretraining corpora can implant backdoors in large language models regardless of model size. The paper (arXiv) demonstrates the attack and explains why the absolute number of poisoned samples matters more than their percentage of the dataset.Key points~250 poisoned docs (~420k tokens) can trigger a backdoor across models from 600M to 13B parameters.The attack can be triggered by a specific phrase and causes the model to produce nonsense or attacker-chosen outputs.Because much training data is scraped from the web, adversaries could plant such poisoned texts.Mitigations (suggested)Stricter dataset provenance and curation; blocklisting suspicious sources.Data sanitization and anomaly detection on training corpora.Robust training procedures, e.g., differential privacy, fine-tuning…