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The Morning After: Apple might be making its own AirTag-sized AI wearable

By: Mat Smith

It’s been a while since rumors and reports suggested Apple is exploring a new divisive product category, and it’s been several years since the Apple car. Unfortunately, the new challenger is a wearable AI pin with cameras, mics and… zero interest from me.

According to a report from The Information, it’ll resemble a slightly thicker AirTag with an aluminum and glass exterior. The report suggests it’ll have two cameras (standard and wide-angle) for photos and video. It may also have three microphones and a (swoon) physical button. I love a physical button.

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Apple

How is Apple going to pitch it? What is the non-creepy, not-nefarious selling point of a tiny listening device with cameras? As Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar puts it: Why attempt an unproven wearable? Especially when its own Watch and AirPods could already deliver a lot of what’s being rumored here. 

The Information says Apple could release its AI pin as early as 2027, but it’s reportedly only in the very early stages and could still be canceled. Even if the Vision Pro and Watch eventually happened, the Apple Car and the Apple TV never did.

— Mat Smith

TikTok finalizes deal for its US entity

A group of non-Chinese investors will own 80 percent of it.

TikTok owner ByteDance has finalized a deal for its US entity. The majority of its stake is held by a group of non-Chinese investors. The deal was closed just before the Trump administration’s latest deadline to ban the app in the US unless it was divested from ByteDance. TikTok’s new investors will own 80 percent, with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an Emirati-state owned investment firm, taking 15 percent each.  

According to TikTok’s announcement, the joint venture will protect American users’ data with Oracle’s secure US cloud environment. It will also retrain TikTok’s algorithm using US users’ data and will be responsible for content moderation in the US. The new US TikTok also promises interoperability, ensuring users still get international content and, if they’re creators, viewers.

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Bungie’s Marathon arrives on March 5

Another extraction shooter to distract.

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Bungie

Bungie’s long-awaited Marathon will arrive on March 5. The 3v3 extraction shooter has a lot riding on it — but it looks pretty damn cool. You might remember Sony, Bungie’s parent company, previously committed to a September 2025 release. However, it delayed the game indefinitely last June after a mixed reception to its alpha and partially plagiarized visual assets.

It’s a very important game for both Bungie and Sony. The latter said Destiny 2 had not lived up to its expectations. It wants another hit like Helldivers 2, not another Concord.

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How to find an affordable GPU during the great RAMageddon

It sucks out there.

If you’re thinking about getting a new graphics card this year, your window for doing so at a typical retail price has closed. What do you do if you want to upgrade to a new graphics card this year? If you’re sitting on an older GPU, the best advice we can give is to stick with your current hardware. On the other hand, if your current GPU is not up to running the games you want to play, consider buying a card with at least 12GB of VRAM. Then, well, read on for more tips and our top recommendations.

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The biggest stories you might have missed

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-apple-might-be-making-its-own-airtag-sized-ai-wearable-121500060.html?src=rss

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The Morning After: Elon Musk wants a $134 billion payout from OpenAI and Microsoft

By: Mat Smith

Part of a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its non-profit status claims Musk is owed anywhere from $79 billion to $134 billion in damages for the “wrongful gains” of OpenAI and Microsoft.

Musk claims in the filing that he’s entitled to a chunk of the company’s recent $500 billion valuation, after contributing $38 million in “seed funding” during the AI company’s early years. It wasn’t just money — according to the filing, Musk helped advise on key employee recruitment, introductions with business contacts and startup advice.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because the lawsuit dates back to March 2024. It’s still going.

— Mat Smith

The other big stories (and deals) this morning


Anthropic opens up Claude Cowork to anyone with a $20 subscription

Anthropic’s AI assistant can handle simple tasks on your PC for you.

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Engadget

Claude Cowork, Anthropic’s AI assistant for handling simple tasks on your computer, is now available to anyone with a $20-per-month Pro subscription. It was previously an exclusive feature for its Max subscribers, who pay a minimum of $100 per month.

As a reminder, the intriguing part of Claude Cowork is its ability to work on its own. If you have the macOS Claude app and a Pro subscription, you can prompt Claude Cowork to work on tasks on your local computer, like creating documents based on files you have saved or organizing your folders. Don’t expect it to deal with high-level PC work just yet, but it can handle simple organizational tasks.

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Dr. Gladys West, whose mathematical models inspired GPS, dies at 95

Her decades-long career finally received wider recognition in 2018.

Pioneering mathematician Dr. Gladys West has passed away at the age of 95. Her name may not be familiar to you, but her contributions will be. West’s work laid the foundation for the global positioning system, GPS, we all use (sometimes daily). Beyond DoorDash requests and Google Maps navigation, GPS is now an essential component of industries ranging from aviation to emergency response systems.

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ASUS will not release any new smartphones this year

Will the company be joining the likes of LG?

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Engadget

ASUS might step back from smartphones. According to translations of recent quotes from Chair Jonney Shih, the company does not plan to release new phone models in the future. Previous reports suggested ASUS would not introduce any smartphones in 2026, but Shih’s recent comments indicate the pause may last longer, if not indefinitely. We’ve reached out to ASUS for additional comment. It's not like the company changes its mind...

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121509123.html?src=rss

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The Morning After: ASUS stops making some NVIDIA GPUs due to memory supply crunch

By: Mat Smith

If you thought we were exaggerating, the hunger for memory and GPUs is making many companies reassess their priorities. YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed discovered ASUS has stopped producing the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB due to the ongoing memory crunch. Both GPUs are 16GB models, making them more expensive to manufacture in the current climate.

“Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is strong, and memory supply is constrained. We continue to ship all GeForce SKUs and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability,” an NVIDIA spokesperson told Engadget.

At CES 2026, we saw PCs and computing in the next 12 months will have higher prices and more limited availability for consumers. At the end of 2025, RAM prices skyrocketed, driven by demand from AI data centers. That’s not stopping anytime soon.

— Mat Smith

The other big stories (and deals) this morning


Matthew McConaughey just trademarked himself

In the fight against AI.

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Getty

Matthew McConaughey filed trademark applications to prevent AI companies from using his likeness without permission, and the US Patent and Trademark Office has approved eight so far.

Trademarks were for video and audio clips featuring the actor staring, smiling and talking. One was for an audio recording of him saying “alright, alright, alright,” his catchphrase from the movie Dazed and Confused. Under the law, it’s already prohibited for companies to steal someone’s likeness to sell products. However, given the vague rules governing the use of someone’s likeness, McConaughey is taking a proactive approach. McConaughey himself is an investor in ElevenLabs and has partnered with the AI startup to create a Spanish version of his newsletter. Está bien, está bien, está bien.

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Amazon is making a Fallout competition reality TV show

Addiction! Radiation poisoning! Skeletal law enforcement?

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AMAZON

The second season of Amazon’s excellent Fallout show is currently streaming, but the company is already looking to generate more revenue from its license to the well-regarded game series. Prime Video has greenlit an unscripted reality show titled Fallout Shelter. It will be a 10-episode run with Studio Lambert, the team behind reality projects including Squid Game: The Challenge and The Traitors.

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X says Grok will no longer edit images of real people into bikinis

But image generation isn’t going anywhere.

Following numerous complaints and several state and national investigations, X is revising its policies on Grok’s image-editing capabilities. New safeguards will place Grok’s image-generating features behind X’s subscription offering, and it will geoblock all users’ ability to generate images of real people in… well, less clothing, in regions where it’s illegal.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta cited one analysis that found “more than half of the 20,000 images generated by xAI between Christmas and New Year depicted people in minimal clothing.” That’s been the primary use?

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121506027.html?src=rss

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© Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti

The Morning After: Apple will use Gemini to power Siri AI

By: Mat Smith

Apple and Google have confirmed that Gemini’s models power the new version of Siri and other generative AI features. CNBC broke the news, but Apple and Google soon followed up with a lengthy joint statement. Here’s part of it: “Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models… Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.”

In June, it was reported that Apple was considering partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic for Siri (the voice assistant can currently tap ChatGPT for certain queries as part of Apple Intelligence). Two months later, Google emerged as a contender. Another report suggested Apple might build the new Siri using a custom version of Gemini — and that it would pay Google around $1 billion a year for the privilege. However, no official deal numbers were shared.

It’s also notable that current iPhones have direct access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But how long for?

— Mat Smith

The other big stories this morning


Netflix wins 7 awards at the Golden Globes

Adolescence and KPop Demon Hunters picked up several each.

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Netflix

Netflix’s hit show Adolescence received four awards, including best limited or anthology series. It also won best actor (Stephen Graham), supporting actor (Owen Cooper) and supporting actress (Erin Doherty) in a miniseries or television film.

KPop Demon Hunters — which my nieces refuse to stop talking about — won best animated feature and best original song. “I just want to say this award goes to people who have had doors closed on them, and I can confidently say rejection is redirection. So never give up.”

It’s not all good news. Netflix also won best performance in stand-up comedy on television for Ricky Gervais: Mortality. Apple and HBO Max each won three, and Hulu got one award on the night.

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NASA makes final preparations for its first crewed moon mission in over 50 years

The agency is targeting a February launch date for Artemis 2.

A few years ago, NASA announced it was pushing the Artemis 2 mission back to April 2026. The agency now says it could launch as early as February. NASA is finalizing preparations for the mission and will soon roll out the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis 2 is the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo program’s final flight in 1972. The 10-day mission will have four astronauts, who’ll test whether Orion’s critical life-support systems can sustain human passengers on future longer-duration missions. They will first orbit the Earth twice before making their way 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the moon.

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Lego’s first Pokémon sets are now available for pre-order

Pikachu, Eevee, Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise will ship February 27.

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Lego

Pre-orders for the first three Lego-Pokémon kits are open now. One of the debut pocket monsters is, of course, Pikachu. You can build the 2,050-piece kit to show Pikachu either at rest or leaping out of an open Poké Ball into battle. It costs $200.

There’s also a 587-piece model of Eevee, for $60. On the bigger side is a set featuring a trio of Pokémon: Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise. This kit has 6,838 pieces and can show the group together in battle formation or separately in their own mini environments. It retails for $650 and is a bit much.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-151521620.html?src=rss

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© Apple

Two screenshots illlustrating Siri's promised ability to understand personal context.
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