• MG4 to get world-first semi-solid-state battery, due in Australia in 2026

    December 31, 2025

    The first MG4 Anxin Edition electric hatchbacks have been delivered to customers in China ahead of a planned Australian launch in the second quarter (April–June) of 2026. The MG4 Anxin Edition is the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) to use liquid semi-solid-state batteries – a halfway house between current battery technology and solid-state batteries. The smaller front-wheel-drive MG4, similar in size to the BYD Dolphin, will be sold in Australia alongside an update to the existing rear-wheel- and all-wheel-drive MG4 range. The MG4 Anxin Edition – with ‘anxin’ translating to ‘relief’ or ‘peace of mind’ – has a claimed…

  • LG announces new line of xboom speakers ahead of CES

    December 31, 2025

    LG just revealed several new speakers in the xboom line . These speakers are part of with will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas, who is on board as the “experimental architect” involved with “development, design and brand marketing.” These speakers are fairly different from one another, but they all have AI in common. Each speaker includes an algorithm that automatically adjusts the EQ after analyzing the audio content and the listening space. Many also feature an AI algorithm for ambient lighting, which will adjust the lights to match the song being played. The xboom Stage 501 is intended for parties and…

  • VCs predict enterprises will spend more on AI in 2026 — through fewer vendors

    December 31, 2025

    Enterprises have been piloting and testing different AI tools for the past few years to figure out what their adoption strategy will look like. Investors think that period of experimentation is coming to an end. TechCrunch recently surveyed 24 enterprise-focused VCs and an overwhelming majority predicted enterprises will increase their budgets for AI in 2026 — but not for everything. Most investors said this budget increase will be concentrated and that many enterprises will spend more funds on fewer contracts. Andrew Ferguson, a vice president at Databricks Ventures, predicted 2026 will be the year that enterprises start consolidating their investments…

  • How guided sleep meditation apps helped me sleep

    December 31, 2025

    It’s 4 a.m. again and I’m wandering around a marina, being introduced to a bunch of local cats by name. Each one has a boat and a backstory, and I’m meeting them all thanks to the most low-key, soothing voice possible. Having encountered the self-indulgent Ginger, grand Saba, and tiny Bebe, I finally, finally nod off to sleep. It’s been a while. This is just one of the many bedtime audio journeys I took to help conquer a bout of insomnia after moving countries. It’s called a “sleepcast” a kind of sleep meditation-podcast hybrid launched by mindfulness app Headspace in…

  • Subaru WRX STI teased ahead of January 9 reveal

    December 31, 2025

    The Subaru WRX STI looks set to return to take on the Honda Civic Type R after the automaker dropped two teaser clips on its social media channels bearing the words “Coming soon”. The initial 12-second clip posted by Subaru shows a WRX sedan in its classic ‘WR Blue’ paintwork charging through a snowy forest, backed by an audio track of a free-revving ‘boxer’ engine. Closer inspection shows this is not a regular WRX, but the performance flagship STI (Subaru Tecnica International) model not offered outside Japan and not seen since the current generation launched in 2021. The opening shot…

  • IDC warns of major PC market downturn due to memory crunch

    December 31, 2025

    The demand building out AI infrastructure has placed on PC component makers has already led to the death of one consumer-facing RAM brand, but a new report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests it could have an even worse impact on the PC industry at large. In its worst-case-scenario model, the IDC predicts PC shipments could shrink by up to 8.9 percent in 2026 because of the high cost of memory. “Instead of expanding conventional DRAM and NAND used in smartphones, PCs and other consumer electronics, major memory makers have shifted production toward memory used in AI data centers,…

  • 12 investors dish on what 2026 will bring for climate tech

    December 31, 2025

    This was supposed to be the year that climate tech died. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have done their best to dismantle the Biden administration’s hallmark industrial and climate policies. Even the European Union has begun to ease off its most aggressive goals. And yet, as the year closes, the receipts provide a different view of climate and clean energy investing in the U.S. and Europe. Instead of tanking, venture bets in the sector remained essentially flat relative to 2024, according to CTVC, far from the slide some had expected. That resiliency is due in part to continued…

  • Google Releases New ‘Bedtime Tools’ To Help Tackle Messed-Up Sleep Schedules

    December 31, 2025

    Let’s face it. Our sleep schedules have been messed up of late and cordoned within the four walls of our house has made it easier than ever to lose track of time. Google knows this too. According to them, sleep-related searches like “insomnia” and “can’t sleep” have reached all-time highs in March and April. To help address some of these issues, Google is rolling out new bedtime tools that will help you manage your sleep better. Bedtime Mode Formerly known as Wind Down, Bedtime Mode reminds you when its time to sleep by making use of grayscale and putting the…

  • Alibaba Tongyi Lab Releases MAI-UI: A Foundation GUI Agent Family that Surpasses Gemini 2.5 Pro, Seed1.8 and UI-Tars-2 on AndroidWorld

    December 31, 2025

    Alibaba Tongyi Lab have released MAI-UI—a family of foundation GUI agents. It natively integrates MCP tool use, agent user interaction, device–cloud collaboration, and online RL, establishing state-of-the-art results in general GUI grounding and mobile GUI navigation, surpassing Gemini-2.5-Pro, Seed1.8, and UI-Tars-2 on AndroidWorld. The system targets three specific gaps that early GUI agents often ignore, native agent user interaction, MCP tool integration, and a device cloud collaboration architecture that keeps privacy sensitive work on device while still using large cloud models when needed. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.22047 What is MAI-UI? MAI-UI is a family of multimodal GUI agents built on Qwen3 VL, with…

  • The OneXSugar Wallet is an upcoming retro handheld with a 4:3 foldable screen

    December 30, 2025

    OneXPlayer is quickly establishing itself as a company that isn’t afraid to get weird as hell. (Take, for example, its transforming dual-screen gaming portable.) Its latest venture is another retro gaming handheld that, at first glance, looks like a standard dual-screen model. But the Android-powered OneXSugar Wallet uses a single foldable screen instead. The device was teased via a 54-second video on the Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili. Retro Handhelds reports that the Wallet uses an 8.01-inch OLED with a 2,480 x 1,860 resolution. (That’s a 4:3 aspect ratio when unfolded.) The video also shows an asymmetrical analog stick layout with…