Amazon is rolling out a Fire TV redesign that puts more focus on the content, while also simplifying the navigation and layout. The update represents the first major Fire TV release in years from a user experience perspective, the company says, and is accompanied by a refreshed version of the Fire TV app and the arrival of new premium Fire TV televisions with colorful frames. The company saw the need for a change to the Fire TV’s look and feel as the amount of streaming content has exploded over the years. Fire TV customers today can access TV and movies…

Amazon’s AI-powered overhaul of its digital assistant, now known as Alexa+, is coming to the web. On Monday, at the start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company announced the official launch of a new website, Alexa.com, which is now rolling out to all Alexa+ Early Access customers. The site will allow customers to use Alexa+ online, much as you can do today with other AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. While Alexa-powered devices, including Amazon’s own Echo smart speakers and screens, have a well-established footprint with over 600 million devices sold worldwide, Amazon believes…

Lidar-maker Luminar says its founder and former CEO Austin Russell has been evading requests for information — including a subpoena — that the company needs in order to decide whether it should take legal action against him. The company, which entered the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in late December, said in an emergency filing over the weekend that it has been trying to reclaim company-owned devices from Russell since his resignation in May. While it has recovered six computers, Luminar is still seeking Russell’s company-issued phone and a digital copy of his personal phone. Luminar’s lawyers also wrote in the…

A significant portion of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is about TVs, and this year, LG is showing off its manufacturing chops with a new Wallpaper OLED TV that is just 9mm thick. The South Korean company first launched the Wallpaper line in 2017, and is now bringing it back with this model, dubbed OLED evo W6. The company says you can connect the TV to its Zero Connect Box wirelessly to stream lossless 4K video and audio, provided the box is within 10 meters of the TV. LG claims the TV improves on brightness, color and blacks compared…

Self-driving trucks company Kodiak AI announced on Monday it is working with global automotive supplier Bosch to develop a system of hardware and software that can give standard big rigs autonomous driving capabilities. The collaboration was announced at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it could help Kodiak bring its self-driving tech to more trucks, faster. Kodiak, which is developing self-driving trucks for highway, industrial, and defense uses, has already developed and designed a self-driving system with redundant systems for braking, steering, sensors, and computers. In January 2025, Kodiak’s self-driving trucks began making driverless deliveries for Atlas Energy Solutions in…

Africa’s largest fintech company, Flutterwave, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock deal valued between $25 million and $40 million, according to people familiar with the transaction. The acquisition brings together two of Africa’s leading fintech infrastructure companies. Flutterwave operates one of the continent’s widest payments networks, while Mono, often described as the “Plaid for Africa,” has built APIs that allow businesses to access bank data, initiate payments, and verify customers. Mono has raised about $17.5 million from investors, including Tiger Global, General Catalyst, and Target Global. Sources close to the deal said the acquisition allowed all…

DoorDash seems to have confirmed a viral story about a driver using an AI-generated photo to lie about making a delivery. As reported by Nexstar, Austin resident Byrne Hobart said he experienced this very thing, writing in a post on X: “Amazing. DoorDash driver accepted the drive, immediately marked it as delivered, and submitted an AI-generated image of a DoorDash order (left) at our front door (right).” After his post started getting attention, Hobart offered more details, acknowledging that his story would be “pretty easy” to fake. But he noted, “Someone chimed in downthread to say that the same thing…

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp have raised new funding for their social media startup West Co. The startup launched an invite-only version of its first app, Tangle, in November. Now the Financial Times has pieced together more details from comments made by Stone and Sharp, as well as from regulatory filings and job listings. The company has reportedly raised $29 million, with Spark Capital leading its seed round. Sharp — the company’s CEO — described West Co as emerging from the question, “What could I build that might help address just some of the terrible devastation…

Over the past few days, France and Malaysia have joined India in condemning Grok for creating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors. The chatbot, built by Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI and featured on his social media platform X, posted an apology to its account earlier this week, writing, “I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt.” The statement continued, “This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on [child sexual abuse material]. It was a…

Hardware maker Plaud launched a new AI notetaker called Plaude NotePin S, along with a desktop app that helps you take notes for digital meetings, ahead of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company first launched its pin-styled notetaker in 2024, which my former colleague Brian Heater really liked. The new pin brings a physical button that lets you start and stop the recording. Plus, during the recording, you can tap the button to highlight a certain point — just like you can do on the newly launched Plaud Note Pro. One nice thing about the…