• Meta’s Manus news is getting different receptions in Washington and Beijing

    January 7, 2026

    Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI assistant platform Manus is unsurprisingly caught in a regulatory tug-of-war — but not because of U.S. regulators. They appear assured that the deal is legitimate despite earlier misgivings about Benchmark’s investment in Manus. China’s regulators, however, are reportedly not quite as sanguine, according to the Financial Times. When Benchmark led a financing round for Manus earlier this year, the investment sparked immediate controversy. U.S. Senator John Cornyn complained about the deal on X, and the investment prompted inquiries from the U.S. Treasury Department around new rules restricting American investment in Chinese AI companies. The…

  • BYD Sealion 6 replaced in China, new PHEV SUV not yet locked in for Australia

    January 7, 2026

    Australia’s most popular plug-in hybrid (PHEV) SUV, the BYD Sealion 6, has been discontinued in China. According to Car News China, BYD has confirmed the Sealion 6 will no longer be sold in China, where Australian-market versions are produced, with the new Sealion 06 – offered as both a PHEV and electric vehicle (EV), and not yet confirmed for Australia – named as its domestic replacement. However, BYD Australia has confirmed the existing Sealion 6 will remain in local showrooms. “The Sealion 6 will continue to be sold in Australia and we will ensure no interruption in supply to BYD’s…

  • Flatlining sales hide widespread industry pressure

    January 7, 2026

    The number of car companies operating in Australia with year-on-year sales declines has gone up by 12.5 per cent. Two-thirds of all local auto brands have now reported a sales decline in 2025 compared with 2024, according to data provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the Electric Vehicle Council. While 59 per cent of all brands that participate in the reporting saw negative overall sales in the 2024 calendar year, that number has now increased to more than 66 per cent in 2025. As reported earlier this week, new vehicle sales in Australia essentially flatlined in…

  • This game controller has a force feedback steering wheel lodged in the middle

    January 7, 2026

    Not everyone remembers the unique controllers that never quite made it. As third-party peripheral makers attempt to offer gamers something different to the likes of DualSense and Joy-Cons, they often have to go in a different direction. GameSir’s Swift Drive (apparently a working product name) is definitely that. And if you remember 1998’s for the PS1, there’s definitely some shared DNA. It features a compact steering wheel at the center of an otherwise typical controller design. It’s also got force feedback, tech usually found in (full-size!) steering wheel controllers. GameSir says it has a “high precision” Hall Effect encoder built…

  • McKinsey and General Catalyst execs say the era of ‘learn once, work forever’ is over

    January 7, 2026

    If there is one point of consensus among the CES 2026 keynote speakers, it is that AI is reshaping technology with a speed and scale unlike any previous technological revolution. In a live taping on Tuesday of the All-In podcast, co-host Jason Calacanis interviewed Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company, and Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst. Their discussion focused on how AI is transforming investment strategies and the workforce. “The world has completely changed,” Taneja said about the unprecedented growth of AI companies. He noted that while it took Stripe about 12 years to reach a…

  • BYD Sealion 7 just outside top three in December sales tidal wave

    January 7, 2026

    BYD’s rival to the Tesla Model Y made a big splash in December, posting a new monthly sales record and nearly cracking the top three nameplates in the process. The mid-size electric SUV only launched in February 2025, but has gained solid traction in a very competitive market. Last month, it posted 2547 registrations, placing it in fourth overall just behind the Toyota HiLux (2622) but ahead of the popular Ford Everest (2149). It also meant the Sealion 7 was well ahead of its arch nemesis, the Model Y (1998), though the Tesla still managed to finish the year as…

  • VFACTS: The models with the biggest sales drops in 2025

    January 7, 2026

    The Ford Ranger was the best-selling car in Australia in 2025, making it the third consecutive year it has taken the number-one spot after relegating the Toyota HiLux to second place in 2023. Yet despite that achievement, Ranger sales were down in 2025 and while Toyota remained the number-one brand overall, its sales were also down – even if only by a meagre 0.6 per cent. In a market that climbed – if you can call it that – by a mere 0.3 per cent, six of the top 10 brands recorded sales declines, while the top-five best-selling models, from…

  • Lenovo updates its Legion and LOQ gaming laptops for CES

    January 7, 2026

    Lenovo has brought a slew of updates to its Legion and LOQ line of gaming laptops for CES 2026. The refreshed laptops are all built around Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs. The new Legion 7a is both thinner and lighter than the previous generation and is aimed at gamers, creators, and working professionals. Lenovo says the new 7a will be powered by and RTX 50-series GPUs, delivering up to 125W of total system power. Presumably this means buyers will choose from multiple CPU and GPU configurations, and Lenovo says the 7a will support up to a Ryzen AI 9 HX 470…

  • xAI says it raised $20B in Series E funding

    January 7, 2026

    xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company behind the Grok chatbot — it also owns X — announced that it has raised $20 billion in a Series E funding round. The company wrote in a blog post that investors will include Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, Qatar Investment Authority, and others, including Nvidia and Cisco as “strategic investors.” xAI has not disclosed if these investments come in the form of equity or debt. xAI says it has about 600 million monthly active users of X and Grok, and it will use this new funding to continue expanding its data centers and Grok models.…

  • Australia’s best-selling EVs in 2025 revealed

    January 7, 2026

    Tesla remained Australia’s top-selling electric vehicle (EV) brand in 2025, but based on BYD’s trajectory the Chinese brand could overtake it locally in 2026. Per data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the Electric Vehicle Council, new EV deliveries totalled 103,269 units last year, up 13.1 per cent on 2024. EVs therefore accounted for 8.3 per cent of all new vehicle deliveries in 2025. In 2024, they accounted for 7.4 per cent of the overall market, or 91,495 deliveries overall. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. These…