Commonwealth Fusion Systems is building SPARC to pave the way for its first commercial ARC plant, while Helion is developing Orion, a 50-megawatt fusion power plant intended to supply electricity to Microsoft as early as 2028.
Sep 28, 2026 ·
TechCrunch
DetectifAI is developing compact AI deepfake voice–detection software designed to run directly on a smartphone’s operating system, enabling an on-device verdict during calls and audio messages without sending the audio to the cloud.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Dreame’s step-climbing X50 Ultra robot vacuum and mop hybrid is $899.99 at Amazon for Prime members (down from $1,599.99), or $849.99 from Dreame’s site with a free account.
Sep 28, 2026 ·
The Verge
The FBI reportedly notified agents and support staff that a cyberattack on its job application portal exposed FBI employees’ personal information, including names, addresses, job titles, and Social Security numbers (and some media reports say medical and psychiatric records too).
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Robotic four-legged “dogs” are being deployed in farms and greenhouses to use thermal sensing and electro-optical cameras, run AI vision locally, and help detect weeds, pests, and possible diseases while recording incidents for real-time alerts and improved datasets.
Sep 28, 2026 ·
Engadget
Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) will add Bluetooth LE Audio in a 10.12.12 firmware update, including Auracast support and audio streaming via the LC3 codec.
Sep 28, 2026 ·
ZDNet
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will bring 200 selected Startup Battlefield contenders to compete after nearly completed judging, with five final judges to determine finalists and award the $100,000 equity-free prize and Disrupt Cup.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
EU-headquartered companies capture only 6% of the bloc’s datacenter semiconductors market, 7% of server manufacturing/assembly, and 8% of cloud infrastructure, despite Europe being a major AI datacenter market.
Sep 28, 2026 ·
The Register
Bose’s first wired earbuds since discontinuing the option in 2015 add active noise canceling and will be sold for $99 as the Bose Noise Cancelling Wired Earbuds.
Sep 28, 2026 ·The Verge
Modulate raised $25M to build its voice intelligence platform using more than 100 small models for transcription, emotional analysis, deepfake and AI music detection, and policy enforcement for voice agents in regulated industries.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
ElevenLabs launched v4 and v4 Turbo speech models with support for more than 90 languages, improved expression control, and lower latency for voice agents.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Outmarket, an insurtech startup using AI to automate commercial insurance paperwork, raised a $34.5M Series B four months after its $17M Series A and was valued at $355M for the new round.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 exhibit table bookings close permanently on Friday, October 2 at 11:59 p.m. PT, with the event running October 13–15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Atlassian’s CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes argues Atlassian is best understood as a platform for collaborating and managing work (including Jira and Trello), and that AI will increase the speed, reliability, quality, and consistency of business processes rather than remove the need for human judgment and “legibility.”
Sep 28, 2026 ·The Verge
You can extend a Samsung Galaxy’s battery life without hardware swaps by updating the phone, putting rarely used apps into deep sleep, lowering display power use (Adaptive Brightness, shorter screen timeout, and optionally reducing refresh rate), and turning off unused connectivity (Bluetooth, Wi‑Fi, location) via quick toggles while checking battery status in Samsung Members (Normal/Weak/Bad).
Sep 28, 2026 ·Engadget
Instinct raised an additional $1 billion in a Series C, valuing the startup at $10 billion—up from a $2.5 billion valuation last month.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
Nvidia says its Open Agent Safety Platform can quarantine AI agents attempting to escape their boundaries within “milliseconds.”
Sep 28, 2026 ·The Verge
Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time and deployed 26 new Starlink satellites, despite losing one of its six Raptor engines shortly after upper-stage separation.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
For an iPhone 18 Pro (256GB), buying and trading after a year costs about $414 total versus $600 for a 12-month Apple Upgrade lease—so annual upgraders would save about $186 if they can get the stated trade-in value.
Sep 28, 2026 ·Engadget
Quartermaster raised a $140M Series B, including about $100M from Insight Partners and Overmatch Ventures plus a $40M debt facility from Stifel.
Sep 28, 2026 ·TechCrunch
