Author: GT

Just in time for the busy holiday travel season, iPhone users can now add their passport details to their Apple digital wallets.The company on Wednesday unveiled its new “Digital ID” system for users to add their U.S. passport information to Apple Wallet, which can be scanned at airport readers if travelers don’t have a Real ID. Digital ID acceptance “will roll out first in beta” at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at more than 250 U.S. airports for “in-person identity verification during domestic travel.”The company warned that Digital ID doesn’t replace a physical passport and can’t be used for international travel…

If there’s any question about whether data centers are driving the global economy, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) should dispel any doubts. This year, the world will spend $580 billion on data centers, $40 billion more than it will spend on new oil supplies. “This point of comparison provides a telling marker of the changing nature of modern, highly digitalized economies,” the agency said in the report. Electricity consumption from AI data centers is expected to grow fivefold by the end of the decade, doubling the total used by all data centers today. Conventional data centers…

Emilija Manevska | Moment | Getty ImagesArtificial intelligence startup Cursor on Thursday announced it has closed a $2.3 billion funding round at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation, nearly triple what it was worth as of its last raise in June.Cursor built a popular AI coding tool that helps software developers generate, edit and review code. Its parent company, Anysphere, is an applied research lab that was founded in 2022. Cursor is one of just a handful of AI startups, including OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Safe Superintelligence and Thinking Machines, that are valued at over $10 billion.Investors including Accel, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz,…

Search and rescue missions often happen in areas that are difficult for humans to navigate due to extreme weather, rough terrain, or dangerous conditions like smoke or dust. A researcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) wants to send robots inspired by bats on these missions instead of humans. Nitin J. Sanket, a professor at WPI, has developed small flying robots with his team that fit in the palm of a hand and use ultrasound — just like bats. These robots use AI-powered software to filter out noise from the ultrasound signals the devices collect, allowing them to spot obstacles within…

NEW YORK (AP) — Imagine if your bank could move money for you with only the slightest of digital nods for your approval. Or that could tell you that you’re overspending but more importantly know how to address that overspending and put you on better financial footing.That’s what you’ll get with MoneyBot, a new financial services chatbot shown off this week by Cash App that will be integrated into its banking app this winter. Unlike existing bank chatbots, which can handle routine tasks like changing an address, MoneyBot can take advanced actions for a customer like creating a savings plan,…

Marc Manara, OpenAI’s head of startups, says the reality of AI has advanced far beyond ideas and experiments. AI-native companies are hitting $200 million in annual recurring revenue, and product cycles have shrunk from two-week sprints to single days. And OpenAI is helping. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Russell Brandom sits down with Manara at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 to explore how OpenAI is serving the startups building on its platform.  Listen to the full episode to hear about:  The shift from two-week sprints to one-day development cycles, and what that means for how startups should structure their engineering teams  Why…

YouTube TV’s parent company, Google, has been locked in a standoff with Disney for nearly two weeks. The dispute began when the two companies failed to reach an agreement on a streaming deal. This means that for 12 days and counting, 10 million YouTube TV subscribers like myself have not been able to access Disney-owned TV networks like ABC and ESPN, which comprise around 20 different channels. Business Insider called sports fans “the big losers” in this standoff. The New York Times and Engadget are publishing guides to help viewers tune into must-watch college football games. But the press has…

New US data centre projects in Texas and New York will receive $50 billion in new funding, part of a plan to grow US computing capacity for advanced AI work. The facilities, built with Fluidstack, are designed for Anthropic’s systems and will focus on power and efficiency needs that come with training and running large models across these data centre sites.Fluidstack provides large GPU clusters to companies such as Meta, Midjourney, and Mistral. The partnership reflects a wider push across the tech industry this year, as many firms increase spending on US infrastructure while the Trump administration urges companies to…

Apple released iOS 26.2 beta 1 last week, introducing several updates, such as the option to customize the Liquid Glass appearance of the iPhone’s Lock Screen clock, the ability to set alarms within the Reminders app, and live translation features for users in the EU, among other improvements. The public release of iOS 26.2 is expected sometime in December. iOS 26.2 beta 1 added a Liquid Glass slider for the lock screen clock pic.twitter.com/cZzS2vWbwi— Wazeen (@wzeeeeen) November 5, 2025 The Liquid Glass interface, which is the updated design for Apple devices, is still undergoing changes. The recent update includes a…

A worker inspects the outdoor gas pipes at the underground gas storage facility operated by Gas Storage CZ AS, in Haje, Czech Republic, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe International Energy Agency’s latest outlook signals that oil demand could keep growing through to the middle of the century, reflecting a sharp tonal shift from the world’s energy watchdog and raising further questions about the future of fossil fuels.In its flagship World Energy Outlook, the Paris-based agency on Wednesday laid out a scenario in which demand for oil climbs to 113 million barrels per day by 2050,…