Crypto mining companies are actively negotiating contracts with Brazilian electricity providers, such as Renova Energia, that would benefit from the South American country’s surplus renewable power without burdening the grid during peak times.
Following crypto heavyweight Tether, which announced in July an investment in the South American country, there are at least six negotiations for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as one for a larger project of up to 400 megawatts (MW), people from six different companies told Reuters.
Mining machines that solve complex mathematical problems to back crypto transactions have overloaded grids in multiple countries. However, in Brazil, where crypto mining hardly exists today, they could help address a chronic clean electricity oversupply problem, which has cost energy companies almost $1 billion in the last two years, according to wind and solar industry groups ABEEolica and Absolar.
Tether, the world’s largest digital assets company, said it is leveraging its recent acquisition of Adecoagro to tap its renewable energy, such as the electricity coming from sugarcane mills, to power a bitcoin mining operation in Brazil.
Renewable energy supplier Renova told Reuters it is making one of the first major investments in the crypto sector, a $200 million mining project for an undisclosed client in the state of Bahia in the northeast of Brazil. The 100-MW venture consists of six data centers that will draw power from a wind farm.
“We aim to expand the company and enter new markets,” Renova CEO Sergio Brasil said. “We realized that by providing all the infrastructure (for crypto mining), we were one step ahead of our competitors.”
Crypto miners can rapidly scale operations up or down based on energy availability, providing a flexible consumer base for excess energy without straining the grid during peak demand periods.
Brazils energy oversupply stems from years of government incentives that spurred a boom in wind and solar investments. But the pace of development has outstripped the expansion of transmission infrastructure, and some plants now waste as much as 70% of the power they generate.
There’s tons of potential, John Blount, one of the founders of Enegix, a crypto miner based in Kazakhstan, told Reuters. We will try somehow to elaborate mobile data centers, he added, that would be plugged directly into power plants.
Enegix is looking into deals in Brazil’s northeast, the region suffering from the biggest energy surplus, including tapping into solar and wind power in the state of Piaui.
Penguin, which is based in Paraguay, one of the world’s biggest crypto hubs, said it is negotiating projects too, but declined to share any details.
And China’s Bitmain, one of the largest manufacturers of mining equipment, is also exploring opportunities, according to an executive who asked not to be named.
Miners seen as ‘diamonds’
Energy providers have also expressed an interest in crypto projects. Casa dos Ventos, which partners with France’s TotalEnergies on wind power, and U.S.-based investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners’ (GIP) Atlas Renewable Energy confirmed their intentions to Reuters.
French utility Engie’s subsidiary in Brazil and Auren Energia, the joint venture between Votorantim Energia and CPP Investments, Canada Pension Plan’s global investment arm, are also looking into projects to monetize their unused energy, three sources told Reuters. The companies declined to comment.
Providers look at consumers like this as if they were diamonds, said Raphael Gomes, a lawyer who has been working on several crypto projects.
Companies are assessing different models, including buying equipment to mine on their own. In Bahia, electricity provider Eletrobras, the biggest in the country, is installing ASIC mining machines, along with a microgrid fed by a wind turbine, solar panels and batteries, for a pilot project.
“We want to understand how this industry works,” said Juliano Dantas, Eletrobras’ vice president for innovation.
The work could help energy providers prepare to enter the data center industry, which the Brazilian government is trying to attract as a strategy to grow the clean energy economy.
There are concerns about the industry’s water use, as some of the regions with the biggest amount of unused energy also suffer from droughts. Brazil also has infrastructure problems and lacks regulations for cryptocurrency mining.
“We went after 400 MW it was like a Sisyphean journey, a bit difficult,” said Bruno Vaccotti, an executive at Penguin. “We’re still exploring Brazil, but it’s not that easy.”
Leticia Fucuchima, Reuters
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Samuel Chen.
China’s factory activity shrank for a sixth straight month in September, the longest slump since 2019, an official report said Tuesday.The official manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, improved to 49.8 from 49.4 in August. But it remained below the 50-cutoff level between contraction and expansion on a scale of 0 to 100.A private sector PMI survey by the credit research and rating startup RatingDog was more upbeat, with September’s overall PMI rising to 51.2 from 50.5 in August.The mixed manufacturing measures reflect persisting sluggish domestic demand and uncertainties over trade tensions with the United States.More detailed data measuring new orders and production saw month-on-month improvements.“The September PMI reads from China offered a picture that looked less like a coherent growth engine and more like a car with one cylinder firing while another misfires,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentaryCompanies are under pressure from price cutting amid rough competition, he said.“Factories are moving more goods, but they’re being forced to do it at thinner margins, like street vendors selling more bowls of noodles at half price just to keep the crowd coming,” Innes said.The latest data show China’s economy is gaining momentum, with output accelerating slightly, said National Bureau of Statistics chief statistician Huo Lihui.China’s official manufacturing PMIs first slipped back into contraction in April as trade friction with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration heated up after he took office.The two sides are still slowly working their way toward a broad trade agreement after exchanging threats of sky-high tariffs on each others’ exports.A pause in steep U.S. tariff hikes on China has been extended until November, while a Sept. 19 phone call between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping offered glimmers of hope for improving relations.A truce hinges largely on a widely anticipated U.S. proposal for transferring ownership of TikTok to a U.S. company from its Chinese owner ByteDance. That would also require Beijing’s approval.A face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi is set for the end of October in South Korea on the sidelines of an annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.China’s economy has remained in the doldrums, bogged down by a prolonged slump in the property sector, elevated unemployment and weak household spending.Some economists are hoping that a rate cut by China’s central bank by the end of the year could help encourage more spending and investment. This month, the People’s Bank of China left its key lending rates unchanged following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate cut for the first time this year.
Chan Ho-Him, AP Business Writer
Adventure travel used to mean strapping on a backpack and vigorously sweating your way up a steep mountain with a can of bear spray swinging from your belta niche pursuit for the hardcore.
But the page has turned: The once extreme is now mainstream.
Marriott Bonvoy, the rewards program from hotel giant Marriott International, is riding this momentum with the launch of Marriott Bonvoy Outdoors, a hub showcasing more than 450 outdoor-focused hotels and 50,000 homes and villas, along with curated tours and activities.
The launch, announced Tuesday, includes a real-world treasure hunt across 20 outdoor destinations in North America led by Dylan Efron, actor Zac Efrons brother and self-proclaimed outdoorsman.
‘Adventure-first’ travel is on the rise
Its no surprise Marriott is doubling down now. The adventure-first traveler base has climbed from 30% to 40%, and two-thirds of international travelers now fall under the Open to Adventure banner, as reported by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA). The market has soared to become a $1.16 trillion global movement.
And its not just about cliff faces and kayaks anymore. Seventy percent of travelers say they now prioritize cultural exchange and physical activity in their trips, ATTA says.
The pandemic swiftly propelled this shift. While business plummeted, Airbnb dropped 40% and Expedia 58%, nature-based travel was in full bloom, the Boston Globe reported at the time.
[Photo: Marriott]
Pitchup.com, which books lodges, cabins, and campsites, reported advance reservations for 2021 were six times higher than the year before, the Globe reported. Getaway, which rents tiny cabins in the woods, saw bookings spike 148%. Travelers voted with their wallets for fewer crowds and more campfires.
And as we all know, demand sparks supply. Destinations that once offered a handful of local activities now tempt travelers with dozens, if not hundreds, of ways to hike, paddle, surf, or stargaze.
And Marriott is hardly alone. Its fellow hotel giants are racing into the woods as well.
Last July, Hyatt Hotels teamed up with glamping brand Under Canvas, pulling its safari-style tents into the loyalty fold. And earlier last year, Hilton Hotels linked with AutoCamp, making Airstream suites and luxury tents bookable through its platform.
All of this comes as the broader travel business is facing potential headwinds from a rapidly shifting political climate.
The U.S. economy is projected to lose $12.5 billion in international traveler spending this year, according to the London-based World Travel & Tourism Council. In April, Oxford Economics had warned that intensifying “America first” policies from the Trump administration were breeding a negative sentiment toward the U.S. among potential international travelers.
Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the council, spoke bluntly in a statement. This is a wake-up call for the U.S. government,” she said. “The worlds biggest travel economy is heading in the wrong direction, not because of a lack of demand, but because of a failure to act. While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the closed sign.
Todays workforce often spans foursometimes fivegenerations. Gen Z, millennials, and baby boomers bring distinct experiences and expectations that enrich organizations yet complicate workplace design. The core challenge is building physical and cultural environments that serve these differentand sometimes conflictingneeds.
The stakes are high. Gallups 2024 State of the Global Workplace shows global engagement falling to 21%, the second decline in 12 years. Engagement drops fastest when generational needs go unmet. Nearly 60% of employers say their workforce spans four or five generations, and in a recent AARP study, 83% said creating a more multigenerational workforce would drive their success and growth.” Addressing this divide demands more than new policies. It requires intentional design, empathetic leadership, and norms that respect every age group.
Flexibility is a universal demandbut for different reasons
If one expectation transcends generational lines today, it’s the desire for flexibility. But the why behind that desire differs.
Boomers and Gen X often see flexibility as a tool for managing work-life balance or caregiving responsibilities. Millennials view it as a non-negotiable element of trust and autonomy, while Gen Z perceives it as a reflection of an employer’s adaptability and tech-savviness.
Offering hybrid or remote options alone isn’t enough for workplace designers and change managers. Organizations must clearly define flexibility across roles and levels and be prepared to support it through policies, digital infrastructure, and space planning.
PDR collaborated with one client to develop a “living lab” that tested various workplace design solutions to enhance collaboration, flexibility, and employee wellness. This pilot provided valuable data and feedback that informed the design of that firms future workplaces.
Design implication: Create dynamic office environments with zones that accommodate focused work, collaboration, and social interaction, allowing people to work where they’re most productive.
Technology adoption isn’t about ageit’s about mindset
Gen Z quickly embraces chat-based apps but abandons clunky software, while Gen X and boomers master enterprise systems, once trained. Blanket assumptions of digital fluency miss these key facts: 75% of knowledge workers already use generative AI at work, 46% adopted it in the past six months, and even boomers (73%) bring their own AI toolsalmost as many as Gen Z (85%). Relying on outdated platforms frustrates younger staff who expect real-time collaboration, yet rolling out new tools without support sidelines those who learn differently. True adoption comes from aligning technology with workflows and giving every generation trainingand a voicein the process.
Leadership implication: Invest in tech that meets a real need, then train, support, and listen to feedback from all generational perspectives to drive adoption and equity.
Career growth means different things
The way each generation defines career success has changed over time. For baby boomers, upward mobility and long-term job security were often measured as success. Gen X shifted the focus toward autonomy and work-life balance, shaped by layoffs, economic uncertainty, and institutional skepticism. Millennials redefined success around purpose, growth, and social impactvalues that Gen Z amplifies, viewing each career move as part of a broader personal brand strategy.
Traditional annual reviews and fixed career ladders no longer fit a multigenerational workforce. Provide clear growth paths, mentorship, and real-time feedback that align with diverse definitions of success. According to PWC, more than half of workers feel theres too much change at work happening at once, and 44% dont understand why things need to change at all.
HR implications: Offer multiple development tracksnot everyone aspires to management. Emphasize mentorship, skills development, and lateral mobility.
Values matterand not just for Gen Z
Much has been said about Gen Z’s insistence on social responsibility, sustainability, and inclusion. However, research increasingly shows that employees of all ages are asking their employers to take principled stands. What differs is how those values are communicated and operationalized.
Boomers may appreciate top-down statements of ethics. Millennials and Gen Z want visible, measurable action through diverse leadership, mental health support, or environmental policies. The credibility gap between rhetoric and reality is especially noticeable to younger staff, who grew up in an era of brand transparency and accountability.
Cultural implication: Values must be lived, not just listed. Leaders must model behaviors and allow employee-led initiatives.
Toward a multigenerational mindset
Gen X was raised to push through so many still see mental health support as optional, even though 76% of C-suite leaders say the pandemic harmed their well-being. Companies need to reframe self-care as a productivity strategy: When Gen Z employees request a mental health day, it signals resilience, not fragility. That matters because nearly half of Gen Z reports feeling stressed most of the time, and only 57% of workers worldwide rate their holistic health as good.
Workplace expectations also diverge by age. Younger employees value remote work yet still want mentorship, networking, and a sense of belonging. Many boomers and Gen Xers appreciate the structure of an office but reject a strict 9-to-5 schedule. Reflecting this tension, CBREs 2023 survey shows 65% of occupiers require some office attendance, while 30% leave it entirely up to employees.
The question is no longer Should we return to the office? but What purpose should the office serve now?
Space must earn its keep by fostering collaboration, connection, and creativity. When a Houston-based Fortune 500 energy company faced a renovation-versus-relocation decision, it engaged PDR to crate a modular, home-like headquarters. The adaptable design cut costs and heightened both teamwork and employee satisfaction.
Design strategy implications: Involve employees across generations in co-creating the space. The more they see their needs reflected in the outcome, the more likely they will embrace it.
PDR sees the future of work shaped by design, not policy. Through design, strategy, and change management, we help organizations transcend compliance to create spaces that spark conversation, preserve knowledge, and elevate diverse voices. Resilient workplaces mirror their peoples adaptability.
Lauri Goodman Lampson is principal emeritus at PDR.
The resurgence of high-profile IPOs in 2025 shows no sign of abatingespecially in the fintech space. This week, Wealthfront Corporation announced its intention to go public. Heres what you need to know:
What is Wealthfront?
Wealthfront Corporation was founded 17 years ago, in 2008. It is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and is led by CEO David Fortunato.
The company is one of a number of fintech firms that operate in the robo-advisor space. It offers a financial platform and dedicated smartphone app that allow users to invest in various assets, including stocks and bonds. The company also offers cash accounts and automated index investing.
Wealthfront specifically targets digital natives, which it defines as those born after 1980. These are consumers who use digital platforms for the vast majority of their everyday services ranging from entertainment and commerce to food delivery and ride sharing, the company stated in its Form S-1 registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The demographic includes millennials, Gen Z, and later, and Wealthfront describes them as typically having large liquid savings with long time horizons ahead,” and being “undeterred by corrections and bear markets.”
The companys registration statement also noted that these individuals lost trust in traditional financial institutions which they blamed for high unemployment and an economic downturn.
A study by Oxford Economics, commissioned by Wealthfront, found that the total wealth of digital natives is expected to grow from $12 trillion in 2022 to $140 trillion in 2045.
Wealthfront by the numbers
According to Wealthfronts SEC filing, the companys key metrics include (as of the companys Q2 2026):
Platform assets of $88 billion
Year-over-year (YOY) platform asset growth of 24%
Revenue of $339 million over the last 12 months (LTM)
LTM YOY revenue growth of 26%
LTM net income of $123 million
Around 1.3 million funded users
When is Wealthfronts IPO?
At this time, the exact date of Wealthfronts public offering is unknown. On September 29, the company issued a statement announcing its intention to go public, but it has not specified a date.
Whats interesting about its IPO filing is that Wealthfront actually filed for an IPO with the SEC in June, but the filing was confidential until now. As for when the company might actually debut on public markets, CNBC notes that most companies typically have their IPO within weeks of the S-1 filing being made public.
If Wealthfront adheres to the typical schedule, the companys shares could debut sometime in October.
What is Wealthfronts stock ticker?
Wealthfronts shares will trade under the stock ticker WLTH.
What market will Wealthfronts shares trade on?
Wealthfront shares will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
What is the IPO share price of WLTH?
In this weeks announcement, Wealthfront declined to specify an IPO share price or expected price range. The company stated that the “number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.
Its likely Wealthfront and its book-running managers, which include Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, are waiting to price WLTH shares until they can better gauge investor interest via its “roadshow”which is when a company markets it shares to potential investors.
How many WLTH shares are available in its IPO?
As with its share price, Wealthfront has also declined to say just how many shares of WLTH will be available in its IPO. The company said the number of shares on offer is yet to be determined.
How much will Wealthfront raise in its IPO?
Until Wealthfront announces the number of shares on offer and the price of those shares, it is impossible to say how much Wealthfront will raise in its IPO. Its also worth noting that Wealthfront has cautioned that, despite announcing its IPO, theres always the chance that the public offering may not come to pass.
The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or other terms of the offering, the company stated.
How much is Wealthfront worth?
Its currently unknown what Wealthfronts current valuation is. However, as noted by CNBC, in 2022, Swiss banking giant UBS announced its intent to purchase Wealthfront for $1.4 billion in cash. The bank later abandoned that deal.
High-profile fintechs IPOs are a thing in 2025
If Wealthfront does indeed go through with its proposed public offering, the company will be far from the only fintech firm to make its public debut this year.
Numerous other high-profile fintech companies have already gone public in 2025, including Klarna, Chime, Circle, eToro, and Bullish.
As Reuters notes, several years ago, fintech firms began falling out of favor with investors due to the challenges associated with rising interest rates, leading ot a dearth of related IPOs.
However, in 2025, the fintech industry has gained increasing favor with investors, resulting in numerous IPOs this year.
Journalists who cover the Pentagon and the Trump administration are in a standoff about new rules that limit the access of the media to most areas within the Pentagon and appear to condition overall entry to the building on an agreement to restrictions in reporting.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team characterizes the changes as an effort to protect national security and the safety of those who work at the Pentagon, while many in the press see it as an effort to exert control and avoid embarrassing stories.Journalists who want to hold on to badges that permit access to the Pentagon were told on Sept. 19 they must sign a letter acknowledging the new rules by this Tuesday or the badge “will be revoked.” The new policy says that Defense Department information “must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if unclassified.” Classified material faces even tighter restrictions.That level of control immediately alarmed journalists and their advocates.“Asking independent journalists to submit to these kinds of restrictions is at stark odds with the constitutional protections of a free press in a democracy, and a continued attempt to throttle the public’s right to understand what their government is doing,” said Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for The New York Times.
Dispute over what the new rules actually mean
In a subsequent letter to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Hegseth aide Sean Parnell suggested that journalists misunderstood some of the new rules. He said, for example, that the restriction against releasing unclassified information is the policy that Pentagon officials must follow not something the journalists must abide by.“It should come as no surprise that the mainstream media is once again misrepresenting the Pentagon’s press procedures,” Parnell said in a post on X. “Let’s be absolutely clear: Journalists are not required to clear their stories with us. That claim is a lie.”However, the new policy says that journalists who encourage Pentagon officials to break the rules in other words, ask sources for information could be subject to losing their building access.While it appeared that Parnell sought to soften some of the hard edges of his policy in response to questions raised by the reporters’ committee, there’s still enough confusion to merit a meeting to clear things up, said Grayson Clary, a lawyer for RCFP. There’s some wariness among news organizations about what they would be agreeing to if they sign the letter, and it’s not clear how many people if any have done so.The new rules continue a tense relationship between the press and the Hegseth team, which had already evicted some news outlets from their regular workspaces in favor of friendlier outlets and limited the ability of reporters to roam around the Pentagon. Hegseth and Parnell seldom hold press briefings.Parnell did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.
To one editor, it’s all about control
“It’s control, just 100% control,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine. Goldberg, who is not stationed at the Pentagon, wrote the most embarrassing story of Hegseth’s tenure so far when he was inadvertently included in a Signal group chat where Hegseth and other national officials discussed an imminent attack on Houthis in Yemen. The brouhaha became widely known as “Signalgate.”Pentagon leadership was also reportedly unhappy over a story that said Elon Musk was to get a briefing on military strategy for China, leading President Donald Trump to stop it, and other stories about initial assessments of damage in the military strike against Iran.No American reporter accredited to the Pentagon that he knows is interested in subverting national security or putting anyone in the military in harm’s way, Goldberg said.In his own case, Goldberg did not report on what he learned until after the attack was over. He said he contacted officials in the group chat to ask if there was anything he learned that was harmful to the country in any way. He did not include in his story the name of a CIA official mentioned in the messages who was technically still undercover, he said.“The only people in Signalgate who were putting American troops in harm’s way were the national leadership of the United States by discussing on a commercial messaging app the launch times of strikes on a hostile country,” he said.Access to officials in the Pentagon has been invaluable in helping reporters understand what is going on, said Dana Priest, a longtime national security reporter at The Washington Post who is now a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. With the exception of a few areas, reporters are not permitted under the new rules to walk through the Pentagon without an official escort.Priest said the corridors of the Pentagon were like areas around Congress where reporters buttonhole politicians. Priest recalled staking out military officials waiting for them to come out of a bathroom.“They know the goal of the media is to get around the official gobbledygook and get out the truth,” Priest said. “They may not help you. But some of them want to help Americans know what is going on.”Experienced national security reporters know there are many ways to get information, including through other channels of government and people in the private sector. “The Pentagon is always very well versed in the advantages of controlling the story, so they always try to do that,” she said. “The reporters know that. They’ve known that for decades.”
Is there any room for common ground between the Pentagon and reporters?
Reporters who don’t follow the new rules won’t necessarily be expelled immediately, Parnell told the reporter’s committee. But access will be determined by Hegseth’s team.While reporters already stationed in the Pentagon were given until Sept. 30 to sign, they were allowed to request an additional five days for legal review.Although the Times, Washington Post and Atlantic all put out statements against the Pentagon’s plan, none of the publications would say what they have recommended that their reporters do perhaps an indication that they consider negotiations potentially fruitful.President Donald Trump hasn’t hesitated to fight the media when he thinks he’s been wronged, launching lawsuits against CBS News, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal and the Times. Yet he’s also frequently accessible to the press, more so than many of his predecessors, and there has been some uncertainty in the White House about the Pentagon’s policy.When a reporter asked, “should the Pentagon be in charge of deciding what reporters can report on?” the president replied, “No, I don’t think so. Listen, nothing stops reporters. You know that.”Goldberg noted that it’s more than just an issue for reporters. “The American people have a right to know what the world’s most powerful military does in their name and with their money,” he said. “That seems fairly obvious to me.”
David Bader writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
David Bauder, AP Media Writer
Amazons new Echo Dot Max is a $99 ball. Its Echo Studio is a $199 ball. Its Echo Show is a tablet (starting at $179), attached to a ball.
For its grand refresh of its Alexa-powered line of speakers and tablets, Amazon spent three years rethinking the foundations of its audio engineering to conquer the home theater market in the most spherical manner possible. Legitimatelythey sound really good, says our senior editor Liz Stinson, after a listening test.
But from my own discussions with the design team, its clear that what Amazon has created are not just new voice assistants, or even mix-and-matachable speakers capable of creating a 3D soundscape for movies and music in your home. What these new Echo products are supposed to do is enable a more intuitive (and intimate, and surveillant) AI for home tomorrowone that doesnt just hear what you say, but senses what you do.
The Echo Studio (left) and Echo Dot Max (right). [Photo: Amazon]
The industrial design behind Amazon Echo
This is not the first time that Amazon has snuck Alexa into a little speaker ball. Its existing Echo Dot is already exactly that. But the Dot’s sound quality is middling at best. If you wanted something that sounded better from Amazon, you had to buy a larger Echo Studio: a big cylinder.
When Amazon talked to its own customers, people often said it was just too large for them to buy. And thats because our entire culture has been wooed by tiny Bluetooth speakers with good enough audio quality.
If I can get acceptable sound out of a small device, that’s what I expect now, says Phil Hilmes, Director, Audio Technology at Amazon Lab126.
Amazons goal was to make a more competitive wave of smaller Echos that still sounded superbeven if that meant they cost more. So they doubled down on space efficient spherical designs across the new Echo line. To a casual observer, nothing looks all that new. But once you actually remove the original Dots candy shell, its clear just how differently the new Echos are built compared to the old ones.
The old Dot was basically a single driver (a sound emitter), wrapped in a block of plastic housing that kept it positioned inside the ball.
The new Echo speakers get rid of this housing entirely. A single driver has been replaced with multiple that specialize in different frequency ranges. These drivers connect directly to the outer shell, which doubles as an exoskeleton. This design leaves lots of empty space inside the sphere for tweeters and subwoofers to float, blowing air out of the speaker to make sound.
At the end of the day, when we want to get more sound, it’s all about how much air can we push out of this thing? says Hilmes.
Echo Dot Max, interior view. [Photo: Amazon]
The Echo Dot Max has two driversone tweeter for the highs, and a larger woofer for mids and lows. They aim right at you for maximum clarity. Amazon telegraphs what right at you looks like by placing a new, flat control panel on the front of each speaker. Amazon says the Dot Max is one of the smallest two-way speakers ever created.
The larger Echo Studiopromising Dolby Atmos soundhas three drivers that handle highs and mids. It also features a 4-inch subwoofer for the bass.
Echo Studio [Photo: Amazon]
Subwoofers are large by nature; they push more air and have bigger diaphragms to make those low sounds. When Richard Little, senior manager of audio technology at Amazon, holds up the Studios subwoofera cone the size of a coffee mug complete with saucerI cannot imagine how it fits inside.
In fact, it barely fits. It fires straight down into the base, and the entire bottom of the Studio has been perforated to allow air out. Meanwhile, those three other drivers can only squeeze in by being integrated right into the subwoofers own structure. Its basically a wad of sound structures. Clever geometry and some small plastic caps are all that keep this pile of drivers sounding clear rather than buzzy and cacophonous.
Amazon is wrapping the Echos in a new, 3D-knit fabric that offers a more luxe texture but doesnt dampen sound. I actually think thats a missed opportunity. The black cannonball design is still jarring, even when wrapped in domestic-friendly textiles. So why not lean into the unique shape? The internal components are so interesting that Amazon could have created a clear speaker celebrating high-end audio with throwback vibes like Nothing has been capitalizing upon.
We want to work our way [there], says Pete Kyriacou, VP of product at Amazon, who admits Amazon has considered the more head-on audiophile approach. And we want to earn that credibility through people listening to our devices.
[Photo: Amazon]
Everything else the Echos can do
The new Dot Max and Studio configure themselves automatically to project sound inside any room, and the more you add, the more the speakers can position 3D audio in space. This is particularly exciting for the team as its planning that the Echo can be part of a come-as-you are home theater setup.
One in front of your TV acts something like a soundbar. Another stuck on a shelf to the side widens the soundscapewith each speaker compensating the right frequencies to sound balanced. Stick one behind your couch, and audio flies in from behind your head for full surround sound with three speakers. The system supports up to five, and the better 3D audio positioning is only available with the Studio, as the Dot Max doesnt have Dolby Atmos support.
Optimization is automatic and constant. In fact, one of the most important parts of the audio is an AI that analyzes frequencies every moment, and tunes the power draw up and down across each individual driver dynamically to milk the most possible sound at any given moment. (The team tells me that this AI system doubles bass output through software optimization alone.)
But of course, while Amazon is focusing on audio quality, its vision for Alexa+ goes much deeper. The speakers will glow with a blue ring when you activate them, and as the conversation goes on, it dulls to something more akin to a smile than a circlea nod to the Amazon logo that glows less brightly in your face.
We’re finding what’s the right way to keep that light ring on without being intrusive, says Kyriacou, noting that the smile gives this human aspect of what you’re talking to.
[Photo: Amazon]
Beyond music
Inside all of the new Echo devices live various sensors, including Wi-Fi for mapping devices in space, ultrasonic proximity detection that knows where you are, vibration-reading accelerometers that feel the tremors of your touch (or perhaps footfalls?), microphones for your voice, and cameras inside the two Echo Show tabletop tablets that can see who you are. For the first time, Amazon is assembling all of these sensors into an AI platform it calls Omnisense.
AI is incredibly powerful at discovering insights hiding in sensor data. And with Omnisense, Amazon will likely be able to detect subtleties in our habits that we cant even imagine. But in the immediate, Kyriacou says it will allow Amazon to start getting more proactive with Alexa. That means these devices will know who is in the room, learn their routines (are they cooking or winding down with a book), and offer the right response (turn up the music? dim the lights?) for these moments. The Echo Show will see you coming, and change its own UIperhaps from family photos to smart home notificationsas you move closer.
This sort of specific, contextually aware understanding has been a holy grail of the quite flawed promise of the smart home, and Amazon is redoubling its efforts to own the space through its latest wave of meticulously developed Echos. No doubt, Amazon’s storefront and services will move ever closer to our daily routines through speakers that are capable of harvesting new troves of largely invisible data.
And while its a crafty enough plan, I cant help but wonder if theres one significant flaw. To use the Echo Dot Max or Studio to watch movies, in particular, you need to be using a Fire TV. Amazon has a grand vision for taking over the smart home through your home theater, but its limiting its reach to the most ardent Amazon loyalists. Sure, Amazon has shipped more than 200 million Fire TV devices to date. But thats a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of TVs in use worldwide.
Google’s YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump brought after the video site suspended his account following the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol following the election that resulted in him leaving the White House for four years.The settlement of the more than four-year-old case earmarks $22 million for Trump to contribute to the Trust for the National Mall and a construction of a White House ballroom, according to court documents filed Monday. The remaining $2.5 million will be paid to other parties involved in the case, including the writer Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union.Alphabet, the parent of Google, is the third major technology company to settle a volley of lawsuits that Trump brought for what he alleged had unfairly muzzled him after his first term as president ended in January 2021. He filed similar cases Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Twitter before it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded as X.Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Trumps’ lawsuit over his 2021 suspension from Facebook and X agreed to settle the lawsuit that Trump brought against Twitter for $10 million. When the lawsuits against Meta. Twitter and YouTube were filed, legal experts predicted Trump had little chance of prevailing.After buying Twitter for $44.5 billion, Musk later became major contributor to Trump’s successful 2024 campaign that resulted in his re-election and then spent several months leading a cost-cutting effort that purged thousands of workers from the federal government payroll before the two had a bitter falling out. Both Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg were among the tech leaders who lined up behind Trump during his second inauguration in January in a show of solidarity that was widely interpreted as a sign of the industry’s intention to work more closely with the president than during his first administration.ABC News, meanwhile, agreed to pay $15 million in December toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. And in July, Paramount decided to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit regarding editing at CBS’ storied “60 Minutes” news program.The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability, the filing says. Google confirmed the settlement but declined to comment beyond it.Google declined to comment on the reasons for the settlement., but Trump’s YouTube account has been restored since 2023. The settlement is will barely dent Alphabet, which has a market value of nearly $3 trillion an increase of about $600 billion, or 25%, since Trump’s return to the White House.The disclosure of the settlement came a week before a scheduled Oct. 6 court hearing to discuss the case with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California.
Barbara Ortutay and Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writers
The new Adobe Premiere Mobile is now available for free in the Apple Store. It promises pro-level video editing for YouTube and TikTok prosor anyone who needs cutting multiple tracks of video at 4K resolution together with motion graphics, subtitles generation, overlay captions, AI-generated stickers, and a never-ending list of technical features.
That’s cool, but Adobe really had me on board when it showed off its AI sound generator, which can interpret your vocals to generate actual effects. Like you hum, “pa-pa! pa-pa! Paaaaa-para-pa-PA!” in your iPhone’s microphone, ask Premier to turn it into a fanfare, and it will remake your voice into a full orchestral 20th-Century-Foxy intro. It’s a fun feature that will save people countless hours going through never-ending lists of sound effects and music clips for their video edits.
But please disregard my childhood Freddie Mercury dreams for a minute. The new Premiere looks like an excellent upgrade to Adobe Premiere Rush, the company’s previous free mobile video app. Rush looked bad and behaved even worse. Its interface was too hard and imprecise for my fat fingers to navigate on a tiny screen, and its feature set was lacking at best. Users often complained about the app simply not working.
Adobe promises that this will not happen with the new Premiere Mobile, which is supposed to handle 4K HDR video with ease on any modern iPhone thanks to its new native iOS architecture.
“Premiere Mobile is built from the ground up to take advantage of the core technology the iPhone offers”, says Mike Folgner, director of product management, digital video and audio at Adobe. “Creators want frame-by-frame precision, responsive and fast performance, and the ability to work across multiple tracks with full creative control. We saw how excited creators were about infinite layers in Photoshop mobile, and we knew we needed to bring that same freedom to Premiere mobile where were offering creators unlimited tracks.”
Its unlimited multitrack timeline actually works like the desktop version, the company claims, editing with frame-accurate precision.
[Image: Adobe]
“We know that more and more content is being created entirely on mobile, from quick, short-form clips to more advanced edits,” Folgner tells me. “Its important to us that we meet creators where they are and empower all creators to tell their stories. “With Premiere Mobile, our goal is to provide the precision and control needed for complex edits, while keeping the experience intuitive for those just getting started.”
A new look
Aesthetically, the new apps interface seems to have taken a page from the successful Photoshop Mobile, with new, bolder control handles and style. Indeed, as Folgner points out, they have applied the same design principles and language to the new app. “Were making significant strides so that if a user is familiar with a toolset or interaction in one app, they can easily recognize and understand it in another,” he says.
It seems that Adobe has finally figured out that a tiny phone display requires an entirely different interface. The larger controls and AI-aided featuresfrom the way clips get cut and snap to each other to its one-click background removal featurewill help with that.
[Image: Adobe]
At least one beta tester is happy with the UX redesign. YouTuber and designer Mai Pham believes “it is just truly built differently.” When I asked her how, she say it’s built for mobile workflows, and that it is a “game changer.”
For Pham, “the large timeline view really makes it feel powerful, but still intuitive on a phone. Its not just a desktop tool squeezed into mobile, its designed differently, and I cant wait to see how it grows and evolves. Folgner says Adobe has worked with hundreds of creators throughout several stages of the process to shape the new app with their feedback. He claims that beta testers are excited about “how more efficient, unconstrained, and fluid” the new app is.
Music to my lips
The Generative Sound Effects tool is what stole my attention, however. It’s a good example of how AI can actually help the creative process. Premiere Mobile doesn’t make you search in a database to slap a stock audio clip onto your timeline: it creates perfectly timed sound elements based on text prompts and voice input. You describe the sound you want, hum the timing, and the AI builds custom audio that matches exactly what you want.
This matters because most creators spend ridiculous amounts of time hunting through stock audio libraries or recording their own Foley effects. Now they can conjure soundscapes with their mouths.
The app also includes a speech enhancing feature, another mus-have AI feature when it works. In theory, it transforms amateur audio recordings from your phones mic into crystal-clear voiceovers by removing echo and background noises.
[Image: Adobe]
AI galore
Adobe is leaning hard on AI for many other functions. The new app includes a way to generate animated captions following different styles, with automatic subtitle generation, motion effects, and cinematic transitions all powered by AI.
It also has automated color grading tools to unify your clips’ looks or change the mood of your video. These are handled with a single finger in what Adobe calls tap-to-adjust functionality.
Adobe also claims that its Firefly-based tools will let users generate commercially safe stickers, turn images to video clips directly within the mobile interface, and expand the background of a video clip.
Finally, one-tap exports automatically resize videos for every major social platform including TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram, keeping the main action in frame again using AI. This intelligent export system, Adobe claims, creates platform-optimized versions with proper aspect ratios and compression settings.
Adobe Premiere Mobile is available now forpaPA-paPAAAAAA!free.
OpenAI just released Instant Checkout for ChatGPTa new feature that lets users directly make purchases within the ChatGPT interface.
ChatGPT can now spend your money for you. Its a huge dealboth for users, brands, and the future of agentic AI.
Heres why.
Stickers at the ready
Consumers are already enthusiastically turning to chatbots like ChatGPT to research products before deciding what to buy.
As TechCrunch shared earlier this year, referrals from chatbots to top merchant websites are up almost 400% year over year. I personally used ChatGPT to research an $800+ laptop purchase this summer.
Before, users could do their research in ChatGPT, but they needed to go directly to a merchants website to actually check out.
Instant checkout seeks to close that loop by allowing you to buy products within ChatGPTs interfacesometimes with as little as a single click.
I tested out the new system within hours of its launch.
OpenAI initially rolled out Instant Checkout with a single merchant partner: Etsy. (Shopify retailers will apparently follow soon.)
To see how it works, I fired up my ChatGPT interface and asked the bot to find me a Bichon Frise sticker on Etsy (Bichons are the best kind of dogand the kind I happen to have).
After about 30 seconds of research, ChatGPT presented me with three different Bichon Frise sticker options. Helpfully, it suggested which sticker would be best for a water bottle, the back of my laptop, and other use cases.
Before, I wouldve had to go to Etsys website to actually buy my sticker. Now, though, when I clicked on the one I liked best, a prominent Buy button appeared.
Clicking it brought up a standard set of payment optionsGoogle Pay, Link payments, and the like.
Selecting an existing credit card from my Google Pay account, I confirmed my address and pressed Buy.
ChatGPT popped up a message saying it was communicating with Etsy. Seconds later, I got a purchase confirmation in my ChatGPT window. I had spent $4.81, and my Bichon Frise sticker was on the way!
Why it matters
Yes, the ability to purchase bespoke vinyl stickers using the worlds most powerful AI is neat. But in the bigger scheme of things, why does Instant Checkout matter?
Firstly, instant checkout is significant because its not intended to be a one-off tool. Along with its launch, OpenAI rolled out a new open source protocoltermed the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)that the company says will allow for direct communications between merchants and providers of chatbots like ChatGPT.
By implementing ACP, merchants can make it easy for chatbot users to purchase things directly from them.
The fact that OpenAI rolled out a fully formed protocol along with its new feature suggests theyre trying to build an ecosystem for chatbot shopping, not simply rake in a bit more revenue during the upcoming Black Friday season.
The company clearly hopes that other chatbot builders will adopt its protocol, creating an ecosystem that will bring in a wide range of merchants.
The release notes for Instant Checkout say that any merchant using the Stripe platform can enable the new protocol in a few clicks. Many retailers are doubtless scrambling to have their tech teams do that straight away.
If OpenAI succeeds with this ambition, theyll put their tool in a place to compete with the Amazons and Walmarts of the worldnot just Google and other search engines.
If chatbot shopping really takes off, it could become a whole new sales channel for merchants. The fact that it suppots small merchants and allows purchases in a single clickwithout an external merchant accountcould help to dramatically level the playing field for merchants and creators who struggle to compete with Amazon and other giants.
The new protocol is also significant because it gives a clear why to the emerging discipline of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
As Ive shared previously, brands are scrambling to get their products mentioned and recommended within chatbots. Before, though, many brands wondered if doing the work of GEO was really worth it.
Referrals from AI bots are increasing rapidly, but theyre still tiny. Why invest money and resources in getting your brand into chatbots now? Why not wait and see what the future brings?
With Instant Checkout, chatbots are now not just a research tool, but an actual source of revenue and sales. Its also far easier with a protocol like ACP to attribute purchases directly back to a chat.
That will make brands far more willing to throw money at generative engine optimization in an effort to get not only mentions, but actual sales from the bots. I already predicted a generative engine optimization craze before Instant Checkout rolled outthe new feature only deepens the appeal of GEO.
Useful agents?
Finally, instant checkout represents the newest direction for the concept of AI agentswhich has seen feverish excitement in Silicon Valley, but not much application in the real world.
Its cool to watch a computer research your flight to Atlanta or plan out a lunch for you. But most people probably wont actually use AI to do those things.
If an AI can actually close the loop and directly make purchases on your behalf, though, that might make AI agents worth using.
Imagine asking ChatGPT to plan your kids firetruck themed birthday party (the kind of thing many parents, myself included, already do).
If the system just gave you some ideas for cake toppers and placemats, that would be neat, but of limited value.
If it could list all of the items you needed to make an awesome party, get your permission to buy them from 10 different merchants at once, and then have them all sent to your door with a single click, that would be a much more useful tool.
People already use OpenAIs Deep Researchone of the only successful applications of agentic AI technologyto explore new topics or summarize news. With Instant Checkout OpenAI may have created another agentic AI tool that normal people will actually use.
OpenAI has already proven itself adept at spending gobs of money from venture capital backers and partners like Microsoft. With Instant Checkout, its ready to start spending yours, too.
