Christian Pfister, a 68-year-old retiree, walks his Great Pyrenees, Wally, each morning on the street in his quiet neighborhood—a compilation of old oak tree-lined streets for single-family homes, duplexes, and apartments in southeast Austin where he’s been living the last 26 years. It was about three weeks ago, on one of these morning strolls, that he spotted a white Tesla Y with a Texas manufacturer plate drive by, with a dark-colored Tesla closely trailing behind it.

He watched as the Tesla tandem conducted a left turn at a street up ahead of him, disappeared around the block for half a mile, then drove by him again—once, then twice, then again and again. 

“That’s all they did—around the same block over and over and over, all day long,” Pfister says in an interview.

Since Pfister’s spotting of the vehicles a few weeks ago, a handful of white Teslas (and some black and gray Teslas too) have frequented the streets of Pfister’s small neighborhood, driving the same routes and taking the same turns repeatedly—typically with drivers in the front seat, though two residents in the neighborhood that Fortune interviewed say they have seen some driverless vehicles with someone in the passenger seat. Another resident saw Teslas without anyone in them at all on multiple occasions.

Tesla is testing the vehicles in the neighborhood as it gears up for a long-anticipated launch of its self-driving taxi service in Austin by the end of this month. The EV company, which has been working on autonomous technology for more than a decade now, has said it is finally ready to go up against robotaxi competitors like Alphabet, whose subsidiary Waymo has already offered 10 million paid rides and is operating in four cities and planning to launch soon in several more. Elon Musk has assured investors that Tesla’s robotaxi service, which will initially start small with 10 to 20 vehicles, will expand to several other cities before the end of the year. But it all will start in Austin—and specifically in this small neighborhood—as Tesla proves its concept and irons out any kinks.

When the sightings of Tesla’s robotaxis began a few weeks ago, they raised alarm among some of the people who lived in the neighborhood. A couple of residents took to the community messaging platform Nextdoor to query their neighbors as to why white Teslas—with drivers—were parking in front of their houses for long stretches of time. “It’s freaking me out,” one woman posted.

Anastasia Maren, 24, who moved into the neighborhood last month, said she has seen Teslas drive by or park in front of her duplex repeatedly since she moved in, particularly when she is going on walks.

“They stare you down as if you’re in their way, or you’re the one who shouldn’t be here,” Maren says of the drivers. She says that while she has sometimes seen the vehicles driving around with only someone in the passenger seat—she often sees a person in the driver’s seat controlling the vehicles. “Sometimes I can see the person actually turning the wheel,” she says.

A 37-year-old Austin resident, Robert Yeats, who lives in an apartment complex further north in the neighborhood than Maren and Pfister, says he sees white Teslas line up in front of his apartment, parked and with their hazard lights on, often in groups of about four. In some cases, the Teslas were parked in the middle of the road with their hazard lights on, forcing other drivers to go around them. According to one resident, the tests have occurred as late as 10 p.m. None of the residents Fortune spoke to said they had received any notice or information from Tesla about the testing in their neighborhood.

Austin residents are used to seeing self-driving vehicles around town. Waymo’s cars started mapping the city in 2023 with safety drivers on board, and has since begun offering passenger service around the city without safety drivers in the vehicles. Pfister told Fortune he has seen Waymos parked overnight in front of empty lots in the same neighborhood. A few years ago, Cruise had released robotaxis on the streets of Austin, back before parent company General Motors stopped all rides, and later shut down the ride-hail service, after a high-profile accident in San Francisco.

But the Tesla sightings add to the questions that many industry observers have about the viability of the company’s technology and approach to autonomous driving. While other autonomous vehicle companies have needed to digitally map roads and neighborhoods before launch, Tesla claims that its camera-only system doesn’t require high-definition mapping, radar, or lidar technology. According to the company, its approach to autonomous driving is less expensive and more adaptable than the competition: instead of mapping an area for months, Tesla cars can figure out the terrain wherever they are.  But if that’s the case, why are Teslas driving around the same streets of one neighborhood over and over—and why do many of the vehicles have someone driving them?

“I thought, well, maybe they’re just in the driver’s seat, so that if something goes wrong, they can grab the steering wheel. But they are actually driving the car,” Pfister says, noting that he has seen the drivers with their hands on the steering wheel. “They are actually driving the car, so it’s not driverless. I don’t really understand.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Tesla has also conducted testing in at least two other locations in Texas. There was a scheduled testing with emergency vehicles in a separate isolated street in Austin, as Fortune earlier reported. Tesla also did testing at a training facility in Florence, Tex., with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crash reconstruction team. During that event, state agencies set up scenarios for Tesla’s robotaxis to operate, so that the company could collect information about how to respond to various encounters with emergency personnel and equipment, such as crash scenes or flashing lights and sirens, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

But it’s along a few blocks of the neighborhood in southeast Austin where Tesla has been conducting its regular, real-world testing in the weeks before launch. There’s a Tesla Supercharger station just across a busy street—the only station for about two miles—as well as a Tesla collision center less than two miles down the road. The neighborhood itself features quiet streets, though Teslas will have to cross a busy road to get to the charging station. There aren’t sidewalks on the residential streets, so residents walk their dogs or push strollers on the street itself—giving the cars an opportunity to operate with obstacles in a controlled environment. The three residents tell Fortune that the cars appear to operate at speeds no greater than 25 miles per hour.

Tesla is nearing the end of the June deadline that Musk set for launch—with just three weeks until the end of the month. A Bloomberg report had suggested the company was aiming for a June 12 launch. But as of Tuesday, June 10, several important pre-launch checklist items appeared to be outstanding. Tesla had provided drafts, but not finalized emergency responder guides, nor had it conducted emergency responder trainings to the Austin Transportation and Works Department of the Austin Fire Department as of Tuesday, the agencies told Fortune. As Fortune earlier reported, the EV maker told city employees those items would be furnished before the company launches service. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Snapchat, long-known as a featherweight in the league of Big Tech giants, is hoping to best opponents Meta, Google and Apple by releasing its new augmented reality AI-enabled smart glasses months, maybe even years, before the big guys. 

Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said the company would release a new version of its camera-equipped glasses next year that will incorporate an interactive, AI-enhanced digital screen within the lens. The 2026 release date would be ahead of Meta, which plans to release its AR “Orion” glasses in 2027, while Google has not attached a date to its Android XR glasses. 

“The tiny smartphone limited our imagination,” Spiegel said in his keynote at the Augmented World Expo conference in Long Beach, Calif. “It’s clear that today’s devices and user interfaces are woefully inadequate to realize the full potential of AI.” 

The new “Snapchat Specs” will be lightweight and AI-enhanced, Snap said. They will allow users to look at objects in the real world and leverage AI to access information, such as translating ingredients on a label from foreign languages. The glasses will also allow users to interact with the objects on the lens, Snap said, citing examples like playing video games with their eyeballs.

The company did not share photos of the Specs frames or provide information on pricing. As part of the Specs announcement, Snapchat shared that operating system partnerships with OpenAI and Google Gemini will extend into experiences for the glasses. 

If Snap follows through on the promise of 2026 launch, it would be the first Big Tech company to market with augmented reality glasses for mainstream consumers, claiming an early lead in the race to create the successor to the smartphone—a competition involving everyone from Meta, Google, and Apple, to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which recently announced a partnership with former Apple design boss Jony Ive.   

A pioneer in the glasses form factor, Snap made waves with the release of its “Spectacles” in 2016. The funky looking glasses were equipped with a camera that allowed users to post photos and short video clips directly to their Snapchat feed. But in recent years, Snap’s Spectacles have been eclipsed by Meta, which partnered with EssilorLuxottica to release Ray-Ban smart glasses. Though Meta hasn’t shared financials around its Ray-Ban glasses, EssilorLuxottica noted that the companies have sold over 2 billion glasses since their 2023 debut. Luxottica plans to increase products of the co-branded glasses to 10 million units by 2026, suggesting that the companies are pleased with the results and potential of the glasses. 

That said, Meta’s glasses do not have AR capabilities; rather, the glasses have audio-based AI features as well as photo and video capability. Meta has said it will release its Orion AR glasses in 2027, with technology that will allow users to scan their Threads feeds with eye tracking hardware.  

Other tech giants have glasses in their sights, too. At its IO developer’s conference in May, Google announced that it would join the smart glasses market by partnering with Warby Parker. And Apple, whose $3,500 VisionPro headset has failed to catch on with consumers, is reported to release smart glasses next year that mimic the current version of Meta’s Ray Bans, while working on more advanced AR glasses that are still years away, according to Bloomberg.

The Specs announcement follows a turbulent financial period for Snapchat. After years of worrisome financials, Snapchat seems to have stabilized and increased free cash flow in the most recent quarter. The glasses are partially a revenue diversification effort as the company is propagated by ads to its social network.

Still, Snapchat did not share what the glasses will cost consumers. Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, which do not have AR capabilities, cost between $239 and $303 so it’s reasonable to assume the Specs’ prices will be steeper due to the hardware requirements. 

The style and comfort of the glasses are also likely to be critical, with consumers having repeatedly demonstrated an aversion to bulky- or geeky-looking smart glasses and headsets. With its 2026 launch date, Snap has thrust itself back into the conversation, but success will rest on whether it can produce a product consumers actually want to wear.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© JOEL SAGET / AFP) (Photo by JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images

The trio is widely regarded as among the world’s most elite AI talent.  All three are veteran ex-Meta researchers who helped lead the company’s high-profile generative AI efforts—and before that, ran labs together at Georgia Tech. 

Devi Parikh led Meta’s multimodal AI research team. Dhruv Batra headed up embodied AI, building models that help robots navigate the physical world. And Abhishek Das was a research scientist at Meta’s Fundamental AI Research lab, or FAIR.

A year ago, Parikh and Das left Meta to launch Yutori, a startup named after the Japanese word for the mental spaciousness that comes from having room to think. Batra joined a couple of months later. 

Now, investors are betting big on the team’s vision for Yutori. Radical Ventures, Felicis, and a roster of top AI angels—including Elad Gil, Sarah Guo, Jeff Dean, and Fei-Fei Li—have backed Yutori’s $15 million seed round. The mission: to rethink how people interact with  AI agents—where the software, not the user, is the one doing the surfing to accomplish tasks like an AI ‘chief of staff.’

Taking daily digital chores off your plate

“The web is simultaneously one of humanity’s greatest inventions—and really, really clunky,” said Parikh. Yutori’s long-term dream, she explained, is to build AI personal assistants—in the form of web agents—that can take daily digital chores off your plate without you lifting a finger, leaving you with time to tackle whatever brings you joy. But to make agents people actually want to use, she said, the entire experience needs a redesign—from product and user interface to technical infrastructure. 

“That’s something that’s harder for larger entities to think through from scratch, since they are incentivized to think about their existing products,” said Parikh, adding that she saw a lot of that at Meta. “We have the luxury to be able to just think from scratch.” 

Parikh explained that Yutori’s focus is on improving  interaction with generative AI.  It should be dynamic and adapt to the task at hand, rather than using a rigid, pre-designed template like a chat box or a web page.

For example, if an AI agent is ordering food on DoorDash for you, it might need to show which restaurants it searched, what menu items it considered, and a few options you can quickly review and confirm. But if that same agent is monitoring the news and generating daily summaries, the format should be entirely different—perhaps organized like a briefing or timeline.

Ultimately, Parikh believes, a system should intelligently decide how to present information and how users can interact with the agent to refine or redirect the task. To get there, Yutori is building on top of existing models, including Meta’s Llama, with a singular focus on agents that can navigate the web and take actions on behalf of a user. 

Today, Yutori announced its first consumer product, Scouts, which the Yutori team explained is like having a team of agents that can monitor the web for anything you care about. Say you’re interested in buying a phone: You want to have a team of agents monitoring the web for whenever there is a discount on the Google Pixel 9. A Scout can notify you when that happens. Or if you are interested in a daily news update on an obscure topic, you can set up a Scout for that.

“Anything of this flavor where you want a team of agents to monitor the web and then notify you, either based on a condition or at a particular time, that’s  the use case we are going after,” said Das. His own very Scout, he explained, is one to reserve tennis courts in San Francisco. He asked his Scout to “Notify me whenever a tennis court in Buena Vista park becomes available for Mondays at 7:30am.” He gets timely notifications over email and he ends up booking the courts. Scouts is free to use, though there is a waitlist for access. 

Unlike traditional search tools – like Google Alerts, for example – Scouts work deeper behind the scenes, autonomously operating browsers and clicking through websites to gather details.  They can also monitor dozens of sites at the same time to find updates. While other companies like OpenAI may be going after the same kind of idea, Batra said that it’s “still early” in the AI agent space and that Yutori is not deterred: “I think we still have a shot.” 

A long-term consumer vision

While Yutori has launched its first product, both the founding team and its investors are clear: the initial $15 million investment is less about this specific release, and more about the team’s bona fides and its long-term consumer vision. For years, the three close friends—Parikh and Batra have also been married since 2010, while Batra advised Das’s PhD—had met weekly over brainstorming dinners and long discussed the possibility of starting a company focused on the future of AI agents. 

“In the early stages of a startup, the quality of the team is the single most important thing—more than the idea, more than the product, more than the market,” said Rob Toews, partner at Radical Ventures, which led Yutori’s seed round and has invested in AI startups including Cohere, Waabi, and Writer. He emphasized that only a “very, very small set of individuals” in the world have the technical depth and creative judgment to build cutting-edge AI systems.

“The Yutori founding team is very much in that upper echelon,” he said, referring to the three cofounders and their initial hires, totaling 15. “It’s just an incredibly dense talent team, top to bottom. Everyone they’ve hired so far is a highly coveted researcher or engineer from places like Meta, Google, and Tesla. Teams of this caliber just don’t come along very often.”

It’s a $15 million bet on what Batra called “an experiment” and “a hypothesis,” explaining that the goal of Scouts is to learn how people actually use autonomous agents in real life—and then iterate quickly. Take an agent that can monitor a gym’s scheduling page every 20 minutes: “No human wants to sit down and do that,” said Das.

For now, Yutori has no plans to charge for its products, but instead to keep experimenting to see what clicks with consumers. Ultimately, the founders say they aren’t selling AI for its own sake, but instead are focused on rethinking not just the tasks agents can take on, but the context in which they operate. Today’s digital assistants are mostly reactive—requiring users to reach for their phones, open an app, and manually explain what they need. Yutori’s vision is to remove that friction by building agents that understand what a user is doing in the moment and can proactively step in to help.

It’s a vision the founders have been working toward since their time at Meta, where they experimented with early versions of smart assistants in Meta’s smart glasses made in partnership with Ray-Ban. At Yutori, they’re continuing that work—testing different ways to deliver helpful support exactly when people need it.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Courtesy of Yutori

• Despite warnings from White House security and communications experts, Elon Musk’s DOGE team installed a Starlink satellite internet system at the White House, sparking a confrontation with the Secret Service. Lawmakers and security professionals are concerned that the setup could undermine national security and expose sensitive White House communications.

Elon Musk’s DOGE team reportedly installed a Starlink satellite internet system in the White House despite the objections of government security experts.

According to The Washington Post, White House communications experts reportedly raised concerns over the installation of the satellite internet system, citing national security concerns.

At the time, the installation also reportedly sparked a confrontation between DOGE employees and the Secret Service.

Staffers from Musk’s DOGE team set up the Starlink terminal on the roof of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in February without informing White House communications teams.

This setup allowed internet access through Starlink without standard tracking or authentication safeguards, three people told The Washington Post, potentially exposing the White House to data leaks or hacking.

Unlike other government Wi-Fi systems, the “Starlink Guest” Wi-Fi required only a password rather than the usual username or two-factor authentication. Such a connection could allow devices to bypass security, evade monitoring, and transmit untracked data, according to the report.

It is unclear if the Starlink terminal is still installed at the White House following Musk’s exit and public rift with Donald Trump, but the satellite internet system has also reportedly been used at other government agencies.

Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by Fortune.

However, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Washington Post: “We were aware of DOGE’s intentions to improve internet access on the campus and did not consider this matter a security incident or security breach.”

Security Concerns

Starlink’s satellite connections are generally considered more difficult to hack than traditional U.S. telecommunications networks, which have been compromised by foreign adversaries in the past.

However, this added layer of security does not address the core issue: the inability to monitor or control data leaving the White House.

Sources told The Post that any added security from satellite connections does not solve the issue of monitoring restricted data leaving the premises. 

The lack of logging and authentication means that malicious software could enter the building undetected, posing an even greater risk than data leaks.

The controversy has drawn the attention of lawmakers.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have raised the alarm about the Trump administration’s use of Starlink at the White House and across government agencies.

“Brave whistleblowers have shared concerning and vital information with the Committee, and we are pursuing multiple investigations,” said Stephen F. Lynch, the committee’s acting top Democrat. “It could have the potential to undermine our national security by exposing sensitive data and information to hackers, our adversaries, or those wishing to do Americans harm.”

Democratic senators have previously criticized the potential conflict of interest between Musk’s role at SpaceX and in the government.

Last month, in a letter to President Trump, 13 Democratic senators accused the tech mogul of potentially leveraging his government role to secure lucrative private contracts for Starlink, his satellite internet venture, in foreign markets.

The senators urged Trump to launch an investigation into the deals and to make the findings public.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who turns 53 today, recently celebrated two decades with the tech giant. Reflecting on his career, he offered advice to younger workers who want to become leaders someday. He encouraged them to work with others who outshine them.

Today—Tuesday, June 10—one of the world’s most significant leaders in tech turns 53. During Sundar Pichai’s two-decade career with Google, he’s worked on many of the company’s major products including Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, and Chromebook. In 2019, he became CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google. His current net worth is estimated at about $1.1 billion.

As one of the most powerful leaders in tech, Pichai recently reflected on how he got to where he is in his career. On a recent podcast by Podium VC, he said it took “a lot of luck along the way,” but added “it’s important to listen to your heart and see whether you actually enjoy doing it.”

While Pichai sits at the helm of one of the largest tech companies in the world, his path to the top wasn’t a completely smooth ride. His advice to young people who aspire to be in leadership positions like him someday is to surround themselves with people who outshine them.

“At various points in my life, I worked with people who I felt were better than me,” Pichai said. “Get yourself in a position where you’re working with people who you feel are stretching your abilities. [It’s] what helps you grow. [Put] yourself in uncomfortable situations. I think often you’ll surprise yourself.”

How Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google 

Pichai was born and raised in Chennai, India, to a father who was an electrical engineer and a mother who worked as a stenographer. They were considered to be a middle-class family; Pichai told Yahoo Finance he was fortunate to have grown up in a household where education was valued. 

He said he had minimal access to computers growing up—and even recalled being on a waitlist for five years to get a rotary phone. He said experiencing technology for the first time changed his life. 

“It was a vivid moment for me as to how access to technology can make a difference,” Pichai told Yahoo Finance, adding that his limited exposure to computers during childhood is something he’s carried with him throughout his career, serving as inspiration for the rollout of Chromebooks to students in the U.S.

Pichai moved to the U.S. in 1993 to earn his master’s degree in materials science from Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley. He briefly worked for a semiconductor materials company after graduating, but then went back to school to earn his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Pichai had a brief stint at McKinsey & Co. after earning his MBA and landing at Google in 2004. 

“I think it’s tough to find things you love doing, but I think listening to your heart a bit more than your mind [helps] in terms of figuring out what you want to do,” Pichai said during the podcast. 

Reflecting on 20 years at Google in April 2024, Pichai said a lot had changed about the company since he first joined, like the technology, the number of people who use Google products, and his hair. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai)

“What hasn’t changed—the thrill I get from working at this amazing company,” Pichai wrote in an Instagram post. “20 years in, I’m still feeling lucky.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Getty Images—Bloomberg

At least six Waymo self-driving cars have been damaged by the violence taking place in Los Angeles in recent days amid protests against federal immigration raids, according to a representative for the company. 

The autonomous vehicles, as well as some Lime electric scooters, have been vandalized, and in some cases set on fire and completely destroyed. Videos of people climbing the Waymo robotaxis and bashing in the windshields, as well as clips of Waymo cars engulfed in flames, were shared widely online, quickly becoming key imagery of the protests in downtown Los Angeles. 

The Los Angeles Police Department warned people on Sunday to steer clear of the area, due to the risk of toxin exposure from electric batteries catching on fire. All of the self-driving taxis deployed by Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, are electric. “Burning lithium-ion batteries release toxic gases, including hydrogen fluoride, posing risks to responders and those nearby,” the department warned in a social media post.

No Waymo riders or employees were harmed during the incidents, and passengers had exited vehicles before they were vandalized, according to a Waymo spokesman. The company stopped service downtown on Monday as the protests continued, though Waymo continued to operate in the broader Los Angeles region.

“Out of an abundance of caution given the recent activity, we removed vehicles from Downtown Los Angeles and will not be serving that specific area of LA at the moment,” a Waymo spokesman said in a statement, noting that the company is working with the police department and other authorities to assess the situation.

Tayfun Coskun—Getty Images

It’s not clear whether protesters decided to specifically target the Waymo cars or the Lime scooters, and it’s possible that the vehicles and scooters were in an unfortunate place as the protests escalated.

The Los Angeles Department referred all questions to Waymo and said it did not know if any incident reports had been filed at this time. Waymo declined to comment on the total estimated damage, and Lime declined to comment. Analysts have estimated that the Waymo Jaguar I-Pace SUVs, which are equipped with radar and lidar equipment, cost between $150,000 to $200,000 each.

In San Francisco, where anti-ICE protests have also been ongoing, there was another isolated instance of a Waymo being vandalized, according to the company.

Caught in the crosshairs

Self-driving vehicles have periodically become the targets of vandals, with instances of tire slashing or people throwing fireworks into the vehicles. A couple years ago, a man with a hatchet chased several self-driving Cruise taxis around the streets of San Francisco—sometimes when there were passengers inside. 

President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to intervene in Los Angeles on Saturday. Protesters clashed with police, dumpsters were vandalized, and the Los Angeles Police Department shared videos on social media of a store being looted. 

By Monday, the protests had calmed, though there was still a large group of protestors marching downtown.

Waymo, which operates in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin, and is planning to launch in Austin and Miami, is currently the only robotaxi company in the U.S. offering commercial operations in several different markets. Tesla is preparing to launch a robotaxi service in Austin this month, although the rollout will be very limited with just 10 to 20 vehicles at first. Waymo said it had surpassed 10 million paid rides near the end of May.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Benjamin Hanson—Getty Images

Gusto, an HR tech startup valued at more than $9 billion, is conducting an over $200 million tender offer via a new deal led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The tender offer, which begins Monday and runs through July 8, will allow employees in the company to cash out some of their shares while giving the Canadian fund its first stake in the company. 

“Given the momentum, we’ve had investors interested in owning Gusto stock for a long time,” Gusto cofounder and CEO Josh Reeves told Fortune via email. The offer will be open to both current and former employees with a minimum of two years of tenure. Gusto declined to disclose price per share and whether there is a maximum number of shares that employees can sell. 

The deal was done at Gusto’s last valuation, $9.3 billion, and is led by Teachers’ Venture Growth, which is part of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. (OTPP, the largest single-profession pension plan in Canada serving over 340,000 current and retired teachers, is also an investor in Canva, Databricks, and SpaceX.) OTPP is the anchor for the deal, and is joined by new and existing Gusto investors. It’s a full-circle moment of sorts—Reeves’ parents are both teachers. 

The tender offer, the third that Gusto has arranged for employees since its founding in 2012, comes as the market for initial public offerings remains limited. Several tech companies, including Circle and Omada Health, have had IPOs in recent weeks, but the overall number of public listings remains well below historical norms.

Reeves declined to comment on Gusto’s IPO plans, telling Fortune: “Gusto has been a long-term focused, multi-decade company from day one … When we have more details to share on an IPO, we’ll share it.”

The company’s last employee tender offer was in 2021, done in addition to the startup’s $175 million Series E funding round. Gusto—founded in 2011 by Reeves, Tomer London, and Edward Kim—has been free cash flow positive since early 2023.  

As Fortune reported in May 2024, Gusto generated north of $500 million in revenue in its 2023 fiscal year. The company also said that it’s been growing over the past year, driven by the expansion of existing products like health benefits and 401(k) management. In 2024, Gusto’s 401(k) business grew its ARR, or annual recurring revenue, about 50% year over year, while the unicorn’s Gusto Money spending account product grew ARR over 140% year over year. 

HR tech has recently made headlines for the sprawling legal brawl between HR unicorns Rippling and Deel, but Reeves says that the space itself remains active and bright. In 2025, Reeves added, the company is set to add 150,000 new small businesses to its platform, and is actively hiring, with a particular focus on R&D.

“There is tremendous opportunity in the broader HR tech space,” said Reeves. “More businesses are being created while at the same time more rules and regulations are being introduced. Gusto can help. I have conviction that there will be multiple $100 billion–plus new companies built in this space, including Gusto. And as a reminder, Intuit is a $200 billion–plus company today; ADP is a $100 billion–plus company today; and Paychex is a $50 billion–plus company today.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Courtesy of Gusto

JBL is reintroducing its immersive soundbar lineup with even more power, but thankfully, the convenient detachable side speakers aren't going anywhere. JBL refreshed the entire Bar lineup, with the Bar 1000 MK2 leading the charge. The soundbar still features a 10-inch wireless subwoofer along with removable speakers on each end that let you continue playing your music or movies even if you wander away from the TV.

For the 2025 refresh, JBL kept the Bar 1000 MK2 on a 7.1.4 channel setup, but pumped up the max power output to 960W for an even louder and more immersive listening experience. The detachable speakers still have a max battery life of up to 10 hours, where you can reattach them to the soundbar to recharge. Like its predecessor, the Bar 1000 MK2 features true Dolby Atmos, thanks to four upfiring drivers, along with DTS:X 3D surround sound and MultiBeam 3.0. You won't have to constantly adjust the volume when bouncing between dialogue scenes and loud action since the updated soundbar has PureVoice 2.0 that automatically optimizes the dialogue volume based on the scene's ambient sound.

The Bar 1000 MK2 can still use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to connect to a device, but is also compatible with AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. Besides the Bar 1000 MK2, JBL will debut the refreshed Bar 700 MK2 that comes with detachable speakers too, but can only virtualize Dolby Atmos. The updated Bar 500 MK2 and Bar 300 MK2 also don't offer true Dolby Atmos, nor JBL's Night Listening mode that automatically reduces loud noises. If you're in need of a soundbar with a subwoofer, it's worth noting that the new Bar 300 MK2 still doesn't have one.

The Bar 1000 MK2 is due to hit the shelves first at $1,199 later this month. The release of the $899 Bar 700 MK2, the $649 Bar 500 MK2 and the $449 Bar 300 MK2 will follow shortly after. The most expensive of JBL's Bar lineup, an 11.1.4-channel follow-up to the Bar 1300X, will release in the fall and start at $1,699. While it's much more expensive, it will come with detachable speakers that have standalone Bluetooth capabilities.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/jbl-refreshes-its-2025-soundbars-with-a-serious-power-up-120014177.html?src=rss

©

© JBL

On Wednesday, acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau told the House Appropriations Committee that the Federal Aviation Administration plans to replace its aging air traffic control systems, which still rely on floppy disks and Windows 95 computers, Tom's Hardware reports. The agency has issued a Request For Information to gather proposals from companies willing to tackle the massive infrastructure overhaul.

"The whole idea is to replace the system. No more floppy disks or paper strips," Rocheleau said during the committee hearing. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the project "the most important infrastructure project that we've had in this country for decades," describing it as a bipartisan priority.

Most air traffic control towers and facilities across the US currently operate with technology that seems frozen in the 20th century, although that isn't necessarily a bad thing—when it works. Some controllers currently use paper strips to track aircraft movements and transfer data between systems using floppy disks, while their computers run Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, which launched in 1995.

Read full article

Comments

© Getty Images

After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple will try to regain its footing Monday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

The presummer rite, which attracts thousands of developers to Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, is expected to be more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event during the previous two years.

In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri.

But heading into this year’s showcase, Apple faces nagging questions about whether the nearly 50-year-old company has lost some of the mystique and innovative drive that turned it into a tech trendsetter. Instead of making a big splash as it did with the Vision Pro headset, Apple this year is expected to focus on an overhaul of its software that may include a new, more tactile look for the iPhone’s native apps and a new nomenclature for identifying its operating system updates.

Even though it might look like Apple is becoming a technological laggard, Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson contends the company still has ample time to catch up in an AI race that’s “more of a marathon, than a sprint. It will force Apple to evolve its operating systems.”

If reports about its iOS naming scheme pan out, Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That would mean the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this autumn will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 — as it would be under the current sequential naming approach.

Whatever it’s named, the next iOS will likely be released as a free update in September, around the same time as the next iPhone models if Apple follows its usual road map.

Meanwhile, Apple’s references to AI may be less frequent than last year when the technology was the main attraction.

While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, Apple still hasn’t been able to soup up Siri in the ways that it touted at last year’s conference. The delays became so glaring that a chastened Apple retreated from promoting Siri in its AI marketing campaigns earlier this year.

“It’s just taking a bit longer than we thought,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts last month when asked about the company’s headaches with Siri. “But we are making progress, and we’re extremely excited to get the more personal Siri features out there.”

While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works. Samsung, Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone.

“While much of WWDC will be about what the next great thing is for the iPhone, the unspoken question is: What’s the next great thing after the iPhone?” said Dipanjan Chatterjee, another analyst for Forrester Research.

Besides facing innovation challenges, Apple also faces regulatory threats that could siphon away billions of dollars in revenue that help finance its research and development. A federal judge is currently weighing whether proposed countermeasures to Google’s illegal monopoly in search should include a ban on long-running deals worth $20 billion annually to Apple while another federal judge recently banned the company from collecting commission on in-app transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system.

On top of all that, Apple has been caught in the cross-hairs of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, a key manufacturing hub for the Cupertino, California, company. Cook successfully persuaded Trump to exempt the iPhone from tariffs during the president’s first administration, but he has had less success during Trump’s second term, which seems more determined to prod Apple to make its products in the U.S..

“The trade war and uncertainty linked to the tariff policy is of much more concern today for Apple’s business than the perception that Apple is lagging behind on AI innovation,” Husson said.

The multi-dimensional gauntlet facing Apple is spooking investors, causing the company’s stock price to plunge by nearly 20% so far this year — a decline that has erased $750 billion in shareholder wealth. After beginning the year as the most valuable company in the world, Apple now ranks third behind longtime rival Microsoft, another AI leader, and AI chipmaker Nvidia.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Mary Altaffer—AP

The price war engulfing China’s electric vehicle industry has sent share prices tumbling and prompted an unusual level of intervention from Beijing. The shakeout may just be getting started.

For all the Chinese government’s efforts to prevent price cuts by market leader BYD Co. from turning into a vicious spiral, analysts say a combination of weaker demand and extreme overcapacity will slice into profits at the strongest brands and force feebler competitors to fold. Even after the number of EV makers starting shrinking for the first time last year, the industry is still using less than half its production capacity.

Chinese authorities are trying to minimize the fallout, chiding the sector for “rat race competition” and summoning heads of major brands to Beijing last week. Yet previous attempts to intervene have had little success. For the short term at least, investors are betting few automakers will escape unscathed: BYD, arguably the biggest winner from industry consolidation, has lost $21.5 billion in market value since its shares peaked in late May.

“What you’re seeing in China is disturbing, because there’s a lack of demand and extreme price cutting,” said John Murphy, a senior automotive analyst at Bank of America Corp. Eventually there will be “massive consolidation” to soak up the excess capacity, Murphy said.

For automakers, relentless discounting erodes profit margins, undermines brand value and forces even well-capitalized companies into unsustainable financial positions. Low-priced and low-quality products can seriously damage the international reputation of “Made-in-China” cars, the People’s Daily, an outlet controlled by the Communist Party, said. And that knock would come just as models from BYD to Geely, Zeekr and Xpeng start to collect accolades on the world stage.

For consumers, price drops may seem beneficial but they mask deeper risks. Unpredictable pricing discourages long-term trust — already people are complaining on China’s social media, wondering why they should buy a car now when it may be cheaper next week — while there’s a chance automakers, as they cut costs to stay afloat, may reduce investment in quality, safety and after-sales service.

Auto CEOs were told last week they must “self-regulate” and shouldn’t sell cars below cost or offer unreasonable price cuts, according to people familiar with the matter. The issue of zero-mileage cars also came up — where vehicles with no distance on their odometers are sold by dealers into the second-hand market, seen widely as a way for automakers to artificially inflate sales and clear inventory.

Chinese automakers have been discounting a lot more aggressively than their foreign counterparts.

Murphy said US automakers should just get out. “Tesla probably needs to be there to compete with those companies and understand what’s going on, but there’s a lot of risk there for them.”

Others leave no room for doubt that BYD, China’s No. 1 selling car brand, is the culprit.

“It’s obvious to everyone that the biggest player is doing this,” Jochen Siebert, managing director at auto consultancy JSC Automotive, said. “They want a monopoly where everybody else gives up.” BYD’s aggressive tactics are raising concerns over the potential dumping of cars, dealership management issues and “squeezing out suppliers,” he said.

The pricing turmoil is also unfolding against a backdrop of significant overcapacity. The average production utilization rate in China’s automotive industry was mere 49.5% in 2024, data compiled by Shanghai-based Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute show.

An April report by AlixPartners meanwhile highlights the intense competition that’s starting to emerge among new energy vehicle makers, or companies that produce pure battery cars and plug-in hybrids. In 2024, the market saw its first ever consolidation among NEV-dedicated brands, with 16 exiting and 13 launching.

“The Chinese automotive market, despite its substantial scale, is growing at a slower speed. Automakers have to put top priority now on grabbing more market share,” Ron Zheng, a partner at global consultancy Roland Berger GmbH, said.

Jiyue Auto shows how quickly things can change. A little over a year after launching its first car, the automaker jointly backed by big names Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. and technology giant Baidu Inc., began to scale down production and seek fresh funds.

It’s a dilemma for all carmakers, but especially smaller ones. “If you don’t follow suit once a leading company makes a price move, you might lose the chance to stay at the table,” AlixPartners consultant Zhang Yichao said. He added that China’s low capacity utilization rate, which is “fundamentally fueling” the competition, is now even under more pressure from export uncertainties. 

While the push to find an outlet for excess production is thrusting more Chinese brands to export, international markets can only offer some relief.

“The US market is completely closed and Japan and Korea may close very soon if they see an invasion of Chinese carmakers,” Siebert said. “Russia, which was the biggest export market last year, is now becoming very difficult. I also don’t see Southeast Asia as an opportunity anymore.”

The pressure of cost cutting has also led analysts to express concern over supply chain finance risks.

A price cut demand by BYD to one of its suppliers late last year attracted scrutiny around how the car giant may be using supply chain financing to mask its ballooning debt. A report by accounting consultancy GMT Research put BYD’s true net debt at closer to 323 billion yuan ($45 billion), compared with the 27.7 billion yuan officially on its books as of the end of June 2024.

The pain is also bleeding into China’s dealdership network. Dealership groups in two provinces have gone out of business since April, both of them ones that were selling BYD cars.

Beijing’s meeting with automakers last week wasn’t the first attempt at a ceasefire. Two years ago, in mid 2023, 16 major automakers, including Tesla Inc., BYD and Geely signed a pact, witnessed by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, to avoid “abnormal pricing.” 

Within days though, CAAM deleted one of the four commitments, saying that a reference to pricing in the pledge was inappropriate and in breach of a principle enshrined in the nation’s antitrust laws.

The discounting continued unabated.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Bob Henry—UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Walmart just announced a major expansion of its drone delivery service to five new cities. These areas include Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Charlotte and Houston. This makes it the first retailer to offer drone-based deliveries across five states, as the service has already been operating in Arkansas.

This isn't a small beta test, like some of Amazon's pilot programs. Walmart says the service is launching at 100 stores. This is thanks to a partnership with Wing, which operates its drones within FAA guidelines.

“This is real drone delivery at scale,” said Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing. “People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year. Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more US cities.”

Walmart

These drones can deliver up to six miles from the retail location. Walmart says it's building out the service right now, but it could take up to a year to reach every store. Customers are encouraged to sign up for notifications as to when drone deliveries open up in their area. The company notes that it has made over 150,000 drone deliveries so far, with an average fulfillment time of 19 minutes. There is a weight limit, however, and Wing drones will only deliver certain items. 

Rival Amazon recently experienced a hiccup with its in-house drone delivery program. There were two crashes, which forced the company to put the project on hold for a bit. It's back now, and can now deliver new items like smartphones and video doorbells.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/walmart-expands-drone-deliveries-to-five-new-cities-including-atlanta-200030301.html?src=rss

©

© Walmart

Sony’s 1000X earbuds may get most of the attention in the company’s lineup, but there are gems to be found on the roster for less money. The LinkBuds series offers some serious contenders for $100 less than the flagship WF-1000XM5. There have also been some compelling products under $150 from Sony, and the recently released WF-C710N ($120) also fits the bill. A comfortable fit, a long list of features and above-average ANC performance lead the positives here, but there are a few caveats you’ll need to consider before you commit.

What’s good about the WF-C710N?

The WF-C710N is the successor to the WF-C700N that debuted in 2023. That set was a formidable mid-range contender in its own right, thanks to a compact design and handy features. Sony didn’t change the overall look too much for the C710N, but the touch panels for the controls are easier to find since they’re now concave circles. The company also introduced a transparent blue color option that allows you to see inside the earbuds and case. It’s giving Beats Solo Buds and Studio Buds + vibes, but I’m all for it. In my opinion, the more transparent gadgets, the better.

Compared to much of the competition, the C710N’s smaller size also means it is more comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The earbuds sit on the ridges of my ears nicely, and there isn’t any unbalanced, excess weight projecting out from the side of my head. It’s clear Sony fine-tuned the ergonomics for all-day use, and I had no trouble wearing them for the entirety of my battery tests. That’s not always the case with larger, bulkier earbuds.

The C710N might be a midrange set at $120, but the long list of features allows the earbuds to punch above their weight. Starting with the basics, there’s active noise cancellation (ANC), adjustable ambient sound mode, customizable EQ (presets and sliders), multipoint connectivity, reconfigurable touch controls and automatic pausing when the buds are removed from your ears. On the more advanced end of the spec sheet, you get Adaptive Sound Control: Sony’s trademark tool that automates changes to sound settings based on activity or location. There’s also a personalized EQ, 360 Reality Audio support, DSEE upscaling and a Quick Attention feature that lowers the volume and activates ambient sound for any brief chats. The only notable omission here is Speak-to-Chat that does the same thing as Quick Attention automatically when you start talking, but I’m not surprised it was left off a pair of $120 earbuds.

ANC performance is remarkably strong on the C710N, a feat that typically eludes the competition in this price range. In particular, I noticed these earbuds do an above average job of blocking human voices as I was able to greatly reduce the volume of nearby chatter in most instances. I’m not talking complete silence, but the amount of noise blocking is above average when you’re in the vicinity of someone you’d rather not listen to at full volume. Constant distractions like loud fans are also reduced but not entirely thwarted, so that too is better than what you’ll get from a lot of the similarly priced options.

What’s not so good about the WF-C710N?

Billy Steele for Engadget

Compared to other midrange earbuds, sound quality is slightly above average on the C710N, but it could be good enough to satisfy you at this price. The bass is tight and punchy, but oftentimes it overpowers the mix for hip-hop, rock and metal — basically any genre with a driving beat. And when you switch to something more mellow like bluegrass, the low-end tone still constrains the treble and mid range. Depending on the song, highs can cut through, but a boost in the middle of the EQ would do wonders for overall depth of sound here (you’ll want to keep DSEE active). Is it good enough for someone looking to pick up a set of earbuds on a budget? Yes. Does the audio performance compete with flagship options like the WF-1000XM5? Not even close.

In my tests, the C710N didn’t last as long as Sony promised. The company says you’ll get up to eight and a half hours on a charge with ANC active. But, using a mix of noise cancelling and ambient sound modes, I only managed between six and a half and seven hours. That’s a respectable amount, but if you’re looking to wear these for an entire work day, you might not make it. That’s especially true if you need them to also stick around for your commute.

Despite offering the option to “Capture Voice During a Phone Call” in the Sound Connect app, the C710N doesn’t pipe much of you back through the earbuds in that scenario. Even with ambient sound active, I still felt the need to speak up more than normal, so voice and video calls weren’t as natural as they could be. Overall, Sony’s assurance of “crystal-clear calls” falls flat as you’ll sound decent, but not pristine. The C710N will block most background noise from coming through, but in doing so the quality of your voice greatly suffers. All of that means these earbuds are usable for calls if you really need them, but if sounding comprehensible in calls is important , you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Final verdict on the WF-C710N

If comfort and handy features are your primary concern, the C710N will serve you well. Sound quality isn’t the best, but it isn’t bad either, so I have no doubt that many people will be pleased with it. If I had been able to hit (or even surpass) Sony’s stated battery life, these earbuds would be easy to recommend. Despite that, they’re still a solid option, especially at $120, since the company once again outpaces its midrange rivals with more convenient tools than you’ll find anywhere else. The C710N is definitely a better choice than the slightly cheaper Beats Solo Buds, which are now $99.95 at full price ($80 at launch).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/sony-wf-c710n-review-more-than-midrange-180018400.html?src=rss

©

© Billy Steele for Engadget

Chinese propaganda and social engineering operations have been using ChatGPT to create posts, comments and drive engagement at home and abroad. OpenAI said it has recently disrupted four Chinese covert influence operations that were using its tool to generate social media posts and replies on platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Reddit and X.

The comments generated revolved around several topics from US politics to a Taiwanese video game where players fight the Chinese Communist Party. ChatGPT was used to create social media posts that both supported and decried different hot button issues to stir up misleading political discourse.

Ben Nimmo, principal investigator at OpenAI told NPR, "what we're seeing from China is a growing range of covert operations using a growing range of tactics." While OpenAI claimed it also disrupted a handful of operations it believes originated in Russia, Iran and North Korea, Nimmo elaborated on the Chinese operations saying they "targeted many different countries and topics [...] some of them combined elements of influence operations, social engineering, surveillance."

This is far from the first time this has occurred. In 2023, researchers from cybersecurity firm Mandiant found that AI-generated content has been used in politically motivated online influence campaigns in numerous instances since 2019.

In 2024, OpenAI published a blog post outlining its efforts to disrupt five state-affiliated operations across China, Iran and North Korea that were using OpenAI models for malicious intent. These applications included debugging code, generating scripts and creating content for use in phishing campaigns.

That same year, OpenAI said it disrupted an Iranian operation that was using ChatGPT to create longform political articles about US elections that were then posted on fake news sites posing as both conservative and progressive outlets. The operation was also creating comments to post on X and Instagram through fake accounts, again espousing opposing points of view.

"We didn't generally see these operations getting more engagement because of their use of AI," Nimmo told NPR. "For these operations, better tools don't necessarily mean better outcomes."

This offers little comfort. As generative AI gets cheaper and smarter, it stands to reason that its ability to generate content en masse will make influence campaigns like these easier and more affordable to build, even if their efficacy remains unchanged.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/foreign-propagandists-continue-using-chatgpt-in-influence-campaigns-161509862.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

---

Latent Technology, a game technology company focused on AI-driven physical animation, has closed an $8 million seed funding round.Read More

Aravind Srinivas hinted at more deals following Motorola partnership.

Sonos is selling a bunch of its speakers at a discount on its own site and Amazon. This includes the well-regarded Era 300 smart speaker, which is down to just $359. That's 20 percent off and notable because this particular speaker rarely goes on sale. It's a Sonos miracle!

The deal applies to both the black and white colorways. The Era 300 is a highly capable device that we praised in our official review, saying that it "sounds excellent." We went on to say that it offers a premium experience that far surpasses other products in the company's lineup, like the Era 100. This is also true when compared to rival speakers like Apple's HomePod.

It's simple to set up and offers the company's proprietary Trueplay tuning system. This feature optimizes the sound of the speaker to the unique acoustics of a room by leveraging an internal microphone. It measures how sound reflects off surfaces and adjusts the EQ to match. It's pretty nifty.

As for connectivity, it can pair with another Era 300 speaker for a true stereo experience. It also includes a Bluetooth receiver and line-in options. Of course, the speaker integrates with just about every streaming music service. The built-in mic also allows for voice assistant control, but only with Siri and Alexa. Google Assistant is left out of the party.

This speaker goes all-in on spatial audio, and the results are mixed. Sometimes it's sublime and sometimes it's kind of eh. This is more of a dig on the technology itself. It has serious potential but is still experiencing growing pains. The only real downside of this speaker is the exorbitant asking price, which has been slightly alleviated by this sale.

As previously mentioned, other Sonos products are available at a discount. This includes the Sonos Beam Gen 2 soundbar, which is 26 percent off at $369. These deals are available via Sonos itself. There's also an ongoing sale on portable speakers that includes the Move 2 and the Roam 2. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-sonos-era-300-is-on-sale-for-20-percent-off-right-now-150857105.html?src=rss

©

© Nathan Ingraham for Engadget

Regardless of what kind of exercise you’re into, if you’re working out, you’ll want a pair of wireless workout headphones. They allow you to be free and untethered during a serious weight-lifting session, a 5K run, an hour at the skate park and everywhere in between where you’re moving and sweating a ton. There are dozens of great wireless headphones and wireless earbud options out there, but for exercise in particular, there are additional factors to consider before picking one up like water resistance, battery life and overall comfort.

At Engadget, we’ve tested a bunch of fitness-ready headphones and earbuds to come up with our top picks, plus some advice to consider before you pick up a pair. All of our top picks below will work in and out of the gym, so you can invest in just one pair and make those your daily driver. If you’re primarily a runner, check out our list of best headphones for running.

Best workout headphones for 2025

Others wireless workout headphones we tested

Apple AirPods Pro

The Apple AirPods Pro have an IP54 rating, which protects them from brief encounters with dust and splashes. While that’s more dust protection than many other earbuds we tested, it’s the same level of water resistance that most exercise-specific competitors have. We generally like the AirPods Pro, but the Beats Fit Pro offer many of the same features and conveniences (namely good transparency mode and the H1 chip), with a design that’s more appropriate for working out.

Beats Powerbeats Pro

The Powerbeats Pro are a good alternative to the Beats Fit Pro if you’re a stickler for a hook design. However, they cost $50 more than the Fit Pro (although they often hover around $180) and don’t offer any significant upgrades or additional features aside from their design. They’re also quite old at this point (launched in 2019) and it appears Beats is putting more effort into upgrading and updating its newer models rather than this model.

Anker Soundcore AeroFit Pro

The Soundcore AeroFit Pro is Anker’s version of the Shokz OpenFit, but I found it to be less secure and not as comfortable as the latter. The actual earbuds on the AeroFit Pro are noticeably bulkier than those on the OpenFit, which caused them to shift and move much more when I was wearing them during exercise. They never fell off my ears completely, but I spent more time adjusting them than I did enjoying them.

JBL Endurance Peak 3

The most noteworthy thing about the Endurance Peak 3 is that they have the same IP68-rating that the (now discontinued) Jabra Elite 8 Active do, but they only cost $100. But, while you get the same protection here, you’ll have to sacrifice in other areas. The Endurance Peak 3 didn’t blow me away when it came to sound quality or comfort (the hook is more rigid than those on my favorite buds of a similar style) and their charging case is massive compared to most competitors.

What to look for in workout headphones

Design

Before diving in, it’s worth mentioning that this guide focuses on wireless earbuds. While you could wear over-ear or on-ear headphones during a workout, most of the best headphones available now do not have the same level of durability. Water and dust resistance, particularly the former, is important for any audio gear you plan on sweating with or taking outdoors, and that’s more prevalent in the wireless earbuds world.

Most earbuds have one of three designs: in-ear, in-ear with hook or open-ear. The first two are the most popular. In-ears are arguably the most common, while those with hooks promise better security and fit since they have an appendage that curls around the top of your ear. Open-ear designs don’t stick into your ear canal, but rather sit just outside of it. This makes it easier to hear the world around you while also listening to audio, and could be more comfortable for those who don’t like the intrusiveness of in-ear buds.

Water resistance and dust protection

Even if a pair of headphones for working out aren’t marketed specifically as exercise headphones, a sturdy, water-resistant design will, by default, make them suitable for exercise. To avoid repetition, here’s a quick primer on durability, or ingression protection (IP) ratings. The first digit you’ll see after the “IP” refers to protection from dust and other potential intrusions, measured on a scale from 1 to 6. The second refers to water resistance or even waterproofing, in the best cases. The ratings for water resistance are ranked on a scale of 1 to 9; higher numbers mean more protection, while the letter “X” means the device is not rated for protection in that regard.

All of the earbuds we tested for this guide have at least an IPX4 rating, which means there’s no dust protection, but the buds can withstand splashes from any direction and are sweat resistant, but probably shouldn't be submerged. For a detailed breakdown of all the possible permutations, check out this guide published by a supplier called The Enclosure Company.

Active noise cancellation and transparency mode

Active noise cancellation (ANC) is becoming standard on wireless earbuds, at least those above a certain price point. If you’re looking for a pair of buds that can be your workout companion and serve you outside of the gym, too, noise cancelation is a good feature to have. It makes the buds more versatile, allowing you to block out the dull roar of your home or office so you can focus, or give you some solitude during a busy commute.

But an earbud’s ability to block out the world goes hand-in-hand with its ability to open things back up should you need it. Many ANC earbuds also support some sort of “transparency mode,” or various levels of noise reduction. This is important for running headphones because exercising outdoors, alongside busy streets, can be dangerous. You probably don’t want to be totally oblivious to what’s going on around you when you’re running outside; adjusting noise cancelation levels to increase your awareness will help with that. Stronger noise cancelation might be more appealing to those doing more indoor training if they want to block out the dull roar of a gym or the guy exaggeratingly lifting weights next to you.

Battery life

All of the Bluetooth earbuds we tested have a battery life of six to eight hours. In general, that’s what you can expect from this space, with a few outliers that can get up to 15 hours of life on a charge. Even the low end of the spectrum should be good enough for most athletes and gym junkies, but it’ll be handy to keep the buds’ charging case on you if you think you’ll get close to using up all their juice during a single session.

You’ll get an average of 20 to 28 extra hours of battery out of most charging cases and all of the earbuds we tested had holders that provided at least an extra 15 hours. This will dictate how often you actually have to charge the device — as in physically connect the case with earbuds inside to a charging cable, or set it on a wireless charger to power up.

How we test workout headphones

In testing wireless workout headphones, I wear them during every bit of exercise I do — be it a casual walk around the block, a brisk morning run or a challenging weight-lifting session. I’m looking for comfort arguably most of all, because you should never be fussing with your earbuds when you should be focusing on working out. In the same vein, I’m cognizant of if they get loose during fast movements or slippery when I’m sweating. I also use the earbuds when not exercising to take calls and listen to music throughout the day. Many people will want just one pair of earbuds that they can use while exercising and just doing everyday things, so I evaluate each pair on their ability to be comfortable and provide a good listening experience in multiple different activities.

While I am also evaluating sound quality, I’m admittedly not an audio expert. My colleague Billy Steele holds that title at Engadget, and you’ll find much more detailed information about audio quality for some of our top picks in his reviews and buying guides. With these headphones for working out, however, I will make note of related issues if they stood out (i.e. if a pair of earbuds had noticeably strong bass out of the box, weak highs, etc). Most of the wireless workout headphones we tested work with companion apps that have adjustable EQ settings, so you’ll be able to tweak sound profiles to your liking in most cases.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/best-wireless-workout-headphones-191517835.html?src=rss

©

© Engadget

The complex and consequential antitrust trial against Google and its search engine practices recently heard its closing arguments, and the tech giant is already planning to appeal. In a post made on X, Google confirmed it would file an appeal, explaining that the proposed solutions went too far and "would harm consumers."

“We will wait for the Court’s opinion,” Google wrote. “And we still strongly believe the Court’s original decision was wrong, and look forward to our eventual appeal.”

To challenge Google's dominance of the search engine market, the Department of Justice took on the tech giant by filing a lawsuit back in 2020. The monumental antitrust case has steadily evolved over the years, with the DOJ proposing remedies like Google opening up its search engine tech to licensing, prohibiting agreements with device makers like Apple and Samsung to ensure Google was the default search engine and forcing the sale of the Chrome browser and the open-source Chromium project. 

According to Google, the Department of Justice's proposed actions would open consumers up to "very real privacy issues," leave the government in charge of user data and help "well-funded competitors." Instead, Google offered to loosen its agreements to allow other search engines on devices and create an oversight committee to monitor the company's activities.

Since then, the federal judge presiding over the case, Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in August 2024 that Google had an illegal monopoly of the search engine market. The judge agreed with the DOJ that Google owning the Chrome browser gives it an unfair advantage since it could use its search engine advantage to drive more traffic and generate more revenue for the company. 

The end result of this antitrust trial could have serious implications for the future of AI, which is closely tied to the search engine market. According to Google, this ruling could allow other companies with AI chatbots to step in and dominate the search engine market instead. During the trial, Nick Turley, an OpenAI executive, testified that the company would be interested in buying Chrome if Google was forced to sell it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-plans-to-appeal-the-antitrust-ruling-against-its-search-engine-dominance-171748836.html?src=rss

©

© Google

According to a report from NPR, Meta plans to shift the task of assessing its products' potential harms away from human reviewers, instead leaning more heavily on AI to speed up the process. Internal documents seen by the publication note that Meta is aiming to have up to 90 percent of risk assessments fall on AI, NPR reports, and is considering using AI reviews even in areas such as youth risk and "integrity," which covers violent content, misinformation and more. Unnamed current and former Meta employees who spoke with NPR warned AI may overlook serious risks that a human team would have been able to identify.

Updates and new features for Meta's platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, have long been subjected to human reviews before they hit the public, but Meta has reportedly doubled down on the use of AI over the last two months. Now, according to NPR, product teams have to fill out a questionnaire about their product and submit this for review by the AI system, which generally provides an "instant decision" that includes the risk areas it's identified. They'll then have to address whatever requirements it laid out to resolve the issues before the product can be released.

A former Meta executive told NPR that reducing scrutiny "means you're creating higher risks. Negative externalities of product changes are less likely to be prevented before they start causing problems in the world." In a statement to NPR, Meta said it would still tap "human expertise" to evaluate "novel and complex issues," and leave the "low-risk decisions" to AI. Read the full report over at NPR.

It comes a few days after Meta released its latest quarterly integrity reports — the first since changing its policies on content moderation and fact-checking earlier this year. The amount of content taken down has unsurprisingly decreased in the wake of the changes, per the report. But there was a small rise in bullying and harassment, as well as violent and graphic content.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-reportedly-soon-use-ai-for-most-product-risk-assessments-instead-of-human-reviewers-205416849.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters