Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
📉 Major AWS outage took down many popular apps
📈 iPhone 17 outsells iPhone 16 by 14%
🛰️ Suspected space debris cracks Boeing 737 windshield
🤔 Apple staff concerned about new Siri
🛒 X to sell inactive usernames for over $2,500
🛠️ Adobe now builds custom AI models for brands
🎁 + 9 other news you might like
🔮 + 6 handpicked research papers and tools
📉 Major AWS outage took down many popular apps LINK
A major Amazon Web Services outage took down popular apps and websites across the internet, including Coinbase, Fortnite, Signal, and Zoom, making them unavailable for several hours.
The company blamed the hours-long issue on its DNS, a system that converts web addresses into IP addresses, though no specific reason for the initial failure was provided.
The problem at the web hosting giant was eventually "fully mitigated," allowing most services that rely on its data centers to slowly return to normal after the widespread disruption.
📈 iPhone 17 outsells iPhone 16 by 14% LINK
New sell-through data from Counterpoint Research shows the iPhone 17 lineup outsold the iPhone 16 models by 14 percent during the initial 10 days of sales in the US and China.
In China, sell-through of the standard iPhone 17 nearly doubled, with consumers responding to a new chip, improved display, increased base storage, and an upgraded front camera at an unchanged price.
Sales of the iPhone 17 Pro Max are ramping up faster in the United States, where the big three carriers are increasing maximum subsidies by roughly $100 to secure customer financing.
🛰️ Suspected space debris cracks Boeing 737 windshield LINK
A United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 made an emergency landing after its cockpit windshield suddenly fractured at 36,000 feet, prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Online images reveal the heavily cracked glass has scorch marks and localized contact damage, fueling speculation that a high-speed external object like space debris or a meteorite struck the plane.
Although the NTSB is examining the outer layer, more common causes like hail are being considered, as the aircraft's nose showed multiple marks consistent with that kind of impact.
🤔 Apple staff concerned about new Siri LINK
According to journalist Mark Gurman, Apple engineers testing the upcoming iOS 26.4 update are expressing concerns about the voice assistant’s performance ahead of its planned spring launch.
If the spring release of the new Siri falls flat, it is believed more senior AI staff will leave the company, following others from the foundation models team to Meta.
The company is reportedly undecided between two approaches for the revamp, one using its own on-device model and another relying on Google's Gemini on Private Cloud Compute.
🛒 X to sell inactive usernames for over $2,500 LINK
X is launching a marketplace for Premium subscribers to purchase inactive handles, with "Rare" usernames like @Pizza costing anywhere from $2,500 up to seven figures via direct, pre-priced sales.
Premium+ and Premium Business users can request "Priority" handles for free, but they will lose the new username if their subscription is canceled or downgraded after a 30-day grace period.
"Rare" handles are acquired through public drops or invitation-only purchases, and once a user buys one, they get to keep the valuable username permanently even if their Premium subscription ends.
🛠️ Adobe now builds custom AI models for brands LINK
Adobe launched Adobe AI Foundry, a service building custom generative AI models for enterprises that produce text, images, and video by fine-tuning Firefly with their intellectual property.
These new models are built off the Firefly family, which uses only licensed data for training, and are then personalized for each client using their specific branding and content.
Unlike Adobe's other products that charge by seat, the foundry service's pricing is based entirely on usage, linking cost directly to how much a company creates with the tool.
Other news you might like
- The White House is already one of the most blocked accounts on BlueskyLINK
- Europe's plan to ditch US tech giants is built on open source - and it's gaining steamLINK
- Apple Now Faces App Store Challenges in China, TooLINK
- Embattled Dutch chipmaker Nexperia blasts ousted CEO over false accusations — claims of unpaid salaries and independent operation in China are 'falsehoods', say companyLINK
- Starlink launches 10,000th internet satelliteLINK
- China is testing restroom machines that make you watch ads in exchange for toilet paperLINK
- X is testing a new way of opening links in posts to improve engagementLINK
- Musk challenges legendary AI researcher Karpathy to an AI coding showdown against Grok 5 — gets a polite 'no' to an IBM Deep Blue-like showdownLINK
- DeepSeek outpaces competitors in AI trading and Binance’s CZ wants to know howLINK
Latest research and tools
DeepSeek OCR: a model for optical character recognition that extracts text from various images and documents.LINK
Servo: a prototype web browser engine written in Rust, developed for operating systems including macOS, Linux, Windows, OpenHarmony, and Android.LINK
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour N64 ROM Reverse-Engineering Project: a complete decompilation of the Nintendo 64 game that makes its source code available for study, modification, and porting to new platforms.LINK
Gleam OTP: a library for building fault-tolerant programs using actors, which are processes that can supervise and restart other processes if they crash.LINK
Bat: a command-line tool that displays the content of files with helpful features like syntax highlighting and line numbers for easier reading.LINK
C64 Lode Runner Source Code: the commented source code for the classic Commodore 64 game, revealing its game logic and original copy protection system.LINK
Want to get the latest news differently? Find us on:
See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ Techpresso!
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}