On October 10, 2025, employees in certain Microsoft teams in Shanghai received an email titled “Important Business Update,” signaling staff optimization adjustments, according to a report by Phoenix Net Technology. The layoffs primarily target the Azure cloud business team, differing from July’s maximum N+7 package: current offers stand at N+4 with no additional signing bonus, and HR discussions are ongoing. Some employees noted a prior relocation option to Australia, with refusal leading to termination.

A Band-Aid-sized patch attaches to your arm and runs quietly in the background while you go about your business. This is Hapt-Aid, a simple, self-powered device from Carnegie Mellon University and UCLA that reimagines what a health wearable can be. Hapt-Aids are simpler than modern wearables since they have no batteries, microcontrollers or digital displays. They use analog circuitry to harvest energy from your movements – whether it’s the swing of your arms while walking, the flex of your biceps during a workout or the sun on your skin during a morning jog.

Qualcomm has made a move to acquire Arduino, which they will leverage for edge computing, robotics, and AI applications. This acquisition comes on the heels of the release of the new Snapdragon X2 Elite and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The new Arduino UNO Q, Arduino’s first dual-brain board powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing™ platform, bridges high-performance computing with real-time control to enable “AI in a blink.”

When I was using an iPhone 15 Pro a few years ago, I went caseless for most of my time, but I decided to pick up a cheap silicone case from Amazon for my camping trips. That led me to Elago, which has made some of my favourite Apple accessories over the years and has also upped the quality of its cases this year.

Craft beer manufacturer Bira 91’s chief executive, Ankur Jain, said he is focused on completing a fundraise and “protecting the interests” of the company and its staff, in a LinkedIn message posted on Friday. He noted employees will be prioritised in any capital raising and that management is working to stabilise operations and restore growth. The statement comes amid a growing dispute between staff and senior management.

I had the opportunity to attend the Snapdragon Summit a few weeks ago, and I reported on the new Snapdragon X2 Elite chipset coming to PCs in 2026. The first X Elite chip impressed me last year, and Qualcomm has made significant improvements that, I think, secure a place at the PC players table as long as they keep improving.

CHIEFTEC has announced the addition of white options to the Visio series PC chassis as well as the Vega M series PSUs. The Visio series  feature a dual-chamber layout, making them compatible with cutting-edge back-connect motherboards like ASUS BTF and MSI Project Zero. This design also improves cable management, resulting in a streamlined and tidy appearance. The cases offer flexible cooling configurations, supporting 360mm radiators at both the top and bottom, 240mm radiators on the motherboard side, and CPU coolers up to 175mm in height.

On Thursday, Raenest, a Nigeria-based cross-border remittance company that offers multicurrency accounts for freelancers and businesses, unveiled four new products at its annual community event, Raenest Exchange. The new suite, which includes stock investing, stablecoin conversion, and faster payouts, marks the company’s entry into the US market. “With this new launch, we have completed the ‘money loop,’ Victor Alade, the company’s CEO, told TechCabal.

On October 11, 2025, Didi Autonomous Driving announced the completion of its Series D funding round, raising 2 billion RMB (approximately $280 million). Investors include the Zhongguancun Science City Technology Growth Fund, Beijing Information Industry Development Investment Fund, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, GAC Group, Guangzhou Guanghua Fund, and Didi itself. The funds will boost AI R&D investments and accelerate L4 autonomous driving deployments, supporting high-quality development in the transportation sector.

It was a chilly winter morning in Freiberg, as God’sfavour Ikwuka sat by the window of his studio apartment, staring at the skyline he still didn’t know the German word for. He had come to Freiberg, Germany, to study mining and remediation, hoping he’d land a role in the sector. Mining is an in-demand non-tech field in Germany. Although the country now produces only about 1% of the world’s coal, it has shifted tack toward minerals and resources that support its automotive-heavy economy, particularly those needed for electric vehicles (EVs), like lithium. 

Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky just introduced the Nomad family of drones, a series designed from the ground up for lengthy flights and remote locations. These vehicles rise straight up like helicopters, hover in the air to explore or deliver, and then tilt forward into smooth, rapid glides that lengthen their time aloft. Lockheed Martin engineers drew on a test flight last March in which a small test model with a 10-foot wingspan demonstrated its ability to stay airborne for hours without trouble.

The American Public Transportation Association’s 2025 TRANSform conference brought together more than 3,200 transit leaders in Boston to network, learn from their peers and attend panel discussions. Topics included financing, public-private partnerships, federal policy and the emerging use of artificial intelligence and automated transit. Newly appointed Federal Transit Administrator Marcus Molinaro spoke and took questions from the audience.  APTA President and CEO Paul Skoutelas said the public transportation industry is “experiencing unprecedented momentum” following five years of increasing ridership. 

Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses, which cost $800, are a leap into augmented reality with cutting edge tech packed into a stylish frame. The iFixit team found these glasses to be a marvel of engineering, especially the glass lenses, but repairability is lacking. Schott and Lumus created the geometric waveguide glass, which is the star inside. This is not your average lens.

Claire chatted to Ali K. Hoshiar from University of Essex about how microrobots move and work together. Ali Hoshiar is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Essex and Director of the Robotics for Under Millimetre Innovation (RUMI) Lab. He leads the EPSRC-funded ‘In-Target’ project and was awarded the university’s Best Interdisciplinary Research Award. His research focuses on microrobotics, soft robotics, and data-driven mechatronic systems for medical and agri-tech applications.

TL;DR: A 1min.AI lifetime subscription is now $79.99 with code SAVE20 at checkout for a limited time only (MSRP $540). Paying $20 here for ChatGPT and another $10 there for image generation? It adds up quickly, but 1min.AI brings together all the top AI models, including GPT, Midjourney, Claude, Gemini, and more, into one platform for a one-time payment. Usually $99.99, you can use code…

Two Australian startups moved closer to unicorn status this week, after revealing new funding rounds that gave their valuations a healthy boost. This week’s funding round-up is led by Heidi Health’s $98 million Series B round and Octopus Deploy’s $45.6 million investment, although the latter was secured in 2024. They are joined by four other Australian and New Zealand startups with fresh capital to deploy.

AI Sales Assistant Market USA, New Jersey: Verified Market Research reports that the global AI Sales Assistant Market size was valued at USD 1.64 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 8.42 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 23.17% during the forecast period 2024-2031. This steady growth is driven by increasing environmental regulations, rising awareness of pollution control, and expanding applications in industries such as manufacturing, energy, and healthcare.

Korea is pushing the boundaries of smart city innovation beyond its major hubs. In Cheonan, a new open innovation initiative is bringing startups and public institutions together to co-develop real-world solutions for urban infrastructure. This collaboration marks a key step in transforming Korea’s regional cities into living testbeds for smart technologies that can scale globally. Public–Startup Collaboration Accelerates Smart City Development…

Bunce describes itself as a data-driven engagement platform. But for its founders, the real journey wasn’t just about building software; it was about the near-impossible task of convincing businesses to hand over their most sensitive asset – customer data – in a business industry founder Paul Ayuk describes as a “hell hole” for businesses.  This is the story of how Bunce learned that in Africa, you have to build a fortress of trust brick by brick before you can sell a product.

In a world of silicon and circuits, Shadowman39 is building a new kind of computer: one made entirely of Knex, the colorful plastic construction toy some may remember from their childhood. His latest video reveals a mesmerizing step forward in his 8-bit mechanical computer project. Shadowman39’s computer is 8-bit, which means it processes data in chunks of 8 binary digits, or bits.

Estimand strategies are crucial in modern clinical research, offering a structured framework to define treatment effects by aligning study objectives with trial design and analysis. Introduced in the ICH E9(R1) addendum, estimands clarify how to handle complexities such as treatment discontinuation and rescue medication use, thereby enhancing trial transparency and relevance for stakeholders. Initially emphasized in Phase III trials, estimand strategies are gaining popularity in early phase trial protocols to improve decision-making and dose selection.

The firm has secured a contract with National Grid to inspect and monitor the UK’s electricity transmission network. A UK firm developing autonomous aerial solutions, sees.ai, has raised £3.65 million in a funding round. The group said the investment will accelerate its delivery of AI-ready insights that transform the management of critical national infrastructure. The company, supported by Boeing, XeleratedFifty, and the UK Government’s Future Flight Challenge, has previously become the first in the UK to secure Civil Aviation Authority approval for routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations in non-segregated airspace.

As Google owner Alphabet invests heavily in AI, YouTube is discouraging “mass-produced” content enabled by those very same technologies. Elevate your perspective with NextTech News, where innovation meets insight. Discover the latest breakthroughs, get exclusive updates, and connect with a global network of future-focused thinkers. Unlock tomorrow’s trends today: read more, subscribe to our newsletter, and become part of the NextTech community at NextTech-news.com

Microsoft’s latest move pulls one of its oldest visual hits straight from the screen and onto your feet. These Crocs, built around the Windows XP Bliss wallpaper, hit the company’s online store this week at $79.95 a pair. The bundle packs in more than just shoes—there’s a drawstring backpack patterned after that same famous hill and sky, plus a set of six charms that clip onto the clogs and summon up chunks of early computing life.

Oct 10, 2025Ravie LakshmananSaaS Security / Threat Intelligence A threat actor known as Storm-2657 has been observed hijacking employee accounts with the end goal of diverting salary payments to attacker-controlled accounts. "Storm-2657 is actively targeting a range of U.S.-based organizations, particularly employees in sectors like higher education, to gain access to third-party human resources (HR) software as a service (SaaS) platforms like Workday," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a report.