Tech Trend Scanner — September 26, 2026

Findings

1. [1] 2026-09-26 Can Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince save the web from AI?

   Today, I’m talking with Matthew Prince, who is CEO of Cloudflare. This episode is part of a two-part series on the future of business. Matthew last joined us on the show about two and a half years ago, at what… What’s changing though, very quickly, is who is actually using the web, or what is using the web. Last November I was at Web Summit, the big European tech event, and I was asked, “When do you think that non-human… When I said business model, what I was really pushing at was the idea of incentives. So maybe there is some business model for information. You’re going to publish some new information and bots will come and find it and… In order for that to happen, you’ve got to have a player like us that’s in the market that can kickstart that. But once you kickstart it, we’ve seen from the side of the buyers, the big AI companies, that… If The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or whoever’s the latest ones to sell their music catalogs had held onto the music catalogs, then the musicians would’ve made that. They are making the determination. And when they sell the rights,… The winners in this new space might actually be the kind of things that people really want to come back to media: more local news, more unique things, more Reddits of the world, more of what the internet used to…

2. [2] 2026-09-26 I created an interactive digital avatar of myself — and you can talk to it

   After obtaining an interactive avatar and training it to discuss venture fraud, I have mixed feelings about making AI clones of ourselves.

3. [3] 2026-09-26 Control Resonant is a great game — it’s even better when you read everything

   In Control Resonant, the entire world is at stake. But that didn't stop the diligent employees of the Federal Bureau of Control from filing reams of paperwork, and it didn't stop me from reading everything I could find, either. Reading is often optional in Resonant, but it's where some of the game's best details – and even love stories! -…

4. [4] 2026-09-26 Pokémon card resellers have turned collecting into an online blood sport

   Earlier this month, Pokémon card content creator Natalie Roush posted a video to her YouTube and Instagram pages that enraged the larger collection community. In the now-deleted video, Roush shows off two premium boxes of cards that had not yet been officially released, and implores viewers not to be mad. But they were; other creators claimed that cards Roush had…

5. [5] 2026-09-26 Tesla’s big electric truck faces an even bigger infrastructure challenge

   Tesla CEO Elon Musk has insisted investors think of his electric automaker as a robotics and autonomous vehicle company now. He’s targeted a $20 trillion valuation—nearly four times the value of market leader Nvidia—on that premise. But his Tesla team was in Sparks, Nevada, on Thursday to focus on, well, an electric vehicle: the long-awaited Tesla Semi. The Semi concept…

6. [6] 2026-09-26 Can ‘eSUV’ e-bikes really go from trail to town?

   Have you ever wanted an electric bike that easily transitions from the drudgery of urban asphalt to adventures in gravel and dirt? That's what a subclass of so-called "electric SUV" (eSUV) e-bikes claims to do, with their wide, all-terrain tires and front and rear suspension, plus practical accessories like fenders and racks. So, that's what I set out to test…

7. [7] 2026-09-26 At Meta Connect, the company’s smart glasses were everywhere

   The company behind Facebook and Instagram wants to keep consumers connected to the digital world via its ever-growing line of smart glasses.

8. [8] 2026-09-25 Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers

   Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl said the company's new stationary power plants were no longer in Crusoe's near-term plans.

9. [9] 2026-09-25 Automattic has a new board after failed attempt to put CEO on leave

   After days of upheaval at Automattic, following a failed attempt to remove CEO Matt Mullenweg, the company has a new board.

10. [10] 2026-09-25 Can Trump ever be wrong? His pick to lead FDA refused to say.

    Heidi Overton, President Trump's nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, went before the Senate health committee Thursday, facing questions about her stances on vaccines, flavored vapes, birth control, and abortion, among other issues. She spent nearly two hours stonewalling senators, even on softball questions. Overton, a physician with a doctoral degree in clinical investigation, is currently the deputy…

11. [11] 2026-09-25 Unsecured OpenAI agents posted 53 user images on the internet without the lab’s knowledge

    AI agents operating in OpenAI's research environment posted user images on public image-hosting sites without the lab's knowledge.

12. [12] 2026-09-25 Court rules Pentagon can blacklist Anthropic for refusing to enable Claude features

    A US appeals court today approved the Department of Defense's blacklisting of Anthropic technology. Judges decided the Trump administration had authority to blacklist Anthropic for withholding certain AI features from the military even if Anthropic had no malicious intent. In a 2-1 ruling issued by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a panel of judges…

13. [13] 2026-09-25 Tesla workers balk at training Optimus humanoid robots as replacements

    Tesla’s pivot from making electric cars to humanoid robots is facing challenges because of complex robot hands and disgruntled employees pushing back against training their robotic replacements. The struggle to scale up production comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has bet the company’s future on AI and robotics. As someone who frequently makes claims that fail to materialize, Musk has…

14. [14] 2026-09-25 Meta opens early access program for new Muse features

    Anyone interested in joining has to ask Muse to put them on the list.

15. [15] 2026-09-25 The hottest new hangout for middle schoolers is NPR’s comment section?

    When NPR staffers flagged strange comments under their podcasts on Spotify as bots, it took a Gen Z colleague to (immediately) figure out the mystery.

16. [16] 2026-09-25 Your uncle’s frozen Mac says it’s infected after viewing a Google ad. Now what?

    Researchers say they recently found Google ads delivering a sophisticated tech support scam that freezes the screens of both Windows and Mac devices and displays messages urgently instructing them to phone a bogus call center. The ads were displayed all over the web, including on high-traffic maps, weather, real-estate, document-hosting, and sports sites. Users who called the number were then…

17. [17] 2026-09-25 Review: The iPhone 18 Pro is Apple's coolest smartphone (but only literally)

    As Apple's Tim Cook era draws to a close, we're seeing more experimentation with the iPhone's design than we've seen in a long time, but you wouldn't know it from the iPhone 18 Pro. This absurdly fast, full-featured handset might be eclipsed by the hype around the iPhone Duo this year, but it's still just as good as its immediate…

18. [18] 2026-09-25 Anthropic to pay Akamai $11.6 billion over seven years in cloud deal

    Anthropic has committed $11.6 billion over seven years to Akamai's cloud infrastructure, a bet on CPUs that could grow to about $20 billion, and in an unusual arrangement, Akamai is giving Anthropic a potential stake of up to 5% of its stock that grows as Anthropic spends more.

19. [19] 2026-09-25 AI was supposed to hit new grads hard. So far, unemployment data says otherwise.

    Last month, we shared word of a Stanford University study that found entry-level employment in so-called "AI-impacted" occupations lagging well behind that in other fields. Now, a new working paper from economics researchers at Munich's CESifo finds the opposite, arguing point blank that "there is no evidence of any significant, widespread displacement or reduction in hiring of recent college graduates…

20. [20] 2026-09-25 Paramount/WBD merger conditions give the public "virtually nothing," judge is told

    Free speech and media advocacy groups urged a judge to block a California settlement with Paramount Skydance that would let the company finalize its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Twelve states led by California sued to block the deal in July and were able to delay it when US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín ruled that Paramount combining with…

21. [21] 2026-09-25 Is solar's growth finally slowing in the US?

    Normally, we try to update you quarterly on what's going on with the US electric grid since it provides a nice view of developing trends and smooths out some month-to-month randomness. Unfortunately, I was out of the office when last month's data was released, so this will be a seven-month update on 2026 trends. The top line item is that…

22. [22] 2026-09-25 Roku’s first OLED TVs are up to $400 off, starting at $699

    Roku’s new OLED TVs are already marked down. | Image: The Verge Roku recently launched its first-ever OLED TVs. The $999 starting price was already impressive for the 55-inch Pro Series model that has a 120Hz refresh rate OLED panel (with four HDMI 2.1 ports and support for Dolby Vision and HDR 10 Plus). The price is even lower right…

23. [23] 2026-09-25 Phones don’t have lights

    Mark Zuckerberg has a new defense of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses: They're actually doing more to signal they're taking a photo than phones do. He's brought this up in at least two recent interviews, noting that the glasses have a light that comes on to signal when a photo is being taken, while phones do not. In one of the…

24. [24] 2026-09-25 The Aeropod automates soil aeration without robotics — see it at TechCrunch Disrupt

    Muju Earth Technologies has developed a deceptively simply pod that can save farmers money while improving crop yields.

25. [25] 2026-09-25 These camera apps give you more control over the iPhone 18 Pro’s aperture

    One of the questionable limitations of the iPhone 18 Pro's new main camera with a variable aperture is that you're limited to just four settings in the native iOS' camera app in manual mode: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4. Those same limitations are also in place when the app is adjusting the iris itself in Auto aperture mode, but it…

26. [26] 2026-09-25 Tesla’s Optimus robot is going through growing pains

    Hitting its goal of making 20,000 Optimus robots per week is reportedly proving tricky for Tesla. The Information reports that Tesla produced "several hundred robots a week" last month, after it repurposed its Model S and Model X production lines for Optimus earlier this year. However, this strategy is reportedly creating manufacturing snags, like issues lining up parts precisely, as…

27. [27] 2026-09-25 Meta makes the Muse filesystem even more accessible

    Yesterday, with a little prodding, it was discovered that Meta's Muse would expose its filesystem to curious users. The files offered a fascinating peek under the hood of an AI chatbot, and appeared to expose details we weren't meant to see, not least because Muse itself told people, including us, it wasn't supposed to reveal them. But today Muse will…

28. [28] 2026-09-25 Leaks reveal a new Apple HomePod mini, iPad mini, and Apple TV 4K

    Apple is expected to announce more hardware before the end of the year following the debut of the iPhone 18 Pro and folding iPhone Duo earlier this month. The updated products will include a new version of the HomePod mini, the iPad mini 8, and the Apple TV 4K, according to details and images discovered in Apple's own code by…

29. [29] 2026-09-25 Kiteworks urges customers to shut down their servers amid ‘imminent’ threat of cyberattack

    The tech giant, which allows companies to send large datasets over the internet, said it received a "credible threat" from law enforcement about an imminent attack.

30. [30] 2026-09-25 After seven years, a spacecraft company is releasing its Otters into the wild

    Imagine starting a space company in October 2019 with the aim of changing the world. Then, a few months later, a global pandemic shuts the world down. "Little did we know what the world had in store for us," said Trevor Bennett, an engineer who co-founded Starfish Space after a few years at Blue Origin. "But that's kind of become…

31. [31] 2026-09-25 Tesla finally moves to electrify trucking after a decade of work and delays

    Tesla's Semi truck, with a 500-mile range, is about to hit the road in big numbers, with the company saying it plans to make 50,000 units a year.

32. [32] 2026-09-25 US being left behind in EV charging speeds as China goes sub-5 min to 70%

    Hype merchants have a habit of overdoing it, but there’s no denying that China is making the US look more than a little antiquated when it comes to electric vehicles. Some of that is due to a deep integration of connected services and an extension of the car as part of the owner’s digital life—think additional infotainment screens and AI…

Sources

1. [1] Can Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince save the web from AI?
2. [2] I created an interactive digital avatar of myself — and you can talk to it
3. [3] Control Resonant is a great game — it’s even better when you read everything
4. [4] Pokémon card resellers have turned collecting into an online blood sport
5. [5] Tesla’s big electric truck faces an even bigger infrastructure challenge
6. [6] Can ‘eSUV’ e-bikes really go from trail to town?
7. [7] At Meta Connect, the company’s smart glasses were everywhere
8. [8] Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers
9. [9] Automattic has a new board after failed attempt to put CEO on leave
10. [10] Can Trump ever be wrong? His pick to lead FDA refused to say.
11. [11] Unsecured OpenAI agents posted 53 user images on the internet without the lab’s knowledge
12. [12] Court rules Pentagon can blacklist Anthropic for refusing to enable Claude features
13. [13] Tesla workers balk at training Optimus humanoid robots as replacements
14. [14] Meta opens early access program for new Muse features
15. [15] The hottest new hangout for middle schoolers is NPR’s comment section?
16. [16] Your uncle’s frozen Mac says it’s infected after viewing a Google ad. Now what?
17. [17] Review: The iPhone 18 Pro is Apple's coolest smartphone (but only literally)
18. [18] Anthropic to pay Akamai $11.6 billion over seven years in cloud deal
19. [19] AI was supposed to hit new grads hard. So far, unemployment data says otherwise.
20. [20] Paramount/WBD merger conditions give the public "virtually nothing," judge is told
21. [21] Is solar's growth finally slowing in the US?
22. [22] Roku’s first OLED TVs are up to $400 off, starting at $699
23. [23] Phones don’t have lights
24. [24] The Aeropod automates soil aeration without robotics — see it at TechCrunch Disrupt
25. [25] These camera apps give you more control over the iPhone 18 Pro’s aperture
26. [26] Tesla’s Optimus robot is going through growing pains
27. [27] Meta makes the Muse filesystem even more accessible
28. [28] Leaks reveal a new Apple HomePod mini, iPad mini, and Apple TV 4K
29. [29] Kiteworks urges customers to shut down their servers amid ‘imminent’ threat of cyberattack
30. [30] After seven years, a spacecraft company is releasing its Otters into the wild
31. [31] Tesla finally moves to electrify trucking after a decade of work and delays
32. [32] US being left behind in EV charging speeds as China goes sub-5 min to 70%