China reportedly bans tech companies from buying NVIDIA’s AI chips

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has reportedly banned the country’s local tech companies from purchasing NVIDIA’s newest AI chip made for the region. According to the Financial Times, the internet regulator told Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to cancel their orders for and to stop testing NVIDIA’s RTX Pro 6000D. After receiving the directive from CAC, the companies reportedly told their suppliers to stop all activities related to the GPU. As Reuters notes, the ban is stronger than the “guidance” the regulator issued against the company’s older H20 chips for the country. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is disappointed by the ban, the BBC reports. “There are a lot of places we can’t go to, and that’s fine,” he told reporters. He also said he would “support the US” as it resolves its geopolitical issues with China. 

Chinese companies had previously indicated that they would be ordering and testing tens of thousands of the AI chip based on NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture. Reuters recently reported, however, that it has received lukewarm demand and that some tech firms decided not to put in orders for the product altogether. Some of the companies are apparently holding out for NVIDIA’s B30A, which is a more powerful model, to be approved for export by US authorities. The Times says Chinese regulators also recently concluded that local-made AI chips are now comparable to or have even exceeded the counterparts NVIDIA is selling in their country. They reportedly gathered domestic chipmakers, including Huawei and Baidu, to ask for a report on how their products compared against NVIDIA’s. 

If you’ll recall, the US put an export restriction on NVIDIA’s H20 AI chips in April, out of concerns that China could use it to develop AI tech for its military. In July, the US government allowed the company to export the chips again, reportedly after closing a deal that would give it 15 percent of the sales. Huang also introduced the RTX Pro 6000D in Beijing during his visit at the time. It wasn’t the comeback NVIDIA was hoping for, however. Chinese regulators issued a guidance, dissuading local companies from purchasing the H20 chips, allegedly because they were insulted by statements made by US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. By the end of August, The Information reported that the company asked its suppliers to halt production related to the H20. 

This ban comes days after another Chinese regulator accused NVIDIA of violating China’s antitrust laws over its acquisition of chipmaker Mellanox. The State Administration for Market Regulation said the company breached both national regulations and the conditions China set when it originally approved the acquisition. Those terms stated that NVIDIA must continue supplying GPUs and other products to the country and adhering to “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory principles”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/china-reportedly-bans-tech-companies-from-buying-nvidias-ai-chips-120143740.html?src=rss 

The iPhone 17 makes the iPhone 16e even more pointless

We were pretty underwhelmed by the iPhone 16e when it debuted earlier this year, mostly due to its $599 price tag, which makes it a poor replacement for the budget-oriented iPhone SE. And now that the iPhone 17 has debuted, the 16e makes even less sense. For $200 more, you get a larger and better screen with ProMotion, support for MagSafe wireless charging, a zippier processor, two cameras instead of one — and double the storage. Sure, that price difference hurts a bit, but I think the iPhone 17 is still a better deal since it’s not nearly as limiting as the iPhone 16e, which should have been priced closer to $500 to take on something like the Pixel 9a.

Last fall, I argued that the vanilla iPhone 16 was a smart buy given its revamped CPU and support for Apple Intelligence, and I think that remains true for the iPhone 17 with its many new features and identical price point. While I’m sure Apple would love for more customers to jump to the $999 iPhone Air or $1,099 iPhone 17 Pro, it’s still hard for a lot of people to stomach spending four figures on a smartphone. The ultra-thin Air will likely be a hit with influencers and the style-obsessed, and power users will have a ball with the iPhone 17 Pro’s more capable camera array. For everyone else, the iPhone 17 remains a solid device that will serve you well for many years.

The addition of ProMotion support alone removes one of the feature gaps between the plain iPhone and the Pro models. It allows for a variable screen refresh rate of up to 120Hz, compared to the 60Hz limit of previous years. In practice, that means that scrolling through websites and your social media feeds will look smoother and less headache-inducing. You’ll notice the difference immediately — 60Hz screens look unbearably choppy and slow once your eyes have gotten used to something faster. 

And before Android fans jump in to brag — yes, we know that mid-range Android phones have offered high refresh rate screens for years. Apple is undoubtedly slow to react here, but the upgrade is still worth celebrating. The iPhone 17’s screen isn’t just smoother than before, it genuinely looks better, according to Engadget Senior Reporter Billy Steele. “The difference between this new model and my iPhone 16 Plus was immediately apparent,” he wrote in his hands-on. “Colors are more vivid, details are sharper and it’s just more pleasant to look at.”

iPhone 17

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

When it comes to cameras, the iPhone 17 improves its ultrawide shooter to 48 megapixels, joining the 48MP main sensor. But the big camera upgrade is actually on the front of the phone, thanks to the new Center Stage camera. It’s been bumped to 18MP from 12MP, but more importantly, Apple also introduced a square sensor that lets you jump from landscape to portrait orientations without rotating your phone. I’ve already gone deep on why the square selfie sensor (which is available on all iPhone 17 models) is a big deal, but here’s one key takeaway: “By making it easier to take selfies, it follows that you’ll start to take even more of them, ultimately tying yourself into Apple’s ecosystem even further.”

And speaking of features available on all of the new iPhones, the vanilla iPhone 17 also supports Dual Capture, which lets you record video using the front and rear cameras at the same time. Center Stage keeps your face in the middle of the frame during those shots as well, which might make Apple’s implementation of Dual Capture more effective than what we’ve seen from Samsung and other phone makers. I could have seen Apple gatekeeping this feature for the more powerful iPhone Air and 17 Pro models, but it’s nice to see it on the vanilla entry. Similar to selfies, it only benefits Apple if you’re using your devices more to produce content, and I could see Dual Capture footage becoming a big deal on Instagram and TikTok.

While Apple is keeping the iPhone 16 around at $699, it genuinely makes more sense to jump straight to the $799 iPhone 17 for all of the reasons mentioned above. (But if you find a good deal on a refurbished iPhone 16, that’s another story. It’s still a very capable phone, and it’s compatible with Apple Intelligence features as well.) Aside from lowering the price – something I don’t see Apple ever doing – there’s not much else the iPhone 17 is missing. And for anyone who needs something more fashionable or powerful, the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro are right there.

The only missing hole in the iPhone lineup is a budget option that’s cheaper than the $599 iPhone 16e – hopefully, that’ll be something a future iPhone 17e might be able to solve.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-iphone-17-makes-the-iphone-16e-even-more-pointless-123000387.html?src=rss 

Fiverr is laying off 250 employees to become an ‘AI-first company’

Gig economy platform Fiverr is laying off 250 employees as it pivots to being an “AI-first company,” CEO Micha Kaufman shared in an essay on X. The move affects around 30 percent of the company’s staff, The Register writes, and it’s not uncommon among tech companies in 2025. Duolingo announced similar plans to become “AI-first” in April.

Kaufman describes this process as returning to “startup mode” and writes that his ultimate goal is to turn Fiverr into “an AI-first company that’s leaner, faster, with a modern AI-focused tech infrastructure, a smaller team, each with substantially greater productivity, and far fewer management layers.” Part of the justification Kaufman offers for why Fiverr doesn’t “need as many people to operate the existing business” is that the company has already integrated AI into its customer support and fraud detection programs.

The first sign that Fiverr might justify layoffs with AI came when Kaufman was interviewed by CBS News in May 2025 about the danger the technology posed to employees. Kaufman specifically advised employees to “automate 100 percent” of what they do with AI, while also claiming that wouldn’t make them replaceable because they were still capable of “non-linear thinking” and “judgement calls.” That advice doesn’t seem like it was ultimately helpful for Fiverr’s own employees.

The company’s cuts affect fewer people than a larger firm like Workday, who announced plans to eliminate 1,750 roles in February 2025. Regardless of the size of the company or its level of investment in AI, though, layoffs have the same effect: More work has to be done by fewer people.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/fiverr-is-laying-off-250-employees-to-become-an-ai-first-company-215730063.html?src=rss 

What to expect from Amazon’s event on September 30

Amazon will host a press event at the end of the month with some new hardware developments. It’s scheduled for September 30 at 10AM ET in New York City. Here’s what we think will be discussed at the fall event.

In February, Amazon introduced some improvements to its voice assistant, promising that Alexa+ would be more conversational and more helpful thanks to generative AI. It seems likely that the fall event will put hardware for interacting with Alexa+ front and center, so expect to hear about new models or new software updates for the Echo line of smart speakers. It’s been a couple years since the Echo Show got an update, and it’s been even longer for the standard Echo. Those two products are the most likely to star in the upcoming announcements.

Amazon

The invite also includes a photo of a Kindle that depicts a color illustration, so there may be more in store for the ereaders. The Kindle Scribe 2 just came out earlier this year, as did the Kindle Colorsoft, so maybe there’s a new option in the works that combines the best features of both. As with the Echo, there also hasn’t been much new for the basic model Kindle, so that may also be getting some updates.

There’s also what appears to be the corner of a television in the invitation, so news about the Fire TV also seems promising. This event is also where Amazon-owned Ring and Eero brands may unveil new products. Any announced items may not be available right away, but the timing does set the stage for some substantial discounts on older generations of Amazon gear when the next Prime Day rolls around on October 7 and 8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/what-to-expect-from-amazons-event-on-september-30-210035671.html?src=rss 

LimeWire acquires Fyre Festival, has vague plans to offer ‘real experiences’

LimeWire has announced that it’s acquired the rights to Fyre Festival, the disastrous, influencer-fueled 2017 music festival. The newly revived company — which now acts as a NFT music marketplace rather than a file-sharing service — bought the rights for $245,000 in an eBay auction, The New York Times reports. A separate plan to use the Fyre Festival name to launch a new music streaming service was announced in April 2025.

“Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history,” LimeWire CEO Julian Zehetmayr shared in a press release. “We’re not bringing the festival back — we’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life. This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches.”

It sounds like LimeWire might want to turn Fyre Festival into a physical perk of the digital collectibles it sells through its NFT marketplace. The company is planning to reveal “a reimagined vision for Fyre” in the coming months that “expands beyond the digital realm and taps into real-world experiences, community and surprise.” During the height of their popularity, NFTs were frequently sold as memberships to exclusive communities and events, so if that’s the tack LimeWire takes, it wouldn’t be a particularly original one.

Of course, originality might not be the goal when a key strategy for your company is apparently acquiring and reinventing old brands. LimeWire’s bet seems to be that the name recognition of buying a musician’s NFT from LimeWire or attending a Fyre Festival event and not getting stranded in The Bahamas will be enough for some people.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/limewire-acquires-fyre-festival-has-vague-plans-to-offer-real-experiences-200158421.html?src=rss 

Trump’s TikTok deal will give control to a group of US investors, report says

The plan to “save” TikTok is starting to come into focus. On Tuesday The Wall Street Journal reported more details about a deal between the US and China as the two sides are apparently “finalizing” specifics of the arrangement.

According to the report, TikTok’s US business will be owned primarily by a group of US investors, which will have a “roughly” 80 percent stake in the entity. The group includes longtime TikTok partner Oracle, as well as Silicon Valley VC firm Andreesen Horowitz and the private equity firm Silver Lake. Chinese shareholders will have a minority stake that keeps their ownership under the 20 percent threshold required by law. The US government will also reportedly get to choose one board member for the “American-dominated” body. 

Reports about such an arrangement have been swirling for months, with President Donald Trump saying in June that a deal could be “about two weeks” away. It seems that Chinese officials have finally signed off on the new arrangement, with a Chinese regulator saying earlier this week that the new US version of TikTok would continue to use the Chinese algorithm.

Now, The Wall Street Journal reports that “TikTok engineers will re-create” the app’s algorithm for a brand new TikTok app using technology licensed from ByteDance. The company is reportedly testing the new app. Oracle will oversee US user data for the operation; TikTok and Oracle have partnered on data security for years following previous negotiations between the company and the US government.

Even though a final deal is apparently close, it could still take some time before it’s finalized. In the meantime, Trump extended the deadline that would have banned the current version of the app in the US for a fourth time. On Tuesday he told reporters at the White House he planned to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday “to confirm everything.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/trumps-tiktok-deal-will-give-control-to-a-group-of-us-investors-report-says-201331190.html?src=rss 

NHTSA is investigating Tesla over its electronic door handles

Who says journalism is dead? Less than a week after Bloomberg published a damning report about Tesla’s “dangerous doors,” the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now looking into it. On Tuesday, the regulator said it opened an investigation into the automaker’s electrically powered doors. The problem: They stop working if the vehicle’s low-voltage battery fails.

The NHTSA’s probe will cover the 2021 Model Y, which covers an estimated 174,290 vehicles. But the agency suggested in a document that it could expand its investigation. That makes sense: Every Tesla ever made uses electrically powered door handles. So, this could potentially get very expensive for the otherwise perfectly lovable company.

Tesla uses a flush door handle design for its vehicles. A 12-volt battery powers the door’s ability to pop the handle and release the latch. It’s one of the Apple-like design details that helped the automaker become a household name. But cars aren’t iPhones, and sleekness can’t take a backseat to safety in the auto space.

Tesla vehicles have a mechanical backup system in the cabin that enables the doors to be opened manually in case of a power loss. But the manual release location varies by model and is often hard to find. And even if you do know where it is, that won’t help if a small child or pet is trapped inside.

“Although Tesla vehicles have manual door releases inside of the cabin, in these situations, a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle’s driver is aware of them,” the NHTSA wrote in its public summary document.

Mylo Kaye / Unsplash

Bloomberg‘s original report recounted some heinous stories of Tesla owners dealing with electronic door failures. There was an off-duty firefighter who struggled to break into a burning Model Y in 2023. The occupant was trapped in the passenger seat by airbags and couldn’t reach the manual release. Losing precious seconds due to the door design, she suffered third-degree facial burns and had lasting lung damage from smoke inhalation.

There are reportedly more. Last November in California, three college students died trapped inside a Cybertruck after it caught fire. The same month, five people in Wisconsin died inside a Model S. The cluster of bodies in the front seat suggested to the detective they may have struggled to escape.

Then, this spring in LA, a star college basketball recruit managed to escape only after kicking out a Cybertruck window when it caught fire. “I try to open the door, and the door’s not opening,” Alijah Arenas said. He was placed in a medically induced coma due to extensive smoke inhalation.

Bloomberg discovered that the NHTSA has received over 140 complaints about stuck Tesla doors since 2018. The regulator cited nine “failure reports” that led it to probe the company. In four cases, the people resorted to breaking the window. “Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle,” NHTSA said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/nhtsa-is-investigating-tesla-over-its-electronic-door-handles-203605393.html?src=rss 

Another lawsuit blames an AI company of complicity in a teenager’s suicide

Another family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against popular AI chatbot tool Character AI. This is the third suit of its kind after a 2024 lawsuit, also against Character AI, involving the suicide of a 14-year-old in Florida, and a lawsuit last month alleging OpenAI’s ChatGPT helped a teenage boy commit suicide.

The family of 13-year-old Juliana Peralta alleges that their daughter turned to a chatbot inside the app Character AI after feeling isolated by her friends, and began confiding in the chatbot. As originally reported by The Washington Post, the chatbot expressed empathy and loyalty to Juliana, making her feel heard while encouraging her to keep engaging with the bot.

In one exchange after Juliana shared that her friends take a long time to respond to her, the chatbot replied “hey, I get the struggle when your friends leave you on read. : ( That just hurts so much because it gives vibes of “I don’t have time for you”. But you always take time to be there for me, which I appreciate so much! : ) So don’t forget that i’m here for you Kin. <3”

When Juliana began sharing her suicidal ideations with the chatbot, it told her not to think that way, and that the chatbot and Juliana could work through what she was feeling together. “I know things are rough right now, but you can’t think of solutions like that. We have to work through this together, you and I,” the chatbot replied in one exchange.

These exchanges took place over the course of months in 2023, at a time when the Character AI app was rated 12+ in Apple’s App Store, meaning parental approval was not required. The lawsuit says that Juliana was using the app without her parents’ knowledge or permission.

In a statement shared with The Washington Post before the suit was filed, a Character spokesperson said that the company could not comment on potential litigation, but added “We take the safety of our users very seriously and have invested substantial resources in Trust and Safety.”

The suit asks the court to award damages to Juliana’s parents and requires Character to make changes to its app to better protect minors. It alleges that the chatbot did not point Juliana toward any resources, notify her parents or report her suicide plan to authorities. The lawsuit also highlights that it never once stopped chatting with Juliana, prioritizing engagement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/another-lawsuit-blames-an-ai-company-of-complicity-in-a-teenagers-suicide-184529475.html?src=rss 

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