The business of tech stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Match Group says Hinge is testing a lower-priced subscription for women, with extra filters and more say over who appears in their feed.
Read more: Hinge is testing a cheaper subscription aimed at womenInc. reports Google's AI search is slowing its ad revenue, yet Google won't turn it off. Here is what is known and what you can do about it.
Read more: Google keeps pushing AI search despite a hit to its ad businessFal, which runs AI image, video and audio tools for other companies, raised $1.3 billion and doubled its value to $16 billion since April.
Read more: Fal, a company that runs AI video and image tools, is now worth $16 billionMastercard has launched free cybersecurity lessons for small European businesses, aimed at a gap between worrying about attacks and having protection in place.
Read more: Mastercard Offers Free Online Cybersecurity Lessons to Small BusinessesCrowdStrike released a tool that lets security teams stop an AI agent, block its restart and cut its network access, but a human still decides when to use it.
Read more: CrowdStrike launches an emergency off switch for rogue AI agentsApple Intelligence is now live on iPhones in China, with Alibaba's Qwen handling the jobs ChatGPT does elsewhere. Here is who gets it and who does not.
Read more: iPhones in China get Apple's AI features, powered by Alibaba's QwenA report says Apple is working on a HomeView Ultra with a robotic arm that turns the screen to follow you, at a price of up to $1,000.
Read more: Apple reportedly plans a $1,000 smart screen that swivels to follow youApple's Fitness+ now has a beta gym strength plan that picks your lifts and changes each week based on what you log, at no extra cost to subscribers.
Read more: Apple's Fitness+ adds a gym strength plan that adapts as you liftOrtelan Labs says its new Praus service picks the right AI model for each question and checks the answer, but the test results are self-reported.
Read more: New AI service Praus claims top-tier answers for under a tenth of a centGoogle Cloud says the key to using AI agents at work is people, not tools: set clear limits, start small and teach staff to check what agents produce.
Read more: Google Cloud's advice for bringing AI agents into your teamMicrosoft says Windows 11 updates will make 8GB PCs feel faster, but the headline numbers come from its own lab tests and some changes are still in beta.
Read more: Microsoft says Windows 11 will run faster on cheaper PCs with less memoryAfter Microsoft offered buyouts to about 60,000 workers, an employment lawyer explains what to check before signing and when to get legal help.
Read more: Offered a job buyout? A lawyer's 3 steps before you signA new report says business spending on AI hit about $177 billion this year, and companies spent far more than they planned. Here is what it means for your budget.
Read more: Companies spent $177 billion on AI this year, over five times last yearGoogle says its Android wallet will grow to hold receipts, track orders, handle refunds and show store deals, so you can leave your physical wallet at home.
Read more: Google wants your phone wallet to handle receipts and refundsVisa, Mastercard and Amex report steady spending, while the networks race to handle AI shopping agents, stablecoins and invoice payments.
Read more: Card spending stays strong as Visa and Mastercard prep for AI shoppingA federal judge paused part of New York's law on rent-setting software, ruling the advice is protected speech. A ban on landlord price coordination remains.
Read more: Judge blocks part of New York's rent software lawPaymentus, a bill-pay company used by nearly 1 in 3 households and businesses, posted record revenue and says it is building its own AI helper.
Read more: Bill-pay company Paymentus hits record $372.2 million in quarterly revenueApple had its best year ever and is making money from AI while spending far less than Amazon or Alphabet. Heavy Siri AI users may soon face limits and fees.
Read more: Apple profits from AI without spending like its rivalsGoogle says attackers are stealing AI account keys and running up bills that reached $1 million at some companies. The victim pays, and the damage can come fast.
Read more: Hackers are running up huge AI bills on other companies' accountsOpenAI says ChatGPT added 200 million weekly users in two months, and its search-style questions are now about one-fifth of Google's volume.
Read more: ChatGPT now has 1.2 billion weekly users, up 200 million in two monthsApple's CEO says the new Siri is only the start, with more abilities planned and a fee coming for higher usage limits on some features.
Read more: Apple's CEO says the new Siri is just the start of bigger changesChery's robot brand AiMOGA unveiled MOBO, a home companion robot, and opened pre-orders worldwide. Price and ship date have not been shared.
Read more: Chery's carmaker unveils MOBO, a home robot you can pre-orderPensa Systems has launched an AI app that looks at store shelves through a phone camera and tells workers what to fix first. Results so far are company-reported.
Read more: New phone app uses the camera to tell store workers what to fix firstAnthropic reportedly told investors its small chip team already uses its own AI, Claude, for design work, a sign of AI being used to build its own hardware.
Read more: Anthropic's AI is helping design Anthropic's own computer chips
