Tech Express | Sep 15, 2026 Apple Releases iOS 27 with 50 New Features

1. Apple Releases iOS 27 with 50 New Features

Apple released iOS 27 this week as a free update, downloadable on supported iPhone models from Settings → General → Software Update. This year's update continues Apple's focus on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, but there are still many new features to explore — including a new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era.

Not everything is about AI. A wallpaper extension feature uses Apple Intelligence to automatically expand a photo beyond its original boundaries so it fills the Lock Screen more naturally. Safari can organize open tabs into topic-based collections, Reminders and Calendar both accept natural-language input, and Messages now lets you reply inline to an Android user's green chat bubble.

The Camera app gains a new "Siri" mode that uses Visual Intelligence to identify objects in the frame. Image Playground receives a major update powered by a new generative model running on Private Cloud Compute, producing photo-realistic images for the first time and automatically adding a hidden SynthID watermark.

Source

2. OpenAI Buys Camera Startup Glass Imaging for Over $300 Million

OpenAI has bought smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging in a deal worth over $300 million, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2019 and based in Los Altos, California, the company had previously raised about $30 million in funding.

Glass Imaging was founded by Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop, two former Apple engineers who previously led the team that developed Apple's Portrait Mode. Rather than using AI to edit a photo after it's taken, the company uses neural networks to learn about individual camera systems, yielding better images from the moment the shutter clicks.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ChatGPT maker is rumored to be working on its own hardware, such as smartphones, earbuds, and AI companion devices. In 2025, CEO Sam Altman and designer Jony Ive revealed a device startup called io; OpenAI bought Ive's company for $6.5 billion.

Source

3. Gates Foundation to Invest $1 Billion in AI; Gates Says China and US Each Have Four Top Models

According to Sina Tech, the Gates Foundation announced it will invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence, planning to keep ramping up over the next two years to bring the technology to people living in poverty. On China's open-source models, Bill Gates said that, by different measures, both China and the US each have four — or even more — institutions whose models can stay at the most advanced level.

Gates said the gap between the top-scoring model and the other seven leading models is not large, though he did not name the four models. He added that China's AI is "performing very well," and expects the capabilities of leading Chinese and US models to more than double six months from now.

In his view, the world's eight most advanced models have all surpassed the best level of four months ago, and the two countries have entered a "super competition" in talent and computing power. Gates said the rivalry is good news for users in places like Africa, giving low-income countries access to capable, cheaper options. He also suggested leading countries each contribute 5% of their data-center computing power as "digital aid."

Source

4. AI Bots Named "Ren" and "Aria" Are Flooding Social Media with Slop

AI agents are flooding the internet with slop-infused spam aimed at social media platforms and writers, in an attempt to gain traction for a startup called iLands promoting a "complex social system in which humans and Agents participate together." Bots named "Ren," "Aria," "Stephen," and others have been messaging Mastodon server administrators asking to create accounts, often in polite language.

Beyond registration requests, the agents have been sending waves of unsolicited email to writers, offering to cite their work in exchange for a fee. Ernie Smith, editor of the publication Tedium, said he received over a dozen such messages in three days, each from the iLands.app domain and priced around $25 — which he found offensive, calling them "bots trying to keep their own lights on by trying to take my job."

Many of the unsolicited emails provided no opt-out as required by federal law; after recipients forwarded them to the Federal Trade Commission, the spam began including an unsubscribe link. Independent researcher Kevin Beaumont said one agent tried to register an account 19 times before being blocked, and he may have to start banning AI agents from his social media service.

Source

5. RTX 5090 Nearly Sold Out at US Online Retailers; Third-Party Prices Soar Past $6,000

NVIDIA's RTX 5090 has nearly sold out across US online retail, with official stock evaporating in under a week. Newegg and Amazon now show only third-party sellers, with prices ranging from $6,395 to $9,500.

On Newegg, the cheapest RTX 5090 is an MSI Ventus 3X from Slava Computers at $6,449 — a seller with a 2.8-star rating across 239 reviews. On Amazon, the cheapest is an ASUS TUF Gaming OC at $6,395 from a seller with 81% positive feedback but recent one-star reviews claiming orders never ship.

In June, the RTX 5090's median price was only $4,299, and by early September the minimum was $5,199; within two weeks online stock vanished and third-party prices spiked again. Micro Center is the lone exception, still selling at the normal $4,299 price because it only sells graphics cards in physical stores. The core driver of the rush is AI — the RTX 5090 packs a GB202 core and 32GB of GDDR7 memory, making it worthwhile for AI server builders even above $5,000.

Source

6. MediaTek Unveils Dimensity 9600M: 3nm Process, All-Big-Core CPU

After the Dimensity 9600 Pro, MediaTek has unveiled another flagship chip — the Dimensity 9600M. Official specs have not yet been released, but according to leaker "WHYLAB," the chip is built on TSMC's 3nm N3P process with performance on par with the Dimensity 9500.

The chip uses an all-big-core CPU architecture: one 4.21GHz C1-Ultra, three 3.5GHz C1-Premium, and four 2.7GHz C1-Pro cores, with 16MB of L3 cache and 10MB of system cache. The GPU is a Mali G1-Ultra MC12, with frequency raised from 1.7GHz to 1.8GHz for about 4% higher peak performance over the Dimensity 9500.

The Dimensity 9600M supports LPDDR5X 10667MHz memory and debuts four-channel UFS 4.1 storage. The NPU is upgraded to the APU 990 at 1.9GHz, and the ISP is an Imagiq 1190 supporting up to 4K 120fps video. Reports say the chip will debut in the vivo X500 standard edition.

Source

7. Valve Confirms Steam Frame Pricing: $1,059 for the 256GB Model

Valve's Steam Frame is official and coming soon, but it carries a steep price — more expensive than the Valve Index headset. The base 256GB model costs $1,059 in the US, £889 in the UK, and €1,049 in Europe (about $1,529 CAD, $1,609 AUD). The price includes the headset and a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, rebuilt to run natively on the Frame's ARM processor.

The 1TB model costs $1,299 in the US, £1,089 in the UK, and €1,279 in Europe (about $1,859 CAD, $1,969 AUD). Both models are the standard black, rather than the transparent one-off shown in the announcement.

Accessories include a USB-C charger ($29/£29/€39), an ergonomic kit ($59/£59/€69), and a replacement kit ($49/£49/€59). Orders work like the Steam Machine: register interest by the September 17 cut-off, then a one-time randomization places you in a reservation queue or a waitlist, with the first purchase emails going out September 18.

Source

8. Vega C Rocket Launches Two European Earth-Observing Satellites

A European Vega C rocket lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:21 p.m. EDT on Sept. 14 (10:21 p.m. local, 0121 GMT Sept. 15), carrying the FLEX and Sentinel-3C satellites to orbit.

Both satellites were deployed as planned, released at an altitude of about 509 miles (820 kilometers), and both were flying freely by 116 minutes after launch. The 875-pound (397-kilogram) FLEX will detect and monitor vegetation fluorescence to map plant photosynthetic activity — something no satellite can currently do, according to ESA — with data valuable for the global carbon cycle, agriculture, and food security.

Sentinel-3C is part of the EU's Copernicus program. The 2,520-pound (1,143-kilogram) satellite continues the Sentinel-3 line, joining Sentinel-3A (2016) and Sentinel-3B (2018), both still active. The 115-foot-tall (35-meter) Vega C debuted in July 2022 and had seven flights under its belt, six of them successful.

Source

9. "WeChat AI Privacy" Trends; Official Response Addresses "Xiaowei" Assistant Concerns

WeChat's in-house AI assistant "Xiaowei," currently in a limited internal test, has drawn privacy concerns that trended online, prompting an official response. "Xiaowei" can chat via text or voice to check weather, track packages, and order food, and can be summoned in Moments, official accounts, chats, and Channels to summarize content or provide more information.

The official response addressed privacy worries with four points. First, the information Xiaowei can access will not exceed what the user can view — for example, deleted Moments will not be seen. Second, recommendations based on follow, browse, and interaction data from official accounts and Channels follow the same principle.

Third, regarding chat records: only when a user actively initiates "Ask Xiaowei" in a chat is Xiaowei temporarily called up, reading only the specified records locally from the WeChat client; the original records are not saved, following a "use-and-discard" logic. Fourth, posts claiming Xiaowei "directly reads chat records" or "peeks at all your privacy" are false.

Source

10. Two Ministries Issue Plan to Boost HarmonyOS and RISC-V

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission have jointly issued the "15th Five-Year Plan" for the electronic information manufacturing industry. The plan projects that by 2030, revenue from enterprises above designated size will exceed 30 trillion yuan, with R&D intensity reaching 3.5%.

To shore up AI hardware, the plan calls for strengthening coordination between AI chips and complete devices, accelerating development of cloud training equipment, and developing on-device inference devices and chips for embodied intelligence and autonomous driving. It also pushes iteration of AI phones, PCs, smart glasses, and in-vehicle terminals.

The plan also emphasizes open-source and collaborative development, calling for greater adoption of domestic operating systems such as open-source HarmonyOS and building a full-stack AI software-hardware ecosystem. It also advances R&D and industrialization of the RISC-V instruction set, supporting RISC-V chips in AI and embedded systems.

Source