The latest Products stories across our sources, prepared from the publishers’ own reporting.
Pinterest revealed Beauty Guides, an AI feature that turns saved beauty Pins into salon-ready action plans. It translates hair and nail ideas into stylist terminology and provides estimated costs, appointment times, and maintenance needs.
Starting October 9th, Google will limit free Gemini users to the Flash Lite model, and the $4.99/month Google AI Plus plan will no longer include Gemini Pro. Access to Gemini Pro and a Deep Think option will be restricted to Google AI Pro or Ultra subscribers.
Amazon Echo speakers running Alexa Plus have been reported to repeatedly say or sing "lalala" for minutes at a time, sometimes mid-conversation. Amazon says it is aware of the issue.
Cohere has announced North 2, an enterprise platform that orchestrates AI agents across multi-step workflows and works with any model. The company says the platform can run on-premises, in the cloud, or air-gapped, and is aimed at government agencies and regulated industries.
Anthropic's Felix Rieseberg described a change to Cowork in which model inference and the virtual machine move from the local device to the cloud. The old version ran inference in the cloud but executed tool calls in an Anthropic-provided VM shipped to the computer.
Android Authority found a "Gemini Calling" screen in an APK teardown, suggesting Google may expand its Call for Me AI feature beyond business calls to personal messages. The examples include calling family members to relay simple updates.
Nolla Health launched a pilot in Utah letting users scan their faces in its app so an AI system can analyze acne severity and write a prescription. Physician oversight starts at two approvals per prescription for the first 100 patients, then loosens.
Instinct is launching group chat support that lets users add its AI agent to chats with friends, including friends who have not joined Instinct. The company says group agents are kept separate from personal accounts and require permission before sharing information or taking action.
TikTok announced an AI Shopping Assistant and a one-click in-app checkout that lets users buy directly from brands. The features are being built with commerce and payment partners including Salesforce, Shopify, Shoplazza, and Stripe.
Two sisters have launched Hot Girl Hotline, a New York-based startup using AI to give young women personalized dating and relationship advice, with what they describe as an emphasis on safety and avoiding emotional dependency. It is available on iOS and the web, is bootstrapped, and is participating in TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200.
HackerRank is making Chakra, its AI interviewer, generally available after around six months in beta, saying it has conducted over 500,000 interviews, with Snowflake, Snorkel, and Capgemini among testers. Chakra scores candidates but leaves final hiring decisions to humans, HackerRank says.
Databricks published an article describing how Genie Ontology is used to power product development at the company. The available material only states that general-purpose AI agents are good at searching the web, reasoning, and writing code.
OpenAI introduced a new visual ad format in ChatGPT and expanded advertiser measurement tools, attribution partnerships, and brand suitability controls, according to its announcement.
Archestra released OpenAPPA, an open-source security engine that runs outside an agent's prompt and execution loop. The team reports a 0% attack success rate on the Bench-Corp and AgentThreatBench benchmarks, versus 10% for Claude Code's auto mode and 31% for Microsoft FIDES.
Meta announced Muse Gadgets, an open-source project that lets hobbyists build their own AI hardware with ESP32 firmware and a Linux SDK that connects homemade devices to Meta's AI agent Muse. Meta also produced 5,000 units of the USB-C Muse Home Link, free for Muse subscribers while supplies last.
TechCrunch compiled a list of notable AI agents that operate through text messages rather than standalone apps, spanning general assistants, family organizers, travel helpers and work tools. The roundup includes Caddy, Fambot, Folk, Instinct, Iris, Martin, Miso, Ohai, Ollie, Orbits, Pally, Poke, Rene, Skye, Stanley, Tomo, Town and Wajo.
Some iPhone 18 Pro Max users on AT&T have lost cellular service, with phones switching to SOS mode and unable to make calls, send texts, or use mobile data. Apple says iOS 27.0.1 and a carrier settings update can help prevent the issue, and will replace already-affected phones for free.
Meta has open sourced code that lets users build their own Muse gadgets featuring the company's new AI agent. Meta suggests projects such as loading Muse on a color E Ink display, an HDMI stick, or a small touchscreen device.
Suno is adding a feature called Speech to its AI music generator that creates spoken text with matching background music in a single audio track, aimed at poems, meditations, and bedtime stories.
Some iPhone 18 Pro Max users on AT&T have lost calls, texts, data and even 911 connectivity since the phone's launch, dropping into SOS mode while Wi-Fi still works. AT&T is texting customers to install iOS 27.0.1 immediately.