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Richard Lawler

Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Senior News Editor

    More From Richard Lawler

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine on music and AI.

    The Beats by Dre pair spoke to the New York Times briefly, with former Interscope head Iovine saying AI companies have terrible communication skills but that “I’m very pro-A.I. in music creation. I don’t see the downside at all. There will be some crappy music. There’s crappy music now.”

    Dre called anyone against it similar to those who pushed back against drum machines or synthesizers, and said, “I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating.”

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    After nearly two weeks, the power is still out for more than 20,000 people in Gary, IN.

    We’ve talked about outages globally and power grid issues in the US, but the place feeling the worst of it has been northwest Indiana, ever since a derecho knocked out power for more than 300,000 people starting on August 11th.

    As of today, NIPSCO says 21,816 people remain without power, and current estimates show restoration for Gary and Portage will take until the 25th.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    More about Apple’s fall iPhone launch plans, and that massive AirPods leak.

    In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman muses about how far Apple might go with price hikes for new iPhones, without much of an answer yet, as well as how the macOS Tahoe 26.7 RC revealed camera-equipped AirPods by accidentally merging an internal branch.

    He also mentions that the long-rumored foldable has impressed people with the “how it fits in a pocket, the feel and durability of the advanced hinge mechanism, and the new iPad-like app layouts that take advantage of the larger internal display,” despite lacking a telephoto camera lens.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Nvidia’s AI chips are about to get more expensive too.

    Price hikes aren’t only for laptops, smart speakers, and game consoles, as Bloomberg reports that “some of Nvidia’s biggest customers” have been told that server prices are going up more than 15 percent. Those customers are the companies that build the AI data centers for Oracle, Microsoft, and others that have heavily contributed to the demand spike driving up component prices.

    Nvidia has already raised GPU prices this year, and we may hear more about its changes when it reports Q2 earnings on Wednesday.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Retrotink’s next upscaler aims for a 1440p sweet spot, instead of 4K or 1080p.

    Rising component prices and wild tariff swings are still an issue, so Mike Chi of Retrotink has designed a new hardware upscaler for retro gaming. It uses the design and framework of its more expensive 4K models, which cost $475 or more, but with a lower 2,560 x 1,440p maximum output at 300 MHz.

    The new Retrotink 6X CE starts at $230 and starts shipping next week.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Bugatti’s Tourbillon-inspired MicroLED TV twists, turns, and unfolds.

    While checking out the 1,800-horsepower Destrier that Bugatti unveiled at Monterey Car Week, the folks at Road & Track also got a taste of the carmaker’s C-Seed Bugatti N1 TV.

    Inspired by another 1,800hp beast, its sculptural design unfurls the 110- or 137-inch TV hiding inside in 45 seconds and can rotate up to 180 degrees.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Claude can do more with Gmail and Google Drive, and access to Claude Cowork is expanding.

    A pair of announcements from Anthropic today include the word that access to Claude Cowork on mobile and web interfaces has rolled out to all paid accounts, so you can keep an eye on what it’s doing for you in more places.

    Separately, the Google Workspace connectors for Claude now support sending emails in Gmail and managing files in Google Drive — more details here.

    Screenshot of Claude AI sending an email from a gmail account
    Image: Anthropic
    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Daniel Ek’s body-scanning clinic, Neko Health, will open in NYC on September 24th.

    Midjourney isn’t the only one getting into body scanners, and Neko Health has touted long lists of potential clients and investors ahead of the US launch. Now it says the SoHo location at 300 Lafayette Street is nearly ready to open, with seven scan rooms for its “non-invasive and radiation-free” $499 check.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Whoop drops the subscription requirement for its Advanced Labs blood testing.

    The wearable company now says the Advanced Labs blood testing service that it launched last year is now available, with prices starting at about $150, even if you don’t have one of its wearable devices or the membership subscription tied to them. It’s also adding the “multi-cancer early detection test” Galleri to the package, which might help it stand out from the increasingly crowded wearable field and alleged lookalikes.

    Richard Lawler
    Richard Lawler
    Bloomberg: Andreesen Horowitz is the focus of an antitrust investigation.

    According to Bloomberg, a “nearly year-old investigation” is looking into the possibility that a16z “investment partners are improperly serving on the boards of competing artificial intelligence companies.” Co-founder Ben Horowitz is on the board of Databricks, while partner Martin Casado was on the board of dbt labs before it was acquired by Fivetran, where he now holds a seat.