Oct 29, 2026 · 8 min listen · Last updated October 29, 2026
From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief. Hey, it's Theo. October 29th. Five things in tech that mattered this morning — let's start with the one that surprised me most. Let's get into it. First, from The Register. Boffin's software found a possible dwarf planet - a result so rare he thought it must be a bug.
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Daily Tech Brief · October 29th
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Boffin's software found a possible dwarf planet - a result so rare he thought it must be a bug
A scientist at the Rubin Observatory has discovered a potential sixth dwarf planet in our solar system, named 2026 ED138. This finding came from analyzing data collected before the observatory's main camera, the LSST, went live in June 2026. Matthew Holman and his colleague Kevin Napier developed a code to sift through billions of detections of moving objects, and on October 13, the code identified an exceptionally bright and distant object, sparking Holman’s initial disbelief.
After further investigation, including a review of a decade's worth of data, the Minor Planet Center confirmed the discovery. ED138 orbits around 46 astronomical units from the Sun, making it more distant than Pluto. The International Astronomical Union's definition of a dwarf planet fits ED138, as it’s large enough to be nearly round but hasn’t cleared its orbital path of debris. The estimated size of ED138 ranges from 600 to 1500 kilometers, which could make it the smallest known dwarf planet or slightly larger than some others like Makemake and Ceres.
This object likely evaded detection for so long because it’s located near the Milky Way's plane, where the light from countless stars makes it hard to spot. Thanks to the observatory's continuous monitoring and advanced algorithms, the team was finally able to identify ED138 amidst the cosmic clutter. It’s a fascinating glimpse into our solar system’s hidden corners, don’t you think?
Chrome's smarter autofill goes beyond passwords and reads your Gmail
So, Google’s Chrome is stepping up its autofill game, and it’s pretty interesting how it’s evolving. You know how autofill usually just remembers your passwords and addresses? Well, now it’s tapping into your Gmail to pull in more personalized info. This means it can suggest things like email addresses or even details from your messages, making the whole process smoother and more tailored to you.
The feature, called "Find and Fill with Gemini," is designed to learn from your habits and preferences, which could save you a lot of time when filling out forms online. It's all about making that experience feel more intuitive and less like you're just typing the same info over and over again.
What’s cool is that it’s not just about convenience; it’s also about security. By using Gemini’s Personal Intelligence, it’s aiming to keep your data safe while still being helpful. So, as it rolls out, you might notice it feels more like it knows you, which is kind of a neat twist on how we interact with our browsers. Definitely something to keep an eye on!
Hey there! So, Apple finally caved and introduced a touchscreen MacBook Pro, which is pretty wild considering they’ve always kept that separate from their laptops. It’s got touch controls for all sorts of tasks, which could change how we interact with our devices.
On the Google front, they missed earnings estimates due to slower growth in search ads and hefty spending on AI. They still managed to rake in $127.6 billion in revenue, but their free cash flow took a hit, leading to a drop in their stock price. Interestingly, they launched a new model called Gemini 4 Carbon, designed for advanced tasks like cybersecurity, and it’s already showing strong performance in benchmarks.
Microsoft is doing well, with a solid revenue jump driven by Azure and AI demand. Their cloud revenue is really taking off, which is impressive. Meanwhile, New York is stepping up with a new AI safety law to protect minors from potentially harmful chatbot interactions, and Australia is looking to implement similar safeguards.
Over in China, a memory-chip maker is pushing ahead with production despite low quality yields, which is a bold move given their chip shortage. And GitHub is seeing a coding boom, with agents playing a bigger role in development. It’s all pretty fascinating how quickly things are evolving in the tech space!
So, there’s been quite a shift in the AI landscape lately, especially with Google’s TPUs gaining traction. OpenAI is planning to buy these chips, which is a big deal since they’ve been a major customer of Nvidia. Google’s cloud revenue has skyrocketed, more than doubling, largely thanks to the demand for TPUs. Oracle is also stepping in, becoming the first major cloud provider outside Google to offer TPUs, which signals a broader availability of this tech.
Anthropic's recent filings show they’re heavily invested in TPUs, with estimates around $400 billion tied to these chips. This indicates a significant reliance on Google’s technology for their AI operations. The focus is shifting from just training models to running them efficiently, which is where inference comes into play. Google’s new TPUs are designed specifically for this, aiming to lower costs and improve performance.
While Nvidia still holds a dominant position, the landscape is evolving. Other players like AMD and Amazon are also in the mix, competing for a piece of the inference market. The real takeaway is that as AI moves beyond chatbots to more complex applications, the cost of inference will be crucial for profitability. It’s a fascinating time to watch how these dynamics unfold.
Bank of America Kindly Asks That You Don't Share Your Password With Your AI Assistant
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from TechCrunch: In an email blast to customers titled "Protecting your finances in the Al World," Bank of America urged customers to never share their username and password with another person or an outside service, "including an Al-enabled tool or agent that offers to act on your behalf." [...] A spokesperson for Bank of America confirmed the authenticity of the bank's email that was posted to social media. But heed the bank's warning, for if things go wrong, it's on you.
Claudes new smart reports tell bosses when workers are off-topic
Anthropic has announced new Claude reporting tools, allowing employers to see exactly how and why their employees are using the AI tool. Smart reports are available now for users on paid Claude Enterprise plans, and can be enabled in an organisation's settings. Announced on Wednesday, Claude's smart reports feature produces graphs showing how a team has been using the AI tool, what they've produced, and how much they've spent on it. Managers simply specify the team, a date range up to the last 28 days, and Claude products they'd like to be included in the report.
Shares in Google’s parent company Alphabet dived by almost ten percent on Wednesday, after the web giant admitted AI-powered searches earn it less money than it earns by serving ads with its old-school search engine. Alphabet on Wednesday reported its Q3 results, which included news that its year-over-year search query growth rate is the highest it’s been in the last five years. Some of that growth comes from users adopting “AI Mode” – Google’s latest LLM-powered search system.
Zillow agrees to pay $212.5M to settle investor lawsuit over failed home-flipping business
Zillow will pay $212.5 million to settle a shareholder class action lawsuit over its handling of Zillow Offers, the home-flipping business it shut down in 2021. The Seattle-based company disclosed the settlement Wednesday in an SEC filing. About $48 million of the payment is expected to come from insurance. The deal requires court approval and includes no admission of wrongdoing. In a statement, a Zillow spokesperson said, “We are pleased that the parties have reached a resolution on the matter.” The settlement comes about three weeks after the U.S.
Google’s Flashy New Model Gets Outshone By Its Financial Troubles
Google’s free cash flow continued tanking in its third quarter of the year. The tech giant had reported its first negative free cash flow figure as a public company back in July in its second quarter earnings, when it came in at negative $5.9 billion. On Wednesday, Google reported that number had dropped even lower to negative $9.07 billion. The quarterly revenue of $127.58 billion also missed market expectations, and the tech giant reported that its long-term debt was up to $125.1 billion. The company also shared that it had made future purchase commitments of roughly $1 trillion.
Bigger than Bing or Xbox: Microsoft’s OpenAI haul reaches $10B in quarterly revenue
OpenAI generated $10 billion in revenue for Microsoft in the quarter ended Sept. 30, about 11% of the Redmond company’s total revenue, according to its quarterly filing Wednesday. The amount is up sharply. In the fiscal year that ended in June, Microsoft recorded $24.1 billion in revenue from its business with OpenAI, or about $6 billion a quarter on average. That $10 billion surpasses some of Microsoft’s longest-running businesses. Xbox brought in $5.4 billion in the quarter. Search and advertising, which includes its Bing search engine, generated $6.6 billion.