Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge recorded a steep slide over recent months. That is good news for investors looking longer term. The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX , has dropped around 35 points over the two months since President Donald Trump rolled back many of his market-roiling tariffs in April. That is the third-largest decline in the VIX’s history going back to 1990, according to Bespoke Investment Group data, ranking behind periods in late 2008 and mid-2020. .VIX 3M mountain The VIX over the last 3 months As the VIX has retreated, stocks have rebounded significantly from the sell-off…

[ad_1] It’s about time you could send a DM on Threads.Threads, Meta’s rival app to Twitter, is officially rolling out a test that lets users send and receive direct messages within the stand-alone app.”We’re starting to test DMs on Threads, which has been a top request since we launched,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post on Tuesday announcing the test. “Our mission is to foster an open exchange of perspectives, and we know how important messaging is to supporting that cause.”There’s a big catch, though: The test is limited to Hong Kong, Thailand, and Argentina. A Meta…

[ad_1] Apple has announced updates to the AI models that power its suite of Apple Intelligence features across iOS, macOS, and more. But according to the company’s own benchmarks, the models underperform older models from rival tech firms, including OpenAI. Apple said in a blog post Monday that human testers rated the quality of text generated by its newest “Apple On-Device” model — which runs offline on products, including the iPhone — “comparably” to, but not better than, text from similarly sized Google and Alibaba models. Meanwhile, those same testers rated Apple’s more capable new model, which is called “Apple…

[ad_1] Enterprise AI company Glean announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation. This comes less than a year after its $260 million Series E, announced in September, at a $4.6 billion valuation, which was double the valuation from its February 2024 raise. Since early 2024, Glean has raised $610 million and grown its valuation from $2.2 billion to $7.2 billion. Glean says it surpassed $100 million in ARR in its last fiscal year, just three years after it launched. Glean offers tools that allow enterprise employees…

[ad_1] At the end of the WWDC 2025 keynote address on Monday, the company literally sang its praises to app developers, as singer-songwriter Allen Stone humorously turned customers’ positive App Store reviews into song lyrics for a tune titled “6 out of 5 stars.” “Best app I’ve ever set my sorry eyes upon,” he crooned. “This is not an app. It’s a piece of art.” What Apple didn’t mention, however, was anything related to the tumultuous past few years for its developer community, or more broadly, why its developers should continue to put their trust in a company that’s fighting…

[ad_1] Even some of the most expensive TVs suffer from wimpy audio quality, with built-in speakers that lack depth and clarity. And there’s nothing worse than sitting down for movie night only to be greeted with muddy dialogue you can’t understand and tiny bass that lacks oomph. To improve performance, we suggest investing in a soundbar. The best soundbars can be a game changer for your home entertainment setup, making it easier to hear your favorite TV shows and movies while delivering a more immersive experience.Our team has been reviewing audio products for over a decade, and we’ve used that…

[ad_1] As Elon Musk’s public feud with President Donald Trump continues to unfold, a handful of stocks are emerging as possible beneficiaries if the billionaire CEO’s various companies suffer from the stunning blow-up. The high-profile crash between the world’s richest man and the president of the United States has raised concerns about the impact on Musk’s businesses, including the potential loss of tax credits and government contracts. In addition to leading the electric-vehicle maker Tesla , Musk’s businesses include the space exploration and satellite-communication company SpaceX , artificial-intelligence company xAI , tunnel-digger The Boring Company , tech firm Neuralink and the social media…

[ad_1] CNN  —  A former local news anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana, has sued a rival station for defamation, accusing it of engaging in “character assassination” after it ran a report he says portrayed him as a “child predator.” Emmy Award-winning journalist Bill Lunn, a former anchor for ABC affiliate KTBS, filed the lawsuit late last month against rival local outlet KTAL, its married co-anchors Daniel and Jacquelyn Jovic, and its owner, Nexstar. The complaint was filed almost one year after Lunn resigned from KTBS in advance of a KTAL report claiming Lunn had been busted by “vigilantes targeting men seeking…

[ad_1] Meta plans to unveil a new AI research lab dedicated to “superintelligence” as the company works to compete in the AI race, according to several reports. Meta has tapped Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang to join the new lab, The New York Times reports. Meta has been in talks to invest billions into Scale AI as part of a deal that would bring Scale AI employees to Meta. Meta has also been poaching lead researchers from OpenAI and Google, per the Times.  The new lab comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg grows frustrated with his company’s AI…

[ad_1] OpenAI experienced a partial outage on Tuesday morning that created some issues for users trying to access ChatGPT, Sora, and the API, the company said on its status page. The company started investigating the issues late on Monday night, but the partial outage has persisted through Tuesday morning. Around 5:30 am PT on Tuesday, OpenAI says it identified the issue and started working to fix it. However, at roughly 8 am PT, OpenAI said full recovery across its services may take “another few hours,” meaning folks logging onto work on the West Coast of the United States won’t be…