Greetings from Week in Review once again. This week’s topics include the internal turmoil surrounding HP’s $116 million acquisition of AI pin manufacturer Humane, the unexpected launch of Mira Murati’s new AI business, Duolingo’s use of a Cybertruck to kill its renowned owl mascot, and more! Let’s get started.
The AI pin for Humane has died. The hardware startup said that HP had paid $116 million to acquire the majority of its assets, which is less than half of the $240 million it had secured in venture capital. After February 28, the wearable will no longer be able to connect to Humane’s servers, and the business will immediately stop selling its $499 AI Pins.
Following that, the devices won’t be able to access the cloud, make calls, send messages, or use AI queries and responses. Refunds are available to customers who purchased an AI Pin within the last ninety days, but not to those who purchased a device prior to that time.
Several Humane employees received job offers from HP with wage increases ranging from 30% to 70%, along with HP stock and bonus programs, just hours after the HP acquisition was made public.
Three years after the last significant update to the low-cost smartphone, Apple has finally unveiled the much-anticipated iPhone SE refresh. With the addition of an A18 CPU, the 16e joins a select group of phones that can run Apple Intelligence. Additionally, the iPhone 16e replaced the Lightning port with USB-C and did away with the Touch ID home button in favor of Face ID. Starting at $599, the iPhone 6e will be shipped on February 28.
