Hawk fire: 90,000 told to evacuate as wildfire approaches Reno, Nevada | BBC News

August 25, 2026August 24, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tens of thousands of people have been told to evacuate from an area close to Reno, Nevada, as a large wildfire reached the outskirts of the city.

Around 42,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes immediately, with a further 45,000 people urged to get ready to leave.

Officials warned the fire was expected to burn for two more days and said there was no timeline for people to return to their homes.

The fire, which was first reported on Saturday morning, had so far injured six people, officials said. Windy and unpredictable weather conditions have contributed to its spread.

US-Canada trade war heats up as Trump threatens to hike auto tariffs | BBC News

August 25, 2026August 24, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Donald Trump has threatened to hike US tariffs on automobiles originating in Canada, as the trade war between the two neighbours continues to heat up.

Trump said on Monday that he will increase tariffs on Canadian cars and trucks, as well as auto parts, from 25% to 50% as of 1 January.

It comes after US-Canada trade talks collapsed late last week, with each side accusing the other of making unreasonable last-minute demands.

Instinct’s powerful AI assistant is raising privacy and security concerns | TechCrunch

August 24, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Everyone is buzzing about Instinct, an AI personal assistant still in private access, not only for its incredible capabilities, but also for its potential privacy concerns. The agent, a veritable taskmaster, has been praised as feeling “like magic” and being one of the “most exciting launches” since OpenClaw. However, some testers have also raised concerns about the AI agent’s security model and its worrisome terms of service.

To be fair, Instinct is still in private testing for now, so these concerns haven’t yet scaled to the wider public at this time.

Created by a small team led by former Sierra research scientist Noah Shinn, San Francisco-based Instinct is operated by Spear Street Technology, per its terms and California business filings. It’s currently operating in stealth, per PitchBook.

Zillow and Redfin settle FTC antitrust case | TechCrunch

August 24, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Zillow and Redfin have reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and five states, ending a legal fight over a 2025 partnership that the FTC claimed hurt competition in the rental-listing market. The settlement was announced on Monday, just as the case was scheduled to head toward trial this morning.

The case stems from a deal announced last year in which Redfin agreed to display Zillow’s rental listings on its websites rather than compete directly with Zillow for rental advertisers. The arrangement could have kept Redfin out of the rental advertising business for as long as nine years. Redfin owns Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com, two major rental-listing platforms.

What It Really Takes to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service

August 20, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Nearly every company claims to deliver superior customer service. Yet, despite the focus on creating memorable experiences, many customers still report dissatisfaction when interacting with hospitality, retail or call center representatives.

The reason is straightforward: Customer service levels have declined significantly in recent years, especially since the 2020 pandemic. While some attribute this to a lack of communication skills among younger workers, I have observed a decline across all age groups.

How Growing Businesses Lose Clarity (and What It Costs Them)| Entrepreneur

August 20, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As companies grow, the clarity that once shaped every customer interaction often disappears. What begins as a single, consistent premise changes across teams and channels they’re working on. The result is not a single dramatic change but a slow accumulation of friction that customers feel as extra effort, conflicting signals and moments where the brand no longer feels like itself.

I have seen this pattern in companies that scaled from a tight founding group to dozens or hundreds of people. Early decisions carried a single logic. Everyone who touched the experience understood what the customer needed to grasp first. As headcount increased and responsibilities split between marketing, product, sales, support and operations, that shared logic dissolved. Each group optimized for its own outcomes. The website reflected one set of priorities, the product interface another, and support flows a third. Customers encountered seams where none had existed before.

TikTok reportedly tested a safety feature by withholding it from millions | Mashable

August 18, 2026August 17, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For millions of TikTok users, protection from harmful content spirals depended on which side of an experiment they landed on.

A confidential internal document obtained by Bloomberg Aug. 4 found that TikTok excluded 10 percent of its U.S. users from an algorithmic safety update in early 2022. At the time, that would have amounted to roughly 15 million people.

Samsung Galaxy phones could soon get a popular Apple feature | Mashable

August 18, 2026August 17, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Samsung might borrow a good Apple feature soon.

And you might not even need new hardware to use it. Leaker Fahad Ali Javed (via AndroidAuthority) posted screenshots of the upcoming One UI 9.5 update, which included several new features for Samsung devices. Perhaps the most noteworthy one, though, is the seeming addition of app mirroring. This feature allows iPhone users to receive notifications and otherwise control their phones using a linked Mac computer.

SpaceX revenue jumps 92% but stock tumbles as investors weigh AI spending | CNN Business

August 5, 2026August 4, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

SpaceX’s first earnings report as a public company blew past expectations. But it continued to burn through cash in pursuit of CEO Elon Musk’s vision for an AI-powered, Mars-colonizing future, putting investors on edge and sending SpaceX shares down in late trading.

The newly public satellite, space, and AI behemoth brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in the April-June quarter, which SpaceX said was up 92% from the same period in 2025. But the company remained unprofitable, losing $541 million in the second quarter, following a $4.3 billion loss in the first three months of the year.

Mortgage rates climb to highest level in a year | CNN Business

August 5, 2026August 4, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Five months into the war in Iran, rising oil prices and stubborn inflation are driving mortgage rates to the highest level in a year.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.66% this week, the highest since July of last year, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 6.58% last week, marking the biggest one-week jump in mortgage rates in 10 weeks.

Just a few months ago, mortgage rates dipped below 6% for the first time in years, fueling hopes that lower borrowing costs would revive the sluggish housing market.