Category: 4. Technology

Microsoft has retired its program that granted incorporated AI startups with a validated business plan up to $150,000 in Azure credits and replaced it with a two-track system.

The Microsoft for Startups program, which Redmond was promoting at RSA in May, was generous and a good way to drive young companies with AI ideas onto its cloud platform. But as of Tuesday, that multi-tier model has been phased out: existing activated credits remain valid until they expire, but newcomers now face stricter limits.

Startups backed by an affiliated investor enter the Microsoft for Startups Investor Network track, which starts with $100,000 in Azure credits and can unlock additional awards based on referral source and engagement. Alternatively, early-stage teams without funding may qualify for up to $5,000 of Azure credits. For founders who’d budgeted runway around the old $150K ceiling, the June 27 announcement was a rude shock.

“By introducing two distinct paths — a streamlined, self-service experience for earlier-stage startups, and a higher touch experience for investor-backed startups, we’re making it easier for every founder to access the right resources, at the right time,” Redmond said in the post announcing the changes.

One startup founder who spoke to The Register on condition of anonymity praised the old program, but said some warning would have been useful as this has wrecked budgets and may sink the entire project.

“We’re in for close to $80,000-$100,000 at this point on costs outside of Azure,” they said. “Everybody was like ‘we believe in this idea, and we think we can get this thing off the ground,’ but this business plan was sort of tied to this runway through Azure.”

Part of the problem, the founder explained, was that once you’ve actually built around Azure, switching to another platform causes a host of problems. They accepted that part of the reason Microsoft was offering such a deal was to lock people into Azure, but the abrupt shift with no warning is causing massive problems.

I’m not contesting the legality of their choices. It’s just that, you know, this is people’s lives you’re playing with

“I’m not contesting the legality of their choices. It’s just that, you know, this is people’s lives you’re playing with,” the founder told us.

“If someone has taken it seriously enough to get to this point, maybe they need to just stop accepting new applications and give everyone a few months’ notice, that’s fair enough. If you really kind of hitch your business plan to a program and then it abruptly disappears, that’s pretty catastrophic.”

Redmond said that it isn’t changing its Pegasus Program, an invitation-only group of people who are already working within the Microsoft for Startups program. Pegasus links startups to Microsoft sales and assigns them a dedicated Cloud Solutions Architect to act as tech support.

But overall, the changes mean there’s very little middle ground for startups seeking financial incentives from Microsoft to use its cloud platform. There’s $5,000 Azure credits for the early stages, and then you’re on your own until you can attract investors.

Thankfully, there are at least other options, even if it means reworking an application. Google for Startups Cloud Program is offering $200,000 in cloud credits, and $350,000 if it’s an AI idea, as well as advice from staffers. Amazon too has its AWS Activate program offering up to $100,000 in credits, or up to $300,000 additional credits for startups using Trainium or Inferentia.

Microsoft had no comment at the time of going to press. ®

Air India is fighting two battles in the wake of the AI-171 crash: one with grief, and another with fraud. As it tries to help families of the 260 people who lost their lives lost in the June 12 tragedy, Air India reported a series of fake handles cropping up on X (formerly Twitter), masquerading as official support accounts offering “help” to the families of victims. “We have flagged multiple handles that pretended to offer assistance. We don’t want anyone to fall prey to fraudsters at such a vulnerable time,” said a source familiar with the matter.The deceit is not limited to social media. The airline’s dedicated helplines, set up for grieving families and survivors, have received a staggering number of calls. While some heartbreaking, others bizarre.“Just three days after the crash, a caller claimed that a friend on the flight was carrying their Louis Vuitton bag and demanded Rs 1.5 lakh as compensation,” said the source. Another wanted reimbursement for “precious jewellery” allegedly in a relative’s luggage. One even asked for free international tickets for their entire family this winter, claiming to be a distant relative of a victim.“Amid the massive outpouring of grief in the aftermath of India’s worst air disaster in recent memory, a few individuals have been trying to use this situation to make a quick buck. It is painful to see some people, claiming to be related to the passengers, trying to take advantage of the situation,” the source said.Air India had set up two 24/7 helpline numbers to handle inquiries and provide support. On Day 1 alone, the helplines received more than 10,000 calls, many from inconsolable family members. “The volume was overwhelming, but it wasn’t just that. The emotional trauma of listening to the raw grief of callers broke down many of our call centre staff. Some fainted, others needed counselling or medical help,” the source said.Air India did not respond to queries sent by TOI.In the days following the crash, Air India announced an interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the families of each of the deceased and to the lone survivor to address immediate financial needs. These payments began rolling out from June 20.Tata Sons, the airline’s parent company, announced an additional compensation of Rs 1 crore for the next of kin of each victim. To ensure transparent and long-term support, a dedicated trust with a corpus of Rs 500 crore is being set up.Support on the ground has also come from a massive network of volunteers. More than 500 staff from Air India and 17 other Tata Group companies were deployed in Ahmedabad, each bereaved family was assigned a dedicated caregiver trained to assist with grief management, logistics, and support.

Sometimes you can’t help but wonder if life would’ve been simpler for kids without all this technology floating around them. It’s not that parents hate all of it, some of it’s useful, but you know, there’s this feeling, this small wish sitting quietly at the back of their minds. What if some things just… weren’t there?

Parents these days, they’ve seen their kids grow up surrounded by screens, apps buzzing all the time, and platforms that keep pulling them in. It’s not something older generations ever had to figure out. You get the sense that a lot of parents are just trying to keep up, while also wondering if maybe, just maybe, their children would’ve had an easier time without some of these things crowding their world.

Actually, when asked what they wish had never been invented, many parents didn’t hesitate. It wasn’t even close. The thing they wanted gone most? Online adult content. In a recent survey conducted by TheHarrisPoll, over seven out of ten parents felt life would’ve been much better for their children if that part of the internet had simply never existed. Hard to argue with them on that one.

But it didn’t stop there. Social media, in general, made a lot of parents uncomfortable. More than half wanted it out of their children’s lives. If you dig a little deeper, TikTok and X (what people used to call Twitter) were right up there, about six in ten parents would’ve gladly erased both. Instagram didn’t get much love either. More than half would’ve preferred it gone.

Then there’s the whole messaging app thing. At first glance, it seems harmless enough, right? Just texting, chatting. But nearly half the parents wished those apps weren’t part of their kids’ childhood either. It’s probably about the constant connection, that thing where kids can’t really put their phones down anymore. Speaking of phones, yeah, smartphones themselves weren’t off the hook. About four out of ten parents wanted to ditch those too. There’s this sense that smartphones made it harder for kids to just… be kids.

Video games came up as well. Some parents were okay with them, but still, about a third thought life would’ve been better without them. And surprisingly, the internet itself wasn’t completely safe from this list. Around three in ten parents would’ve preferred a world where the internet didn’t follow their kids everywhere they went.

Even streaming services, which most families use all the time now, raised some concerns. About one in five parents would’ve liked to skip those too. Funny enough, television, the old-school one that’s been around forever, still made the list. Not a huge number, but about one in six parents thought their children would’ve been better off without it.

In a way, it’s like parents are standing there watching this flood of technology sweep through childhood, and they’re not sure what to keep and what to wish away. Some tools help, sure, but deep down, a lot of them seem to carry this quiet wish, that their children could’ve grown up a little less connected, a little more free.

Note: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools.

Read next: New Study Shows How Search Queries Reflect Personal Biases and Limit Exposure to Contrasting Information

VTubers are coming to America, and as they do, they are rewriting some trends that underscore their initial rise in East Asia. That’s one of the key takeaways from a new report published by Big Games Machine, which surveyed the gaming-related habits of U.S.-based YouTube viewers.

According to the preamble of the report, Big Games Machine conducted its survey to suss out “the key content types gamers watch the most, which gamer demographics watch what, and what makes gamers choose one content creator over another.” The firm gathered opinions from 1,050 U.S.-based gamers who spend at least 30 minutes per week watching YouTube. The sample had an even split of men and women.

Many of the findings back up long-held beliefs about YouTube consumption. Guides and tutorials are the most commonly viewed gaming videos among the survey respondents, with 47% of them watching that genre. Reviews (40%) and funny compilations (40%) are other popular categories.

18% of the respondents watch VTubers on YouTube, but drilling into that percentage reveals a significant gender disparity. 23% of women said that they watch VTubers, compared to 14% of men. For esports content, the trend flipped the other way, with 14% of men watching compared to 6% of women.

The VTuber data is particularly interesting, as it is a notable departure from viewership trends in East Asia. In Japan, the home of major VTuber agencies like hololive and Nijisanji, the genre is most popular among men. According to data from hololive, 89% of the agency’s Japanese audience is male.

According to Streams Charts, about 70% of active virtual creators are female, but the popularity of VTubers among U.S. women is not just about gender solidarity. Big Games Machine found that women are more likely than men to seek out gaming-driven content on TikTok, whereas men are more likely to frequent Kick.

Does the preference for a social video platform draw women to the big personalities in the VTuber world? In Japan, factors like kawaii culture influence VTuber consumption, but those forces are less pronounced in the West. 45% of Big Games Machine respondents cited personality as a factor that draws them toward certain gaming creators — and that’s good news for VTubers.

At the end of the day, the preferences of gaming content viewers are all over the map, which means that smaller creators in specific niches can stick out beyond their subscriber counts. The Big Games Machine report found that medium-sized channels with fewer than one million subscribers are most popular among gamers. If you want to draw further insights from the data, you can snag a copy of the report here.

Apple’s UAE YouTube channel posted an iPhone 16 Pro ad today, promoting the Camera Control button as a great way to snap quick shots. Watch the video below, and answer our poll: Do you use the Camera Control button on your iPhone?

‘Never miss a shot with Camera Control’

The new ad is aptly titled Snap-a-Mole, and it follows a photographer trying to capture a group of quick-moving moles popping in and out of holes in the desert.

Throughout the spot, Apple highlights the Camera Control button’s multiple features, as the photographer presses and swipes away on it to open the Camera app, snap photos, adjust the zoom, and navigate to Photographic Styles.

As it usually does on its UAE YouTube channel, Apple posted two versions of the video: one in English and another in Arabic. Both feature the song “El Sonidito,” by Hechizeros Band.

Interestingly, although the Camera Control button is present on every iPhone 16 model variant, Apple decided to name the video “iPhone 16 Pro | Camera Control | Apple”, although in the actual video it says “Camera Control on iPhone 16”

Here’s Apple’s description of the video:

“Never miss a shot with Camera Control. An easier way to access your camera, adjust functions like zoom, exposure, or depth of field, and toggle between Photographic Styles.”

Accessory deals on Amazon

• Anker 25,000mAh power bank, 100W, USB-C: 19% off, at $109.98
• Anker Foldable 3-in-1 wireless charger, 15W, Qi2: 20% off, at $71.99
• AirPods Pro 2: 20% off, at $199.00
• AirTag, 4 Pack: 24% off, at $74.99
• HomeKit Smart Plug, 15A, 4 Pack: 20% off, at $34.99

In a futuristic world where Japanese office workers are forced to toil for 24 hours a day, who will mete out justice to the evil corporation that employs/enslaves them? A “fully armed cyborg heroine” who will shoot and slash those cybernetic employees and the entire evil org chart, in Full Metal Schoolgirl.

Full Metal Schoolgirl is the next game from Yuke’s, famed developer of pro wrestling games and Earth Defense Force spinoffs, and D3Publisher, known for its delightfully tacky The OneChanbara series (and EDF, of course). As revealed in the game’s debut trailer, Full Metal Schoolgirl will give action game buffs the mass slaughter they crave, all dressed up in Japanese schoolgirl outfits.

As one of two fully mechanized schoolgirls, you’ll climb the massive, 100-story office building of the world’s largest corporation, Meternal Jobz, where the firm’s corporate slaves (the “Working Dead”) stand between you and its evil CEO. As you climb the ever-changing building, fighting further and further, you’ll face office drones of all types and a relentless security system, upgrading your cyber-schoolgirl with upgrades as you go.

Full Metal Schoolgirl is pretty cheeky, based on its debut trailer, and developer Yuke’s appears to be having a great deal of fun with the premise. While the game’s English-language trailer is pretty amusing, the Japanese-language version, with its own peppy theme song, might be even better.

Oh right, also the cybernetic schoolgirls, who will have various unlockable and paid outfits, naturally, are livestreaming the whole thing in-game. Viewers of the girls’ streams will offer donations and upgrades, so that’s fun.

Full Metal Schoolgirl will be released on Oct. 23, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Future plc, the U.K.-based digital publishing company, shut down the 33-year-old consumer technology publisher Laptop Mag on Tuesday, a move that continues the company’s quiet consolidation of its brand portfolio. 

Fewer than 10 staffers were affected by the closure, which was communicated Tuesday in a brief Zoom meeting with employees, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by ADWEEK. The Verge first reported the closure.

A company spokesperson declined to comment.

“After careful consideration and a review of our long-term strategy, we’ve made the decision to close the Laptop Mag business effective today,” Faisal Alani, global brand director at Future plc., told staff.

The shutdown is part of a broader retrenchment strategy. In May, newly appointed chief executive Kevin Li Ying disclosed in Future’s half-year earnings that the company had shuttered 19 underperforming brands in fiscal year 2024, followed by four more in the first half of 2025. 

The closures, which included niche verticals and smaller tech titles, were described as “immaterial to revenue and profit.” Laptop Mag, which reviewed computers, accessories, and consumer electronics, was one of those smaller brands. 

The decision to wind down Laptop Mag comes amid ongoing commercial headwinds for Future. 

In its May earnings report, the company revealed a 3% year-over-year decline in revenue, largely driven by softness in U.S. advertising and a weaker pound. And its business, which like other media firms built around Google search, has been impacted by dramatic shifts in consumer behavior, according to a person familiar with its traffic.

The publisher has also made headlines for leadership turmoil. 

Jon Steinberg, the former BuzzFeed and Cheddar executive who joined Future as CEO in April 2023, abruptly stepped down at the end of March 2025, less than two years into the role. Steinberg had helped lead the initial brand rationalization push, which aimed to streamline Future’s portfolio and double down on high-margin verticals.

His departure prompted investor concern and a 10% drop in Future’s share price on the day it was announced. Chief Financial Officer Penny Ladkin-Brand also stepped down, adding to the uncertainty around the company’s direction.

The shutdown of Laptop Mag fits squarely within the dominant M&A and restructuring trend seen across digital media this year: portfolio paring. 

As publishers contend with declining referral traffic, shifting ad markets, and the rise of AI-driven content, many have moved away from volume and scale in favor of leaner, more profitable operations.

“This is the year of cleaning house,” a media investment banker told ADWEEK in May. “Most of the M&A we’re seeing in 2025 is not expansion—it’s contraction.”

As part of the “Treasure Tail: Shinjuku” quest in Persona 5: The Phantom X, you’ll need to help the Orange Tabby Cat find their Orange Tabby Treasures around Shinjuku. The treasure hunt in Shinjuku requires you to pay close attention to each store front as these treasures will make you complete a couple extra steps.

Here’s where to find every Orange Tabby Treasure in Shinjuku in Persona 5: The Phantom X.

All Orange Tabby Treasure locations in Shinjuku

To complete the “Treasure Tail: Shinjuku” side quest, you’ll need to find seven Orange Tabby Treasures. To help you in your search, we’ve made a map of Shinjuku that is marked with the location of each treasure.

Additionally, you can find a more detailed description of each location in the sections below.

Orange Tabby Treasure #1 — Beside grey bin

For the first Orange Tabby Treasure, you’ll need to head up the stairs found northeast of the jewelry store. Walk up to the

Orange Tabby Treasure #2 — Inside jewelry store

The second Orange Tabby Treasure is found inside the jewelry store. Enter the store and finish the cutscene to receive the treasure.

Orange Tabby Treasure #3 — Beside a garbage can

The third Orange Tabby Treasure can be found beside a garbage can to the south of the capsule machine.

Orange Tabby Treasure #4 — South of convenience store

The fourth Orange Tabby Treasure is hidden behind a gray bin south of the convenience store.

Orange Tabby Treasure #5 — Inside izakaya

The fifth Orange Tabby Treasure is inside a yellow crate in the izakaya, which is just north of the ramen shop in the southeastern corner. Interact with the izakaya to receive the treasure.

Orange Tabby Treasure #6 — Behind club sign

The sixth Orange Tabby Treasure is hidden behind a club sign on the western side of the map.

Orange Tabby Treasure #7 — Inside restaurant display case

The seventh Orange Tabby Treasure is located on the northern side of the map in a restaurant’s display case. Interact with the window to head inside the restaurant and grab the treasure.

Treasure Tail Shinjuku rewards

Now that you have all of the treasure, return to the the Orange Tabby Cat and complete the quest to receive the following rewards:

With the new Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class having been revealed, it’s not a huge surprise that the company has prepared a send-off for the hottest version of the old model. It’s the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S Final Edition, and it gives the little sports sedan (or coupe as Mercedes insists on calling it) a bit of extra flash before leaving the dealer lots forever. What is a little surprising, and frankly a little funny, is that the US only just got the Edition 1, as in the first edition, of the CLA 45 S last year. It highlights a rather short run for the tiny monster in America.

America Didn’t Get The CLA 45 S At First

Now you may be a little confused as to why the US got the CLA 45 S Edition 1 so late in the sedan’s life span, afterall, we’ve had CLA 45s since 2020. Those didn’t have the all-important “S” suffix, which also came with more power. The regular 45 made 382 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque, whereas the 45 S made 416 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. Mercedes didn’t see fit to give us the S until later. It announced the introduction with a light refresh in 2023, and the Edition 1 came along with it. Then, those Edition 1 cars didn’t arrive until 2024. As a result, the US will have only had the most potent CLA 45 for a couple of years, and we’re in the situation where we’ve seen first and final editions of vehicles launched within the same time frame.

The Final Edition Isn’t Hugely Exciting

There’s not really such a thing as a boring 400-horsepower compact sedan. However, the additions Mercedes selected for this Final Edition aren’t exactly exhilarating. It’s really just a styling exercise. The car is available in either matte grey or gloss black, and it features exclusive forged 19-inch wheels. The wheels are finished in gloss black with a yellow rim edges and matching center caps. They go along with black and yellow door graphics and yellow logos on black mirror caps. The design theme carries to the inside that features black leatherette and faux suede along with yellow constrast stitching and embroidery, plus aluminum dash trim. It even has matching black and yellow floor mats and side sills. No changes to the powertrain or suspension are offered, but there is an optional AMG Aerodynamics Package that gives the car a more aggressive body kit. It’s also available either as a sedan or a wagon.

Mercedes didn’t give any pricing for the car, but it is available to order now through the end of the year. This seems to indicate that the production number hasn’t been capped like some special editions. For instance, the CLA 45 S Edition 1 in the US was restricted to just 25 examples. The Final Edition hasn’t been announced for the US, though, so these Final Edition cars may be limited to just Europe.