NerdNews

Amazon has announced Alexa+, an upgraded version of its virtual assistant with improved conversational abilities and a persistent memory of voice chats. The new service will be available for $19.99 per month, but free for Amazon Prime members. It will offer features like real-time Uber and OpenTable reservations, voice-to-text transcriptions, and more detailed TV and movie queries.

Alibaba is offering free access to its generative AI models, which can produce realistic videos and images from text and image input. The models, part of the Wan 2.1 series, are now open source and available for download and modification on Alibaba Cloud's ModelScope and Hugging Face platforms.

Amazon's new Alexa Plus features AI-powered conversations, smart home control, and personalized recommendations. It will be available for $19.99/month or free for Amazon Prime members. Alexa Plus can perform tasks like ordering groceries, sending event invites, and booking dinner reservations.

GitHub Copilot Extensions are now generally available, enabling developers to access external services, generate code, and execute actions directly from their IDEs. Extensions can be created to work with internal libraries or APIs, and GitHub has published repositories to help devs build their own extensions. Supported clients include Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and JetBrains' IDEs.

Amazon has launched Alexa+, an updated version of its digital assistant, to compete with Google's Gemini AI. Alexa+ offers new features such as conversational interactions, contextual understanding, and integration with Amazon devices. It can help with tasks like ordering food, checking security cameras, and playing music. Alexa+ is available for $20/month or free for Amazon Prime members.

Apple's Vision Pro is getting an update with Apple Intelligence and ChatGPT features, including AI writing tools, Genmoji, and Image Playground. The update also allows guest users to access the headset with limited permissions and stream what they see to the owner's iPhone or iPad.

Google Cloud has launched quantum-safe digital signatures in its Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS) to mitigate the risk of quantum computers breaking current encryption methods. The new feature supports two post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms: FIPS 204 and FIPS 205. This move aligns with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) PQC standards and aims to protect against the 'Harvest Now, Decrypt Later' (HNDL) threat.

Adobe has introduced a new version of Photoshop for smartphones, featuring tools for design, editing, and image generation. The app integrates with the web version and offers precise selection tools, unlimited layers, and masks. It also includes Adobe's generative AI, Firefly, and supports PSD files and high-quality import and export functions. A new subscription plan provides access to premium features and additional capabilities for the web version of Photoshop.

A consortium of software companies has launched Opengrep, a fork of Semgrep's open-source software, in response to licensing changes for rules provided in the OSS version. The key motivation behind the new Opengrep fork is to keep the engine and rules for the project open and transparent, with an open merit-based contribution system.

Olalekan Elesin discusses how generative AI tools on AWS can improve developer productivity, streamline workflows, and foster a more efficient development environment. He introduces Amazon Bedrock, code review assistant, agentic code generation, and code summarization, and shares examples of how these tools can be used to elevate developer experience.

Alexa+ is a new version of Amazon's digital assistant that uses generative AI to detect tone and mood, and respond accordingly. It has contextual awareness, can understand natural language, and integrates with various Amazon services and third-party apps. Alexa+ will be available with Amazon Prime or separately for $20/month, and will initially roll out to devices with screens.

Nvidia made $22.09 billion in profit in Q4 2025, with average profit of $2,300 per second. This is the company's fourth consecutive record-breaking quarter, with quarterly and annual revenue records set. Gaming revenue was down, but all other businesses saw increases.

OpenAI is set to release GPT-4.5, codenamed Orion, with references found in the Android version of ChatGPT and confirmation from a source familiar with the plans. The launch is expected to happen soon, possibly today.

Nvidia's Q4 revenue reached $39.3 billion, a 12% sequential jump from Q3, with $11 billion from Blackwell parts. Profit for the quarter was $22 billion, 14% up from Q3. The company forecasts a 9.4% quarter-on-quarter revenue increase for Q1 2026.

Arm has announced the Cortex-A320, a 64-bit CPU core designed for edge AI workloads, which can be paired with the Ethos-U85 neural processing unit (NPU) accelerator. The Cortex-A320 is the smallest Armv9 implementation and provides an AArch64 instruction set, with a single-issue, in-order, eight-stage core and up to 64KB in L1 cache. It is expected to be used in a range of applications, including smartwatches, wearables, and server baseboard management controllers.

Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa has seen a 20% increase in engagement in 2024 compared to 2023, according to Amazon's devices and service chief Panos Panay. The exact metrics are unclear, but this growth indicates a significant rise in user interaction with Alexa.

A threat actor known as EncryptHub has breached 618 organizations worldwide, using spear-phishing and social engineering attacks to gain access to corporate networks. The group installs RMM software, deploys information stealers like Stealc and Rhadamanthys, and in many cases, deploys ransomware on compromised systems.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has launched a bounty program to help recover $1.5 billion in Ethereum stolen by North Korea's Lazarus crime-ring. The program offers up to $140 million in rewards for information leading to the recovery of the stolen funds. Bybit's CEO, Ben Zhou, has vowed to eliminate Lazarus and other bad actors in the industry.

A job scam used OpenAI's branding to trick international workers, particularly in Bangladesh, into investing cryptocurrency. The scammers, posing as OpenAI employees, promised consistent income and recruited workers through Telegram. However, the scam disappeared overnight, leaving workers with significant financial losses. The scam is believed to have affected over 6,000 people, with total losses estimated to be around $50,000. The incident highlights the growing concern of job scams and cryptocurrency fraud, and the need for increased awareness and protection for vulnerable workers.

ByBit, a cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked, resulting in the theft of $1.4 billion in Ethereum. The hackers used a 'masked transaction' to trick the exchange into signing a change in the code of the smart contract controlling a wallet holding its Ethereum stockpile. This is the largest crypto theft ever recorded, surpassing previous hacks of Mt. Gox and FTX.