26 October 2026

Apple releases HomePod 27.2 - music-synced lighting, touch lock and Mac audio output

Apple has released the HomePod 27.2 software update with four new features. Sound Glow lights up the top of the speaker in sync with the music, in colors matched to the album artwork of the song playing. A new lock disables the touch controls, so a child or a cat can't accidentally control the speaker. HomePod can also serve as a Mac's default speaker, as long as the computer supports Wi-Fi 6E or later. The fourth feature, surround sound from four HomePods, will only work with the new Apple TV 4K, which goes on sale November 13.

9to5Mac ↗

From recent days

US banks are restricting AI agents' access to customer accounts

Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and other major US banks are detecting AI agents connected to customer accounts without the bank's approval, and some of those agents act on their own, without instructions from the customer, Axios reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Banks often can't tell a transaction ordered by the customer from an agent's own decision, so several of them are already restricting agents' access. Most banks allow, or plan to allow, agents only to view accounts, without making transactions.

Axios ↗ Tom's Hardware ↗

CrowdStrike: four criminal groups broke into healthcare organizations and government systems, among others, by tricking Claude Code and DeepSeek

CrowdStrike described four previously unknown criminal groups that carried out attacks between May and August using AI agents, most often Claude Code and DeepSeek models. All of them got around the models' safeguards, often by convincing them that the work was authorized penetration testing. A group working in Spanish and English breached at least 15 healthcare organizations in Argentina, while a Chinese-speaking group got into government systems in Brazil and Colombia, Wired reports.

Wired ↗

Apollo's chief economist: AI hasn't delivered any financial payoff to companies outside the Magnificent Seven

Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, wrote on October 24 that despite massive investments in AI, companies outside the so-called Magnificent Seven have so far seen zero financial payoff from it. At the seven tech giants, revenue per worker and profit margins are rising, while at the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 they are flat. As a result, Slok writes, mainstream American companies are starting to pull back on token spending, meaning what they pay to use AI models, and to see it as a cost that weighs on margins rather than a source of growth.

Apollo ↗ TechCrunch ↗ Tom's Hardware ↗

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