A bug in AWS has caused some customers' bills to spike from a few cents to billions of dollars













![]()





Texas Instruments graphing calculators have helped many a student with algebra, pre-calculus and upside-down anatomical slang. Now, the company is back with an upgrade for the modern world, the TI-84 Evo. The new device lets you get your math on with a faster processor, a new icon-based home screen and a redesigned keypad.
TI is marketing it as something akin to the Light Phone of calculators. Unlike calculator apps on phones or computers, the "distraction-free" TI-84 Evo is a single-purpose device "designed to do one thing exceptionally well — math." Without notifications, social media apps or even Wi-Fi, there's less to draw your focus away from the math problems at hand. (However, there will always be the sidesplittingly funny "58008" to relieve your boredom.)

The new model's processor is three times faster than its predecessor. It also adds 50 percent more graphing space, a simplified keypad and USB-C charging. There's also a new feature that lets you trace along a graph to find points of interest.
The TI-84 Evo is available now. Individual customers will pay $160. (School districts can contact the company for bulk pricing.) The calculator ships in a modern array of colors: white (the standard model), mint, pink, purple, teal, raspberry and silver.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/texas-instruments-made-a-new-flagship-graphing-calculator-the-ti-84-evo-201903438.html?src=rss
©
It was only a matter of time before they found a way to use AI agents as corporate shills. On Tuesday, Snapchat rolled out AI Sponsored Snaps, a "new way for brands to show up in Chat through AI agents." Or, put another way, it's conversational advertising. (Yay?)
AI Sponsored Snaps will appear in the app's Chat tab (with a light gray "Ad" notation next to the brand name). After opening the chat, you can ask the agent questions about the brand it represents. Snap showed an example from its first partner for the initiative, Experian. The bot offers to answer your questions on saving money, improving your credit score and — there it is — exploring loans and credit cards.
Whether through credit card offers or other means, the AI agent will presumably try to guide you toward behavior that makes money for the sponsor. So, it isn't clear why this would be better for consumers than asking a general-purpose chatbot like Gemini or Claude the same questions. Maybe the answer is as simple as, "It isn't… but they know people will use it anyway."

"Conversation is becoming the most valuable real estate in advertising," Snap's Chief Business Officer, Ajit Mohan, wrote in a press release. "AI is accelerating that shift, turning chat into the place where people discover products, ask questions, and make decisions in real time. The real opportunity isn't just putting ads into those environments, it's designing formats that feel native to how people already talk."
Snap says more than half a billion people have messaged its My AI feature since it launched three years ago. That was despite a shaky start, where the bot told researchers and journalists posing as young teenagers how to mask the smell of alcohol or cannabis and set the mood for sex.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/snapchat-is-rolling-out-sponsored-ai-agents-162720124.html?src=rss
©