This results from delays that leave the public in doubt of the company’s promises and its place in an already crowded market.

Trump Mobile’s customer service team has told the Financial Times that the recent U.S. government shutdown disrupted shipments, adding there was a “strong possibility” the handset would not be delivered this month. 

That admission is the clearest sign that the device, unveiled in June, is still far from ready.

Trump Mobile was launched after the Trump family business licensed its name for a new mobile service and a $499 smartphone known as the T1. 

Presented as a patriotic alternative to mainstream brands, the phone was pitched as a gold-accented, U.S.-assembled device. Months on, key details are still unanswered, including who is building it and where critical components are coming from.

Rather than shipping the promised handset, the company has begun directing customers towards refurbished phones. Its website continues to take $100 pre-booking fees for the T1 and still points to delivery within the year, despite issues around production.

At the heart of the offering is not a new network but a resale arrangement. Trump Mobile operates as a mobile virtual network operator, using T-Mobile’s infrastructure under what it calls the “47 Plan”, priced at $47.45 per month. 

The branding leans heavily on political identity, a strategy familiar from other Trump-linked ventures.

The delays also expose a structural problem. The United States has little domestic smartphone manufacturing capacity. 

Nearly every handset sold in the country is made overseas, mainly in China, South Korea, and increasingly in India and Vietnam. Promising a home-assembled phone in that context was always going to be difficult.

The market offers little margin for error. Apple and Samsung top U.S. smartphone sales, leaving limited space for newcomers without scale, supply chains, or technical differentiation. 

For Trump Mobile, appeal appears to rest more on loyalty and symbolism than on hardware innovation.

The company did not respond to requests for comment on the delays or on the shift towards refurbished devices. 

For now, the gold phone remains a concept rather than a product, and the gap between the promise and the delivery is becoming harder to ignore.

The feature, called “Your Year with ChatGPT,” is now available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

It is open to users on Free, Plus and Pro plans, but not to those on Team, Enterprise or Education accounts.

Rather than a long archive of chats, the recap focuses on patterns. It pulls out broad themes from conversations, basic usage numbers, and light-hearted labels that show how people interacted with the chatbot during the year. 

Some users are assigned named archetypes and awards based on whether they leaned more towards research, problem-solving, or creative work. The experience also includes short poems and images tied to recurring topics.

This looks like OpenAI borrowing a familiar playbook. The format resembles Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature, which turns user data into a shareable and playful summary. In this case, the aim appears to be making ChatGPT feel less like a tool and more like a personal product people return to often.

Access is not automatic. Users must have memory and chat history switched on and must have met a minimum activity level during the year. Those with limited use will only see basic statistics, not the full experience. 

OpenAI says the recap is optional and designed to be privacy-forward, with users able to turn off the underlying settings at any time.

The feature is being promoted inside the ChatGPT app but does not open by itself. Users can view it on the web version or on the iOS and Android apps, or trigger it by directly asking for their year-end summary.

Personalised recaps have become a proven way to boost engagement, and competing platforms are experimenting with similar ideas.

OpenAI is focusing more on habit-building and productivity, keeping ChatGPT present in everyday digital life, even after the work is done.

The company’s platform, which serves over two million users monthly, aims to reduce the typical 79-day purchase decision cycle to under a single day.

Shopping online has become a complex, time-consuming task. Consumers bounce between tabs, sift through over-optimised product listings, and struggle to separate real reviews from marketing spin. 

Onton’s founders saw the stress firsthand. “We are building the future of decision making online,” said Zach Hudson, CEO and co-founder of Onton. “People deserve a way to shop that feels intelligent, transparent, and effortless. Onton is designed to remove the friction that slows everyone down and to give users absolute confidence in their choices.”

The startup’s platform combines a novel neurosymbolic AI foundation with a new interface, enabling users to search using natural language, images, or both. It consolidates information from across the web into single, trustworthy product listings. 

Users can also leverage creative tools like Imagine and Surfaces to visualise and instantly find items they dream up. Onton reports a conversion rate three times higher than the industry average, with over 20% of users engaging weekly.

Onton’s journey began when co-founders Alex and Zach recognised a similar problem which was spending countless hours hunting for products. 

Alex spent 30 hours searching for a mid-century gray couch, while Zach had been researching trust in online reviews. After meeting at a YC Startup School event, they combined their expertise, launched early versions of the product, and scaled monthly users from one million with four employees at the start of 2025 to ten today, with five more hires expected soon.

The current funding round, led by Footwork and joined by Liquid 2, Parable Ventures, and 43, brings Onton’s total capital to approximately $10 million. The investment will support product expansion, team growth, and international scaling.

Consumers are demanding smarter search tools. Unverified online content, disappearing trusted product recommendations, and brands locking information behind walled gardens have created new pressures. 

Onton was built as an intelligent assistant rather than a simple search engine, helping users cut through the noise and make fast, confident decisions.

Users report tangible benefits. One described finding quality products aligned with his interests without spending hours researching. Another confirmed that Onton reassured her items were unique, allowing her to purchase with confidence rather than continuing endless browsing. Heavy users are conducting over 100 searches and product generations monthly.

Onton plans to expand beyond home décor and furniture into apparel and electronics, guided by existing user demand in online shopping. The company will continue refining its knowledge graph, enhancing its data pipeline, and preparing a personalised search experience adaptable to individual needs. 

Its ultimate goal is to become a global decision-making tool for any product in any category, anywhere in the world.

This shows a return to the wearable tech space after its failed Halo project.

The deal is not final yet, but Amazon confirmed the acquisition plans shortly after Bee’s co-founder and CEO, Maria de Lourdes Zollo, announced it on LinkedIn.

The post, which also thanked Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior executive in devices and services, pointed to Bee falling under his unit once the transaction closes.

Launched in 2022, Bee has created a $50 wearable device, paired with a $19 monthly subscription, designed to passively listen to conversations and generate summaries, to-do lists, and reminders. While that may sound intrusive, Bee says it prioritises user control. The bracelet can be muted manually, and Zollo’s team claims users can delete data at will.

“We imagined a world where AI is truly personal, where your life is understood and enhanced by technology that learns with you,” Zollo wrote. She did not respond to direct questions following the announcement.

At the heart of Bee’s technology is a promise of an AI companion that listens constantly but respectfully. The company claims it won’t save audio recordings, nor use them to train its AI models. However, it does retain the data the AI collects about a user, what the device learns from interactions.

Bee also stated it’s developing tools that allow users to limit when and where the device operates. This includes the ability to pause recording based on location or topic, as well as building on-device AI processing to reduce reliance on cloud storage, steps it says are meant to bolster trust.

Still, we’d see if these principles will survive once Bee becomes part of Amazon. The tech giant’s record on data privacy faced issues after its Ring subsidiary gave law enforcement access to user camera footage without consent or warrants. 

In 2023, Ring also settled Federal Trade Commission claims that its employees and contractors had overly broad access to private video data.

This acquisition shows Amazon’s effort to reinvent how users interact with its technology. After the demise of the Halo fitness tracker line in 2023, and with competition from Meta’s AI glasses, OpenAI’s io acquisition, and rumours of Apple’s entry into AI wearables, Amazon appears to be recalibrating its strategy. 

With Bee, Amazon is entering a crowded, risky space with enormous upside if executed right.