There are a long list of complaints about Liquid Glass, from the impact on readability to lag caused by animations. Here are some of the main critiques: Animations run slow, and the interface feels sluggish on older iPhones. The constantly changing colors, shapes, and shading are distracting. The animations make no sense. It looks like a Barbie phone with battery wasting features. Basic actions require too many taps. The bubbles and floaty icons are cartoony. The contrast is awful. Some app icons look blurry. The design is inconsistent, and some things are flat while some are glass. Highlights on UI elements are inconsistent. It’s hard to read things like notifications. The effects are too subtle for the system overhead costs. Not everyone hates Liquid Glass, and there are also many positive comments from people who prefer the new design. Some of that sentiment: It makes the iPhone feel faster. It feels modern and clean, and makes a boring smartphone a little more fun. It’s bright, bouncy, and just plain cool to use. Getting notifications is satisfying, and the Lock Screen keypad is like bubbles. It’s fresh and easy to get accustomed to. iOS 18’s flat UI was depressing, so iOS 26 is an improvement. It’s technologically impressive with the light refraction and diffusion of chromatic aberration. The icons are slick and it harkens back to the OG Apple UI design.
FICO challenges credit bureau dominance with direct score delivery to lenders, aligning pricing with performance and reducing mark-ups to promote affordability in mortgage lending
Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) has launched a program allowing tri-merge resellers to calculate and distribute its scores directly to mortgage companies, effectively bypassing the three nationwide credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. The move comes amid intensified competition with VantageScore, owned by the three bureaus, following the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) decision to let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase loans underwritten with VantageScore 4.0 as an alternative to the Classic FICO score. “Today marks a turning point in how credit scores are delivered and priced across the mortgage industry,” said Will Lansing, CEO of FICO, in a statement. “This change eliminates unnecessary mark-ups on the FICO Score and puts pricing model choice in the hands of those who use FICO Scores to drive mortgage decisions.” Under the new program, FICO will charge in a performance model a $4.95 royalty fee per score. Additionally, a $33 funded loan fee per borrower per score will apply when the loan closes, replacing previous re-issue charges, as FICO recognizes the value its scores provide to insurers, investors and rating agencies. For lenders sticking with the traditional per score only model, the fee remains $10 per score through tri-merge resellers, consistent with prior pricing. FICO scores will remain available through the three nationwide credit bureaus on the same terms, though the company noted it “does not control any pricing mark-ups the bureaus may impose in their channels.” The company is still working with tri-merge resellers to implement the new direct license program. FICO scores are used by 90% of top U.S. lenders, it claims. FICO said the changes align with “calls from policymakers and industry leaders to modernize credit infrastructure and promote affordability, liquidity and access in the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage industry.” Scott Olson, executive director of Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) said: “CHLA welcomes steps that like this to create more options for consumers and lenders, so this appears to be a good first step in addressing our longstanding criticisms about FICO’s monopolistic pricing and practices. Only time will tell, but we hope this direct license pricing will result in net savings — passed along to the borrower — and we will be watching and monitoring this as it plays itself out.”
Liquid AI’s platform enables developers to integrate popular open-source small language models (SLMs) directly into mobile applications just a few lines of code to simplify edge AI deployments
Liquid AI, a startup founded by former MIT researchers, has released the Liquid Edge AI Platform (LEAP), a cross-platform software development kit (SDK) designed to make it easier for developers to integrate small language models (SLMs) directly into mobile applications. The SDK can be added to an iOS or Android project with just a few lines of code, and calling a local model is meant to feel as familiar as interacting with a traditional cloud API. LEAP is OS- and model-agnostic by design, supporting both iOS and Android, and offers compatibility with Liquid AI’s own liquid foundation models (LFMs) as well as many popular open-source small models. The platform aims to create a unified ecosystem for edge AI, offering tools for rapid iteration and deployment in real-world mobile environments. The company also released Apollo, a free iOS app that allows developers and users to interact with LEAP-compatible models in a local, offline setting. The LEAP SDK release builds on Liquid AI’s announcement of LFM2, its second-generation foundation model family designed specifically for on-device workloads. The platform is currently free to use under a developer license, with premium enterprise features available under a separate commercial license in the future.
PayPal-Venmo adds scam detection to friends and family payments scams that originate on social media with alerts can learn and adapt to scam tactics as they evolve
PayPal has introduced a scam prevention tool for PayPal and Venmo Friends and Family payments. Designed to proactively alert customers to potential scams and prevent losses in real-time, the alerts intervene when it matters most — before any funds are sent. “As scammers attempt to coerce people into sending payments that may not be eligible for refunds, including scams that originate on social media, we believe putting more information directly into customers’ hands will empower them to help stop scams in their tracks.” The system was designed to provide fraud mitigation and an improved user experience. The alerts appear when the system detects a possible scam, sharing information about the likelihood of fraud at the point of payments. The alerts can learn and adapt to scam tactics as they evolve, employing AI models that analyze billions of data points and update when patterns change. “This means our system can help more quickly detect a potential new scam, even if we have never seen that specific scam before,” PayPal said.
Walmart is testing a product that offers extended payment terms and treasury management tools for businesses- its Pay by Invoice release is a deeper foray into B2B finance
The current economic climate is stressing supply chain management, with Walmart adding business payment features designed to address clients’ cash flow challenges while expanding its long-standing encroachment into banking. “For small- to medium-size businesses and nonprofits, they need to be flexible and in times of uncertainty it’s especially important,” Ashley Hubka, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Business, told American Banker. Walmart is testing a product that offers extended payment terms and treasury management tools for businesses, nonprofits and government-affiliated organizations. While the big box retailer has long pushed a consumer-focused financial services menu, its Pay by Invoice release is a deeper foray into B2B finance. Walmart’s Pay by Invoice works through TreviPay to set up 30-day terms for business purchases at Walmart. Buyers apply for a line of credit with TreviPay, with options to increase the credit limit as business needs evolve. The product is in pilot, with Walmart planning to expand availability in the coming months. TreviPay, a B2B invoicing and lending fintech, manages credit underwriting, know-your-customer and other risk management. Walmart currently supports debit, ACH, credit card and gift card payments for business purchases, which limits some larger ticket items. Small businesses, nonprofits and schools use Walmart to buy supplies and large grocery orders for events. Larger purchases, particularly bulk supplies, can require credit or financing, which normally forces buyers to use a bank or other outside financial relationship. Pay by Invoice can keep more shopper activity under Walmart’s umbrella. “We’ve noticed a need for more options,” Hubka said. Hubka said the B2B payments expansion is not a direct response to Trump’s tariffs, but she did mention the current environment poses economic challenges. In addition, many of Walmart’s business customers told the retailer that Walmart’s existing payment systems did not support larger purchases, while potential business clients said they could not buy from Walmart unless the retailers’ payment processing system could be expanded to include lines of credit or longer terms than immediate purchases.
Mark Zuckerberg thinks that glasses will be the primary way users interact with AI in the years ahead and those without AI glasses will be at a significant cognitive disadvantage
Echoing sentiments shared in his “superintelligence”-focused blog post, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expanded on his bullish ideas that glasses will be the primary way users interact with AI in the years ahead. During Meta’s second-quarter earnings call, the social networking exec told investors he believes people without AI glasses will be at a disadvantage in the future. “I continue to think that glasses are basically going to be the ideal form factor for AI, because you can let an AI see what you see throughout the day, hear what you hear, [and] talk to you,” Zuckerberg said. Adding a display to those glasses will then unlock more value, he said, whether that’s a wider, holographic field of view, as with Meta’s next-gen Orion AR glasses, or a smaller display that might ship in everyday AI eyewear. “I think in the future, if you don’t have glasses that have AI — or some way to interact with AI — I think you’re … probably [going to] be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people,” Zuckerberg added. “The other thing that’s awesome about glasses is they are going to be the ideal way to blend the physical and digital worlds together,” he said. “So the whole Metaverse vision, I think, is going to … end up being extremely important, too, and AI is going to accelerate that.”
NewtekOne’s integrated onboarding process for business owners delivers both a zero-fee checking account and a merchant payment solution simultaneously, using a single, streamlined data capture in a single online application process
NewtekOne, and its national bank subsidiary Newtek Bank have launched a game-changing innovation for independent business owners: a fully integrated onboarding process that delivers both an approved Newtek Bank true Newtek Zero-Fee Business Banking checking account and a Newtek Merchant Solutions, LLC (“NMS”) merchant payment solution—simultaneously, using a single, streamlined data capture in a single online application process. This unified experience means business owners get everything they need to accept payments and manage cash flow in one step. When a client is onboarded for a Newtek Bank checking account, the client automatically receives an approved NMS merchant account; when a client applies for an NMS merchant account, the client gets an approved Newtek Bank account, with merchant payments settling directly into the Newtek Bank account.1 All activity—banking, batches and returns—is visible to the client and managed from the Newtek Advantage® Dashboard (patent pending). And with the opening of the Instant Merchant Account, business owners can begin accepting debit and credit card payments, with no waiting, no second applications — just instant access to revenue. The Newtek Advantage Dashboard gives business owners a single online portal for banking, payments, payroll, insurance, IT, and more. It’s built to operate in real time, providing transparency and control that legacy banks and third-party providers simply cannot match. Once approved, the client merely needs to authorize the opening of the respective account.
Productivity app Ocean works with Gmail allowing users to turn their emails into tasks and action items and helps triage inbox by letting users filter emails by categories like first-timers, persistent pingers, and emails from contacts
A new personal productivity app called Ocean is launching to help you triage your overloaded inbox, take action on your emails by turning them into tasks, and share your availability for meetings with others, all in one app. The app works with Gmail or Google Workspace accounts, allowing users to turn their emails into tasks and action items so they’re not forgotten. To make this work, the app includes its own Task Manager that has access to the user’s email. That means you don’t have to copy or paste information into an external to-do app while instead gaining access to features that go beyond what Google’s task manager offers Gmail users. With Ocean, you can create tasks using rich formatting, set due dates, organize tasks into folders, and link emails to your task’s notes. It can also automatically pull out action items from longer emails for you. You can choose to manage the emails you mean to reply to later by creating a task as well, instead of leaving them unread or applying a label of some sort. For inbox zero enthusiasts, the killer feature will be Ocean’s inbox triage tools. The app lets you filter emails by categories like first-timers, persistent pingers, and emails from your contacts. It can even surface emails that are marked as spam but might belong in your inbox, so you don’t miss anything important. Ocean also offers subscription management tools in addition to the baseline email functions of composing, replying, flagging, archiving, and deleting email. Plus, Ocean offers built-in meeting scheduling tools that let you set your availability based on your pending and booked events. Here, you can set your open times and block others from booking those meetings at the last minute, which is a handy trick. You can also send an automated email invite to meeting recipients, confirm meeting proposals from a web interface, and automatically add confirmed meetings to your calendar.
YeeldPay, a plug-and-play, compliance-driven payment page automates surcharge rules—accelerating cash flow and facilitating branded, surcharged payments for non-technical merchants.
Yeeld official launch of YeeldPay, a no-code payment page built specifically for businesses that want to recover credit card processing fees through a solution designed for compliant surcharging. Built for businesses who lack in-house developers or custom checkout flows, YeeldPay offers a solution to start accepting surcharged payments – without compromising on branding or customer experience. Key Features: No-Code Setup: Launch a hosted payment page – no engineering support required; Automated Surcharging: Built-in logic automatically aligns with the latest state laws, card brand policies, and funding source restrictions; Stripe-Integrated: Seamless onboarding and processing for Stripe merchants; Accelerated Cash Flow: Reduce time-to-cash and eliminate manual reconciliation; White-Labeled Experience: Keep your brand front and center – no Yeeld branding. YeeldPay is tailored for: Businesses using invoicing, ERPs, Salesforce, or email-based payment flows; Merchants who need a fast, low-effort way to recoup credit card processing costs.
ValidSoft closes the voice identity security gap by integrating passive biometric authentication with advanced deepfake audio detection to protect against synthetic voice attacks in contact centers and online environments
ValidSoft announced a strategic alliance with Reality Defender, the RSA Innovation Award-winning deepfake detection platform, to jointly address the growing threat of AI-generated audio in online communications. As attackers grow more sophisticated — in cloning voices, launching real-time synthetic calls, and exploiting vulnerable identity layers — this partnership sets a new standard for proactive defense of voice communications. This strategic alliance follows OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s recent warnings about an impending AI-generated voice fraud crisis, especially for financial institutions. With the departure of Nuance and Amazon Connect Voice ID from the market, enterprises and governments face a dangerous gap in voice-based identity security — particularly in critical environments like online conferencing, contact centers, and help desks. Together, the companies are closing this gap by launching a best-in-class, battle-tested solution which combines ValidSoft’s leading, patented Voice Identity Platform™, delivering real-time, passive voice biometric authentication and cryptographic voice assurance, with Reality Defender’s market-leading, API-first deepfake audio detection capabilities. The result: a seamless, multi-layered defense against real-time impersonation, fraud, and synthetic media attacks. Ben Colman, CEO and Co-Founder of Reality Defender. “By combining ValidSoft’s real-time voice identity assurance platform with Reality Defender’s AI-powered deepfake detection, we’re delivering a solution purpose-built for the threats.”