Welcome to Tech Beat, your daily read on the stories shaping our digital world.
Geologists are raising fresh alarms about tectonic activity beneath the Pacific Northwest, where new research suggests the earth is literally pulling apart along the ocean floor. Scientists say this slow-motion fracturing of the Juan de Fuca plate carries long-term implications for earthquake and tsunami risk along the entire western coastline.
Shifting from the ground to the cloud, Microsoft has quietly retired its Copilot Plus branding from new Surface laptops, just over two years after a launch that failed to capture consumer imagination. The label was meant to signal serious local AI muscle, but with underwhelming sales and a crowded market, the company appears ready to let the hardware speak for itself without the marketing wrapper.
And in the crypto space, Kraken's parent company Payward is making a bold pivot, positioning itself not merely as an exchange but as full financial infrastructure. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi is unifying trading, payments, asset management, and institutional services onto common rails, a move that signals the company is betting its future on becoming the plumbing of digital finance, not just a marketplace.
Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
