On Our "Virtual Route 99" With Month-End & Quarter-End #RandomThoughts

  

Fall is Before Us.   Our Team prepared the "Grid" above as we will be dark throughout our properties in October and are gearing up for our end-of-year assessments and 2027. 

 We close out with this bucket list for 2027 for all to take advantage of and look forward to our continued engagements in our Virtual Route 99 in November.  OUr team will continue its daily periodic assessments in our Social Corners (Meta; X):

On Our "VIrtual Route 99" (Special Sunday Edition): As The @WhiteHouse Banned CNN, Politico @ MSNOW

 

On Our "Virtual Route 99" (Special Edition): On AI

 

On Our "Virtual Route 99" (Special Edition): On Apple & Other Thoughts On the Tech Scene (Courtesy The Team at the Verge & The Information)

Defense Startup Shield AI in Talks for Valuation of at Least $20 Billion By Julia Hornstein and Jemima McEvoy   Shield AI, a startup building drones and AI-powered software for the military, is in talks to raise new funds at a valuation of at least $20 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraise. The funding round, if it closes, would represent a roughly 60% increase to Shield’s valuation from just five months ago. The planned funding round follows the 11-year-old company’s success winning contracts for its AI software that coordinates drones and aircrafts, called Hivemind, and comes as investors continue to pour money into startups that are building AI-powered weapons and defense systems.

Tim Cook’s Apple: his 10 biggest wins and misses By Emma Roth Expectations for Tim Cook were almost impossibly high when he stepped in to replace Apple’s visionary co-founder in 2011. He inherited a company on a blockbuster run, after Steve Jobs returned and revitalized the Mac, launched the iPod, and oversaw the launch of the iPhone. Now, after 15 years in the CEO role, Tim Cook is stepping down. He’s replaced today by hardware leader John Ternus. Over the course of Cook’s tenure, Apple accomplished a lot, with the launch of plenty of new products, features, and services that the company just wouldn’t be the same without. There were plenty of ups and downs, but Cook helped cement the company as one of the most profitable tech companies on the planet. Read more Dyson made a camera-equipped toothbrush that flosses for you By Andrew Liszewski Dyson is once again expanding its line of personal care products with a device that focuses on your teeth instead of your hair. As the name implies, the $499 CameraJet is the first electric toothbrush to incorporate a camera into the brush head. Available now in ceramic blue or ceramic pink color options, it can let you inspect the inside of your mouth by livestreaming video over Wi-Fi to your phone. But the camera also works alongside an AI algorithm to detect and blast the gaps between your teeth with mouthwash. So while you’re brushing, the CameraJet simultaneously takes care of flossing. Read more I went to the loneliest baseball game on Apple Vision Pro By Mia Sato This weekend, I strapped on an Apple Vision Pro to watch a baseball game in immersive virtual reality for the first time. It was technically impressive, visually pretty remarkable, and also didn’t make that much sense. Apple and Major League Baseball chose a classic match-up of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees for the first of its series of four games streamed on the device. I do not review tech for The Verge, but I do watch a lot of baseball — if there’s a game on and I’m at home, it’s likely on my television. If this is the future of sports, live events, and wearable technology in general, I’d like to see what all the fuss is about. Read more Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human By Thomas Ricker Instagram is finally taking steps to address the rise of fake AI-influencer accounts that have gotten harder to spot. It’s also renaming the “AI creator” label to “AI-generated profile” to make it clear when a profile features an AI-generated person that’s not a real human being. “We’ve heard that people don’t like seeing a profile that seems human, only to find out later that the person featured is AI-generated,” said Instagram in a blog post. “They want to know when a profile features an AI-generated person.” Read more / Your next read  Read Tim Cook's final message to Apple staff as CEO ChatGPT to face tougher regulation in the EU China’s robots race ahead Car owners want tech they can ignore The Galaxy Z Flip 8 is at its best when there’s friction JMGO’s very bright all-in-one projector looks ideal for gamers and sports

Apple iPhone Duo launch event: The 5 biggest announcements This year’s iPhone event included Apple’s first foldable, an upgraded iPhone 18 Pro, and much more.

Apple just wrapped up its first iPhone launch event with CEO John Ternus at the helm, and it did not disappoint. We got a look at Apple’s long-rumored foldable iPhone Duo, along with the next generation of AirPods and the Apple Watch. Here's our roundup of all the biggest announcements from the event.  Introducing Duo

On Our "Virtual Route 99" (Weekly Edition): On El Nino & California

Our home state of California was battered last week by a hurricane and the onset of El Niño.   Our team pulled together this snapshot of the true realities before us, which we will continue to assess:

On Our "Virtual Route 99" Around The World (Special Edition)

 

On Our "Virtual Route 99" (Special Edition): On the 25th Anniversary of 9/11

 

The 25th Anniversary of 9/11 is at hand.   The team at Zeteo pulled together a historical perspective, which we hereby present on this solemn Patriots Day 2026: