E-commerce and trade Archives | Page 53 of 200

Adobe Premiere debuts free mobile app for iPhone users

The US software company, Adobe, has launched a free version of its Premiere video-editing software for iPhone, bringing professional-level tools to mobile creators. The app is now available worldwide in Apple’s App Store, with an Android release still in development.

A new mobile Premiere app that allows users to edit videos on a multi-track timeline, enhance audio with AI-powered sound effects, and create studio-quality voiceovers. It also offers millions of free multimedia assets, including images, fonts, stickers, and audio files.

Projects can be exported directly to platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, with the app automatically adjusting video sizes for each platform.

Users can start editing on the iPhone app and then transfer their projects to Premiere Pro on a desktop for more advanced refinements. Adobe has also integrated its generative AI, enabling features such as backdrop expansion, image-to-video conversion, and custom AI stickers.

While the app is free, upgrades are available for additional storage and generative credits.

The launch highlights Adobe’s push to make professional editing more accessible to streamers, podcasters, and vloggers.

By blending mobile flexibility with cross-platform collaboration, the company aims to empower creators to produce high-quality content anytime and anywhere.

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Portugal to bring AI into bureaucracy to save time

The Portuguese government is preparing to bring AI into public administration to accelerate licensing procedures and cut delays, according to State Reform Minister Gonçalo Matias.

Speaking at a World Tourism Day conference in Tróia, he said AI can play a key role in streamlining decision-making while maintaining human oversight at the final stage.

Matias explained that the reform will reallocate staff from routine tasks to work of higher value, while introducing a system of prior notifications.

Under the plan, citizens and businesses in Portugal will be allowed to begin most activities without a licence, with tacit approval granted if the administration fails to respond within set deadlines.

The minister said the reforms will be tied to strict accountability measures, emphasising a ‘trust contract’ between citizens, businesses and the public administration. He argued the initiative will not only speed up processes but also foster greater efficiency and responsibility across government services.

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OpenAI’s Sora app raises tension between mission and profit

The US AI company, OpenAI, has entered the social media arena with Sora, a new app offering AI-generated videos in a TikTok-style feed.

The launch has stirred debate among current and former researchers, some praising its technical achievement while others worry it diverges from OpenAI’s nonprofit mission to develop AI for the benefit of humanity.

Researchers have expressed concerns about deepfakes, addictive loops and the ethical risks of AI-driven feeds. OpenAI insists Sora is designed for creativity rather than engagement, highlighting safeguards such as reminders for excessive scrolling and prioritisation of content from known contacts.

The company argues that revenue from consumer apps helps fund advanced AI research, including its pursuit of artificial general intelligence.

A debate that reflects broader tensions within OpenAI: balancing commercial growth with its founding mission. Critics fear the consumer push could dilute its focus, while executives maintain products like ChatGPT and Sora expand public access and provide essential funding.

Regulators are watching closely, questioning whether the company’s for-profit shift undermines its stated commitment to safety and ethical development.

Sora’s future remains uncertain, but its debut marks a significant expansion of AI-powered social platforms. Whether OpenAI can avoid the pitfalls that defined earlier social media models will be a key test of both its mission and its technology.

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Smarter Alexa+ powers Amazon’s new gadgets

Amazon has unveiled a refreshed lineup of devices in New York, designed to work with its new AI-powered assistant Alexa+. The showcase featured Echo speakers, Fire TV devices, a Kindle with a colour display and enhanced Ring and Blink cameras, all set to be released later this year.

After years of investment, the company is seeking to reignite interest in Alexa, adding AI to provide more personalisation and a natural conversational style instead of the more mechanical responses of earlier versions.

New silicon chips promise faster processing across Echo devices, while Ring cameras can now use AI to distinguish between a courier and a potential intruder.

Ring’s founder, Jamie Siminoff, who recently returned to Amazon, demonstrated how updated cameras can assist communities by helping to identify missing dogs through neighbourhood alerts. Siminoff described the effort as turning individual concerns into community action.

Ring devices will be priced between 60 and 350 dollars, depending on features, while Blink cameras now offer sharper resolution for indoor and outdoor monitoring.

Amazon’s device chief, Panos Panay, presented the new Kindle Scribe, a $630 tablet with stylus support, and the first Kindle with a colour screen, which offered a paper-like writing feel.

Updated Fire TV sets and a $40 streaming stick also integrate Alexa+, enabling users to search scenes or retrieve information about actors through voice commands instead of traditional menus.

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Deutsche Börse and Circle join forces for stablecoins

Deutsche Börse and Circle signed an MoU at SIBOS 2025 to integrate EURC and USDC stablecoins into Europe’s financial markets. The partnership links digital payments with traditional systems, delivering innovative, regulated solutions.

The partnership leverages the MiCAR with Circle being the first major global issuer to comply. Stablecoins will trade on Deutsche Börse’s 360T 3DX exchange and Crypto Finance, boosting efficiency and cutting settlement risks for banks and asset managers.

Clearstream, Deutsche Börse’s post-trade business, will provide institutional-grade digital asset custody, with Crypto Finance’s German entity acting as sub-custodian. The setup securely manages stablecoins, streamlining trading, settlement, and custody for market participants.

The collaboration aims to transform financial markets by offering faster, cost-effective, and transparent solutions. Bridging traditional and digital finance, the initiative creates a unified ecosystem for seamless, regulated access to both asset types.

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Visa unveils stablecoin pilot for faster payments

Visa unveiled a stablecoin prefunding pilot for Visa Direct at SIBOS 2025, enabling faster, more flexible global payments. By integrating stablecoins, the pilot aims to modernise treasury operations, offering a solution tailored for the digital-first economy.

Traditional cross-border payments often rely on slow, costly systems that require businesses to hold large fiat balances in advance. The pilot lets companies pre-fund Visa Direct with stablecoins, cutting friction and boosting liquidity for active, efficient capital.

Financial institutions, banks, and remitters benefit from this approach, as stablecoins provide a consistent settlement layer, minimising exposure to currency volatility. Funds move in minutes, not days, enabling dynamic liquidity and predictable treasury for high-volume payouts.

Set to expand in 2026, the pilot builds on Visa’s global network and blockchain programmability, transforming how businesses handle cross-border transactions. Recipients still receive payments in local currency, ensuring seamless integration with existing systems.

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Google unveils smarter AI Mode for visual searches

Google’s upgraded AI Mode in Google Search now supports conversational queries and image uploads, delivering highly relevant visual results. Launched in the US in English, the feature allows users to refine searches naturally, perfect for finding inspiration or specific items effortlessly.

AI Mode simplifies shopping; users describe items like ‘barrel jeans, not too baggy,’ to get tailored, shoppable results. Google’s Shopping Graph, boasting over 50 billion product listings, provides details like reviews, deals, and availability, with 2 billion listings refreshed hourly.

The update harnesses Gemini 2.5’s advanced multimodal capabilities and a ‘visual search fan-out’ technique, enabling deeper image analysis. The approach identifies subtle details and secondary objects, ensuring results align closely with the user’s intent and the image’s full context.

On mobile, users can dive deeper by searching within specific images, asking follow-up questions to explore creative ideas or pinpoint exact items. The intuitive experience transforms how users seek inspiration or shop online, making searches more natural and precise.

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OpenAI launches Instant Checkout to enable in-chat purchases

OpenAI has launched Instant Checkout, a feature that lets users make direct purchases within ChatGPT. The initial rollout applies to US Etsy sellers, with Shopify merchants to follow.

The system is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol, which OpenAI co-developed with Stripe, and currently supports single-item purchases. Future updates will add multi-item carts and expand to more regions.

According to OpenAI, product results in ChatGPT are organic and ranked for relevance. The e-commerce framework will be open-sourced to accelerate integrations for merchants and developers. Users can pay using cards already on file, and transactions involve explicit confirmation steps, scoped payment tokens, and limited data sharing to build trust.

Michelle Fradin, OpenAI’s product lead for ChatGPT commerce, said the goal is to move beyond information retrieval and support real-world actions. Stripe’s president for technology and business, Will Gaybrick, described the partnership as laying economic infrastructure for AI.

Merchants will pay a small fee on completed purchases, while users are not charged extra and product prices remain unchanged.

Reuters reported that Etsy and Shopify’s stocks rose significantly following the announcement, with Etsy closing up nearly 16 percent and Shopify more than 6 percent. The company plans to extend the system to more merchants and payment types over time.

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OpenAI deal boosts Etsy stock in dramatic market response

Etsy’s shares rose almost 16% on Monday following news that the platform is partnering with OpenAI to enable direct purchases through ChatGPT.

Under the new “Instant Checkout” feature, US ChatGPT users can purchase products directly from US Etsy sellers within the chatbot interface. OpenAI plans to bring more merchants, such as Shopify sellers, into the system soon.

The juxtaposition of AI and e-commerce signalled to markets a leap in monetisation potential for ChatGPT. Investors viewed the move as shifting ChatGPT from a content tool into a transactional platform. Shopify’s shares also saw gains.

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AI agents complete first secure transaction with Mastercard and PayOS

PayOS and Mastercard have completed the first live agentic payment using a Mastercard Agentic Token, marking a pivotal step for AI-driven commerce. The demonstration, powered by Mastercard Agent Pay, extends the tokenisation infrastructure that already underpins mobile payments and card storage.

The system enables AI agents to initiate payments while enforcing consent, authentication, and fraud checks, thereby forming what Mastercard refers to as the trust layer. It shows how card networks are preparing for agentic transactions to become central to digital commerce.

Mastercard’s Chief Digital Officer, Pablo Fourez, stated that the company is developing a secure and interoperable ecosystem for AI-driven payments, underpinned by tokenized credentials. The framework aims to prepare for a future where the internet itself supports native agentic commerce.

For PayOS, the milestone represents a shift from testing to commercialisation. Chief executive Johnathan McGowan said the company is now onboarding customers and offering tools for fraud prevention, payments risk management, and improved user experiences.

The achievement signals a broader transition as agentic AI moves from pilot to real-world deployment. If security models remain effective, agentic payments could soon differentiate platforms, merchants, and issuers, embedding autonomy into digital transactions.

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