For months, reports have suggested that OpenAI’s first hardware product would be a screen-free smart speaker designed to act more like an AI companion. We already knew it could understand its surroundings, be carried around the home, and proactively help users. A new Bloomberg report now gives us a clearer picture of what the device may actually look like.

As per the report, OpenAI’s first gadget will be shaped like a doughnut and measure about the same size as a hockey puck. You will be able to carry it between rooms or leave it nearby on whatever surface is convenient. The device is expected to be on the expensive side, as the company has pondered pricing it around $300 to $400. A release is currently planned for 2027.

A smart speaker you are meant to carry around

Previous reports suggested that the device could control smart-home appliances, play media, answer questions, respond to messages, and use ChatGPT to help throughout the day. Voice will serve as the main interface, but the device will also have a camera and environmental sensors. Those additions could let the AI understand what is happening around it instead of relying entirely on spoken instructions. Apple is exploring a similar concept for future AirPods, which could use built-in cameras to understand the wearer’s surroundings.

OpenAI also expects it to become more familiar with its owner over time. Conversations could change according to a person’s routines, preferences, and past interactions, allowing the assistant to offer help before someone reaches for a phone or types a prompt. Of course, the device will have access to advanced models for human-like conversations. OpenAI has already made considerable progress in this area through the recent introduction of ChatGPT Live.

Its body could become part of the interface

Microphones and speakers will handle conversations, while lights will show when the AI is listening or responding. Parts of the device will also move during interactions, giving it the presence of a small robot rather than a speaker sitting passively in the room. The comparison that comes to mind is WALL-E or R2-D2. Their movements and reactions make them feel alive, aware, and emotionally present. OpenAI seems to be pursuing a similar effect by giving ChatGPT a physical form and an expressive personality.

I still have questions about how all of this will work in practice. A moving, doughnut-shaped AI companion could easily feel gimmicky if the design or motion is even slightly off. OpenAI is collaborating with legendary former Apple design chief Jony Ive and his LoveFrom studio on the device, which gives me some confidence that the final execution will feel polished rather than toy-like.

OpenAI president Greg Brockman has already confirmed that the company is building a family of devices, and this small companion could be the first to give ChatGPT a physical presence in users’ homes.

Waiting at the gate stretches on forever when all you have is a phone screen and whatever free Wi-Fi the airport offers. Once the plane doors close, that same stretch of hours can feel even longer. A proper PC game library sitting in your hands changes the entire equation, and the Lenovo Legion Go S, priced at $667 (was $850), is built exactly for that kind of mobility.

The new 2025 portable weighs just 1.63 pounds and is 11.77 inches wide, 5.02 inches tall, and less than an inch thick, making it as easy to transport in a backpack as a big paperback or a slim tablet case. You can put it in a side pocket or under the seat in front of you, and it will just disappear until you need it again. The entire design is really sturdy; there are no loose controllers to lose or rattle about in your backpack to worry about.

Sale

Lenovo Legion Go S – 2025 – Mobile Gaming Console – AMD Radeon graphics – 8″ PureSight IPS Display…

• ALL GAMES, ALL PLACES, ALL YOURS – Get ready to game on the 8″ 120Hz Lenovo PureSight display and launch any title using Legion Space. The AMD Ryzen…
• SEE EVERY DETAIL – Make every scene pop with 500 nits of stunning brightness and 100% sRGB color accuracy. And with 10-point touch support, your…
• PLAY YOUR WAY – Play hundreds of high-quality PC games with your complimentary 3 months of PC Game Pass and EA Play. With new games added all the…

The grips are nicely contoured and fit easily in both hands. The hall-effect joysticks are exceptionally precise, with little drift to interfere with long gaming sessions, and the buttons and triggers deliver sharp, unambiguous feedback. Even after an hour or two of play during a delay or in-flight, your hands are still comfortable and not cramping. The front-facing speakers generate good sound in quieter locations, and there is a 3.5 mm socket for plugging in headphones when cabin noise becomes too loud.

The 8-inch PureSight IPS panel has a respectable 1920 by 1200 resolution, a 120 Hz refresh rate, and variable refresh capability. The colors remain brilliant, and the 500-nit brightness is more than adequate to cut through airport fluorescents or the strange mixed illumination inside a plane. The variable refresh makes motion ultra smooth even when frame rates drop on difficult titles, so the image never becomes choppy on you. If you ever need to rapidly scroll through a menu, touch input works great; no need to grab for that little trackpad.

Under the hood, there’s an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor with integrated Radeon graphics, 16 GB of memory, and a 512 GB SSD. It runs Windows 11 and supports PC games from Steam, Epic, and Xbox Game Pass (three free months included). Older and mid-range games run at solid frame rates with acceptable settings. Newer releases may require you to lower the resolution and detail slightly, but they are still totally playable. That’s the beauty of this thing on the road: you may pick and select the game that best suits your current mood and the remaining battery life.

The 55.5 watt-hour battery provides a couple of hours of hard gameplay or much longer sessions with lighter or well-optimized titles. Lower brightness and power limitations can help you squeeze out every last bit of power. Then there’s rapid charging; after half an hour hooked into the supplied 65-watt USB-C adaptor, your battery is as good as new. That’s useful on a brief layover or at the gate when you need a fast refill before flight. Dual USB4 connections are located along the top edge, allowing you to charge and play while also connecting a portable display if you ever want to blow things up on a larger screen at a hotel desk.

The cooling system works well, keeping the device cool against your palms even during extended gaming sessions, and if you ever need more storage, the microSD expansion slot allows you to load up with a selection of games tailored to a specific trip, eliminating the need to cram the internal drive to the gills. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth are also available to keep downloads and controllers operational when airport networks cooperate.

The Sony Inzone M10S was one of the best gaming monitors of 2024, offering uncompromising performance and a suite of practical tournament-ready features that made it the perfect choice for both professional and aspiring esports players.

Now Sony is back with the Inzone M10S 2, a successor that delivers a number of small but nevertheless impactful upgrades while maintaining everything that made the original so good. It’s the same 2560 x 1440 resolution, but feels even snappier thanks to an increased 540Hz refresh rate and a lower 0.02ms response time. There’s even a dual mode, letting you bump the resolution down to 720p for a staggering 720Hz picture — invaluable for Counter-Strike 2 or Rocket League.

Singapore’s religious organisations brought in over S$1 billion in donations in 2024

There are few sectors in Singapore that receive more than S$1 billion a year without selling a single product.

Religion is one of them.

On any given weekend, tens of thousands of Singaporeans walk into churches, temples, mosques and gurdwaras carrying cash, making PayNow transfers or setting up recurring GIRO donations.

Those individual acts of giving add up quickly, but that money doesn’t simply keep the lights on or fund weekly services. It powers a vast ecosystem spanning schools, childcare centres, nursing homes, healthcare providers, social service agencies, overseas missions and some of Singapore’s most valuable religious properties.

So just how much money flows through Singapore’s religious organisations—and where does it all go?

Taking the largest slice

It’s not really a secret, so much as a scattered one.

Registered charities and Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs), including religious institutions, are required to file annual returns with the Commissioner of Charities, and that data sits in plain view on the Charity Portal (charities.gov.sg) and in the Commissioner’s own annual report.

In FY2024, Singapore’s roughly 2,400 registered charities collected a combined S$29.18 billion in total receipts (donations, government grants and other income), of which S$3.68 billion came from donations alone—up 3.7% on the year before.

Of that S$3.68 billion, religious charities took the single largest slice at S$1.4 billion, accounting for nearly 40% of all charitable donations received that year.

Donations are only part of the picture.

In FY2024, religious charities also reported S$597.5 million in “other income”—a category that includes programme fees and services rendered, investment income, membership fees and merchandise sales, among other sources—as well as S$17.4 million in government grants. Altogether, the sector recorded S$2.02 billion in total receipts for the year.

For some of the larger religious organisations, these additional income streams sit alongside extensive property holdings and affiliated entities, meaning their financial footprint extends well beyond the donations they receive.

Singapore’s biggest religious fundraisers

Christian megachurches are disproportionately visible in these figures, particularly because they are large, urban, well-organised, and required to disclose more than smaller neighbourhood temples or mosque committees.

New Creation Church is the clearest example of scale.

According to its FY2025 filing on the Charity Portal, the church recorded total receipts of S$205,387,076, of which S$154,745,232—about 75%—came directly from tithes and offerings. That puts New Creation’s annual donation income roughly in line with, or ahead of, the totals reported by many local universities and hospitals.

Total expenditure for the year came to S$149,769,323, leaving a surplus on top of already substantial reserves. In its financial reports (income statement and balance sheet), the church has disclosed accumulated funds and reserves of over S$1 billion, held under a stated reserve policy of maintaining at least three months of operating expenses.

Much of the group’s commercial activity is conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary, Rock Productions, which owns and operates The Star Performing Arts Centre and The Star Vista Mall, along with a bookshop and gifts arm, and a travel agency running tour packages, most notably to Israel.

New Creation Church isn’t an outlier within its own tier. Other large congregations—City Harvest Church, Cornerstone Community Church, and Faith Community Baptist Church among them—file similarly substantial numbers.

It isn’t only the churches

The scale isn’t unique to Christianity. It’s simply best documented there, because large independent churches tend to be structured as single, centralised charities with straightforward annual filings.

Singapore’s Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim institutions move comparably large sums.

Major Buddhist institutions such as the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum and large charitable temples like Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple are among the country’s most prolific individual fundraisers, running annual charity drives that rival megachurch tithing totals.

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum recorded S$24,853,980 in total receipts for FY2025, with an estimated half derived from donations and ceremony-related income. It spent S$18,791,738 during the year and ended the financial period with S$74,533,049 in total funds and reserves.

Meanwhile, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple reported S$35,955,465 in total receipts, of which S$28,787,487 (around 80%) came directly from donations. The temple recorded expenditure of S$19,706,028 and held S$238,290,111 in total funds and reserves.

On the Muslim side, key forms of religious giving are more centralised than in most other faith communities.

Under the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA), all mosques in Singapore are vested in MUIS (the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore), which oversees their governance, requires them to use a common financial accounting system, and subjects them to annual external audits. As a result, financial information about individual mosques is generally disseminated through MUIS’ governance framework rather than through standalone charity filings, making mosque-level donation data less readily available on the Charity Portal.

MUIS administers zakat (compulsory wealth tax) collections and other Islamic religious funds. It also oversees the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF), which is collected through employers using the CPF Board’s contribution system.

MBMF contributions are mandatory for working Muslims by default, although contributors can opt out or vary their contribution levels by applying to MUIS. The fund supports mosque construction and upgrading, religious education, and Yayasan Mendaki’s educational and social programmes.

Every working Muslim in Singapore (including PRs and foreign workers) contributes S$3 to S$26 per month—and the scale of these contributions has grown significantly over the decades. According to MUIS, annual gross MBMF contributions collected through the CPF system increased from S$421,203 in 1975 to S$48.9 million in 2024, while the fund’s accumulated reserves reached S$230.6 million as at end-2024.

Separately, MUIS collected S$73 million in zakat in 2024, highlighting the substantial scale of centrally administered Islamic giving in Singapore.

Not all Muslim charitable giving, however, is channelled through MUIS. Voluntary sadaqah (charitable donations) may be given directly to mosques, charities, individuals or through MUIS, and is not centrally administered.

While there is no official nationwide figure for such donations, Islamic Finance Singapore estimates—based on a sample of audited mosque financial statements—that Singapore’s roughly 70 mosques receive around S$105 million in sadaqah annually.

Hindu institutions have a partially centralised governance structure through the Hindu Endowments Board (HEB), a statutory body that administers the endowments of Sri Mariamman Temple, Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, Sri Sivan Temple and Sri Vairavimada Kaliamman Temple.

It also has supervisory powers over the accounts of all Hindu endowments in Singapore, including those it does not directly administer.

HEB reported S$19.6 million in total income for FY2025, including S$4.6 million in donations and contributions as well as S$5.5 million in temple service income. It also managed S$92.2 million in total funds, reflecting the accumulated endowments and trust funds. (Do note that these figures represent only the temples under HEB’s administration rather than the Hindu community as a whole.)

Many independent Hindu temples also receive substantial donations and other income. For example, Arulmigu Velmurugan Gnana Muneeswarar Temple reported S$4.16 million in total income for FY2023, while total expenditure amounted to S$1.18 million. Meanwhile, Murugan Hill Temple recorded S$1.73 million in total receipts for FY2025, with S$954,259 in total expenditure.

The other source of wealth

Beyond cash donations and investment portfolios, many religious institutions have accumulated substantial property holdings over decades.

Many historic religious sites established in the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as the Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery, Sri Mariamman Temple and Church of St. Joseph, sit on freehold or very long-tenure land. By contrast, new Government Land Sales sites released for Places of Worship in newer housing estates are generally offered on 30-year leasehold terms.

Some newer religious organisations have also acquired substantial commercial property assets directly. Rock Productions, the wholly owned subsidiary of New Creation Church, invested close to S$500 million to acquire The Star Performing Arts Centre and The Star Vista Mall.

The property is not merely a venue but also a revenue-generating asset. Rental income made up 17.2% of New Creation Church’s FY2025 total income (amounting to about S$35 million), second only to its largest income stream, which is its tithes and offerings.

Large property portfolios and sizeable donation income naturally raise another question:

How are religious institutions taxed?

Religious organisations in Singapore benefit from two distinct layers of tax relief.

1. Income tax exemption
   Registered charities, including most established religious organisations, are generally exempt from income tax on income applied towards their charitable purposes, including the advancement of religion. But if a charity operates a commercial business through a separate legal entity—as New Creation Church does through Rock Productions—that subsidiary is generally subject to corporate income tax like any other company.
2. Property tax exemption
   Under Section 6(6) of the Property Tax Act, the Comptroller may exempt a building, or part of one, that is used exclusively as a place of public religious worship, for charitable purposes, or for purposes conducive to social development. Buildings used only partly for such purposes may instead receive a partial exemption.

On top of this, charities with Institution of a Public Character (IPC) status (many church, temple and mosque-linked charities qualify) can issue tax-deductible receipts, meaning individual and corporate donors get a tax deduction for what they give, encouraging philanthropic giving.

None of this is automatic or permanent. IPC status, tax exemption and charity registration all come with ongoing compliance obligations and can be revoked.

The safeguards

Singapore’s regulatory scrutiny of religious finances tightened after the City Harvest Church scandal—still the country’s most consequential case of religious-charity misconduct.

The Commissioner of Charities opened a statutory inquiry into City Harvest Church in 2010 following complaints about the management of its Building Fund. The inquiry ultimately uncovered a scheme involving about S$50 million, including S$23 million channelled into sham bond investments used to finance the music career of Sun Ho—wife of founder Kong Hee—as part of the church’s “Crossover Project,” and a further S$26.6 million in transactions intended to conceal the earlier misuse.

The criminal proceedings that followed became one of Singapore’s longest-running trials, running well over a hundred trial days. Kong Hee and five other church leaders were convicted of criminal breach of trust and/or falsifying accounts in 2017. Separately, exercising its powers under the Charities Act, the Commissioner of Charities permanently disqualified the six individuals from holding governance or management positions in charities.

While Singapore’s core charity laws were already in place before the City Harvest scandal, the case reinforced the importance of strong governance and more active regulatory oversight.

Annual financial disclosures and statutory enforcement powers under the Charities Act had long existed, but the years that followed saw governance expectations progressively strengthened through successive revisions to the Code of Governance for Charities and IPCs in 2011, 2017 and 2023. These updates placed greater emphasis on board independence, conflict-of-interest management, internal controls, risk management and financial accountability.

A billion-dollar ecosystem

Singapore’s religious sector moves hundreds of millions of dollars each year, supported by sizeable donation streams, investment portfolios, valuable property holdings and, in many cases, favourable tax treatment. Yet, reducing these organisations to their balance sheets would miss the broader picture.

While worship remains their core mission, a significant share of these resources is channelled into wider public and community purposes.

New Creation Church, for example, reported providing S$265,600 in financial assistance to members in financial distress in FY2025, alongside education bursaries for students from lower-income families, appreciation events for migrant workers, and outings and activities for senior citizens.

Similarly, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple has channelled part of its donations towards broader social causes. According to its FY2025 annual report, the temple pledged S$1 million each to Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University towards bursaries for financially disadvantaged students, and contributed S$50,000 to support caregivers of needy beneficiaries through a local charity.

These examples are far from exhaustive. Across Singapore, religious organisations collectively support a wide range of initiatives.

In the end, the question is not whether religious organisations are wealthy—they often are. The more meaningful question is how that wealth is governed, where it comes from, and how it is used.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: Chinatown Singapore/ Visit Singapore/ St Andrews Cathedral/ ICCS

Autonomous ride-hailing company Zoox will start charging for rides in Las Vegas next week, ending its free pilot program. Starting Aug. 10, the Amazon-owned startup will begin offering a paid service for its pod-shaped, purpose-built robotaxis — a bummer for free riders, but the next logical step for the company in its growth from a flashy startup to a viable business model.

Zoox’s road from pilot program to paid rides has been more of an expressway. CNET Senior Writer Abrar Al-Heeti was one of the first to test ride Zoox’s purpose-built robotaxi in 2024. The pilot program opened to the public in 2025 with free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco, later expanding to Austin and Miami. The pod-shaped autonomous vehicles were among the highlights of CES 2026, roaming the Vegas strip. Since launch, Zoox claims it has carried nearly 1 million riders across its pilot cities, covering over 3 million miles on public roads.

Last week, Zoox announced that it had received the Part 555 commercial exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, giving the company federal regulatory approval to charge for rides in its purpose-built robotaxi. According to a Zoox representative, the next step was completing “the necessary notifications in Nevada to begin charging for rides.”

Starting Aug. 10, Zoox will flip the switch and start charging for rides in Las Vegas.

Optimized pricing

According to Zoox, fares will initially be calculated based on a base fare, distance traveled, time traveled from pickup to drop-off and applicable taxes. Destination fees — for trips to or from the airport or to high-traffic events at the Sphere or T-Mobile Arena, for example — may also apply, following a structure similar to that of other ride-hailing and traditional taxi services. To start, Zoox says it’s aiming to be competitive with ride-hail “comfort” tier pricing (think Uber Comfort or Lyft Extra Comfort), which averages around 20% to 30% more expensive than standard UberX or Lyft Standard.

This initial fare calculation, visible at the time of booking, is the price, not an estimate. Unlike other services that may update the final price based on actual distance and time traveled, Zoox says its optimal-route price is fixed and will not change, even if the robotaxi takes a longer route (for example, to avoid traffic or accidents) or the trip takes longer than expected.

CNET reached out to Zoox regarding the specifics of next week’s transition from free to paid service, changes to the Zoox app and what customers should expect. We will update this space when we hear back.

No more free rides

Las Vegas is the first stop for paid Zoox rides, but it won’t be the last. Eventually, payments will launch in other cities, such as San Francisco, but Zoox says it doesn’t have any additional details to share yet. For now, service for riders in the San Francisco Zoox Explorers program remains free.

Earlier this year, Zoox and Uber announced a multiyear strategic partnership to feature Zoox robotaxis on the Uber app, marking Zoox’s first third-party platform integration. Zoox will continue operating its own separate app in these launch markets alongside the Uber integration.

For tourists and Vegas locals, the end of free rides in Sin City is sure to be a disappointment (who doesn’t love free stuff?), but Zoox frames this as an important step toward becoming a self-sustaining business, rather than just another startup running on venture capital. That positive cash flow will help fuel the company’s continued testing, mapping and research and development work that extends well beyond the pilot cities.

Zoox is also conducting manual mapping and autonomous testing with safety drivers in Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Dallas and Phoenix using a fleet of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders.

Antuan Goodwin

Senior Writer, Electrified Cars

Antuan has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience testing hundreds of cars, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen, and traditional combustion vehicles.

See full bio

Advertisement

For customers juggling multiple devices, Signal has some welcome news. The messaging app announced this week that Android customers can now link another Android phone or tablet to their account. The company also said that iOS customers can link an iPhone to their accounts. Customers can update their existing accounts with Signal iOS v8.22 in the Apple App Store and Signal Android v8.20 in the Google Play Store.

To link, download the Signal app onto the new device, then open the app to view a QR code. On the primary account phone, open Signal and go to Signal Settings > Linked devices > Link a new device. Scan the QR code to link the new device. Customers can link more than one device.

From CNET: I Tried Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, and This Is the One I’d Recommend

If desired, customers can transfer their message history and 45 previous days of saved media to the new device. The company said the transfers process is fully end-to-end encrypted, which means the data is scrambled and unreadable to others.

Improved interface

Signal also says the app will now adapt its layout to different screen sizes so it looks more natural on linked devices, like tablets. When you look at the app on a tablet, it will adjust its appearance to match the tablet’s aspect ratio. The same will hold true for foldable phones, which can have wider screens when folded out, and for iPads and iPhones, the company said.

Signal said customers can also link Chromebooks but that the interface is not completely updated yet.

According to Signal, the rising popularity of foldable phones and devices with unconventional aspect ratios has forced the company to upgrade the app’s appearance across various devices.

What is Signal?

Signal is a free-to-use messaging app launched in 2014 by American cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike (a pseudonym for Matthew Rosenfeld). The app encrypts text messages, scrambling them so they’re unreadable to outsiders, and only the sender and recipient can read them. The app also encrypts voice calls and video chats.

Other messaging apps that also use encryption include Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Session, Threema and Wire. Unlike text messages sent through your regular phone service, encrypted messages can’t be read by your mobile carrier, which can otherwise view and store the contents of SMS and MMS messages sent over its network.

A messaging app that uses encryption is generally secure, but customers should read the fine print, says CNET privacy expert Attila Tomaschek. “Even if your messaging app uses end-to-end encryption, it may still be logging metadata,” Tomaschek said. “In which case, it’s not as private or secure as you may want it to be. So it’s important to check the app’s privacy policy to see how it handles metadata.”

Signal has roughly 70 million customers, putting it well behind competitors such as WhatsApp (3 billion), Snapchat (932 million), WeChat (1.41 billion), Messenger (more than 1 billion) and Telegram (1 billion).

Ever since being admittedly fascinated by the Cambridge coffee webcam from the 1990s, I’ve written about VPNs, the NFL, smartphones, living wages, over/unders and everything in between.

See full bio