The Evening Update: Dell XPS 16 Direct Sales Begin

The Evening Update for October 24, 2026 covers Dell's direct sales of the XPS 16 Creator Edition, Plaud's eSIM-equipped earbuds, and a Windows 11 Insider test of phone controls in Quick Settings.

From our newsroom

Windows 11 tests Android phone controls in Quick Settings

Microsoft is trialling two additions to Windows 11 Quick Settings: a Mobile devices panel and a built-in internet speed test. Both arrived on October 23, 2026 in Experimental build 26340.9767 for Windows Insiders, as described in our earlier report. With a supported Android phone connected, the panel enables Do Not Disturb before meetings, changes the ringer mode and makes the phone play a sound to locate it nearby. The rollout is gradual and limited to the Experimental channel, while the Beta build 26220.9757 shipped the same day without either feature.

Also in the news

Dell opens direct XPS 16 Creator Edition sales worldwide

Dell has begun selling its XPS 16 Creator Edition directly to buyers in the US, Canada, the Eurozone, the UK and Australia, according to Dell's own store listing. Direct sales started October 23, 2026, after a US preorder phase run through Best Buy. The 16-inch model starts at $3,799.99 in the US, with entry prices of CAD 5,299, EUR 4,419, GBP 3,845 and AUD 6,030 elsewhere. It is the first XPS model built on Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X superchip, which places an Arm-based CPU and Blackwell RTX graphics on one package with shared unified memory. That shared pool removes the separate graphics memory ceiling for local AI workloads, and the 128GB top configuration costs $6,999.99 in the US.

Plaud One earbuds add eSIM case and AI agent at 44,000 yen

Plaud announced the Plaud One on October 21, 2026, a pair of wireless earbuds whose charging case carries its own 4G LTE eSIM so the AI agent works without a phone, as covered in the original source report. The device sells for 44,000 yen including tax, with quantities limited during 2026. The earbuds offer active noise cancellation and Bluetooth 5.4, while the case's four MEMS microphones record face-to-face meetings from up to 5 meters away. Battery life reaches 6 hours of continuous recording in the earbuds alone and 25 hours with the case. The eSIM covers more than 80 countries and regions, including Japan, with no carrier contract required, which removes the companion-device dependency that earlier Plaud recorders had.

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Researched and cross-referenced against primary sources by the Bytevyte editorial team. This article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the Bytevyte editorial team.