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TickTalk Introduces TickTalk Radio™: A First-of-Its-Kind, Parent-Controlled Music and Wellness Platform Built for Kids

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Built in partnership with Feed.fm, TickTalk Radio™ combines fully licensed popular music, science-backed wellness and thematic age-filtering with total parental oversight.

BREA, Calif., Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TickTalk, a leading innovator in kids’ smartwatches and family communication platforms built around its mission of Communication First. Safety Always., announces the launch of TickTalk 6, its next-generation connected smartwatch for children ages 3 to 12. Designed to keep parents and children seamlessly connected through every drop-off, pickup and after-school moment, TickTalk 6 introduces TickTalk Radio™, a first-of-its-kind, fully parent-controlled music and wellness platform built specifically for kids.

While platforms like Spotify Kids, YouTube Kids, and the iHeartRadio Family app offer kid-focused audio experiences, TickTalk Radio takes a different approach, putting parents in greater control of what their children can access. TickTalk Radio is designed around curated, parent-approved station access, giving families more control over the listening experience. The result is age-appropriate entertainment that gives kids the freedom to enjoy music and audio content while keeping parents firmly in control of the experience.

“Caught in the parenting paradox, we built TickTalk Radio™ to solve a common parenting struggle: how to give kids access to music without opening the door to unrestricted streaming platforms,” said Ying Gong, CEO of TickTalk Tech. “This gives children a fun, safe, and age-curated audio experience tailored to their growing independence, while giving parents total peace of mind through complete content controls, zero ads, and no open internet browsing.”

Reimagining Kids’ Audio: Curated by Age. Filtered by You. Made for Kids.
Unlike unrestricted, general-audience streaming services adapted for younger listeners, TickTalk Radio™ was built from the ground up for kids’ devices in partnership with Feed.fm. Feed.fm provides the B2B music infrastructure that powers the end-to-end TickTalk Radio experience by combining pre-cleared, fully licensed major-label and science-backed wellness tracks, expert human curation, age-appropriate filtering, and turnkey streaming technology.

“Kids deserve the joy and discovery that comes with music, without requiring parents to open the door to a full consumer streaming experience,” said Lauren Pufpaf, President and COO of Feed.fm. “TickTalk Radio shows what’s possible when music is thoughtfully designed for a specific audience, combining licensed music, age-aware curation and parental controls in an experience built specifically for kids.”

Key Features of TickTalk Radio™:

Built Specifically for Kids & Families: Purpose-built for young listeners rather than retrofitting general consumer streaming apps.Tiered Age Curation & Higher Safety Standards: Developed in partnership with Feed.fm, the parent-approved stations are structured across three distinct developmental tiers: Junior (ages 3–5), Explorer (ages 6–9), and Tween (ages 9–12). Content moderation goes beyond standard clean/explicit labels by filtering for both language appropriateness and thematic maturity. Fresh content added regularly.True Parental Control: Through the redesigned TickTalk Parent App, parents can manage or oversee preferences, preview any station, enable or disable individual channels, set daily listening duration limits, and adjust access as their child grows.Entertainment + Daily Utility: Features popular, fully licensed major-label music alongside science-backed wellness tracks designed to help children cultivate healthy daily routines around calm, focus, sleep, and mindfulness.Focus Mode Guardrails: Parents can activate Focus Mode during homework hours or bedtime, limiting audio access strictly to Wellness Stations so music supports routine without becoming a distraction.Bounded & Ad-Free Experience: Operating in a completely closed system with zero ads, zero algorithmic social feeds, and no open search functionality, ensuring a safe and contained experience.Music Distribution Innovation: Represents a groundbreaking distribution opportunity for the music industry, bringing fully licensed, major-label music to kids’ connected wearables in a purpose-built environment, without exposing them to open streaming services.Global Connectivity & Cloud Migration: Built-in eSIM activation and optional global travel connectivity ensure uninterrupted access to wellness streaming content anywhere families go.Complete Family Ecosystem: TickTalk Radio™ operates seamlessly alongside the expanded hardware and software suite of the all-new TickTalk 6, integrating FaceTalk™ video calling, Real SMS, TickTalkie™ walkie-talkie communication, AI SmartPin™ location tracking, global eSIM connectivity, and free T-Cloud™ data migration for a secure, unified experience.

What Parents Are Saying:

“It’s so helpful (and reassuring) as a parent to still have total control ‘behind the scenes’ while letting her explore her independence at a pace I feel comfortable with.” — Shanna Wandmacher, Parent Tester

“The music selection is fun, diverse, and all three of my boys found stations they loved. The parental controls also give parents peace of mind and confidence that their children are listening to safe, age-appropriate content.” — Samantha Archer, Parent Tester

Pricing and Availability

At $169.99, TickTalk 6 is in stock at myticktalk.com and Walmart, now rolling out on Amazon, with Best Buy coming soon.

TickTalk Radio™ Subscription: Included as part of the TickTalk Wireless Premium plan, or available as an add-on service for $4.99/month (music availability subject to licensing and territory).

Exclusive Press Access & Media Preview Streaming: Members of the press can request access to stream TickTalk Radio™ via dedicated, password-protected web landing pages featuring embedded music players. This enables journalists and reviewers to experience the distinct Junior, Explorer, and Tween age tiers alongside dedicated wellness programming, thus getting the music experience without the need to test the device. 

About TickTalk

TickTalk is a leading kids’ smartwatch and family communication platform designed to help children gain independence while helping families stay connected without giving kids a smartphone. 

Built around its mission, Communication First. Safety Always., TickTalk brings together safe calling and messaging, FaceTalk™ video calling, location and safety tools, parental controls, wireless connectivity, age-appropriate content, cloud services, protection, and family support through one connected ecosystem.

TickTalk products are designed specifically for children ages 3 to 12, with no social media, no open internet, and no unnecessary digital distractions. For more information, visit myticktalk.com or follow @myticktalk on Instagram.

About Feed.fm

Feed.fm is a music technology platform that makes it easy for apps and connected devices to offer licensed, curated music. We handle the complexity behind the scenes, including music rights, curation, content delivery, and compliance. Our proprietary five-tier music rating system (Safe, Mild, Teen, Adult, Extreme) evaluates tracks for thematic maturity as well as language. That goes beyond standard clean and explicit labels, so brands can build age-appropriate, family-friendly listening experiences. Feed.fm’s Branded Music Service powers white-label, in-app music for companies across kids and family, health, wellness, fitness, and other digital experiences. Learn more at www.feed.fm.

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SOURCE TickTalk

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commercetools Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce as AI Reshapes the Market

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commercetools is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce for the seventh consecutive year.commercetools has been driving AI innovation on how enterprises build, operate and sell, including capabilities like Sphere, Commerce MCP and commercetools for Builders.commercetools is helping global enterprises modernize complex commerce operations and prepare for a future where both people and AI agents discover, shop and transact.

BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — commercetools, the digital commerce AI company, today announced it has been positioned as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce. This marks the seventh consecutive year commercetools has been recognized as a Leader in the report.

As AI reshapes commerce, commercetools is expanding how it supports the enterprises who build and operate commerce experiences, and the shoppers who use them. Global enterprises including JD Sports, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Chemist Warehouse and Mirion Technologies are using commercetools to modernize complex digital commerce, accelerate growth and adopt new AI-powered ways of operating and selling.

“Commerce is moving from systems that simply respond to human instructions toward systems that can increasingly understand, decide and act,” said Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer at commercetools. “We’re proud to be named a Leader for the seventh consecutive year. Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between the flexibility they need today and the autonomy they’ll need tomorrow. Our focus is giving them the technology to support both.”

Over the past year, commercetools has introduced new products and capabilities designed to bring AI across the commerce lifecycle:

Sphere: Brings together commercetools’ AI-native infrastructure and agent governance through Commerce MCP into a unified platform for enterprises to build, operate and sell with AI.commercetools for Builders: Helps anyone build, extend and evolve enterprise commerce faster with AI.AgentSphere: Lets enterprises build and manage AI agents to run commerce operations and agentic shopping, with appropriate guardrails to do so safely and at scale.Modular commerce offerings: Gives enterprises the flexibility to start with the capabilities they need and expand over time, accelerating time to value without requiring a full commerce transformation upfront.Commerce Integration Layer: Centralizes integration logic behind customer-facing experiences. Storefronts, mobile apps and AI agents connect through a unified layer hosted and maintained by commercetools.Smart Data Modeler: Uses AI to accelerate product data modeling, helping teams build the right foundation faster and reduce time-to-launch.

commercetools’ customers include large enterprises across retail, manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare and telecommunications in markets around the world.

To learn more about commercetools’ position as a Leader, download your complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant report today.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms, Aditya Vasudevan, Penny Gillespie, Sandy Shen, Jason Daigler, Mike Lowndes, 19 October 2026

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About commercetools

commercetools, the global digital commerce AI company, helps enterprises transform commerce for the AI era. Built API-native from the start and AI-first by design, our technology enables agentic shopping experiences, automates commerce operations and gives businesses the agility to modernize faster, innovate continuously and operate more intelligently.

More than 500 global brands, retailers and enterprise companies rely on commercetools to power their digital commerce. Together, they process more than $100 billion in annualized GMV, over 700 million orders and more than one billion customer records on our platform.

Media Contact: comms@commercetools.com 

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Phylo’s Biomni Lab to expand the use of AI agents in scientific research at Bayer

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Phylo, Inc. announced today a partnership with Bayer to deploy Biomni Lab, Phylo’s agentic AI platform to accelerate scientific research and evaluation. 

Under the agreement, Phylo will provide Bayer with full access to its agentic platform that helps Bayer scientists bring together scientific literature, biomedical data, and analytical methods in one environment, reducing the manual effort required to assemble and assess evidence. The platform’s inspectable workflows preserve the context behind each result, allowing researchers to review the underlying sources, methods, and execution and apply their own scientific judgment. Bayer scientists will gain access to Biomni Lab for workflows focused on assembling literature and omics evidence for drug discovery.

“This partnership reflects our belief that AI should expand scientific curiosity, not just speed up routine work. Giving our scientists an AI partner that brings rigor to every step lets them explore more ideas, ask bolder questions, and find the insights that move drug discovery forward, ultimately accelerating the pace at which we can bring new medicines to patients,” said Sai Jasti, Senior Vice President, Head of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Bayer Pharmaceuticals R&D.

“For agentic AI to matter in research, it has to earn the trust of the scientists doing the work. Bayer’s selection of Biomni Lab is a strong endorsement of the scientific rigor and AI capabilities we’ve built into the platform,” said Kexin Huang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Phylo. “Our vision is an AI-native operating system for biopharma, where every scientist can direct a team of AI agents to pursue complex research questions. With Bayer, we aim to show what becomes possible when AI capabilities meet deep scientific expertise: more hypotheses explored, more discoveries made, and new possibilities for medicine.”

About Phylo

Phylo’s mission is to bring the best agentic intelligence to every biomedical scientist. Its enterprise-grade AI platform, Biomni Lab, is the first Integrated Biology Environment—a unified workspace where scientists collaborate with AI agents across literature research, experimental design, biological data analysis, and scientific decision-making.

Biomni Lab is now used by leading global biopharma, including Bayer, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical. Phylo is based in South San Francisco, backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Menlo Ventures.

For more information, visit phylo.bio. To learn more about Biomni Lab, visit biomni.phylo.bio.

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SOURCE Phylo, Inc.

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Sandler Partners Welcomes Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region

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New Hire Announcement | Independent Technology Distributor Sandler Partners grows its Sales Engineering team, adding Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sandler Partners, the leading independent Technology Solutions Distributor, announces the addition of Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region, further strengthening its dedicated sales engineering team and the technical support available to Partners in the West Region.

Bryan brings more than two decades of experience designing and delivering complex technology solutions, including enterprise and Cloud architecture roles at Lumen/Savvis and IBM focused on infrastructure modernization and customer success. His expertise spans automation, edge computing, disaster recovery, application performance monitoring (APM), and DevSecOps. In his role, Bryan will support Partners across the West Region, aligning early with them on strategy and leading thoughtful discovery to help them find the right fit for each client.

For Bryan, strong relationships and solid values guide his life and form the foundation of his professional success, a perspective that fits naturally within the Sandler Partners community. When he is not working, Bryan spends time with his family, including his wife, three sons, and a grandson, RVing, boating, and biking, along with pursuing his passion for freediving.

“Bryan brings the kind of hands-on experience our Partners value: he’s been in the room on complex deals and knows how to turn a customer’s needs into the right solution,” says Justin Marano, Chief Revenue Officer, Sandler Partners. “He came to Sandler for the freedom to work across best-of-breed Providers, and our Partners in the West will feel that right away. He’s collaborative, grounded, and focused on helping Partners win. I’m excited to have him on the team.”

“I’m excited to get to work alongside our Partners, helping them navigate complex opportunities and bring clarity to technical decisions,” says Bryan. “For me, it all comes back to relationships. When you build them on trust and shared values, the results follow for our Partners and their clients. That’s something that the Sandler community really embodies, and I look forward to getting to work with our Partners!”

About Sandler Partners
Sandler Partners helps empower its network of leading independent Sales Partners to deliver a comprehensive range of technology solutions to organizations worldwide, including Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connectivity, Cloud, Colocation, Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), and Continuity. Its community-focused approach enables Partners to identify the right solutions for customers quickly and objectively from a diverse portfolio of 220+ Providers. Partner sales agents, VARs, and MSPs gain access to an innovative suite of sales tools within the Sandler Portal—including SCOUT, Solutions Finder, Scout for Solutions, and the Marketing Center—several of which are AI-powered, all backed by a robust support network, dedicated Sales Engineering expertise, and rich marketing resources. Together, these tools and resources empower Partners to focus on what they do best: delivering quality, value, performance, innovative solutions, unmatched expertise, and exceptional service to their clients. Members of the Sandler Partners community also benefit from the industry’s strongest negotiated agreements and a dedicated team committed to ensuring commissions are accurately identified, tracked, and paid. For more information, visit www.sandlerpartners.com.

Sandler Partners – Media Contact
Tina S. Dyksterhouse
tina@sandlerpartners.com
310-861-2295

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandler-partners-welcomes-bryan-rias-as-director-sales-engineer-west-region-302916413.html

SOURCE Sandler Partners

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