AWS/Amazon Athena and EMR

Amazon EMR introduces Long Term Support with Apache Spark 4.1

Update·Sep 22, 2026·Not yet verified

Amazon EMR introduces Long Term Support (LTS) releases, starting with emr-spark-8.1.0 and Apache Spark 4.1. With LTS, designated versions of the AWS runtime for Apache Spark receive 36 months of support. Amazon EMR provides LTS releases with fixes for critical and high severity security, bug, and data-corruption issues, subject to availability.

SQLGovernanceSecurityPricingApache Iceberg

Also shipped Sep 22, 2026AWS in September 2026 →

DatabricksLakeflow

Shopify connector (Beta)

The Shopify connector is now available in Lakeflow Connect in Beta . Workspace admins can control access to this feature from the Previews page. The connector ingests e-commerce data such as products, orders, customers, inventory, fulfillments, and discounts from Shopify into Databricks. Authentication uses the Shopify OAuth client credentials grant.

BetaSep 22

Source ↗

DatabricksLakebase

Lakebase backup schedule API (Beta)

You can now manage Lakebase backup schedules programmatically. The snapshot schedule API lets you read and set a root branch's automated snapshot cadences (daily, weekly, or monthly) and how long each cadence's snapshots are retained. This API is in Beta and available to all Lakebase workspaces. See Create a backup schedule .

BetaSep 22

Source ↗

AnthropicClaude Platform

Claude Opus 5.5 launches with a 1M token context window and 128k output

Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 for long-running agentic coding and knowledge work, with a default 1M token context, 128k max output and always-on adaptive thinking. It costs $4 / $20 per MTok, below Claude Opus 5, and is on the Claude API, Bedrock, Google Cloud and Microsoft Foundry.

GASep 22

Source ↗

AnthropicClaude Platform

Fast mode research preview available for Claude Opus 5.5 on the Claude API

Fast mode, in research preview, can now be used with Claude Opus 5.5 on the Claude API.

PreviewSep 22

Source ↗

AnthropicClaude Platform

Claude API beta lets tools be defined inside mid-conversation system messages

With the inline-tools-2026-09-15 beta header, a tool_addition block can carry a full tool definition, so agents can add tools, change schemas or upgrade server tools mid-conversation without invalidating the prompt cache. The same header covers adding and removing tools by reference.

BetaSep 22

Source ↗

VercelAI SDK and AI Gateway

Drives for Vercel Sandbox are now in public beta

Drives for Vercel Sandbox are now available in public beta on Hobby, Pro, and Enterprise. A Drive is persistent storage that you mount as a directory in a Vercel Sandbox. It isn’t tied to a single sandbox, so you can reuse the same Drive across runs and different sandbox instances.

BetaSep 22

Source ↗