Topic: technology journalism
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Apple Tests Encrypted RCS Messaging for iPhone
Apple has begun testing end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging in a developer beta, a foundational step toward enhancing privacy for texts between iPhone and Android users. This encryption, which ensures only the sender and recipient can read messages, is currently limited to iPhones and will be full...
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AI Cybercrime & Secure Assistants: The Download
AI tools are lowering the barrier to cybercrime, amplifying the scale and speed of online scams by enabling less skilled criminals to launch sophisticated attacks. Deepfake technology and AI agents with access to real-world tools present immediate security risks, enhancing existing fraud and crea...
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YouTube Arrives on Apple Vision Pro
The official YouTube app for Apple Vision Pro launches this Thursday, providing native access to the platform's full library, including standard videos, Shorts, and immersive content. YouTube initially had no plans for a Vision Pro app but reversed its stance shortly after the headset's release, ...
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Ring Ends Flock Safety Deal Amid Privacy Concerns
Ring has canceled its planned integration with Flock Safety, citing resource needs and public backlash over privacy, and confirmed no customer video was ever shared. The company faces ongoing trust issues due to recent product features like "Search Party" and "Familiar Faces," which critics warn ...
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Intel Axes Multiple Open-Source Projects
Intel has discontinued several key open-source projects, including the Intel Graphics Compiler for Linux and the oneAPI Construction Kit, to consolidate resources and focus on core business initiatives. The deprecation halts official development and support, shifting maintenance to the community ...
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Linux 7.0 Is Official: Linus Torvalds Confirms Next Kernel
Linux 7.0 has been officially released, marking a major version milestone that reflects a substantial development cycle rather than a single dramatic change. The release incorporates accumulated improvements, including enhanced hardware support for new processors and graphics drivers, alongside r...
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Tracking AI's Rise and the Future of Nuclear Power
Recent AI models like Claude Opus 4.5 are advancing faster than predicted, but true capability requires careful evaluation beyond dramatic performance benchmarks. Surging electricity demand, partly from AI, is driving interest in next-generation nuclear power, such as small modular reactors, for ...
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Samsung Monitors and TVs Now Support G-Sync
Samsung's 2026 OLED TVs and monitors now feature official Nvidia G-Sync support, with select high-end TVs also including AMD FreeSync Premium Pro to eliminate screen tearing. The VRR expansion includes mid-range TVs and new high-refresh-rate Odyssey G6 monitors, enhancing Samsung's competitive po...
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Halide Co-Founder Joins Apple's Design Team
Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of the camera app Halide and studio Lux, has joined Apple's design team, bringing significant expertise in mobile photography and UI design. He has a prior history of design work for Apple on projects like iCloud and Find My, which should facilitate his integration ...
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How Google's AI Created My Nintendo Game Rip-Offs
Google DeepMind's Project Genie is an experimental AI prototype that generates simple, interactive 3D worlds from text or image prompts, though it currently functions more as a tech demo than a finished product. The generated worlds are limited by technical issues like input lag, low resolution, ...
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ADL Flags Grok AI Chatbot for Antisemitic Content
A study by the Anti-Defamation League found significant performance gaps among six major AI models in countering harmful antisemitic and extremist content, with Anthropic's Claude scoring highest and xAI's Grok performing worst by a wide margin. The evaluation tested the models across three categ...
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Ring's Video Verification: A Limited Shield Against AI Fakes
Ring Verify provides a "digital security seal" to confirm that downloaded security footage has not been altered since leaving Ring's servers, aiming to combat misinformation. The tool's utility is limited as it cannot authenticate any video edited after download, including trimmed or filtered cli...
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ElevenLabs Debuts AI Album to Showcase Music Generator
ElevenLabs has launched "The Eleven Album", an AI-generated music project designed to showcase its technology as a collaborative tool for artists, while promoting its commercial platforms. The project features thirteen diverse artists who retain full authorship, commercial rights, and all strea...
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System76 Supercharges COSMIC Desktop with New Improvements
The COSMIC desktop environment is receiving major updates focused on enhancing its core components, including a completely rebuilt application launcher for faster searches and smoother navigation. Significant improvements have been made to the system settings panel, adding new controls and organi...
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Netflix's Mobile App Gets a Major Redesign in 2026
Netflix is launching a major mobile app redesign this year to create a flexible, long-term platform for future growth and innovation, mirroring last year's TV app overhaul. The new mobile interface is designed as a foundation for continuous testing and iteration, allowing Netflix to more easily i...
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ReactOS Nears Windows Parity With Major Networking Speed Boost
The ReactOS project has achieved a major performance breakthrough by dramatically improving its network stack, bringing speeds much closer to modern Windows levels. This enhancement, resulting from targeted optimizations to the TCP/IP stack, has increased network performance by several hundred pe...
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Krafton Hunts for Its Next Hit After PUBG
Krafton is developing 26 new games to build franchises beyond *PUBG*, with a dozen slated for release within two years, including *Subnautica 2* and a mobile *Palworld*. The company plans to expand the *PUBG* universe with enhanced user-generated content tools, while the original game remains a t...
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Amazon's New World: Aeternum MMO to Shut Down in 2025
Amazon will permanently shut down *New World: Aeternum* on January 31st, 2027, and has removed it from sale as of January 15th, ending a major gaming venture. This follows Amazon's strategic shift away from MMOs toward party games, with new content already halted and a server end date now confirm...
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Subway Surfers Sequel Arrives This February
The sequel *Subway Surfers City* launches on February 26th, shifting the endless runner gameplay to a centralized urban playground called Subway City with four distinct districts. It introduces new mechanics like speed pads and a stomp move, alongside three play modes including a Classic Endless ...
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Tesla Ditches FSD One-Time Purchase, Goes Subscription-Only
Tesla is discontinuing the one-time purchase option for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, shifting entirely to a subscription-only model priced at $99 per month. The strategic change is linked to CEO Elon Musk's compensation package, which requires expanding the FSD user base to 10 million ac...
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Linutronix Embarks on a New Chapter in Linux Consulting
Linutronix is a leading embedded Linux consultancy, known for its deep kernel contributions and real-time Linux expertise, serving industries like automotive and industrial automation. The company is entering a strategic new chapter, likely involving organizational or service changes to address m...
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Linus Torvalds Launches AudioNoise, an Open-Source Vibe Coding Project
Linus Torvalds has launched AudioNoise, an open-source project exploring "vibe coding," which uses sound to enhance developer focus and productivity. The initiative provides tools like soundscape generators and editor integrations, built on open-source principles for community collaboration and e...
Read More » Budgie 10.10 Arrives With Full Wayland Support
Budgie 10.10 has fully transitioned to the Wayland display protocol, replacing X11 to provide a more modern, secure, and performant graphical foundation. The release achieves feature parity between X11 and Wayland, ensuring a stable and seamless daily experience with improved system tray reliabil...
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Disney Plus Adds Vertical Video Feature
Disney Plus is launching a dedicated vertical video feed later this year to compete in short-form, mobile-first content directly within its main app. The feed will feature a curated mix of original shorts, social clips, and repurposed scenes, dynamically updated based on user interests and viewin...
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The Challenge of Accurate AI Predictions
The future of AI is uncertain due to three key challenges: unpredictable progress in large language models, potential public opposition to infrastructure, and fragmented regulatory efforts. Public backlash against AI expansion, like resistance to new data centers, forces tech companies to activel...
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Dell: AI PCs Fail to Excite Consumers
Dell reports that AI features are not a primary purchase driver for consumers, despite being integrated into new PCs, and the terminology often creates confusion rather than clear benefits. The main appeal of new "AI PCs" lies in practical improvements like better battery life and system performa...
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Intel's Panther Lake CPU Targets Handheld PC Gaming
Intel is developing a custom Panther Lake processor platform for handheld gaming PCs, aiming to deliver superior graphics performance tailored for these devices. The company plans to leverage its advanced 18A manufacturing process to optimize these chips, with the goal of surpassing its current A...
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RGB OLED Gaming Monitors: The Next Big Thing
Leading OLED panel manufacturers LG Display and Samsung Display are adopting a vertical RGB stripe subpixel layout in new monitors, which significantly improves text clarity for productivity tasks beyond gaming. Samsung Display's new "V-Stripe" QD-OLED panels and LG Display's new RGB stripe OLED ...
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Asus OLED Gaming Monitors Boost Text Clarity and Color Accuracy
Asus unveiled three new OLED gaming monitors featuring an innovative RGB stripe subpixel layout, which enhances texture clarity and color consistency for gaming, computing, and content creation. The flagship 27-inch ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM uses Tandem OLED for high brightness and lifespan, offeri...
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ReactOS Takes Major Step Toward Windows NT6 Compatibility in 2026
ReactOS has announced a strategic roadmap to achieve substantial compatibility with the Windows NT6 kernel (Vista, 7, 8, 10) by 2026, moving beyond its previous focus on the older NT5.x series. This ambitious leap requires foundational architectural changes, including implementing a modern memory...
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Linux 6.19 Fixes Dead WiFi on MediaTek MT792x Devices
The Linux 6.19 kernel update includes a critical patch that fixes a dead WiFi issue affecting MediaTek MT7921 and MT7922 wireless chips. The bug was caused by a race condition in the driver's firmware handling, which could leave the adapter unresponsive after sleep or boot. The patch resolves the...
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Linux's "New" Mount API Finally Gets Official Man Page Documentation
Official documentation for the Linux kernel's modern mount API has been published, providing a crucial centralized reference for developers and system administrators. The new API replaces the legacy `mount(2)` system call with a more flexible, step-by-step approach using distinct system calls, be...
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KDE Plasma's Wayland Transition to Finish by 2025
KDE aims to complete its transition to the Wayland display protocol by 2025, moving beyond the aging X11 system for a more modern, secure, and performant graphical foundation. The transition is a measured process focused on achieving feature parity and stability, with developers refining input ha...
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CachyOS, Based on Arch Linux, Plans New Server Edition
CachyOS, a popular Arch Linux-based desktop OS, is developing a dedicated server edition to bring its performance optimizations and user-friendly approach to the server market. The server edition will leverage Arch Linux and the AUR, offering a streamlined setup with optimized kernels for headles...
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Linux Proposes "Modern Standby" Rival with New Runtime ABI
The Linux kernel community is developing a new Runtime ABI to create a reliable, transparent low-power idle mode for laptops, aiming to improve battery life predictability and avoid the issues associated with Windows' Modern Standby. This proposed solution requires drivers to explicitly declare t...
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4 AI Agents Rebuild Minesweeper: Explosive Results
The experiment tested four leading AI coding agents (OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Mistral Vibe) by having them autonomously build a fully functional web version of Minesweeper, including standard features and a novel gameplay twist. A key condition was the "single shot" approach, where ...
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Snapchat's Quick Cut Automatically Edits Your Videos
Snapchat launched Quick Cut, a built-in video editor that automatically transforms saved photos and clips into polished, music-synced videos, simplifying content creation for users without advanced skills. The feature automatically syncs music to visuals and allows for song changes and Lens appli...
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Netflix's Next Big Game Is a FIFA Soccer Series
Netflix is partnering with FIFA to launch an exclusive soccer simulation game on its Netflix Games platform in 2026, aiming to capitalize on the World Cup's cultural moment. This move comes as FIFA, no longer exclusively partnered with EA Sports, is exploring its own gaming ventures, including a ...
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OpenAI Unveils Its New Flagship Image Generator AI
OpenAI has launched GPT Image 1.5, a significantly faster and more capable image generation model with superior instruction-following and photo editing, now available to all users. The update focuses on practical applications, enabling more believable virtual try-ons and edits while preserving an...
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Instagram Reels Are Coming to Your TV
Meta is launching a pilot TV app for Instagram Reels on Amazon Fire TV devices in the U.S., expanding the platform from mobile to a communal, big-screen viewing experience. The app features a lean-back interface with curated video "Channels" for simplified discovery and supports multiple accounts...
Read More » Linux 6.20-7.0 Graphics Driver Updates Begin Taking Shape
Early development for the next Linux kernel cycle is focusing on graphics driver improvements to enhance performance, stability, and support for modern GPUs. Key vendor drivers, including Intel's Xe and AMD's AMDGPU, are receiving updates for new hardware, performance optimizations, and features ...
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The Download: AI Hype vs. Reality
The AI discourse is shifting from speculative hype to a more grounded, practical assessment of its true capabilities, limitations, and real-world applications. Key areas of scrutiny include AI's role as an augmentative tool rather than a replacement for human expertise and the need to address eth...
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Roomba's New Owner: Who Is Picea Robotics?
iRobot, maker of the Roomba, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will be fully acquired by its Chinese contract manufacturer, Picea Robotics, as part of a debt-forgiveness and restructuring deal. The company's newer Roomba models had become less distinctive, facing performance issues and rese...
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Google's New Feature Translates Languages Through Your Headphones
Google is testing a new headphone feature for real-time, spoken language translation, aiming to dissolve language barriers during conversation without needing a screen. The technology faces challenges like minimizing audio delay and handling accents, while also requiring transparent data policies...
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Expanded Carrier Screening and Southeast Asia's Space Ambitions
Southeast Asia's space programs are pragmatically focused on using satellite technology for direct societal benefits like disaster monitoring and agriculture, rather than just prestige. Public enthusiasm and educational initiatives are growing to build a local talent pool and reduce reliance on f...
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Apple Loses Epic Games Court Appeal
A federal appeals court largely upheld a ruling that Apple violated a 2021 injunction by effectively prohibiting developers from using external payment links through restrictive conditions and a 27% fee. The court found the lower court overstepped by completely banning Apple from collecting commi...
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Comcast Cable Boxes to Stream Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming
Amazon's Luna cloud gaming service is expanding to cable boxes from Comcast and Rogers, integrating it into millions of households in the U.S. and Canada. A key feature of the revamped service is "GameNight," a collection of local multiplayer titles that use smartphones as controllers to lower th...
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Reddit Tests New User Verification System
Reddit is testing a new gray checkmark verification system for public figures and trusted partners to help users identify authentic accounts and reduce moderators' workload. The feature is in an alpha test by invitation only, with no public application, and replaces the previous "Official" label ...
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FBI Hunts 'Unjammable' Drones Using Old-School Tech
The FBI is seeking tethered drones that use a fiber optic cable for control, making them highly resistant to wireless jamming and interception in sensitive operations. A key technological advancement is the use of spools holding up to 50 miles of cable, allowing substantial operational range whil...
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ICEBlock Developer Sues Trump Admin Over App Store Ban
The developer of the ICEBlock app has sued key Trump administration officials, alleging unlawful government pressure led Apple to remove the app, which allowed anonymous reporting of ICE activity. The app's popularity surged to over half a million downloads after a CNN report, despite Apple initi...
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