174 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

Jess Weatherbed

Jess Weatherbed

News Reporter

News Reporter

    More From Jess Weatherbed

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Proton Mail is adding an AI writing assistant.

    The new Proton Scribe writing tool runs locally on the device and is available to all privacy conscious Proton Mail business customers as an add-on:

    Proton Scribe helps users improve their productivity by composing emails based on a prompt, redrafting to better convey a message, and proofreading content. No user data or information is used to train Proton Scribe, and no data is shared with third parties.

    Proton says it’s rolling out to web and desktop apps.

    An example image of the new Proton Scribe feature for Proton Mail.
    Proton Scribe starts from $2.99 per month, or as a freebie for Proton’s Visionary and Lifetime customers.
    Image: Proton
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Meta pauses its generative AI tools in Brazil.

    Earlier this month, the country’s data protection authority (ANPD) issued a temporary measure banning Meta from training its AI models on Brazilian personal data over privacy and transparency concerns.

    Like it did following similar constraints with the EU, Meta has now decided to suspend its generative AI tools in the region while it works to find a resolution with ANPD, according to Reuters.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Court rejects TikTok’s effort to skirt EU competition rules.

    The EU’s General Court has ruled that TikTok parent company ByteDance meets the required user threshold to be a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act.

    TikTok has claimed it wasn’t valuable enough, and failed to obtain interim measures to avoid having to comply with DMA rules while it appealed the designation. The decision can still be appealed to the European Court of Justice.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Hyperkin’s modern Xbox ‘Controller S’ remake ships in August.

    Pre-orders are available for the Hyperkin DuchesS, which re-imagines Microsoft’s Xbox Controller S (the one that replaced the console’s original “The Duke” gamepad) for Xbox One and Series X / S consoles, and PC.

    The wired controller is available in White or Black variants, both priced at $49.99. Hyperkin says pre-orders will ship on August 21st.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Watch this ping-pong-playing droid flex its un-robotic moves.

    IHMC showcased improvements to its Nadia robot that lower the latency of its VR-controlled inputs enough to play table tennis against a human.

    The ultimate design goal for Nadia — named after famed gymnast Nadia Comăneci — is to achieve a human range-of-motion, having demonstrated its boxing capabilities last year in a Real Steel-like fashion.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    AMD’s Zen 5 processors will arrive on July 31st.

    There are four CPUs in the new Ryzen 9000 series, which includes the beastly 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 9950X flagship. Pricing still hasn’t been disclosed, but it’s currently expected to align with the Zen 4 series chips.

    A lineup of the new AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors, alongside a July 31st release date.
    Image: AMD