News

In a blog post, Proton CEO Andy Yen calls out the privacy and security concerns about the rapid expansion of age verification, but says “the scope of places where age verification is required must be strictly confined to areas like pornography and social media:”

A new survey suggests that AI will only help the rich get richer. “The rhetoric out there is that the tools are going to be democratizing. But the reality is that . . . you require a certain degree of education, abstract and quantitative skills, familiarity with computers and coding in order to be using the models,” said MIT professor Daron Acemoglu, who’s also a Nobel laureate in economics. “AI is going to increase inequality between labour and capital. That is almost for sure. I would say it is setting us up for a . . . shitshow.”

The platform has doubled the maximum file size to 2MB, and the resolution limit has been upped to 4000x4000. There are photo carousels now, too.

Wired has the story about the not-real partnership, which was promoted alongside other announcements last week. How did this happen??

That’s “up from 50% last fall,” according to a blog post from Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Google recently created a “strike team” to improve its AI models’ coding capabilities and catch up to Anthropic, which as of February writes 70 to 90 percent of its code with Claude Code.

Kennedy’s remarks come from congressional hearings today. He claims AI, while “very dangerous” has the opportunity to “develop new drugs and personalized medicine for every citizen.” Please, a moment of silence for my sanity.

Earlier this month, 404 Media reported that the FBI obtained deleted Signal messages saved inside an iPhone’s notification database. It looks like the iOS 26.4.2 security update addresses this, as Apple says it has fixed an issue where “notifications marked for deletion could be unexpectedly retained on the device.”

Microsoft’s new gaming boss said the “idea” isn’t dead, pointing onlookers to a legal brief it filed in a case. That case is Epic v. Google, and the brief is an argument that Judge Donato should stay the course and force Google to carry stores like Microsoft’s. There, Microsoft claims it’s put “significant efforts” behind “new consumer offerings” for Android.

A new security feature in Chrome Enterprise can help businesses detect and combat “anomalous” activity by AI-powered agents within compromised extensions or online services. Google is rolling out its AI auto browse feature to enterprise customers as well, which can perform multi-step tasks in Chrome on your behalf.

When you’re in a Threads Community’s live chat, you can talk with real time with other users about what’s going on. For the NBA playoffs, the NBA Threads Community will be hosting some live chats to follow games. Live chats will come to other Community feeds in the coming months, Meta says.

The feature, which first arrived for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in January, lets you use Gmail’s search bar to ask questions about what’s in your inbox. Gmail will then provide an AI-generated summary that draws from the information in your emails.

Unsurprising, given Oura’s discreet form-factor and its long-term relationships with several professional sports organizations. You likely won’t see it on the pitch during this year’s World Cup (FIFA is a no-go for wearables during play). That said, it is another example of how professional athletes are integrating wearables into their training.

The original Atlas is 5mm thick, but the $129.99 Atlas Pro slims that down to just 1.9mm with a 1.1 mm sheet of tempered glass atop a 0.8 mm anti-slip base. The surface of the mat features a micro-etched texture, ensuring it’s compatible with optical sensors, while the edges of the glass have been CNC-milled to create a comfortable rounded finish.

Though Warner Bros. tried to kill Coyote vs. Acme for the insurance money tax write-offs, Ketchup Entertainment has released the long overdue movie’s first trailer ahead of its theatrical debut on August 28th.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) have written a letter to TikTok USDS CEO Adam Presser, urging the platform to estimate users’ age using their account activity or require parents to confirm their child’s age. The lawmakers also suggest that TikTok works with OS-makers like Apple and Google to implement age verification:

The Osmo Mobile 8 Pro that DJI just announced in China for 899 CNY (around $132) carries forward a lot of the functionality of the last version including a telescoping extension rod and 10 hours of battery life. Its most compelling upgrade is a tiny touchscreen remote that magnetically docks to the gimbal.

Jason Bonfig, Best Buy’s chief customer, product, and fulfillment officer, will take over for Corie Barry as CEO on October 31st, the company announced on Wednesday. Barry has served as CEO since 2019, and has contended with layoffs, stagnant sales growth, and tariff-related price hikes.

After Jeff Bezos lost one of AST’s giant space-based cell towers last weekend, the FCC has stepped up with some good news by approving its commercial license. AST can now operate a constellation of up to 248 satellites in low Earth orbit in order to deliver space-based cellular broadband to everyday smartphones. It was supposed to go live sometime later this year before the Blue Origin debacle.

New AI tools can unlock insights from aerial and satellite images or anchor “imaginative scenes in the real world,” Google says. Pretty niche, but probably useful for urban planners, or putting spaceships in front of New York landmarks.

The rechargeable Loop and Card trackers were rated to last six months before topping up, based on controlled tests. But after over a year of real-world testing, Chipolo “can now confidently say that the battery lasts up to one year on a single full charge, and in some cases even more.”

Fairphone reports its smartphone shipments grew by 42 percent in 2025, no mean feat when the rest of the industry has been fairly flat. I thought last year’s Fairphone 6 was a huge step forward in quality, and it’s a good time for its efforts to expand into the US.

Anthropic’s cybersecurity-focused AI model found 271 bugs in Firefox 150, Mozilla CTO Bobby Holley said, calling Claude Mythos Preview “every bit as capable” as top security researchers. Reassuringly, Mozilla hasn’t “seen any bugs that couldn’t have been found by an elite human researcher,” either.

Once championed by the Trump family after heavily bankrolling their crypto ambitions, Justin Sun is now unhappy with his chosen bedfellows. Suing Trump-linked World Liberty Financial, Sun alleges in a federal lawsuit that his former allies maliciously froze his $75 million investment, denouncing the platform as “World Tyranny.”

Following Nevada’s settlement on Friday, West Virginia and Alabama have settled with company to address alleged child safety issues, as reported by Bloomberg. Last week, Roblox announced a bunch of new safety updates, including dedicated Kids accounts with increased restrictions.