Tech Desk
Daily stories tuned for enthusiasts and casual readers alike. High-context, low-jargon, fast to scan.
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Apple’s iPhone 17e builds on last year’s budget ‘e’ line with a faster chip, double the base storage, MagSafe and automatic portraits. It keeps a familiar, older design and a single rear camera.
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AI labs want racks and racks of compute. Europe can make the energy, but getting it where it needs to go is the problem. Grid operators are squeezing capacity with clever tricks, while long lead times for new lines and a swollen connection queue keep many data center plans on hold.
Reddit's leadership says the site needs ways to prove users are real people. Ideas on the table include Face ID, Touch ID and traditional ID checks.
BYD says its Flash Chargers can top some cars from about 10 to 70 percent in five minutes by delivering up to 1,500 kW. It helps that BYD makes the cars, batteries, and chargers. But grid limits, vehicle compatibility, and real-world habits mean this is a big innovation, but not an instant fix for everyone.
A federal jury found Elon Musk made misleading tweets in 2022 that pushed down Twitter stock before his $44 billion takeover, though jurors did not find he ran a fraud scheme. Damages could be about $2.5 billion and appeals are likely.
I put Gemini’s new task automation through its paces on the Pixel 10 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra. It can operate apps for you, is painfully slow, but shows real potential.
Tumblr’s automated moderation system mistakenly suspended dozens of accounts in one afternoon, touching off alarm among users — many of whom worried the errors targeted trans women. Tumblr’s parent company says the system was wrong, has been turned off, and affected accounts were restored.
Meta says it will cut reliance on external human moderators and lean on large language models to monitor content. Human reviewers will stay, but their role will shift to training and overseeing AI. A Meta AI account support tool is also rolling out in the US and Canada.
OpenAI plans a single desktop app that folds its ChatGPT client, the Codex coding tool, and the Atlas browser into one, aiming to reduce product clutter and sharpen focus.
Tinder is rolling out friend pairings, astrology mode, camera-roll chemistry, and AI safety tools as part of a rebrand. The app hopes new features and a trust and safety push can win users back, but critics say the damage to dating culture runs deeper.
Snow, heavy blankets, and a crowd of defense contractors cheering as Palantir shows off AI tools that the company says are meant to help the military win. The firm’s commercial growth is booming, but its identity remains rooted in defense.
Google is running an experiment that replaces news headlines in Search with AI-generated titles. The changes can be small or meaning-changing, and publishers are not being told when it happens.