Software

Anthropic has launched its free Android AI chatbot app powered by Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The app enables users to ask the AI questions and receive detailed answers and analysis. The app can be used to summarize office documents and emails, provide suggestions for improved business practices, create new texts, and more.

With the new Android 15 Beta 4 update, users will get the ability to turn the Android 14 space minigame Easter egg into a "Landroid" screensaver. The final, polished version likely arrives with the Pixel 9 launch later in 2024, with the first appearance of the Easter egg dating back to July 2023.

A new leak has shed light on what we can expect from Samsung's next major software update: One UI 7. Overall, it is slated to bring froth a bunch of cosmetic changes, many of which are inspired by Apple's iOS 18.

Garmin has rolled out two new updates for many of its mid-range smartwatches. Both arriving on the company's Beta Program, the updates are said to resolve potential system crashes that could occur in multiple scenarios.

Xiaomi touts the Buds 5 as a new source of flagship-level audio with features such as spatial audio and HiFi sound quality in an "exquisite" new design. The new Buds support the Qualcomm aptX Lossless codec as well as active noise cancellation (ANC), yet are priced at the equivalent of ~$100.

Samsung Galaxy devices are now confirmed to receive a crucial security update in August 2024. This update addresses a major vulnerability (CVE-2024-32896) that affects all Android phones and tablets, not just Pixels. While some new camera improvements could be bundled for the Galaxy S24, Samsung might prioritize integrating new Galaxy AI features or focus solely on security updates.

A major tech outage is causing havoc globally as of July 19th. Airlines have grounded flights due to communication problems, while hospitals, banks, and media outlets are also experiencing disruptions. Early reports suggested a potential link to a software issue with CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor, a cybersecurity program that is causing Windows systems to display the "blue screen of death". The company CEO has since posted a tweet about identifying, isolating and working on the issue as they urge organizations to communicate with CrowdStrike via official channels.

Major Indian crypto exchange WazirX suffered a security breach, losing over $230 million in digital assets. The company posted a tweet on 18th July (3:48 AM EDT) announcing suspension of withdrawals as they investigate the incident - which reportedly involved a compromised multisig wallet. North Korean hackers are responsible for this incident, as per Elliptic.

The 32GS95UE is LG's first ever UltraGear monitor to combine 1080p/480Hz and 4K/240Hz modes in the same OLED display. Now, it is on sale for the first time for the brand's Black Friday in July 2024 event. It makes the device's potentially impressive gaming specs (AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-SYNC support included) available for less than $1,200 right now.

While Google Chrome is currently displaying security warnings when trying to download certain files and forbid the operation, the upcoming full-page security warning screen will also allow the user to choose one of three reasons for downloading, and regardless of the answer, the user will be able to complete the operation.

Available since July 10, 2022, Nobara Linux is a Fedora-based distro aimed at gamers and content creators. Yesterday, version 40 arrived with a completely remade updater, KDE 6.1.1, Gnome 46, as well as the Nvidia 555 drivers and much more. Five versions are available for download, including two made to look and feel like the Steam Deck.

MarineMax, a Florida-based yacht and boat retail company, suffered a data breach in March 2024, impacting over 123,000 customers and possibly employees. After initially downplaying the incident, MarineMax confirmed that attackers breached their systems and stole personal information, including names and potentially more. The breach took place between March 1 and 10, and Rhysida claimed responsibility for the same.

Unleashed earlier today, Nvidia's video driver package with version number 560.70 comes with day-one optimizations for the following DLSS 3 games: Stormgate, Dungeonborne, and Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. This new piece of code also includes support for no less than 14 G-Sync Compatible displays.

OnePlus asserts that you can "Tune out the Chaos" with a pair of its latest wireless earbuds. The Nord Buds 3 Pro support the OEM's highest level of active noise cancellation (ANC) to date and can last for up to 44 hours per charge (albeit not both). The Basswave 2.0 accessories also support up-to-date Bluetooth 5.4 with dual-device connectivity.

Studist has launched Teachme AI to automate multilingual work manual creation while reducing required labor by over 80%. Recording a video while explaining the steps of a work process is all the AI software needs to draft a subtitled, step-by-step video manual broken down into clear steps. Teachme AI is a new feature of Teachme Biz, a manual sharing and creation system for businesses.

Google first announced Vids in April this year with a June release date, and now, it's finally launching in Workspace Labs. The AI-powered video creation app uses Gemini to generate up to 10-minute-long videos, and comes with features like AI-generated storyboards, customizable templates, voiceover creation and more. Vids also has a royalty-free stock content library and an inbuilt recording studio.

AT&T got hacked recently, following an event of a similar nature earlier in 2024. The latter was massive, with personal information of over 73 million customers getting leaked, and this latest data breach is even bigger with approximately 110 million clients affected.

The Steam Fighting Games Fest has officially started, offering as much as 90% off stalwarts like Soul Calibur VI, Mortal Kombat 1, Injustice 2, and Guilty Gear Strive, along with excellent discounts on a few underrated indie fighting games.

Garmin has flighted a new update for the Fenix 7 series and its peers. Since the build is the first public v18 update, it contains numerous changes from v17.28 with at least a dozen bug fixes, improvements and new features.

The PlayStation 2 emulator PCSX2 has been updated to version 2.0, and it brings some major improvements to the table. Among all the changes are big picture mode, better performance, and wider compatibility.

CheckMag Ecosia is a search engine that turns the Web searches people make daily into trees. Does it stand a chance against Google in terms of features and search result relevance? Time to find out.

For the first time ever, third party smart gadgets can now work with LG’s ThinQ-enabled appliances thanks to Homey integration. In a bid to gain more clout in the smart home, LG has bought 80% of Athom, the parent company of the Homey smart home platform, and is well on its way to owning the remaining 20%.

Bose has added Bluetooth multipoint pairing to its latest wireless buds. That includes the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and QuietComfort Ultra Open Earbuds. These two pairs can now connect to two devices at the same time.

SelfDecode has unveiled the DecodyGPT AI health coach providing users with customized diet and lifestyle recommendations for healthier lives. The AI health coach utilizes machine learning on genetic data from tens of thousands of people to help create better sleep, fitness, and health. DecodyGPT can also help answer health questions, build exercise plans, and address illnesses.

Amazon is making "Rufus" available in-app to all US customers starting July 12. Launched in February, Rufus is Amazon's AI-powered assistant that can act as a virtual shopping companion, is able to answer users' questions about products and their orders, assist with comparisons between different items, and provide personalized recommendations.

Google has announced a new function for Fitbit smartwatches, which is not so much for exercise or entertainment purposes, but is a tangible health function that aims to be of benefit to patients and medical staff.

WhatsApp is working on a new feature that lets users translate messages directly within the app. This feature uses Google's live translation technology on the device itself to ensure privacy. Users will likely need to download language packs, and translation support might be limited at launch but will expand in future updates.

According to recent reports, Xiaomi is planning to deliver numerous upgrades to its Smart Band series with the Smart Band 9. While the wearable may look like the popular Smart Band 8, it should be more readable outdoors while also delivering better battery life to boot.

The Watch GT has debuted as iQOO's first wearable that is an Apple Watch clone. It is rated to support AI-powered watchfaces, notifications and smart summaries on its AMOLED display. It will be released soon in China with eSIM-enabled variants that start at just over $100.

Apple and Google are allowing users to directly move photo libraries between Google Photos and iCloud Photos. This rollout utilizes the Data Transfer Project (DTP), an open-source initiative that simplifies data migration across online services. The collaboration is expected to be rolled out within a week and will offer users greater control over their online photo collections.

Hohem's latest handheld gimbal accessory for smartphones comes with an upgraded version of the brand's Magnetic AI Tracker rated to work with either selfie or rear cameras. The iSteady V3 is also the first of its line with in-built physical controls that also doubles as a detachable remote control, and comes with an introductory $20 discount.

A recent video from Mental Outlaw explores what it means to be able to boot from Google Drive, how it is possible, and how this proof of concept could impact future PC hardware.

Canva CEO, Melanie Perkins, recently reaffirmed in an interview that AI is key to Canva's mission of providing affordable, easy-to-use design software that rivals Adobe's creative software empire. Canva's recent acquisition of Affinity means this AI-happy ethos is likely to permeate into the Adobe rival, too.

Capable of providing a fully-loaded Linux firewall solution that only requires a few clicks to secure a network, NethSecurity got an update with two major highlights. Version 8.1 comes with a user account manager in the web GUI, as well as a visual connection tracker.

A known leaker and SteamVR data miner named Bradley Lynch reports that Valve is working on an Android emulator. Lynch has spotted five apps in a package on SteamDB, with two of them displaying new artwork that references Waydroid, an open-source and free Android emulator.

The recently announced AMD FSR 3.1 is now available on Lenovo Legion Go. When paired with frame generation, the gaming handheld now enjoys about 2x FPS boost and even higher when FSR is dialed to the performance mode.

Apple will now likely wait until Q2 2025 to officially integrate Apple Intelligence with Siri on users' devices, as per a Bloomberg report. This upgrade will be pushed out with iOS 18.4 next year, with another update coming earlier that will focus on Siri's appearance.

WhatsApp drops a new update to replace the unique green checkmark with a blue checkmark badge. It appears to be a part of Meta's universal verification badge display across all its apps, including Instagram and Facebook.

Samsung may be preparing to release a new pair of foldables, but it has not forgotten about servicing its Galaxy S24 flagship with new improvements. According to a reliable leaker, a new set of changes are set to arrive early next month, most of which Samsung has designed to refine camera performance.

If you are using the ChatGPT app on a Mac, you are advised to make sure it is up to date without delay. Evidence that previous versions have been saving your chats in a potentially vulnerable form on your device and, thereby, do not adhere to Apple's typical privacy standards, has come to light.

Realme has confirmed that its impending mid-range Android smartphone series flagship will have not one but two 50MP rear cameras. Furthermore, one of them will be a new periscope zoom module based on one of Sony's latest sensors, while the other will be based on its entirely new courterpart with optical image stabilization (OIS).

Authy, a 2FA app owned by Twilio, was affected by a data breach earlier this week. A total of 33 million phone numbers were exposed. Twilio confirmed that no other user data was compromised, with the Authy app since receiving a new security-centric update.

TARRAN is a start-up that claims it can solve the main drawback of using a cargo e-bike as an alternative to a car. Its "intelligent" landing gear are touted to deploy automatically to save the T1 Pro if it starts to tip over, thereby keeping it and its up to 485lb of estimated total payload comfortably balanced on the road.

A very popular system tweaker back in the Windows XP days, XP-AntiSpy was around for a decade and can still be used on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. While its last beta release surfaced in 2015 and can be considered a dead project, this piece of code is now back for Windows 11 users as XD-AntiSpy.

Users of the Garmin Edge 540, Edge 840, and Edge 1040 bike computers signed up to the beta program will shortly receive new beta software: version 23.10. The release brings a bug fix for the new road hazard feature, which launched with the 1050 model and arrived for these older devices in beta update 23.09.

Unleashed yesterday, Finnix 126 is built using the Linux kernel 6.8 (Debian 6.8.12-1, to be entirely accurate) and comes with several new packages, such as libc6-i386, features, as well as fixes and improvements. This release also includes a fix for the recently discovered OpenSSH CVE-2024-6387 vulnerability.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 is under a week away from becoming official. Evan Blass has got his hands on a complete spec sheet for the device though, which confirms that the Galaxy Z Flip will miss out on Samsung DeX support for at least another generation.

Epilogue, the company behind the GB Operator, announced an update that will let the device use the Nintendo Game Boy Camera as a webcam. As per their latest tweet, they've established a live video feed from the camera, calling it "the worst and the best webcam you'll ever have."

HiDock touts its new product as the ultimate, most futuristic laptop dock of the future. Not only can it automatically record the voice calls taken over its inbuilt speaker, it can use AI to record and produce written transcriptions and summaries of them. It can also act as a hub for dual 4K monitors, SD cards, thumb drives and USB accessories.

The Linux Mint development team has released the beta version of Linux Mint 22 for download, which for the first time is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and comes with the Linux 6.8 kernel. In addition to the updated Cinnamon 6.2 desktop, MATE 1.26 and Xfce 4.18 are also available.