AI

Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo debut their Googlebook lineup that is up for preorders today. These Googlebooks feature desktop-optimized Android, on-device Gemini AI, and high-end hardware that includes a Glowbar, 2.8K touchscreens, haptic touchpad, 16 GB RAM, and more. Retail availability begins October 4 in the US and October 5 in select international markets.

Google has opened pre-orders for its new Googlebook laptops, powered by Intel Panther Lake and Snapdragon X Elite chips. Starting at $899, these Googlebooks from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo run an Android stack with desktop optimizations supporting native Android apps, Gemini AI features, Linux development tools, and up to 10 years of updates.

Google Photos has been answering questions like "Where did I camp last summer" in Germany since March. Two settings have to be on before the feature runs at all, and Google attaches a remarkable note to one of them elsewhere. The reassuring sentence about AI training turns on a single word.

OpenAI sets a cookie called __obi on ChatGPT, keeps it for a year and ties it to your account. Visit a site that buys ChatGPT ads and your browser hands that identifier back to OpenAI along with what you were looking at. OpenAI's own cookie policy files it under analytics. Here is what travels with it and what you can switch off.

Thunderobot's AI Master M7000 mobile workstation laptop has launched with an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, 64 GB of memory and an AI SSD in China. The 16-inch laptop supports Phison's aiDAPTIV+ technology and is designed to run large AI models locally.

Fake profiles on Instagram and Facebook advertise investments that do not exist, using the face of a well-known German finance educator. A court in Frankfurt has held Meta directly liable, because its ad auction decides which user sees which ad. People who lost money get less out of the ruling than the headline suggests.

Honor has unveiled its Tiangong AXB35 compact AI workstation family, led by a 1.5kg Ultra model combining Nvidia RTX Spark, 128GB of unified memory and a 2TB SSD. The roughly 2-liter system is designed for local huge LLMs and multi-agent workloads, while Intel- and AMD-powered variants will also be available.

Snap has unveiled SPECS Intelligence, a personal AI assistant that isn't supposed to wait for specific questions. Instead, the system aims to understand habits, goals and schedules, proactively surface relevant information and even handle smaller tasks on request.

Asus has released the Ascent QN10 Mini PC in the US, with prices starting at $1,349. The 0.7-liter desktop features the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor with a powerful X2-90 GPU and an 80 TOPS NPU for on-device AI tasks. It also includes up to 32GB of RAM, USB4 ports, and 2.5 GbE LAN.

Anthropic is folding Claude Cowork into ordinary chat. Pro and Max accounts move first, in stages over the next few weeks. Claude Docs and Claude Slides arrive in beta on the paid plans. Accounts that have moved cannot switch back. Here is how to tell whether yours has.

OpenAI has turned off automatic escalation to Thinking for ChatGPT Plus and Pro. Asking the model to think harder no longer changes anything. The stronger answer is still there, but you have to pick the level yourself. Plus accounts also run into a ceiling below the top steps.

AI’s data-center buildout could triple global e-waste over the next 25 years, according to a new report. The forecast highlights growing concerns about how discarded AI servers and related infrastructure will be repaired, reused or recycled.

Opus 5 was previously locked behind Claude’s paid plans, but it has now started appearing on free accounts without any announcement from Anthropic. There is no visible way to activate the offer, and its allowance does not follow Claude’s usual five-hour reset.

Micron has demonstrated a 512GB DDR5 RDIMM designed for next-generation servers, with speeds of up to 9,200 MT/s. The ultra-dense module could enable up to 12TB of DDR5 memory in dual-socket systems and is expected to enter volume production in the second half of 2027.

(Pricing, availability updated) Lenovo has launched the Lecoo Bellator AI NAS 900 series in China with Intel Panther Lake processors, up to 64 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and four M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD slots. The AI NAS 900 series also features dual 2.5GbE ports with link aggregation, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3.

Apple shipped iOS 27 on Monday, and the rebuilt Siri AI does not come with it in the European Union. Apple's own availability notes rule out iOS, iPadOS and watchOS in the EU. A Mac or a Vision Pro still works, as long as the device is set to English. Everyone else signs up for a waitlist. Daily usage limits apply from day one.

Vivo’s next software update is borrowing more than a little from Apple’s Liquid Glass. Fresh OriginOS 7 leaks show a redesigned Control Center, interactive wallpapers, a new Music player and glass effects that react to the wallpaper. There are also some useful changes beneath the new light and shadow aesthetics interface.

A European trademark filing may have leaked the title of the Lies of P sequel. In development since 2023, the name implies a gothic twist on The Wizard of Oz movie and novel. While the project’s release date could be far off, Neowiz recently offered an encouraging update.

The Syncere Lume robotic floor lamp automates household chores from folding laundry to tidying rooms. New skills will be added to the smart lamp over time, which will begin shipping in early 2027 with a starting price of $2,699.

Nvidia has quietly added the RTX Pro 5500 Blackwell to its professional GPU line-up. The new workstation card features a massive 84 GB of ECC-equipped GDDR7 memory, 21,760 CUDA cores, up to 1,398 GB/s of memory bandwidth and a 600 W power limit.

Lenovo has taken the No. 1 spot in global x86 server shipments for the first time, IDC's figures suggest, helped by a sharp rise in demand for servers used to run AI workloads.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has fined an attorney $5,000 and referred him to disciplinary review after he filed an AI-generated brief containing fabricated witnesses and testimony in a murder appeal. The case underscores the legal and ethical risks of submitting unverified AI content in court.

Anthropic released a threat report revealing that working scientists used its Claude AI models to assist in potential biological weapons research. Intercepted queries included grant writing for gain-of-function research on the chikungunya virus and bird flu alongside attempts to optimize venom toxins.

Smart homes have become very good at adding intelligence one device at a time. The problem is that data, computing, and control inside the home still operate in silos. That is the problem UGREEN is trying to address with HomeAgent.

Google released the Gemini app for Windows on Thursday. Alt + Space opens a chat window on top of whatever app is in front, the download is free and it needs Windows 10 or later. The launch post advertises the Spark agent. Google's own help pages exclude Spark from the European Economic Area and leave the Windows app off the list of supported surfaces.

Nothing is not moving on to the Headphone (2) just yet. Instead, its first over-ear headphones could receive the Pro treatment, complete with a triple-driver system, 10 microphones and studio-tuned audio. The upgrades may also push the price up to $399.

TU Dresden group theorist Andreas Thom says that OpenAI gave him a misleading answer about whether his private ChatGPT sessions fed the training data behind the Astra proof that built the first non-sofic group. OpenAI has not publicly addressed his posts.

High performance in a desktop-friendly chassis: System76’s new workstation is built specifically for local AI workloads and can be configured with dual graphics cards and AMD Ryzen processors across the board.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance director Daniel Vavra says DLSS 5’s neural rendering restores the sequel’s intended lighting, shadows, and facial detail without altering its underlying geometry. Critics argue the technology can overpolish visuals, while unofficial tests rely on a leaked build because the game isn't officially supported yet.

Google will invest €13 billion in Finland over the next two years, turning the country into a strategic AI hub in Europe. The money is primarily a bet on AI infrastructure, with the company simultaneously investing in power generation, grids, and energy storage.

Apple AirPods 5 deliver active noise cancellation with adaptive transparency mode, hands-free AI chats, and on-board live conversation translation in an open-ear design. A second variant comes with slightly longer runtimes and stem volume touch control.

A recent software update has quietly given some OnePlus and Oppo users the option to replace Google Phone with the brands’ own dialer. For now, though, it only works on certain devices and in specific regions.

Anthropic added CarPlay support to the Claude app without announcing it. Claude answers by voice in the car and does nothing else. It cannot touch vehicle controls, and only Siri responds to a wake word. CarPlay now supports five AI assistants. Google's Gemini is not one of them.

CheckMag Nvidia's DLSS 5 has faced criticism for its uncanny visuals and performance hit, but when used correctly, it can transform how games look. Here are some of the best examples of the neural rendering technology enhancing visuals while preserving the original art direction.

At IFA, Acer introduced new laptops, with the announcement of the new Acer Swift Blade 14 and Acer Swift Air 16 as the most prominent examples. Notably absent from the announcement: The AI naming that Acer used to have for their laptops.

There have been a number of "AI plays old game" stories at the dawn of the AI era, and they typically end with a chess engine losing spectacularly to a random Atari opponent. The new AI models like OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, however, are built differently and can beat Valve at its own game.

In the modern mobile workspace, we prioritize CPU benchmarks, thermal efficiency, and display gamut coverage. Yet, when it comes to capturing the most critical data stream of our workday—our spoken conversations—we often rely on passive, disconnected tools.

X Corp wanted Nitter and XCancel offline after sending takedown demands to the services. Both have now returned, with Nitter saying it has sought legal advice on the matter. It looks like the fight with X Corp isn't over yet.

OpenAI announced GPT-6 Astra for all ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The model does not appear in the ordinary chat window, where GPT-5.6 Sol remains the top option. Plus covers Astra in Work and Codex. Reaching it in Chat takes a Pro plan. OpenAI is banking one usage reset for every day a paying user waits.

GTA VI's Netflix-paywalled trailer, EA's $55B go-private buyout, Marvel's Wolverine backlash, Elden Ring hitting Switch 2, free Witcher 3 expansions, a leaked DLSS 5, Valve's Steam Frame, and a wild month for fighting games. August 2026 had it all, and we're breaking it down in one massive recap.

Google began removing Assistant from Android phones on Sept. 4, and Gemini takes over. In the Gemini app, Keep Activity is on by default for adults. A share of all chats goes to human reviewers, and those copies survive a history deletion. Google holds them for up to three years.

Acemate has unveiled the improved S10 Pro tennis robot with upgraded Ace+ Shot ball handling, allowing it to fire balls more accurately at a faster maximum speed to challenge tennis players on clay, grass, and hard courts.

OpenAI has released GPT-6 Astra, the company's most power AI to date. Astra is so capable at developing zero day exploits and hacking targets that it has been given a Critical cybersecurity threat rating, requiring additional safeguards prior to its release.

Microsoft has unveiled Project Zenith, a developer-focused Windows 11 configuration built around local AI workloads. It mandates high-end unified-memory systems, and the devices will use AMD's Ryzen AI Halo platform.

After a scare, most people change their Google password and feel safe again. Google's own documentation shows that this only cuts off apps tied to your inbox. Photos, calendar and contacts stay connected. A second list has been growing alongside since August 12, and it does more than read.

ChatGPT, Claude and Grok all went down within hours of each other on Wednesday. How often that happens is public: OpenAI reports 99.64 percent uptime for ChatGPT over 90 days, Anthropic 99.4 percent for claude.ai. That works out to roughly 8 and 13 hours. Here is where the numbers live and what to do next time.

A small French study links heavy ChatGPT dependence among young adults to reduced independent thinking, increased self-doubt and greater social isolation. However, participants who used the tool as a brainstorming aid reported gains in confidence and creativity, underscoring the need for broader, long-term research.