At IFA 2026, Ulefone sub-brand RugOne showed off the Xsnap 7 Pro, a rugged Android phone with a magnetically attached action camera that pops out of its back. The removable module records up to 2.8K at 30fps or 1440p at 50fps, holds 64GB of storage, is waterproof to 5 meters, and connects to the phone over Wi-Fi 6 from as far as 50 meters away.
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences used a machine learning algorithm to sift through seismic data from over two million earthquakes recorded between 1990 and 2024, uncovering nearly 175,000 so-called PKP precursor signals. These faint seismic echoes, arriving before the main earthquake waves, point to small irregular structures located roughly 1,800 miles underground near the boundary between Earth's solid mantle and liquid outer core.
Dutch developer Peter Ullrich is building Pushin.eu, a Git hosting platform designed to keep code and data entirely within Europe. The service is currently in invite-only beta, with general availability planned for early 2027, and will eventually charge subscription fees comparable to GitHub and GitLab.
Meta is testing robot arms from suppliers including ABB, Kinova, and Watney Robotics to handle physical data center tasks like swapping network cables and power-cycling server racks. The effort is still in early trial stages, but an anonymous Meta employee said a Kinova robotic arm could eventually take over up to 80 percent of workers' current duties. Meta declined to comment when asked about the testing.
A South Carolina coroner's office confirmed that a six-week-old infant's death was caused by measles, after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had disputed the CDC's inclusion of measles deaths in its official count. Kennedy directed new CDC director Erica Schwartz to remove the deaths from the agency's public data, and while she complied, internal records reportedly still list them.
Florida's Department of Transportation issued a memo revoking permits for automatic license plate readers, including Flock Safety cameras, on state-controlled roads. Law enforcement agencies have 30 days from August 31 to remove the devices, and the agency says it will stop approving new permit requests going forward.
An Inside Higher Ed analysis found at least 16 nonprofit colleges shut down in 2025 due to falling enrollment and financial strain, following 28 degree-granting institutions that closed in the first nine months of 2024 alone, according to Hechinger Report data. Entrepreneur's coverage argues these closures are not isolated incidents but the culmination of years of compounding pressures — declining tuition revenue, rising costs, debt and accreditation issues.
Atopile built a benchmark called EEBench to test whether circuits produced by AI models are actually functional, following OpenAI's demo of GPT-6 Astra designing a board in KiCad. Instead of having an AI operate a graphical CAD tool, EEBench has the model write and edit declarative code describing components and connections, then build and simulate the result to check for errors.
Amazon is currently selling the Sony ULT Field 3 portable Bluetooth speaker for $138, a 34% cut from its $209.99 list price. The speaker features IP67 water and dust resistance, shock-resistant build, a bass-boosting ULT mode, and up to 24 hours of battery life, and holds a 4.6-star rating.
Researchers extracted and sequenced viral DNA preserved in the animal-skin parchment of medieval manuscripts, tracing sheeppox virus's evolutionary history back roughly 3,500 years. The study, published in Science Advances and led by University College Dublin's Louis L'Hôte, demonstrates that parchment can act as a repository for ancient pathogen genomes, not just host DNA.
Home Depot's Labor Day sale includes $50 off Weber's Kettle and Spirit E-210 grills, with the green Kettle model available at half price for $100. The retailer is also offering buy-one-get-one deals on Milwaukee power tools, including a free M18 Fuel impact driver with battery purchase, plus discounts on Ryobi landscaping equipment.
The Department of Justice has widened its investigation into surging beef prices to include eight large grocery and retail chains, among them Walmart, Costco, Aldi and Publix. Investigators are examining how pricing decisions across these retailers may have contributed to the sharp rise in beef costs for consumers.