GoKawiil
Tech News
Sony's WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones are currently on sale for $198, a $202 discount that marks one of the lowest prices seen for the model. Several other Sony headphones are also discounted as part of the same sale, though the WH-1000XM5 remains the standout deal despite being one generation behind the newer WH-1000XM6.
Google has fixed a bug in its Home app that was preventing owners of older Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices from setting them up. The company confirmed the fix in a Reddit thread and advised affected users to update to Google Home app version 4.26 or later and retry setup. Those still experiencing issues are encouraged to contact Google support.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a one-year moratorium starting in the 2026-2027 school year that blocks roughly 600,000 students from pre-K through eighth grade from using AI in class, and bars teachers from using AI to grade their work. Companion and mental-support chatbots will be prohibited at all grade levels, individual screens are banned until third grade, and screen time guidance caps middle schoolers at 45 minutes daily. High schoolers will get limited AI access, twice-yearly AI literacy lessons, and a small pilot program testing vetted AI tools in a handful of classrooms.
Tado has unveiled its Smart Thermostat X, a 17.8mm-thick device priced at £159.99-£199.99 depending on wired or battery-powered versions. The company says Google's decision to shut down servers for older Nest thermostats has already driven a surge in sales, and it's betting more Nest owners will switch as support for older generations lapses.
A graphic designer has begun redesigning poorly executed AI-generated posters, replacing them with hand-crafted versions to demonstrate what professional design skill can add. The project responds to a wave of low-quality AI posters that have become common in promotional material, particularly for films and events.
Pangram, a 24-person AI-detection startup that raised $13 million, has flagged high AI-generated percentages in several notable works, including a Hachette-acquired novel that was subsequently canceled, a New York Times Modern Love column, and prize-winning fiction. Substack recently integrated Pangram's detection tool so readers can check content for AI involvement.
Mykhailo Fedorov, recently removed as Ukraine's defense minister, is starting a defense technology company that will count Palantir CEO Alex Karp as its first lead investor. Details such as the company's name, funding amount, and specific technologies remain undisclosed, though Fedorov's office says more about the Palantir partnership will be revealed over time.
Acer revealed two small-form-factor desktops aimed at AI workloads. The SFF RTX Spark uses NVIDIA's new RTX Spark superchip, offering up to a 6,144-core Blackwell GPU, a 20-core Grace CPU, and 128GB of memory, though pricing and availability remain undisclosed. The Veriton RI110 AI Mini Workstation runs on an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor with an Arc B390 GPU, supports agentic AI tools, joins Microsoft's Copilot+ PC lineup, and is slated for North American release in late 2026.
A self-taught hobbyist attempting to repair joystick modules on PlayStation 4 controllers damaged a circuit board during the process, leaving the controller non-functional after desoldering and resoldering work. The person is already using recommended practices like ventilation, flux, and proper iron tips, but is asking the community for reliable resources to improve their soldering skills and avoid further mistakes.
Journalists are altering their own writing habits, such as avoiding em dashes, because those quirks have become associated with AI-generated text, even when the content is entirely human-written. The underlying issue is that no detection tool can reliably distinguish AI from human prose, so publications are left worrying about how their writing looks rather than whether it was actually machine-made.
Telli, a Y Combinator (F24) startup based in Berlin, is expanding its team by hiring on-site engineers and designers. The company builds AI agents designed to handle customer-facing operations for businesses, aiming to replace forgetful chatbots and repetitive support tickets with context-aware interactions across channels, languages, and volumes.
Pearl Abyss has launched a free 20-minute playable demo of Crimson Desert that runs entirely through Twitch's cloud streaming, requiring no download or installation. The demo works on any device with a web browser, though notably not on current game consoles. It coincides with the rollout of Crimson Desert Enhanced, a major free update released last week.