GoKawiil
Tech News
According to The Information, the Trump administration is preparing a new export control aimed at closing a loophole that lets Chinese firms tap advanced AI compute through remote servers hosted in Thailand and Singapore, countries not currently bound by China-specific chip restrictions. The Commerce Department could circulate the draft rule to industry groups for feedback as early as September.
Security firm VulnCheck discovered three separate backdoor-like implants embedded in firmware made by Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics (ZBT), whose hardware is resold globally under numerous brand names. The most severe, dubbed ENDLESSDOORS, disguises itself as a Linux kernel process, phones home to a hard-coded command server without authentication or encryption, and grants attackers root-level control over the router. VulnCheck confirmed the flaw is real by hijacking a test router's command channel themselves, and identified it across 20 ZBT-based router models.
Google has updated NotebookLM, its AI-powered research and note-taking tool, to let users upload books and reference their content directly within the app. The update also allows users to convert book material into different formats, such as summaries or study guides, using the tool's AI capabilities.
Interest in true IMAX screenings has surged with Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, but not all theaters bearing the IMAX logo offer the same experience. Some venues feature massive 1.43:1 screens using 70mm film or dual-laser projection, while others are simply converted multiplex auditoriums with smaller, wider screens. This disparity has fueled the derisive nickname 'LieMAX' among moviegoers since 2009.
RealDiff is an open-source tool that compares two Git revisions by actually running their tests, rather than just diffing source code, to catch behavior changes that ripple beyond the files a pull request touched. It builds a noise baseline from repeated base runs, then flags the first divergent behavior in each call tree, supporting analysis across six programming languages including .NET, Java, and Node.js. A demo shows a one-line change from an unstable to a stable sort algorithm silently altering the output of an unrelated pricing engine elsewhere in the codebase.
Confdiff is a command-line and browser-based tool that compares JSON, YAML, TOML, INI, .env, properties, CSV and XML files by parsing them into a data model rather than comparing raw text. This lets it ignore cosmetic changes like key reordering, reformatting or added comments while flagging genuine differences, including type changes such as a number becoming a string. A --redact flag masks secret values with stable fingerprints so teams can see that credentials changed without exposing the actual values in a PR or CI log.
New outline renders shared by leaker Ice Universe suggest Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S27 Pro will adopt the same iPhone 17 Pro-style camera plateau expected on the Galaxy S27 Ultra, replacing Samsung's traditional vertical camera island. However, the Pro model appears to omit the S Pen slot and has the speaker grille and microphone positions swapped compared to the Ultra.
Linum has begun detailing its work on Linum v3, the successor to its open-weight text-to-video model released in January, in a new blog series. The company says its focus is on three goals: improving how well outputs follow prompts, speeding up training and inference, and making generated physics more consistent, while arguing that most recent progress in image and video generation comes from better data practices rather than new model architectures.
Most routers include a single WAN port alongside multiple LAN ports, and although the connectors look identical, they perform very different jobs. The WAN port links your router to the internet, while LAN ports connect local devices like PCs, TVs and consoles so they can talk to each other and share that connection.
A fresh gameplay reveal for 'Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons' has surfaced, with voice actors Tricia Helfer and Maggie Robertson discussing the project and how it sets itself apart from the hit RPG 'Baldur's Gate 3'.
Ziff Davis' CNET Group is running a five-site trivia contest asking readers to predict details of Apple's upcoming fall event, including whether Tim Cook and John Ternus will appear together, whether smart glasses will be unveiled, and the price of a rumored foldable iPhone. The third round runs from Aug. 18 to Sept. 1, with entries open on each participating site, though each entrant can win only one Apple Watch in the September drawing.
Stability AI, maker of the Stable Diffusion image generator, closed a $76 million Series B round, pushing its total funding to $232 million. Backers include Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts, AMD Ventures, and Pacific Alliance Ventures. CEO Prem Akkaraju said the funds will support the company's creative production tools and professional services expansion.