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A hobbyist bought the Xteink X3 e-ink display for its programmability and, frustrated by having to upload files through a clunky hotspot-based web page, decided to make it work like an actual printer. By implementing the Internet Printing Protocol and advertising the device as an AirPrint-compatible printer named 'penguin' via Bonjour, they enabled sending documents directly from a MacBook's Print dialog to the e-ink screen.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told MPs the government will draft legislation requiring smartphone makers and app providers to prevent under-18s from taking or sharing nude photos. This follows a three-month deadline given in June to Apple and Google, whose voluntary commitments Nandy said still fall short of addressing the crisis. The law would extend blocking measures beyond device operating systems to individual apps used by children.
Betaworks, the venture firm led by John Borthwick, was the first investor to fund AI startup Hugging Face and now holds an equity stake estimated at roughly $650 million. Other early backers of the company also saw substantial gains from their initial investments.
IDScan, an identity verification firm used by rental car companies, retailers and other businesses, faces multiple lawsuits after a dark-web service called Nexus allegedly offered access to over 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses along with millions of other ID documents. Journalist Brian Krebs traced the leaked data back to IDScan, and the FBI's New Orleans office has reportedly opened an investigation. IDScan has not confirmed a breach occurred or commented publicly on the allegations.
SB Energy, a data center infrastructure company backed by SoftBank, Nvidia and OpenAI, has filed for an initial public offering with the SEC. The filing discloses net losses of about $3.2 billion for the first half of 2026 against roughly $139 million in revenue, mostly from its legacy energy business, while none of its planned AI data centers are yet operational.
The Open Battery Information project has retired its old Python/Tkinter desktop app in favor of a new web-based interface, OBI-1, that connects directly to an Arduino or ESP32-C3 via Web Serial. The tool lets users read and reset battery management system (BMS) faults without installing any software, including flashing firmware straight from the browser.
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.
A Thomson Reuters 2026 Future of Professionals Report, based on a global survey of 1,800 professionals, found that 91% believe their organizations aren't yet capturing the value AI promises. The study points to a growing gap between early enthusiasm for AI experimentation and current frustration over rising costs and unclear returns.
Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and roughly 97 other companies—including Visa, MasterCard, Capital One, Adobe, Oracle and IBM—have jointly signed an open letter urging governments and organisations to strengthen cybersecurity before AI-driven attacks escalate. The signatories argue existing defences are outdated and chronically underfunded, especially for critical infrastructure like hospitals and water systems, and are calling for governments to supply advanced defensive AI tools and testing support.
A growing cluster of private companies is building experimental fusion reactors, aiming to harness the same energy process that powers the sun and stars. One facility under construction includes large D-shaped magnetic confinement components and circular platforms designed to contain and control plasma at extreme temperatures.
Companies that built vast data centers of specialized computers to mine Bitcoin are redirecting that infrastructure toward AI workloads. The shift follows a decline in Bitcoin's value since its October 2025 peak, which has squeezed mining profits. Several of these firms are now striking deals with AI companies like Anthropic, which need massive computing capacity for their models.
After the April 2025 blackout across Spain and Portugal shut down its production lines and spoiled tonnes of meat, Spanish processor Fribin lost hundreds of thousands of euros in a single incident. The company has since bought two five-megawatt-hour battery storage modules, together worth about €1.5m, partly funded by EU Next Generation grants, to keep operations running during future outages.