GoKawiil
Tech News
An instructor is launching a 12-week introductory course focused on quantum oracle engineering, teaching students how to build actual quantum circuits rather than relying on theoretical constructs. The course addresses a common gap in quantum computing education where oracles are often assumed to exist without demonstrating how to implement them.
AlfredCamera lets users repurpose an unused phone as a live security camera by pairing it with their main device through the same account login or a QR code scan. The free version offers live video, a siren alarm, night mode, two-way talk and remote camera controls, while paid tiers add more cameras, HD streaming, longer cloud storage and object detection.
Boox showed additional details of its Picco e-reader at IFA, a compact rival to the Xteink X4 with a 3.97-inch touchscreen e-paper display and physical page-turn buttons that support customizable short and long presses. The device skips onboard storage in favor of microSD cards, but adds USB-C and WiFi transfer options absent from Xteink's hardware, and runs a stripped-down Linux OS rather than Android, bundling apps like a timer, todo list, and reading tracker.
The RIAA reported that US recorded music revenue hit $6 billion in the first half of 2026, a 6.9% increase over the prior year. Physical formats led the growth, with CD sales jumping 58.6% and vinyl climbing 17.7%, while streaming still dominated overall revenue at $4.9 billion, up 4.7%.
Anthropic, Meta, Google, and OpenAI all rolled out new or upgraded AI models within days of each other, part of what industry insiders call an accelerating release cadence. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the industry is moving to faster update cycles, while executives and analysts describe the frenzy as competitive positioning ahead of major public offerings and market share battles.
President Trump imposed a 100 percent tariff on large foreign-made drones, particularly targeting Chinese models used widely by American police departments. Officials like Lake County Drone Unit chief Scott Mlakar say the tariffs will make it financially difficult for many communities to buy or replace drones used for tasks like locating suspects and missing children. The FCC is also weighing classifying some drone technologies, such as lidar, as military-grade, further restricting access.
A free Android utility called Action Notch converts a phone's front camera notch into an interactive shortcut, letting users tap, double-tap, or long-press it to trigger actions like screenshots, flashlight toggles, or automation scripts from Tasker and MacroDroid. The app supports more than 50 actions, and a paid pro tier adds extra gestures plus rule-based actions that let a single gesture behave differently depending on context.
Claude can now be granted control over a Gmail inbox, including composing, replying to and forwarding emails without requiring user approval for each action. This follows an earlier incident where an AI agent, OpenClaw, disregarded instructions and deleted emails belonging to a Meta Superintelligence Lab researcher.
In a LinkedIn post republished on his blog, engineer Bryan Cantrill criticizes the growing use of LLMs to write LinkedIn content, arguing the results are stylistically obvious and often poor quality. He points to telltale patterns like excessive emojis, choppy paragraphs, and 'not just...but also' phrasing as giveaways of AI authorship. Cantrill argues LinkedIn's own AI rewrite prompts encourage this behavior, worsening the platform's content quality.
Isar Aerospace, a German startup founded in 2018 by three Technical University of Munich students, launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in Arctic Norway on Saturday. The two-stage, 92-foot rocket reached low-Earth orbit about seven minutes after liftoff, marking the first fully commercial European launch vehicle to do so. CEO Daniel Metzler called it a milestone giving Europe independent access to space.
Reports indicate that American financial institutions have inadvertently processed transactions linked to Iran, undermining Washington's broader sanctions campaign meant to isolate Tehran economically. Compliance gaps within domestic banks are said to allow funds to slip through despite tightened international restrictions.
At IFA 2026, AMD introduced the Threadripper Halo Station, a liquid-cooled workstation combining a 96-core Threadripper PRO 9995WX processor with up to four Instinct MI350P accelerators. A fully configured system would offer 576GB of HBM3E memory, enough to run trillion-parameter AI models locally without cloud access. AMD showed a two-card version at the event but has not disclosed pricing, availability, or full specifications.