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Apple has updated Apple Maps to display Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' for users located in the United States, following an executive order Trump signed on August 27. Canadian users will still see 'Lake Ontario,' while people outside both countries will see both names listed. Google made the same change last week, citing its policy of following official U.S. government naming databases.
Gaming monitor buyers are advised to stick with 4K (3840x2160) rather than jump to 5K (5120x2880) displays, since 5K's extra pixel density mainly benefits photo and video professionals rather than gamers. Achieving smooth 4K gaming still requires powerful GPUs like Nvidia's RTX 4070 or AMD's RX 9070 XT, with top-tier cards such as the RTX 5080 or 5090 needed for ray-traced titles at native resolution with high frame rates. Upscaling tools like DLSS and FSR help lower-end systems approximate native 4K quality without the full performance cost.
Meta unveiled Muse Voice Transcribe, its first real-time audio perception model, capable of transcribing over 20 speakers simultaneously while switching between more than 20 validated languages, including mid-sentence code-switching. CEO Mark Zuckerberg demoed the tool on X, noting it uses adaptive delay to balance speed and accuracy. The model is now available through Meta's Mac AI app, Muse Code, and its Model API at $3 per 1,000 audio minutes.
Palo Alto Networks reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.41 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share, both above analyst expectations, with revenue up 34% year-over-year. The company posted a net loss of $282 million due to one-time charges, a reversal from the prior year's profit, even as CEO Nikesh Arora pointed to rising AI-related cyberattacks as a long-term growth driver. Despite the earnings beat, shares fell roughly 2% in after-hours trading following a 5% drop during the regular session.
OpenAI announced its upcoming Astra model has crossed what the company calls a critical cybersecurity threshold, meaning it can independently discover and exploit unknown software vulnerabilities without human guidance. The model reportedly scored perfectly on ExploitBench and found two zero-day flaws in an internal test, prompting OpenAI to limit access to its most advanced capabilities and add extra monitoring before release.
New research from SentinelOne and Mimecast shows attackers are increasingly turning to employees with legitimate network access rather than relying solely on phishing or exploiting software flaws. SentinelOne found insider incidents now cost organizations an average of $19.5 million annually, with breaches involving privileged malicious insiders averaging $4.9 million per event. Mimecast separately reported a 42% year-over-year rise in malicious insider incidents.
Runway introduced Solaris, which it calls an interface world model, letting users build interactive apps, websites and digital scenes by directly clicking and dragging on-screen elements instead of writing code. The system pairs a language model that determines how an interface should evolve with a rendering engine that generates each frame live, treating clicks and drags as signals to produce new visuals in real time. Runway demonstrated use cases such as virtually trying on clothes by dragging garments onto a photo of yourself, plus text-prompt edits like recoloring or repositioning objects.
OpenAI's internal safety testing found that its new Astra model could carry out sophisticated cyberattacks with little human guidance, leading the company to classify it as a 'critical' risk. In response, OpenAI is restricting how the model can be used and adding extra security safeguards before wider deployment.
Apple has begun updating Apple Maps to show 'Lake America' instead of 'Lake Ontario' for users in the United States, following a directive from President Trump amid trade tensions with Canada. Canadian users still see 'Lake Ontario,' while users elsewhere see both names. The rollout is gradual, and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Trump personally contacted Apple about the change.
GoPro announced a definitive merger with private photonics firm Starman Optical, aiming to expand beyond action cameras into AI data center infrastructure and defense-related optics. Shareholders will receive $285 million in cash, or $1.14 per share, while the stock stays on the Nasdaq and existing consumer products continue. Shares jumped 40% on the news, with major stakeholders including Markiplier and BlackRock standing to benefit.
Stargazers can look forward to several notable sky events in September 2026, including Venus appearing near the bright star Spica on September 1-2, and the moon passing close to the Pleiades star cluster on September 3. Later in the month, Venus will hit peak brightness, Neptune will reach its best viewing position of the year, and a minor meteor shower will follow August's Perseids.
Reports indicate Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus is emerging as the leading internal candidate to eventually succeed CEO Tim Cook. The framing centers on the scale of what he would inherit: a company with enormous revenue, market value and global reach built under Cook's leadership.