Multiple users, including on Reddit and Android Authority's own test devices, report that the built-in camera in Google Messages either fires the LED flash too early, producing dark photos, or fails to trigger it at all. The bug appears across stable and beta versions of the app, on different phone models and carriers, and has reportedly been occurring for over a month. The flash works normally in other camera apps and outside the Messages interface, indicating the fault is specific to Google Messages' in-chat camera.
Meta has introduced a new version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses that drops the camera entirely, offering only audio features. The device keeps the smart glasses form factor while removing the recording capability found in earlier models.
Qualcomm announced at its Snapdragon Summit that mainstream Linux distributions are coming to Snapdragon X-series laptops, starting with Debian support expected before the end of 2026. Ubuntu compatibility for Snapdragon X2-based devices is planned for early 2027, with ASUS reportedly aiming to ship Ubuntu support on its own X2 hardware by mid-year.
Google's Android Ecosystem President Sameer Samat told Tom's Guide that as foldable phones grow more popular, developers see greater incentive to build proper layouts for them. He said Google has simplified its developer tools and is in talks with app makers who haven't yet optimized for foldable screens, noting Apple's rumored iPhone Duo could add momentum to that shift.
Modern chess engines can defeat the world's best grandmasters, but researchers note they still cannot converge on one definitive, infallible way to play the game. Rather than making chess feel 'solved' or stale, these AI systems are reportedly revealing new strategic ideas and approaches to the game.
OpenAI recently claimed its AI agents produced a solution addressing the Navier-Stokes equations, one of math's unsolved Millennium Problems, after running 10,000 agents for 88 hours. Mathematicians including Oxford's James Maynard and Brown's Javier Gómez-Serrano say the resulting proof, while apparently technically correct, is written in a form that is extremely difficult for humans to interpret or learn from.
Dyson's CameraJet toothbrush, which combines a camera-guided water flossing jet with brushing, launched in US stores on September 8 but was pulled within days after buyers reported water leaking into the battery compartment. WIRED found the $499 device, unveiled with fanfare in Paris weeks earlier, is now unavailable for purchase anywhere.
According to a New York Times investigation, DraftKings developed a machine-learning system that scores customers based on personal data to predict who is most likely to lose money in response to promotional offers. Former employees say the tool was used to funnel bonuses, free bets and profit boosts toward users flagged as high-risk gamblers, rather than to protect them.
A blog post reflects on a 2014 hiring effort to find QA staff in Pune, India willing to learn Clojure to test a large SaaS backend, describing it as an example of avoiding the classic 'Secretary Problem' from Optimal Stopping Theory by not permanently rejecting candidates once passed over. The author, writing with colleague Mayank's case as the anecdote, contrasts this non-zero-sum hiring approach with what they describe as a currently brutal, post-ZIRP software hiring market in 2026.
OpenAI announced a proof addressing the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the Clay Mathematics Institute's Millennium Prize challenges, generated with help from an internal large language model. Mathematicians, including Luis Silvestre of the University of Chicago, argue the proof relies on introducing an external force that alters the equations into a version disconnected from real fluid behavior. Three mathematicians have since posted their own proof showing OpenAI's method cannot be extended to resolve the original, unmodified problem.
OpenAI announced an independent Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, hosted at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, to give mathematicians input into its math research. The move follows OpenAI's claim that an internal model solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem plus over 100 other open math problems, and comes after 25 Fields Medal winners signed a letter warning AI labs are undermining mathematical scholarship. Nine mathematicians have joined as founding members of the unpaid advisory body.
Regulators concluded that Google mishandled location tracking, gathering and storing data that could expose sensitive personal details about users without adequate safeguards. As a result, the company has been fined $462 million.
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