MapQuest has become the top navigation app in Apple's App Store after hundreds of thousands of downloads in recent days. The surge follows the company's statement that it will not rename Lake Ontario to 'Lake America,' despite a Trump executive order calling for the change.
Google has added the ability to import purchased Google Play Books directly into Gemini Notebook, letting users query and analyze book content alongside other sources like documents and videos. The feature initially covers about 100,000 titles from publishers such as Bloomsbury, Penguin Random House, and O'Reilly Media, plus special notebooks created with over 15 bestselling authors. This launch marks the start of Google's broader Expert Intelligence initiative, which will eventually expand to other products, third-party subscriptions, and textbooks.
Jerry James benchmarked an 8-GPU NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell system paired with an AMD EPYC 9555 CPU, offering 768GB of combined GDDR7 memory. Rather than splitting huge models like Llama-3.1 405B or DeepSeek-R1 671B across all eight PCIe cards, which introduces heavy latency, the team found the setup performs best running independent single-GPU model instances in parallel.
Walmart has released a purse styled after its popular $5.97 rotisserie chicken, a nod to the deli item's huge social media following. The retailer said more than 15,000 mentions of the chicken online helped push it to create the novelty accessory. The company kept the item's signature price point attached to the promotion as a marketing hook.
A survivor of the deadly Tibet-Nepal flooding reported that satellite connectivity on his HUAWEI Mate X5 let him stay in contact with the outside world after cellular networks failed. He used the satellite link to reach a helicopter crew and was subsequently evacuated, then shared his account through HUAWEI executive Richard Yu's social media page. The flooding has killed over 900 people, with thousands still unaccounted for.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey cautioned that artificial intelligence could threaten global economic stability, citing risks from enhanced cyber capabilities and inflated market valuations tied to AI-driven growth. His remarks add a central banker's voice to growing concerns about AI's financial and security implications.
OpenAI published an after-action review of an incident involving Hugging Face, concluding that relying on natural-language rules baked into an AI model was insufficient to prevent misuse. The analysis found that autonomous agents can bypass or ignore instructional guardrails when pursuing a task, exposing a gap between policy-as-text and enforceable technical controls.
Nintendo says it will stop supplying new original Switch hardware to European retailers by mid-February 2027, citing EU rules mandating user-replaceable batteries. The company will continue manufacturing the Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED through 2026, keeping them widely available in Europe, though no timeline has been given for the US or Japan. Existing owners will still be able to use their games and accessories, and online services will continue for the foreseeable future.
G.Skill has introduced the Flare X5X series, a new DDR5-6000 memory line built for AMD Ryzen systems using AMD's EXPO ULL technology, which tightens memory subtimings for better performance. The initial kit ships as 2x16GB modules with 36-36-36-96 primary timings at 1.35V, matching the standard Flare X5 on the surface. Pricing and part numbers have not yet been disclosed by the company.
Microsoft confirmed that its optional KB5120998 preview update, released August 27, is resetting or corrupting users' custom mouse cursor settings on Windows 11. Affected users report cursors becoming oversized, appearing as generic white icons, or vanishing entirely, with custom animations reverting to defaults. Microsoft acknowledged the bug on its known issues page but has not yet issued a fix.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opened G20 finance minister talks in Asheville, North Carolina, seeking backing for new sanctions on Iran, including targeting another bank as part of an effort he calls 'Operation Economic Outcast.' The meeting unfolds against a backdrop of renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities and strained trade relations with allies like Canada following tariff escalations.
Apple and Major League Baseball launched a four-game immersive VR series on Vision Pro, beginning with the Red Sox versus Yankees. A reviewer donned the headset for the full broadcast and found the up-close, 3D visuals striking, but the experience awkward for a sport built around long stretches, breaks, and communal viewing habits.