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Tech News
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has publicly criticized California's Proposition 40, a proposed 5% wealth tax targeting billionaires. Cuban argues the measure would disproportionately harm startup founders whose net worth is tied up in illiquid company equity rather than cash, making it difficult for them to pay a tax based on paper wealth.
Startup Paddy Paper is producing toilet paper using rice straw, the leftover stalks from rice farming, instead of trees or bamboo. The approach aims to repurpose an agricultural byproduct that is often burned or discarded, turning it into a household paper product.
Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes has identified fake websites posing as Rockstar Games that promise a playable Grand Theft Auto VI demo, which doesn't actually exist. Clicking the 'Play Now' button on these sites downloads an information-stealing malware disguised as a game installer, rather than any game files.
Waymo announced plans to bring its autonomous vehicles to Munich, aiming to launch commercial robotaxi service there by the end of 2027, marking its first deployment in the European Union. The company will begin mapping streets and testing with safety drivers in the coming weeks while seeking permits from local, state and federal authorities. Munich follows London, where Waymo hopes to start public rides as soon as next month, as part of a broader European push that includes new subsidiaries in France, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Nvidia is gaining backing from more game studios for its RTX Spark technology and ARM-based chip architecture, signaling a shift toward wider hardware compatibility for PC gaming. This move could allow games to run more consistently across different laptop configurations, regardless of the underlying chip design.
A hobbyist built CarWatch, a system that puts a Raspberry Pi 5 in a car running a 35-billion-parameter Qwen model locally, no internet or subscription required. It joins chat rooms as an AI agent, sending trip summaries, dashcam clips, and answers sourced from the car's 745-page owner's manual, and also supports hands-free voice queries via on-device speech recognition.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority paused a Boston federal judge's injunction that had blocked Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting in 23 states and DC, ruling the states lacked standing to sue because they couldn't prove concrete harm. The court did not rule on whether the order itself is legal, leaving that question for future litigation, while a separate nationwide injunction against the Postal Service implementing the order remains intact for now.
Nearly a decade after Geoffrey Hinton predicted AI would replace radiologists, the profession has instead grown, with practitioner numbers projected to rise more than 26% over three decades. About three-quarters of the 1,400 AI-enabled medical devices cleared by the FDA target radiology, ranging from tools that draft reports and flag urgent cases to systems that can spot abnormalities humans miss, such as AI-assisted colonoscopies detecting more polyps than standard procedures.
Apple has quietly launched a new Mac mini powered by its M6 chip, a machine that has become a favorite among users running agentic AI workloads locally. The update comes with another price increase and arrives unexpectedly, just weeks before Apple's anticipated iPhone 18 launch event where a first foldable iPhone is also expected.
Recruiters say white-collar job applicants, including lawyers and bankers, are adding a brief personal hobbies line to their resumes to seem more human amid a competitive hiring market. According to a Wall Street Journal report, more than half of legal candidates placed by one recruiting firm last year included such a line, up sharply from prior years. Recruiters suggest the section be limited to a single line placed at the end of the resume.
Counterfeit versions of retatrutide, an experimental Eli Lilly weight-loss drug not yet submitted for FDA approval, are being sold at spas and on social media despite lacking any regulatory clearance. The drug targets three hormone receptors to suppress appetite and boost calorie burn, with early trial data suggesting significant weight loss, but no legitimate US provider is authorized to prescribe it. ABC Australia reported a case where a counterfeit vial of the drug caused severe liver damage.
Dreame, the Chinese vacuum maker turned aspiring tech conglomerate, has reportedly dissolved its automotive division 'Project Starry Sky,' which once had over 1,000 employees and produced a rocket-engine concept car shown in San Francisco. Only a small legal and HR team remains to wind down the unit, after Chinese regulators tightened scrutiny of the $3.4 trillion private fund industry and singled out Dreame's spending.