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Security researcher Bruce Schneier reported receiving a flood of AI-generated, one-line 'thank you' replies to the confirmation emails his Crypto-Gram newsletter sends to verify subscriptions. The messages came from dozens of throwaway Gmail addresses that never actually completed the subscription process, and none of the senders responded when he replied back.
Frustrated with the state of modern software, a developer decided to build their own text editor from scratch instead of relying on Sublime Text or VS Code's Monaco-based engine. Their first prototype rendered everything on an HTML canvas element, handling basic cursor movement, typing, and line highlighting, but lacked features like text selection, undo history, and scrolling. Realizing canvas rendering was inherently inaccessible, they pivoted to using a contenteditable div with plaintext-only mode as a more practical foundation.
Google has begun distributing its Pics image editor to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, along with Business and Enterprise Workspace plan customers and AI Pro for Education users. The app, built on Google's Nano Banana image generator, lets users generate images from text prompts, edit individual objects, translate embedded text across 29 languages, and upscale images to 2K or 4K resolution.
Shelly has introduced its first security camera, priced at $49.99 and available in black or white through its online store and resellers. The wired, USB-C-powered camera offers 1080p video with a 110-degree horizontal and 70-degree vertical field of view, night vision, local microSD storage, and smart home automation triggers via other Shelly devices, all without requiring a paid plan.
A developer examining Git's command-line safety flags found that removing or moving a git worktree containing submodules requires the --force flag, a restriction dating back to git worktree's 2015 introduction. The analysis traces how git worktree add had to be patched to ignore submodule.recurse to avoid corrupting empty submodule paths, and argues that git submodules function as a de facto package manager, with the gitlink SHA acting as a lockfile entry and .gitmodules as the manifest.
Poco has unveiled its F9 Pro and F9 Ultra flagship phones, continuing its Bose audio partnership for a second year. The F9 Ultra features an upgraded 2.1 Bose sound system with a glowing LED ring around its subwoofer, plus a 6.9-inch OLED display rated at 10,000 nits peak brightness and a 185Hz refresh rate aimed at gamers.
A restroom archive entry documents the family restroom of a pizza restaurant, accessible through the bar area on the left side of the venue. The space is described as spacious, featuring subway-tiled lower walls, wood paneling above, and a basket-weave tile floor, with no decorative elements aside from graffiti tags covering the door and soap dispenser.
ZDNET tested two sub-$300 AMOLED sports watches, the Garmin Forerunner 170 and Coros Pace 4, over several weeks of running, biking, and hiking. Both offer similar 1.2-inch displays and weight, but the Coros Pace 4 lasts roughly 19 days per charge versus 10 for the Garmin, with a similar edge during GPS use. The Garmin counters with a traditional five-button interface that some athletes prefer for reliability in bad weather or heavy sweat.
Audio guidance clarifies that most subwoofers are nearly omnidirectional because bass frequencies spread as long, powerful waves rather than beaming like tweeters or midrange speakers. As a result, which way a subwoofer physically faces has little effect on sound quality compared to where it sits in the room. The main exception is ported subwoofers, which need clear space around their vents to perform properly.
The FTC, joined by attorneys general from 22 states, filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon of quietly inflating prices in its ad auctions since 2019. Instead of letting the winning bidder pay one cent above the second-highest bid as its auction system promises, the complaint alleges Amazon substituted a higher, internally calculated 'proxy' price to boost its own profits. Regulators estimate this scheme extracted more than $20 billion from advertisers, costs they say were largely pushed onto consumers—an allegation Amazon disputes, calling the suit misguided.
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.
Thieves used fraudulent subcontracting paperwork to arrange a fake pickup at a Pabst distribution center in Montclair, California, making off with roughly 40,000 pounds of beer worth about $25,000. Pabst responded with a tongue-in-cheek social media countdown demanding the return of its 'truck,' though police clarified no truck was actually stolen, just the cargo. A separate $45,000 shipment bound for Tucson vanished from the same facility the same day, and investigators are exploring a possible link.