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Candy brand Brach's has released a limited-edition fragrance priced at $22 that is designed to smell like candy corn, its signature Halloween treat. The perfume is being marketed as a novelty seasonal product tied to the polarizing candy.
A KLM flight from Amsterdam to Curaçao turned back to the Netherlands after a portable charger caught fire in business class nearly six hours into the flight over the Atlantic. The device, belonging to former KLM CEO Camiel Eurlings, scorched his seat and window blind. Passengers were rebooked and completed the journey to Curaçao the following day.
Patagonia is launching a program that pays people $100 for getting three friends or family members to vote in the upcoming November election. The initiative targets an estimated 11.2 million environmentally minded Americans who skipped the last election, using peer pressure and financial incentive to boost turnout.
The guide explains how to repurpose an old computer as a home media server by adding storage (ideally with redundancy like RAID) and installing server software such as Plex or Jellyfin to stream content across devices. It compares the two platforms, noting Plex's simplicity but paid features versus Jellyfin's free, more customizable but technical setup, particularly around GPU-based media transcoding.
An Entrepreneur analysis highlights how small businesses near World Cup 2026 host stadiums—bars, vendors, jersey shops and parking operators—saw sales rise 4.1% in June, outpacing 1.8% growth in non-host cities, largely due to a 16.7% jump in spending by visiting fans. The piece notes that nearly 500 terabytes of data flowed through host stadiums during the tournament, forcing local businesses to upgrade their own connectivity to handle surges in mobile ordering, digital payments and foot traffic.
Microsoft is combining Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios into a single studio that will focus on Forza Horizon and Fable, according to a memo from Xbox content chief Matt Booty. The move effectively ends Turn 10 as an independent studio after it lost most of its staff in layoffs last year and had been largely maintaining Forza Motorsport since.
Google has started sending automated texts to Google Messages users through the app's business chat feature, promoting new app features like RCS photo and video quality. The messages appear as a verified conversation from 'Google Messages' but only allow pre-set replies, not user responses. Users can opt out by declining a prompt that appears before the texts begin, or unsubscribe later if they've already accepted.
Google offers ChromeOS Flex, a free operating system that can replace Windows on older machines meeting modest specs: an Intel or AMD CPU, 4GB RAM and 16GB storage, though chips from 2012 or earlier aren't supported. Installation involves using Chrome's Chromebook Recovery Utility to create bootable media on an 8GB-plus USB drive, then booting the target PC into its boot menu to install or trial the OS.
Google allows users to turn off Timeline, its location-history feature in Google Maps, through device-specific settings rather than a single global switch. Users can choose to simply pause tracking, delete all past data, or set auto-delete rules for activity older than three, 18, or 36 months. The app also provides options to export Timeline data or back it up in encrypted form to a Google account.
A financial advisor breaks down how trillions of dollars sitting in low-interest checking and savings accounts are quietly losing value. With savings accounts averaging just 0.38% APY against 3.4% inflation, that cash loses more than 2% of real purchasing power annually, even as the balance stays unchanged.
As KDE nears its 30th anniversary, contributor Kevin Ottens published community data showing developer participation has climbed back to around 140 people on average, up from a low of about 110 in 2017. Commit activity has also surged, with 2023 setting an all-time weekly record, and the KDE Plasma desktop project nearly doubling its average team size following the 2020 move to GitLab.
Apple has released instructions letting Mac users turn off or restrict Apple Intelligence features, alongside details on language support and usage limits. The company confirmed Siri AI and other Apple Intelligence tools remain in beta across its OS lineup, with support currently limited to a set list of languages including English, French, German, Japanese, and others. Server-dependent features like Siri AI, Image Playground, and Intelligent Photo Editing Tools face daily usage caps that vary by demand and complexity.