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Tech News
Schools increasingly rely on laptops and tablets for coursework, but these same devices expose students to games, social media, and web browsing that can pull focus from schoolwork. Parents often have limited ability to adjust settings on school-managed devices, making it harder to curb distractions than on family-owned technology.
Sahuarita, Arizona police chief John Noland told the Daily Wire that his 68-officer department has used electric-shock gloves, known as GLOVEs, for roughly two years, calling the devices successful at gaining compliance. His comments follow reporting that ICE has ordered a large supply of the same equipment and that Oklahoma officers used them on students during the 2025-2026 school year.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe found that three Savannah police officers and one community service specialist improperly used the city's Flock automatic license plate reader system to track personal acquaintances and family members. All four were arrested last week, and two other employees had already been fired for similar conduct. Mayor Van Johnson publicly condemned the abuse, calling it a breach of public trust.
Scientists are exploring methods to repurpose radioactive waste material as fuel for radioisotope power systems used in deep-space missions. The approach would recycle byproducts from nuclear reactors instead of relying solely on scarce isotopes like plutonium-238 that are currently used to power spacecraft.
In testimony from an ongoing lawsuit filed by 29 states against Meta, a former company data scientist revealed that only about 0.165% to 0.2% of teens actually used Instagram's Take a Break feature when it was opt-in, despite Meta previously claiming 90% adoption. The tool, meant to nudge users to pause after extended app use, is now enabled by default for teen accounts following the criticism.
Northwestern University postdoc Reese Richardson discovered that images used by lab supply companies to demonstrate antibody performance had been digitally altered, including removed background noise and copy-pasted data meant to fabricate results. His broader search identified these manipulation issues across marketing materials for more than 17,000 commercially sold antibodies.
In March 2024, three Romanian nationals attacked Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati outside his London home, stabbing him in the leg before fleeing to Bucharest via Geneva. Investigators say the assault is part of a broader Iranian strategy of paying foreign criminals—including Russian mobsters, Hells Angels members, and Swedish teenagers—to target dissidents and journalists abroad, allowing Tehran to deny direct involvement.
Microsoft has introduced a referral scheme that gives Edge users 500 Microsoft Rewards points—about $0.45—for each friend who installs Edge Mobile and searches with it on two separate days within a 14-day window. Monthly earnings are capped at 7,500 points, roughly $6.82 in Xbox or Microsoft gift card value. The program applies to Edge on Android and iOS and had earlier surfaced in a Canary test build before rolling out broadly.
Digital car keys, which rely on UWB or NFC to confirm phone proximity, avoid the relay attacks that plague traditional key fobs. However, they introduce new vulnerabilities: a stolen or dead phone could theoretically lock owners out or grant access to thieves, though automakers build in safeguards like remote lockdown features and reserve battery power for NFC access lasting up to five hours after a phone dies.
A class action lawsuit filed by Connecticut streamer Warren Pandiscia accuses Amazon of using Twitch users' broadcasts to train its AI models without consent or compensation. The suit claims this violates Twitch's contract with streamers, who collectively produced over 215 million hours of content in early 2026 alone. It seeks damages plus a court order to stop Amazon from continuing the practice.
Code inside Google Play Store version 52.8.55-34 reveals that the Ask Play conversational search feature will soon accept image attachments from a phone's camera or gallery. Users could upload a screenshot of a home screen widget or app feature and ask Ask Play's AI to identify it or find similar apps. Google also appears ready to drop the separate 'Ask Play about this app' section, replacing it with scrollable suggested-question chips.
Apple's iOS settings allow drivers to customize or silence Siri's behavior during CarPlay use, including disabling announced messages, skipping reply confirmations, and preventing Siri from stopping mid-sentence due to background noise. Options are found under Notifications, Accessibility, and Apple Intelligence & Siri menus in the iPhone's Settings app.