Meta has reached a settlement with 29 US states that had sued the company over allegedly designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive and harmful to minors. Reuters reports the deal could cost Meta as much as $16.68 billion and would involve 52 state attorneys general, requiring Meta to adopt default usage limits during school and nighttime hours plus stricter age verification. The agreement still needs court approval but would let Meta avoid a trial that could have forced broader industry changes.
After trade talks collapsed, Canada announced tariffs of 25-50% on nearly 900 US goods, including toilet paper and tissue products, set to take effect September 8. This is retaliation for a 50% US tariff hike, and since Canada supplies $328 million worth of toilet paper to the US annually, prices are expected to climb on both sides of the border.
Dick's Sporting Goods is closing more Foot Locker stores in 2026 as part of an ongoing effort to shrink that chain's retail footprint. The company's stock dropped sharply after it issued a revised financial outlook, signaling that its turnaround plan for Foot Locker is behind expectations.
The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 26.8, bringing a set of Writer-focused enhancements. Key additions include automatic RTL text direction detection, a new baseline grid display option, fixed page line-spacing inside frames, and a new Paragraph Composer that balances word spacing across consecutive lines instead of using a simple greedy algorithm.
Legato, a hearing-tech startup founded in late 2024 by former Bose and EssilorLuxottica executives Mehul Trivedi and Steve Romine, has exited stealth mode with $12 million in funding. The company unveiled Legato Frames, eyewear that embeds hearing-assistance technology into the temple arms of glasses, with a planned launch this fall. Legato is targeting people with mild to moderate hearing loss, the largest untreated segment of hearing-impaired adults.
A ZDNET writer describes setting up Tailscale, a free service that links home computers—two physical machines and four virtual ones—into a secure private network called a tailnet. The setup allowed remote desktop access to all machines from abroad without configuring router settings or firewall rules, using tools already familiar to the user like Remote Desktop clients.
A hands-on comparison of more than fifty Wi-Fi routers has narrowed the field to seven standout picks for 2026, led by the Asus RT-BE58U as the overall best choice at $150. Other category winners include the Asus RT-BE96U for high-end upgrades, Netgear's Nighthawk RS300 for midrange buyers, TP-Link's Archer BE230 for budget shoppers, and the Netgear Orbi 770 two-pack for large homes, alongside dedicated travel and 5G options.
Volvo is rolling out new connected safety alerts across three electric models—the EX90, ES90, and EX60—that warn drivers about large animals, pedestrians, cyclists, roadwork, and accidents ahead. Rather than relying on crowdsourced apps like Waze, the system uses onboard sensors and cameras from Volvo's own fleet to detect hazards, log their location, and push warnings to other Volvo vehicles on the same road via the cloud. Volvo says over 1 million of its vehicles already support connected safety alerts, and it shares this data with traffic centers and other automakers.
A leaked spreadsheet obtained by Business Insider compiled self-reported salary data from about 600 Microsoft employees, revealing wide pay ranges by job level. Entry-level engineers reported base pay between $111,000 and $155,500, while senior levels reached up to $245,000 in base salary, and principal or director roles topped out around $280,000 with bonuses as high as $110,000.
Threat intelligence firm Defused reports that hackers are actively probing SharePoint servers by combining two vulnerabilities: an authentication bypass in JWT token validation (CVE-2026-55040) and a Business Connectivity Services flaw (CVE-2026-63520) that enables remote code execution. Proof-of-concept code for both bugs was published publicly in August by researchers at Rapid7 and VulnCheck, and Defused says it has already observed the bypass being exploited alongside admin enumeration on honeypots, though no successful code execution has been confirmed yet.
Microsoft is expanding its Xbox 25th anniversary celebration beyond the translucent green Series X console with a matching accessory collection. Third-party partners Razer, 8BitDo, Backbone, PowerA, and GameSir are releasing limited-edition peripherals like mice, keyboards, earbuds, controller docks, and mobile controllers, mostly in the same translucent green theme, available now for pre-order at a price premium over standard versions.
Microsoft has set an $899 price for its special-edition translucent green Xbox marking the console's 25th anniversary, with preorders opening August 27th and a November 13th launch. The unit is essentially an Xbox Series X with 1TB storage, individually laser-etched and numbered, bundled with a matching 'OG Green' controller and a full download of Halo: Campaign Evolved. A separate matching controller is also available to preorder now for $79, launching October 20th.
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