GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple introduced HomeView, a smart home hub available in a domed desktop version and a wall-mounted version. Both share Spatial Audio support and two full-range drivers, but the standard model adds a down-firing woofer and dual force-cancelling passive radiators that the wall-mounted version lacks.
A technical blog post explains Monte Carlo simulation methods, tracing the technique's origins to Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann's nuclear weapon calculations after World War II. It demonstrates the approach with a classic example: estimating pi by randomly 'throwing darts' at a square containing an inscribed quarter circle and comparing the ratio of hits inside the circle to total throws. The author notes that even with 1,000 samples the estimate remains imprecise, suggesting roughly 10 billion samples are needed for accuracy.
Hulu has given a full series order to Ryan Coogler's X-Files project after greenlighting its pilot in February, according to Variety. Coogler wrote and directed the pilot and will serve as executive producer, while Jennifer Yale, known for Legion and Dexter, is showrunner. The series stars Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel as new FBI agents investigating unexplained phenomena, distinct from Mulder and Scully.
Apple released a chaotic three-minute commercial for its new HomeView smart display, showing a family of five navigating a frantic morning with spilled food, lost keys, thermostat squabbles, and a security-camera reveal of a daughter's secret boyfriend. The ad departs from Apple's usual polished aesthetic, and reactions have split sharply between confusion and recognition. Parents of teenagers, including several tech journalists on Threads, say the scene closely mirrors their actual mornings.
A Gentoo contributor is publicly asking Python package maintainers not to adopt uv-build as their build backend, citing damage to Gentoo package support when key dependencies switch to it. The post clarifies it's not a criticism of uv or Astral's other tools generally, but specifically objects to uv-build's size, its Rust implementation, and its frequent release cadence.
Meta is rolling out a feature letting Facebook users open a new 'your algorithm' panel on posts and Reels to mark topics as interests or 'not interested,' plus a text box to describe in their own words what they want to see. Meta says the tool works because it now uses large language models in its ranking systems, allowing it to interpret natural-language requests rather than just inferring interests from engagement. The feature follows a similar rollout on Instagram earlier this year.
Discovery+ has increased its monthly subscription prices, with the ad-free plan rising from $10 to $12 and the ad-supported tier from $6 to $7. New subscribers face the higher prices immediately, while existing customers will get 30 days' notice, with new billing starting November 12. The increase comes about a week after Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Discovery+'s parent company.
Meta has launched 'Your Algorithm' on Facebook, a feature first introduced on Instagram that lets users describe in their own words what content they want more or less of in Feed and Reels. The tool is integrated into the three-dot menu alongside existing 'Interested' and 'Not interested' options, and Meta says it may ask follow-up questions to refine recommendations, with changes applied in real time.
Alameda-based startup Longshot Space Technology, led by CEO Mike Grace and CTO Nato Saichek, is developing a multi-stage gun system that accelerates projectiles toward orbit instead of using rockets. The company has raised roughly $20 million from venture investors and is currently testing a 70-foot, six-inch-diameter gun that has fired projectiles at speeds up to Mach 4. Longshot plans to present its technology at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
OnePlus has released a new smartphone featuring a 9,000mAh battery, a notably large capacity compared to most flagship phones sold globally. The device is currently available only in China, meaning customers in Western markets such as the US and Europe cannot purchase it through official channels.
Google launched Gemini 4 Argon, its newest flagship AI model, making it available globally to developers and businesses for complex tasks in coding, finance, law, cybersecurity and science. API pricing starts at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with rates doubling after November 30. Google also said it is expanding its Fairwind Program, which gives vetted cybersecurity partners a version of Argon without standard cyber guardrails, to hundreds more partners.
IBM's Institute for Business Value surveyed 2,000 CEOs across 33 countries and found 61% say their organizations are actively adopting or scaling AI agents, including in performance testing. Yet the same study found only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected returns and just 16% have scaled enterprise-wide, meaning much of the performance-testing use case remains unproven despite broad adoption intent.