GoKawiil
Tech News
Reuters reports that Big Tech firms including Amazon, Google, and OpenAI are exploring Argentina's Patagonia region for large-scale data centers, drawn by its cold climate and abundant hydroelectric, wind, and shale gas energy. The region still lacks sufficient fiber infrastructure, and its political future is uncertain ahead of next year's presidential election.
Following President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario, a Canadian seller has created a hat reading 'Canada Is Not for Sale' as a direct response. The design borrows the style of Trump's own campaign caps to turn his signature branding against him, while a rival version supporting the 'Lake America' idea has also appeared for buyers on the other side of the debate.
Apple is holding a keynote widely expected to unveil its long-rumored foldable iPhone Ultra, alongside possible reveals of iPhone 18 Pro models, an Apple Watch Series 12, and potentially an Ultra 4. Leaks from Bloomberg and accessory makers like Dbrand, which had already listed cases for the unannounced device, fueled speculation ahead of the event.
Cofertility, a Los Angeles fertility startup led by CEO Lauren Makler, is offering young women free egg freezing—normally costing around $18,000 in cities like New York—if they agree to donate half of their retrieved eggs to other prospective parents. The company recruits candidates through targeted social media ads and a screening quiz, and has already attracted thousands of applicants, including a 24-year-old graduate student named Yuchen Tu.
A Census Bureau report claiming to find 24,000 noncitizen voters in the 2020 election has been shown by a WIRED investigation to rely on faulty data and a rushed approval process. Several of the report's authors have ties to the Trump administration, including a former DOGE affiliate and researchers from the America First Policy Institute. Experts say the numbers likely stem from analytical errors rather than actual instances of illegal voting.
Lyft has begun integrating Waymo's self-driving vehicles into its ride-hail app in Nashville, marking the first time it has partnered with a major autonomous vehicle company rather than smaller AV startups. Instead of removing human drivers entirely, Lyft is shifting some of its Flexdrive rental-service workers into roles cleaning, repairing, and positioning the Waymo vehicles at a depot ahead of an 80,000-square-foot facility opening in October.
Asus' Cetra Open wireless gaming earbuds are on sale for $22 off at Amazon and Best Buy, dropping the price to $206.99. It's the first discount the open-style earbuds have received since launch.
Nintendo held two back-to-back presentations this week: a Zelda-focused showcase confirming the Switch 2 Ocarina of Time remake will launch November 5th, followed by a roughly 45-minute Direct covering Switch 2 titles arriving mostly this winter. Announced releases include Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave on September 17th and Nintendo Switch Sports Resort on October 22nd, while new Pokémon and Xenoblade entries were confirmed for 2027 without specific dates.
An investigation by Gamers Nexus and Level1Techs, alongside independent security researchers, found LG's smart OLED TVs use Automatic Content Recognition to monitor viewing habits across all input sources and scan connected home networks, sending this data to LG Ad Solutions for targeted advertising. The team also uncovered a security flaw allowing the TVs' built-in microphone to be secretly activated for audio recording even when the set appears off, with stored recordings capable of being transmitted later once reconnected to power and internet.
Users of Google's newly launched Pixel 11 lineup have flagged a handful of software problems, including devices getting stuck in boot loops and camera app malfunctions. It remains unclear how many units are affected or whether the issues stem from software or hardware causes.
Fairphone has released the Gen 6+ version of its repairable Android phone in the United States for $650. The device keeps most of last year's Gen 6 design but adds a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor, 12GB of RAM, and a new cobalt-blue color that honors cobalt miners and the Fair Cobalt Alliance nonprofit Fairphone co-founded.
Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger publicly stated he believes there's more than a 10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next ten years, adding that Anthropic hasn't yet solved this risk despite trying. His comments came in response to former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who resigned and accused both companies of recklessly racing toward self-improving superintelligence while gambling with human lives.