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Tech News
A personal essay recounts two childhood neighbors, Bob and Van, whose kindness and generosity defined the relationship without either ever revealing political views. The author contrasts that era with today's climate, where knowing a neighbor's politics can determine whether association with them is socially acceptable.
Segway has unveiled the Navimow H5 Pro, a robotic lawn mower featuring a trapdoor mechanism designed to trim grass evenly right up to the edges of a lawn. The design aims to solve a common weakness of robomowers, which often leave uneven strips of grass near borders and obstacles.
Router manufacturers and security experts note that routers, as small computers, accumulate memory buildup and temporary files that degrade performance over time. Restarting a router clears this cache, refreshes connections with your modem and internet provider, forces a rescan of less congested Wi-Fi channels, and disrupts malware or lingering connections attackers could exploit. This differs from a factory reset, which erases all saved settings including network name and password.
Gamescom organizers issued a public apology after indie developers criticized the company's initial muted response to laptops and consoles stolen from their booths. The company said it has since contacted the affected exhibitors, is running its usual post-event review, and will hold an additional security evaluation for indie booths. At least three exhibitors—Ryan Laley, iam8bit, and Tessera Studios—reported stolen equipment during the event.
UCSF professor Laura Schmidt traced how R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris entered the food business starting with R.J. Reynolds' 1963 purchase of Hawaiian Punch, later acquiring Del Monte, Nabisco, General Foods, Kraft and 7UP. She argues these tobacco companies applied cigarette-style marketing and engineering to create hyperpalatable, chemically formulated foods now called ultra-processed foods.
U.S.-based employees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia, voted decisively to unionize under Communications Workers of America Local 9415. The election, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, followed a July push for recognition after a supermajority of workers signed union cards, a request management initially declined to honor voluntarily. The vote is part of the broader Wiki Workers United campaign spanning multiple countries where Wikimedia staff work.
A federal judge ruled that startup Operation Bluebird cannot use the 'Twitter' name for its new social platform, citing likely trademark confusion with X Corp. However, the same ruling found the company can likely use the word 'tweet' and the bird logo, since X appears to have abandoned both marks. The startup has since rebranded its waitlist platform from Twitter.now to Tweet.app, which already has over 172,000 signups paying to reserve handles.
At a New York launch event, Insta360 unveiled the X6, its latest 360-degree camera, and used the occasion to showcase a decade of product evolution since its original Nano device. The company framed the X6 not just as a standalone gadget but as the centerpiece of a broader ecosystem meant to simplify capturing and editing immersive footage.
Several board members from Elon Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, are directing personal funding toward psychedelic research and a startup pursuing regulatory approval for MDMA-assisted therapy. The investments span both academic studies and commercial drug-development efforts aimed at treating conditions like PTSD.
Ahead of installing an iOS public beta, users are advised to make a computer-based backup rather than relying on iCloud, since iCloud automatically overwrites backups with newer beta versions. This can leave users unable to restore a stable iOS version if they need to downgrade. The recommended process involves connecting the iPhone to a Mac or PC, creating an encrypted local backup, and archiving it manually.
New robotic lawn mowers featuring dedicated arms for trimming edges have launched, but restrictions on Chinese robotics imports mean American consumers likely won't get access anytime soon. These next-generation mowers solve a longstanding gap in robotic lawn care by handling edges and borders that current robomowers typically miss.
A tech guide lays out several ways to responsibly get rid of an old but functional TV, including giving or selling it to friends, family, or via Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, donating to charities or thrift stores, or repurposing it at home with a streaming stick like Apple TV, Roku, or Chromecast. It also warns that CRT televisions are typically rejected by thrift stores because of hazardous materials inside them.