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Microsoft gives Copilot a face - here's how to try your new Appearance chat buddy

Microsoft Microsoft has a new experiment, called Copilot Appearance, that's designed to bring its AI assistant to life -- visually, anyway. Also: Microsoft's Copilot Vision can now see and analyze your entire Windows desktop Available now as an early preview in Copilot Labs, this feature layers real‑time facial expressions and non‑verbal cues onto Copilot's voice interactions. The goal is to make conversations with Microsoft's AI feel more natural, human‑like, and animated. What is Copilot A

Neon Now Runs in VS Code

Developers love using Neon branches for a local development, due to the agility they provide (e.g. fast resets, isolated environments, and the ability to test without polluting production data). But using Neon branches still requires you to manage separate connection strings for different branches and ensure your application and its environment is properly set up to connect. Today, that gets a lot easier, especially if you’re a VS Code user! We’re launching Neon Local Connect, a new VS Code ext

Skydance deal allows Trump’s FCC to “censor speech” and “silence dissent” on CBS

The Federal Communications Commission has approved Skydance's $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, which owns CBS. But the agency's approval drew fiery dissent from the only Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, after requiring written commitments from Skydance that allow the government to influence editorial decisions at CBS. Gomez accused the FCC of "imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law." Und

Microsoft’s AI CEO thinks Copilot will age and ‘have a room that it lives in’

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI CEO, has a vision of Copilot that involves it being so highly personalized that “it will age.” Microsoft has been increasingly pushing Copilot to be a personalized AI assistant, with a big redesign last year that included a conversational voice mode. Now, Suleyman’s Microsoft AI team is launching a new Copilot virtual character that will interac

Everything you need to know about AppleCare One

Apple this week launched a new AppleCare One plan – a way to buy AppleCare+ for multiple devices for one monthly fee. The exact coverage it offers depends on the mix of devices you have, and the cost depends on how many, but you’ll almost certainly save money over buying separate plans for each. Does this mean you should subscribe? That depends … Understanding AppleCare AppleCare can be somewhat confusing, because the company has historically used the branding to describe both the standard wa

US sanctions North Korean firm, nationals behind IT worker schemes

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned three North Korean nationals and a company for supporting fraudulent IT worker schemes that generated illicit revenue for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) government. The sanctioned company is named Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company, and the three North Korean individuals are Kim Se Un, Jo Kyong Hun, and Myong Chol Min. North Korea’s IT worker schemes involve placing skilled tech workers i

Trump, who promised to save TikTok, threatens to shut down TikTok

Donald Trump vowed to save TikTok before taking office, claiming only he could make a deal to keep the app operational in the US despite national security concerns. But then, he put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the deal, and after months of negotiations, the US still doesn't seem to have found terms for a sale that the Chinese government is willing to approve. Now, Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed that if China won't approve the latest version of the deal—which coul

FCC approves Skydance's $8 billion Paramount acquisition

Regulators won't stand in the way of Skydance's Paramount acquisition. The Federal Communications Commission has approved the $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global and its subsidiaries, including the parent company of CBS Network. In a statement, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he welcomes "Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network." Skydance, he said, has made written commitments to ensure that its "news and entertainment programming will embod

Paramount-Skydance merger approved after companies agree to government speech demands

is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs but feature a “diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum

Apple’s New Game Overlay in macOS 26 Could be So Much More

Gaming on Mac has come a long way, but if people are going to take it seriously—like, really seriously—Apple still has some work to do. The new public beta for macOS 26 and its gaming updates won’t convince the naysayers, but I see it as the tipping point, and all Apple needs to do is relax for once and let the players take control. For macOS 26, Apple added a new Game Overlay and Games app. The former acts as an easy way to adjust brightness, volume, or call friends while in-game. It also has

Open Source Maintenance Fee

User story As a WiX maintainer, the Open Source Maintenance Fee provides funding for ongoing maintenance tasks that would ensure the long-term sustainability of the WiX Toolset. Proposal Open Source Maintenance Fee Introduction To ensure the long-term sustainability of this project, we are introducing an Open Source Maintenance Fee. This fee is required to be paid by all consumers of the WiX Toolset project who generate revenue. You can pay via GitHub Sponsors. We plan to enforce the mainte

Rare Bone-Eating Cancer Replaced Man’s Finger and Toe

A 55-year-old man’s swollen toes and fingers turned out to have a much stranger explanation than expected. In a recent case report, the man’s doctors detailed how some of his bones were “completely replaced” by metastatic tumors. Doctors in Australia described the case earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. The man visited the hospital after weeks of having pain and swelling in one finger and one toe. They soon discovered the symptoms were an unusual complication of the man’

How to Succeed as a Freelancer and Turn a Side Hustle into a Full-Time Career

Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNET Jamie Brindle has been freelancing for 16 years and is on a mission to "demystify" the freelance world. In 2020, amid a shaky job market and widespread rejection of corporate hustle culture, he started helping beginner freelancers become their own bosses. The expansion of remote work, advances in AI and the growth of influencer platforms have all led to a kind of self-employment boom. As Gen Zers and millennials find new ways to upgrade their skills in a flexible work se

iOS 26 beta 4 changes, AppleCare One, and an M5 iPad Pro surprise

Benjamin and Chance talk about all the changes in iOS 26 beta 4, the strangely good deal that is the new AppleCare One package, and a surprising rumored detail about the upcoming M5 iPad Pro. And in Happy Hour Plus, the duo discuss the recent exodus from the AI group as motivation to work on Apple AI research wavers. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join. Hosts Chance Miller Benjamin Mayo Subscribe, Rate, and Review 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus Subscribe to 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus! Support Benjamin an

WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee

User story As a WiX maintainer, the Open Source Maintenance Fee provides funding for ongoing maintenance tasks that would ensure the long-term sustainability of the WiX Toolset. Proposal Open Source Maintenance Fee Introduction To ensure the long-term sustainability of this project, we are introducing an Open Source Maintenance Fee. This fee is required to be paid by all consumers of the WiX Toolset project who generate revenue. You can pay via GitHub Sponsors. We plan to enforce the mainte

$1 billion of NVIDIA AI chips were reportedly sold in China despite US bans

Financial Times is reporting that $1 billion worth of NVIDIA AI chips were smuggled into China in the three months after the Trump administration tightened semiconductor export controls . Citing sales contracts, company documents and people with direct knowledge, the publication says that a thriving black market arose for American semiconductors. Products sold included NVIDIA's top‑tier B200 chips, which have become the silicon of choice for American big tech when training AI models. Sale of the

Wix: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee

User story As a WiX maintainer, the Open Source Maintenance Fee provides funding for ongoing maintenance tasks that would ensure the long-term sustainability of the WiX Toolset. Proposal Open Source Maintenance Fee Introduction To ensure the long-term sustainability of this project, we are introducing an Open Source Maintenance Fee. This fee is required to be paid by all consumers of the WiX Toolset project who generate revenue. You can pay via GitHub Sponsors. We plan to enforce the mainte

The Download: gas and oil’s role in climate tech, and using AI to decipher ancient Latin

—Casey Crownhart After writing about Quaise, a geothermal startup that’s trying to commercialize new drilling technology, I've been thinking about the role oil and gas companies are playing in the energy transition. It’s becoming increasingly common in climate tech to see a startup join up with a bigger fossil fuel company in its field, like Quaise has with Nabors Industries, one of the biggest drilling firms in the world. This industry has resources and energy expertise—but also a vested inte

Thunder Compute (YC S24) Is Hiring a C++ Systems Engineer

C++ Systems Engineer (Full-Time) Company Thunder Compute is a GPU cloud platform built on custom virtualization that delivers 5x better margins than competitors. 4-person team, seed-funded (approaching series A), 100%+ MoM revenue growth. 100% in-person in Atlanta, relocating to SF or NYC within 6 months. The technical challenge: We network-attach GPUs over TCP through API remoting, decoupling GPUs from instances. This lets us oversubscribe hardware aggressively—while Lambda Labs needs 100 G

The best music headphones of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

In theory, all headphones should sound great when you're listening to music, but not all are specifically designed to provide a high-quality music listening experience. That's not always a bad thing, as some headphones are built more to offer lots of features and good noise-cancelation, while others focus more on a sleek and stylish design. Still, some headphones are designed more with high-quality sound in mind. These headphones don't always have excellent noise-cancelation or some of the high

Laptop CPUs in 2025 Explained: What to Know Before Buying Your Next Laptop

Shopping for a new laptop can be a confusing experience. I find the best place to start is with size. Do you want a featherlight ultraportable or a larger model that has a bigger screen but is more of a chore to lug around? Or something in between that offers a balance between portability and productivity? Deciding on factors as straightforward as size actually goes a long way in helping choose more complex parts, including the processor. You'll still be faced with a variety of CPU options, but

Cancelling a Subscription? Apple Lets Devs Make You an Offer You (Maybe) Can't Refuse

Got some subscriptions on an Apple device you're looking to cancel? You might be in for an extra step in the near future -- or a deal you decide you can't pass up. I don't know about you, but often when I'm trying cancel a subscription (like Starz, when Outlander isn't airing), I get an offer to stick around for a temporarily discounted price. It can be annoying sometimes, but I'd be lying if I said I've never taken them up on the deal. However you feel about that common customer retention pra

Early Anthropic hire raises $15M to insure AI agents and help startups deploy safely

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now A new startup founded by an early Anthropic hire has raised $15 million to solve one of the most pressing challenges facing enterprises today: how to deploy artificial intelligence systems without risking catastrophic failures that could damage their businesses. The Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company (AIUC), which launches public

Boost HTML5 Game Performance with WebAssembly

Who this article is for: Game developers looking to improve the performance of their HTML5 games Technical leads and engineers interested in integrating WebAssembly into their projects Students or professionals learning about web technologies and game development HTML5 game development has transformed web gaming, but it’s the integration of WebAssembly that’s truly revolutionizing performance capabilities. When players experience stuttering frame rates or input lag in browser games, they don’

Former Anthropic exec raises $15M to insure AI agents and help startups deploy safely

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now A new startup founded by a former Anthropic executive has raised $15 million to solve one of the most pressing challenges facing enterprises today: how to deploy artificial intelligence systems without risking catastrophic failures that could damage their businesses. The Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company (AIUC), which launches p

Proxmox Donates €10k to the Perl and Raku Foundation

Proxmox Donates €10,000 to The Perl and Raku Foundation The Perl and Raku Foundation (TPRF) is delighted to announce a generous €10,000 donation from Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, supporting the critical Perl 5 Core Maintenance Fund. Corporate partnerships play a critical role in enabling TPRF to fulfill its mission. A Partner in Open Source Proxmox Virtual Environment is a complete, open-source server management platform for enterprise virtualization. It tightly integrates the KVM hyperviso

Avalanche Energy hits key milestone on the road to a desktop fusion reactor

For every technology, there comes a tipping point where it switches from theory to possibility. Robin Langtry believes that Avalanche Energy has reached that point. Avalanche recently operated its desktop fusion machine for hours on end while maintaining 300,000 volts, a figure the startup predicts will allow it to build a reactor capable of generating more energy than it consumes, the holy grail for any fusion company. Where other fusion companies need powerful magnets to generate energy, Ava

SAVE Student Loan Borrowers: You Don't Have to Move to IBR by Aug. 1, but You May Want to: Here's How to Decide

Interest will restart for SAVE borrowers whose loans remain in a general forbearance on Aug. 1. Viva Tung/CNET If you're a student loan borrower enrolled in SAVE, you have just over a week left to switch repayment plans before interest will begin accruing on your loans on Aug. 1. While you can't avoid interest, it also may not make sense for you to switch payment plans just yet. Earlier this month, the Department of Education announced that interest would resume for the nearly 8 million borrow

Democrats are desperately trying to revive the click-to-cancel rule

is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Democratic lawmakers are taking multiple routes to try to revive the Federal Trade Commission’s “click-to-cancel” rule after an appeals court blocked it on procedural grounds right before it was set to take effect. Democrats already introduced legislation earlier this month to cod