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Phreak.ing has introduced an internet phone switch offering configurable call handling options, including do-not-disturb, voicemail forwarding, and intercom-style auto-answer settings via star codes. The service also lets users disable typing indicators and read receipts for messaging privacy.
Epic Games and Apple filed a joint status update giving conflicting accounts of Apple's progress in turning over internal documents backing its proposed 5%-15% App Store commission structure. Epic alleges Apple is deliberately delaying the process, while Apple denies the claim. The dispute concerns documents Apple is required to produce under the agreement governing ongoing proceedings over its external-link commission rates.
Counterpoint Research reports worldwide smartphone shipments dropped 20% in the third quarter of 2026, the lowest level since 2012, as a shortage of DRAM and NAND chips pushed phone prices up roughly 20% this year. Samsung and Apple both gained market share—23% and 22% respectively—but each still saw shipments decline year-over-year, while Samsung raised Galaxy S26 prices by $100 and Apple's new iPhone 18 Pro line launched $100 higher than its predecessor.
Hackers reportedly breached systems controlling fridges and freezers at hundreds of supermarket stores across France, causing temperatures to spike as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 Celsius). The malfunction led to spoiled food and reportedly sparked fires at some locations.
Elon Musk has given more than $276 million to Republican political groups since July, newly disclosed figures show, including $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and over $76 million to his America PAC. The contributions push his known federal political spending for the 2025-26 cycle to about $366 million, surpassing his 2024 presidential election spending, with disclosures arriving ahead of a Thursday FEC filing deadline.
Alexandra Rutkay, a New York City makeup artist, launched the diaper bag brand citymouse from her apartment at the end of 2022 with about $8,500 of her own savings. The company earned $135,000 in its first full year and has since surpassed $1.7 million in total sales, including a weekend that brought in more than $50,000 in three days.
A researcher investigating an Intel-documented x86 instruction called vfmaddrnd231pd found it does not actually exist on real hardware. The instruction, which purportedly allowed per-instruction rounding control for fused multiply-add operations, is absent from GNU assembler and lacks corresponding intrinsics in both ICC and Clang, and attempting to execute its hand-assembled opcode on a Haswell CPU triggers an undefined instruction fault.
Kcgi, an open source minimal CGI and FastCGI library for C and C++, has released version 1.0.1 dated 2025-11-17. The update is described as a hot-fix to 1.0.0 that corrects the naming of shared libraries on Mac OS X, which follows a different versioning suffix convention than other Unix-like systems. The library remains available via system package managers or as a source archive with SHA-512 verification.
A new project called Brickbrag has launched on Show HN, offering a browser-based multiplayer world built from bricks. Users can chat with other real players, send gifts of coins and bricks, race friends, or simply hang out and watch the town's activity, with an NPC bus driver as the only non-player character mentioned.
Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times that Meta's new Muse Wonder AI model has reached the industry's technological frontier, and said it will be sold as a closed, paid product to businesses rather than released openly. Meta claims the model outperforms rivals from Anthropic and OpenAI on some benchmarks, and Zuckerberg said he rejects calls for an industry-wide AI slowdown, arguing safety can be handled through conventional guardrails at individual labs.
Epic Games is reportedly restructuring its development process around AI models that write code and generate artwork, according to Bloomberg sources citing internal employee messages. The shift affects a $1.5 billion Marvel and Star Wars shooter being developed with Disney, originally planned for March 2027, which has now been delayed indefinitely. Epic says the change reflects 'AI-accelerated development' guided by human staff, while CEO Tim Sweeney described a broad internal reorganization to maximize AI use across teams.
Beats by Dre confirmed a special-edition Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker featuring Pikachu and Mimikyu artwork, priced at $149.99 and launching Thursday at Target and Apple.com. The bundle includes the speaker, a removable lanyard with charm, and Beats x Pokémon stickers.