Brave has rolled out a new privacy tool letting users generate disposable email aliases when signing up for websites, avoiding exposure of their real address. Emails sent to an alias are automatically forwarded to the user's primary inbox and then deleted from Brave's servers, with account data encrypted at rest.
Linkind has released a Smart Light Stick, an E26 screw-in bulb designed around dynamic flame simulation rather than standard color lighting. Users can adjust flame size, brightness, flicker speed, and motion type, and the bulb also includes over 120 presets like sunset and lava effects. It connects to Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home through Matter.
Google has begun automatically expanding AI Overviews at the top of some search results pages, rather than requiring users to click a 'Show more' button. This pushes the usual list of website links, and an 'Ask anything' box, further down the page, forcing more scrolling to reach traditional results. Google says the behavior is inconsistent and applies only to select queries where its systems determine an expanded view is more useful.
Aardman Animations has released a new trailer for 'Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu,' showcasing its stop-motion claymation style. The footage highlights the studio's signature chaotic, whimsical humor reminiscent of its 'Wallace & Gromit' franchise.
McKesson, a major U.S. healthcare and pharmaceutical distributor, disclosed in an SEC filing that it discovered unauthorized access to third-party applications and data exfiltration on August 25, 2026. The extortion group ShinyHunters claims responsibility, alleging it stole 284 million patient records, though McKesson has not confirmed the scope or named the affected applications. The company says its investigation is ongoing and has not yet determined whether the incident is financially material.
New business formations reached record levels in 2025, with over 548,000 launched in June alone and nearly 3.5 million in the first half of the year. Rather than concentrating in traditional hubs like Silicon Valley or New York, much of this growth is occurring in states such as Wyoming, Oregon, Mississippi and North Dakota.
Amazon does not publish an official lifespan for Fire TV Stick devices, but it does commit to providing security updates for a minimum of four years from purchase date, or until a listed support deadline, whichever comes later. Current models like the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and 4K Plus are covered through at least December 2030.
Omdia analyst Theresa Lanowitz discussed with Dark Reading how organizations are increasing investment in offensive security practices like penetration testing and red teaming as AI-powered attacks become more common. She highlighted the emerging role of agentic AI tools in conducting these security tests, alongside the new risks such automation introduces.
Victims across China report losing between $1,500 and $300,000 after scammers posed as romantic partners or professionals and moved conversations from social platforms onto Microsoft Teams using shared login credentials. Once trust was established, the scammers pitched cryptocurrency investments and disappeared with victims' money, leaving them unable to access chat records for police reports since they never controlled the accounts themselves. Local Chinese law enforcement agencies have begun warning the public that Teams is being used as a fraud tool, and platforms like Maimai now flag messages mentioning Teams or Skype as high-risk.
Nvidia is said to be closing in on a $13 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, the widely used hub for open-weight AI models, following its $6 billion deal with Poolside and Stripe's over $7 billion purchase of OpenRouter. Together the deals mark a surge of major capital flowing into companies built around freely distributed AI models rather than proprietary frontier systems.
OOAK, a consumer brand-building company founded by Bob Verlaat, Nick Nijhof and Vince Nijhof, hosted a three-day invite-only conference at the Castelfalfi resort in Tuscany in late August. Roughly 100 founders running businesses with seven- to nine-figure revenues paid $14,000 each to attend keynotes and fireside chats aimed at scaling their companies. The event grew out of two smaller gatherings OOAK previously ran in Dubai.
Regulators have expanded a nationwide recall to cover 3.6 million grill-cleaning brushes sold over roughly 17 years, after consumers accidentally swallowed loose metal bristles. Several people required medical treatment to remove bristles lodged in their throat or digestive tract.