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Tech News
An advocacy campaign is calling on laptop buyers to request refunds for the Microsoft Windows license bundled with their device, arguing that most laptops are sold exclusively with Windows pre-installed even if the buyer intends to use another operating system. The campaign frames this as an unfair practice and provides guidance for consumers to formally request reimbursement from vendors.
Following Dolly Parton's death on August 25, attention has turned to the broader economic footprint she built around Dollywood in Tennessee. Beyond the theme park's roller coasters, her ventures included workforce housing, health centers, and other investments that supported the surrounding regional economy.
A Thomson Reuters 2026 Future of Professionals Report, based on a global survey of 1,800 professionals, found that 91% believe their organizations aren't yet capturing the value AI promises. The study points to a growing gap between early enthusiasm for AI experimentation and current frustration over rising costs and unclear returns.
New proposed legislation would require companies to build in the ability to throttle, suspend, or fully shut down AI agents if needed. However, the specific technical mechanisms and trigger conditions for when such controls should activate remain undefined.
The htmx team released version 4.0.0 after eight months of development, rewriting the library's internals to use the fetch() API instead of XMLHttpRequest. Key user-facing changes include making attribute inheritance explicit by default, standardizing event names, and dropping localStorage as the default for history support. The team is not marking 4.0 as 'latest' on NPM, keeping 2.x as the default for CDN users until early 2027 while 4.0 becomes the 'next' line.
Researchers measured billions to trillions of tiny airborne particles released when scented cleaning products are used indoors. The particle levels detected were comparable to the kind of pollution seen in urban smog conditions.
Andreessen Horowitz has closed a new $1.1 billion fund called 'Machine Age' dedicated to physical AI infrastructure rather than software. The fund targets investments across chips, memory, data centers, cooling systems, power and robotics, marking a shift from the firm's usual software-centric approach.
The Austin suburb's city council voted unanimously on August 25 to terminate its agreement with Flock Safety, cutting off access to its automated license plate reader system. City staff had already begun covering the 28 cameras installed around town earlier that day, ending a relationship with the vendor that dated back to 2020.
Leaker Kacper Skrzypek shared screenshots and video showing Xiaomi's upcoming Smart Privacy Display, a feature that lets users block onlookers from viewing their screen at certain apps or notifications. Unlike Samsung's hardware-based Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Xiaomi's version appears to be software-driven and is expected to arrive with the HyperOS 4 update later this year. Some related options, like Page Privacy Display and XiaoAI app groups, currently only appear on the China ROM.
The EPA issued guidance stating that the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program does not apply to 'islanded' power generation facilities—those not connected to the public electricity grid. The move is aimed at making it easier for companies to build dedicated power plants for data centers without triggering certain federal pollution compliance requirements tied to grid-connected generation.
A startup developer recounts spending three weeks trying to implement AWS Cognito for authentication, encountering broken password reset flows despite following official documentation exactly. He attributes the trouble to inconsistent, fragmented documentation that mixes outdated code examples from different SDK versions and targets multiple audiences without a clear path for any of them.
Apple confirmed it is increasing the monthly price of Apple TV from $12.99 to $14.99, and raising the cost of the Apple One Individual bundle as well. The new pricing applies immediately to new subscribers, while existing customers will get about a month's notice before being charged the higher rate. Other Apple One tiers, already adjusted when Apple Music prices rose last month, remain unchanged.