X Corp issued cease-and-desist letters to the operators of XCancel and Nitter, two third-party front-ends that let users view X (formerly Twitter) content without an account or ads. Both projects have gone offline in response, with their maintainers saying they are pausing all operations and seeking legal counsel before commenting further. Nitter had been running for seven years, while XCancel operated for about two.
Meta has reached a settlement with attorneys general from 29 states, ending litigation that covered claims from 47 states and several territories over harms to young users. The company agreed to build an independently tested age-verification system, let teens disable personalized feeds, cap daily app usage at two hours, and pause notifications overnight and during school hours. Meta will pay $17.1 billion over a decade, with $5.3 billion contingent on YouTube and TikTok adopting similar time limits and matching payments.
ZDNET published a guide showing how an unused computer monitor can be converted into a functional television, typically by adding an external streaming device or tuner and speakers since most monitors lack built-in audio and tuning hardware. The guide is part of ZDNET's product recommendation coverage, which discloses that the outlet may earn affiliate commissions from linked retailer purchases.
Google's July redesign of the Photos app removed the visual separators that used to mark where one day's photos ended and the next began, replacing them with a floating date label that scrolls with the feed. The change came bundled with a broader visual overhaul, including a new floating navigation bar, that most users otherwise praised. A workaround exists to restore the old date-grouped view for people who rely on it to keep their photo library organized.
TECNO's bezel-less concept phone, first teased weeks ago, got its first hands-on demonstration from Marques Brownlee ahead of its planned IFA 2026 debut. The device uses internal display stacking so its metal frame sits slightly above the screen, hiding the bezel but creating a raised edge that can interfere with Android's edge gestures. It also packs a 144Hz display, triple rear cameras, a 6,000mAh battery, and a holographic lenticular back panel.
Ubiquiti released patches for three maximum-severity vulnerabilities affecting UniFi Protect, UniFi Talk, and UniFi OS Server products. The flaws include an input validation bug in Protect, a CRLF injection issue in UniFi OS that allows authentication bypass, and a command injection vulnerability in the Talk VoIP application, all exploitable remotely without authentication or user interaction.
Android Authority's reviewer spent weeks testing the Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max, a €1,149 flagship phone with an aluminum frame, Kunlun Glass, and a notably large camera module. Despite Huawei's US ban and shrinking global market share since losing Google services seven years ago, the reviewer found the build quality and craftsmanship rival any top-tier device on the market.
NASA hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to launch an autonomous spacecraft called LINK to dock with the 21-year-old Swift observatory and push it into a stable orbit, mirroring Jared Isaacman's earlier scrapped plan to save the Hubble. The rushed, high-risk mission, assembled in record time after Isaacman became NASA administrator, ultimately fell apart before achieving its goal.
A Reddit user who preordered Asus's ROG 20th Anniversary Component Bundle for $10,350 says the order was cancelled and returned without any delivery attempt or explanation. Friends who ordered the same bundle were later charged and received their packages, but this buyer was left without the product and now faces reordering at $10,849.96, $500 more than the original price. Asus reportedly told the customer the case is still under review with no firm resolution timeline.
Android Authority's review of the Pixel 11 Pro XL highlights HiLight, a feature that assigns glow colors to specific contacts similar to old notification LEDs. The reviewer found the concept appealing but the execution confusing, requiring navigation between multiple apps and menus just to assign a color to a contact.
Researchers from Google and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tested large language models on variations of the classic Knights and Knaves puzzle, where truth-tellers and liars must be identified from their statements. The models frequently failed when puzzles were slightly altered from familiar training patterns, defaulting to memorized answers instead of reasoning through the new version. A similar pattern showed up on a benchmark called SimpleBench, where humans easily spot subtle twists that trip up even leading AI systems.
A tech-industry writer describes how growing awareness of social media's harms—cyberbullying, body dysmorphia, and related mental health issues seen firsthand through his wife's pediatric nursing work—led his family to restrict their children to flip phones and keep them off platforms like TikTok. He notes this reflects a broader trend among tech workers and public figures, coinciding with rising cultural pushback including Jonathan Haidt's book, national social media bans in countries like Australia, and a US Supreme Court ruling upholding age-verification laws.