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Leader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to Cabinet

The world's first AI government official is going about as well as anyone could expect. Yesterday, the virtual assistant "Diella" made its "inaugural address" to the Albanian parliament. Maybe unsurprisingly, the software — which had been appointed Minister for Public Procurements last week by prime minister Edi Rama — was met with fury by certain officials. Chaotic video shared by Albanian media group Report TV shows lawmakers from the opposition party throwing bottles and desk clutter at the

Prime members can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free

is a commerce reporter for The Verge writing about the best deals and gadgets. He previously wrote for Business Insider, Rolling Stone, Futurism, and Popular Science. A cool new perk recently became available for Prime members: for a limited time, you can get a three-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited. If your ebookshelf is looking bare, Amazon is currently offering a three-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited for free. The service typically costs $11.99 per month, so the deal saves you $

RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Votes Down Its Own Proposal to Require Prescriptions for Covid-19 Shots

On the second day of a pivotal vaccine meeting that was at times heated, confusing, and chaotic, a group of federal advisers chosen by Health and Human Services secretary and longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted against requiring a prescription to receive a Covid-19 vaccination. The vote took place after hours of discussion, in which several advisers sowed doubts about the Covid-19 vaccines and went on tangents about their safety and efficacy—both of which have been well-e

Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Could Boost Your iPhone Battery Life, but It's Not on All Models

When Apple announced the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air earlier this month, it touted improved battery life across the board and "all-day" battery for the iPhone Air, which has a physically smaller battery to fit inside its thin design. Some of that is due to physically larger batteries, but a new feature called Adaptive Power in iOS 26 is also contributing. And it's available on any iPhone capable of running Apple Intelligence. Currently, the iPhone uses as much power as it needs to p

Android 16 QPR2 may let you flip your Pixel’s navigation bar like on Samsung phones

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is adding a long-awaited option to Pixel phones that lets users reverse the order of the three-button navigation bar. This feature allows users to switch to the “Recents, Home, Back” layout, which is the default on Samsung Galaxy phones. We discovered evidence for the new setting in Android 16 QPR2 Beta 2, but the setting isn’t live yet. For years, Samsung phones have defaulted to a three-button navigation layout where the back button is on the

This Apple Watch setting keeps me from annoying my partner during work sprints

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Apple Watch timer boosts productivity but annoys partners. Silent mode mutes alerts while preserving wrist haptics. Haptics keep reminders private, and household peace intact. I love me some timers. One of the secrets to how I manage my day is that I set timers for everything. I set them for appointments, sure. But I also set them to remind me when to get started on a phase of work. I set them to r

WASM 3.0 Completed

Published on September 17, 2025 by Andreas Rossberg. Three years ago, version 2.0 of the Wasm standard was (essentially) finished, which brought a number of new features, such as vector instructions, bulk memory operations, multiple return values, and simple reference types. In the meantime, the Wasm W3C Community Group and Working Group have not been lazy. Today, we are happy to announce the release of Wasm 3.0 as the new “live” standard. This is a substantially larger update: several big fe

Optimizing ClickHouse for Intel's 280 core processors

This is a guest post from Jiebin Sun, Zhiguo Zhou, Wangyang Guo and Tianyou Li, performance optimization engineers at Intel Shanghai. Intel's latest processor generations are pushing the number of cores in a server to unprecedented levels - from 128 P-cores per socket in Granite Rapids to 288 E-cores per socket in Sierra Forest, with future roadmaps targeting 200+ cores per socket. These numbers multiply on multi-socket systems, such servers may consist of 400 and more cores. The paradigm of "m

AT&T's new AI receptionist will answer calls for you - and block spam

AT&T Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways AT&T's digital receptionist will use AI to screen your calls. The goal is to determine if a call is legitimate or spam. The feature will roll out this year as a test for select AT&T customers. How often do you receive a call from an unknown number and debate whether to answer it? Spam calls continue to plague us all, often making us hesitant to answer our phones unless we know who's calling. Now AT&T is turni

The New York Times Mini Crossword Is Behind a Paywall: Here's a Way to Play

I'm a fan of the New York Times Mini Crossword -- a sporty, streamlined companion to the newspaper's legendary regular daily crossword. Typically, the Mini Crossword (we publish the answers daily) has roughly a dozen clues to work through -- six across-clues and six down-clues -- and you can complete it in less than a minute if all goes well. It makes me feel smart, unlike the big crossword, which sometimes makes me throw things. But in late August, some Mini Crossword players suddenly ran int

Apple Vision Pro gains support for digital prism correction

A longstanding limitation of Apple Vision Pro was that it did not offer support for vision prescriptions with a prism value. With visionOS 26, however, you can now enter the prism values from your prescription and visionOS will adapt through software. Since the launch of Apple Vision Pro, there has been a warning for those looking to buy the ZEISS Optical Inserts: A very small percentage of people have a prism value added to their glasses prescription. At this time, ZEISS Optical Inserts based

AT&T is launching a digital bouncer to block unwanted calls

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR AT&T is testing out an agentic AI tool that can identify and filter out robocallers. The “digital receptionist” screens calls to determine if the caller is human, how urgent the call is, and whether it meets your customized criteria before passing the call to you. If the caller won’t identify themselves, it’s a wrong number, or the call doesn’t meet your criteria, the receptionist will either disconnect or take a message. Are you tired of being bothe

iOS 26 gives Apple’s Home app new automation features

One of the promises of the smart home is that it, in theory, should intelligently adapt and respond to your needs. iOS 26 provides a key upgrade in that department with new Adaptive Temperature features in the Home app to automate your thermostat. Adaptive Temperature in iOS 26’s Home app provides two benefits During the iOS 26 beta cycle, evidence in code revealed new Adaptive Temperature features in the works for Apple’s Home app. It was unknown if these features would be ready for iOS 26’s

28 Best Gifts Under $200 to Buy in 2025

Atlas Coffee Club is CNET's pick for the best coffee subscription for the price, and if your giftee is into sampling unique coffees from around the world, they'll love it. Each subscription box comes with coffee from a different country (Atlas sources coffee from more than 50 nations), plus tasting notes, brewing tips and a postcard of the country of origin. You can select a three-, six- or 12-month subscription and prices start at $50 (on sale from $60) and go up from there. You can also choos

How to disable ACR on your TV - and why you should ASAP

Adam Breeden/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Smart TVs track viewing habits with ACR tech. Collected data fuels billions in targeted ads. Turning off ACR protects privacy but takes effort. Did you know that whenever you turn on your smart TV, you invite an unseen guest to watch it with you? These days, most popular TV models utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a form of ad surveillance technology that gathers information about eve

Kefir: Solo-developed full C17/C23 compiler with extensive validation

To whom it may concern, Today I release Kefir — an independent C17/C23 compiler. Solo-built. Extensively validated, for x86_64 & System-V ABI. With SSA-based optimization pipeline, DWARF-5 support and position-independent code generation. What? Implements the C17/C23 standard. Plus certain GNU C extensions. For Linux (glibc & musl), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD. Extensive and transparent validation suite. Compiles and runs well-known open source projects — GNU core- and binutils, Curl, Git, Ngi

I used standard Emacs extension-points to extend org-mode

Recently I read this beginners guide to extend Emacs. The guide is perfect for starting out with elisp and it shows a lot of care in teaching how to interact with Emacs. To me, the most important bit though is this one, from the section aptly named Emacs Wants You to Extend It. I haven’t written plugins for other editors extensively, but I can tell you this: emacs doesn’t just make deep customization available, but it actively encourages you to make an absolute customization messes masterpiece

Emacs: A Paradigm Shift

Recently I read this beginners guide to extend Emacs. The guide is perfect for starting out with elisp and it shows a lot of care in teaching how to interact with Emacs. To me, the most important bit though is this one, from the section aptly named Emacs Wants You to Extend It. I haven’t written plugins for other editors extensively, but I can tell you this: emacs doesn’t just make deep customization available, but it actively encourages you to make an absolute customization messes masterpiece

How Prehistoric Humans Survived a Supervolcano So Big We Probably Should Have Gone Extinct

If you were lucky 74,000 years ago, you would have survived the Toba supereruption, one of the largest catastrophic events that Earth has seen in the past 2.5 million years. While the volcano is located in what’s now Indonesia, living organisms across the entire globe were potentially affected. As an archaeologist who specializes in studying volcanic eruptions of the past, I often think about how incredible it is that humans survived this extinction-level event that was over 10,000 times larger

Take a Trip to the Final Frontier With This Year’s Best Astronomy Photography

When a comet meets solar winds, its nuclear coma—a bright cloud of gas around its core—reacts vibrantly to our Sun’s solar maximum, leaving a trail of stellar gas and dust across the solar system. Miraculously, the sky above June Lake, California, cleared up for a full 13 minutes for photographer Dan Bartlett to image the comet clearly enough for his photograph, “Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks Taking a Final Bow.” With incredible technological advances, the continuous flow of space photos can sometimes

How I use a smart outlet to save money on electricity bills every month

Smart Wi-Fi power strips are a great way to save on your power bill. But do they pay for themselves? Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Leaving devices plugged and switched on can be wasteful. Monitoring usage and remote switching helps reduce bills. This Tapo smart power strip is a great option to monitor power consumption, and at $45, it pays for itself. I have three 3D printers that are on the go a lot of the time. I

The New York Times Mini Crossword Now Has a Paywall, but There Is a Way to Play

I'm a fan of the New York Times Mini Crossword -- a sporty, streamlined companion to the newspaper's legendary regular daily crossword. Typically, the Mini Crossword (we publish the answers daily) has roughly a dozen clues to work through -- six across-clues and six down-clues -- and you can complete it in less than a minute if all goes well. It makes me feel smart, unlike the big crossword, which sometimes makes me throw things. But in late August, some Mini Crossword players suddenly ran int

Your appliances may be quietly draining electricity - this gadget stops that

Smart Wi-Fi power strips are a great way to save on your power bill. But do they pay for themselves? Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Leaving devices plugged and switched on can be wasteful. Monitoring usage and remote switching helps reduce bills. This Tapo smart power strip is a great option to monitor power consumption, and at $45, it pays for itself. I have three 3D printers that are on the go a lot of the time. I

Gmail’s new tab keeps all your order delivery and purchase emails in one tidy place

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Gmail is getting an update that will introduce a new “Purchases” tab. The new view will put all of your purchase and delivery updates in one place. The update will also add a “most relevant” sorting option to the Promotions category on mobile. Gmail makes it fairly easy to stay on top of your deliveries with package tracking, summary cards, and more. Now it’s making it easier to keep track of the emails that contain that purchase and delivery informa

The New York Times Mini Crossword Is Now Paywalled: Here's One Way to Play

The New York Times Mini Crossword is a fun and simple younger sibling to the newspaper's legendary regular daily crossword. The Mini Crossword (we publish the answers daily) usually has only about six across-clues and six down-clues, and you can finish it in less than a minute if all goes well. It makes me feel smart, unlike the big crossword, which sometimes makes me throw things. But in late August, some Mini Crossword players were met with a paywall. Going forward, anyone who doesn't pay fo

Poll: Who’s got the best color options, iPhone 17 or Pixel 10?

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority For as nice as it can be to feel safe and sound by wrapping your expensive new smartphone tightly in a protective case, there’s also a lot to be said for living a little dangerously and showing off the actual hardware — especially when it’s available in some really appealing colors. That’s just we got this year from the Pixel 10 series, as Google updated its lineup with arguably some of the best Pixel color options in years. Don’t want to miss the best from A

How to turn off autoplay on your social media feeds

There are times when you may want to prevent videos and GIFs from automatically playing in your social media feeds. This could be because you’re trying to conserve cellular data, limit the addictiveness of these apps, or maintain better control over your viewing experience, as when a video is going viral that you don’t wish to see. Whatever the reason might be, here are the steps to turn off autoplaying videos and GIFs on popular social media platforms. Facebook To turn off autoplay on Faceboo

Senator blasts Microsoft for making default Windows vulnerable to “Kerberoasting”

A prominent US Senator has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft for “gross cybersecurity negligence,” citing the company’s continued use of an obsolete and vulnerable form of encryption that Windows uses by default. In a letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) said an investigation his office conducted into the 2024 ransomware breach of the health care giant Ascension found that default use of the RC4 encryption cipher was a direct cause. The b

Cindy Cohn Is Leaving the EFF, but Not the Fight for Digital Rights

After a quarter century defending digital rights, Cindy Cohn announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Cohn, who has led the San Francisco–based nonprofit since 2015, says she will leave the role later this year, concluding a chapter that helped define the modern fight over online freedom. Cohn first rose to prominence as lead counsel in Bernstein v. Department of Justice, the 1990s case that overturned federal restrictions on pu