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Dell is selling an Alienware desktop with an Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU for $7,499, which is less than the current combined retail cost of those two components alone. The build also includes 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, a 1500W power supply, Wi-Fi 7, and liquid cooling, with a 64GB RAM configuration also discounted.
A University of British Columbia-led study argues that if Canada ends biannual clock changes, it should settle on permanent standard time rather than permanent daylight saving time, citing risks to sleep and mental health from darker winter mornings. The warning comes as Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories move toward permanent daylight saving time, and as a U.S. House bill for the same policy awaits Senate action.
The European Commission is reportedly revising its digital tax proposal so that it applies to all large corporations with revenue above €100 million, rather than singling out digital services providers like Apple, Google and Meta. According to the Financial Times, officials hope this broader approach will raise similar tax revenue while avoiding the appearance of targeting US tech firms specifically. The exact levy amount has not been set, with the EU first seeking agreement among its 27 member states on the broader principle.
Black Lotus Labs reports that a malware strain called PoeLLM has compromised more than 3,400 exposed AI servers, with up to 800 infected systems active on a single day. The malware, an ELF file named libgcrypt, derives its command-and-control IP address by extracting keywords from a poem hosted in a GitHub repository, updating the poem 11 times since April to rotate C2 addresses.
NASA has scrapped the Lunar Gateway station and the Mars Sample Return mission as it redirects resources toward a Moon Base near the lunar south pole, intensifying competition with China. Administrator Jared Isaacman says international partners, including the European Space Agency, must now offer "meaningful contributions" that fill gaps NASA or US companies aren't already addressing, and he has rejected an ESA proposal for a European cargo lander.
The Olight imini 2, a compact rechargeable keychain flashlight, is currently discounted 40% to $11.99 from its usual $19.99 price on Amazon. The device measures about 2.17 x 0.59 inches, weighs 0.69 ounces, has an aluminum alloy body rated IPX6 for water resistance, and can survive drops from five feet. It outputs 50 lumens and 115 candela across an 80-degree beam angle reaching roughly 23 yards, and recharges via a built-in USB-A connector.
University of Wisconsin-Madison physicist Francis Halzen has received the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on astrophysical neutrinos, built around the IceCube Neutrino Observatory he helped develop beneath Antarctic ice. IceCube uses thousands of light sensors in a cubic kilometer of ice to detect neutrinos and has traced them back to cosmic sources such as supermassive black holes.
Microsoft is holding a San Francisco event today at 10AM PT focused on local AI's role in PCs, streamed live on YouTube for about an hour. Speakers include CEO Satya Nadella, Windows and Devices chief Pavan Davuluri, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, suggesting updates to the Surface Laptop Ultra, which runs on Nvidia's RTX Spark chip.
Ultrahuman has partnered with FibriCheck to launch Heart Scan, letting Ring Air and Ring Pro wearers check their heart rhythm on demand rather than only overnight as the existing Atrial Fibrillation add-on allows. Users sit still for 60 seconds while FibriCheck's smartphone-camera-based algorithm analyzes the reading, producing a shareable PDF report for healthcare providers. The feature rolls into the existing Afib Power Plug at no extra cost, though it's currently limited to select markets in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
OpenAI has released Dots, an always-on AI agent within ChatGPT that can browse the web and perform tasks like shopping or managing reservations, while users test early use cases such as having it help select furniture. The feature costs $100 a month, unlike Meta's comparable free agent Muse, and in early use it mistranscribed speech, got names wrong, and attempted but failed to solve captchas. OpenAI encourages linking accounts like Gmail to improve personalization, and may later allow multiple simultaneous agents.
Amazon's Prime Day 2026 sale includes discounts on Apple products such as AirPods Pro 3, Apple Watches, iPads, MacBooks, and third-party accessories, according to WIRED, which is tracking and updating a running list of the offers. The new iPhone is not included among the discounted items.
Alejandro González Iñárritu's new film 'Digger', starring Tom Cruise as an oil tycoon responsible for a catastrophic iceberg break, opened to weak box office numbers. The film is structured as a satirical play within the film, revealing partway through that Cruise's character is actually an actor named Curtis Markson portraying the oil baron Digger Rockwell in a production about the climate crisis. The cast includes John Goodman, Sophie Wilde and Jesse Plemons.