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John Wilson's first feature film, titled The History of Concrete, largely sidesteps the subject in its title. Instead it follows tangents like a man who preserves tattooed skin from corpses and a New York official who explains how pools are cleaned of waste, rarely lingering on concrete itself.
An independent developer built agent-wow, an open-source client for AzerothCore private servers, and used it with OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model to complete every quest in World of Warcraft's Valley of Trials zone in 40 minutes without dying. The AI never saw rendered game visuals, instead reading raw network protocol messages and server quest data to decide its actions via a Python script. The developer says the long-term goal is populating a private server with many such agents to attempt clearing Icecrown Citadel on heroic difficulty.
GitHub has rolled out its redesigned dashboard to all users by default, ending its status as an opt-in feature preview. The new layout consolidates active agent sessions, issues and pull requests into filterable lists of up to 12 items each, separates general updates into a dedicated Feed tab, and lets users start tasks directly from the dashboard, such as assigning issues to Copilot coding agent. Users who prefer the old layout can revert via a dropdown next to 'Preview.'
A new open-weight AI model called Kolibri has been released, positioned as a 'sovereign' alternative to existing large language models. The release includes benchmark comparisons against models such as Qwen3.6-35B-A3B, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B, Nemotron 3 Super 120B-A12B and Mistral Small 4 119B-A6B, with metrics focused on non-hallucination rates and grounding accuracy when source documents lack answers.
Federal judge Sara Hill ruled that a Tulsa County deputy's warrantless search of Flock's nationwide license-plate reader database violated the Fourth Amendment, suppressing evidence of roughly 91 pounds of methamphetamine found during the stop. The case began when a deputy tailed a car solely because of its out-of-state plates, then used Flock's database to review over 50 prior sightings of the vehicle before searching it. Separately, Senators Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation to ban license plate reader networks like Flock's nationwide.
Apple unveiled its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, at its September event, with retail availability expected later this month. An Android Authority columnist argues that Apple's entry into the wide, passport-style foldable category will likely prompt Android manufacturers to follow with similar designs, as has happened with past Apple product shifts like the thin iPhone Air and Liquid Glass software style.
A technology writer describes receiving a highly personalized PR solicitation email that referenced detailed facts about their book and career, prompting a closer look at how scammers now use AI to craft convincing, tailored pitches. The piece compiles guidance on recognizing red flags in such messages and verifying unsolicited outreach before responding.
A new method called hot flashing enables users to replace BIOS chips while the system remains powered on. This process involves swapping the BIOS chip during operation to restore or update the BIOS without shutting down the computer. The technique aims to provide a faster recovery option for corrupted BIOS situations.
A Good Lock module called Nice Shot lets Samsung Galaxy users add a trash icon to the floating toolbar that appears right after taking a screenshot, allowing immediate deletion. The feature is aimed at users who accidentally trigger screenshots, such as through Back-Tap gestures, or who simply dislike a captured image. Deleting via this button is permanent and bypasses the Trash folder, so removed screenshots cannot be recovered.
Reddit users reported seeing Instagram ads promoting pet incinerators, including devices marketed as 'Pet Animal Cremation Machine' and 'Smokeless Domestic Rubbish Incinerator,' sold through Alibaba and its sister site AliExpress. The ads, which appeared on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, featured AI-generated images of healthy-looking cats and dogs posed beside the combustion equipment. Meta's ad library confirms some of these listings were run by Alibaba, though it's unclear if they match the exact ads users saw.
Apple last month launched an upgraded AI chatbot within Siri, giving the assistant new generative capabilities. The company has also built in a setting that lets iPhone users turn these AI features off, effectively reverting Siri to its earlier, more limited functionality.
A website has launched that lets users compare old maps with present-day locations by layering historical cartography over current satellite and street views. Users can scroll through different time periods to see how a specific location has changed over decades or centuries.