Latest Tech News

Hulu’s days look numbered, but there’s reason for Disney to keep it around

Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, announced today that Disney will "fully integrate" Hulu into the Disney+ app in 2026. Although a company representative told Variety that people will still be able to buy standalone subscriptions to Hulu, we can't help but wonder how long that will last. A prim and polished app combining the catalogs, recommendations, and profiles for Disney+ and Hulu subscribers could make a standalone Hulu app redundant. In fact, the ability to successfully combin

Vibe Coding the MIT Course Catalog

I recently left Microsoft to join MIT's Media Arts and Sciences program. The transition brought an immediate problem: how do you navigate course selection when faced with the "unknown unknowns"? You can easily find courses you already know you want learn, i.e. "known unknowns". But discovering courses you never knew existed, courses that might reshape your thinking entirely, requires different tools altogether. MIT's official course catalog runs on what appears to be a CGI script. The technolog

Want a four-channel dashcam for less than $200? I recommend this one

Botslab G980H Multi-Channel Dashcam The BOTSLAB G980H Multi-Channel Dashcam is a reliable four-channel dashcam for your road trips and commutes. It has a crisp 3K front cam, separate shooters for the driver and passenger, and a rear cam. It has some quirks, but for the price, it is a good option for capturing evidence and fun clips on the road. Dashcams are the type of products you hope you will never need, but they can be lifesavers when they do their job. It’s a solid investment if you want s

This wall-mounted smart calendar has been a game changer in my home (and it's $50 off)

ZDNET's key takeaways The 15-inch Skylight Calendar is a smart display for $320, with a 10-inch version available for $160. It's a touchscreen calendar designed with busy lifestyles in mind that allows for shared use within a household or team. Though it's proven indispensable for my family, I wish the chores, not just the events, were visible in the calendar view, and the 15-inch version is expensive at $320. $269.99 at Amazon The Skylight Calendar is on sale for $270 just in time for back-t

'Freakier Friday' Review: Disney's Body-Swapping Sequel Really Rocks

For me, watching Freakier Friday -- the new sequel to the 2003 body-switch comedy starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis -- led to a change in perspective: I was now a fan of two Freaky Friday movies headlined by Lohan and Curtis. From Curtis' nostalgic and still-hilarious portrayal of waking up as a 15-year-old inhabiting her step-grandmother's body to entertaining scenes with a job-switching fortune teller (Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer), the sequel offers wacky and laugh-out-lo

Cockatoos know 30 distinct dance moves

Snowball the dancing cockatoo gets down with his bad self to the Backstreet Boys. In 2008, a YouTube video featuring an Eleanora cockatoo named Snowball dancing to the beat of the Backstreet Boys went viral. His killer moves stunned scientists, since the ability to synchronize body movements to music was believed to be a uniquely human activity. Nor is Snowball an isolated case. Griffi the Dancing Cockatoo has his own YouTube channel, for example, and a recent TikTok video showed two sister coc

First impressions of Alexa+, Amazon’s upgraded, AI-powered digital assistant

I owned a lot of Alexa-powered devices in my former home: There were Amazon Echos in most rooms, including an older Echo Plus in the living room, a smattering of Dots, a Spot in a bedroom, and an Echo Show in the kitchen. A Fire TV ran in the bedroom. And, in a drawer, a rarely used Fire HD tablet sat collecting dust. With the total loss of the home due to a March 2024 house fire, there also came a new opportunity: We could now make a fresh start to create a more modernized smart home after reb

Former Google Exec Warns That If You Have a Good Job Now, You Should Be Terrified of AI

As CEOs continue to boast about laying off thousands while spending tens of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure, some execs are worried about getting the axe themselves. During a podcast appearance this week, Google's former chief business officer, Mo Gawdat, warned that AI could be poised to wipe out white-collar jobs, including cushy gigs like software developers and CEOs. Unsurprisingly, Gawdat had his own AI startup to plug as well, a three-person operation dedicated to providing a Re

‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Is a Delightful Mix of Gothic Whimsy and Brutal Horror

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is back at Nevermore Academy with a new deadly mystery in Tim Burton’s Wednesday. Season two of the hit Netflix series raises the stakes with bolder teen angst, as well as a surprising body count. Showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar return with exactly what fans loved from season one, amplified by the addition of new creative voices that truly capture the essence of Wednesday Addams. That includes Ortega’s influence as executive producer, and her collaborati

A New ‘Foundation’ Clip Digs Into Some Prickly Family Dynamics

When Foundation fans first met newlyweds Toran (Cody Fern) and Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen) Mallow, two things stood out: first, that last name, signifying Toran’s connection to season two hero Hober Mallow; second, the way their self-aware glamour made them very much resemble futuristic versions of the social media influencers we have today. But it was also apparent there was substance beneath the sparkle—and episode five, “Where Tyrants Spend Eternity,” explores that idea even more. io9 has an exc

Trump’s trade and environment policies are a disaster for carmakers

An ill wind blows through the automotive industry. Yesterday, after the market closed, Rivian reported its results for the second quarter of 2025, and they weren't great. Unlike the last two quarters, Rivian did not make a gross profit, and it's estimating it will have a larger loss this year than first predicted. A day earlier, it was Lucid's turn: The Saudi-backed EV startup also missed analyst estimates for the quarter, and Lucid says it will build fewer cars this year than originally planned

Former Google Exec Warns That If You Have a Good Job Now, You Should Be Very Concerned

As CEOs continue to boast about laying off thousands while spending tens of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure, some execs are worried about getting the axe themselves. During a podcast appearance this week, Google's former chief business officer, Mo Gawdat, warned that AI could be poised to wipe out white-collar jobs, including cushy gigs like software developers and CEOs. Unsurprisingly, Gawdat had his own AI startup to plug as well, a three-person operation dedicated to providing a Re

The 1090 Megahertz Riddle: A Guide to Decoding Mode S and ADS-B Signals

In the last twenty years, aircraft surveillance has moved from controller-based interrogation to automatic broadcast. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is one of the most common methods for aircraft to report their state information like identity, position, and speed. Like other Mode S communications, ADS-B makes use of the 1090 megahertz transponder to transmit data. The protocol for ADS-B is open, and low-cost receivers can easily be used to intercept its signals. Many rec

Google suffers data breach in ongoing Salesforce data theft attacks

Google is the latest company to suffer a data breach in an ongoing wave of Salesforce CRM data theft attacks conducted by the ShinyHunters extortion group. In June, Google warned that a threat actor they classify as 'UNC6040' is targeting companies' employees in voice phishing (vishing) social engineering attacks to breach Salesforce instances and download customer data. This data is then used to extort companies into paying a ransom to prevent the data from being leaked. In a brief update to

These Democrats Think the Party Needs AI to Win Elections

The 2024 election cycle saw artificial intelligence deployed by political campaigns for the very first time. While candidates largely avoided major mishaps, the tech was used with little guidance or restraint. Now, the National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC) is rolling out the first official playbook making the case that Democratic campaigns can use AI responsibly ahead of the midterms. In a new online training, the committee has laid out a plan for Democratic candidates to leverage AI to

Shopify stock soars 20% on rosy guidance as CFO says tariff hit 'did not materialize'

The logo of Shopify is seen outside its headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, on Sept. 28, 2018. Shopify shares soared 20% Wednesday after the company topped analysts' estimates for the second quarter, and gave rosy guidance for the third quarter. Here's how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG: Earnings per share: 35 cents adj. vs. 29 cents 35 cents adj. vs. 29 cents Revenue: $2.68 billion vs. $2.55 billion Second-quarter sales surged 31% year over year to $2.68

National Bank of Canada online systems down due to 'technical issue'

National Bank of Canada (Banque Nationale du Canada), the sixth largest commercial bank of Canada is currently experiencing a widespread service outage affecting its online banking and mobile app platforms. Social media reports suggest that the issues began earlier this morning, with customers encountering a "maintenance" message when attempting to access their accounts via online banking on web and banking app. Headquartered in Montreal, NBC (BNC) serves more than 2.4 million personal banking

Google suffers data breach in ongoing Salesforce data theft attacks

Google is the latest company to suffer a data breach in an ongoing wave of Salesforce CRM data theft attacks conducted by the ShinyHunters extortion group. In June, Google warned that a threat actor they classify as 'UNC6040' is targeting companies' employees in voice phishing (vishing) social engineering attacks to breach Salesforce instances and download customer data. This data is then used to extort companies into paying a ransom to prevent the data from being leaked. In a brief update to

The iPhone 17 Air Could Hint at Apple's Foldable Future

Anticipation is high for the launch of the next iPhone, and so are expectations. Rumors have been swirling for months about the upcoming lineup, which most notably may include a thinner model dubbed the iPhone 17 Air. But speculation isn't stopping there; what Apple reveals this fall could hint at what it has in store for next year, too. Thin phones are undoubtedly having a moment, with companies like Samsung, Huawei, Honor and Oppo debuting slimmer devices in the name of novelty -- and slappi

ChatGPT Glossary: 55 AI Terms Everyone Should Know

AI is changing the world around us. It's eliminating jobs and flooding the internet with slop. Thanks to the massive popularity of ChatGPT to Google cramming AI summaries at the top of its search results, AI is completely taking over the internet. With AI, you can get instant answers to pretty much any question. It can feel like talking to someone who has a doctoral degree in everything. But that aspect of AI chatbots is only one part of the AI landscape. Sure, having ChatGPT help do your homew

Hackers Hijacked Google’s Gemini AI With a Poisoned Calendar Invite to Take Over a Smart Home

Within the titles of the calendar invites, the researchers added their crafty malicious prompts. (Google’s Wen contends that the researchers changed default settings on who can add calendar invites to someone’s calendar; however, the researchers say they demonstrated some of the 14 attacks with the prompts in an email subject or document title as well). “All the techniques are just developed in English, so it’s plain English that we are using,” Cohen says of the deceptive messages the team creat

Cohere’s new AI agent platform, North, promises to keep enterprise data secure

AI agent tools promise to siphon out some of the drudgery from daily workflows, but most organizations are hesitant to adopt them yet, harboring a pressing concern: data security. Large enterprises with trade secrets, companies in highly regulated industries, and government agencies have thought more than twice about bringing in AI tools out of concern that their — or worse, their customers’ — data could inadvertently be compromised, or used to train foundation models. Canadian AI firm Cohere i

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Disney announces plans to phase out standalone Hulu app

The Hulu app isn’t long for this world, according to Disney. While the standalone app is being phased out, however, the brand that Disney now owns in full is set for international expansion. Hulu started in 2007 as a joint venture between FOX and NBC before attracting more stakeholders including Disney (which owns ABC). As of this year, however, Hulu is entirely owned by Disney. As part of its quarterly earnings results announcement today, Disney shared plans to phase out the standalone versio

Google's latest Pixel update fixes unresponsive button issue

Google is rolling a fix for a bug that made some Pixel users' three-button navigation unresponsive with its monthly software update this August. As The Verge notes, after the company released Android 16 in June, Pixel users have been reporting that their buttons are being unresponsive or that it's taking up to 30 seconds for their device to register a tap. Some said they have to press the back button several times for the three-button menu to start working. Users from across Pixel models, includ

Google says hackers stole its customers’ data by breaching its Salesforce database

Google has confirmed that some customers’ information has been stolen in a recent breach of one of its databases. In a blog post late on Tuesday, Google’s Threat Intelligence Group said one of its Salesforce database systems, used to store contact information and related notes for small and medium businesses, was breached by a hacking group popularly known as ShinyHunters, formally designated as UNC6040. “The data retrieved by the threat actor was confined to basic and largely publicly availab

Samsung revives the Galaxy S20 Ultra with one more update

David Imel / Android Authority TL;DR The Galaxy S20 Ultra has received a security update, a few months after Samsung officially pulled support for the device. This update only applies to the Verizon model for now, though. Samsung’s 2020 flagship launched with the promise of four major OS upgrades and five years of security updates. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra was released back in 2020 as the company’s first Ultra phone. The phone officially became unsupported earlier this year, but Samsung

Bring on the Doom and Gloom: When to Watch 'Wednesday' Season 2 This Week

Get those snapping fingers ready because Wednesday and the rest of the Addams Family are back. When it premiered in 2022, the spin-off series broke Netflix's viewership records. It's been three years, and now, after what feels like an eternity of finger-tapping and deadpan looks into the void, season 2 is here. So, basically, Goth summer is upon us. Creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough previously teased that season 2 will be darker in tone. This new run of episodes "definitely has some momen

YouTube’s playback speed controls are broken on Android (Updated: Official confirmation)

Update: August 6, 2025 (1 AM ET): YouTube has acknowledged the issue of playback speed not functioning on its Android app. Its team is investigating the problem. A fix should roll out soon enough. Here’s the full update posted on YouTube’s community forums: We’re aware some of you are experiencing issues adjusting playback speed while watching videos on Android devices. Our teams are actively investigating this issue! We’ll update this thread as soon as we have new information. Thanks so much f

Google Cloud’s data agents promise to end the 80% toil problem plaguing enterprise data teams

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Data doesn’t just magically appear in the right place for enterprise analytics or AI, it has to be prepared and directed with data pipelines. That’s the domain of data engineering and it has long been one of the most thankless and tedious tasks that enterprises need to deal with. Today, Google Cloud is taking direct aim at the tedium of da