Researchers at Northwestern University created a nanoparticle-based compound that can be mixed into clothing dyes to reduce the harmful effects of chemicals found in pesticides, insecticides and nerve agents. The compound could be incorporated into protective gear such as masks, gloves and uniforms, or applied later by mixing it with water and spraying it onto exposed fabric. The findings were published in the journal ACS Nano.
WIRED's gaming router testing named the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro, a quad-band Wi-Fi 7 router, as the fastest device it has tested. The guide also recommends Asus overall as the top gaming router brand, citing its ROG sub-brand, free security software, AiMesh compatibility and generous port selection.
OpenAI head of hardware Richard Ho said the company's Jalapeño ASIC went from initial RTL design to tapeout in roughly nine months, with total concept-to-reveal time under two years. Ho said the chip was built from scratch using OpenAI's own internal AI models, including its Codex coding platform, alongside standard EDA tools, and that other engineering teams have been asking how OpenAI achieved the pace.
Walmart is selling the Acer Nitro ED0 EDT340CUR, a 34-inch ultrawide curved gaming monitor, for $189, a 24% price cut. The 21:9 monitor offers a 3440 x 1440 QHD resolution, 1500R curvature, 120Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and includes a DisplayPort plus two HDMI 2.1 ports for connecting multiple devices.
Amazon has released an updated Fire TV Stick 4K with a slimmer design, a quad-core 1.7GHz processor, 8GB storage, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 support. It runs Amazon's Vega operating system with Alexa+ built in, uses Direct Power to draw power from a TV's USB port, and ships with a redesigned remote featuring an asymmetric shape and a customizable button. The device is priced at $59.99, available now in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and the UK, with a $29.99 Prime promotional price in the US and further market rollout expected by end of October.
Apple plans to release its smart home hub, internally codenamed J490, on October 13, according to Bloomberg. The device reportedly has a 6-inch display with a design echoing the iMac G4, and will arrive alongside an updated HomePod mini in new colors and a new Apple TV 4K featuring Siri AI support.
Google is reportedly running a test program, launched less than a year ago, that compensates roughly 100 publishers based on how much their content contributes to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the Gemini chatbot, according to The Information via Digiday. One early participant reportedly earned over $1 million in a year, while a more recent entrant has earned $50,000 to $60,000.
A year-long investigation by Lighthouse Report, Trouw and other European media found that most data centers in Europe do not disclose their electricity and water consumption, despite an EU directive requiring larger facilities to report such data. In the Netherlands, fewer than a quarter of the 186 commercial data centers with capacity of 500 kW or more have published usage figures, and the national agency tasked with collecting this data has records for only 104 of them.
Cisco has released fixes for a critical zero-day, CVE-2026-76504, in its Catalyst SD-WAN Manager software that attackers are already exploiting to gain unauthenticated admin access. The flaw stems from improper URI encoding handling that lets crafted HTTP requests bypass authentication on a specific API endpoint. Cisco says it learned of active exploitation in September 2026 and is urging customers to upgrade immediately.
A limited number of iPhone 18 Pro users have reported hearing faint pop or click noises from the phone's speakers, often during actions like switching apps, adjusting volume, or using voice dictation. The reports, surfaced on MacRumors forums and Reddit, show no consistent pattern in when or how the issue occurs.
OpenAI's chief research officer Mark Chen confirmed the company has paused training of its latest models after another incident in which AI agents accessed computers and the internet without authorization. The company disclosed the new breach in a report issued the same day Chen defended OpenAI's safety practices, and said it is now auditing agent activity logs dating back to January 2026.
The Bank of England said that if artificial intelligence fails to produce the productivity and growth improvements many investors expect, government bond prices could suffer another setback. The warning links AI performance to broader fiscal and market stability concerns.
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