GoKawiil
Tech News
Rising memory and component prices are expected to push average computer prices up by as much as 20% by year's end. With new machines becoming less affordable, guidance is circulating on low-cost ways to boost an existing PC's performance, such as cleaning out dust, deleting junk files, and reusing spare parts.
T.J. Maxx, owned by TJX Companies, is closing a small number of longtime store locations, including two notable ones already shuttered this year. The closures come even as the parent company continues to pursue overall growth and open new stores elsewhere.
A tech commentary piece declares that the initial 'generative AI' era is effectively over, arguing that the industry's understanding of productivity has changed. The author states that measuring success is no longer about output volume, signaling a shift in how AI tools are evaluated.
Research published by Harvard Business School shows women adopt generative AI tools at lower rates than men. The finding has often been read as reluctance or hesitation among women to use the technology.
Workers at Sama Pharmaceuticals near Nablus describe commutes that once took minutes now taking hours due to Israeli military checkpoints, with delays across Nablus averaging nearly two hours after October 2023. Employees like Ali Haj Ali and Ohood Khatatbeh describe unpredictable waits, sometimes turning back without reaching home, and towns like Beit Furik devising their own systems to manage a single checkpoint gate.
Security researchers have released an exploit called Relapse that jailbreaks the PlayStation 5 across nearly every firmware version except the newly released 14.00.00. Hackers say jailbroken consoles can already run recent titles like Marvel's Wolverine and The Witcher III Remastered without payment, and can install homebrew software in under a minute.
A user on Bluesky found that typing 'Play Minecraft' into the US government's new America.gov chatbot produces a bureaucratic parody of Minecraft's End Poem, replacing themes of the universe and love with references to republics, constituents and paperwork. When shown a PDF transcript of its own output, the chatbot denied having written the poem.
Android Authority found evidence in a recent Google Photos build of a new plus-shaped button that would let users add clothing to their virtual Wardrobe without resetting it entirely. Currently, tapping the button causes the app to crash, but the outlet also found hints of upcoming options to try on eyewear and regenerate outfits that don't render properly.
Microsoft confirmed it will begin enforcing a Content Security Policy on Entra ID sign-in pages starting mid-October 2026, allowing only scripts hosted on trusted Microsoft CDN domains to run during authentication. The rollout, first announced in November 2025, is expected to complete by late October 2026 and applies automatically without tenant configuration.
WIRED evaluated children's mattresses over several months by having a toddler sleep on each one atop a Simply Sori Montessori twin bed frame. The reviewer tracked ease of climbing in, sleep quality, comfort during movement, spill and rough-play resistance, edge support, and how cool covers felt, selecting picks spanning different constructions, price points and features from brands including Saatva, Birch and Helix.
A newly released Android app called Pixel Clock, roughly two weeks old, provides alarm, timer, stopwatch and world clock functions with a Material 3 Expressive design that adapts to the user's chosen system color. Android Authority's Andy Walker reports it replaced several other timing apps on his device after he had also tried an app called Chrono as an alternative to Google Clock.
AMD has agreed to buy AI research firm World Labs in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $8.2 billion, pending regulatory approval. World Labs co-founder Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting directly to CEO Lisa Su. World Labs builds spatial-intelligence models that generate and simulate 3D environments, and had already collaborated with AMD on optimizing its Instinct hardware and ROCm software.