Latest Tech News

Coffee-shop pitch change helped founder unlock traction for laptop campers

Julia Vidal, co-founder of Badge, began with a simple problem: remote workers often roam the city searching for a workplace that won’t shoo them away. As coffee shops and cafés are increasingly adopting no-laptop policies, she envisioned a startup. What if partnered cafés allowed the reservation of a laptop spot, but just with a minimum spend, so everybody is happy? Basically, AirBnB, for café-based workspaces with proper WiFi. Quick prototype validates demand on the consumer side To test wh

Researchers Uncover Hurricane Sandy’s Hidden Death Toll

More than a decade after Hurricane Sandy flooded the East Coast and killed over 200 people, a new study has revealed the storm’s lasting impact on mortality risk among older adults. The researchers linked hurricane flood exposure to a 9% increase in risk of death for people over the age of 65 who continued living in the area after landfall. Experts estimate that Hurricane Sandy caused over $60 billion in damage after it made landfall in 2012. Record-breaking storm surge and catastrophic floodin

The Business Traveler of Today Is Changing—and So Is Their Flight Map

“Most of my work starts in Lagos, but it doesn’t stay there for long,” says Anita Ashiru. She’s one of the sole production designers working in Nigeria, where her team builds multi-scale sets and stage designs for the country’s booming Afrobeats industry. Requests often come at a whim for work; Ashiru might be called abroad by the likes of frequent collaborator Davido, a Nigerian-American singer-songwriter who frequently shoots music videos in South Africa. Ashiru’s job is one that largely didn

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

Instagram takes on Snapchat with new ‘Instagram Map’

Instagram is rolling out Instagram Map, a new feature that lets users share their most recent active location with others and discover location-based content. The Meta-owned social network is also launching reposts, and making its “Friends” tab in Reels available globally. With its new map feature, Instagram is copying yet another popular feature from Snapchat, after cloning the app’s core Stories functionality back in 2016. Instagram is coming for Snap Map’s crown, a feature that recently surp

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

Rethinking DOM from first principles

In either case, there are also some roadblocks. I'll just mention three: text-ellipsis can only be used to truncate unwrapped text, not entire paragraphs. Detecting truncated text is even harder, as is just measuring text: the APIs are inadequate. Everyone just counts letters instead. can only be used to truncate text, not entire paragraphs. Detecting truncated text is even harder, as is just measuring text: the APIs are inadequate. Everyone just counts letters instead. position: sticky lets e

Could Netflix Have Plans for a ‘Stranger Things’ Spinoff?

Chris Hemsworth talks about his future as Thor and reaction to that recent YouTube video. Get a look at what’s coming on Invasion season 3. Plus, sneak peeks at the next Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Spoilers, away! Trauma Or, Monsters All According to Variety, director Larry Fessenden has completed filming Trauma Or, Monsters All, a simultaneous sequel to his 1995 vampire movie, Habit, his 2019 Frankenstein movie, Depraved, and his 2023 werewolf movie, Blackout. Said to “place the filmmaker’

Should Lyft and Uber Charge More if Your Battery Is Low? California May Soon Ban That

It’s late at night, and you badly need a ride. Your cellphone’s battery is dangerously low. Should a ridehailing company such as Uber or Lyft be able to charge you more because its artificial intelligence programming thinks you’re desperate since it knows your phone is about to die? Not if Hayward Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab has her way. Her Senate Bill 259 would prevent retailers from using artificial intelligence to jack up prices using the information stored on customers’ phones. That coul

The Internet’s Biggest Travel Nerd Shares Pointers on Points

In an ever-expanding internet kingdom of travel-reward nerds, Gary Leff reigns supreme. He has penned the blog View from the Wing for 23 years while maintaining a full-time career as a chief financial officer at a university research center. But miles, points, and rewards are not merely a side hustle or a second job; they’re a lifestyle. “I couldn't tell you how long I spend on the blog, because I’m doing the things that I enjoy anyway,” says Leff. “I’m enough on the spectrum that I forget anyo

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

Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Subscribe Now Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

The latest Pixel Watch 4 leak comes from Google itself

TL;DR Official renders of the Pixel Watch 4 have leaked online, providing a clean and detailed look at the device. The leak shows off different case and strap color combinations across both sizes of the Pixel Watch 4 (41mm and 45mm). However, it’s unclear if all combinations will be available for both watch sizes. Google is all set to announce the next set of Pixel devices on August 20, 2025, including the Pixel Watch 4. We’ve seen plenty of leaks for the watch so far, including details on it

The smallest change in the latest iOS 26 beta should be a guiding principle for Apple

We yesterday highlighted what is quite possibly the smallest user-facing change in the latest iOS 26 beta: the ability to revert the camera app slider to its previous direction. While this is in itself a very tiny change, I do think it ought to be a guiding principle for Apple’s approach to user interfaces … To me, there are two different ways in which you can judge a user interface. The first is how intuitive it is. In other words, can you immediately see how to perform a function even if yo

Best Home Security Cameras Without Subscriptions in 2025: Save on Safety

Does the camera have the ability to listen to audio and initiate a two-way conversation using the app? Does the camera have night vision that can cover the space you have in mind? Is the app easy to understand, control and use to change settings? Does the camera work with your existing home security system or your preferred voice assistant? Can video be stored without fees? Is it local storage under your control or cloud storage? Do you have to purchase your own storage device? Can you share

WhatsApp adds new security feature to protect against scams

WhatsApp is introducing a new security feature that will help users spot potential scams when they are being added to a group chat by someone not in their contact list. This feature displays a "safety overview" context card that includes information about the group's creation date, the number of members, potential scam attempts, and instructions on how to control who can add you to WhatsApp groups. "It will include key information about the group and tips to stay safe. From there, you can exit

HTML Is Dead, Long Live HTML

In either case, there are also some roadblocks. I'll just mention three: text-ellipsis can only be used to truncate unwrapped text, not entire paragraphs. Detecting truncated text is even harder, as is just measuring text: the APIs are inadequate. Everyone just counts letters instead. can only be used to truncate text, not entire paragraphs. Detecting truncated text is even harder, as is just measuring text: the APIs are inadequate. Everyone just counts letters instead. position: sticky lets e

WhatsApp deletes over 6.8m accounts linked to scams, Meta says

WhatsApp deletes over 6.8m accounts linked to scams, Meta says The crackdown targets an increasingly common tactic in which criminals hijack WhatsApp accounts or add users to group chats promoting fake investment schemes and other scams. Meta made the announcement as WhatsApp rolled out new anti-scam measures to alert users to potential fraudulent activity, such as a user being added to a group chat by someone not in their contacts list. Many were tied to scam centres run by organised crimina

When Disney Went Digital

A still from The Lion King (1994) Welcome! It’s time for a new Sunday issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. This is our slate for today: 1) How computers changed Disney animation. 2) Newsbits. With that, we’re off! 1 – Into the computer age Computers and animation go way back. During the ‘50s, artist John Whitney used one to draw the opening titles for Vertigo. His experiments led him to digital films like Arabesque in the ‘70s. And he was one of many animators toying with the techn

Software Rot

Software rot is generally thought of as degradation of software due to a changing environment. For example, a program written a decade ago may no longer work with new versions of the libraries it depends on because some of them have changed without retaining backwards compatibility. This kind of thinking encourages a culture where software becomes obsolete unless it is constantly maintained. A better approach might be to talk about the reliability of the environment the software depends on. Wou

The Best Samsung Galaxy S25 Cases (2025): S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, and S25 Edge

Try These Magnetic Accessories Make sure to check out our many MagSafe guides for compatible accessories, but I'll also be adding more to this list since not all MagSafe accessories will work with the Galaxy S25's unique camera placement. If it's a simple, circular accessory, it will likely be OK, but larger square or rectangular magnetic accessories like MagSafe wallets will not fit well. ESR HaloLock Qi2 Mini Wireless Charger. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu ESR HaloLock Qi2 Mini Wireless Char

Google is rolling out a fix for Pixel back button issues

The issues appear to have started popping up shortly after the official release of Android 16 in June. Ever since that update, the user said that navigation has been “a complete mess” and that they ran into issues with buttons being “completely unresponsive” or delays of “over 30 seconds” on their Pixel 8 Pro. Another user said they had to occasionally press the back button “a few times” on their Pixel 9 to get the phone to register it. The swipe gesture to navigate back also occasionally stoppe

Banned Steam game VILE: Exhumed is back as a free shareware title

After her game was banned from sale on Steam in a baffling decision with no appeal option , solo developer Cara Cadaver has made VILE: Exhumed available as shareware under a Creative Commons license. The project can be downloaded for free, but players can opt to donate in support of the solo developer's work. Both Cara and publisher DreadXP will pay forward those donations, with 50 percent of the game's profits being given to the Toronto-based charity Red Door Family Shelter . The group aids fam

Eleven Music

Today, we launched Eleven Music – the next step on our mission to build the most comprehensive AI audio platform in the world. With Eleven Music, businesses, creators, artists, and every single one of our users can generate studio-grade music from natural language prompts, with: - Complete control over genre, style, and structure - Vocals or just instrumental - Multi-lingual, including English, Spanish, German, Japanese and more - Edit the sound and lyrics of individual sections or the whole

Clay confirms it closed $100M round at $3.1B valuation

In Brief Sales automation startup Clay has raised a $100 million Series C at a $3.1 billion valuation in a round led by CapitalG, confirming TechCrunch’s report from June. The financing follows a $1.25 billion Series B round from six months ago and a $1.5 billion Sequoia-led tender offer announced a couple of months ago, which allowed most employees to sell some of their shares. The latest deal brings Clay’s total funding to $204 million. Existing investors Meritech Capital, Sequoia Capital,

The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy

Greetings all — Busy week in BITM land. Got home from some travel only to take off to SF to speak on a panel about AI and work for a CalMatters conference with state lawmakers and labor leaders, and made it back to LA in time for the 404 live event night, where I had the pleasure of bumping into a bunch of BITM readers. I met ambitious students examining the history of tech and labor in the entertainment industry, veteran tech policy campaigners, and some young critical journos. You all are the

Ozempic shows anti-aging effects in trial

The diabetes drug Ozempic has demonstrated remarkable anti-aging effects in the first clinical trial to directly measure its impact on biological aging, with participants becoming an average of 3.1 years biologically younger after 32 weeks of treatment. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide may offer benefits far beyond their established roles in diabetes management and weight loss. First Direct Clinical Evidence of Anti-Aging Effects Varun Dwaraka f

A new database on police use of force and misconduct in California

For Immediate Release August 4, 2025 Contact: [email protected] A new database on police use of force and misconduct in California makes public 1.5 million pages of once-secret police records Public records about use of force and misconduct by California law enforcement officers — some 1.5 million pages obtained from nearly 500 law enforcement agencies — will now be searchable by the public for the first time thanks to a new database built by UC Berkeley and Stanford University and pub

Trump Administration Moves to Destroy Satellite That Monitors Greenhouse Gases

The Trump Administration’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 would take an axe to NASA science. Two satellite missions on the chopping block have provided climate scientists, oil and gas companies, and farmers with critical atmospheric carbon data for years. The Orbiting Carbon Observatories are a pair of instruments that map atmospheric carbon on a global scale. NASA launched the OCO-2 in 2014 and mounted the OCO-3 on the International Space Station in 2019. Trump’s budget proposal threaten

We Should Reject the Switch 2’s Bogus Game-Key Cards or This Will Be the End of Physical Games

On Sunday, Nintendo propped up a survey for players to share a few thoughts about how they prefer to play games on the Switch 2. By Tuesday, Nintendo pulled the survey, but not before the poll went viral and offered gamers a new outlet to let loose about the lack of Switch 2 games you can buy that come entirely on physical game cards. There’s a larger issue at play. The Switch 2 is an inflection point showing how the last few strands of actual game ownership are fraying. Nintendo’s most-dedicate