GoKawiil
Tech News
The New York Yankees retired CC Sabathia's No. 52 jersey, honoring the Hall of Fame pitcher's 19-year career. Sabathia and his wife Amber discussed their PitCCh In Foundation, launched in 2008 to support youth through sports and education programs in their hometown of Vallejo and beyond, which Sabathia says has become a bigger focus in retirement.
Microsoft Surface CVP Brett Ostrum told Windows Central that new laptops meeting the Copilot+ hardware requirements are no longer being labeled with the Copilot+ badge, even though the underlying NPU and performance specs remain. Devices like the upcoming Nvidia RTX Spark N1X and Microsoft's own Project Zenith are shipping without the branding, and Microsoft says it's scaling back Copilot's visible presence in Windows 11 while promising better performance and reliability, including optimization for 8GB RAM systems.
A week after Apple's iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max launched with new colors like Glacier, Burgundy and Deep Black, a 9to5Mac reviewer tested numerous third-party cases and shared personal favorites. Highlighted picks include Pitaka's ultra-thin Edge case, made of aramid fiber at 20g and 1mm thick with MagSafe magnets, priced at $59, and Nomad's Sport Case, which offers a soft-touch exterior, metal buttons and microfiber lining for everyday protection.
A third-party app called Merge Watch lets users pair an Apple Watch with an Android device after initial setup with an iPhone. Users install the app on both the Apple Watch and an Android phone, grant Bluetooth, health, notification and battery permissions, then pair via a six-digit code. Health data syncs to Google Fit, though it can take time to appear after setup.
Video-generation startup Synthesia, valued at $4 billion, created an interactive digital avatar of a TechCrunch journalist during a visit to its new New York office. The avatar is trained specifically to answer questions about her article on why VC-backed startups commit more fraud than non-VC-backed ones. Synthesia had previously built a similar avatar of its own head of corporate affairs, Alexandru Voica, to field press questions about the company.
AnyPS5 is an open-source tool that converts PS5 executables into Windows and Linux formats and recompiles shaders into SPIR-V for Vulkan, acting as a compatibility layer rather than a traditional emulator. Its GitHub page notes test builds have booted some games to the main menu, with a few reaching gameplay with audio, though a public build has not been released.
Samsung devices running Android 12 or later include a Phone Diagnostics tool under Settings > Device care > Diagnostics, letting users test individual hardware components or run all checks at once. The same diagnostics suite is also accessible through the Samsung Members app. A test run on a Galaxy S26 Ultra produced 22 separate checks covering the phone's hardware.
NPR staff discovered that middle schoolers were using the Spotify comment section under an episode of its Wild Card podcast to chat with friends, initially mistaking the flurry of cryptic, emoji-laden posts for bot spam. This American Life host Ira Glass investigated the phenomenon, learning that kids sought out podcasts with few existing comments specifically to use as a private-feeling space. NPR says a similar pattern occurred previously on an episode of Ted Radio Hour.
Current-gen consoles including all PlayStation 5 models and the Xbox Series X and Series S are engineered to operate in either vertical or horizontal orientation. The key consideration is airflow, along with placing the units on stable surfaces, away from walls, and out of cramped cabinets to avoid overheating and dust buildup.
GitHub's Primer Design System team replaced its CSS-in-JS styling approach with CSS Modules after performance problems emerged as component counts grew on pages. The switch removes client and server runtime style processing, instead bundling styles into stylesheets delivered with page HTML, and required updates across every Primer component and consuming component at GitHub.
The Wall Street Journal reports that fraudsters exploited Polymarket by placing wagers with stolen debit card information, then withdrawing winnings into accounts they controlled. A payment processor working with Polymarket flagged the scheme as early as February, rejecting over 80 percent of incoming transactions as fraudulent — far above the roughly 1 percent industry norm — with attempted fraud totaling at least $10 million.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a payment processor working with Polymarket flagged widespread use of stolen debit cards to place bets on the platform starting as early as February. Fraudsters allegedly used stolen financial data to wager and then withdrew winnings through other payment channels, with the processor rejecting more than 80 percent of transactions as fraudulent, far above the roughly 1 percent industry norm.