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Amazon has introduced four new Alexa Tablet models, ranging from a $229.99 8-inch version to a $679.99 12 Pro model. The flagship 12-inch, 2800x1840 display uses a new Corning-partnered 'Nanomatte' coating designed to cut glare while preserving sharpness, and the tablets run full Android with Play Store access alongside Amazon's own apps.
Nintendo is remaking The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Switch 2, adding modern conveniences such as a dedicated jump button, a real-time item-swapping menu, and a new progression tracker called Threads of Time viewable from the pause screen. The remake also integrates with the Nintendo Switch app's Zelda Notes feature, letting players view maps and other information on their phone. A preview session let a reporter play roughly 90 minutes covering Child Link and Adult Link sections of the game.
Nintendo has told customers it plans to keep selling physical game cartridges for its consoles, even as Sony moves toward phasing out physical discs for PlayStation titles. Nintendo's reassurance follows gamer backlash against Sony's shift toward digital-only distribution.
DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm, has launched a $73 million program led by Navy Lt. Cmdr. Robert Murray to develop a synthetic blood alternative for battlefield use. The effort responds to chronic blood shortages that researchers say cause roughly 10,000 preventable deaths annually in the US and far more worldwide, largely due to blood's short shelf life once thawed or stored.
Tech Against Terrorism's Counter-Terrorism AI Benchmark report found that Alibaba's open-weight Qwen 3.8-27B model, released August 14, had 'abliterated' versions with guardrails removed circulating online within a day. A neo-Nazi user known as Johnny Doomsayer then used one such version to build a chatbot called 'MechaHitler,' which denied the Holocaust and praised Hitler, and began selling access to it for $14.88. The report tested 134 AI models from major US, Chinese, and European companies on how readily they would answer questions useful to terrorists or extremists.
CISA is directing admins to immediately patch CVE-2026-104935, a high-severity authentication bypass in Ivanti Connect Secure that has been exploited as a zero-day since at least October 1. Ivanti released patched versions on Tuesday, and researchers at Volexity and Defused say an unknown threat actor chained the bug with two other flaws to gain unauthenticated root access and steal Active Directory credentials, LAPS passwords and BitLocker keys.
Niklaus programming-language researcher nikomatsakis published a blog post arguing that Rust remains well-suited to agentic, AI-assisted development, citing data showing Rust's rapid adoption growth. He references David Tolnay's observation that Meta engineers wrote twice as much first-party Rust code this year as in the previous nine years combined.
Iosevka is an open-source monospace typeface offering both sans-serif and slab-serif styles, aimed at developers and terminal users. The font is freely available for download and customization, with source files published for community contribution.
Apple revealed the second-generation HomePod mini at its Welcome Home event, alongside new Apple TV 4K, a HomeView smart-home hub, and Apple Home smart accessories. The speaker keeps a similar design to its predecessor but adds a new lighting feature called Sound Glow and will later gain an upgraded Siri AI via software update in eight countries including the US and UK. It can function alone or link with up to three other units for multi-room audio, and works with Apple Intelligence-enabled devices to handle simple contextual tasks.
Security researchers have identified a new Android malware strain called Hirudo that replaces legitimate banking apps with modified versions. These tampered apps disable built-in security checks, allowing the malware to capture users' bank account credentials.
Federal prosecutors have charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who worked as an OpenAI engineer since July 2025, with planting a hidden recording device in an executive meeting room at the company's San Francisco office. OpenAI's security team discovered the encrypted device, built from a $13.99 Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 board, around September 30, and later found a second similar device along with Alfozan's wallet in a bag he left behind. He was arrested on October 9 and appeared in federal court on October 13 facing charges of attempting to intercept oral communications.
ASML said some customers are expressing interest in placing orders for its lithography machines as far out as 2029 and 2030, citing rising short- and medium-term demand forecasts tied to AI investment. The company also reported third-quarter profit that exceeded analyst expectations.