GoKawiil
Tech News
Newegg is selling the MSI Codex R2 desktop for $1,429, a $270 discount, bundling an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, an Intel Core i5-14400F 10-core CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB SSD. The build targets smooth 1080p gaming, with some headroom for 1440p when DLSS multi-frame generation is enabled.
Amazon has launched its conversational AI assistant Alexa+ in India in Early Access, supporting both Hindi and English, including mid-sentence language switching. The assistant will be free for Prime members after testing, while non-Prime users will pay ₹2,000 per month, and it integrates with local services like Swiggy, District, MakeMyTrip, EazyDiner, and JioSaavn.
Canadian retro hardware enthusiast DiscoStarslayer has successfully reverse-engineered and dumped the CXP102064 MechaCon chip found in the original 1999 PlayStation 2 console. The process involved chemically decapping the chip to expose its die, then using microscopes and optical dumping techniques before a software exploit finally allowed extraction of its data. The entire effort took four years to complete.
A commentary on workplace psychology argues that many women delay career moves—like asking for promotions or switching jobs—while waiting to feel fully confident first. The piece observes that women who actually progress are typically those who act despite lingering doubt, not those who wait until certainty arrives.
WIRED has released a dedicated mobile app for iPhone and Android, available as a free download. The app bundles a personalized daily digest, video content, podcasts, narrated stories, and a comment section for reader discussion and live AMAs with journalists.
A group of hackers physically removed a Flock Safety license-plate camera, copied its internal storage, and recovered an encryption key that unlocked thousands of stored vehicle images. They shared the extracted files with 404 Media and WIRED, and separately with the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, along with details of how they pulled off the extraction so others could replicate it.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled plans to bar children under 13 from social media across all EU member states, part of an EU Kids Act being formally introduced this week. Teens aged 13 to 15 would only be permitted limited, parent-supervised mini accounts capped at one hour daily, while platforms face new safety design rules for users up to 18.
Reuters reported that SK Hynix is in early talks with Intel to produce memory chips in the United States, potentially through leasing space at Intel's Ohio plant or forming a joint venture involving cloud companies. Shares of both firms rose in premarket trading following the report, though sources cautioned no final decisions have been made.
Mozilla's latest State of Open Source AI report, using data through September 1, finds top Chinese open-weight models are closing in on closed US frontier systems, lagging by only a few percentage points on key benchmarks while costing far less to run. The report estimates the capability gap at roughly 4.4 months based on METR task-horizon data, close to Epoch AI's independent four-month estimate, and notes one Chinese model scored within a point of a leading Claude model on Terminal-Bench at under a fifth of the price.
MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9600 Pro, built on TSMC's 2nm process, alongside the 3nm Dimensity 9600M for a broader range of premium phones. The Pro chip features a dedicated neural processing unit for on-device generative AI and boosts prompt processing speed by 51% over its predecessor. MediaTek did not name partner manufacturers or give launch dates for devices using the chips.
Businesses are facing a sharp increase in energy costs, and companies are split on whether to pass those costs to consumers immediately through price hikes or absorb them for now. The divide reflects differing bets on how long the energy cost surge will last and how sensitive customers are to price changes.
WIRED updated its annual robot vacuum roundup for 2026, testing new models from Shark, Eufy, Roborock and other brands across a multi-story home with kids and pets. The update also notes a new FCC ban that will affect future robot vacuum designs and features going forward.