GoKawiil
Tech News
Apple is accepting new applications for its Security Research Device Program, which provides specially configured iPhones to security researchers. The program's current application window remains open until October 30, 2026.
Fly.io has introduced the Sprites Block Device (SBD), a new filesystem replacing the modified JuiceFS system it built at launch for its Sprites product. The original setup used a rewritten SQLite metadata backend kept durable with Litestream, storing a single 100GB disk image mounted as a loop device backed by object storage. SBD keeps the same core design—object storage as the root of a Sprite's disk so it can sleep and wake across servers—but replaces the custom tooling with a simpler, more reliable implementation.
Eufy is offering an $80 discount on its Security Wall Light Cam S4, a solar-powered device that combines a motion-activated outdoor light with a swiveling 4K security camera. The camera stores footage locally on 32GB of built-in storage, requires no subscription, and includes on-device AI that can distinguish between people, vehicles, and pets.
Apple discontinued the iPhone mini line, but a community of users is reportedly still holding onto their devices rather than upgrading to larger current models. Owners describe accepting tradeoffs like degraded battery life, limited storage and overheating in exchange for keeping the smaller form factor.
Four major European telecommunications companies have announced a partnership to explore direct-to-device satellite connectivity for mobile phones. The effort is positioned as a potential rival to Elon Musk's Starlink, which already offers similar satellite-based phone connectivity in some markets.
Android phones let users check which apps consume the most storage via Settings > Device Care > Storage > Apps, where apps can be uninstalled or archived. Archiving removes an app's core files and temporary data while keeping login credentials and personal settings intact for easy reinstallation. Android also offers an 'auto-archive' feature that automatically archives rarely used apps when storage runs low, which Google says can free up nearly 60 percent of an app's storage space without deleting its data.
A tech how-to explains that plugging an external USB drive into a router's USB port and enabling file sharing in the router settings can turn that drive into a makeshift Network Attached Storage (NAS) device accessible to every device on the home network. The guide notes this approach lets users share photos, documents, movies and other files locally without needing a computer to stay powered on, unlike some streaming setups such as Sonos' current folder-sharing method.
The Nothing Ear wireless earbuds are now selling for $69, down $40 from their regular price. The discount brings a 37% reduction off the earbuds' retail price, which include adaptive active noise cancellation, dual-device pairing, and IP54 water resistance.
Ledger has announced a new hardware crypto wallet designed to resemble a smartphone. The launch comes as the company faces renewed scrutiny over how it handled earlier reports of backdoored devices, which surfaced months before some crypto wallets were drained of funds.
Liquid AI released LFM2.5-24B-A2B, a 24-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model with only 2 billion active parameters per token, as the largest and final entry in its LFM2.5 family. The model is reasoning-only, generating an explicit chain of thought, and both base and post-trained open-weight versions are now available on Hugging Face and Liquid's Playground.
The FBI arrested and the Justice Department charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national and OpenAI product team employee since July 2025, with illegally using a device to intercept oral communications. Investigators say he hid a thumb-sized camera and microphone board inside a TV port in a restricted executive conference room, and left a second device with his wallet and ID in a printer room. OpenAI says it found the first device on September 30, alerted the FBI, and fired Alfozan before his arrest on October 9.
OpenAI filed a new court document alleging a former employee, who had previously worked at Apple before a six-month stint at OpenAI, sent over 100 confidential files about an unreleased OpenAI device to his personal accounts on his last day. The filing claims the files included device images, engineering and manufacturing data, supplier information and finish specifications, and that the employee later briefed Apple's senior leadership on OpenAI's plans. Apple told Reuters it has found no evidence supporting these claims.