Google has broadened its partnership with energy company Voltus to create one of the largest virtual power plants in the US, covering the Mid-Atlantic PJM grid. Rather than building new generation, Voltus will pay homes and businesses to reduce electricity use during peak demand—often automatically via smart thermostats or batteries—freeing up grid capacity equivalent to a large nuclear reactor's output for Google's data centers.
Google Home Speaker owners reported their devices consuming unusually large amounts of Wi-Fi data, with one user citing three terabytes over two weeks and a WIRED writer finding her own speaker had used 487 GB in ten days. Google told WIRED a server misconfiguration caused some speakers to repeatedly re-download a software update, and said the issue has now been fixed.
At a South Carolina rally, President Trump said he had personally called Google CEO Sundar Pichai to ask whether Google Maps could rename the Atlantic Ocean after himself or 'America.' Trump claimed Pichai declined, reportedly saying oceans touch too many countries to rename, though Trump said he's still considering renaming the Pacific the 'American Ocean.'
Google has reportedly offered $10 million to acquire Spirit Airlines' data archive, according to Fast Company's AI Decoded newsletter. The bid highlights how major AI companies are pursuing large troves of consumer and business data as a resource for training systems.
Facing growing local opposition, Google, Amazon and Meta are offering communities increased financial incentives, pledging to accept fewer tax breaks, and promising greater transparency about planned data center projects. The companies also say they are working to reduce environmental impact and are assuring residents that the facilities will raise local property values.
Google has told Android users in Canada to install pending software updates and restart their devices after some phones showed incorrect times following British Columbia and Manitoba's permanent switch to daylight saving time. The provinces will not turn clocks back on November 1st, which can confuse devices still expecting the old time change. Google also suggested enabling location-based time zone detection or manually setting the correct time zone if the issue persists.
Several Google employees have resigned in protest over the company's artificial intelligence contracts with military organizations, according to a BBC report. Google responded by saying it follows a consistent review process for such public sector contracts, including compliance checks against its acceptable use policies and AI principles, and maintains channels for employees to raise ethical concerns without fear of retaliation.
Discord shipped an update that renders uploaded .md files with proper formatting, including tables, rather than showing raw symbols. The same release adds a 'Move to...' option for organizing servers and channels via right-click, and raises the file upload limit for Nitro subscribers to 1GB.
Apple's debut folding phone goes on sale in stores this Friday, offering iPhone users a flexible display that expands from pocket size to a larger screen. The company has not yet published care instructions for the device, though some preorder customers have reported shipping delays pushing into January.
A CNET reporter tested Google's newly released Gemini 3 Pro model by asking it to build an application for designing 3D-printable objects. Within about 18 hours of conversation-based iteration, the AI produced a working app that let him generate and refine cosplay armor pieces like greaves, pauldrons and vambraces, which he then printed himself.
Trump recounted a conversation with Google CEO Sundar Pichai in which he considered relabeling the Atlantic Ocean after America or himself, following Google's earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Google Maps. Trump said Pichai pushed back, noting oceans border far too many countries for such a change, so Trump said he would drop the idea.
Google has struck a deal described as the largest virtual power plant agreement by a hyperscaler, aggregating flexible demand and distributed resources rather than building new generation capacity. The arrangement is intended to supply the equivalent of about a gigawatt of power to support its data center growth.
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