GoKawiil
Tech News
WIRED's review of Meta's third-generation Nova smart glasses finds a smaller, less noticeable camera housing but otherwise similar functionality to the Gen 2 model. Features like Conversation Focus and Muse AI integration are not yet available on these frames, and the built-in AI assistant still struggles to answer basic questions about the glasses themselves.
A U.S. federal judge ruled that Flock's automated license-plate reading cameras constitute 'indiscriminate mass surveillance' by continuously logging vehicle locations. The ruling threw out drug charges against a driver after finding that an officer's warrantless use of Flock's travel-history data to justify a traffic stop violated reasonable expectations of privacy, suppressing all evidence gathered afterward.
A German gamer bought a secondhand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and was banned from Valorant because Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat had blacklisted the chip's hardware ID in August 2026 over a prior owner's cheating. Riot support told the buyer the ban couldn't be reversed, though Riot anti-cheat specialist Phillip Koskinas later clarified on X that such hardware bans are game-specific and last a maximum of four months, and that only the flagged component—not the whole PC—gets denylisted.
A Reddit user says Valorant banned him immediately after installing a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU, claiming Riot found the chip's serial number already blacklisted and that the motherboard and storage drive were also flagged. Riot's Phillip Koskinas disputes several details, saying Vanguard does not blacklist an entire system over one flagged part and that bans are game-specific rather than applying across all Riot titles.
Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Ban Flock Act, which would prohibit federal agencies from operating automatic license plate reader systems or accessing data from such systems run by local police or private vendors like Flock. The bill allows exceptions only for toll collection and future congressional approvals capped at 48-hour data retention, and would cut federal grants to state and local governments that fail to comply, while allowing lawsuits and enforcement by state attorneys general.
A Reddit user reported being banned from Valorant and other Riot Games titles after installing a secondhand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor. Riot support confirmed the chip was blacklisted because its previous owner had cheated, and said such entries are not removed manually, meaning the ban carried over to the new buyer.
A customer buying an RTX 5090-equipped PowerSpec workstation at a Micro Center in Tustin, California, was required to sign an 'Advanced Computing Product Purchaser Declaration' before the purchase was approved. The form demands full legal name, address, government ID, phone, email, end-user details, installation location, and intended use, and states Micro Center will not sell to anyone intending to export the product outside the US. Other Reddit users noted this requirement is new, though one buyer said a similar, longer form was required at Central Computers last summer.
Phoebe Bridgers has instituted a strict no-phone policy on her current tour, requiring fans to lock away smartphones, smartwatches and smart glasses in Yondr pouches for the duration of her shows. Without devices to record the performance, some attendees have resorted to sketching the stage and lighting displays by hand, with examples shared on Reddit.
FCC listings have surfaced for two Samsung smart glasses models, reportedly tied to its partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. The filings show model numbers SM-O200J and SM-O200P, each with several additional variant numbers, according to Droid Life.
Asus has received an FCC exemption dated September 9th from the new US ban on foreign-made consumer routers, allowing it to sell its upcoming Wi-Fi 8 routers domestically. Under the rules, manufacturers must submit a 'detailed, time-bound plan' to build or expand US manufacturing to qualify, and Asus says it has submitted such a plan, but it has repeatedly declined to confirm whether that plan involves actually manufacturing routers in the United States.
The United States imposed a ban on close to $1 billion worth of Canadian imports starting early Tuesday, covering alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles. The move follows earlier 50% U.S. tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods and Canada's retaliatory tariffs of 15%, 25% or 50% on U.S. imports.
Mark Zuckerberg has said in recent interviews that Ray-Ban Meta glasses signal photo-taking more clearly than smartphones do, since the glasses light up when capturing an image while phones typically do not. Journalist Joanna Stern countered that holding up a phone is itself a visible cue, even without a light indicator.