GoKawiil
Tech News
A Wonder Tools newsletter roundup, republished with permission, spotlights seven apps for Mac and iPhone that the author says are worth downloading. The selection includes a browser, a screenshot tool, and a privacy-focused writing assistant, among others, chosen for their practical everyday usefulness.
Steam's in-game overlay offers several lesser-known features beyond chat and friends lists, including a built-in web browser for looking up guides without alt-tabbing, a text editor for taking notes with formatting and code blocks, and a configurable timer. Users can also pin overlay elements, like the timer, so they stay visible on screen during gameplay without appearing in Steam screenshots.
A browser-based version of Need for Speed Underground 2 has surfaced, offering touch and keyboard controls alongside multiplayer features like group chat, horn signals, and friend messaging. The setup supports full customization of steering, control sizing, and camera options, mirroring the original game's control scheme including manual shifting, hydraulics, and drift mode.
A new batch of AI-powered apps and tools has been spotlighted this week, featuring a browser positioned as a replacement for the discontinued Arc Browser. Also included are a mapping tool built using AI-assisted ('vibecoded') development, a file-transfer service, and a screenshot utility for Android devices.
A new multiplayer browser game places players in tanks that drive through real-world streets rendered from OpenStreetMap data, letting them aim and fire to demolish actual buildings shown on the map. Players can pick a city or find nearby matches, track stats like armour, speed, buildings destroyed and tanks in play, and even tag rubble with emoji. Destroyed tanks respawn after a short cooldown timer.
Google announced on Nov. 3 that AI tools integrated into its Search product will be turned off by default for K-12 students starting next year, requiring teachers or administrators to manually enable them. Google education VP Chris Phillips said that because search and AI are tightly linked, schools that block the AI tools will also lose access to Search entirely for students, triggering a notification explaining the restriction. In response, CNET highlighted several free alternative search engines, including Brave and DuckDuckGo, that parents and educators could use instead.
Google is trialing a new tab strip in Chrome Canary that lets users scroll horizontally through open tabs using a mouse wheel or dedicated arrow buttons, while pinned tabs stay fixed to the left. The feature is enabled via an experimental flag and has no confirmed stable release date.
Mozilla is trialing a Firefox Nightly feature called Mini Window that lets users pop a tab or page section into a small, always-on-top window with minimal controls. The window hides the address bar and toolbar until hovered, making the content resemble a standalone web app while staying visible above other Firefox windows.
YouTube announced new accessibility tags for its in-browser Playables games, covering controls and input, audio and visual options, and gameplay adjustments. The 24 tags, visible in each game's 'Game Info' section, let players see upfront whether a title supports touch-only play, keyboard remapping, color alternatives, adjustable difficulty, and more. Titles like Bubble Shooter and Fin Friends already display the new tags, which follow standards set by the Accessible Games Initiative.
An independent developer released a browser-based tool that lets users practice Vim editing skills through short, hands-on challenges covering motions, text objects, search, marks, counts, and repeats. The tool requires no sign-up or account, stores no user data, and runs in a real Vim editor within the browser, though it needs a desktop with a physical keyboard.
The requested Nature.com page titled 'Whence dragons?' could not be retrieved; instead, the site returned a standard notice about limited CSS support for outdated browsers. No article content, data, or findings were available for review.
A letter published in Nature argues that laboratory and institutional safety alerts often fail to reach PhD students who are visiting from other institutions. The piece calls for clearer communication channels so that temporary or guest researchers are not left out of safety notifications.