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Opera has integrated a free eSIM into its Android browser, giving users 3GB of 5G data that activates without requiring payment details. The eSIM works across 47 countries, though the free data allotment is limited to users based in ten countries and expires three days after activation. Paid top-up plans of 3GB, 5GB and 10GB are available once the free data runs out.
A Nature commentary contends that ongoing debates over whether AI systems can be credited as authors on scholarly papers miss a more fundamental change underway in how research knowledge itself is generated. The piece suggests focus should shift from authorship credit rules toward examining how AI tools are altering the processes of scholarly inquiry.
A commentary published in Nature contends that patent activity alone cannot guarantee reliable supply chains for critical minerals used in clean energy and technology manufacturing. The piece suggests that intellectual property metrics fail to capture the broader industrial, geopolitical and infrastructure factors that determine whether minerals can actually be extracted, processed and delivered.
MicroLLM Lab is a browser-based tool that lets users load and run up to seven small language models, including ones as small as 135M parameters, directly in the browser. It runs objective test suites using regex and exact-token checks rather than judging writing quality, and measures metrics like peak speed, sustained decode speed across 256 tokens, and total benchmark wall time.
Researchers at Bay Area Labs say the Chrome extension Poper Blocker, which has over 2 million users and Google's 'Featured' and 'Established Publisher' badges, secretly collects browsing histories, screenshots and AI chatbot interactions. The extension uses code obfuscation and sandbox detection to avoid discovery, and the researchers say two other apps from the same developer, flagged as spyware nearly a decade ago, remain featured on the store. Bay Area Labs reported Poper Blocker to Google in May 2026 but says no action has been taken.
A blogger describes abandoning Firefox for Brave browser after growing frustrated with web apps not working properly in Firefox, a problem attributed to developers not testing against it due to its small market share. The author tried Vivaldi first but found its interface too cluttered, then settled on Brave after disabling its crypto and AI features, reporting it now works reliably across Ubuntu and Android.
Security firm Netskope reported a malicious Google Ads campaign that displayed fake security alerts telling Windows and Mac users their computers were locked, urging them to call fraudulent tech-support numbers. The ads appeared on legitimate sites like maps, weather and real estate pages, and used full-screen takeovers, hidden cursors and blocked keyboard shortcuts to simulate a system failure. Netskope says it observed clicks from users at 619 customer organizations between August 31 and September 14, mostly in the US, Japan and Australia, across more than 250 ad campaign IDs and 284 publisher sites.
Scissor is a new free vector and pixel graphics editor that runs entirely in the browser using JavaScript and WebAssembly, requiring no installation, account or file upload. It supports pen and shape tools, layers, masks, gradients, live effects, image tracing, multiple grid types, and can import and export formats including SVG, PDF, PSD, PNG and WebP. The tool also works offline and can be installed as an app, with all files stored locally on the user's device.
A programmer published a retrospective post listing ten lines of code that shaped their personal history with computing, ranging from a classic BASIC 'Hello World' loop to a JavaScript console oddity and a self-modifying 6502 assembly routine. Each example is accompanied by an explanation of why it mattered to the author, whether for nostalgia, humor, or technical insight.
Tuck is a free browser extension that lets users temporarily close tabs and have them reopen automatically at a chosen later time, similar to snoozing an email in Gmail. It works across Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi and other major browsers without requiring an account. The tool also auto-closes idle tabs after a set period and stores them so users can reopen them later.
A researcher demonstrated that an unsanitized Twitch chat overlay running as an OBS Browser Source could let a viewer inject JavaScript into OBS's embedded Chromium browser. Because that Chromium build shipped in OBS 32.2.2 ran without its sandbox and included a V8 engine still vulnerable to the already-exploited CVE-2024-7971, the researcher was able to turn a single chat message into full code execution on the streamer's machine, using default OBS settings.
Users report that Google Maps on desktop browsers returns a 'can't find restaurants' style error when searching broad, nonspecific terms, while specific searches like building names still work. The mobile app appears unaffected, and the issue is showing up across multiple browsers, not just Chrome. Google has not yet confirmed the cause.