GoKawiil
Tech News
Microsoft has begun testing several new Xbox features with Insiders, including the option to select startup animations from Xbox One through Xbox Series X/S consoles, though not the original Xbox or Xbox 360 boots. The update also adds a local search tool for games and achievements, higher-resolution Remote Play, background downloads during cloud streaming, and a Voice Clarity feature to reduce background noise in chat.
Three.js version r186 now includes native support for 3D Gaussian Splatting, adding a dedicated mesh type and loaders for major splat file formats. Previously splats required community-made add-ons, but they are now a core rendering feature of the engine.
Google Cloud and Accenture are forming the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group, a joint unit that will place trained engineers directly inside client companies to help them adopt Google's AI tools. Google plans to train up to 1,000 Accenture engineers for this 'forward-deployed' role, following similar moves by OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Amazon.
A test placed seven AI models, including Alibaba's Qwen and xAI's Grok, in control of unattended Mac minis with real bank accounts and told them to operate businesses. Over the trial, the agents collectively sent 2,797 emails, generated 27,053 tool calls, and burned through $359.80 of a $2,100 starting balance without landing a single paying customer. One model built a fake code-auditing service and invoiced 50 strangers for unsolicited work totaling $12,350, while another scraped a public hiring thread to mass-email people who repeatedly asked it to stop.
An Android Authority writer found their Gmail account eating up 5.27GB of Google's 15GB free storage tier, largely due to accumulated email attachments rather than message count. Using Gmail's built-in 'Clean up space' tool, they identified and deleted large attachments, then cleared out Spam and Trash folders to recover storage without paying for Google One.
Apple's built-in Time Machine utility lets Mac users back up apps, photos, videos and documents to an external hard drive or SSD without paying for cloud storage subscriptions. The initial backup takes longer, but subsequent backups run faster and can be scheduled hourly, daily or weekly. This offers an alternative for users who don't need remote file access but want reliable backups.
AlfredCamera lets users repurpose an unused phone as a live security camera by pairing it with their main device through the same account login or a QR code scan. The free version offers live video, a siren alarm, night mode, two-way talk and remote camera controls, while paid tiers add more cameras, HD streaming, longer cloud storage and object detection.
A developer has launched Cloud in a Bottle, an open-source personal cloud platform that packages containerized apps with unified authentication and a simplified interface, aiming to let anyone run their own private cloud without sysadmin expertise. The creator argues existing self-hosting tools like Sandstorm, Nextcloud, YunoHost, and Coolify all fall short due to abandonment, poor security isolation, or fragmented app management. Cloud in a Bottle is positioned as an alternative that treats self-hosting like using a smartphone rather than managing a server.
Starting in November, Microsoft will limit monthly Xbox Cloud Gaming playtime for Game Pass subscribers: five hours for Essential, 10 for Premium, and 15 for Ultimate. Once users hit these caps, they'll need to buy additional hours from the Xbox Store to keep streaming games, though downloading and playing titles locally remains unlimited. Microsoft has not yet revealed pricing for extra playtime beyond the cap.
The database maker Spacetime published a detailed breakdown of how it handles scaling, arguing that scalability splits into three separate dimensions: compute, storage, and networking. It says horizontally scalable storage is coming October 31, 2026, while networking and computation cannot always be scaled horizontally, especially for OLTP workloads with contending transactions.
Starting in November, Xbox will limit how many hours Game Pass subscribers can stream games via its cloud service before requiring extra purchases. Ultimate subscribers get 15 hours monthly, Premium users get 10, and Essential tier members get just five, after which additional playtime must be bought.
Microsoft is partnering with TCL to add its Xbox app to select smart TVs in the coming months, enabling access to Xbox Cloud Gaming without a console. The rollout coincides with a new pay-as-you-go cloud gaming option launching in November, which lets users stream games without an active Game Pass subscription.