Google confirmed it is rolling out major changes to how Search functions across the European Union, following a $1 billion fine tied to alleged Digital Markets Act violations. The update forces Google to display results from competing vertical search services, such as Expedia or Booking.com, ahead of its own Flights and Hotels products in categories like travel and dining. New carousels will rank listings using Google's algorithm, but with details like real-time pricing removed.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-08
Android Authority found evidence in Google app version 17.56.14 that Song Search could soon run in the background, letting users switch apps while it keeps listening for a track. A notification would alert users when a song is identified, tapping which now leads to an AI Mode result instead of a standard search page.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-08
A developer released DriveSync (dsync), an open-source Rust command-line tool that mirrors a local directory with a Google Drive folder, offering push, pull, and diff commands similar to Git workflows. Users authenticate via their own OAuth credentials created in Google Cloud Console, and the tool is available via Homebrew, prebuilt binaries, or source compilation.
github.com
· 2026-09-08
NextEra Energy has received a $1.9 billion loan from the US Department of Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a 615-megawatt nuclear plant in Iowa that was shut down after storm damage in 2020. Google will buy power from the reopened plant to run its AI data centers, with NextEra targeting a restart by 2029 and citing job creation and grid reliability benefits.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-08
CNET's latest People's Picks survey asked readers to rate phone brands on customer satisfaction, battery longevity, and price-to-value. Google came out on top with a 4.52 out of 5 average score, narrowly edging out Motorola at 4.45, while Samsung and Apple trailed with 4.19 and 3.87 respectively.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-08
Google is bringing back Now Playing notifications in the shade on Pixel devices, months after removing them during a March update that split the feature into a standalone app. The restored alerts show the song title and artist, plus a shortcut to favorite tracks or view listening history, without needing to unlock the phone. The rollout appears limited so far, based on scattered Reddit reports rather than an official announcement.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-08
Google Research, working with HHMI Janelia Research Campus, published the first complete map of an adult male fruit fly's brain and central nervous system, called MaleCNS v1.0. The AI-assisted project stitched together millions of 2D images into a 3D model reconstructing more than 166,000 neurons. Within days, software engineers used the connectome data to train a simulated version of the fly's neural circuitry to play Doom and Super Mario 64.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-08
Ivo Stivoric, who holds the title 'Lt. Trouble + Maker' at Alphabet's X, the Moonshot Factory, has been named 2026 Innovative Leader of the Year. Over more than a dozen years at X, he has led varied projects including Taara's light-based wireless communication, Tapestry's electric grid mapping, Chorus's AI supply chain tracking, and Materra's AI-driven waste sorting, and holds over 90 patents.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-08
Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026 list recognized 20 companies for excellence in AI, automation, and machine learning. Honorees range from large firms like Google, Lenovo, Match Group, and Williams-Sonoma to smaller companies such as Kiss My Apps, all cited for using emerging technologies to boost employee productivity and workplace innovation.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-08
Danijar Hafner is developing 'world models' — AI systems that simulate physical reality — and training reinforcement-learning agents inside them so robots can anticipate outcomes before acting in the real world. This model-based approach lets agents rehearse complex tasks virtually, avoiding the costly trial-and-error training typical of conventional robotics. Hafner, a former Google Brain and DeepMind researcher who worked alongside figures like Geoffrey Hinton, is now recognized as a rising talent in AI research.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-08
Arm has announced its new C2-Ultra CPU architecture, the successor to last year's C1-Ultra, which is expected to appear in Samsung Exynos and MediaTek Dimensity chips around 2027, and possibly Google's Tensor G7. Arm claims up to 15% peak performance gains over its predecessor, though most of that comes from a higher 4.45GHz clock speed rather than architectural changes, while power efficiency improves by 38% at equivalent performance thanks to a 2nm process and larger L2 cache.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-08
Google DeepMind has launched AlphaGenome Atlas, a database that predicts the molecular effects of every one of the roughly nine billion possible single-letter changes across the human genome. The tool is accessible via a web portal, the Antigravity development platform, and the AlphaGenome interface, and comes bundled with a new Variant Impact Score to help researchers prioritize which mutations are most likely to matter.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-08
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