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The Verge's Version History podcast dedicates an episode to the One Laptop Per Child initiative and its XO-1 laptop, which aimed to give every child in the world access to a computer. Host David Pierce discusses the project's history and design with The Verge's Adi Robertson and tech journalist David Imel.
A new book chronicles the design history of matchbooks distributed by queer bars decades before dating apps existed. These matchbooks often served practical and social functions, letting patrons exchange phone numbers and identify safe, unmarked venues within their covers.
A commentary responds to a New York Times op-ed by Sharon Weinberger, tied to her book 'Valley of Death,' which argues Silicon Valley's countercultural, idealistic image was always a myth and its current embrace of defense contracts and authoritarian-friendly politics is simply market adaptation, not a shift in values. The author counters with a personal anecdote from a 2015 Founders Fund retreat, contrasting computing pioneer Alan Kay's idealistic legacy with venture capitalist Peter Thiel's dismissiveness toward him, suggesting the two cultures have long coexisted rather than one being a false front for the other.
Code inside version 17.61.19.sa.arm64 of the Google app shows Gemini building its own light/dark mode switch that would override the phone's system-wide setting, without affecting the rest of the Google app. The same teardown also reveals work on a new notification history screen for Gemini.
Android Authority published a roundup of eight Android features it says are underused, including notification history, app pairs for split-screen, clipboard history, reverse wireless charging and app pinning. The piece explains how to enable notification history via Settings, which logs alerts for 24 hours and can surface deleted messages from apps like WhatsApp, and how app pairs let users save split-screen app combinations for one-tap reuse.
Microsoft has resolved a bug that stopped File History from backing up or restoring files to external drives or network locations after the September 2026 security update. The fix ships in the optional cumulative updates KB5124006 and KB5124010 for Windows 11 26H1 and 24H2/25H2 respectively. Affected users had seen crash events referencing FileHistory.exe, false 'Reconnect your drive' prompts, and backups that stopped updating.
Microsoft confirmed that its September 8 Patch Tuesday update broke File History backups on Windows 11 (23H2 through 26H1) and Windows 10 ESU devices, causing errors like false 'reconnect drive' prompts and missing previous file versions. The company has released an optional preview update to fix the issue, though it currently does not apply to Windows 11 23H2 or Windows 10.
A review discusses Florence Hazrat's book on the history of punctuation, tracing marks like the period, question mark, exclamation point and semicolon to specific historical origins, including Aristophanes of Byzantium and eighth-century Irish monks who invented word spacing. Hazrat argues no new punctuation marks have been added since 1600, aside from emojis.
A 2024 technical essay argues that the history of computing has overemphasized Charles Babbage's mechanical calculator designs while neglecting the development of electronic working memory, or RAM. The author traces this history back to relay-based bistable circuits, explaining how latching relays could store bits and laid groundwork for modern memory systems.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission, acting for the EU, fined Google €403 million (about $462 million) for mishandling location history and web/app activity data. The regulator found Google failed to be transparent about Location Accuracy on Android and unlawfully retained users' location data longer than necessary.
Git 2.56 ships with over 700 non-merge commits, introducing an experimental 'git history drop' subcommand that removes a specific commit and replays subsequent history, though it fails on repositories containing merge commits. The release also expands 'git refs' with create, delete, update, and rename subcommands, and adds several smaller usability improvements like pull suggestions in 'git status' and a '--delete-merged' flag for 'git branch'.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission concluded a five-year inquiry into how Google Ireland handled location data across Web & App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy features between 2018 and 2020. The regulator found multiple GDPR violations spanning lawfulness, transparency, accountability and data retention, and has fined the company €403 million while giving it six months to fix its practices.