GoKawiil
Tech News
Cricket Wireless has introduced a 5G home internet service running on AT&T's network, offering unlimited data for $60 a month plus a $50 gateway modem purchase. Bundling with a mobile line costs $75 for new customers or $45 for existing Cricket subscribers, and the service includes taxes in its advertised pricing with no contract required.
After a researcher's resignation over AI extinction fears, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for external organizations to verify AI labs' safety practices and audit training pipelines, a proposal quickly backed by OpenAI, Google and others. Security experts counter that labs should first tighten fundamental internet security measures—access logs, permissions, and control systems—rather than relying on outside auditors as the primary fix.
A new report from the nonprofit Basel Action Network estimates that AI infrastructure will generate far more electronic waste than previously projected, potentially amounting to enough discarded material to fill 23 million shipping containers by 2050. Unlike earlier estimates that only counted servers and GPUs, this analysis includes power supplies, cooling systems, backup power, and networking equipment tied to data centers, plus a category BAN calls 'AI Waste Contagion.' The group attributes 15-20 percent of the world's projected 211 million metric tons of annual e-waste by 2050 to AI-related infrastructure.
Zocdoc is expanding its Care Access Network, letting the scheduling technology that runs its own marketplace be embedded into other services such as insurers and search platforms. This means patients could soon book doctor appointments directly through third-party sites rather than only through Zocdoc itself.
Because Android Auto ships as a regular Play Store app rather than a system component, it normally updates automatically in the background, but that process can stall if a phone lacks Wi-Fi access or auto-update settings are disabled. Users can check their version by searching for Android Auto in the Play Store, where an Uninstall button confirms they already have the latest release, or an Update button lets them install it manually. Devices need Android 9.0 or later, released in 2018, to receive current updates.
A developer known as GraafHenk has published an open-source project called Numberwang, built around a tiny 1.8MB JSON model and roughly 100 lines of pure Python with no external dependencies. The tool parses digits, number words, arithmetic expressions, Roman numerals, currencies and more across eleven languages, then returns one of four comedic verdicts inspired by the British sketch of the same name, including 'Numberwang' and 'Wangernumb'. It runs via command line or can be imported directly as a Python function returning probability scores for each verdict.
Rocket Lab has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office challenging NASA's decision to award Blue Origin a contract worth roughly $700 million to build, launch and operate a Mars Telecommunications Network spacecraft. Rocket Lab argues NASA's selection violated eligibility criteria set by Congress in the funding legislation and that its own technical proposal was reviewed unfairly.
In May 2003, UW-Madison discovered its public NTP time server was being hit by a massive, sustained flood of hundreds of thousands of packets per second from hundreds of thousands of hosts worldwide. Investigation revealed this wasn't a DDoS attack but a design flaw in a popular vendor's cheap consumer routers, which mistakenly hardcoded UW-Madison's server as a time source and queried it far too aggressively.
A new essay outlines a startup evaluation heuristic focused on power rather than incremental revenue growth: asking how a company can own the customer relationship, control money flow, become a platform others build on, or create network effects. The piece argues these structural shifts can multiply a company's value far more than simple revenue optimization.
Sony plans to resolve a Sherman Act class action by depositing PlayStation Store credit directly into eligible US PSN accounts, with no claim form required. Accounts that bought qualifying digital games between April 1, 2019 and December 31, 2023 were automatically enrolled, but payouts await final approval from a federal judge at an October fairness hearing.
A costumed appearance by a Doctor Doom impersonator at a Seattle event highlighted support for the city's camera surveillance systems. The moment drew attention to the fact that Flock Safety is far from the only company supplying automated license-plate readers and camera networks to police departments and neighborhoods.
An investigation by YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, working with independent security researchers and Level1Techs, found that LG smart TVs scan local Wi-Fi networks to catalog connected devices and nearby network names, even while offline or in standby mode. The TVs also use automatic content recognition to track viewing habits and have microphones capable of capturing and transcribing nearby conversations, with the collected data reportedly funneled to LG's advertising arm.