Microsoft’s Latest AI Chip Claims Performance Edge Over Amazon and Google
An anonymous reader quotes a report from GeekWire: Microsoft on Monday announced Maia 200, the second generation of its custom AI chip, claiming it’s the most powerful first-party silicon from any major cloud provider. The company says Maia 200 delivers three times the performance of Amazon’s latest Trainium chip on certain b … ⌘ Read more

I’ve got sore muscles. The sticky snow couldn’t be pushed, it had to be laborously cleared shovel by shovel. :-D

In my lunch break, I went on a short stroll. Oh boy, walking through deep damp snow is exhausting! There were sections with easily 30 centimeters and more. Some big wind drifts had piled up. Despite melting off quickly in the 4°C, especially turning the trees brown again, the white landscape still looks so nice. I’m glad these road marking sticks finally came in handy for the snow plow guys. :-) The black and orange stripes are 30 cm high.

https://lyse.isobeef.org/waldspaziergang-2026-01-26/

That’s probably it. There’s no significant snowfall announced for the rest of the week and temperatures are supposed to stay in the 2-4°C range by day.

New Linux/Android 2-in-1 Tablet ‘Open Slate’ Announced by Brax Technologies
Brax Technologies just announced “a privacy-focused alternative to locked-down tablets” called open_slate that can double as a consumer tablet and a Linux-capable workstation on ARM.

Earlier Brax Technologies built the privacy-focused smartphone BraX3, which co-founder Plamen Todorov says proved “a privacy-focused mobile devi … ⌘ Read more

The Case Against Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
Small modular nuclear reactors (or SMRs) are touted as “cheaper, safer, faster to build and easier to finance” than conventional nuclear reactors, reports CNN. Amazon has invested in X-Energy, and earlier this month, Meta announced a deal with Oklo, and in Michigan last month, Holtec began the long formal licensing process for two SMRs with America’s Nuclear Regulatory Commis … ⌘ Read more

California Becomes First State To Join WHO Disease Network After US Exit
California became the first U.S. state to join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), one day after the U.S. formally exited the WHO. The Hill reports: This announcement comes just one day after the U.S.’s withdrawal from the WHO became official after nearly 80 years of membership, havin … ⌘ Read more

Toronto Man Posed as Pilot To Rack Up Hundreds of Free Flights, Prosecutors Say
A Toronto man posed as a pilot for years in order to fool airlines into giving him hundreds of free flights, prosecutors have alleged, in a case that has prompted comparisons to the Hollywood thriller Catch Me If You Can. From a report: Authorities in Hawaii announced this week that Dallas Pokornik, 33, had been charge … ⌘ Read more

Apple Accuses European Commission of ‘Political Delay Tactics’ To Justify Fines
Apple has accused the European Commission of using “political delay tactics” to postpone new app marketplace policies and create grounds for investigating and fining the iPhone maker, a preemptive response to reports that the commission plans to blame Apple for the announced closure of third-party app store Setapp.

M … ⌘ Read more

AMD Announces Ryzen 7 9850X3D Pricing Of $499 USD
Back at CES AMD announced the Ryen 7 9850X3D as a faster sibling to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Today they have announced the suggested price for this 3D V-Cache desktop processor and confirmation of its availability starting on 29 January… ⌘ Read more

Spotify Lawsuit Triggered Anna’s Archive Domain Name Suspensions
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Spotify and several major record labels, including UMG, Sony, and Warner, have taken legal action against the unknown operators of Anna’s Archive. The action follows the shadow library’s announcement that it would release hundreds of terabytes of scraped Spotify data. Unsealed documents reveal … ⌘ Read more

Nova Launcher Gets a New Owner and Ads
Nova Launcher has been acquired by Instabridge, which says it will keep the app maintained but is evaluating ad-supported options for the free version. Android Authority reports: Today, Nova Launcher announced that the Swedish company Instabridge has acquired it from Branch Metrics. Instabridge claims it wants to be a responsible owner of Nova and does not want to reinvent the launcher overnight. Howev … ⌘ Read more

Snap Settles Social media Addiction Lawsuit Ahead of Landmark Trial
Snap has settled a social media addiction lawsuit just days before trial, while Meta, TikTok, and Alphabet remain defendants and are headed to court. “Terms of the deal were not announced as it was revealed by lawyers at a California Superior Court hearing, after which Snap told the BBC the parties were ‘pleased to have been able to resolve … ⌘ Read more

HHS Announces New Study of Cellphone Radiation and Health
An anonymous reader quotes a report from U.S. News & World Report: U.S. health officials plan a new study investigating whether radiation from cellphones may affect human health. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the research will examine electromagnetic radiation and possible gaps in current science. The initiati … ⌘ Read more

Setapp Mobile To Close in February as Alternative iOS App Store Economics Prove Untenable
MacPaw, the Ukraine-based developer, has announced that Setapp Mobile – its alternative iOS app store for European Union users that launched in open beta in September 2024 – will shut down on February 16, 2026, citing “still-evolving and complex business terms” for alternative marketplaces that … ⌘ Read more

Porsche Sold More Electrified Cars in Europe Last Year than Pure Gas-Powered Models
Porsche made an announcement Friday. In Europe they sold more electrified Porsches last year than pure combustion-engined models, reports Electrek:

in Europe, a majority (57.9%) of Porsche’s deliveries were plug-ins, with 1/3 of its European sales being fully electric. For models that have no fully electric … ⌘ Read more

Nearly 5 Million Accounts Removed Under Australia’s New Social Media Ban
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Nearly five million social media accounts belonging to Australian teenagers have been deactivated or removed, a month after a landmark law barring those younger than 16 from using the services took effect, the government said on Thursday. The announcement was the first re … ⌘ Read more

Raspberry Pi’s New Add-on Board Has 8GB of RAM For Running Gen AI Models
An anonymous reader shares a report: Raspberry Pi is launching a new add-on board capable of running generative AI models locally on the Raspberry Pi 5. Announced on Thursday, the $130 AI HAT+ 2 is an upgraded – and more expensive – version of the module launched last year, now offering 8GB of RAM and a Hailo 10H chip with 40 TOPS … ⌘ Read more

Wikipedia Signs AI Licensing Deals On Its 25th Birthday
Wikipedia turns 25 today, and the online encyclopedia is celebrating that with an announcement that it has signed new licensing deals with a slate of major AI companies – Amazon, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Perplexity and Mistral AI. The deals allow these companies to access Wikipedia content “at a volume and speed designed specifically for their needs.” The Wikim … ⌘ Read more

Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2 Released & Designed For Running GenAI Models
In late 2024 the folks at Raspberry Pi announced the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ as an AI accelerator capable of 26 TOPS and costing $110 for pairing with Raspberry Pi single board computers. Today they announced the much more capable Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2 that can begin to take on some generative AI “GenAI” models… ⌘ Read more

Are QWERTY Phones Trying To Make a Comeback?
After nearly two decades of touchscreen dominance, QWERTY smartphones are staging a niche comeback, with Clicks and Unihertz unveiling new physical-keyboard phones at CES 2026. Gizmodo reports: At CES 2026, Clicks, the company behind the Clicks keyboard case and the new Power Keyboard, announced plans to sell the Communicator, a “second phone” with a QWERTY keypad. Clicks pitches the … ⌘ Read more

Bandcamp Bans AI Music
Bandcamp has announced a ban on music made wholly or substantially by generative AI, aiming to protect human creativity and prohibit AI impersonation of artists. Here’s what the music platform had to say: … Something that always strikes us as we put together a roundup like this is the sheer quantity of human creativity and passion that artists express on Bandcamp every single day. The fact that Bandcamp is home to suc … ⌘ Read more

New “Thames” Linux Accelerator Driver Posted Along With Companion Gallium3D Driver
Tomeu Vizoso as the open-source developer behind the “Rocket” driver for reverse-engineered Rockchip NPU support, Teflon as a Mesa framework for TensorFlow Lite and NPU uses, and various Etnaviv driver work, has announced his newest creation: Thames… ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Invests $1.5 Million in the Python Software Foundation and Open Source Security
Python Software Foundation: We are thrilled to announce that Anthropic has entered into a two-year partnership with the Python Software Foundation (PSF) to contribute a landmark total of $1.5 million to support the foundation’s work, with an emphasis on Python ecosystem security. This investme … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Pledges Full Power Costs, No Tax Breaks in Response To AI Data Center Backlash
Microsoft announced Tuesday what it calls a “community first” initiative for its AI data centers, pledging to pay full electricity costs and reject local property tax breaks following months of growing opposition from residents facing higher power bills. The announcement in Washington, D.C. marks a clea … ⌘ Read more

Trump Says Microsoft To Make Changes To Curb Data Center Power Costs For Americans
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Monday that Microsoft will announce changes to ensure that Americans won’t see rising utility bills as the company builds more data centers to meet rising artificial intelligence demand. “I never want Americ … ⌘ Read more

Meta Plans To Cut Around 10% of Employees In Reality Labs Division
Meta plans to cut roughly 10% of staff in its Reality Labs division, with layoffs hitting metaverse-focused teams hardest. Reuters reports: The cuts to Reality Labs, which has roughly 15,000 employees, could be announced as soon as Tuesday and are set to disproportionately affect those in the metaverse unit who work on virtual reality headsets … ⌘ Read more

Your colleague that’s happy to do the mundane parts of work: AWS announces frontier AI agents
In Las Vegas, AWS’s re:Invent 2025 conference showcased AI that doesn’t just assist, but acts autonomously, highlighting a profound shift in enterprise technology. ⌘ Read more

Ubisoft Closes Game Studio Where Workers Voted to Unionize Two Weeks Ago
Ubisoft announced Wednesday it will close its studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia — two weeks after 74% of its staff voted to unionize.

This means laying off the 71 people at the studio, reports the gaming news site Aftermath:

[Communications Workers of America’s Canadian affiliate, CWA Canada] said in a statement to Aftermath the un … ⌘ Read more

Walmart Announces Drone Delivery, Integration with Google’s AI Chatbot Gemini
Alphabet-owned Wing “is expanding its drone delivery service to an additional 150 Walmart stores across the U.S.,” reports Axios:

[T]he future is already here if you live in Dallas — where some Walmart customers order delivery by Wing three times a week. By the end of 2026, some 40 million Americans, or about 12 percent … ⌘ Read more

China Tests a Supercritical CO2 Generator in Commercial Operation
“China recently placed a supercritical carbon dioxide power generator into commercial operation,” writes CleanTechnica, “and the announcement was widely framed as a technological breakthrough.”

The system, referred to as Chaotan One, is installed at a steel plant in Guizhou province in mountainous southwest China and is designed to recover … ⌘ Read more

C# (and C) Grew in Popularity in 2025, Says TIOBE
For a quarter century, the TIOBE Index has attempted to rank the popularity of programming languages by the number of search engine results they bring up — and this week they had an announcement.

Over the last year the language showing the largest increase in its share of TIOBE’s results was C#.

TIOBE founder/CEO Paul Jansen looks back at how C++ evolved:

From a language … ⌘ Read more

Nature-Inspired Computers Are Shockingly Good At Math
An R&D lab under America’s Energy Department annnounced this week that “Neuromorphic computers, inspired by the architecture of the human brain, are proving surprisingly adept at solving complex mathematical problems that underpin scientific and engineering challenges.”

Phys.org publishes the announcement from Sandia National Lab:

In a paper published in Nature M … ⌘ Read more

Meta Announces New Smartglasses Features, Delays International Rollout Claiming ‘Unprecedented’ Demand’
This week Meta announced several new features for “Meta Ray-Ban Display” smartglasses:
- A new teleprompter feature for the smart glasses (arriving in a phased rollout)
- The ability to send messages on WhatsApp and Messenger by writing with your finger on any surface. (A … ⌘ Read more

Send To Kindle from Microsoft Word is Discontinued
Microsoft is discontinuing its Send to Kindle integration in Word, ending a feature that allowed Microsoft 365 subscribers to send documents directly to their Kindle e-readers and preserve complex formatting through fixed layouts.

The company updated its documentation to announce that beginning February 9th, 2026, the Send to Kindle feature will no longer work across Web, Wi … ⌘ Read more

Google Is Adding an ‘AI Inbox’ To Gmail That Summarizes Emails
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Google is putting even more generative AI tools into Gmail as part of its goal to further personalize user inboxes and streamline searches. On Thursday, the company announced a new “AI Inbox” tab, currently in a beta testing phase, that reads every message in a user’s Gmail and suggests a list of to-dos a … ⌘ Read more

The Gap Between Premium and Budget TV Brands is Quickly Closing
The long-standing hierarchy in the TV market – Sony, Samsung and LG at the top, TCL and Hisense fighting it out in the midrange – is eroding as the budget brands close the performance gap and increasingly lead on technology innovation, The Verge writes. Hisense debuted the first RGB LED TV last year, and TCL’s X11L announced at CES 2026 … ⌘ Read more

Disney+ To Add Vertical Videos In Push To Boost Daily Engagement
Disney+, which is looking to catch up with some streaming and digital rivals in terms of daily engagement, is adding vertical videos to the service. From a report: The arrival of the new format later this year was one of several advertising-oriented announcements the company made Wednesday at its Tech + Data Showcase at CES in Las Vegas. … ⌘ Read more

Intel Panther Lake Laptops For Pre-Order Scarce So Far
On Monday at CES Intel announced Panther Lake as Core Ultra Series 3 with the initial laptop designs to be available for pre-order starting the following day, 6 January, while global availability is expected around 27 January. Now a few days after pre-orders opened up, few options are available and some of the models will not be shipping until mid-February… ⌘ Read more

LEGO Says Smart Brick Won’t Replace Traditional Play After CES Backlash
LEGO has responded to concerns that its newly announced Smart Brick technology represents a departure from the company’s foundation in physical, non-digital play, a day after the official reveal at CES drew criticism from child development advocates. Federico Begher, SVP of Product, New Business, told IGN the sensor-packed bricks are “an a … ⌘ Read more

SteamOS Continues Its Slow Spread Across the PC Gaming Landscape
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: SteamOS’s slow march across the Windows-dominated PC gaming landscape is continuing to creep along. At CES this week, Lenovo announced it will launch a version of last year’s high-priced, high-powered Legion Go 2 handheld with Valve’s gaming-focused, Linux-based OS pre-installed starting in J … ⌘ Read more

Bose Open-Sources Its SoundTouch Home Theater Smart Speakers Ahead of End-of-Life
Bose is end-of-lifing its SoundTouch smart speakers but softened the blow by open-sourcing the SoundTouch API and preserving limited local features, AirPlay, and Spotify Connect. Ars Technica reports: In October, Bose announced that its SoundTouch Wi-Fi speakers and soundbars would become dumb speakers on Februar … ⌘ Read more

Samsung’s Rolling Ballie Robot Indefinitely Shelved After Delays
Samsung Electronics has once again sidelined Ballie, a long-anticipated robot that was first announced six years ago but never released. Bloomberg News: The device – designed to roll and roam throughout the home – is completely absent from this week’s CES, the biggest electronics trade show. And though Samsung said last year that Ballie was … ⌘ Read more

The Inevitable Rise of the Art TV
Several years after Samsung introduced the Frame TV in 2017 – a television designed to display fine art and resemble a framed painting when switched off – competitors are finally catching up in meaningful numbers. Amazon announced the Ember Artline TV at CES 2026 this week, a $899 model that can display one of 2,000 works of art for free and includes an Alexa AI tool to recommend pieces suited to … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Cancels Plans To Rate Limit Exchange Online Bulk Emails
Microsoft has canceled plans to impose a daily limit of 2,000 external recipients on Exchange Online bulk email senders. From a report: The change was announced in April 2024, when Microsoft said that it would add new External Recipient Rate (ERR) limits starting January 2025 to fight spam, with plans to begin enforcing the limit on cloud-hosted … ⌘ Read more

Dell Walks Back AI-First Messaging After Learning Consumers Don’t Care
Dell’s CES 2026 product briefing, PC Gamer writes, stood out from the relentless AI-focused presentations that have dominated tech events for years, as the company explicitly chose to downplay its AI messaging when announcing a refreshed XPS laptop lineup, new ultraslim and entry-level Alienware laptops, Area-51 desktop refreshes and s … ⌘ Read more

Utah Allows AI To Renew Medical Prescriptions
sinij shares a news release from the Utah Department of Commerce: The state of Utah, through the Utah Department of Commerce’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, today announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Doctronic, the AI-native health platform, to give patients with chronic conditions a faster, automated way to renew medications. This agreement marks the first s … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia’s New G-Sync Pulsar Monitors Target Motion Blur at the Human Retina Level
Nvidia’s G-Sync Pulsar technology, first announced nearly two years ago as a solution to display motion blur caused by old images persisting on the viewer’s retina, is finally arriving in consumer monitors this week. The first four Pulsar-equipped displays – from Acer, AOC, Asus and MSI – hit select retailers on W … ⌘ Read more

HP Pushes PC-in-a-Keyboard for Businesses With Hot Desks
HP this week announced the EliteBoard G1a at CES 2026, a Windows computer built into a full-size 93-key desktop keyboard that the company is marketing to businesses where employees use hot desks and need a portable computing environment they can carry between workstations.

The device connects to a USB-C monitor for both video output and power delivery over a single … ⌘ Read more

AMD Releases GAIA 0.15 - Positioning It As A Framework/SDK For Building AI PC Agents
Last year AMD announced GAIA as short for “Generative AI Is Awesome”. It started off as a Windows-only AI demo but over time added Linux support along with introducing different AI agents. For going along with AMD’s AI announcements at CES 2026, AMD released GAIA 0.15 where they are now positioning this software as a framework/SDK for building AI PC agents… ⌘ Read more

Hyundai and Boston Dynamics Unveil Humanoid Robot Atlas At CES
At CES 2026 today, Hyundai and Boston Dynamics publicly demonstrated its humanoid robot Atlas, showing off fluid movement and announcing plans to deploy a production version in Hyundai’s EV factory by 2028. NBC News reports: “For the first time ever in public, please welcome Atlas to the stage,” said Boston Dynamics’ Zachary Jackowski as a life-s … ⌘ Read more

AMD Announces Ryzen 7 9850X3D, New Strix Halo SKUs & Ryzen AI 400 Series
Lisa Su’s keynote just wrapped up at CES 2026 and in turn the embargo regarding AMD’s first consumer product announcements for 2026. The AMD Ryzen AI 400 series and new Ryzen 7 9850X3D 3D V-Cache processors are what’s in focus for CES this year. ⌘ Read more