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

Travelling to America? Here’s how to protect your privacy in phone searches
US Customs and Border Protection agents have broad authority to look through travellers’ phones, laptops and other electronic devices. Here’s what you need to know. ⌘ Read more

Lego releases the smart brick but how does it work?
Tom Donaldson, head of Lego’s Creative Play Lab, unveils the smart brick at a news conference ahead of the CES tech show in Las Vegas. ⌘ Read more

Lego unveils their new Smart Brick
Touted as changing how kids play with Lego, the Smart Brick is revealed in Las Vegas, and will be sold as part of three new Star Wars Lego sets. ⌘ Read more

Lego unveils ‘Smart Bricks’, its biggest innovation in 50 years
Eight years of development have produced a computer small enough to fit inside a classic 2x4 brick. But do kids really need a microphone and speaker chip inside it? ⌘ Read more

Google’s ‘chess master’ is working on AI’s killer app
A product breakthrough has long eluded Demis Hassabis, but that could change in 2026. ⌘ Read more

Why a groundbreaking new TV show disappeared without a trace
Choosing high-profile tech boffin James Curran as co-host proved to be disastrous. ⌘ Read more

Salt Typhoon hackers ‘almost certainly’ in Australia’s critical infrastructure
China’s hacking campaign is one of the most effective long-term espionage moves ever seen, a top cybersecurity figure says. ⌘ Read more

Cyber expert gets rare Australian visa by hacking the government
The self-taught British security researcher found a unique way to beat 99 per cent rejection odds for the elite visa. ⌘ Read more

A billion chatbot users can’t be wrong … or can they? Let’s ask a human
It’s a job description for the 21st century: human-AI relationship coach. But this job is all about the humans. ⌘ Read more

‘2025 Was the Year of Creative Bankruptcy’
PC Gamer argues that 2025 was a year full of high-profile AI embarrassments across games and entertainment, with Disney and Lucasfilm serving as the “opening salvo.” From the report: At a TED talk back in April, Lucasfilm senior vice president of creative innovation Rob Bredow presented a demonstration of what he called “a new era of technology.” Across 50 years of legendary innovat … ⌘ Read more

I was wrong about Elon. But he was wrong too
A year ago, I predicted that Musk would quit Tesla. He predicted our newspaper would ‘bore its audience to death’. We were both mistaken. ⌘ Read more

‘I Switched To eSIM in 2025, and I am Full of Regret’
Google’s Pixel 10 series arrived this year as the company’s first eSIM-only lineup in the United States, forcing users who wanted to review or buy the new phones to abandon their physical SIM cards entirely. Ryan Whitwam, a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, made the switch and now regrets it, he says. “In the three months since Google forced me to give up my phys … ⌘ Read more

LG Launches UltraGear Evo Gaming Monitors With What It Claims is the World’s First 5K AI Upscaling
LG has announced a new premium gaming monitor brand called UltraGear, and the lineup’s headline feature is what the company claims is the world’s first 5K AI upscaling technology – an on-device solution that analyzes and enhances content in real time before it reaches the panel, … ⌘ Read more

AI Chatbots May Be Linked to Psychosis, Say Doctors
One psychiatrist has already treated 12 patients hospitalized with AI-induced psychosis — and three more in an outpatient clinic, according to the Wall Street Journal. And while AI technology might not introduce the delusion, “the person tells the computer it’s their reality and the computer accepts it as truth and reflects it back,” says Keith Sakata, a psychiatrist at the Uni … ⌘ Read more

Challenges Face European Governments Pursuing ‘Digital Sovereignty’
The Register reports on challenges facing Europe’s pursuit of “digital sovereignty”:

The US CLOUD Act of 2018 allows American authorities to compel US-based technology companies to provide requested data, regardless of where that data is stored globally. This places European organizations in a precarious position, as it directly clashes with … ⌘ Read more

Waymo Updates Vehicles to Better Handle Power Outages - But Still Faces Criticism
Waymo explained this week that its self-driving car technology is already “designed to handle dark traffic signals,” and successfully handled over 7,000 last Saturday during San Francisco’s long power outage, properly treating those intersections as four-way stops. But while during the long outage their cars some … ⌘ Read more

Driverless Future Gains Momentum With Global Robotaxi Deployments
The global push to put autonomous taxis on public roads is accelerating as ride-hailing companies and technology firms advance from pilot programs toward limited commercial rollouts in cities across China, the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

WeRide and Uber launched Level 4 fully driverless robotaxi operations in Abu Dhabi in Novemb … ⌘ Read more

Indian IT Was Supposed To Die From AI. Instead It’s Billing for the Cleanup.
Two years after generative AI was supposed to render India’s $250 billion IT services industry obsolete, the sector is finding that enterprises still need someone to handle the unglamorous plumbing work that large-scale AI deployment demands. Less than 15% of organizations are meaningfully deploying the new technology, accordin … ⌘ Read more

China Launches $21 Billion Venture Capital Funds To Invest in ‘Hard Technology’
An anonymous reader shares a report: China on Friday launched three venture capital funds to invest in “hard technology” areas, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The capital contribution plans for the funds have been finalised, each with more than 50 billion yuan ($7.14 billion), according to the report. The funds will primar … ⌘ Read more

Silicon Valley’s billionaire elite can’t engineer our consent
A decade after Peter Thiel backed Donald Trump, the ascent of the “tech right″⁣ has made billionaire founders “evil geniuses” in the eyes of many. ⌘ Read more

Christmas mess? This robot vacuum trick is a game-changer
Previous mop pads had a tendency to drag muck around your floor, but a new innovation may have fixed that. ⌘ Read more

How a Power Outage In Colorado Caused US Official Time To Be 4.8 Microseconds
Tony Isaac shares a report from NPR: The U.S. government calculates the country’s official time using more than a dozen atomic clocks at a federal facility northwest of Denver. But when a destructive windstorm knocked out power to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratory in Boulder on Wednesd … ⌘ Read more

The U.S. Could Ban Chinese-Made Drones Used By Police Departments
Tuesday the White House faces a deadline to decide “whether Chinese drone maker DJI Technologies poses a national security threat,” reports Bloomberg. But their article notes it’s “a decision with the potential to ground thousands of machines deployed by police and fire departments across the US.”

One person making the case against the drones is … ⌘ Read more

Trump Admin to Hire 1,000 for New ‘Tech Force’ to Build AI Infrastructure
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNBC:

The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new initiative dubbed the “U.S. Tech Force,” comprising about 1,000 engineers and other specialists who will work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology projects throughout the federal government.

Participants wi … ⌘ Read more

Is America’s Tech Industry Already Facing a Recession?
America’s unemployment rate for tech jobs rose to 4% in November, and “has been steadily rising since May,” reports the Washington Post (citing data from the IT training/certifications company CompTIA).

Between October and November, the number of technology workers across different industries fell 134,000, while the number of people working in the tech industry decline … ⌘ Read more

I liked my boyfriend and his man-bun, but had to end it. He didn’t understand public ridicule
Naomi would still be up at 3am without understanding how ridiculous the situation was. Nigel had much more in common with me, apart from his lack of an actual body. ⌘ Read more

Does AI Really Make Coders Faster?
One developer tells MIT Technology Review that AI tools weaken the coding instincts he used to have. And beyond that, “It’s just not fun sitting there with my work being done for me.”

But is AI making coders faster? “After speaking to more than 30 developers, technology executives, analysts, and researchers, MIT Technology Review found that the picture is not as straightforward as it might seem…”
… ⌘ Read more

2025 Was the Beginning of the End of the TV Brightness War
The television industry’s brightness war may have hit its inflection point in 2025, the year TCL and Hisense released the first consumer TVs capable of 5,000 nits under specific settings – a figure that would have seemed absurd not long ago when manufacturers struggled to reach 2,000 nits. LG introduced Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology, moving fr … ⌘ Read more

Independent report released by Optus shines light on serious issue
An independent report released by Optus shines a light on a serious issue with our modern mobile-reliant communications systems and the Triple Zero Emergency line. ⌘ Read more

Trump’s Social Media Business Is Merging With a Nuclear Fusion Company
Tony Isaac shares a report from CNN: President Donald Trump’s social media and crypto company is making a huge bet on a far different industry – nuclear fusion, a potentially lucrative albeit commercially unproven energy technology that could help power a suddenly electricity-starved economy. Trump Media and Technology Group Thursday … ⌘ Read more

MIT Grieves Shooting Death of Renowned Director of Plasma Science Center
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the “shocking” shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials. Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston subu … ⌘ Read more

‘Inexcusable’: Optus staff face sack after review into Triple Zero outage
The telco’s chairman calls the findings of an independent review into the incident “a sobering read for everyone at Optus”. ⌘ Read more

US Threatens Penalties Against European Tech Firms Amid Regulatory Fight
U.S. officials excoriated the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return, in a social media post on Tuesday. From a report: The pronouncement appeared to signal a rockier period for U.S.-E.U. trade relations, as the two governments work to fi … ⌘ Read more

Texas Sues TV Makers For Taking Screenshots of What People Watch
mprindle writes: The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users’ data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.

The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Att … ⌘ Read more

Fake hero, wrong suspect: Misinformation floods social media after Bondi shooting
Elon Musk’s chatbot said Edward Crabtree – a fictional 47-year-old IT professional – was the hero who tackled one of the attackers and seized his weapon. ⌘ Read more

JPMorgan Steps Further Into Crypto With Tokenized Money Fund
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: JPMorgan Chase is joining the list of traditional financial firms seeking to bring blockchain technology to an investing staple: the money-market fund. The banking giant’s $4 trillion asset-management arm is rolling out its first tokenized money-market fund on the Ethereum blockchain. JPMo … ⌘ Read more

Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year Is ‘Slop’
Merriam-Webster crowned “slop” its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting growing public awareness and and fatigue around low-quality, AI-generated content flooding the internet. “It’s such an illustrative word,” said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president. “It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bi … ⌘ Read more

US Tech Force Aims To Recruit 1,000 Technologists
The Trump administration announced Monday the United States Tech Force, a new program to recruit around 1,000 technologists for two-year government stints starting as soon as March – less than a year after dismantling several federal technology teams and driving thousands of tech workers out of their jobs.

The program will primarily recruit early-career software engineers an … ⌘ Read more

Desperate vibes as under-16s crowd into Yope and Lemon8
Lemon8, Coverstar and Yope are social media hiding places for Australian under-16s, but for how long? ⌘ Read more

Chinese Whistleblower Living In US Is Being Hunted By Beijing With US Tech
A former Chinese official who fled to the U.S. says Beijing has used advanced surveillance technology from U.S. companies to track, intimidate, and punish him and his family across borders. ABC News reports: Retired Chinese official Li Chuanliang was recuperating from cancer on a Korean resort island when he got an urgent call: … ⌘ Read more

The best video games of 2025, from Ghost of Yotei to Hades 2
There were hundreds of great games released this year, but these are my favourite 15. ⌘ Read more

China Leads Research in 90% of Crucial Technologies - a Dramatic Shift this Century
China is leading research in nearly 90% of the crucial technologies that “significantly enhance, or pose risks to, a country’s national interests,” according to a technology tracker run by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) – an independent think-tank. Nature: The ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker e … ⌘ Read more

The great scroll off: Inside Australia’s world-first teen social media ban
How grieving parents, media campaigns, and political opportunism collided to create the world’s most ambitious - and contentious - experiment in digital regulation. ⌘ Read more

‘Missing the mark’: Reddit files High Court bid to overturn teen social media ban
The platform says banning under 16s from social media silences young Australians and makes them less safe online. ⌘ Read more

Reddit files High Court bid to overturn teen social media ban
The platform says banning under-16s from social media silences young Australians and makes them less safe online. ⌘ Read more

Cat and mouse: How under-16s are circumventing the social media ban
Most kids on social media will be blocked, but here’s how the most relentless plan to stay. ⌘ Read more

Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
The rollout of a type of genetic technology called a gene drive for tackling malaria could be edging closer after a lab study supports its success ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Builds Location Verification Tech That Could Track Where Its AI Chips End Up
Nvidia has developed location verification technology that could determine which country its AI chips are operating in, Reuters reports, citing a source, a capability that may help address ongoing concerns about the smuggling of advanced semiconductors to restricted markets like China. The feature, which Nvid … ⌘ Read more

I tried making new social media accounts as an under-16. Things are still messy
Most apps will block you if you say you’re under 16, but some don’t seem to be doing much to vet users if they lie. ⌘ Read more