A supply-chain attack on the open-source LiteLLM package exposed credentials of roughly 2,500 organizations, including many large technology firms, in March 2024. Security firms CloudSEK and Hudson Rock disclosed on Tuesday and Wednesday that malicious versions of LiteLLM, an open-source tool for AI-driven development, were used to scrape and exfiltrate credentials during a 40-minute window while victims downloaded compromised packages from the Python Package Index. The stolen data included cloud keys, repository tokens, SSH keys, Kubernetes secrets, package publishing credentials, environment variables, and AI provider keys, potentially granting attackers access to more than 2,500 organizations. Both firms said the credentials were linked to roughly 434,000 continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. They identified a list of high-confidence victims that included Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, Samsung Electronics, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and dozens of other corporations and institutions. The compromised packages also affected Trivy, KICS, and the Telnyx Python SDK, which had previously been infected in a related supply-chain operation. TeamPCP, a group of teenagers, claimed responsibility for the attack, a claim that researchers have partially corroborated. Kevin Beaumont, an independent security researcher, said the data appeared legitimate and reflected a significant volume of sensitive information. Hudson Rock advised organizations that used the compromised LiteLLM versions 1.82.7 and 1.82.8 to rotate all credentials, invalidate API keys, and audit their environments. The firms recommended aggressive credential revocation, assuming any secret accessed through the compromised package was compromised, and to review CI/CD configurations for generic credentials without identifiable company information. The incident highlights the risk posed by rapid adoption of AI tools and insufficient verification of open-source dependencies. CloudSEK noted that similar lapses in other tools, such as Trivy, had allowed attackers to maintain access for weeks before full revocation. An affected organization reported rotating credentials but found that the exposed secrets remained functional, suggesting that not all parties applied the recommended measures promptly. Analysts say the scale of the breach underscores the need for stricter vetting of open-source packages and faster response procedures in the cybersecurity industry.

Physicists with the Beijing Spectrometer III (BES III) experiment reported new evidence supporting the existence of glueballs, a particle composed solely of gluons, in a preprint posted to arXiv last month and presented at the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) last week.

Glueballs are predicted by quantum chromodynamics as bound states of gluons, the carriers of the strong nuclear force, and have not been observed directly despite decades of theoretical expectation.

The Standard Model predicts that most of the mass of protons and neutrons comes from gluon energy rather than quark mass. The J/ψ meson, discovered in 1974, decays into many gluons and is considered a promising environment for detecting glueball signatures. A glueball candidate must have zero spin, no electric charge, and odd parity, among other quantum numbers.

The BES III collaboration analyzed data from J/ψ decays and observed resonant structures consistent with glueball expectations, according to the preprint. In a 2015 article, Matthew Francis noted that glueballs contribute to the mass of matter through the energy binding quarks, analogous to the Higgs mechanism for elementary particles.

The result strengthens experimental support for quantum chromodynamics but does not constitute a definitive discovery, and further analysis will be required to confirm distinct glueball states.

SQLite released version 3.51.3 in March 2026, addressing a data race in its Write-Ahead Logging subsystem known as the WAL‑Reset bug, first reported in 2010. The defect, which could cause lost committed writes and database corruption, was identified after a six‑month uptime investigation by Tailscale in 2025. Carl, a developer who maintains a testing framework called Antithesis, reproduced the bug using a generic workload that performed concurrent WAL inserts and checkpoints. The test, which included assertions for integrity and absence of lost writes, detected the issue in 15 minutes on version 3.51.2, which was still buggy. Running the same workload against version 3.51.3 returned a green result, indicating the fix. Tailscale’s engineers explained that locating the bug required writing a new transaction logging pipeline and adding a debugging shim to SQLite’s virtual filesystem layer, a process that took several weeks. The experience highlighted the difficulty of reproducing the race condition without specialized testing.

China's YMTC became the world’s third‑largest NAND flash memory manufacturer in the second quarter of 2026, according to Counterpoint Research’s Memory and Storage Tracker report. The company now holds a 14 percent global shipment share, surpassing Kioxia.

The global NAND market remains dominated by Samsung, with a 25 percent shipment share, followed by SK hynix at 22 percent. Enterprise solid‑state drives accounted for 48 percent of total NAND bits shipped in Q2, and demand for server memory is projected to consume more than half of all NAND bits by the end of the year, contributing to higher average selling prices.

YMTC’s shipment volume rose 22 percent year‑over‑year and 5 percent quarter‑over‑quarter, driven by its 267‑layer 3D NAND products and ongoing development of 300‑plus‑layer technology based on its Xtacking architecture. The firm operates two fabrication plants in Wuhan with a combined monthly capacity of roughly 200,000 wafers and is building a third plant that will add 100,000 wafers per month, with two additional fabs of 50,000 wafers each slated for completion later this year, bringing total capacity to approximately 400,000 wafers per month. Samsung’s total NAND production capacity is estimated at 390,000 to 450,000 wafers per month, split between its Xi’an (140,000–150,000) and South Korean facilities (250,000–300,000).

Although YMTC ranks third in shipment volume, it placed fifth in revenue because its product mix is concentrated in lower‑priced consumer applications, while higher‑margin data‑center eSSDs are dominated by Samsung and Micron. Analysts note that profitability through 2027 will depend less on the volume of bits shipped and more on the mix of high‑capacity, high‑margin products.

The expansion positions YMTC to compete more directly with Samsung and SK hynix as the market shifts toward higher‑capacity server memory, though the company still lags in revenue generation.

VideoVerse announced a $250 million acquisition by Minute Media in September 2025. Less than a year later, Minute Media terminated its agreement with VideoVerse amid allegations of fraud and forged signatures, leading to multiple lawsuits. VideoVerse operated a clipping service in India and offered an AI‑driven product named Magnifi that identified key moments in broadcasts. The platform attracted clients such as the Indian Premier League, FIFA+ and Nippon TV. Minute Media, a sports publisher with offices in New York and Tel Aviv, planned to use the technology to expand into the international sports market. Investors including Bluestone Capital have sued VideoVerse for alleged fraud and breach of investment terms. Creditors allege that Shrivastav took a $64 million loan after the acquisition and that a $53 million transfer from Lingotto to a Clippings account on Oct. 1 was made under a repayment schedule that required a $4 million payment on March 31, which was not received. Minute Media said it terminated its engagement after discovering significant discrepancies in VideoVerse’s representations. Shrivastav has not responded to multiple requests for comment. The former COO, Sabya Das, alleges in a separate filing that Shrivastav forged his signature on loan and share‑repurchase agreements, extracting tens of millions of dollars. Legal actions filed in Delaware Chancery Court involve Minute Media, Lingotto and Bluestone Capital, each seeking restitution for alleged misappropriation of funds. The litigation remains ongoing, with courts reviewing claims of forged documents and unpaid debts, highlighting the challenges of due diligence in large startup transactions.

Hugging Face's Qwen team released the Qwen3.8 model, an open‑source large language model with 2.4 trillion parameters and 95 billion activated parameters, in August 2026. The release includes a Max‑class version that expands the context length to 1 million tokens and adds support for vision input and non‑thinking modes.

The Qwen3.8 model builds on the Qwen3.5 architecture and is distributed via the Hugging Face Transformers repository, making its weights and configuration files compatible with inference engines such as vLLM, SGLang and TokenSpeed. An official API service from Qwen Cloud provides managed access for users who prefer not to maintain infrastructure.

The team said the model delivers substantial gains across coding, professional work, research and long‑horizon agentic tasks. It supports adjustable reasoning effort through a reasoning_effort parameter and retains reasoning context from prior turns via a preserve_thinking flag. Benchmark results published by the team show that Qwen3.8‑Max achieved a score of 80 on SWE‑bench Pro, compared with 69.2 for Qwen3.7‑Max, and a score of 88.8 on Terminal Bench 2.1, compared with 84.6 for Qwen3.7‑Max. In the QwenSWEBench benchmark, the model recorded an average score of 86.3, while its performance on GPQA Diamond reached 92.6. The native context window is 262,144 tokens and can be extended to 1,010,000 tokens with additional configuration. The model requires thinking mode for all interactions and does not support multimodal inputs.

The team recommends using the latest inference frameworks and configuring sampling parameters such as temperature = 1.0 and top_p = 0.95 for optimal performance. The model is available through the Qwen API and direct repository access.

India's Black-Box announced on August 13, 2026, that it has secured a 131 million order from a United States hyperscaler to develop a new data center. The companies said the project will commence construction in 2026 and will provide cloud capacity for regional customers. Black-Box, a publicly listed Indian firm, will oversee the development in cooperation with the US provider. Analysts said the investment underscores rising demand for data infrastructure in Asia and the expansion of cloud services by major technology firms. The facility is expected to have a capacity of several hundred megawatts and will support multiple customers across the region.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV is scheduled for release on December 3, with Commander Edition players receiving early access on November 30. Developer KING Art Games said it is allocating additional time to improve performance, fix bugs and refine gameplay before launch. The studio continues development at full speed and plans additional gameplay showcases and developer deep‑dives before release. In an update, Creative Director Jan Theysen said the extra time will allow further performance optimisation, bug resolution and polish. The studio also released an updated Year One roadmap that includes free updates such as the return of Crusade Mode, new maps, modes, Commanders and a Mission Editor, as well as two major story expansions that will expand the conflict on Kronus and introduce a new playable faction. Dawn of War IV is presented as a large‑scale science‑fiction real‑time strategy game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, featuring four playable factions, non‑linear campaigns, multiplayer battles and returning modes such as Last Stand and Skirmish.

Uber Freight is investigating a cyberattack that a hacking group says compromised its systems. A company spokesperson told Reuters the breach did not affect business operations and that its services remained functional. TechCrunch could not independently verify the authenticity of files the group posted online, which include email correspondence with customers and internal documents. The hackers, identified as Helix, claim to have exfiltrated mailboxes, cloud storage drives, accounts payable records and dispatch paperwork. Security researchers link Helix to the broader UNC6671 collective and note its use of voice phishing to obtain employee credentials. Google reported that the group has received at least $10.6 million in ransom payments between January and May. Uber Freight has not confirmed whether it communicated with the attackers or paid any ransom.

QIDI Plus5, a high‑temperature 3D printer announced on August 5 2026, is priced at $749 and includes a heated chamber and nozzle capable of 370 °C for engineering filaments.

The printer targets makers and engineers who need large‑format, high‑temperature prints and competes with Bambu Lab H2 series and Sovol SV08 Max.

It features a 320 × 320 × 300 mm build volume, automatic bed leveling with a load cell, HEPA filtration, a 4‑inch color touchscreen, LAN/WiFi/USB connectivity, and a Core XY motion system with linear rails.

The .4 mm bimetal nozzle includes a hardened steel insert, and the printer’s tool head is compact with an all‑metal design.

Included accessories are a tool kit, scraper, glue stick, USB drive with QIDI Studio and a quick‑start manual.

Design elements include a smaller footprint than the Plus4, an 18 % increase in build volume, a weight of 29 kg, and a glass front door that opens 180 ° for ventilation.

An optional QIDI Box multimaterial system remains non‑functional, and rear filament loading can be awkward because the coupler may catch the filament.

The UI guides users through setup and provides automatic bed leveling that can be repeated before each print.

Software consists of QIDI Studio, built on BambuStudio and PrusaSlicer, with device controls and camera monitoring via the QIDI Maker app.

Test prints of a Benchy, a vase, RC parts, a bird feeder, and a sanding block demonstrated consistent quality across PLA, PCTG, TPU, ASA, and PPS‑CF filaments.

At $749 the printer undercuts competing high‑temperature models, though the lack of multicolor capability and the filament loading inconvenience remain drawbacks.

Anthropic is in early talks to acquire the Nvidia‑backed startup Decart AI, a deal that could be valued around $6 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter. Decart develops AI infrastructure and optimization technology and produces AI models such as the Lucy video‑editing system and the Oasis simulated‑environment model; the potential acquisition would help Anthropic increase its computing capacity as it prepares for a large initial public offering. The discussions are at an early stage, and no agreement has been reached. Bloomberg first reported the talks, and a Reuters source confirmed the possibility. Anthropic declined to comment, and Decart did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. Decart’s May funding round raised $300 million led by Radical Ventures with participation from Nvidia. The company’s technology is aimed at improving the performance of AI services and supporting advanced hardware design. Anthropic is hiring engineers with expertise in hardware and software to co‑design custom chips that could make its Claude models run faster and more efficiently. The outcome of the talks remains uncertain as Anthropic seeks to expand its computing resources ahead of a mega IPO.

Cognition, the AI coding startup behind the Devin agent, is discussing a new funding round that could value the company at $40 billion, according to Bloomberg. In May the startup raised $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation, having reported a $492 million annualized revenue run rate and 50% month-over-month growth in enterprise usage for six consecutive months, according to Scott Wu. Cognition’s customers include Mercedes-Benz, NASA and Goldman Sachs, and the agent is used for tasks such as updating legacy software or migrating applications, a use case Wu said does not replace human programmers. Analysts note that achieving a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate could support the higher valuation, but the company has not confirmed the details of the potential round. The timing of any agreement and the final valuation remain undetermined.

Dr. Tim King, a computer scientist known for his work on AmigaDOS, died at the end of July, according to his family. King studied computer science at the University of Cambridge, earning a Ph.D. in 1979. While a student there, he created the Tripos operating system, a preemptive multitasking system written in BCPL. In 1984 he joined MetaComCo, where he adapted Tripos for the Amiga and integrated it into AmigaDOS. After leaving MetaComCo, he founded Perihelion in 1986, focusing on operating systems, parallel processing, and transputer technology, and later established the Internet service provider UK Online. King’s contributions were part of the Amiga’s software history.

Amazon is offering back-to-school accessory discounts this week, featuring reduced prices on chargers, monitors, TVs, headphones and portable power stations.

The sale includes products from Anker, Sony, Samsung, Sonos, LG, Hisense, iVANKY, Jackery and other brands.

Audio deals include the Sonos Ace Headphones for $299, down from $399; the Sony WH-1000XM5 Noise Canceling Headphones for $248, down from $399; and the Soundcore Sleep A30 Earbuds for $168.99, down from $229.99.

Monitor and TV deals feature the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey G5 Monitor for $169.99, down from $249.99; the LG 27-inch UltraGear Monitor for $275.27, down from $499.99; the Hisense 65-inch E6 Cinema Series 4K TV for $399.99, down from $478.00; the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey OLED G5 for $349.54, down from $499.99; the Samsung 55-inch The Frame 4K TV for $897.99, down from $1,097.99; the Samsung 49-inch Odyssey OLED G9 Monitor for $999.99, down from $1,299.99; and the Samsung 32-inch M9 Smart Monitor for $1,199.99, down from $1,599.99.

Charger deals include the Anker Nano USB-C Wall Charger for $25.99, down from $39.99; the UGREEN 100W GaN 4-Port Charger for $42.99, down from $54.99; the Anker 140W 4-Port GaN USB-C Charger for $64.99, down from $89.99; and the Anker 3-Port Prime Charger for $115.99, down from $149.99.

Wireless charging options include the Anker 3-in-1 MagGo Qi2 Charging Stand for $71.99, down from $89.99; the Anker 3-in-1 MagGo UFO Charger for $71.99, down from $89.99; the Anker 3-in-1 MagSafe-Compatible Foldable Charging Station for $85.99, down from $109.99; the Anker 3-in-1 MagSafe-Compatible Charging Cube for $89.99, down from $129.99; the Anker 3-in-1 Prime Wireless Charging Station for $99.74, down from $149.99; and the Anker Prime MagSafe-Compatible 3-in-1 Charging Station for $139.99, down from $229.99.

Portable power stations include the Anker SOLIX C300 Power Station with Lantern for $199.99, down from $249.00; the Anker Prime Power Bank 26,250 mAh for $199.99, down from $229.99; the Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 Portable Power Station for $529.99, down from $599.00; the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Portable Power Station for $489.00, down from $799.00; and the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 Portable Power Station for $999.99, down from $1,499.00.

Amazon also offers AirPods 4 for $99.00, down from $129.00; a Nintendo Switch 2 bundle for $449.99, down from $499.00; and $150 off multiple M5 MacBook Air models.

Shoppers can find further discounts through MacRumors' Deals Newsletter.

OpenAI's ChatGPT ad service continued to serve ads and charge customers for up to one business day after their campaigns were paused, according to a support reply and a UK‑based business that reported the issue.

OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT in the United States in February 2026 and expanded the service to the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea by August 2026. The offering targets the 50 million paying users among roughly 900 million weekly users.

Ed Bolton, managing director of Excel4Business, said his company noticed ads running after pausing campaigns in the United States and Canada and observed charges of about £60.72 on the original occurrence and £6.47 on a recurrence between August 4 and 5, with additional activity reported on August 6. An OpenAI support specialist initially attributed the delay to a failure of the ad‑level status to refresh promptly and said the Ads Engineering team was working on a fix. The support message later explained that Section 11.1 of the Advertising Terms permits ads to run for up to one business day after a campaign is paused and that advertisers remain responsible for charges during that period. A spokesperson said the delay reflects the time required to cancel or modify a campaign and is not an intentional effort to bill customers after they stop the campaign. Bolton requested a full reconciliation of the charges and has noted that the issue has persisted longer than reported.

The case illustrates a discrepancy between the ability to stop ads instantly and the actual billing process, and it is unclear whether the one‑day grace period is applied uniformly across other digital advertising platforms.

Anthropic has added invisible watermarks to the text generated by its Claude chatbot, a step intended to satisfy the EU AI Act’s transparency requirements. The policy requires labeling of AI‑generated content. On Reddit, several users have voiced concerns. One user, visionode, described the watermarking as draconian and said it could catch average users who paraphrase or request synonyms. Other commenters noted that the watermark could penalize students who copy and paste Claude’s output into essays. A different user called the policy unethical and argued that Claude functions as a tool that should not be held responsible for its output. Additional users said the watermark helps detect AI‑generated material and prevents misuse. Anthropic has not issued a public response.

Amazon is offering 8BitDo's Retro Mechanical Keyboard with Dual Super Buttons for $69.99, a 30% discount from its usual price. The keyboard replicates the design of Nintendo's original NES controller, featuring blocky retro keycaps and two programmable red buttons. It supports Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless, and wired USB connections, and works with Windows and Android devices. The 87‑key layout uses white Kailh Box clicky switches, a volume knob and function keys. The dual super buttons can be programmed without additional software and up to four can be attached to a single keyboard. The offer is part of a broader set of tech deals on Amazon, including a discounted Aukey wireless charging stand and a Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge listing. The promotion ends soon, and the keyboard remains available while supplies last.

Ryan Dahl, the creator of Node.js, announced an open-source project called celld that provides a self-hosted, distributed implementation of Cloudflare's Durable Objects and Workers. The new implementation is compatible with Cloudflare's JavaScript APIs but uses alternative storage and runtime components to lower operating costs.

Durable Objects, originally developed by Cloudflare, is a stateful serverless primitive that stores data in a copy of SQLite within each object and runs on the Workers runtime. The model is designed for low‑latency, real‑time applications such as collaborative tools and AI agents.

celld replaces Cloudflare's backend with Amazon S3‑compatible storage and the Tokio asynchronous runtime, while each celld object retains its own SQLite instance. Dahl said that running 100 Durable Object cells would cost about $49 per month on celld, compared with an estimated $415 per month on Cloudflare. Cloudflare noted that continuous activity could cost $415, but idle objects could be hosted for as little as $20.65.

The project is released under an Apache 2 license and accepts JavaScript and TypeScript code. It also supports execution of other languages via WebAssembly, though AI‑generated contributions are prohibited. Human contributors are welcome provided they understand the code.

Other initiatives, such as Neon Functions, aim to co‑locate compute and data for long‑running workloads. celld offers developers a way to run Durable Objects outside of Cloudflare's infrastructure, potentially reducing reliance on a single vendor.

Pearl Abyss announced that development of Crimson Desert for the Nintendo Switch 2 is well underway, with a playable baseline reached and technical reviews ongoing, targeting a release in the first half of 2027. The studio previously teased the port and has been optimizing the game for Switch 2 hardware since the Switch 2 launch. Crimson Desert launched on PC, Xbox and PS5, selling over five million copies and receiving very positive reviews on Steam. Pearl Abyss told shareholders that it is preparing downloadable content, strategic pricing and further platform expansion for the title. Optimization work continues to meet quality standards, and the company said a final launch date has not been set, though it aims to launch in the first half of next year with availability expected by this time next year if optimization proceeds smoothly. The Switch 2 version would broaden the game’s audience, and the studio continues to develop DLC as the title remains active.

Aspyr announced that The Lord of the Rings: War in the North – Legacy Edition, released earlier this week, is licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and represents the studio's first Lord of the Rings title, with additional classic titles planned for modern platforms. Aspyr has previously remastered Star Wars, Tomb Raider, and Legacy of Kain. The Lord of the Rings franchise has a long history of video game adaptations. War in the North is now available on all major platforms. The announcement indicated that more classic Lord of the Rings titles will be released in the future. Fans have expressed interest in remastering titles such as The Return of the King, The Third Age, and Conquest. The real-time strategy Battle for Middle‑earth series achieved strong sales. KitGuru asked which classic title fans would prefer and whether Aspyr will focus on movie tie‑ins or deeper cuts. Aspyr has not disclosed a specific next title, leaving the timeline for future releases undetermined.

Bulkhead and Team17 announced that the 100‑player tactical first‑person shooter Wardogs will enter Steam Early Access on September 10. Pre‑orders are available and provide access to a closed beta weekend running from August 21 to August 23.

Players will be divided into three teams of 100, competing for control points and in‑game currency that can be spent on weapons, gear, and vehicles; balances change with purchases and after deaths.

The Early Access launch will include three maps with three variations each, featuring infantry and vehicle combat and proximity voice chat that spans all teams. The release will not contain in‑game monetisation, but an optional Supporters Edition will offer cosmetic items such as weapon and vehicle camouflages, a scoreboard icon, and bobbleheads.

Pricing is set at £36.99, $39.99, or €39.99 at launch, increasing to $49.99 during the early access period and $59.99 at full release, with the early access phase planned for roughly two years.

The companies noted that the pricing schedule is subject to change as development continues.

Google announced the Pixel Watch 5 on August 12, 2026. The 41mm model costs $399 and the 45mm model costs $429; a Stephen Curry‑branded 45mm version will be priced at $579 and will be available on September 3. The new watch follows the Pixel Watch 4, released in 2025 with a design, long‑lasting battery and on‑wrist Gemini capabilities. Google said the device uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated processor and a dual‑chip architecture that provides 50% more RAM and a 12% increase in CPU performance, resulting in about 20% faster operation. The watch offers up to 30 hours of battery life on the 41mm model and up to 40 hours on the 45mm model, with fast charging support. The display is a 3,000‑nit domed Actua 360 screen, and the watch includes 11 new watch face options and additional complication styles. New color options include Fog, Canyon (available only on the 41mm), Olive, and a Pyrite housing; a Stephen Curry Special Edition model features a performance loop band. At a Glance provides dynamic, context‑aware updates on the watch face, such as live boarding passes at airports or upcoming commute stops. The Raise to Talk feature now processes Gemini commands instantly, even offline, and supports one‑handed double‑pinch gestures for confirming and sending suggestions. Google said the GPS system achieves twice the accuracy of the previous generation, using 3D building models and real‑time weather reference data to improve location tracking in dense urban and covered trail environments. Health features include Loss of Pulse Detection, satellite emergency communications, and a breathing emergency detection function that can call emergency services and share location in Europe when a severe oxygen drop is detected and the user is unresponsive. Additional Health Guardian capabilities comprise irregular heart rate alerts, high and low heart rate notifications, ECG, blood pressure trend summaries, sleep breathing quality summaries, and insulin resistance trend summaries, all generated by on‑device AI models trained on user data. Sleep tracking reports 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, and Smart Wake uses heart rate and movement data to wake the user during lighter sleep phases. An upcoming on‑wrist strength training workout experience will provide step‑by‑step guidance and allow users to log weights and repetitions. Pre‑orders for the Pixel Watch 5 began on August 12, with availability in stores on August 20. The Stephen Curry Special Edition pre‑orders start August 12 and will ship on September 3. Monthly health trend summaries will be rolled out across Google’s wearable lineup, including the new Google Fitbit Air.

Group-IB, a cybersecurity firm, identified the campaign and described its mechanics in a report released in August 2026. The attackers pose as bank helpdesk staff during a phone call and persuade the target to install a customized version of the SpyNote remote access trojan, which includes the victim’s name in the file name. While the call continues, the attacker uses the trojan to silently install WindRelay, an NFC relay malware first observed in August 2025, onto a device under the attacker’s control. The victim is then instructed to tap the payment card against the smartphone and enter the PIN; WindRelay records the live EMV APDU exchange between the card chip and the phone’s NFC reader. The captured data can be transmitted to a second device that forwards the transaction to a fraudulent point‑of‑sale terminal or an ATM, allowing the attacker to complete a purchase or cash withdrawal using the entered PIN. In one observed case, the RAT also enabled access to the victim’s banking app, where the attackers opened a loan in the victim’s name. Group‑IB noted 23 WindRelay samples uploaded to VirusTotal between November 2025 and July 2026, indicating activity in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. The report said the method builds on earlier NFC relay attacks such as NGate and Ghost Tap, the latter linked to losses exceeding $355,000 from November 2024 to August 2025. Authorities have not yet identified the perpetrators, and banks have not announced specific mitigation steps.

Tailscale identified a SQLite write‑ahead logging race condition that caused repeated database corruption in its control plane over a six‑month period from late 2023 into 2024. The issue affected the shards that host internal SQLite databases used for tailnet metadata. Corruption led to control‑plane outages lasting up to an hour, preventing new devices from joining the network and temporarily blocking access to the admin console and API. Tailscale’s engineering team, together with the SQLite developers, traced the problem to a data race between a checkpoint operation and a write transaction. The race occurred only when manual checkpointing was performed at a high frequency. After extensive telemetry collection and analysis, the SQLite developers released version 3.51.3, which adds a check to detect WAL resets during checkpointing. Tailscale deployed the fix across its shards, reduced timestamp precision to avoid a secondary rounding issue, and added warning logs to detect overlapping write and checkpoint operations. Since the fix was applied, no further corruption incidents have been observed for four months. The company noted that the incident highlighted the risk of using non‑standard database configurations and reinforced the importance of standard operational paths. Future improvements include enhanced backup verification and continued collaboration with the SQLite community.

Shade Map is an online service that calculates shadows cast by buildings, trees, and terrain in three dimensions. The tool provides a shadow calculator, sun position and path visualization, and sun exposure assessment. Users can prepare shadow studies, conduct shadow analysis, or generate shadow accumulation maps directly in the browser. No software download or purchase is required, and the platform works on desktop and mobile devices. Previously, comparable analyses required desktop applications such as Google Earth Pro, which required installation and licensing. The developer announced the service on Hacker News. Future updates are expected to add additional terrain models and export options.

uBlock Origin, a widely used ad‑blocking extension for web browsers, announced that it will no longer actively block advertisements on Facebook. The developers said the change reflects a shift in priorities and technical considerations, and that the extension will continue to block ads on other websites. The announcement was made in a public statement posted on the project's repository. Users who rely on the filter for Facebook will need to adjust their settings or use alternative tools.

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro in the coming weeks, with rumors of three major camera upgrades reported by Bloomberg. Last year, the iPhone 17 introduced the Center Stage front camera, and the iPhone 17 Pro added an improved telephoto lens. The rumored upgrades include a variable aperture for the main camera, a larger aperture for the telephoto lens, and new software features. Variable aperture could allow users to adjust focus and depth of field per photo, potentially enhancing portrait capabilities and low‑light performance. The telephoto lens with a larger aperture is expected to improve low‑light photography, addressing a known limitation of the current lens. Aaron Tilley of The Information reported that the iPhone 18 Pro camera system may match professional‑grade devices in advanced functionality, prompting an overhaul of the built‑in camera app. The Camera Control button is also slated for a redesign, according to the same sources. Apple has not confirmed the specifications, and details remain pending the product launch.

Seattle Children’s Hospital doctors reported that a toddler in Washington state died after a rare brain infection caused by the free‑living amoeba Balamuthia mandrillaris. The child initially presented with vomiting, lethargy, right‑side weakness, headache, fever and difficulty swallowing. Within days he became unresponsive and required intubation. The medical team first considered childhood Takayasu arteritis, a systemic vasculitis, and began immunosuppressive therapy. Symptoms improved temporarily, but the child returned with fever and neurological decline, leading to re‑admission on day 25 of the illness.

Imaging showed brain hemorrhage and vascular narrowing not previously linked to amoebic infection. After 30 days, a brain biopsy and metagenomic next‑generation sequencing of cerebrospinal fluid identified Balamuthia mandrillaris. Treatment with antimicrobial and antiparasitic drugs was started, but extensive brain necrosis had already occurred. The autopsy confirmed severe vascular damage and widespread amoebic infiltration.

The case report in BMJ Case Reports highlights the diagnostic delay and the potential impact of immunosuppressive therapy. The authors recommend that clinicians perform cerebrospinal fluid testing for infectious agents before escalating immunosuppressive treatment and consider Balamuthia mandrillaris in cases of progressive vasculitis with neurological signs.

Balamuthia mandrillaris lives in soil and water and has caused fewer than 200 documented human infections, about 90 % of which have been fatal. A 2010 Kentucky case showed survival when the infection was identified within 10 days. Early detection appears to improve outcomes, though the route of infection remains unclear.

Woxi, an open‑source Rust implementation of the Wolfram Language, was introduced on Hacker News as part of a Show HN post.

The software runs entirely in a web browser without sending data elsewhere, allowing users to evaluate expressions locally.

It provides several interfaces, including a side‑by‑side playground with extended editing space, a command‑line tool that can evaluate expressions with `woxi eval`, run .wls scripts, or act as a shebang interpreter, and a Jupyter kernel that can be used through JupyterLite without installation.

Woxi Studio offers a native notebook editor for .nb files, supporting cell‑based editing, inline graphics, and export to .ipynb, Markdown, LaTeX, Typst, and PDF formats.

The project's repository is publicly accessible for contributions.

Building a single-page application traditionally requires a JavaScript framework, a JSON API, and separate view and logic codebases. An alternative approach sends pre‑rendered HTML from the server over a persistent WebSocket connection, allowing the client to place the HTML without writing much JavaScript. The approach can operate over HTTP, Server‑Sent Events, or WebSockets. HTTP delivers HTML on each request, as seen with htmx or Unicorn. Server‑Sent Events maintain a one‑way channel, exemplified by Datastar. WebSockets provide a bidirectional, continuous channel, as used by Phoenix LiveView or Django LiveView. With WebSockets, the client opens a connection, authenticates once, then sends a request such as “I want /article/2/”. The server queries the database, renders HTML with a template engine, and returns the assembled markup. The client inserts the HTML into the page and listens for further updates. Because the connection remains open, the server can push changes without a new request. Advantages include a single rendering engine, elimination of a separate API, server‑side state that persists across requests, direct database access, real‑time updates without polling, and the ability to broadcast changes to all clients. The architecture reduces traffic and latency by avoiding repeated HTTP handshakes and header overhead. HTML rendered on the server is indexable on initial load, and because the server escapes output, it mitigates injection risks. Drawbacks involve higher server resource usage, as each client maintains a stateful connection, and scaling requires sharing state across instances. Latency can increase with physical network distance, and loss of connection disables functionality until reconnection is handled. The initial learning curve is steeper than adding a simple script, and operating a WebSocket server adds complexity. Frameworks supporting HTML over WebSockets exist in multiple languages. Phoenix LiveView in Elixir, Hotwire Turbo in Ruby, Django LiveView in Python, Blazor Server in C#, and Laravel Reverb in PHP provide implementations. Other libraries such as htmx with SSE extensions or Datastar rely on Server‑Sent Events for one‑way push. The choice of transport depends on whether bidirectional communication is required. HTML over WebSockets is not a universal solution; it is best suited for applications that need low‑latency, interactive communication such as chat, collaborative editing, or live dashboards. For push‑only scenarios, Server‑Sent Events may be simpler and more scalable. The pattern emphasizes sending HTML instead of JSON, staying within a single language stack, and reducing client‑side complexity.

Lord_Captain_King posted on the r/radeon subreddit that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT may perform better than Nvidia's RTX 4090 in path tracing. He said that DLSS looks blurry. He also said that Nvidia's frame generation technology introduces noticeable lag. He added that the RX 9070 XT's rasterization efficiency could allow it to beat the RTX 4090 in path tracing if AMD's FSR 4 upscaling delivers comparable quality. The post referenced technical specifications of both GPUs, including the RTX 4090's 24 GB of VRAM and the RX 9070 XT's architecture. The claim has been met with skepticism from other community members, who noted that the original post did not include details about monitor resolution, target upscaling resolution, or the base frame rate used for testing. Without those details, it is unclear whether the reported visual differences are due to the upscaling method or other settings. Nvidia's Tensor and RT cores are designed to provide superior upscaling, interpolation, and ray tracing performance while maintaining frame rates. The discussion highlights a broader debate about image quality and performance trade‑offs between DLSS and AMD's FSR implementations in high‑resolution gaming.