Tech

The new Gemini 3.7 Flash makes the Spark AI agent “more efficient for knowledge work with improved tool use for Google Workspace apps, delivering improved accuracy and output quality for complex, multi-skill workflows,” Google says. The AI model itself also offers “substantial” improvements in software engineering and web development workflows, according to the company.

From a new “Under the Hood” page in settings that X is piloting, you will be able to download aggregate stats for the past month on “labels that can affect post visibility in the X algorithm” that are applied to your posts and account, according to a screenshot published by TechCrunch.

The end of USAID, which Elon Musk fed “into the wood chipper”, will cause an extra 14 million deaths through 2030, including 4.5 million in children under the age of 5. SpaceX shares are $141.10 as of this writing, above their IPO price of $135.

In the months since Australia’s social media ban, Meta says it has blocked 462,000 Instagram accounts and 294,000 Facebook accounts that appeared to belong to users under 16, according to Bloomberg.

A person on Reddit says their friend’s phone added craters to the Sun during yesterday’s solar eclipse. The poster doesn’t say what phone this was captured on, but it’s definitely something we’ve seen before.

Its new C100 8K Giant Custom Macro Pad packs 100 keys (sitting atop swappable Keychron Apex switches) into a 10x10 grid that will take a sizable bite out of your desktop. It’s available now for $64.99 and features an 8,000Hz polling rate and per key RGB lighting that you can potentially use to differentiate what each key does.

The group says that while changes like more limited data retention is welcomed, the devil is in the details. “Transforming an exceptionally dangerous mass surveillance system into one that is fully protective of civil rights and civil liberties is a difficult, if not impossible task,” it writes.

Nvidia says the app’s full release brings “a more polished experience, plus gameplay optimisation with better DLSS Frame Generation.” It initially launched in beta on Ubuntu earlier this year, and Nvidia said at the time that it plans to add support for more distributions in the future.

After announcing GameCube games were coming to Nintendo Switch Online over a year ago, Nintendo has added that console’s divisive Mario outing, Super Mario Sunshine. It joins other GameCube titles like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Luigi’s Mansion, but keep in mind you’ll need to pay for the Expansion Pack to play them.

But also pricier. The HydraSense is a new countertop water filter that dispenses water with a button press, filling your cup or bottle in seconds.

Sales dropped 64% year-on-year in Q2, according to research from Counterpoint, as manufacturers raised prices or simply stopped shipping cheaper models. Samsung and Motorola have been the only brands to benefit, as smaller companies became unable to undercut them on price. That helped both grow their market share in prepaid phones.

According to Twitch chief product officer Mike Minton, that’s the “honest answer” as to why the streaming platform has started training Amazon’s generative AI models on users’ content by default. Twitch users can choose to opt out, but Minton defends the default setting because “almost every content service in the world” is also doing it.

We live blogged almost 90 minutes of a show that was, honestly, better than expected. Our video team cut it down to eight.

The company working on deals that would let Siri to lean on publisher content for news and information, The Wall Street Journal reports. Apple has apparently proposed a plan where publishers would get paid when content is actually used.

Anthropic updated its Chrome extension so using the side panel bot now saves chats to your history, where you can continue them outside in the browser in Claude’s desktop, web, or mobile apps.

The Made By Google keynote, hosted by Trevor Noah, kicks off at 6PM ET. Stay tuned to this website starting at 5:30PM for our live blog. Victoria Song will be there live, with Jay Peters, Jake Kastrenakes, and myself following remotely. Let’s see what happens.

In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept Media claim Truth Social’s up to $100,000 /month subscription is “profoundly corrupt” and “unconstitutional,” alleging Trump is illegally “profiting by selling government information.” The Intercept and FPT are asking the court to block the Truth Social subscription.

The Vergecast crew will be live in 30(ish) minutes, at 1PM ET, running down all the details on the new Pixel phones, Pixel Watch, Pixel Tag, and everything else. We’re going to have a lot of feelings about photos, how we capture them, and what they even are anymore. Hope to see you there!

Lots of smart internet people have been talking about this Lauren Leek essay on the algorithmic flattening of cities and culture and everything else, and it’s as good as advertised. It also offers a shockingly simple way to fix the problem, which is why I spent the morning reading about a machine learning framework known as multi-armed bandits.

Empty offices. Bald-faced lies. No real consequences. Our investigation suggests it’s cheap and easy to dodge the US drone ban — but at least the FCC is revoking Odyssey Robot’s authorizations after we made the agency aware. The FCC’s order doesn’t begin to explore whether Odyssey might be DJI in disguise.

All you really need to know here is Pablo Torre and his team won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing how Steve Ballmer’s LA Clippers paid star Kawhi Leonard under the table through a tree-planting operation called Aspiration that never planted a tree. Same story, only this time it’s the world’s largest 4K stadium display. Incredible stuff.

Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney’s Computer Space is considered the first arcade machine that even predates Pong. This two-player version now up for auction is even rarer than the single player machine that preceded it in 1971. It’s expected to go for over $20,000 when the auction ends on August 20th.

Ahead of Gears of War: E-Day releasing in October, Microsoft opened preorders for a new $89.99 Xbox controller featuring “3D molded, laser-etched details of cracked asphalt with red, glowing cracks.” On September 30th the Xbox Design Lab will also introduce a new E-Day design with a top case featuring artwork by illustrator Luke Preece.