Boston Dynamics’ Robot Dog Now Reads Gauges and Thermometers with Google's AI
Google DeepMind unveiled Gemini Robotics‑ER 1.6, a model that gives Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot the ability to read analog thermometers, pressure gauges and other instruments with 98% accuracy—up from 23% in the prior version. The model introduces "agentic vision" and multi‑view reasoning, allowing the robot to point, code‑execute and create visual scratchpads for complex visual tasks. Safety features are also upgraded, enabling the robot to better assess injury risk and follow physical constraints. The partnership aims to expand autonomous inspection across factories, warehouses and Hyundai‑owned automotive plants.
Vulcan Woes Will "Absolutely" Be a Factor in Pentagon's Next Rocket Competition
The U.S. Space Force is grappling with two solid‑rocket booster nozzle failures on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, prompting a reassessment of its launch‑service procurement. With roughly half of the next four years’ missions slated for Vulcan, the Pentagon’s upcoming...
IONNA Rechargeries Are Coming to More than 350 Circle K Stations
IONNA, a joint venture of eight OEMs, announced a partnership with Circle K to convert more than 350 U.S. stations into its branded “Rechargery” sites. The rollout begins with 85 existing Circle K chargers, slated to be operational by year‑end, and will...
Measles Takes a Plane to Idaho, Which Has Worst Vaccination Rate in US
A measles‑infected traveler passed through Boise Airport on March 29, prompting Idaho health officials to alert passengers and warn the public. The state records the nation’s lowest measles vaccination coverage, with only 78.5% of kindergarteners fully immunized and a 15.1% non‑medical...
Google Shoehorned Rust Into Pixel 10 Modem to Make Legacy Code Safer
Google’s Project Zero uncovered a remote code‑execution flaw in Pixel phone modems, prompting the company to bolster baseband security. Instead of rewriting the entire firmware, Google inserted a Rust‑based component into the Pixel 10 modem’s legacy C/C++ stack. The Rust module...
The Artemis II Mission Has Ended. Where Does NASA Go From Here?
NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully completed a 700,000‑mile lunar flyby and splash‑down, marking humanity’s first deep‑space crewed flight in over 50 years. The Space Launch System delivered a near‑perfect orbit insertion, while Orion returned safely, providing valuable data on heat‑shield performance and...
YouTube Increases Premium Price Again, Says 90-Second Unskippable Ads Are a Bug
YouTube announced a U.S. price hike for its Premium service, moving the individual plan to $15.99 per month and the family plan to $26.99, with Premium Lite now $8.99. The increase follows previous hikes in 2023 and 2025 and mirrors...
Dad Stuck in Support Nightmare After Teen Lied About Age on Discord
A 12‑year‑old created a Discord account by falsely claiming she was over 18, only to have it hijacked by a scammer who demanded her parents' banking details. The father’s attempts to get help were repeatedly dismissed by Discord’s automated support,...
RFK Jr. Rewrites CDC Panel's Charter, Opening Door to Anti-Vaccine Quacks
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has overhauled the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) charter, expanding who can serve and adding anti‑vaccine groups as non‑voting liaisons. The revised charter mandates review of cumulative vaccine effects, mRNA safety, and international schedules,...
CDC Study Shows COVID Shot Benefits; Trump Official Blocks Release
A CDC‑vetted study found that the 2025‑2026 COVID‑19 vaccine cut urgent‑care visits by roughly 50% and hospitalizations by 55% among healthy adults. The research was slated for publication in the MMWR on March 19 but was halted by acting CDC...
LinkedIn Scanning Users' Browser Extensions Sparks Controversy and Two Lawsuits
LinkedIn is facing two class‑action lawsuits in California alleging it secretly scans users’ browsers to identify installed extensions. The suits rely on a German “BrowserGate” report by Fairlinked, which is linked to Estonian firm Teamfluence that previously sued LinkedIn for...
To Beat Altman in Court, Musk Offers to Give All Damages to OpenAI Nonprofit
Elon Musk amended his lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, stating he will not seek any personal monetary award. Instead, he asks the court to return all alleged ill‑gotten gains—up to $134 billion—to OpenAI’s nonprofit foundation. The change follows a...
From Folding Boxes to Fixing Vacuums, GEN-1 Robotics Model Hits 99% Reliability
Generalist unveiled GEN‑1, a physical AI robot that reaches 99% success on delicate, repetitive tasks such as folding boxes, packing phones, and servicing robot vacuums. The system leverages over half a million hours of human‑captured manipulation data via wearable "data...
“The Problem Is Sam Altman”: OpenAI Insiders Don’t Trust CEO
OpenAI unveiled a draft industrial‑policy agenda that includes $100,000 research fellowships and up to $1 million in API credits to steer AI toward public benefit. Simultaneously, The New Yorker published an investigation based on over 100 insider accounts that question CEO...
NASA's Moon Ship and Rocket Seem to Be Working Well, so What About the Landers?
NASA’s Artemis program is accelerating its Human Landing System development by removing the near‑rectilinear halo orbit requirement, which reduces the delta‑V and propellant needed for lunar landers. SpaceX and Blue Origin have submitted revised proposals—Starship will dock with Orion in...
Why Will Today's Lunar Flyby only Beam Back Low-Resolution Video?
Artemis II’s Orion crew will swing past the Moon at roughly 4,000 mi (6,400 km) altitude, broadcasting live video from four low‑rate SAW GoPro cameras. The feed will be low‑resolution because the Deep Space Network’s radio bandwidth is stretched thin by distance and...
What Memento Reveals About Human Nature, 25 Years Later
Christopher Nolan’s 1999 debut *Memento* marks its 25th anniversary, celebrating a $4.5 million low‑budget film that pioneered a reverse‑chronological narrative to depict anterograde amnesia. The story, inspired by a pitch from Nolan’s brother and a Borges short story, follows Leonard Shelby...
CBP Facility Codes Sure Seem to Have Leaked via Online Flashcards
A public Quizlet flashcard set titled “USBP Review” inadvertently disclosed four‑digit gate codes and internal procedural details for a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Kingsville, Texas. The set was taken down after WIRED alerted the platform, and...
Trump Ignores Biggest Reasons His AI Data Center Buildout Is Failing
President Donald Trump has made rapid AI data‑center construction a top priority, but aggressive tariffs on Chinese imports are choking the supply of essential transformers, switchgear and batteries. Bloomberg reports that delivery times have ballooned from 2‑3 years to up...
OpenClaw Gives Users yet Another Reason to Be Freaked Out About Security
OpenClaw, the viral AI‑agent tool with 347,000 GitHub stars, was found to contain a critical flaw (CVE‑2026‑33579) rated 8.1‑9.8 that lets an attacker with the lowest pairing permission silently upgrade to full administrative control. The vulnerability stems from a missing...
Male Octopuses Guided Through Mating by Female Hormones
Harvard researchers led by Pablo S. Villar discovered that male octopuses locate the female oviduct by sensing progesterone through chemotactile receptors on their hectocotylus. In controlled tank experiments, males responded to progesterone‑coated tubes as if they were females, initiating the...
New Rowhammer Attacks Give Complete Control of Machines Running Nvidia GPUs
Researchers have unveiled two GPU‑focused Rowhammer attacks, GDDRHammer and GeForge, that can flip bits in Nvidia Ampere‑generation GDDR memory and gain arbitrary read/write access to CPU RAM. By massaging GPU page‑table allocations, the exploits break isolation and open a root...
How Did Anthropic Measure AI's "Theoretical Capabilities" In the Job Market?
Anthropic’s latest labor‑market report visualizes a striking gap between current AI exposure and a speculative "theoretical capability" of large language models across 22 occupational categories. The theoretical figures, showing up to 80% of tasks potentially automatable, are based on an...
Authors' Lucky Break in Court May Help Class Action over Meta Torrenting
A federal judge has allowed authors to add a contributory infringement claim to their class action against Meta, linking it to a separate lawsuit over the company's alleged torrenting of AI training data. Meta is leaning on a recent Supreme...
Apple Releases iOS, iPadOS, macOS 26.4 with a Long List of Medium-Size Tweaks
Apple today released version 26.4 of its major operating systems—including iOS, iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS, visionOS, and HomePod—bundling a large set of security patches and several new features. Highlights include charging‑limit controls for MacBooks, Safari’s compact tab view returning...
Trump's MAHA Pick for Surgeon General Flounders Amid GOP Doubts
President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, faces a stalled confirmation as at least four Republican senators voice doubts about her medical credentials and anti‑vaccine positions. Means, a Stanford‑trained physician who never completed a residency and holds an...
After Hackers Hit an Iowa Company, Cars Around the Country Failed to Start
Intoxalock, a leading provider of ignition interlock devices, suffered a cyberattack on March 14 that crippled its calibration and installation systems. The outage prevented monthly calibrations, putting an estimated 7‑10% of Connecticut users and thousands nationwide at risk of vehicle lockouts....
LG Display Starts Mass-Producing LTPO-Like 1 Hz LCD Displays for Laptops
LG Display has begun mass production of Oxide 1Hz LCD panels for laptops, which automatically shift refresh rates from 1 Hz to up to 120 Hz based on on‑screen activity. The technology, derived from low‑temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) concepts, claims a 48 percent battery‑life...
Intuit Beats FTC in Court, Ending Restrictions on "Free" TurboTax Ads
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit unanimously ruled that the FTC cannot enforce its cease‑and‑desist order against Intuit’s TurboTax ads through an administrative law judge, citing the Supreme Court’s *Jarkesy* decision. The court sent the case back...
You're Likely Already Infected with a Brain-Eating Virus You've Never Heard Of
The JC virus, a common polyomavirus, silently infects up to 90% of adults. While it usually remains dormant, it can mutate into a neurotropic form that causes progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). A new case study links PML to chronic kidney...
Major SteamOS Update Adds Support for Steam Machine, Even More Third-Party Hardware
Valve released the SteamOS 3.8 preview, adding initial support for the upcoming Steam Machine and expanding compatibility with both AMD and Intel platforms. The update upgrades the OS to an Arch Linux base, kernel 6.16, and a Wayland‑enabled KDE Plasma desktop. It...
Apple Can Delist Apps "with or without Cause," Judge Says in Loss for Musi App
Federal judge ruled Apple can delist apps with or without cause, dismissing Musi's lawsuit. The court held the Developer Program License Agreement gives Apple unrestricted removal rights, and Musi's claims lacked factual support. Musi's lawyers were sanctioned for filing baseless...
Another AT&T FirstNet User Gets Shocking $6,200 Bill, at $2 per Megabyte
AT&T’s FirstNet service mistakenly charged two users roughly $6,200 each for about 3.1 GB of data at a $2‑per‑megabyte rate. The first case involved a Texas police officer in December 2024, the second a Florida active‑duty service member in March 2026, both receiving...
Microsoft Is Working to Eliminate PC Gaming's "Compiling Shaders" Wait Times
Microsoft unveiled updates to its Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) system at GDC, aiming to eliminate the long "compiling shaders" pause that plagues PC games. The solution pre‑compiles shaders into a downloadable database (PSDB) using a State Object Database (SODB) that...
Google Play Games for PC Is Getting More Premium Titles and Cross-Buy with Android
Google announced a suite of upgrades to Play Games on Windows, adding a dedicated Windows tab in the Play Store to surface desktop‑optimized titles. The rollout includes a handful of premium games such as Sledding Game, 9 Kings, Potion Craft, Moonlight Peaks and...
Gemini Burrows Deeper Into Google Workspace with Revamped Document Creation and Editing
Google is embedding its Gemini generative AI deeper into Workspace, adding AI‑driven drafting and editing tools across Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive search. Users can prompt Gemini to create first‑draft documents, generate spreadsheets, and design slide decks while the model...
After Outages, Amazon to Make Senior Engineers Sign Off on AI-Assisted Changes
Amazon announced that senior engineers must now sign off on any AI‑assisted code changes after a series of high‑impact outages. The incidents, affecting both its retail platform and AWS services, were linked to generative AI tools used without established safeguards....
Apple MacBook Neo Review: Can a Mac Get by with an iPhone’s Processor Inside?
Apple introduced the MacBook Neo, a sub‑$600 entry‑level Mac that swaps the traditional M‑series silicon for the iPhone‑derived A18 Pro processor. Priced at $599 (or $499 with education discount), the Neo offers a 13‑inch display, fan‑less design, and Apple’s ecosystem integration...
Quad Cortex Mini Amp Modeler: All the Power, Half the Size
At NAMM 2024 Neural DSP’s Quad Cortex mini captured a Best‑in‑Show award, delivering the full processing power of its larger sibling in a device half the size and priced at $1,400. The compact unit packs over 90 amp models, 100...
MS Exec: Microsoft's Next Console Will Play "Xbox and PC Games"
Microsoft Executive Vice President Asha Sharma announced Project Helix, the next‑generation Xbox console that will run Windows and allow players to launch both Xbox and PC titles. The plan hints at a unified ecosystem, potentially leveraging PC Game Pass streaming...
Whoops: US Military Laser Strike Takes Down CBP Drone Near Mexican Border
The Pentagon’s high‑energy laser counter‑UAS system mistakenly shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone operating near the Mexican border. The strike occurred without prior coordination with the FAA, prompting temporary flight restrictions in the Fort Hancock area. The mishap...
50 Mpg in a Nissan Crossover? Testing the New E-Power Hybrid System.
Nissan is debuting a third‑generation E‑Power series‑hybrid system, featuring a 1.5 L turbocharged three‑cylinder engine paired with a 202 hp front electric motor. Tested in a European‑spec Qashqai, the powertrain delivered a mixed‑cycle fuel economy of 47.7 mpg, with potential to exceed 50 mpg...
Once-Hobbled Lumma Stealer Is Back with Lures that Are Hard to Resist
Lumma Stealer has reemerged at scale after a 2025 law‑enforcement takedown that crippled its command‑and‑control infrastructure. The malware‑as‑a‑service operation now relies on ClickFix lures—fake CAPTCHAs that trick users into running malicious commands—and the memory‑only CastleLoader to evade detection. Researchers report...
The Feds Closed Air Space Around El Paso on Wednesday to Address "Cartel" Drones
The FAA abruptly shut down airspace around El Paso International Airport, imposing a 10‑day restriction and warning that violators could be shot down. Within ten hours the ban was lifted without explanation, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy later said the...
SpaceX's Next-Gen Super Heavy Booster Aces Four Days of "Cryoproof" Testing
SpaceX announced that its upgraded Super Heavy V3 booster successfully completed a four‑day cryogenic proof‑test campaign at Texas’ Massey Test Site. The test involved multiple liquid‑nitrogen fills and pressure cycles that mimic the ultra‑cold methane and liquid‑oxygen loads planned for...