Apple has announced a sweeping set of changes to iOS in Japan that will allow alternative app marketplaces, third-party payment processing, and non-WebKit browser engines — all to comply with Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act, which takes effect December 18. The changes, now available in iOS 26.2, bear a strong resemblance to Apple’s compliance measures for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act but differ in key ways.

Japanese developers who want to offer alternative payment options must display them alongside Apple’s in-app purchase system, giving users a choice at checkout rather than replacing Apple’s option entirely. Apps cannot be distributed directly from websites as they can in the EU; they must go through an authorized marketplace.

Apple has established a tiered fee structure for the new arrangements. Apps distributed through the App Store using in-app purchase will pay between 15 and 26% depending on whether developers qualify for the Small Business Program. Alternative payment processing drops the 5% payment fee but keeps the base commission. Apps distributed outside the App Store pay a flat 5% Core Technology Commission on digital goods and services.

The company introduced several user-facing changes beyond app distribution. iPhone users in Japan will see browser and search engine choice screens during device setup, can assign third-party voice assistants to the side button, and can select alternative default navigation apps. Apple said it worked closely with Japanese regulators on protections for younger users. Apps in the Kids category cannot link to external websites for purchases, and users under 13 cannot access web links for transactions in any app.

An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company has no plans to extend these changes to other markets.

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Amazon just introduced a new feature for Alexa+ called Greetings. This lets Alexa+ answer the doorbell and converse with visitors, which certainly sounds futuristic in a “gated community as dystopia” kind of way.

There are several caveats here. First of all, it only works with certain newer Ring video doorbell models. Customers also have to pony up for a Ring Premium Plan and have access to the Alexa+ early access build. It’s available in the US and Canada and only in English.

If you meet those criteria, this could be a fairly useful little feature. Amazon says it “transforms your Ring doorbell into an intelligent assistant capable of determining who’s at your door, understanding what they need and responding conversationally.” The company promises that the tool operates whether people or home or out doing errands.

How does this work? It’s an AI algorithm that “determines who’s there based on what they’re wearing, holding or their actions.” It will use “visual context, any information the visitor shares and the instructions it’s been given to help manage interactions on your behalf.”

Amazon says that it can, for instance, distinguish if a person is wearing a delivery uniform and tell them to leave the package at the back door. Most of my delivery drivers don’t come to the door in full uniforms because it’s winter and that would be ridiculous. I don’t even expect that during the summer. In other words, this is modern AI and mistakes will happen.

The company gives other examples of how this could be used, like gathering messages from friends who stop by and telling door-to-door salespeople to (politely) bug off. Amazon also says Alexa+ will be able to direct visitors to water and snacks that have previously been laid out. Finally, there’s a way to avoid those pesky cute kids on Halloween while still providing them with treats.

Everything can be reviewed later on via the Ring app, which should provide context as to who has been hanging around the porch. Alexa+ Greetings are rolling out today.

For the uninitiated, Alexa+ is Amazon’s updated chatbot. It’s more conversational than the old Alexa, which could be useful or annoying depending on what you use it for. I use Alexa primarily as an alarm, so I don’t necessarily want a gabfest.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/alexa-can-now-answer-your-ring-doorbell-and-talk-to-people-162712774.html?src=rss

The world’s best-performing stock is turning into a cautionary tale for investors chasing outsized returns from the AI boom. From a report: Little-known until recently even within its home market of India, RRP Semiconductor Ltd. became a social-media obsession as its shares surged more than 55,000% in the 20 months through Dec. 17 — by far the biggest gain worldwide among companies with a market value above $1 billion.

That’s despite posting negative revenue in its latest financial results, reporting just two full-time employees in its latest annual report, and boasting only a tenuous link to the semiconductor spending boom after shifting away from real estate in early 2024. A mix of online hype, a tiny free float and India’s swelling base of retail investors drove 149 straight limit-up sessions, even as exchange officials and the company itself cautioned investors.

The rally is now showing signs of strain — and regulators are taking a closer look. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has begun examining the surge in RRP’s shares for potential wrongdoing, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The $1.7 billion stock, recently restricted by its exchange to trading just once a week, has fallen by 6% from its Nov. 7 peak.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Considering we’re awaiting word of a (likely) sixth season renewal, it’s undeniable that Emily in Paris has been an unqualified success for Netflix, a reliable hit that rivals the success of buzzier genre shows like Stranger Things. Lily Collins stars as the faux pas-prone Emily Cooper, who moves to Paris and lands a temporary job at a glitzy French marketing firm kind of by accident. She doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t get the culture, but slowly manages to ingratiate herself to the locals while juggling work and romance in a new country. The series hails from Darren Star, creator of Sex and the City, so her budding high-fashion sense and tendency to narrate adventures à la Carrie Bradshaw make perfect sense.

While you wait for Emily’s next round of misadventures, here are 15 other shows that offer similarly stylish coming-of-age vibes.

The Bold Type (2017 – 2021)

Inspired by the career of Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, this show follows three young besties—Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens), Kat Edison (Aisha Dee), and Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy)—working for the fictional women’s magazine Scarlet in NYC. As with Emily‘s mentors Madeline and Sylvie, the three are never without the firm guiding hand of editor-in-chief, Jacqueline Carlyle (Melora Hardin), as they navigate life and careers in their dramatically stylish world. Stream The Bold Type on Hulu, HBO Max, and Tubi.

The Bold Type

at Hulu

at Hulu

Survival of the Thickest (2023 – )

No international travel here (or at least, not until the second season), but we do have a fashion-forward stylist who’d devoted herself to the wrong guy for way too long. As the series opens, Mavis (Beaumont (Michele Buteau, who also co-created the series) is ready for a fresh start, putting herself and career first—which does not preclude falling into a number of romantic entanglements. As she says more than once, she’s going to take on the fashion world with a “body-positive attitude, cute v-neck, and some lip-gloss.” Stream Survival of the Thickest on Netflix.

Survival of the Thickest (2023 – )

at Netflix

at Netflix

The Carrie Diaries (2013 – 2014)

Before Emily in Paris, creator Darren Star produced this two-season prequel to Sex and the City, and it’s a good bet for fans of either show. Even as a 16-year-old living in Connecticut, Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb) is firmly on the road to becoming the iconic New York fashionista that we know she’ll grow into. The high school junior takes an internship at a law firm in the Big Apple, only to moonlight from that pretty-darn-good gig by taking a second job at Interview magazine. The young Ms. Bradshaw has to balance school, family, a volatile relationship, a budding career, and a new and very outgoing bestie named Samantha (Lindsey Gort). Stream The Carrie Diaries on The CW or buy episodes from Prime Video and Apple TV

The Carrie Diaries

at Netflix

at Netflix

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017 – 2023)

The connection here is largely based on style, as in Mrs. Maisel‘s impeccable period 1950s pairs nicely with Emily‘s heightened modern Paris, but there’s also the aspect of a young woman striking out on her own, and damn the consequences. Maisel was one of Prime’s first truly buzzy original series, a comedy-drama from Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) about the title’s Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a New York housewife of the late 1950s who discovers a talent for stand-up comedy. Inspired by the real-life careers of comedians like Totie Fields and Joan Rivers, the show is warm and welcoming, with great performances and dialogue; it also achieves something rare in being a show about comedy that’s actually funny. Stream The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017 – 2023)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

Étoile (2025)

Amy Sherman-Palladino and David Palladino returned to TV, and to the ballet world (following Bunheads), for this series about two world-renowned ballet companies (one in NYC and one in Paris) that decide to spice things up by swapping their most talented dancers. Each company is on the brink of financial disaster, and so Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby), director of the Metropolitan Ballet, and Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg), director of of Le Ballet National, come up with the plan, and recruit an eccentric billionaire (Simon Callow) to pay for it. Much of the comedy comes from the mismatched natures of their swapped dancers, and there’s a tangible love of ballet that keeps things light, despite the fancy title. The focus is a bit more on the dance directors than on the younger dancers, but there’s still plenty of impeccable Parisian style on display. Stream Étoile on Prime Video.

Étoile (2025)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

I Love LA (2025 – )

Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Bottoms) created, produces, writes, and stars as Maia, who is 27, living in LA, and desperate for promotion in her job as an assistant talent manager. She’s joined in town by Tallulah (Odessa A’zion), a former New York City influencer fallen on messy times, and an alternately fun and exhausting circle of friends that includes West Hollywood stylist Charlie (Jordan Firstman) and Maia’s teacher boyfriend Dylan (Josh Hutcherson). It’s a great looking show and, though tolerance for a coming-of-age comedy about twenty-ish-year-olds in LA will vary, it’s smartly written and impressively acted. Stream I Love LA on HBO Max.

I Love LA

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Fleabag (2016 – 2019)

There’s no high concept hook here. This critical favorite stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the title character (only ever referred to as Fleabag) in a comedy drama about a free-spirited, but also deeply angry single young woman in living in London who shares her romantic ups and downs via confessional asides to us, the audience. So…Emily in Paris, but messier? Waller-Bridge won separate Emmys as the star, creator, and writer of the series (all in the same year), and co-stars Sian Clifford, Olivia Coleman, Fiona Shaw, and Kristin Scott Thomas were lauded as well. Stream Fleabag on Prime Video.

Fleabag (2016 – 2019)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021 – 2025)

Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) is an endlessly naïve scholarship student; Bela (Amrit Kaur), is an aspiring comedy writer on the make for the hottest guys; Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is an overachieving athlete and senator’s daughter; Leighton (Reneé Rapp) is a closeted sorority girl. They’re randomly assigned to room together as freshmen at the fictional Essex College in Vermont. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, this comedy-drama isn’t nearly as salacious as its title suggests: There’s sex, for sure, but like Sex and the City before it, the funny, queer-friendly show is more about female friendship. Stream The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.

The Sex Lives of College Girls

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Spellbound (2023 – )

A young woman movies from the U.S. to France to pursue her dream of dancing. Oh, and also she’s magic. A successor to Find Me in Paris, set at that show’s same Paris Opera Ballet School, Spellbound introduces a new cast and, where the earlier series dealt with time travel, Spellbound is all about real magic: Fifteen-year-old American Cece Parker Jones travels to Paris to join the prestigious dance school, only to discover that she’s an actual witch with a family history of spellcraft. She struggles to balance dance, magic, and her desire to be a normal teenager while dealing with the Mystics, natural enemies to Cece’s type of witch. It’s a solid and stylish coming-of-age drama. Stream Spellbound on Hulu.

Spellbound (2023 – )

at Hulu

at Hulu

Call My Agent! (2015 – 2020)

There’s no Chicago gal traveling overseas in this French series, so if you want your Parisian marketing industry workplace dramedy straight up, with no American hand-holding, you’re in luck. The series shifts its focus between four talent agents at a prestigious agency who are forced to take the reins following the sudden death of the agency founder. They navigate their messy personal lives while catering to the needs of their real celebrity clients (Juliette Binoche, Monica Bellucci, Isabelle Huppert, and Sigourney Weaver are just some of the name guest stars playing faintly exaggerated versions of themselves). It’s soapy, addictive showbiz fun, a dishy delight even if you know not a lick of French. Stream Call My Agent! on Netflix or buy episodes from Prime Video and Apple TV.

Call My Agent

at Netflix

at Netflix

Gossip Girl (2007 – 2012)

Teen drama at its finest and most bitchy, Gossip Girl follows the many, many scandals of a group of young Upper East Side socialites and hangers-on. The tangled teenage lives of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), her best frenemy Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), scholarship kid Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), and plenty more pretty young boys and girls are chronicled in meticulous detail by the title’s mysterious, omnipresent Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell). This one shares with Emily an impeccable sense of style, as its leads never miss a fashion beat. The short-lived 2021 follow-up is also available on HBO Max. Stream Gossip Girl on HBO Max and Netflix.

Gossip Girl

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Ugly Betty (2006 – 2010)

Just as Emily’s tourist kitsch gets her read for filth in the opening episode of her series, Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) has a…let’s say “distinct” sense of fashion that sets her much apart from the rest of the striving staffers at the prestigious fashion magazine Mode, where she manages to land a job despite not quite fitting into the mold (her opening episode poncho is, of course, iconic). Betty’s only coming from Queens, but her adult braces and good heart set her well apart in the catty, high-pressure world of NYC fashion. Stream Ugly Betty on Hulu.

Ugly Betty

at Hulu

at Hulu

Sweetbitter (2018 – 2019)

Based on the novel of the same name from Stephanie Danler, drawing on her experiences as an NYC waitress, Sweetbitter stars Yellowjackets‘ Ella Purnell as Tess, 21 at the series’ opening, as she arrives in the city and gets a job at a prestigious restaurant. As we (and she) quickly learn, there’s at least as much drama (including drugs, booze, and sex) in the restaurant industry as there is in the world of social media. Stream Sweetbitter on Prime Video.

Sweetbitter (2018 – 2019)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

Younger (2015 – 2021)

Another Darren Star show, this one’s seven-season run overlapped just a bit with Emily. It flips a more common premise on its head: rather than a young woman seeking to make a name for herself, Younger follows Liza Miller (Sutton Foster), a recently divorced woman in her 40s who finds that her age is a barrier to reentering the publishing industry she left years earlier. After a compliment convinces her that she could pass for a younger woman, she lies that she’s just 26 in order to land an entry-level job. Misadventures ensue. Think of it as a story of coming-of-age, again. Stream Younger on Netflix.

Younger (2015 – 2021)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Real Girlfriends in Paris (2022)

How about Emily in Paris for real? This hard-hitting documentary series follows the lives of American ex-pats in Paris…just kidding, it’s a Bravo reality show. Still, the vibes are not at all dissimilar, though this bit of reality TV nonsense somehow feels more heightened than the scripted drama of Emily (which probably inspired it). Six women trying to make names for themselves in the City of Lights: one a fashion designer, one an art historian, one an English teacher, etc. What they all share is a level of impeccable fashion that most people only experience by starring in a TV show. Stream Real Girlfriends in Paris on Peacock.

Real Girlfriends in Paris (2022)

at Peacock

at Peacock

Micron, one of the world’s three largest memory suppliers, expects the global shortage of DRAM and NAND flash memory to “persist through and beyond” 2026 as AI-driven demand continues to outstrip supply. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra made the forecast during the company’s latest earnings call on Wednesday, saying that “supply will remain substantially short of the demand for the foreseeable future.” The company posted record quarterly revenue of $13.64 billion, up from $8.71 billion in the same period last year.

Micron recently shuttered Crucial, its consumer-facing brand, to focus on high-bandwidth memory for AI data centers. HBM technology requires three times the silicon wafers of standard DRAM, leaving fewer resources for the chips that go into PCs, smartphones and cars. Micron plans to boost DRAM and NAND shipments by 20 percent next year but acknowledged this won’t meet demand. New facilities in Idaho and New York are slated for 2027 and 2030 respectively.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re like me, it’s probably been a hot minute since you’ve used or even thought of Meetup. Predating both Facebook and Twitter, the website, which was designed to help people organize in-person events, has changed hands a handful of times in recent years. 

In 2017, founder Scott Heiferman sold it to WeWork, which offloaded it a few years later before declaring bankruptcy in 2023. As of 2024, Bending Spoons, the Italian tech company that’s probably best known for buying Evernote in 2022, has been running Meetup. 

In the aftermath of the pandemic, the platform has seen something of resurgence. As of late 2025, Gen Z and young Millennials make up 40 percent of Meetup’s active user base and represent its most engaged group of users. This year, the app has also seen a 20 percent year-over-year increase in new registrations. Going into 2026, Bending Spoons is hoping to build on that momentum with a redesign of Meetup’s mobile app. 

The new interface, which starts rolling out today, brings the Android and iOS app inline with Meetup’s recently redesigned website. Across the application, users can expect updated fonts, new more colorful icons and better spacing. The goal of the redesign is to make the app “vibrant, fun and more modern than before,” says Chiara Vivaldi, Meetup’s product lead. She adds the redesigned app retains all the key features found in the previous version, while making those easier to find. For instance, users can access their profile and groups directly from the homepage of the app.  

Beyond making Meetup feel more modern, Bending Spoon is using the redesign to cement the groundwork for a series of improvements it plans to roll out in the coming months. 

Bending Spoons

According to Vivaldi, one major priority is to give people, particularly women, more confidence to attend the events that are listed on Meetup. When you navigate to an event page in the new app, you’ll see a broad gender and age breakdown of the users who have signed up to be there. Additionally, new and richer user profiles allow people to get a better sense of who exactly they might meet if they decide to go. Bending Spoons is also introducing a new Super Organizer badge it plans to award to the platform’s top event planners. It’s designed to signal to users that the person who put together the event takes community building seriously. 

Taken together, Vivaldi says these features are designed to reduce the friction of attending events where you might not know anyone, and they’re something the company plans to build on in the future. 

At the same time, Bending Spoons plans to make it easier for organizers to use Meetup. Starting early next year, the company will unify Meetup’s two disparate apps — right now, the company maintains separate ones for members and organizers. Vivaldi says organizers can expect the unified app to include all of the features they depend on, alongside a handful of enhancements. For instance, Vivaldi’s team is working to make QR-based ticketing the norm for check-ins and attendance tracking. She says the move to a single app is informed by the fact that 75 percent of Meetup’s organizers got their start as a member. 

“[Organizers] are part of the community. They want to be in the action, and so having them within the same app is conducive to that. They can jump into conversations, look at other events, making it all feel a bit more organic,” Vivaldi said. In the meantime, if it’s been since you’ve used Meetup, you can download the redesigned app from the App and Google Play stores.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/meetups-new-mobile-app-is-designed-to-make-it-easier-to-meet-people-irl-150000920.html?src=rss

One of the ways AI models are rapidly improving is in their image editing capabilities, to the extent that they can now quickly take care of tasks that would previously have taken a substantial amount of time and effort in Photoshop. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons Adobe has decided to introduce its own ChatGPT plug-ins.

Want your t-shirt to be blue rather than red? Need to cut out a person or an object from an otherwise perfect group selfie? These are tricks that AI chatbots are now able to do cleanly and professionally, from just a text prompt. You don’t need to have any digital photo editing skills; you only need to describe what you want to happen.

Over the past few months, both Gemini and ChatGPT have become better at more precise edits. They’re able to tweak part of an image and leaving the rest of it untouched, rather than rendering everything again from scratch just to alter one detail. Now Gemini has quietly added some more markup tools for this job.

Marking up images in Gemini

Google hasn’t said anything officially about these markup tools, which suggests the feature is still in testing (it’s also previously been spotted by the team at Android Authority). If you’re not seeing these tools, try quitting and restarting the Gemini app on mobile, or refreshing the app on the web—and if you still can’t see the options after that, you may have to be wait a little bit longer

If this functionality has rolled out to you, you should be able to upload an image in a chat using the + (plus) button in the prompt box, and then tap or click on the image thumbnail to find the markup tools. At the moment, they only show up before the image has been edited—you can’t find them after you’ve started generating edits.

Look out for this pop-up to see if you have the new feature.
Credit: Lifehacker

The easiest tool to understand is the drawing tool, which is enabled via the icon that looks like a scribble. You can use this to highlight a particular part of an image—a space in the sky, a lamppost in the street, a face in a crowd—and then describe the change you want Gemini to carry out.

For example, rather than just saying “add a cartoon dragon in the sky” in your prompt, you can actually combine that prompt with a circle on the image showing exactly where the dragon should go. It gives you even more of that Photoshop-level precision, without cluttering up the interface too much.

The scribblings can also be used if you’re asking questions about the image. For example, you could circle an actor or an object in a scene and then ask “who is this?” or “what is this?” in the attached prompt. In that sense it works in a similar way to the Circle to Search feature that’s available for images on Android.

You can add scribbles and text to your images.
Credit: Lifehacker

There’s also a text tool—the T icon—but I’m not sure exactly how you use this (and there’s no official help available yet). You can use it to describe changes you want to apply to your picture (like “an add arrow here”), but the text stays in place—it’s almost like a rudimentary text overlay feature, with a choice of colors but no font or styling options.

You can use the prompt to manipulate the text you’ve added, adding outlines and backgrounds for example, so perhaps that’s the way it’s intended to be used: a more precise editing option, but for text. Presumably once these tools have reached all Gemini users, we’ll get some more information from Google on how to use them—but you may well find they’re available to you now.

Bruce66423 writes: A man boarded a flight at Heathrow without a ticket, boarding pass or passport. ‘The unnamed individual walked onto the 7.20am British Airways (BA) flight to Oslo, Norway, on Saturday after tailgating other passengers through security and evading checks at the departure gate.

An aviation expert described the incident as a “significant lapse in security”, as a witness reported that cabin crew only detected the interloper because the flight was full and he kept sitting in passengers’ assigned seats.

Police arrested the unnamed man, airport sources said, adding that he had passed through “full security screening” before reaching the gate.

Given that he did go through the security check, this is merely embarrassing. Compare and contrast with this episode.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re human, you’ve probably hollered a curse word or two (or three) when barking your shin on a table edge or hitting your thumb with a hammer. Perhaps you’ve noticed that this seems to lessen your pain. There’s a growing body of scientific evidence that this is indeed the case. The technical term is the “hypoalgesic effect of swearing.” Cursing can also improve physical strength and endurance, according to a new paper published in the journal American Psychologist.

As previously reported, co-author Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele, became interested in studying the potential benefits of profanity after noting his wife’s “unsavory language” while giving birth and wondered if profanity really could help alleviate pain. “Swearing is such a common response to pain. There has to be an underlying reason why we do it,” Stephens told Scientific American after publishing a 2009 study that was awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Peace Prize.

For that study, Stephens and his colleagues asked 67 study participants (college students) to immerse their hands in a bucket of ice water. They were then instructed to either swear repeatedly using the profanity of their choice or chant a neutral word. Lo and behold, the participants said they experienced less pain when they swore and were also able to leave their hands in the bucket about 40 seconds longer than when they weren’t swearing. It has been suggested that this is a primitive reflex that serves as a form of catharsis.

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If you get a letter from a company called 700Credit, don’t ignore it. Your information may have been compromised in a massive breach affecting more than 5.8 million consumers, and you should take the necessary steps to protect your data.

700Credit supplies credit and identity verification services to more than 21,000 vehicle, RV, powersport, and marine dealerships in the U.S., so if you’ve purchased a vehicle and applied for dealer financing—or even been pre-screened or pre-qualified to do so—your information could have been affected.

What happened with 700Credit?

According to the company’s filing with the Maine Attorney General, 700Credit’s systems were hacked between Oct. 25 and Oct. 27. Attackers stole personal information about customers of 700Credit’s dealership clients, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers (SSNs), and dates of birth.

As BleepingComputer reports, this breach was actually a consequence of a system compromise back in July at one of 700Credit’s 200 integration partners. Threat actors were able to gain access to an API used to pull consumer data, and a security vulnerability in the API allowed them to exfiltrate information from 700Credit.

What you need to do

If you receive a data breach notice from 700Credit, read it carefully. 700Credit is offering 12 months of credit monitoring and identity restoration services through TransUnion’s Cyberscout to affected consumers. You will need to go to the URL listed in your notice and enter your unique activation code in order to enroll, and you have 90 days from the date of the letter to complete the process.

700Credit expects to begin notifying individuals starting on Dec. 22.

In addition to utilizing the free credit protection, you should take the usual precautions to lock down your identity:

• Freeze your credit at all three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion).

• Place a fraud alert on your credit file. You only need to do this at one bureau, which will apply it to all three.

• Keep an eye on your financial accounts for suspicious transactions as well as your credit report. Note that if your credit is frozen, thieves shouldn’t be able to take out new credit in your name.

• Request an IP PIN from the IRS to prevent someone from filing a tax return using your SSN.

• Follow good digital hygiene practices, such as using strong passwords and multi-factor authentication.

You cannot reverse a data breach, but you can (and should) do damage control.

Chinese scientists have built a working prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine in a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, a development that represents exactly what Washington has spent years and multiple rounds of export controls trying to prevent: China’s path toward semiconductor independence and an end to the West’s monopoly on the technology that powers AI, smartphones and advanced weapons systems.

The prototype, completed in early 2025 by former ASML engineers who reverse-engineered the Dutch company’s machines, is operational and generating EUV light, though it has not yet produced working chips. The effort is part of a six-year secret government initiative that sources described to Reuters as China’s version of the Manhattan Project.

Huawei is coordinating thousands of engineers across companies and state research institutes, and recruits are working under false identities inside secure facilities. The Chinese government is targeting 2028 for producing working chips, though sources say 2030 is more realistic — still years earlier than the decade analysts had predicted it would take China to match the West.

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For parents shopping for a first kids’ tablet that won’t turn into a headache or break after one drop, the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids (2024) might be worth a look. It usually retails for $149.99, but it’s currently marked down to $74.99 on Amazon, its lowest price to date, according to price trackers.

Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet

$74.99
at Amazon

$149.99
Save $75.00

$74.99
at Amazon

$149.99
Save $75.00

At that price, you’re getting a rugged case, a year of Amazon Kids+ subscription, a two-year worry-free replacement guarantee, and solid parental controls all bundled into one eight-inch tablet. It’s not fast, and it doesn’t have a high-res display, but for young kids starting out with screen time, it does a lot right.

It has a 2.0GHz hexa-core processor, 32GB of storage (expandable to 1TB), and a 1,280-by-800 resolution display. It handles video streaming and basic apps well, though heavier games and multitasking can slow it down. Battery life is impressive, lasting close to 10 hours in PCMag’s video playback tests. The case, which adds bulk, also includes a built-in stand that doubles as a handle, though younger kids might need help adjusting it. It’s not waterproof, but if it breaks, Amazon will replace it for free within two years—no questions asked.

Setup requires a parent to create profiles, set screen time limits, and customize content filters. Once done, kids can access Amazon Kids+, which includes age-appropriate books, videos, games, and a genuinely fun “Quest” feature that blends learning with light gamification. When the free trial ends, though, you’ll need to pay $5.99 a month (or $48 annually) to keep access to that library. Without it, the experience is much more limited and depends on how much effort you want to put into finding and installing your own content. But for under $75, with a kid-proof case and thoughtful tools for parents, it’s one of the better value tablets out there for kids aged three to seven.

While not quite a separate dialect, Formula 1-speak can be heavy on the jargon at times. They say “box” instead of pit, “power unit” to describe the engine and hybrid system, and that’s before we get into all the aerodynamics-related expressions like “outwash” and “dirty air.” Next year is a big technical shakeup for the sport, and it seems we’re getting some new terminology to go with it. So forget your DRS and get ready to talk about Boost mode instead.

The F1 car of 2026 will be slightly narrower and slightly lighter than the machines that raced for the last time earlier this month. But not by a huge amount: minimum weight is decreased by 30 kg to 724 kg, the wheelbase is 200 mm shorter at 3,400 mm, and the car’s underfloor is 150 mm narrower than before.

The front wing is 100 mm narrower and has just two elements to it, although for the first time in F1 history, this is now an active wing, which works in conjunction with the three-element active rear wing. Active rear wings have been a thing in F1 since the introduction of DRS—the drag reduction system—in 2011, but now there’s a philosophical change to how they’ll work.

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OpenAI has introduced an app directory that’s now available right inside ChatGPT, the company announced. “Apps extend ChatGPT conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take action like order groceries, turn an outline into a slide deck or search for an apartment,” the company wrote in a blog post. OpenAI also noted in a help document that “connector” apps like Google Drive are now simply called “apps.”

The new apps section (on iOS, Android and web) is divided into Feature, Lifestyle and Productivity categories, letting you connect to commonly used apps and sites like Booking.com, Spotify and Dropbox. To use an app, simply click on it, hit “Connect” then authorize the app to access ChatGPT. With that done, you can then start a chat related to that app. In the case of Dropbox, for instance, you’ll be able to “gather insights, prepare briefs and summarize reports or internal documents,” according to the description. Once connected, any app can be accessed by doing an @ mention of it.

A new addition that came along with the store is an Apple Music app that, like Spotify, helps users find music, create playlists and manage their libraries through a chat interface. Another is DoorDash, which lets you transform recipes, meal planning and staples into “an actionable shopping cart.”

Along with the app directory, OpenAI is now allowing developers to submit apps for review and publication in ChatGPT according to the company’s app submission guidelines. It also published resources to help developers build such apps, including best practices, open-source example apps, an open-sourced UI library for chat-native interfaces and a step-by-step quickstart guide. That’s on top of the software developer kit (SDK) that OpenAI introduced in October.

OpenAI noted that for now, developers can only monetize apps by linking out from the ChatGPT app to the native app or website — but the company is exploring internal monetization options as well. Privacy was also emphasized, with companies required to provide “clear” policies.

The new feature is a big part of Sam Altman’s promises to make ChatGPT more versatile with the addition of custom “GPT” bots. “Over time, we want apps in ChatGPT to feel like a natural extension of the conversation, helping people move from ideas to action, while building a thriving ecosystem for developers,” the company wrote.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-just-launched-an-app-store-inside-chatgpt-133049586.html?src=rss

The Ultrahuman Ring Air now has the capacity to track snoring and general respiratory health. This is thanks to proprietary technology called Respiratory Health PowerPlug, which is basically a suite of audio analysis tools along with some “advanced biomarker tracking” and AI tomfoolery.

All of this results in “one of the most comprehensive consumer tools ever built for understanding nighttime respiratory stability.” It details snoring sessions, of course, but also delivers a holistic and “actionable sleep picture.” The company says this “reveals patterns, trends and changes in respiratory health over time.”

Ultrahuman

To that end, it can also detect coughing and respiratory disturbances. This data is cross-referenced with movement patterns, sleep fragmentation patterns and resting heart rate to “show exactly how breathing issues shape sleep quality.” The company says this can be a good resource when experimenting with interventions, like switching to a new pillow or taping up the nose.

More health data is never a bad thing, but this information isn’t free. Ultrahuman is charging $4 per month for access to the tool, though folks can pick up an annual subscription for $40.

The Ultrahuman Ring Air made our list of the best smart rings, and that was before the company introduced this new software. It tracks an impressive amount of data and integrates with third-party devices like glucose monitors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/ultrahuman-brings-snoring-detection-and-respiratory-health-tracking-to-the-ring-air-130054901.html?src=rss