The camera speaker ships today for $249.99. Hold up a board game box and Alexa can explain the rules, or show it a box of cereal and it can help you reorder it, according to Amazon. Owners can also check in on the room from the Alexa app while they are away. The Echo Studio without a camera stays on sale at $219.99.

A dedicated button turns off the microphones and any camera, and a visual indicator shows when a camera streams images or video to the cloud, Amazon said. Certain features require Alexa+, which is included with a Prime membership.

Former Yahoo CEO and early Google engineer Marissa Mayer is catching a lot of flak for how she uses AI. In an interview about her new app Dazzle, an AI assistant that learns from your camera roll, Mayer poses what she believes is an impressive flex for the product: It helped her come up with three bullet points about her 10-year-old daughter for a birthday presentation at school, describing her as “empathetic, creative, and an animal lover.”

It’s a vague description, like a generic horoscope — it could probably describe a lot of 10-year-olds. Some onlookers, like progressive activist Leah Greenberg, marveled that “the fact that Marissa Mayer would voluntarily disclose this to a reporter is a pretty good demonstration of how deeply the culture of Silicon Valley has diverged from the rest of humanity.” […] After publication, Mayer defended herself in a long X post. She claims she was not relying on Dazzle to explain her child to her, but rather, she was testing what her prototype could do — it resurfaced photos of “forgotten kindergarten projects,” like a “snake devenomer” or “sandcat playground,” illustrating her daughter’s creativity and care for animals.

Fair enough. But Mayer remarks in the same interview that people could also use her AI to outsource the mental load of “figuring out the theme for your child’s birthday party.” She says she’s used her app to plan a playdate for her daughter, book family activities on vacation, and decide what to be for Halloween. She even proposes that her AI assistant could coordinate plans with her husband’s AI assistant. When the reporter asks her if it’s depressing to imagine this “frictionless future planned by AI,” Mayer replies, “I haven’t really thought that through.”

Amazon wants its engineers to quit chasing token counts, warning that heavy AI usage does not automatically mean better work. In updated engineering guidelines published on October 27, the company laid out how developers and managers should gauge AI’s real impact — and the takeaway is blunt: consuming more tokens is not the same as delivering more value. […]

According to the memo, metrics such as AI adoption rates, token consumption, code changes, and code reviews become “deeply flawed” when they are disconnected from actual results. Turning them into targets, Amazon says, encourages wasteful behavior that clashes with its emphasis on “frugality and simplicity” and can raise both compute bills and software complexity.

The company’s preferred yardstick is long-term results. “We believe that it is best to measure, and be measured by, long-term outcomes,” Amazon wrote. That does not mean managers should ignore usage data altogether, as input metrics remain useful when examined “with care and judgment” alongside other indicators. Amazon suggests looking at both the teams using AI the least and those using it the most to determine whether adoption is translating into better delivery.

[…] The memo also pushes back on the idea that every task needs an AI tool. If current tooling does not benefit someone’s work, Amazon says, that is “a finding, not a failing.” Engineers who can explain where today’s tools fall short are demonstrating judgment rather than reluctance to adopt AI.

The new machine features a light-up Apple logo, tandem OLED, and touch input on the display. It runs on the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, like the existing MacBook Pro models without OLED touch displays. John Ternus, who is rocking a new profile picture with the new Mac, shared the first look at the new machine on X. Pricing for the new laptop starts at $2899 for the 14-inch model. The 16-inch version starts at $3399.

Programming used to be a very different experience from the one we know today. In fact, the first programmers didn’t write code at all; the six women who worked on the ENIAC, one of the world’s first computers, at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 did it by physically configuring switches, cables, and plugboards.

A few years later, MIT engineers programmed the Whirlwind by punching code onto paper tape that was then loaded into the computer’s memory — making it among the first “stored-program” machines. Later, they and others moved on to punch cards, one for each line of code.

By the early 1960s, programmers with interactive computers could use a “line editor” to type their code on teletypes — large, noisy keyboard-and-printer machines. They’d type one line of code at a time, and their work would be saved on a spinning hard disk the size of a modern washing machine. But there was still no such thing as the now-familiar full-screen text editors that allow programmers to see and modify many lines at a time on a display.

One of the first such tools, EMACS, turns 50 this year, and it is still widely used. EMACS first ran on the early video terminals at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1976, but its core concepts were so powerful that it was rewritten for many operating systems in the decades that followed. Apple even distributed it with Mac OS X. Beyond that, the software-sharing community that started around EMACS helped give rise to the modern-day free software movement and the GNU/Linux operating system.

You may not know Globalstar but have possibly used its services, as the company provides Apple’s emergency satellite connectivity for compatible iPhones and Watches. Interestingly, Apple also held a 20 percent stake in Globalstar prior to its takeover. As part of the deal, Leo will power satellite services for supported iPhone and Apple Watch models.

Leo, a rival to SpaceX’s Starlink, has been active of late. The company recently announced that it has 400 satellites in orbit and revealed last month that it had launched high-quality satellite internet service in Uzbekistan. It’s teaming up with Delta to eventually bring satellite internet to flights, as well. Amazon recently added six new Arianespace launches and aims to have more than 3,000 low-earth orbit satellites up in the near future, still well short of SpaceX’s 11,000 satellites.

Running an app ecosystem has gotten a lot more complex for Google after its loss in the Epic Games antitrust case. While U.S. users can access app stores in Google Play by court order, international users will use Google’s voluntary Registered App Stores program. Google has announced that stores wishing to be part of that program are now free to apply, and support will roll out to some Android devices later this year. App stores accepted into the program will enjoy preferential treatment on the Android platform. Users of approved stores will be able to install apps with a single click, similar to the experience in the Play Store. These stores will also be allowed to update apps silently in the background like Google’s store does.

[…] Registered App Stores are still happening on Android, but they won’t be supported in the U.S. — you can go to Google Play for alternative stores stateside, but so far, Aptoide remains the only one listed. Those operating Android app storefronts who want to be included in the international program can now review the program and begin the enrollment process. Any store hoping to get approval will have to adhere to a number of requirements, including protecting intellectual property, removing illegal content, and publishing a privacy policy for both users and developers. Google also requires several ongoing security measures to ensure the stores do not give malware easier access to Android devices. As part of the application process, store operators must provide documentation for all these points (in English) and upload copies of all their apps.

It costs $10,000 per year to participate in the Android Registered App Stores program, and that fee must be paid before Google will review the application. Google says this fee covers the additional support necessary to run the program. There may also be additional review fees if Google detects a store has a problem with malware. Google plans to roll out support in dozens of nations, which includes most of the world outside of the U.S. and Europe. The program goes live on December 1, but it will only work on Android devices running the latest builds of Android 17. Google says support will start with Android 17 QPR2, which is expected to arrive on Pixel phones in the coming weeks.

The discovery was made by running billions of pieces of data collected by the Rubin Observatory through a search code developed by Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian astronomers Matthew Holman and Kevin Napier. “My first reaction was one of excited disbelief,” Holman said in a statement. “Objects like this are very rare, so I immediately started checking whether I or the code had done something wrong.”

When Holman and his colleague Mario Juric of the University of Washington went to double-check, they found 30 more observations of the object by Rubin that dated to between March and July 2026. Looking at other observation tools, the pair found even more sightings going back to 2016. Together, these data allowed the astronomers to begin mapping out 2026 ED138’s orbit. The suspected dwarf planet is about 46 times as far from the sun as Earth, making it even more remote than Pluto, which is just 40 times as far. The object is also tilted off the solar system’s plane by around 25 degrees, an arrangement that could be linked to disruptions caused by Neptune’s gravitational pull.

Initial measurements indicate that 2026 ED138 has a diameter between 600 and 1,500 kilometers (373 and 932 miles), which makes it one of the largest dwarf planet candidates yet detected. But size isn’t all that matters: further observations are required to determine if the object has enough mass to be pulled into a round shape, which is a key requirement for a dwarf planet. Despite its size, 2026 ED138 was able to avoid detection for all these years because it’s located in a part of the night sky that’s crowded with stars whose light drowned it out.

The report is the CDC’s first comprehensive assessment of these drug-resistant pathogens in seven years. […] The new report offers a detailed picture of these threats in the U.S., including a ranking of which are the most urgent concerns, based on the number and severity of infections they cause and how easily preventable or transmissible they are. The ranking also factors in how many treatment options exist and their costs. […] The report estimates that 19 drug-resistant germs cause 9.7 million infections annually in the U.S. Of these, four pathogens are ranked as most worrisome, including the fungus Candida auris and the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, which has become resistant to all but one class of antibiotics used to treat it.

The other two urgent threats, according to the CDC, are the bacteria Acinetobacter and Enterobacterales, both of which are resistant to a class of antibiotics widely considered a “last resort” for patients. In addition, the report adds a new bacteria to the list of “concerning” threats, which are considered less worrisome but still warrant monitoring: neisseria meningitidis, which causes meningococcal disease. The rare but life-threatening illness can be prevented through childhood vaccinations, but the bacteria that causes it is slowly developing a resistance to penicillin and another antibiotic called ciprofloxacin.

The report also offers some good news: The CDC determined that the bacteria Clostridioides difficile, or “C. diff,” which causes diarrhea and inflammation of the colon and can be deadly, is causing fewer cases year over year. The agency downgraded it to a serious threat, whereas it was categorized as urgent in the prior version of the report, which came out in 2019.

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rose to record highs in 2025, locking in climate impacts that will persist for centuries, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Levels of the three main greenhouse gases — the climate-warming carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — all rose to unprecedented figures in 2025, the U.N.‘s weather and climate agency said. The World Meteorological Organization said the rise would lead to more long-term temperature increases for the planet.

The bulletin looks at greenhouse gas concentrations — the amount of those gases in the atmosphere — rather than new annual emissions amounts as the world burns more coal, oil and gas. In 2025, carbon dioxide concentrations were at 426.8 parts per million (ppm); methane at 1,948 parts per billion, and nitrous oxide at 339.1 parts per billion. That takes them, respectively, to 153%, 267% and 126% of the pre-industrial levels witnessed before 1750. Of the three major greenhouse gases, CO2 accounts for about 66% of the warming effect on the climate.

Around half of the total CO2 emitted each year remains in the atmosphere; the rest is absorbed by the land and oceans. From 2024 to 2025, the global average concentration of CO2 rose by 2.8 ppm — smaller than the record surge from 2023 to 2024 of 3.6 ppm. WMO senior scientific officer Oksana Tarasova said this reflected the “recovery of the land carbon sinks and reduced fire carbon emissions in 2025 after the strong 2023/2024 El Nino,” the naturally occurring, climate-warming weather phenomenon. “However, a 2.8 ppm annual increase is still a substantial addition of carbon to the atmosphere from fossil fuel burning.” It is also above the average growth rate for the past decade of 2.6 ppm — a figure that stood at 0.8 ppm in the 1960s.

The upcoming Fathom will be based on what Ford calls its Universal EV Platform, designed with the aid of its 2023 acquisition, startup Auto Motive Power, with bidirectional power on the plate from the start. The hardware required to invert the battery’s DC energy to an estimated 10 kW of AC home power will be built into the truck, so it won’t require a separate wall-mounted inverter box. Ford says the Fathom’s system will meet all applicable UL 1741 requirements and IEEE 1547 standards to ensure the vehicle is safely connected to the grid. As for the actual hardware you plug into your car, all signs point to the Fathom using the NACS plug type pioneered by Tesla and now widely adopted by new EVs in North America. In terms of the communication standard — the one that governs how AC power is routed from the slim wall box to the car’s onboard charger — that’ll be via SAE J3068, a software protocol developed for high-power, heavy-duty AC charging.

[…] However, while Fathom’s Universal EV Platform eliminates the need for a wall inverter box, it doesn’t completely bypass the need for additional hardware to make your home ready to accept bidirectional power. Say you wanted to take advantage of the Home Power Management feature to draw energy into the Fathom’s battery when power is cheapest, and then use that energy to offset peak-hour usage when power is most expensive. You’ll have to install at least the Ford Home Power Station in your home, at an additional cost. The automaker hasn’t specified pricing, but says that it’s working to reduce costs and expects this component alone to cost half as much as the first-generation Ford Home Energy system, which debuted at around $1,300. That could put the new system at roughly $650.

The four companies were named in an updated public notice (PDF) dated Monday, Oct. 26, from OKXICE, the two firms’ joint venture. They join earlier objectors including Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Cisco and Wells Fargo. The growing list underscores a hurdle for OKXICE and the SEC’s new framework for tokenized stock trading: building a market that issuers are willing to join. The agency’s five-year “Innovation Exemption” gives qualifying venues room to test round-the-clock blockchain-based trading of stocks, and it also gives public companies an option to block their shares from being offered.

OKXICE issued its initial public notice on Oct. 4, outlining plans to use Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX’s XLayer blockchain, with transactions settled in stablecoins. The venue would use automated market makers — software that executes trades through pools of assets rather than matching buyers and sellers through a conventional order book. Under the framework, venues must notify issuers and give them 30 days to object before offering tokenized versions of their shares.

Defenders across the world face the burden of responding to yet another botched code-execution vulnerability, this time in boot-time firmware used by most of the world’s server vendors and data centers. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 9.5 out of 10, resides in the TianoCore EDK II, an open source codebase that hardware makers and cloud providers use to create the UEFI firmware that runs during the boot-up sequence. Last year, a representative of the UEFI Forum called (PDF) EDK2 the “preeminent solution / implementation of the UEFI specifications.” Virtually all UEFI suppliers (sometimes still called IBVs or independent BIOS vendors), including AMI, Insyde, and Phoenix, use the reference code extensively. Project Mu, Microsoft’s hardened EDK2 fork, used the code containing the vulnerable component as well.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-97631, is a memory-corruption flaw in an ICMP component that attackers can exploit to execute malicious code that runs before the operating system and firmware can implement defenses like Secure Boot, which establishes a chain of trust for all code, including the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), loaded during boot. While final payloads delivered by CVE-2026-97631 have no persistence — meaning they run only once — they can give attackers a wide opening to install other payloads that also run each time early in the boot process.

The parties that discovered CVE-2026-97631 — Alex Matrosov of Anthropic and Dan Holmes of Google — had arranged for it to stay under wraps until a coordinated disclosure that was scheduled for January. AMI, a maker of motherboards and other hardware, published this pull request last month that detailed the vulnerability and included a code fix. Once the post came to the attention of the discovering parties, TianoCore Project members published a public advisory last week. With publicly available patch code, it will be trivial for advanced hackers to learn how the vulnerability is triggered and to build working exploits. Further compounding the urgency, patching UEFI code vulnerabilities in millions of end devices sold and used by thousands of hardware makers and cloud providers is cumbersome and time-consuming.

Google DeepMind released its newest world model, Genie 4, in research preview on Tuesday. The latest model generates the most photorealistic and interactive worlds yet, allowing users to type prompts mid-simulation to change the scene. The model also generates real-time audio that matches the simulated world, including music, ambient noises, and interactive dialogue.

[…] Google released its predecessor, Genie 3, as a research preview a little over a year ago. Aside from being far more photorealistic and featuring audio, Genie 4 allows for freeform edits, like changing the weather or camera angle in real time or adding new people or objects. It can maintain a consistent scene for up to two minutes, double its predecessor’s limit, and offers better physics and more human-like characters. Gemini, Google’s AI model, is also mo

Anduril, arguing that its manufacturing capabilities are directly applicable to laptop manufacturing, is starting a project for a fully 100% U.S.-sourced laptop. The computer will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. I did not see any information about the OS, but I’m assuming that, given the type of processor, this will be Linux-based?