Many of us have a lot of digital data locked away in our Google accounts: emails, photos, chats, documents, schedules, restaurant reviews. Losing access to that data is likely to be fairly high on the catastrophe scale. There are steps you can take before that happens to minimize the chances…
This Jammer Wants to Block Always-Listening AI Wearables. It Probably Won’t Work
Deveillance also claims the Spectre can find nearby microphones by detecting radio frequencies (RF), but critics say finding a microphone via RF emissions is not effective unless the sensor is immediately beside it. “If you could detect and recognize components via RF the way Spectre claims to, it would literally…
After Europe, WhatsApp will let rival AI companies offer chatbots in Brazil
Meta is now allowing rival AI companies to provide their chatbots on WhatsApp to Brazilian users for a fee, a day after the company confirmed a similar decision for users in Europe. Earlier this week, Brazil’s antitrust regulator CADE ruled against Meta and rejected its appeal to block an earlier…
India’s Karnataka signals intent to ban social media for under-16s
Indian state Karnataka, home to the tech hub of Bengaluru, plans to ban children under 16 from using social media, joining a growing global movement that aims to curb young people’s access to online platforms despite questions over enforcement and effectiveness. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah announced the decision during the…
Quantum scale-up Pasqal plans $2B SPAC listing, promises to ‘remain French’
Amid enduring investor appetite for all things quantum, another European company in the space is graduating from the private markets. Just two weeks after Finnish quantum unicorn IQM said it was going public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), its French rival Pasqal is doing the…
India PC shipments surpass pandemic peak as first-time users upgrade
India’s PC market had its strongest year on record in 2025, surpassing the surge in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic as millions of first-time buyers who purchased laptops during lockdowns began upgrading their devices. Shipments of desktops, notebooks, and workstations in India rose 10.2% year-over-year to 15.9 million units in…
Claude’s consumer growth surge continues after Pentagon deal debacle
Claude’s daily active users are on the rise on mobile devices, as are its new app installs, following the company’s fallout with the Pentagon. After Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to allow the government to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons, the AI…
Robinhood’s startup fund stumbles in NYSE debut
Retail investors are famously locked out of the startup world. Robinhood is attempting to change that by allowing the general public to invest in a portfolio of what it calls “some of the most exciting private companies operating today.” To do this, the company that pioneered the commission-free brokerage model…
Anthropic’s Claude found 22 vulnerabilities in Firefox over two weeks
In a recent security partnership with Mozilla, Anthropic found 22 separate vulnerabilities in Firefox — 14 of them classified as “high-severity.” Most of the bugs have been fixed in Firefox 148 (the version released this February), although a few fixes will have to wait for the next release. Anthropic’s team…
Your smart TV has many useful ports, but this isn’t one of them
Smart TVs are packed with more ports than you know what to do with. HDMI outnumbers them all, and that’s because most of your devices use that format these days. If you don’t have modern equipment, you might still get some use out of some of these older ports. Quite…