Technology

Apple has begun inviting selected members of the media to a product launch experience in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a post on X, Gurman described the gathering as an "all-day product launch experience" for touchscreen MacBooks, a new iPad mini, and Macs equipped with M6 chips.

"We would love for people to be able to play the game on Xbox, but not until Microsoft and/or Xbox have been removed as BDS boycott targets" Melbourne-based developer House House will not release its co-op hit Big Walk on Xbox, citing support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

There’s a new digital pet in town — a cute little marshmallow of a robot that can change its cartoony expressions to match your mood. But if you or your kids talk to “Eiliko” over Wi-Fi, it’ll phone home to China. Its AI companion can store literally everything you tell it on Chinese servers, where hackers can easily gain access or even hijack its personality. And the company that made it, Energize Lab, doesn’t seem to care. I bought an Eiliko from Amazon on August 29th. During a 10-minute conversation on August 30th, I asked the little bot: “Do you ever tell anybody else what I’m saying?”“Your secrets are safe with me,” it replied. Within minutes, a man on the other side of the planet had a complete transcript of everything I’d told the toy. Photo by Sean Hollister / The VergeHe didn’t just have my conversations, either. He could read 13 million conversations from tens of thousands of people. He could access seemingly the entire active worldwide fleet of 68,000 robot toys. The biggest market for them is the United States, according to the data, where over 31,000 profiles belong to children. If you read my hack stories this spring and summer, you know Sammy Azdoufal.

If you have young kids or if you know somebody who does, then you know about YouTube’s AI slop problem. Videos targeted at children on the platform are often filled with bizarre and hyperstimulating content that’s AI generated. Not all of it is age-appropriate. These videos autoplay on endless, algorithmically curated streams punctuated by ads. Maka, a new streaming app for kids aged 0 to 6, is positioning itself as an antidote to that concern. The platform has zero ads and doesn’t allow autoplay or endless scrolling, and its algorithms intentionally do not maximize watch time. The company’s cofounder and chief product officer, Tanyella Leta, tells WIRED the platform is purposely abandoning the mechanisms that “turn children’s media into an engagement machine.”Maka’s CEO and cofounder Isabel Sheinman adds that a lot of the streamers were built to serve adults, not children. “Kids were really the afterthought,” she says. Sheinman wants to set a much higher bar for what quality looks like in children’s media, which she says has been warped by harmful incentives.

Howdy partner! We've got some bangers on the cards for you today, so let's crack on with your daily fix of brand new Xbox titles. First up is Disney/Pixar Toy Story: Retro Roundup! + Toy Story 3 Complete Edition - woof, what a mouthful! Yep, we've already reviewed this collection of Toy Story classics, and what a joy it has been to replay the Buzz Lightyear level in 4K. Better yet, now you can too!

Ahead of pre-orders for Apple's upcoming foldable device — the iPhone Duo — later this week, the company also revealed the prices for AppleCare+ and repairs if you break or damage the device, or if you need to change the battery. The $1,999 device can easily become a huge mistake if you don't have AppleCare+, as you may have to spend up to $1,499 to replace a broken unit. Fortunately, you can avoid that by paying $19.99/month or $199.99/year for AppleCare coverage. Comparing repair fees with or without AppleCare+ shows how expensive keeping an unprotected iPhone Duo can be. For example, the cheapest repair for the iPhone Duo, which could involve damage to the cover layer, can cost $49 without AppleCare+, while a replacement with AppleCare+ is $19. Damage to the inner display can cost a whopping $999 without AC+ while being just $99 with it. Lastly, if your iPhone is stolen or lost, you only pay $149 with AppleCare+, provided you have the theft and loss plan.

ASUS has officially launched the ExpertBook A7 (14" AMD), marking the debut of its new ExpertBook A line. Although the laptop was showcased at IFA 2026 in Berlin, the official announcement occurred only recently. This model prioritizes form over performance, featuring an all-metal casing that is approximately 10 mm thick and weighs around 1.2 kg. It is equipped with a stunning 14-inch 3K OLED display. Why ASUS needs another business model series ASUS' business portfolio is currently divided into three main branches. The flagship ExpertBook Ultra targets executives and professionals who require top-tier performance, design, and mobility all in one device. The B series is intended for corporate and government procurement, focusing on flexible configurations and the ease of managing a large fleet of devices. Lastly, the P series caters to small businesses and individual professionals who need a reliable work machine without incurring unnecessary costs. The new A series is categorized as "everyday mobility. " Its target audience consists of individuals who frequently move between the office, coworking spaces, and meetings, often engaging with clients in person.

Spring Authorization Server now lives inside Spring Security 7 under the same Maven coordinates, so moving off 1.5.x is a version bump, rather than an artifact swap. Demonstrating Proof of Possession (DPoP) (RFC 9449) already worked end-to-end on Spring Security 6.5 with Spring Authorization Server 1.5. The real news on the 7.1 line is that resource-server verification is no longer automatic, so an app that relied on the old auto-applied behavior silently stops enforcing DPoP after upgrading until it adds the new .dPoP() call.

Classical computers, running a newly developed algorithm, can now match and even exceed the simulation capabilities of some existing quantum devices. It means the simulations can be run using around five percent of the computing power previously needed to perform them with a supercomputer, the team says. This advance promises to lower the cost and accelerate research into building more reliable quantum computers, particularly those using light-based technology. Raul Garcia-Patron Sanchez of the School of Informatics. The new algorithm enabled classical computers to match the simulation performance of some existing quantum devices, a surprising result given the expectation that quantum hardware would inherently outperform classical systems in these tasks. This shift in capability has implications for the development of photonic quantum computers, a specific architecture benefiting from the ability to run more detailed simulations.

Researchers at Google Quantum AI and Cornell University have demonstrated a new error mitigation technique that surpasses existing methods by operating entirely in classical post-processing. Their work introduces virtual error cancellation, a method that reduces sampling overhead by using only syndrome records from quantum circuits, bypassing the need for prior noise characterization and modified circuits. Numerical simulations using a distance-7 rotated surface code show the full-stack dual-decoder algorithm achieves more than three orders of magnitude of suppression in error rate compared to standard decoding. This approach operates entirely through classical post-processing, offering a streamlined pathway to more reliable computation. The core of this advancement lies in the ability to avoid the typical requirements of noise learning and circuit alterations, both of which add complexity and overhead to quantum error mitigation.

The technical groundwork for a quantum-resistant internet is further along than the policy needed to build it. The IETF finalized the standard for encoding ML-DSA signatures within X.509 certificates in RFC 9881 in October 2025, yet as of this year the CA/Browser Forum has not approved their use in publicly trusted TLS certificates. This creates a clear timeline; organizations can begin building post-quantum certificate authorities now, but widespread adoption for secure browsing remains a future goal. Encryption, facing the immediate threat of “store now, decrypt later” attacks, prioritized key exchange solutions before signature updates. This discrepancy highlights a growing gap between the readiness of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms and the policy frameworks needed for their widespread deployment, a situation that could delay the transition to a quantum-resistant internet. NIST’s finalized standards, FIPS 204 for ML-DSA and FIPS 205 for SLH-DSA, published on August 13, 2024, define distinct approaches to quantum-resistant cryptography, each with its own performance characteristics and ideal use cases.

For more than 50 years, humanity has used "leap seconds" to keep our clocks aligned with the rotation of the Earth. On Thursday, an international timekeeping body in France voted to do away with leap seconds and let the clocks slip until they're out of alignment by a full hour, which could take centuries or even millennia. The precise atomic time we use to track our days — developed in the 1950s and measured by tracking the natural vibrations of atoms — is slightly out of sync with solar time, which is based on the position of the sun in the sky relative to a specific location on Earth, because the planet's rotation has been gradually slowing. The leap second was introduced in 1972 as a way to correct the discrepancy. Ten seconds were added immediately, says Scott Beattie, lead of the frequency and time team at the National Research Council of Canada's Metrology Research Centre. Since then, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, which tracks the difference between the solar day and atomic time, has monitored the discrepancy to determine when an extra second is needed.

Hermès introduced the H08 collection in 2021 as a different take on the sporty-chic watch, first launched as a time-and-date series, then updated with a monopusher chronograph and, more recently, a skeleton model. The H08 stands out for its rounded square case, original Arabic numerals on the dial, and a mix of surfaces and materials that feels more considered than technical. Since then, the H08 has embraced titanium and ceramic, and in 2023 added references in a lightweight braided glass-fibre case coated with aluminium and slate powder, with concrete-grey dials and bright colour accents. The two latest editions keep the same recognisable silhouette and materials-led approach, bringing new colours. These new H08 models retain their thin 39mm cushion-shaped case with softly rounded edges, measuring 10.6mm in height. The case is made from braided glass-fibre composite with an aluminium-coated surface, delivering a brighter colour than the previous slate-coated editions. The material’s interwoven structure gives it a distinctive appearance, while its lightweight construction suits the watch’s character.

Zócalo executive director Moira Shourie's Fitbit accompanied her for almost 18 years, capturing heartbeats, steps, and rest cycles—but missing milestones along the way. Shourie explains why it's time to say farewell to the fitness tracker. | Shourie and her son at the Palisades 4th of July Run in 2009. Credit: Moira Shourie I’m breaking up with my Fitbit. I’ve worn this little device on my wrist while it silently kept an uninterrupted record of my pulse and sleep patterns for nearly 18 years. Intertwined with my heart rate data are moments of anxiety, anticipation, pure joy, and intense heartbreak.