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YouTube has announced that it is updating the recommendation system for its Shorts short-video service. With the update, algorithms will increasingly favor original content while simultaneously reducing the visibility of videos that have been copied or re-uploaded from other creators without adding their own value.

According to the company, the recommendation systems constantly process billions of different signals, including watch history, topics, and user engagement, to provide viewers with genuinely meaningful content.

According to YouTube, fine-tuning the recommendation algorithm improves the viewer experience and simultaneously ensures that creators publishing original content have the best opportunities to grow and succeed on the platform. The company notes that the change is also in line with its current rules and policies.

In practice, the change specifically targets channels whose operations are primarily based on re-publishing material from other creators or compiling videos without significant alterations.

YouTube warns that such accounts are likely to see a significant drop in the distribution and visibility of their videos in the Shorts feed.

The open-source browser Firefox has been completely revamped its appearance.

Firefox version 157, or FX 157, introduces the new visual look that has been in test use for some time, which Firefox developer Mozilla praises as being modern, yet not generic.

Firefox's Nova look

The new visual look is named Nova and is the product of long development. However, some users have not exactly fallen in love with the new look on social media, and tips have already been shared online on how to revert the appearance to the previous version.

The trick is done by typing about:config into the browser's address bar and then navigating to the settings hidden under the browser's hood. By finding the setting browser.nova.enabled and changing it from true to False, the browser will revert to the previous Firefox appearance when restarted.

Microsoft has started distributing Windows 11 26H2, also known as the 2026 update, to all compatible computers. This update continues the company's model adopted in recent years, where an annual update does not necessarily mean a heavy system reinstallation, but rather arrives for most users as part of regular monthly updates.

The reduction in update size is also evident in that the installation of the new "major" Windows 11 update might almost go unnoticed, as the installation process differs little from typical security updates - even in duration. The reason, of course, is that most of the functionalities included in the update have already been distributed to computers with previous monthly updates, meaning that if Windows updates have been kept up to date, 26H2 merely packages everything together in the form of the KB5121794 update - and raises the Windows version number.

Although a large part of the new features has already been distributed to Windows users, they have not been enabled for most users before, meaning that despite its small physical size, the update significantly changes Windows' operation.

Perhaps the most visible innovation is the deeper integration of AI functionalities into the operating system's core components. An AI assistant has been added to the Windows Settings view, capable of searching for and modifying system settings using natural language commands. This means that in the future, you no longer need to know exactly where a specific setting is located; instead, you can describe the desired item to the AI assistant, which can automatically find the correct location.

Although Meta has received a lot of flak regarding its smart glasses lately, the company also has another, parallel series of glasses: virtual reality glasses.

Virtual reality glasses are not used like smart glasses when moving outdoors and communicating with people; instead, they immerse their wearer completely into a separate virtual world, with the inner surface of the glasses acting as displays. The new Meta VR Glasses are unprecedentedly lightweight, as the glasses themselves weigh only 100 grams. For comparison, Apple's badly flopped Vision Pro glasses weighed 650 grams, and one of the biggest complaints from testers was their weight.

Meta has managed to lighten the glasses by ensuring that the glasses themselves only contain the displays, sensors, and control system, while computing power, battery, and storage have been moved to a separate, so-called puck unit that can be attached to a pocket or bag, which connects to the glasses via an optical cable.

According to Korean news sources, a recently released Samsung software update for the company's smart refrigerators has gone badly wrong.

The update arrived just before the important Chuseok holiday for Koreans and is most likely the very recent Tizen 10 update for the company's smart products, which we also recently reported on.

According to media reports (in Korean), immediately after the update, some consumers' Samsung smart refrigerators completely stopped working. This means the update not only affected the smart functions of the refrigerators, but also caused the basic cooling function of the refrigerator to cease working.

For some consumers, the refrigerator door would no longer close after the update, even though the refrigerator's cooling itself was still working. Several consumers report that the food in the refrigerator spoiled (in Korean).

According to ZDNet Korea, Samsung has temporarily halted the distribution of the software update and hired additional service personnel to help fix the refrigerators that malfunctioned due to the update before this year's Chuseok begins (September 24 - September 26, 2026).

Just recently Meta introduced a variety of Meta One subscription bundles, packaging various AI features and random paid features of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp together.

However, with the launch of Meta One, an exceptionally drastic measure was revealed too: from now on, sharing links on Facebook pages requires the Meta One subscription. So, from now on, sharing links costs money.

According to Facebook's own help pages and practical observations, Facebook pages can now only share two external links per month for free - after that limit is reached, a Meta One subscription is required.

The default limit resets on the first day of each month, and "unused links" do not carry over to the next month. This strict restriction directly affects businesses, organizations, and content creators who use their Facebook pages to grow their website traffic or e-commerce.

There are handful of exceptions to this rule: normal people, who don't have a separate Facebook business or organization page, can still freely post as many links as they want to. Also, registered news organizations are exempt, too - at least, for now.

The legendary MP3 player Winamp is making a comeback. Once again.

This time, the arrangements have been completely revamped compared to before, and the new Winamp, set to be released in 2027, is a combination of the iconic MP3 player and a modern streaming service. This means that, in practice, Winamp can retain its late-90s look if desired, while simultaneously enjoying the ease of streaming - without forgetting MP3 file playback.

Winamp will not build its subscription-based streaming service from scratch; instead, the company has licensed the music catalog and streaming technology of French Deezer for its use.

To avoid scaring off current users of the original Winamp too much, Winamp promises in its press release that the original Winamp application, which operates without a streaming service, will also continue to exist, meaning there will be two separate versions of Winamp available in the future.

This move is likely quite smart, as, surprisingly, according to Winamp, the original MP3 player still has about 40 million active users. The new Winamp, set to be released next year and coexisting with the traditional version, is also promised to support MP3 file playback, internet radio playback, and Winamp's traditional playlists.

Google's researchers succeeded at the beginning of September in creating a complete 3D model of the brain of a common adult, male fruit fly.

It was the first time that the entire brain structure of a reasonably complex animal was digitized into a 3D model containing over 166,000 neurons. The achievement is considered a significant milestone for brain research and is hoped to help researchers understand brain function more precisely.

But because humans are, after all, humans, such a fine scientific achievement was also harnessed for a rather perplexing use.

A few days later, programmer Alex Wormuth announced on social media (link leads to X/Twitter) that he had taken the fruit fly brain model created by Google and taught it to play Doom.

Because why not.

Wormuth states that the teaching process was based on brain stimulation, where each game frame (frame) is sent to the fruit fly's brain neurons that process external stimuli. The subsequent brain activity is then returned to Doom for character control. Correspondingly, whenever enemies are successfully damaged in the game, a reward-indicating stimulus is fed to the brain, stimulating its dopamine-sensitive cells.

The world's largest so-called content delivery network, American Cloudflare, has set a deadline that is fast approaching.

On Tuesday, September 15, 2026, Cloudflare will by default start blocking all bots that use the data they collect for training or developing AI services.

Cloudflare itself may not mean anything to the average internet user, but about a third of all significant websites in the world use Cloudflare as a kind of doorman for their content, which lightens the load on the sites' own servers - and blocks unwanted bot traffic.

And starting September 15, bots that collect data for "mixed use" purposes will also be included in that group of "unwanted bot traffic".

This category includes advertising giant Google's own bot, Googlebot.

Google uses its data-collecting bot to create the index for its traditional search engine, but the same bot also collects data for Google's AI search.

As Cloudflare's rules change on September 15, Google's bots that collect and index website content will therefore be blocked by default, unless the site administrator has decided to specifically allow them. Cloudflare calls the upcoming change day Content Independence Day.

Korean giant LG is once again at the center of a privacy scandal, as it was revealed that the company's smart TVs collect a frightening amount of data.

A two-hour video from the Gamers Nexus channel goes through all the alarming revelations that emerged when LG's televisions were examined more closely.

Firstly, the company's smart TVs constantly scan the local network to which they are connected and gather information about other devices found on the same local network. This means, for example, data from home phones, printers, and computers is collected and stored by the TV.

In addition, the TV's WiFi constantly collects information about other nearby WiFi networks, even when WiFi has not been used to connect the TV to the home's local network. The TV also stores this information in its own storage with timestamps.

Another observation concerned the operation of smart TV voice control. After voice control is activated and a voice command is given to the TV about what it should do, the TV does not stop listening. Instead, it actively listens to conversations for an extended period and transcribes the speech into text format, which is stored in the TV's storage.

The Playstation 3 emulator for PC, RPCS3, has received a significant update, allowing PlayStation 3 games to now be played on PC directly from original PS3 game discs.

The new feature works on Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, bringing the emulator closer to its original goal: preserving the entire PS3 game library for future generations, even in a future where PS3 consoles no longer exist.

Previously, PS3 games had to be transferred from the original game discs to the computer's hard drive, which often required tools classified as illegal in Europe, for example, that bypassed PS3 game disc copy protections. At the same time, the content of the game discs naturally consumed computer storage space, and the transfer itself took quite a lot of time. After the update, RPCS3 works on the same principle as the original PS3 console: disc in and game starts.

The process doesn't work effortlessly on every computer, as a Blu-Ray drive must, of course, be present. Additionally, PS3 games use their own disc format, which not all Blu-ray drives can read - the RPCS3 project website lists all compatible Blu-Ray drives separately that are known to work reliably with the emulator. According to the developers, this is a hardware-level limitation that developers simply cannot bypass programmatically.

Google has yielded to the fear of massive fines from the European Union and significantly changed its search engine's operations across the entire EU area.

The advertising giant, which owns by far the world's largest search engine, has been under investigation by EU competition authorities for a long time.

Criticism has focused on Google seizing a large share of the revenue from brokering hotels, flights, restaurants, and sports events by displaying its own price comparisons at the top of its search results when a user searches for, say, hotel nights.

For this reason, the company was slapped with a 460 million euro fine in July for violating the Digital Markets Act legislation. However, the company was given the opportunity to avoid paying the fine if it permanently changes its operating model.

According to information obtained by Reuters, Google has today changed its search engine's operations in these respects across the entire European Union.

IFPI Finland has updated the acceptance criteria for Finland's official single and album charts, effectively banning all AI-generated music.

According to the revised rules (PDF, in Finnish), songs and albums that have been entirely created or produced with the help of artificial intelligence will not be accepted on the Official Finnish Chart. The criterion for acceptance on the chart has been set in the rules as follows: "AI-generated recordings are accepted on the Official Finnish Chart only when they are predominantly made by humans and the services used in their creation are properly licensed and legal."

If there is any ambiguity about how songs were created, the chart committee will decide whether or not the song or album is accepted on the chart. If a song or album that is later found to be AI-generated ends up on the charts, it can also be retroactively removed from previous charts.

IFPI Finland also published quite detailed instructions (PDF, in Finnish) regarding the criteria for AI music that can be accepted on the chart.

Google has acquired all documents from the bankrupt American airline Spirit Airlines.

And the emphasis is on the word "all", as the deal includes the company's internal documents, spreadsheet files, email messages, and even Teams messages.

The seller was Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy estate, which auctioned off the data mass accumulated by Spirit Airlines over decades. There were several bidders in the auction, and Google's offer of 10 million dollars was ultimately the highest bid according to court records (PDF).

According to a statement given to CNN, Google plans to use the acquired data "to improve its products and develop its AI models". The second highest bid came from a company that also intended to use the data for developing its own AI models.

According to information submitted to the court, all personal and individually identifying data will be removed from the delivered information, meaning they do not violate anyone's privacy under US law.

SpaceX has completed the acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor, one of the largest technology deals in recent months. The deal is valued at $60 billion and will be paid in new SpaceX shares. The arrangement concerns Cursor's parent company, Anysphere, and was finalized on Friday, August 14, well before the previously announced third-quarter deadline.

The corporate arrangement was prepared in several stages. Already in April, SpaceX signed an agreement with Anysphere, which gave SpaceX two options: either acquire the company for $60 billion during the current year or pay $10 billion for collaboration without an acquisition. According to information, the acquisition was not intended to be finalized before SpaceX's stock market listing in early June, to avoid delaying the listing process.

Cursor confirmed in its blog that it is now officially part of SpaceX. The announcement particularly highlighted SpaceX's managed data centers, which SpaceX has recently leased with large contracts to companies such as Anthropic and Google. According to Cursor, the acquisition gives it access to SpaceX's available computing capacity, meaning Cursor will be able to freely use its parent company's data centers in the future.