News written by Petteri Pyyny

It's already been seven years since we reviewed the first robot vacuum that featured a separate dust container built into its charging dock. Since then, self-emptying robot vacuums have become the industry standard: practically every robot vacuum priced above €500 can now empty its own small internal dustbin into a larger dust bag located inside the charging dock.

Back then, the solution felt ingenious - and it still does. The usability of robot vacuums drops dramatically if users constantly have to manually empty the robot's tiny onboard dustbin.

But even then, we complained about one particularly silly design choice... Why on earth does the larger dock-mounted dust container rely on disposable dust bags, when traditional canister vacuum cleaners largely abandoned them sometime in the early 2010s? Buying dust bags is already irritating enough with conventional vacuums, but with robot vacuums it can eventually become nearly impossible as models age and compatible dust bags may only be available from questionable Chinese online stores.



Now, that rather ridiculous problem finally has a solution. We got our hands on Ecovacs' new flagship robot vacuum, the Ecovacs Deebot X11 Omnicyclone, launched around the turn of 2025/2026, where the dock's dust bag has been replaced by a fixed large-capacity dustbin.

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Google is expanding the role of its Gemini AI assistant towards more independent, agent-like operations.

At its I/O 2026 developer conference, the company introduced a series of updates aimed at transforming Gemini from a passive question-and-answer tool into a constantly working digital assistant in the background. New features include the Daily Brief agent, which provides daily summaries, and the 24/7 personal AI agent Gemini Spark.

The task of Daily Brief is to serve as a kind of morning starting point, compiling a personalized status overview for the user. The agent automatically reads connected applications in the background, such as Gmail and Google Calendar, and based on these, quickly forms a scannable summary of urgent messages, upcoming events, and, for example, tracking information for incoming packages. Daily Brief is not limited to mere summarization but also aims to prioritize content according to the user's goals and suggest next steps. The user can guide the agent by providing feedback on the summaries it produces. Daily Brief will initially be available only in the United States and is limited to Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers.

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The popularity of programming languages is measured by TIOBE, which has once again updated its listing.

The latest May 2026 listing does not contain huge surprises, as Python continues as the completely dominant number one, as it has for a long time.

Even after Python, the listing is very similar from month to month, meaning C, C++, and Java also remain firmly in the top four - although this time C++ has dropped a couple of places from a year ago, allowing C and Java to overtake it.

The biggest change was seen in the rise of the R language, which climbed as many as four places from a year ago, to position 8. According to TIOBE's assessment, R and Python are capturing the statistical computing market, and other programming languages used in statistics are losing their positions.

TIOBE's listing of the ten most popular programming languages in May 2026:

1. Python
2. C
3. Java
4. C++
5. C#
6. JavaScript
7. Visual Basic
8. R
9. SQL
10. Delphi/Object Pascal

TIOBE's listing is based on publicly known skill distribution of people who program for a living, available courses, and third-party sources. The full TIOBE listing can be found here.

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A couple of years ago, the first big change in 30 years occurred on PC keyboards.

At the beginning of 2024, Microsoft mandated device manufacturers to add to the right side of the keyboard's spacebar a separate Copilot key.

As the name suggests, the key automatically opens the Copilot AI assistant in Windows and most Microsoft applications.

The key has been a quite universally hated change, because especially on laptops, manufacturers completely removed one of the previously used keys and slapped the Copilot key in its place. Most often, the right-hand Ctrl key was removed from the keyboard.

Even if one doesn't use Copilot for anything, the key has still sat on the keyboard unnecessarily. Linuxissa, the key's function could easily be changed to one's liking, and even in Windows, it has been possible in some cases with Microsoft's own PowerToys tool.

But now Microsoft has clearly listened to users, and the key's function can henceforth be changed directly from Windows settings back to the right-hand Ctrl key or the so-called Menu key, which has been the other option for several device manufacturers, in place of which the Copilot key was installed.

Microsoft has recently started an ambitious project known as K2, in which the company aims to fix all of Windows' most annoying shortcomings and features.

So, in practice, the aim is to stop Windows' enshittification.

As part of the project, Microsoft is, among other things, revamping Windows' most important utility programs, which are intended to be completely recreated as so-called native applications.

But other things are happening too, as according to information, the company is currently testing a new change to Windows that would significantly speed up program launches.

The feature, known as "Low Latency Profile", would give a significantly larger amount of the user's computer's processor power than before to the program that is currently starting up, for about 1 - 3 seconds.

According to preliminary information obtained by Windows Central, the feature would speed up the launch of the heaviest applications by up to 40% compared to the current state.

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Elon Musk has lost his high-profile lawsuit against AI company OpenAI and its leadership in California.

The court jury found that Musk filed his lawsuit too late, causing all of the billionaire's claims to lapse due to statutes of limitations. The decision removes a significant legal threat to OpenAI's stock market listing, which is expected to happen as early as this year.

In the lawsuit that began in 2024, Musk demanded that OpenAI's transformation into a for-profit company be reversed and that its key leaders, including CEO Sam Altman and former chairman of the board Greg Brockman, be removed from the company's leadership. According to Musk, Altman and the other founders violated the company's original non-profit mission, which aimed to develop AI for the benefit of all humanity. Musk had donated a total of approximately 38 million dollars to OpenAI and claimed that his charitable funds had been practically "stolen" when operations were shifted to a for-profit structure.

According to international media reports, however, the jury focused primarily on a technical but crucial question when making its decision: when had Musk's alleged damages occurred, and had the lawsuit been filed within the legally required timeframe. OpenAI's lawyers largely built their defense on the statute of limitations argument, aiming to show that all damages claimed by Musk had arisen before 2021-2022, by which time the deadlines for Musk's claims would have already expired under California law. The jury found this interpretation credible and reached a verdict after only about two hours of deliberation.

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Google has changed Gemini's usage limits starting May 17, 2026.

With the change, users are required to update the Gemini mobile app to the latest version on both Android and iOS devices to ensure the best user experience. Along with the update, Gemini's user interface has also been revamped, and personal usage limits can now be easily viewed directly in the app's settings.


Your own usage can be easily seen in the settings

However, the new restrictions only apply to users over 18, meaning that for minors, the usage limits remain unchanged.

The biggest change concerns how the consumption of the AI service is measured. Google is abandoning traditional fixed message limits and moving to compute-power-based usage restrictions that reset every five hours until a broader weekly limit is reached.

When calculating usage consumption, the complexity of the prompt, the features used, and the overall length of the conversation are taken into account. For the consumer, this means that complex and long conversations can exhaust the five-hour quota significantly faster than before.

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Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics has taken a step into the world of science fiction films by presenting what it calls the world's first mass-produced human-controlled mecha-robot.

The giant robot named GD01 takes the company's development work from previous robot dogs and humanoids towards heavier, human-transported machines.

The device's price tag is as striking as its appearance, as the robot's prices start from over $650,000 (appx. 600,000 euros).

In a video released by Unitree, the company's founder and CEO Wang Xingxing climbs into the robot's cockpit himself. The video also shows the robot walking without a human.

According to the company, the presented material is genuine and real-time without video accelerations.

Weighing approximately 500 kilograms with its driver, the GD01 stands out with its transformability. The robot can move in urban environments and on streets walking on two legs, but if necessary, it can transform into a quadrupedal mode.

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Google is currently testing a change that could significantly reduce the free cloud storage new users receive.

The company has quietly moved to a model where a new Google account by default receives only 5 gigabytes of storage instead of the previous 15 gigabytes - the full 15 gigabytes can only be accessed if the user links their phone number to the account. The change first emerged through user observations. A Reddit user shared a screenshot of the account creation view, where Google offered a basic quota of 5 gigabytes and the option to increase it to 15 gigabytes if a phone number was linked to the account. Small text stated that the number is used to ensure that the additional storage is granted only once per person.

Google's own help pages also indicate the policy change. Previously, the company's support pages unequivocally stated that a Google account includes 15 gigabytes of free cloud storage, shared between Gmail, Drive, and Photos services. After mid-March 2026, the text has been changed to promise "up to 15 GB" for free. The change in wording on the page is in line with the new account creation view, where the user is offered two clear options: accept the basic 5 gigabyte quota or link a phone number and get the full 15 gigabytes.

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iRobot has simultaneously unveiled no less than nine new robot vacuums, covering the entire market spectrum from the most affordable to the premium end.

The 2026 model range represents the company's most significant technological leap in years, as the size of the devices has been reduced by a quarter while suction power has been elevated to a new level.

All models utilize LiDAR technology, which significantly speeds up home mapping and navigation compared to previous camera-based solutions.

Roomba 115 Combo

The entry-level of the collection is the Roomba 115 Combo - and its biggest selling point is its exceptional low profile, as at only 7.89 centimeters tall, it is lower than, for example, the Ecovacs T50 Pro model and Dreame's flagship X60 Ultra.

Despite its small size, the 115 offers a suction power of 15,000 Pascals, which is more than double that seen in iRobot's 2025 models, such as the 7,000 Pascals in the Roomba 505+ model.

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Instagram has released a new Instants app to more countries, including most of Europe.

The app's basic idea is to share everyday moments without the typical social media polishing or careful consideration. The app is designed to be fast, opening directly to camera mode so that a photo can be snapped and sent with a single tap.

Photos taken through Instants cannot be edited at all before sending. The app has no filters or other editing tools. Another key feature is the disappearing nature of the content, as the recipient can view each photo only once, and they must be opened within 24 hours of sending, after which they disappear for good.

It is a new, standalone app, but it is tightly tied to Instagram.

Shared moments appear in Instagram messages. Photos sent by others can also be viewed through the Instants app, meaning the user can choose which app they use to view messages.

Content can only be sent to followers who follow the user back. Before opening the photo, the recipient sees a small preview image of it.

However, the user can manage their own sent content, as the app includes an archive function where their sent photos can be viewed later.

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Google has unveiled a completely new computer category, named Googlebook.

According to the company, this is the most significant change in the laptop sector since the launch of Chromebooks over 15 years ago.

While Chromebooks were originally built around cloud services, Googlebook has been designed from the ground up with the company's Gemini AI at its core. Google describes the new device not as a traditional operating system, but as an "intelligence system".

Googlebook combines Android ecosystem applications and the familiar web browser from the ChromeOS world into a seamless whole.

AI is deeply integrated into the device's usage, and one of the most prominent innovations is the Magic Pointer feature. It brings Gemini AI directly to the mouse cursor: by waving the mouse, the user receives contextual suggestions about things visible on the screen.

For example, pointing to a date in an email allows for the creation of a calendar entry with a single click, and selecting two images enables the AI to instantly visualize them together.

Another key software innovation is "Create your Widget," which allows users to create customized widgets for their desktop using only text prompts.

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Google's new Gemini Intelligence platform was one of the most interesting novelties released at today's Android I/O event.

Gemini Intelligence is an AI layer integrated into the operating system that sees what is happening on the screen and can control all applications found on the phone. This means it can be used to create independently operating agents for various purposes.

A prime example of this could be an agent that, just before waking up, reads all notifications, emails, and instant messages that arrived on the phone during the night - and creates a summary of them, gathering the truly important things from the flood of notifications. The same agent could also be configured to make calendar entries automatically if the incoming messages contained something clearly belonging to the calendar and worth remembering later.

So, with Gemini Intelligence, Google aims to change the way mobile phones are used, where the user regularly performs some repetitive routines between different applications - by automating them into self-operating background agents. What's also interesting about the feature is that the agent can also automatically react to what is visible on the screen, meaning it doesn't need to receive a "trigger" from any notification or event for it to initiate a desired process in the background. Processes can also involve the automatic use of several, even dozens, of different applications by the AI.

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Google and Apple have together improved support for RCS messages. Now, even RCS messages sent between iPhone and Android travel end-to-end encrypted.

The update arrived for iPhones today in the released iOS 26.5 update, and thanks to the update, most "basic" messages now also travel fully encrypted. RCS technology began replacing traditional text messages on Android a few years ago, and by the end of 2024, Apple also started supporting this standard.

Apple still uses its own iMessage communication by default for communication between iPhones, but in communication between different operating systems, we are now entering the RCS era. In the Android world, RCS messages have gradually replaced text messages almost entirely, provided that both parties in the conversation have at least a somewhat modern Android phone.

However, the use of RCS messages also requires that the participants' own operators support it - meaning that mere operating system support is not enough for using RCS.

Generally speaking, ad-funded websites want as many visitors as possible to their pages.

But after a certain scale, some sites want to know much more about their visitors, and merely visiting the site itself is no longer enough.

The reason for this is, of course, money, as "large enough" sites can effectively utilize additional information about their readers for better-targeted ads - and higher ad revenue. The best-known examples are likely Meta's services, which strongly push visitors to log in or download an app instead of just a quick visit.

Now, the internet's largest discussion forum, Reddit, appears to be taking steps in the same direction.

For example, technology publications Ars Technica and Futurism both recently noticed that Reddit no longer allows all users to access its websites.

The block affects some mobile users who have landed on a Reddit page using their browser. A notification appears stating that to view the content, the official Reddit mobile app must be installed on the phone.

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