Latest news

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.

The popular video service TikTok has released a paid subscription option, which allows users to browse the app completely without ads, The Sun reports. The distribution of the new subscription, named TikTok Ad-Free, began today, but according to the company, the feature will become available to users gradually.

The price for the new ad-free subscription in Britain has been set at £3.99 (appx. €4.6 / $5.4) per month. The subscription is aimed exclusively at adults, as its age limit has been set at 18 years. The feature can be found and activated directly through the TikTok app's settings menu.

In exchange for the monthly fee, users will get rid of in-app advertisements completely. Additionally, the data of users who choose this subscription model will not be used for ad targeting.

It is noteworthy, however, that the payment does not bring any other new features, privileges, or additional content compared to regular free users; it is purely about removing ads.

Switching to the paid version is entirely voluntary. The basic use of the app will continue to remain unchanged and completely free for users who accept the display of targeted advertising in their feed.

Apple may be returning as a client to its old partner Intel in chip manufacturing. According to several sources, the companies have signed a preliminary agreement under which Intel would begin manufacturing some of the processors used in Apple's devices. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, and the existence of the agreement has since been confirmed by sources including The Wall Street Journal and Engadget.

The agreement is the result of negotiations lasting over a year, which have gradually progressed towards concrete cooperation. According to sources, this is a so-called foundry model: Apple designs its own Arm-architecture-based chips, and Intel manufactures them on its own production lines, similar to how Taiwanese TSMC does for current Apple Silicon chips. It is not yet clear which products Intel-manufactured chips would end up in, but estimates suggest that it could initially be for more affordable M-series chips, and later possibly also for iPhone chipsets.

In recent years, Apple has relied almost entirely on Taiwanese TSMC's manufacturing processes for the production of all its own chipsets. However, the company has repeatedly emphasized its desire to diversify its supply chain so that it is not so tied to one supplier - and potential problems with that company. In its latest earnings release, CEO Tim Cook stated that the availability of iPhone 17 models was limited because Apple did not receive enough A19 and A19 Pro chips from TSMC. The fierce demand from AI servers and clients like Nvidia has tied up a significant portion of TSMC's capacity, which has weakened Apple's negotiating position and increased the need for alternative manufacturers.

Google is discontinuing a popular method for backing up photos from a computer to Google Photos via the Google Drive desktop application. The change particularly affects power users and photographers who have utilized the Drive app for automatically transferring large photo and video libraries to the cloud.

Until now, the Google Drive desktop application has offered a dual role: it has synced files to Google Drive and simultaneously been able to upload photos and videos directly to Google Photos. Users could select folders on their computer for the app to monitor, after which the content would automatically transfer to the cloud in the background without separate actions. This has been particularly useful for those who transfer images from DSLRs and other standalone cameras first to a PC and then to their Google Photos library.

Google's support pages and emails sent to users state that the Google Photos integration in the Google Drive desktop application will be removed in two phases. The first change takes effect on June 15, when new folders for backup can no longer be configured for Google Photos via the Drive app.

European taxi company Yango, part of Russian Yandex group, has been convicted of unauthorized transfer of customer data to Russia.

The decision was issued jointly by the Finnish Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman and the data protection authorities of Norway and the Netherlands.

In a press release, the Finland's Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman states that the penalty fee has been imposed on MLU B.V., registered in the Netherlands, which was responsible for processing Yango's personal data in Europe. MLU is part of the Yandex group.

The investigation originally began already in 2023, when both the Norwegian and Finnish data protection authorities started to investigate whether Yango's customer data was being transferred to Russia and whether customers' personal data was adequately protected.

The investigation revealed that Yango's customer data was transferred to Russia without the safeguards required by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the authorities, MLU could not guarantee that Russian authorities would not have access to its customers' personal data.

Discreet, completely screenless activity trackers have become hugely popular, especially in the United States, but also in Europe. At the forefront of the trend has been the American Whoop, whose products have their own cult-like fanbase, but others, like Polar and Amazfit have also introduced their own, similar activity trackers.

Now advertising giant Google wants its own slice of that market and the company released a new, screenless Fitbit Air activity tracker. Like its competitors, Fitbit Air focuses on collecting health and wellness data as discreetly as possible, without screen notifications and visual clutter. The device automatically recognizes exercise activities and everything else worth tracking, meaning running or cycling sessions are not started or stopped, but the device deduces everything itself with its built-in sensors.

At the same time, Google discards the traditional Fitbit app and replaces it with the new Google Health mobile app, to which Fitbit Air also connects.

Fitbit Air weighs 12 grams with the strap (without the strap, the device weighs only 5.2 grams) and is promised water resistance up to 50 meters deep. The battery is promised to last for a week while continuously monitoring the user's health, sleep, and activity.

We reported a couple of weeks ago on how digitally purchased PlayStation games would in the future regularly require online verification.

The findings showed that both PS4 and PS5 games required the console on which the game is installed to go online. At the time, this was interpreted to mean that the console would have to be connected to the internet at least once every 30 days or the game license would be revoked.

Now Sony has clarified the matter in a response it gave to GameSpot.

According to the company, games purchased digitally from the online store do indeed require a subsequent online verification even after the purchase.

But the check is carried out only once after the purchase. Apparently, the console should go online once, and this visit must take place within the first month from the purchase date, but after the end of the cancellation period for the game purchase - at least according to gaming media IGN .

Over the past couple of months, some strange things have been coming out of Microsoft's gaming division. And specifically in a positive sense.

The leadership of the gaming division was completely replaced with new faces over the winter and after that things have started to happen, quite a lot in fact.

First, in March, the first hints were announced about the upcoming next-generation Xbox, i.e. Project Helix.

Then in April, the leadership of the gaming division explained how players and games are being put back at the center of everything as the next steps for Xbox and Microsoft's entire gaming business are planned. In the same shake-up, the Microsoft Gaming unit was renamed back to simply Xbox - and Xbox Game Pass prices were lowered.

And now the rapid moves continue, as the head of the Xbox division, Asha Sharma, said this week (link goes to X/Twitter) that Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot will be completely removed from the Xbox platform and its development for Xbox will be discontinued immediately.

The world's most popular browser, Google's own Chrome, is now automatically downloading a huge additional file to every computer it's installed on.

The four-gigabyte weights.bin file automatically downloads to the computer and places itself in the same directory path where Chrome is installed.

This file is essentially the weight file for Gemini Nano, Google's own AI's local model, which tells the local AI model how it should function and what it can do.

So, in simple terms: a local Google AI model, running on the user's computer, is downloaded to (almost) every single computer with the Chrome browser installed.

It should be noted in this context that almost all: if the computer is too slow, has too little memory, or is otherwise incompatible with Gemini Nano, the local AI model will not be downloaded.

The issue was first noticed by The Privacy Guy, who wrote about it on his blog after first figuring out what was going on.

Chrome will henceforth use local AI to perform the browser's AI functions, such as suggesting what to write on social media or which tabs should be grouped together.

Microsoft has, over the past decade, delved into its history and released as open source some of the company's most important early products.

Previously, the giant has released as open source, among others, MS-DOS 4, released in 1988 and developed in cooperation with IBM, as well as the company's very first product, Altair BASIC.

Now the company has released a version of its DOS operating system that offers a glimpse into the events that ultimately led to the creation of the MS-DOS operating system, which grew into Microsoft's empire.

Microsoft, at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, was still a relatively small technology company. However, it had managed to secure a deal with the gigantic IBM to supply an operating system for IBM's soon-to-be-released, entirely new Personal Computer concept, which would use the 8086 processor.

Microsoft simply didn't have such an operating system in existence.

But another software company did: Tim Paterson had developed the 86-DOS operating system (formerly known as QDOS), which already ran on the 8086 processor, albeit in a different configuration than what IBM would later release.

Google is expanding YouTube's picture-in-picture function, or PiP mode, to all users worldwide. The feature has existed for years, but its use has been limited until now: previously it has only worked for American users - or elsewhere in the world through a paid YouTube Premium subscription.

Now the picture-in-picture function will be automatically enabled for all YouTube users, in all countries - meaning also for those using the free version of YouTube. According to the company, the feature will be rolled out in phases, "over the coming months".

However, the change does not make PiP mode completely identical for everyone, as the available features will continue to depend on the subscription type. Free users can only use the PiP feature when watching "long form" videos. This covers, for example, vlogs, documentaries and most other types of long videos - but music videos and YouTube Shorts are excluded.

Paying Premium subscribers will continue to get full benefit from picture-in-picture mode. They can use PiP mode for watching all kinds of videos, including music videos, allowing, for example, a single music video or a music video playlist to continue in the background, even if the user switches to other apps on their phone.

Nowadays, jumping from one computer operating system to another is already a reasonably painless process, as graphical user interfaces have adapted over the decades to be very largely similar to each other.

But sometimes, the biggest "friction" when moving to another operating system is caused by having to give up tools with which one has worked for decades. Hardly all programs are still available for every common operating system.

One such, very beloved small program is the open-source text editor Notepad++, which already has a certain cult status among Windows users.

It was named the world's most used text editor on several occasions in the 2010s, even though it is available only and exclusively for Windows.

But now, a fully native version for macOS has also been released.

Notepad++ for Mac has been made according to Apple's best programming practices, meaning it faithfully follows macOS user interface standards and other Apple-world principles. At the same time, however, its actual editor part is exactly the same as in the Windows version.

The program supports both Intel- and Apple Silicon-based Mac computers. Support for extensions is still under development, so it is not yet a completely perfect port.

According to media sources, two subsidiaries of Chinese Oppo, OnePlus and Realme, have merged.

The information is based on data from a Chinese leaker considered quite reliable, which was published on China's most popular social media service Weibo (in Chinese).

According to the information, the companies will establish a joint "sub-product center" that would coordinate the product launches and apparently also the product development of both brands. The same center would be responsible for coordinating the operations of both brands both in China and abroad.

The head of the center would be OnePlus's China director Li Jie, and his superior would be OnePlus's current head Pete Lau. In addition, the marketing of both companies will be centralized under another, separate unit.

OnePlus has been at the center of wild rumors throughout the beginning of the year, and a significant number of personnel are reported to have left the company in all Western countries. Around the same time, Oppo also re-merged Realme, which previously operated independently, back into Oppo's tighter corporate structure.

The European Commission has issued its preliminary findings from an investigation launched in January 2026, concerning Google's activities in relation to the Android operating system and AI services.

The findings, based on the Digital Markets Act (DMA), suggest that Google must open up Android's key functionalities and interfaces to competing AI services to ensure fair competition and service interoperability.

Currently, Google reserves many deep-level capabilities of Android devices primarily for its own AI products, such as Gemini.

The actions planned by the EU would force Google to allow competing AIs to perform tasks directly within other applications on the phone.

For example, a user could ask their preferred AI to send an email using their favorite app, order food, or share photos with friends, without Google's own services acting as a bottleneck.

One of the most visible changes for consumers would concern the activation of AI services.

The Commission demands that users must be able to easily activate competing AI services using their own wake words.

Valve's anticipated new Steam Controller has finally received its official unveiling. The controller will go on sale on May 4th at 8:00 PM Finnish time, and its price has been confirmed at 99 euros.

The new device is designed to work seamlessly with the entire Steam ecosystem, offering support for traditional PC computers, Steam Deck, and Steam Machine devices.

The controller's most significant technical innovation is its magnetic joysticks utilizing TMR (Tunnel Magnetoresistance) technology. These sticks consume less power and offer a more precise response than traditional Hall sensors. The technology also effectively combats the stick drift issue that plagues many game controllers.

In terms of control, Valve has combined the familiar touchpads from the first Steam Controller with a more traditional controller layout. The device features two precise touchpads, enabling gameplay for games requiring mouse control, such as strategy and simulation games.

Precision is further enhanced by gyroscope support, which can be activated simply by resting a finger on the sticks or the new grip sensor. Additionally, the back of the controller features four programmable extra buttons.