Microsoft’s Project Solara is an Android OS designed for agents instead of apps

Microsoft has been deeply committed to the growth of generative AI technology in recent years through its now-fragmented partnership with OpenAI. At Build 2026, the company remains all-in on AI, and it’s looking toward the future with a new software platform. The new Android-based OS is called Project Solara, and Microsoft says Solara is designed to run agents instead of apps. Project Solara is not something you’ll have to worry…

June 2, 2026
Read More >>

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra looks like its first true MacBook Pro competitor

Dell, Asus, Lenovo, HP, MSI, Acer, and Gigabyte are among the PC makers that are designing systems around Nvidia’s RTX Spark, Nvidia’s new Arm-based chip for Windows PCs. But the flagship RTX Spark PC may be from the same company that makes Windows: the new Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is a high-end RTX Spark system that will offer up to 128GB of unified memory for “creators, developers, and AI builders.”…

June 1, 2026
Read More >>

Dozens of Red Hat packages backdoored through its official NPM channel

Official Red Hat NPM accounts have been compromised and used to push a malicious worm that spreads from machine to machine, where it pilfers sensitive credentials in hopes of stealing yet more confidential data, researchers said. The supply-chain attack began Monday and remained active at the time this post went live, according to researchers at security firm Aikido. It’s the result of the threat actor responsible for the hack taking…

June 1, 2026
Read More >>

AMD extends Socket AM5 support through at least 2029; AM4 refuses to die

One of the benefits of building an AMD PC is that the company has historically supported its processor sockets for longer than Intel does, allowing the same motherboard (and RAM kit, if you want) to power your PC through multiple CPU upgrades. Today at Computex, AMD announced chips for the current AM5 socket and the improbably-still-around AM4 socket that will help extend their lives a little further, a nod to…

June 1, 2026
Read More >>

Botnet of more than 17 million devices dismantled

Authorities in the Netherlands said they dismantled a botnet that comprised more than 17 million devices and were managed by 200 servers in a joint operation by the police and the National Cyber Security Center. The action, announced Thursday, came about after a security researcher reported the sprawling network to authorities. The host infrastructure was located in the Netherlands. Used for criminal purposes “The police then seized several botnet servers…

May 29, 2026
Read More >>

Fed up with vibe coders, dev sneaks data-nuking prompt injection into their code

The controversy over vibe coding reached a new high this week after a developer added hidden instructions to his open source Java testing app to sabotage projects performed by AI coding agents. The instructions were added to jqwik, a test engine for JUnit 5, a platform for testing Java virtual machine frameworks. On Monday, jqwik developer Johannes Link published version 1.10.0. The salient change in the update was a line…

May 28, 2026
Read More >>

Intel makes a bid for handheld gaming PCs with new Arc G3 processors

Most of the Steam Deck imitators on the market right now use AMD silicon, specifically the Ryzen Z-series chips. These are the same chips AMD makes for regular laptops, but with different power settings better suited to a compact handheld system. There are handhelds based on Intel silicon (MSI’s Claw is the main one), but Intel hasn’t yet tried making silicon marketed specifically for that purpose. Today, the company is…

May 28, 2026
Read More >>

Websites have a new way to spy on visitors: analyzing their SSD activity

Over the decades, there has been no shortage of sites using clever techniques to covertly track visitors’ browsing histories, device fingerprints, and log keystrokes and mouse movements in real time. Even Meta and Yandex were recently caught joining in the privacy-invasive free-for-all. Now sites have a new way to spy on their visitors: measuring subtle interactions with their solid-state drives. The technique, named FROST (fingerprinting remotely using OPFS-based SSD timing),…

May 27, 2026
Read More >>

Mystery GPS jammer in Iran becomes test for NASA satellites’ capabilities

NASA satellites designed to observe cyclone wind speeds and collapsing ice sheets have also proven capable of identifying the approximate locations of GPS jammers. That could help monitor high-risk areas for aircraft and ships navigating the growing prevalence of GPS interference worldwide. Two different NASA satellite systems showed how they could locate a known but mysterious GPS jammer within several kilometers of its position in Iran, according to an experiment…

May 27, 2026
Read More >>

Roku OS’s home screen now features a large, permanent ad

May 27, 2026

Roku just unveiled the biggest overhaul to its smart TV operating system (OS) in 10 years. One of the most noticeable differences is that ad space now takes up a large chunk of the screen’s landing page. Before the update, loading up a Roku OS-powered smart TV or streaming device would yield a menu on the left side with sections including “What to Watch,” “Live,” and “Search.” The right side…

Read More >>