By Moinak Pal Coursera has launched an AI-powered short-form content feed that delivers personalized educational videos based on users’ interests and learning habits.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Paulo Vargas Monako Glass puts Linux and AI coding-agent support into smart glasses, but its future depends on whether it can make developer work easier without pretending to replace a laptop.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Shikhar Mehrotra BioCoach is a new AI prototype that watches you exercise through your camera, reconstructs your skeleton in 3D, and tells you which joint angle to fix.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Deepti Pathak HP has announced a new line of Windows PCs equipped with NVIDIA RTX Spark, designed to…
The post HP Introduces Next-Generation AI PCs With NVIDIA RTX Spark appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Deepti Pathak NVIDIA has introduced RTX Spark, a new computing platform designed to bring AI features to modern…
The post NVIDIA RTX Spark Laptops Introduce a New Generation of AI PCs appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

L’ingresso: la lobby digitale

Aprire una piattaforma di intrattenimento per adulti è come aprire la porta di un salone contemporaneo: luci soffuse, grafiche curate e un invito a esplorare senza fretta. La prima impressione è quella di una vetrina che racconta decine di esperienze diverse, ognuna con il proprio ritmo e la propria estetica. Scorrendo con calma, ci si lascia affascinare dai temi delle stanze, dalle animazioni che accendono gli schermi e dalle piccole descrizioni che promettono atmosfere variegate piuttosto che spiegare azioni tecniche.

In questa fase di esplorazione, leggere approfondimenti esterni può arricchire la percezione di spettacolo dal vivo e degli eventi correlati; ad esempio, per chi ama indagare il contesto culturale degli eventi dal vivo, una risorsa informativa è https://mostraligabuetorino.com/, che mette in relazione spettacolo e fruizione contemporanea in modi sorprendenti.

Vibrazioni e suoni: l’audio dell’intrattenimento

Il secondo atto è tutto nel suono. Un sottofondo scelto con cura, effetti che punteggiano momenti di svolta e musiche che accompagnano i passaggi più lenti contribuiscono a creare una narrazione sensoriale. Non si tratta di seguire regole, ma di lasciarsi trasportare: un crescendo musicale può far sembrare la schermata più luminosa, mentre un ritmo rilassato invita a una pausa più meditativa.

• Atmosfera sonora: temi che distinguono le varie aree.
• Effetti visivi: luci e animazioni che accentuano i momenti clou.
• Ritmo della sessione: alternanza tra momenti intensi e pause soft.

Interazione e socialità

La parte interattiva è spesso il cuore pulsante dell’esperienza: spazi di chat, stanze condivise, commenti in tempo reale che trasformano una sessione solitaria in un piccolo salotto virtuale. Ogni messaggio, ogni emoji, aggiunge una tinta al quadro generale e regala umanità a un ambiente altrimenti digitale. È affascinante osservare come gruppi diversi trovino linguaggi comuni e come si creino micro-narrazioni attraverso semplici scambi.

• Chat pubbliche e private: momenti di confronto e scambi fugaci.
• Eventi tematici: serate che uniscono utenti attorno a un filo conduttore.
• Ritualità sociali: saluti, celebrazioni e piccole tradizioni condivise.

Pausa e ritorno: i ritmi di una sessione

Qualsiasi sessione vive di pause, sorseggi di attenzione che permettono di riorientarsi. C’è chi si alza per fare un caffè guardando lo schermo, chi preferisce spostare la navigazione verso un’altra sezione per cambiamento di umore. Il bello dell’intrattenimento digitale è proprio questa libertà: si passa dall’osservazione silenziosa a momenti di coinvolgimento senza perdere la sensazione di controllo del proprio tempo.

Nel racconto di una serata ben riuscita, il ritorno è parte della trama. Dopo una pausa si rientra con occhi diversi, si notano dettagli prima ignorati e si ritrovano conversazioni interrotte. La piattaforma diventa così un luogo elastico che si adatta allo stato d’animo dell’utente, offrendo pause recuperabili e riprese fluide.

Un finale che rimane

Quando si chiude la finestra del browser, resta l’impressione di aver vissuto qualcosa di più di una semplice sessione: si porta a casa una sensazione, qualche aneddoto scambiato in chat e la consapevolezza di avere esplorato diversi sapori d’intrattenimento. Non è tanto una questione di risultati quanto di memoria sensoriale: luci, suoni, risate digitali e piccoli dettagli grafici che continuano a risonare anche dopo lo spegnimento dello schermo.

Per un pubblico adulto, l’attrattiva di questi ambienti sta proprio nella possibilità di scegliere come abitare il tempo, alternando immersività e leggerezza. La narrativa della serata, con le sue pause e riprese, racconta più di qualsiasi manuale: è la trama personale di un’esperienza condivisa, semplice e ricca allo stesso tempo.

By Shikhar Mehrotra Google’s new Dreambeans app works while you sleep and delivers a small collection of AI-illustrated stories about your life each morning.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Shikhar Mehrotra Apple’s Vision lineup just went from seven products to two, and the person who made that call is the same person taking over as CEO on September 1.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Alina Maria Stan For years, one question in Microsoft’s internal employee survey served as a reliable pressure gauge. It asked whether staff felt they were getting a “good deal at Microsoft,” defined as “a reasonable balance between what I contribute to Microsoft and what I get in return.” When the scores dropped low enough, the company responded with significant […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Cristian Dina The public markets have been asked whether they believe in AI, and they have answered with $85 billion. Alphabet’s record-shattering equity offering, which priced on 2 June, is not just the largest stock sale in tech history. It is the largest equity offering of any kind, in any industry, ever. The company had initially planned to […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Shikhar Mehrotra Amazon now lets you search for products by pointing your iPhone’s lock screen camera at anything in the real world.

Source:: Digital Trends

The European Union has now published a set of measures aimed at boosting Europe’s tech industry to help reduce reliance on US and Chinese suppliers for AI, cloud, and semiconductors. The proposals include rules to restrict the use of US hyperscalers for certain public sector procurement purposes, but stop short of banning them outright.

“Technological sovereignty does not mean protectionism. Europe remains grounded in openness, partnership, and fair competition,” Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said in a statement Wednesday. “At the same time, Europe wants to be in the position to make its own choices, avoiding dependence on single dominant suppliers, especially from non-like-minded countries.”

The European Technological Sovereignty Package — released after several delays — includes two legislative proposals: the Cloud and AI Development Act and Chips Act (CAIDA) 2.0 and the Open Source Strategy and Strategic Roadmap for Digitalization and AI in Energy.

CAIDA aims to triple data center capacity in the next five to seven years by easing restrictions for deployments across the EU. It also includes rules that, if enacted, would require EU public bodies to meet certain sovereignty criteria for cloud service procurement related to certain sensitive workloads.

Amid ongoing trans-Atlantic tensions and a long-time deep reliance on US tech providers, European organizations have become increasingly wary of a “kill switch” that would cut off access to digital services. There are also concerns that US hyperscalers could be compelled to share data with US government under the CLOUD Act and Foreign Intelligence Services Act (FISA), even when data centers are located in Europe.

The CAIDA proposals include four levels of criteria for suppliers; the most basic includes data center infrastructure located and operated in the region – something  many US cloud suppliers already provide – with stricter rules around supplier ownership, full control over the software stack, and more stringent cybersecurity certification.

The majority of existing EU public sector workloads (70%) fall under the first level, with 20% at level 2, and 9% at level 3. Only a small proportion (1%) of the most sensitive workloads would require level 4.

Other proposals include the Chips Act 2.0, a follow-up to the 2023 legislation that sought to improve semiconductor production capabilities; the updated version now aims to boost research and spur demand for domestically produced processors. 

The legislative proposals must be negotiated by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union before adoption.

Source:: Computer World

By Deepti Pathak ASUS has unveiled the Ascent QN10, a new mini PC that brings premium desktop capabilities into…
The post ASUS Unveils Ascent QN10 Mini PC Powered by Snapdragon X2 Elite appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Shimul Sood Google is opening up the Fitbit Air ecosystem in a surprising way, giving creators the tools needed to design and even 3D-print their own custom bands.

Source:: Digital Trends

Apple’s MacBook Neo appears to be a triumph of strategic disruption that has already cast shock waves across the industry — and that energy is still playing out.

Approximately 55,000 MacBook Neo computers have been sold every day since it was introduced in March, according to IDC data (as first noted by TechCrunch). In fact, it looks as if Apple sold 1.1 million of these Macs in the first 20 days of sale, the analysts said.

There’s no real reason to imagine that level of demand has declined very much.

MacBook Neo: Millions sold

After all, not only do these Macs continue to dominate Amazon’s US laptop charts, but supply chain rumors claim Apple has doubled its manufacturing orders. “MacBook Neo shipments have come in better than expected, with the 2026 shipment forecast raised from 5 million to 10 million units,” Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said recently. 

IDC’s March data may not capture the larger extent of the demand, as IDC analyst Navkendar Singh pointed out that MacBook Neo shipments “began to spike from early April”, which suggests demand has accelerated since then.

MacBook Neo demand exceeded expectations across multiple nations, including in India, where the company shifted 18,000 of them in the opening weeks.

Doing the business

Apple has also instructed processor maker TSMC to manufacture additional A18 processors specifically for its affordable laptop, while earlier speculation has claimed the company has been using ongoing memory price increases as a strategic competitive tool.  (The Neo starts at $599, with a pricier model set at $699.)

By expanding the potential customer base for Macs with a lower cost Neo, Apple is aiming a claim at the biggest-selling part of the PC market. And it is doing so even as rapidly increasing component prices force others to choose between higher product prices and profitability, or much-reduced margins in to compete at the same price. levels

That’s a losing battle; competitors for the most part can’t hope to match Apple’s bargaining position when it comes to the cost of components like memory because they don’t have the same scale. That means that even when component costs increase for everybody, Apple pays less, because it orders more. 

That scale means that for many component suppliers, it’s Apple’s business that keeps the meat on the table while other customers merely contribute the gravy. So, suppliers are happy to make deals with Apple to secure that main course — to continue the analogy — but are less likely to match those deals for dessert. As such, Apple is expected to be the only laptop vendor to see growth this year.

Apple’s great game

IDC’s figures confirm Apple’s strategy is working, with strong demand for the Neo, and, indeed, all Apple’s new laptops. At the same time, the researcher predicts overall global PC shipments will decline 11.3% this year, with a painful 20% sales drop envisioned for Q4. 

“We’re not seeing any relief to the memory shortage situation before the end of 2027, which means prices will continue to rise and PC manufacturers will struggle to maintain full product portfolios for the foreseeable future,” Jean Philippe Bouchard, vice president of devices and consumers at IDC said in a statement.

“The introduction of the MacBook Neo is putting real pressure on the entire PC ecosystem,” added Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Consumer Devices Trackers. 

Competitors are already responding with new devices equipped with ARM-based processors and aggressive promotional pricing. But none truly match what Apple has with MacBook Neo, and all must reach profitable scale to compete long-term. 

None have yet done so.

The strategy makes sense

“The MacBook Neo launch stands out as one of Apple’s most strategically important recent Mac releases,” Counterpoint analyst David Naranjo said. 

Apple is directly targeting customers that previously saw its products as too expensive. That allows it is also to aggressively build business in parts of the market such as education that tend to be more resilient to economic headwinds. MacBook Neo is also enjoying strong demand across the enterprise.

Both these parts of the market give Apple’s competitors their lunch. “The competitive pressure from the Neo is providing a partial offset to broader price increases, keeping some low-cost notebook options alive,” Ubrani said. “But the overall trajectory for average selling prices (ASPs) is firmly upward. IDC forecasts ASP growth of 17% in 2026, and even as memory capacity expands over the next two years, pricing is unlikely to return to 2025 levels.” 

Apple’s control over its processors, along with its strategic approach to component purchasing, means it should be able to maintain its existing Mac price points for a while. “Apple’s vertical integration (own silicon, own OS) gives it more levers than competitors reliant on third-party chips and Microsoft licensing,” Hexnode CEO Apu Pavithran told me recently.

So, while PC makers either exit the market or raise prices in pursuit of profits, MacBook Neo will continue racing off the shelves, particularly to large enterprise and education customers. 

The endgame? 

The Neo is more than a lower-cost Apple notebook. It’s a hugely disruptive product that is already driving noteworthy change across the PC industry; it’s forcing competitors to make difficult choices between cost and price — even as they grapple with the existential challenges of memory shortages, component price hikes, and raw materials costs. 

That’s not bad for a product that costs your local school just $499.

Just a reminder: the original $399 iPod cost only slightly less when it was first introduced, before subsequently disrupting the music industry.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and follow The Core.

Source:: Computer World

By Adarsh Verma For certain professions, like designers, developers, and digital creators, the portfolio-first idea keeps coming back. As…
The post Best Resume Builders for Designers, Developers, and Digital Creators in 2026 appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Ana Maria Constantin President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday establishing a voluntary framework for government review of frontier AI models before public release, ending weeks of internal White House conflict over how aggressively to regulate the technology. The order, titled “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security,” was signed privately without the usual livestream or public ceremony, a […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Alina Maria Stan Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that Poland will introduce a “sovereignty test” for significant government purchases of technology solutions, warning that the country’s dependency on foreign digital infrastructure has reached a scale that demands a policy response. Speaking at the European Financial Congress in Sopot on Tuesday, Tusk said Poland will also publish […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Microsoft has developed a new AI agent that can run autonomously around the clock to complete tasks across Microsoft 365 applications.

Microsoft Scout, unveiled at the company’s Build event Tuesday, is a new type of always-on agent based on the OpenClaw agent framework that Microsoft calls “autopilots.”

These act on a user’s behalf with their own governed Entra identity, Omar Shahine, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said in a blog post.

“Autopilots stay active in the background, understand how work gets done across your apps and systems, and take action without needing to be prompted each time,” said Shahine, a Microsoft veteran who recently announced he is leading a new team to bring OpenClaw-based personal assistants to Microsoft 365 apps.

Microsoft Scout connects to apps such as Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint, and accesses data from chat, email, calendar, and contacts. Accessed via Teams, it can also interact with a user’s browser and with external apps via model context protocol (MCP). The tool functions across cloud, desktop, and the web.

Shahine said Scout can reduce mundane tasks that office workers face, such as coordinating and scheduling meeting times with colleagues, or blocking times in a user’s calendar based on upcoming work commitments. “It can also spot risks, like stalled decisions, so you can address them before they become blockers,” he said.

It’s available as an “experimental release” to customers of the company’s Frontier program, Microsoft said, and will require Intune policy configuration and “opt-in attestation.”

Scout is the latest in a range of agentic tools available in Microsoft 365 apps, including Agent Mode, where users can interact with Microsoft 365 Copilot inside apps such as Word and Excel to create content, and Copilot Cowork — Microsoft’s version of Anthropic’s Claude Cowork agent that can complete tasks independently.

Despite the company’s big AI push, Microsoft has struggled to convince businesses that Microsoft 365 Copilot is worth the additional cost; it’s advertised at $30 per user each month for large businesses. Around 3% of Microsoft 365 customers pay for the add-on subscription, the company said in January, with 15 million paid users. (Microsoft announced last month that that figure has now risen to 20 million.)

It’s not clear whether Scout will be included in Microsoft 365 Copilot subscriptions or charged separately. Microsoft did not immediately provide additional details about pricing.

The launch follows Google’s recent announcement of Spark, an autonomous agent that runs within the Google Workspace application suite. Spark can also be considered a response to the launch of OpenClaw last year, initially under the name “Clawdbot.”

OpenClaw has drawn scrutiny due to apparent security flaws, but Microsoft promises Scout is built with “enterprise-grade security and controls, so it can be trusted in your organization from day one.”

Microsoft said it will also contribute upstream to the open-source OpenClaw project.

Source:: Computer World

Apple surprised everyone with the power and performance of the M1 MacBook Air when it launched the laptop in late 2020. And more than five years later, those Macs show no sign of slowing down, handling everything users care to throw at them.

The Mac still boots almost instantly, races through daily tasks, offers battery life that puts even some newer Windows laptops to shame and, perhaps most importantly, still gives millions of users no compelling reason to upgrade. 

Why the MacBook Air is still going strong

The M1 wasn’t merely better than the Intel Macs it replaced. It delivered a dramatic step forward. Silent, fast, and with remarkable energy efficiency, these laptops have proved themselves to be more reliable and longer-lasting than almost any other notebook.

Apple has continued to deliver impressive improvements ever since the M1 Macs first appeared. The recently introduced M5 MacBook Air delivers double the multi-core and 50% better single-core performance than M1; that means it provides similar performance to the MacBook Pro of around three years ago. 

Apple Silicon has improved every single year and is now extremely powerful — so much so that Apple is about to sell 10 million units of the A-series MacBook Neo, a $599 machine with an iPhone-derived chip that delivers more performance than many mainstream users need.

Meanwhile, even when using a nearly-six-year-old MacBook Air, you still experience a fast browser, responsive Office apps, great battery life and powerful photo editing capabilities. 

To the Moon and back

At the high end of Apple’s range, you’ll find Macs so accomplished they can handle almost every imaginable professional task. It means that right now, today, Apple’s product range extends from good enough to simply amazing. 

Despite heavy marketing hype from competitors who boast of their own ARM-based competitors in similar price brackets, those PCs remain compromised in comparison, if only by their use of Windows, build quality, and overall higher running costs.

Think about it: All things being equal, if you gave a typical office worker an M1 MacBook Air and an M5 MacBook Air and asked them which models they were using, how long would it take them to figure it out? 

Sure, a highly experienced Mac user would likely know. But for a lot of people, the difference would be hard to spot because what they do on their computers just isn’t particularly demanding. 

Making people happy is good for business

Surely that’s bad for Apple’s business, right? I think not. It means Apple has created a huge population of happy Mac users who are still having a good time with the Mac they acquired in 2020. Those people tell other people about their experience, which helps evangelize the platform and can’t have hurt MacBook Neo sales this year. 

They also become more interested in other Apple products, which they can afford to invest in instead of investing in the standard PC “upgrade’”cycle. After all, if you have a platform that doesn’t need an upgrade every three years, you can spend your money on something else instead. For consumers, that might be AirPods and Apple services, while for enterprise professionals that investment might become an iPad or iPhone Pro. 

Apple doesn’t mind. It still makes bank.

The company generally finds that giving people what they want is good for business. It boosts customer satisfaction scores, reduces maintenance costs, and builds repeat customers.

That long replacement cycle delivers a second benefit, too. Apple talks extensively about sustainability. With the M-series Macs, it has achieved it. 

Sustainable technology

People use these laptops longer and get more value later when they sell them on. And when they eventually get returned for recycling, Apple can tear the machines down for parts as it works toward establishing circular manufacturing within the next four years.

The M1 MacBook Air might eventually be remembered not just as the first Apple Silicon Mac, but as representing the moment when ordinary people didn’t have to worry about performance anymore. That’s why the product refuses to die — not because it’s immortal, but because for millions of users it still does everything they need. And all the M- and A-series Macs that follow it do exactly the same thing.

One more thing, however: Intel Macs will no longer be supported by macOS 27 when it ships this year. Apple typically ends support for products around 6-7 years after it removes them from sale, so when will it end support for the M1? Potentially, not too soon.

Apple only stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air in 2024, which suggests support could continue until 2030 or 2031. So, if you bought an M1 MacBook Air in 2020, you’ve actually invested in something designed to work for you for a decade. Which PCs can truly deliver that?

No wonder the M1 MacBook Air refuses to die.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and read The Core.

Source:: Computer World