Sales of refurbished PCs are on the up amid shortages of key components, including memory chips, that are making brand new devices more expensive. From a report: Stats compiled by market watcher Context show sales of refurbished PCs via distribution climbed 7 percent in calendar Q4 across five of the biggest European markets — Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain, and France. Affordability is the...

The music industry’s long romance with an ever-expanding catalog of songs appears to be souring, as streaming platforms and rights holders confront a daily deluge that now includes 60,000 wholly AI-generated tracks uploaded to Deezer alone — roughly 39% of the French service’s daily intake, a statistic the company shared during Grammys week last month. Streaming services now host 253 million...

Samsung has all but confirmed that its upcoming Galaxy S26 will feature a built-in privacy display, releasing an ad that demonstrates a “Zero-peeking privacy” toggle capable of blacking out on-screen content for anyone peering over the user’s shoulder. The underlying technology is reportedly Samsung Display’s Flex Magic Pixel OLED panel, first shown at MWC 2024, which adjusts viewing angles on...

Western Digital’s entire hard drive manufacturing capacity for calendar year 2026 is now fully spoken for, CEO Irving Tan disclosed during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, a stark sign of how aggressively hyperscalers are locking down storage supply to feed their AI infrastructure buildouts. The company has firm purchase orders from its top seven customers and has signed long-term...

Human software engineers and AI are currently in a “centaur phase” — a reference to the mythical half-human, half-horse creature, where the combination outperforms either working alone — but the window may be “very brief,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said on a podcast. He drew on chess as precedent: 15 to 20 years ago, a human checking AI’s moves could beat a standalone AI or human, but machines...

New Delhi’s air quality index averaged 349 in December and 307 in January — levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies as hazardous — and the months-long smog season that forces more than 30 million residents to endure respiratory illness has this year sparked something new: public protest. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at India Gate on November 9 to demand government...

Instagram head Adam Mosseri told a Los Angeles courtroom last week that a teenager’s 16-hour single-day session on the platform was “problematic use” but not an addiction, a distinction he drew repeatedly during testimony in a landmark trial over social media’s harm to minors. Mosseri, who has led Instagram for eight years, is the first high-profile tech executive to take the stand. He agreed...

A partner at KPMG Australia has been fined $7,000 by the Big Four firm after using AI tools to cheat on an internal training course about using AI. From a report: The unnamed partner was forced to redo the test after uploading training materials into an AI platform to help answer questions on the use of the fast-evolving technology. More than two dozen staff have been caught over this financial...

Ireland has announced what it says is the world’s first permanent basic income program for artists, a scheme that will pay 2,000 selected artists $385 per week for three years, funded by an $21.66 million allocation from Budget 2026. The program follows a 2022 pilot — the Irish government’s first large-scale randomized control trial — that found participants had greater professional autonomy,...

The social media site was the subject of user complaints early Monday.

The European Commission has adopted new measures under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) to prevent the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories and footwear. From a report: The rules will help cut waste, reduce environmental damage and create a level playing field for companies embracing sustainable business models, allowing them to reap the benefits of a...