Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Blender 4.5 LTS: Vulkan Power, Performance Boost, and Farewell to Intel Macs

2025-07-16

Blender 4.5, a long-term support release, arrives with Vulkan rendering, significantly boosting viewport performance. Adaptive subdivision is up to 14x faster thanks to multithreading, and the compositor boasts GPU-accelerated nodes. Geometry Nodes receive enhancements, while a new Manifold Boolean solver improves mesh cleanup. This release also marks the end of support for Intel-based Macs and some legacy features, paving the way for future Apple Silicon optimization. Nearly 500 bug fixes round out this powerful update.

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Development

GParted Live 1.7.0 Released: 32-bit Support Dropped, Enhanced Safety

2025-07-14

GParted Live 1.7.0 is here, dropping 32-bit support and offering only 64-bit versions. This update includes GParted 1.7.0, Linux kernel 6.12.37, and a new mechanism to prevent accidental disk selection at boot by avoiding random block device ordering. GParted Live is a lightweight disk partitioning tool; no installation is needed, making it perfect for troubleshooting and emergencies. A safe graphics setting option is available if the graphical interface fails to load.

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Development Disk Partitioning

Rowhammer Attacks Now Target NVIDIA High-End GPUs

2025-07-13

Researchers from the University of Toronto have demonstrated that Rowhammer attacks, previously known to affect standard DRAM, can now target GDDR6 memory on NVIDIA's high-end GPUs when ECC is disabled. This vulnerability exploits a memory bug where repeated access to one memory row causes bit flips in another. NVIDIA recommends enabling ECC for protection, especially crucial for data center admins and workstation users. While newer memory types like GDDR7 and HBM3 have built-in OD-ECC, many users disable ECC for performance or configuration reasons, increasing their risk. Check your ECC status now if unsure!

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Tech

Android's New Canary Channel: Continuous Early Access for Developers

2025-07-11

Google is replacing its Developer Preview program with a new Canary channel for Android, offering developers rolling updates throughout the year. This allows for earlier and more consistent access to experimental features and APIs. Unlike previous manual installations, Canary builds are delivered over-the-air and run concurrently with the beta program. While intended for testing and not daily use, Canary provides valuable early feedback, enabling developers to identify issues and test their apps continuously. Support is currently available for Pixel devices and the Android Studio Canary version.

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Development Canary Channel Developer Preview

Red Hat Launches Free RHEL for Business Developers

2025-07-10

Red Hat has released Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Business Developers, a free enterprise-grade Linux distribution designed to give developers fast, easy access to the same OS used in production environments for business development and testing. Developers get direct, self-serve access, bypassing IT approval, with up to 25 instance deployments. This aims to reduce friction between development and operations teams and address growing software supply chain security threats. It includes signed and curated developer content such as programming languages, open source tools, and databases, as well as Red Hat's container development tool, Podman Desktop.

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Development

Apple's COO Jeff Williams Retires, Sabih Khan Takes the Helm

2025-07-09

Apple's long-time Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, is retiring later this month. His successor will be Sabih Khan, Apple's SVP of Operations, a key figure in Apple's globally influential supply chain. Williams will remain at Apple through the year, overseeing Apple Watch and health initiatives, and leading the design team until his retirement, after which the design team will report directly to Tim Cook. Khan's promotion is a long-planned transition, highlighting his strategic prowess in navigating supply chain complexities and driving sustainability initiatives. This leadership change signals a generational shift within Apple's operations, setting the stage for the company's Vision Pro era and increased hardware-services integration.

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Tech Leadership Change

GitHub Copilot Chat Goes Open Source: Transparency in AI Coding

2025-07-06

Microsoft open-sourced the GitHub Copilot Chat extension for VS Code, offering unprecedented transparency into its AI-powered code assistant. Copilot Chat understands codebases, helping developers clean up functions, add error handling, explain logic, and even refactor files. Its 'Agent mode' automates compilation, error fixing, test monitoring, and more. While the underlying models remain closed-source, the open-sourced VS Code extension allows auditing, customization, and even building new tools on top of it, significantly increasing trust and transparency in AI tools.

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Development

Wells Fargo Scandal: How a Lack of Trust Fueled Fintech Adoption

2025-07-04

New research reveals the 2016 Wells Fargo scandal significantly shifted consumers towards fintech lenders over traditional banks. The study, published in the Journal of Financial Economics, highlights that a lack of trust, not interest rates or fees, drove this behavioral change. Analyzing Google Trends, Gallup polls, media coverage, and financial transaction data, the study found a measurable increase in fintech mortgage usage in areas with a strong Wells Fargo presence, even with comparable loan costs. This underscores the crucial role of trust, demonstrating how institutional misconduct can accelerate fintech adoption. The lesson extends beyond mortgages, impacting any service handling personal or financial data, including AI, cloud storage, and social media.

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Tech

Xerox's $1.5B Gamble: Acquiring Lexmark in a Shrinking Print Market

2025-07-02

In a surprising move, Xerox has acquired Lexmark for $1.5 billion, a deal that includes debt and liabilities. This acquisition pulls Lexmark from Chinese ownership and into a restructured Xerox, positioning the company as a top player in print services. However, in a world increasingly dominated by digital workflows, Xerox's bet on the declining print market is a risky one. While Lexmark brings a strong global presence and managed services business, the success of this merger hinges on the continued relevance of paper documents in industries like healthcare and finance. It's a bold gamble in a fading industry, a fight for dominance in the remaining enterprise printing sector.

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Tech M&A

NASA Launches on Netflix: Space Exploration Goes Mainstream

2025-07-01

NASA is bringing its live rocket launches, astronaut spacewalks, and stunning Earth views to Netflix this summer via NASA+. This move aims to reach a vastly larger audience than its current app and website, leveraging Netflix's 700+ million subscribers to spark interest in space exploration. By making space exploration readily accessible on a popular streaming platform, NASA hopes to inspire a new generation and further its educational mission.

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Tech

Microsoft's Silent Driver Purge: Breaking Your Old Hardware?

2025-06-20

Microsoft is quietly removing outdated drivers from Windows Update, citing security and reliability. However, this could break hardware for users relying on legacy devices. Without individual warnings, drivers simply disappear from Windows Update. Only the original hardware partner can restore them, but Microsoft might require business justification, and drivers are permanently deleted after six months of inactivity. This is a nightmare for users of older hardware, potentially impacting even enterprise environments. Microsoft plans to continue this purge regularly.

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Hardware Drivers

Barbie Gets an AI Brain: Mattel Partners with OpenAI

2025-06-12

Mattel and OpenAI are teaming up to bring AI to toys, potentially giving Barbie (and other toys) the power of conversation via ChatGPT. This ambitious collaboration aims to create fun, safe, and age-appropriate AI-powered experiences, blurring the lines between physical and digital play. While details are scarce, the first product is expected later this year, promising a new era of interactive toys that adapt and react in real-time, rather than relying on pre-recorded lines. This move represents a significant evolution for Mattel and a potential game-changer for the toy industry.

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Game Toys Mattel

Apple's Container: A Native macOS Linux Container Tool

2025-06-11

Apple has open-sourced Container, a developer tool on GitHub offering a novel approach to running Linux containers directly on macOS. Unlike Docker or Podman, it integrates deeply with macOS frameworks, creating lightweight VMs for each container, boosting security and privacy. While minor issues exist, such as memory management and macOS version compatibility, it showcases Apple's commitment to native Linux container development on macOS, providing developers with a more native option.

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Development

Ubuntu 25.10 Drops Xorg Support for GNOME, Embraces Wayland Exclusively

2025-06-10

Ubuntu 25.10, codenamed "Questing Quokka," is making a significant change: the default GNOME desktop will exclusively use Wayland, dropping support for Xorg. This isn't a sudden decision; GNOME is phasing out Xorg support, and Canonical is proactively adapting. This allows users and developers a full release cycle to adjust before the next LTS, Ubuntu 26.04, arrives next year. The move is driven by Wayland's maturity, improved Nvidia driver support, better touchscreen and high-DPI display handling, and a simplification of development by avoiding maintaining two display servers. While some users rely on Xorg, it won't disappear entirely; it can still be installed and used with other desktop environments. Most X11 applications will continue to function via XWayland.

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Development