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Microsoft Tests AI Text Generation in Notepad Microsoft is testing AI-powered text generation in Notepad for Windows 11 Insiders with Copilot Plus PCs allowing users to draft content from prompts or build on existing text through a right-click menu. The update also introduces Paint's AI sticker generator and Snipping Tool enhancements including automatic screenshot cropping. The Write feature requires Microsoft account sign-in and uses the same credit system as other Windows 11 AI features.
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VMware Price Hikes? Between 800 and 1500% Since Acquisition By Broadcom Claim Euro Customers Broadcom has upped VMware licensing costs by between eight to 15 times since it took over the organization and a lack of alternatives in the tech industry means trade and end customers have no choice but to play ball. From a report: This is the according to the European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO) an independent body formed by customer organizations and CISPE -- a trade association of 37 cloud providers in the region -- to monitor the behavior of software vendors accused of abusing their monopoly position. The report also calls for regulatory intervention. The current subscription model "creates a material risk for the company and their shareholders should Regulators investigate and challenge the legality of such model" the report adds.
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China's 7-Year Tech Independence Push Yields Major Gains in AI Robotics and Semiconductors China has achieved substantial technological advances across robotics AI and semiconductor manufacturing as part of a seven-year self-reliance campaign that has tripled the country's research and development spending to $500 billion annually. Chinese robot manufacturers captured nearly half of their domestic market by 2023 up from a quarter of installations just years earlier while AI startups now rival OpenAI and Google in capabilities. The progress extends to semiconductors where Huawei released a high-end smartphone powered by what industry analysts believe was a locally-produced advanced processor despite U.S. export controls targeting China's chip access. Morgan Stanley projects China's self-sufficiency in graphics processing units will jump from 11% in 2021 to 82% by 2027. Chinese companies have been purchasing as many industrial robots as the rest of the world combined enabling highly automated factories that can operate in darkness. In space technology Chinese firms won five of 11 gold medals when U.S. think tanks ranked the world's best commercial satellite systems last year compared to four for American companies.
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Apple Plans Glasses for 2026 as Part of AI Push Nixes Watch With Camera Apple is aiming to release smart glasses at the end of next year as part of a push into AI-enhanced gadgets Bloomberg News reported Thursday but it has shelved plans for a smartwatch that can analyze its surroundings with a built-in camera. From the report: Company engineers are ramping up work on the glasses -- a rival to Meta Platforms's popular Ray-Bans -- in a bid to meet the year-end 2026 target according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple will start producing large quantities of prototypes at the end of this year with overseas suppliers said the people who asked not to be identified because the products haven't been announced.
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Mozilla Is Shutting Down Pocket BrianFagioli writes: In a surprising move that will frustrate longtime fans Mozilla has announced it will shut down Pocket on July 8 2025. The once-popular read-it-later service which helped users save and organize web content for later reading will no longer function as normal after that date. While existing users can continue saving and reading articles until July the service will switch to export-only mode afterward with all user data permanently deleted on October 8. The Firefox-maker will also shut down Fakespot a service that allows users to identify unreliable reviews on July 1.
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US Treasury Unveils Plan To Kill the Penny An anonymous reader writes: The US Treasury is phasing out production of the penny and will stop putting new one-cent coins into circulation. The US Treasury has made its final order of penny blanks this month and the mint will continue to manufacture pennies as long as its supply of penny blanks exist. President Donald Trump stated that production of pennies are wasteful as the coins cost more to produce than their one-cent value.
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Anthropic Releases Claude 4 Models That Can Autonomously Work For Nearly a Full Corporate Workday Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 today positioning Opus 4 as the world's leading coding model with 72.5% performance on SWE-bench and 43.2% on Terminal-bench. Both models feature hybrid architecture supporting near-instant responses and extended thinking modes for complex reasoning tasks. The models introduce parallel tool execution and memory capabilities that allow Claude to extract and save key facts when given local file access. Claude Code previously in research preview is now generally available with new VS Code and JetBrains integrations that display edits directly in developers' files. GitHub integration enables Claude to respond to pull request feedback and fix CI errors through a new beta SDK. Pricing remains consistent with previous generations at $15/$75 per million tokens for Opus 4 and $3/$15 for Sonnet 4. Both models are available through Claude's web interface the Anthropic API Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud's Vertex AI. Extended thinking capabilities are included in Pro Max Team and Enterprise plans with Sonnet 4 also available to free users. The startup which counts Amazon and Google among its investors said Claude Opus 4 could autonomously work for nearly a full corporate workday -- seven hours. CNBC adds: "I do a lot of writing with Claude and I think prior to Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 I was mostly using the models as a thinking partner but still doing most of the writing myself" Mike Krieger Anthropic's chief product officer said in an interview. "And they've crossed this threshold where now most of my writing is actually ... Opus mostly and it now is unrecognizable from my writing." Krieger added "I love that we're kind of pushing the frontier on two sides. Like one is the coding piece and agentic behavior overall and that's powering a lot of these coding startups. ... But then also we're pushing the frontier on how these models can actually learn from and then be a really useful writing partner too."
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Russia To Enforce Location Tracking App On All Foreigners in Moscow The Russian government has introduced a new law that makes installing a tracking app mandatory for all foreign nationals in the Moscow region. From a report: The new proposal was announced by the chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin who presented it as a measure to tackle migrant crimes. "The adopted mechanism will allow using modern technologies to strengthen control in the field of migration and will also contribute to reducing the number of violations and crimes in this area" stated Volodin. Using a mobile application that all foreigners will have to install on their smartphones the Russian state will receive the following information: Residence location fingerprint face photograph real-time geo-location monitoring.
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Verizon Asks For An End To Its Phone Unlocking Requirements Verizon is officially asking for a waiver of the FCC's phone unlocking requirements. From a report: "Given the substantial and growing harms to consumers competition and Verizon from this obligation -- and the lack of offsetting benefits -- the commission should waive this rule" the operator wrote. Verizon faces phone unlocking requirements stemming from its acquisition of 700MHz spectrum in 2008 and also from conditions the FCC placed on the operator's acquisition of prepaid provider TracFone in 2021. The requirements mean that when a customer buys a phone from Verizon it's locked to Verizon's network for 60 days so that they can only use it with a Verizon SIM card. After 60 days Verizon automatically unlocks the phone allowing that customer to use their phone on another carrier's network.
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Google Has a Big AI Advantage: It Already Knows Everything About You Google's expansion of Gemini's data access through "personal context" represents a fundamental shift in how AI assistants operate. Unlike competitors that start from scratch with each new user Gemini can immediately tap into years of accumulated user data across Google's ecosystem. The Verge adds: Google first started letting users opt in to its "Gemini with personalization" feature earlier this year which lets the AI model tap into your search history "to provide responses that are uniquely insightful and directly address your needs." But now Google is taking things a step further by unlocking access to even more of your information -- all in the name of providing you with more personalized AI-generated responses. During Google I/O on Tuesday Google introduced something called "personal context" which will allow Gemini models to pull relevant information from across Google's apps as long as it has your permission. One way Google is doing this is through Gmail's personalized smart replies -- the AI-generated messages that you can use to quickly reply to emails. To make these AI responses sound "authentically like you" Gemini will pore over your previous emails and even your Google Drive files to craft a reply tailored to your conversation. The response will even incorporate your tone the greeting you use the most and even "favorite word choices" according to Google.
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