Author: Eternity Lab

Ella_Ca/Shutterstock

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” goes the saying we’ve all heard and paraphrased one way or another when talking about the past, current events, and even personal matters. Maybe the best way to understand, interpret, and then remember the past is before us, as more advanced artificial intelligence can help scholars figure out answers to previously unanswerable questions about the past.

For example, an AI model was able to help scientists figure out who wrote the Bible. The technology can’t identify the actual writers, but the AI helped prove that certain parts of the Bible belong to a specific group of writers. Separately, a different team of researchers was able to read a burnt scroll from ancient Rome using X-ray imaging and AI.

Now, a brand-new study involving AI shows that artificial intelligence can help researchers read inscriptions from ancient Rome by filling in the gaps and even determine the likely period an inscription comes from.

How Aeneas AI can fill in the Roman blanks

Mo-jo-lo/Getty Images

We’ve all seen inscriptions from ancient Rome in museums or the movies. They’re often carved in stone, written in Latin in all caps. For historians, they’re invaluable to understanding the distant past. Ancient writings such as the Bible, burnt scrolls, and stone inscriptions provide firsthand testimony about what it was like to live in a certain era.

That sounds great in theory, but in practice, it’s a different story. Scrolls burn and stones get torn to pieces, turning historians into scholars that need to put together a puzzle that lacks many pieces. They then have to infer what the writing was about by guessing what the missing parts would have said. It’s like receiving parts of a text message, and then trying to figure out what the sender wanted to say.

As the BBC explains, historians fill in the blanks by using texts similar in wording, grammar, appearance, and cultural setting, or “parallels.” The process can be painstakingly slow, but that’s where Aeneas comes in handy. Baptized after a Greek and Roman mythological figure, the AI model Aeneas is the result of a collaboration between historians at the University of Nottingham and Google AI scientists from DeepMind. Aeneas draws parallels to solve Roman text puzzles just like real people would, but it does so in the blink of an eye.

Is the new AI tech reliable?

Sinan Dogan/Getty Images

The researchers fed Aeneas a database of 176,000 Roman inscriptions that includes images of the writings. The AI can then draw parallels for new inscriptions historians must analyze. The concern with any generative AI system is that it can produce hallucinations. If you really want to know the past and avoid similar outcomes, you have to work with accurate information. Tools like Aeneas distorting the past would have significant consequences.

But the team behind the AI system actually tested Aeneas to see if it works as intended. They went to Ankara in Turkey at the Temple of Augustus, tasking the AI model to date a famous Roman text. The BBC points out that the location is known as “the queen of inscriptions” for understanding Roman history. The “Res Gestae Divi Augusti” inscription was composed by the first Roman Emperor Augustus, but historians can’t agree on the date it was inscribed.

The researchers put the AI to work, and Aeneas concluded that the inscription came from two possible periods. The most likely range was 10 to 20 CE, while the second was 10 to 1 BCE. Most historians agree these are the most likely windows for Augustus’ writings.

The researchers then paired Aeneas with 23 historians to see whether the AI system could improve their productivity. They found that Aeneas was able to accelerate the work of real humans, allowing them to find parallels faster and discover new connections they hadn’t thought of. Also, a historian using Aeneas AI came up with more accurate results than either Aeneas on its own or the human working alone.

Source

miss.cabul/Shutterstock

OpenAI delivered a surprise launch event last week, unveiling a product we didn’t necessarily know was in the making. It wasn’t the GPT-5 upgrade ChatGPT users have been waiting for, or the open-source ChatGPT version that OpenAI delayed a couple of times this summer. Instead, OpenAI unveiled a powerful new AI agent that combined several existing ChatGPT functionalities into a single product.

Called ChatGPT Agent, the AI model inherits the Operator’s ability to browse the web in a virtual machine for the user. Operator was launched in early 2025, but OpenAI made it available only to ChatGPT Pro subscribers. That’s the most expensive premium ChatGPT experience, priced at $200/month. Agent combined Operator with Deep Research abilities that let ChatGPT dig deeper on certain topics for you.

OpenAI wanted to release Agent to ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Team users last week. But the new tool was so popular with Pro users that the company had to delay access for Plus and Team users. As always with new AI features, ChatGPT Agent was not available in Europe initially. A week later, OpenAI made ChatGPT widely available to Plus and Team users. The advanced AI model is also available in Europe. I’ve already tested Agent, and I’m impressed with what it can do.

ChatGPT Agent abilities explained

Chris Smith, BGR

ChatGPT Agent operates a virtual computer where it has access to a couple of web browsers (visual and text-based versions), a terminal app, APIs, and ChatGPT connectors to connect to various sources of information. When Agent is performing tasks, you can see every action live in a window that opens up in the ChatGPT UI. It’s like getting a livestream of ChatGPT Agent’s thoughts and actions. You see every search and click it performs for you.

Agent can multitask between the apps it has on hand. The AI performs multiple online searches to find the information you asked for. It can then switch to the terminal app to compile that information for you. If you give it data sources and use Connectors, it will extract information from those places for you.

ChatGPT agent is now fully rolled out to all Plus, Pro, and Team users. Sorry about the delay! pic.twitter.com/kz9STMbJx7

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 24, 2025

I gave ChatGPT Agent a simple task that would have taken me several hours to complete. I told the AI I wanted to help me find a half-marathon and a marathon race separated by up to two weeks. Both races should be in Europe, and I needed travel options between the two venues, with train being a priority. I also gave it a particular region of Europe, so I could take advantage of the milder climate during the late fall months.

Agent went to work and started browsing the web and collecting data. It compiled a detailed report for me in 23 minutes, offering me eight half-marathon options and seven marathon races. It then created all the race combinations for me. At the end, I had to correct the AI, telling Agent it didn’t check whether the races were sold out or available, and it didn’t provide me with links for the events. This time Agent fixed everything in one minute.

ChatGPT Agent price, limits, and security

Chris Smith, BGR

As seasoned ChatGPT users might notice, I didn’t ask Agent to make any bookings for me or find places to stay. I don’t trust the AI to handle purchases quite yet. But I know that Agent will not perform sensitive tasks like completing a reservation without asking me. It won’t have access to my credit cards or other personal information.

I wanted a quick first demo of what ChatGPT Agent can do for me, and I was impressed with how quickly it all worked out. I’ve only started scratching the surface here, but I already know all my complex queries will go to ChatGPT Agent from now on. More importantly, I also know that I have to be very careful with my prompts. I have to include as much detail as I can so ChatGPT Agent can complete the task in one go.

ChatGPT Plus users like me can only exchange 40 messages with Agent each month. I’ve already used two, since I had to correct Agent with a second prompt. I don’t think I can ask for more than 40 messages a month considering I’m on the $20/month subscription. But OpenAI will let users spend money for more access once they exceed the limit. Then again, ChatGPT Agent isn’t necessary for all the chats you might have with the AI.

The $200/month ChatGPT Pro subscription will get you 400 messages each month. ChatGPT Team users will have different access based on their specific subscription.

Source

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) organisation responsible for air traffic control services at multiple airports in the UK is recovering from a technical systems outage at its Swanwick facility that caused significant disruption to flights on Wednesday afternoon.

In an initial statement issued at 4.05pm on 30 July, a NATS spokesperson described a technical issue that for safety’s sake, meant it had had to limit the number of aircraft flying in the London control area. The outage appeared to have been largely resolved by 4.25pm, NATS said.

“Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area,” said the spokesperson.

“We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused,” they added.

In a third update issued shortly after 5pm, NATS said: “Our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal. Departures at all airports have resumed and we are working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely.”

The outage has affected airports across the UK, with delays reported in Bristol, Cardiff, the Channel Islands, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, as well as Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted serving London.

Gatwick and Stansted representatives said the airports were still experiencing some residual delays as flights resume. Many airlines, including British Airways, are also understood to be temporarily reducing the numbers of planes they have airborne.

Meanwhile, stranded passengers have been describing hours spent sitting on the tarmac and flights diverted or made to return to their departure points.

IT failures

More information on the precise nature of the outage has yet to be made public but at the time of writing there is no credible evidence to suggest that it was the result of a cyber attack.

However, NATS has been dogged by a number of IT problems down through the years. A major failure in August 2023 caused after a badly formatted flight plan was input into the NATS system resulted in an inquiry and report conducted by the Independent Review Panel for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The report found that NATS’ systems acted as intended by placing themselves in backup mode so that they could not send potentially dangerous information to an on-duty air traffic controller, but that the backup systems that should have kicked in at that point effectively did the same thing.

This incident also left NATS unable to operate at full capacity, causing flight numbers to have to be limited and resulting in delayed travel for thousands of passengers.

A previous five-hour period of unscheduled downtime that occurred shortly before Christmas 2014 was found to have been the result of a software bug in a specific server used to update flight plan data that had been present since it was installed in 2002.

According to the BBC, Ryanair chief operating officer Neal McMahon has called for the resignation of NATS boss Martin Rolfe, alleging “continued mismanagement” and describing the disruption as “outrageous”.

McMahon said that no lessons appeared to have been learned from previous issues at NATS.

Source

Primestock Photography/Shutterstock

Your Kindle e-reader has made it a lot easier to keep up with your favorite books and publications. Whether you’re using it in bed at night, on a train, or outdoors on a sunny day, most Kindle models deliver crisp-clear text, intuitive controls, and even some thoughtful page-turning animations to fool your brain into thinking you’re actually holding a book. But did you know that you can also personalize the lock screen of your Kindle? It’s a feature that’s been getting a little more attention over the last few years, and it’s likely tucked away in your Kindle’s settings.

It’s an option called Display Cover, and the reason we said “likely” is because the setting is available for four of the more popular Kindle models: the standard Amazon Kindle (eighth generation and later), Kindle Paperwhite (seventh generation and later), Kindle Oasis, and Kindle Voyage. You’ll also need to make sure you’re using a “without ads” Kindle to access this feature.

Now, what exactly does the Display Cover setting do once activated, and how do you enable it?

How to use the Kindle’s Display Cover feature

bigwa11/Shutterstock

About as literal as it sounds, when you turn on the Display Cover setting, your Kindle’s lock screen will always display the cover of the current e-book you’re reading. All you have to do to enable this function is head to Device Options and toggle on Display Cover. When you switch to a new book or publication, the lock screen automatically adapts to showcase your new cover, too, so you won’t have to worry about manually switching. Isn’t it nice when things are easy?

Now, suppose you know for a fact that you’re using a Kindle model that supports the Display Cover feature, but it’s not displayed under Device Settings. In that case, you probably just need to update your Kindle to add the capability. To do so, simply tap Device Options > Advanced Options > Update Your Kindle.

If you’re not sure which version of the Kindle you own, you can check by tapping Content & Devices > Devices.

How to use your own photos

Joni Hanebutt/Shutterstock

With a little know-how and patience, you’ll also be able to upload your own photos to the Kindle lock screen; though, this is more of a trick than a genuine Kindle feature. To get started, you’ll first need to convert your image file into one of two formats your Kindle will understand: EPUB or MOBI. You can use software like Canva and websites like OnlineConverter.com to convert image formats like JPEGs and PNGs.

Once your photo has been converted, go ahead and upload it to your Kindle via USB or by emailing it to your Kindle’s email address. Now the only thing left to do is head to Device Options and enable Display Cover. That’s all there is to it.

Do keep in mind that because you’re technically pulling a fast one on your Kindle, you’ll need to stop reading whatever actual e-book you’re steeped in to manually choose your custom EPUB or MOBI file, which can be a bit tedious.

Source

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

There was a time when OpenAI’s GPT-5 upgrade for ChatGPT was expected to bring AGI, or artificial general intelligence, along with it. While AGI doesn’t have a perfectly objective explanation, with AI firms constantly shifting the goalposts, it’s essentially AI that’s better than humans at most tasks; AI that can approach any problem with a level of creativity similar to humans.

That correlation between GPT-5 and AGI has died down significantly since the early days of 2024. The ChatGPT upgrade will be significant, but it probably won’t be hyped up as AGI. Some hype already exists about the abilities of GPT-5, including intriguing teasers from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Those signs suggest that a GPT-5 release is imminent.

Speculation aside, new reports indicate that OpenAI is indeed readying the ChatGPT upgrade for August. The Verge and Axios report that GPT-5 is coming next month with a few exciting new additions, including unlimited access for the ChatGPT Free tier.

Sam Altman’s GPT-5 teasers

OpenAI

OpenAI’s top executive has toured Washington, D.C., this week, ahead of President Trump’s America AI Action Plan. Every AI firm need the support of the U.S. government, including OpenAI. They want infrastructure investments, fewer regulations, and protection from China. In the process, Altman made several exciting comments about the arrival of GPT-5 in ChatGPT. “I am very interested in what it means to give everybody on Earth like a free copy of GPT-5 running for them all the time,” Altman said at the Federal Reserve this week.

A day later, he appeared on the This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von podcast, where he shared a GPT-5 experience he had while testing the next-gen AI model. “This morning, I was testing our new model, and I got a question. I got emailed a question that I didn’t quite understand. And I put it in the model, this is GPT-5, and it answered it perfectly,” Altman said. “And I really kind of sat back in my chair, and I was just like, ‘Oh man, here it is moment’ […] I felt like useless relative to the AI in this thing that I felt like I should have been able to do, and I couldn’t. It was really hard. But the AI just did it like that. It was a weird feeling.”

As a reminder, Altman on Saturday tweeted that he used a mysterious new AI model “for a little coding project.” The AI completed it in five minutes. “It is very, very good,” Altman teased. “Not sure how I feel about it,” he concluded without revealing other details. Altman did say on X that GPT-5 won’t have the same abilities as the ChatGPT version OpenAI used to win a gold medal at the International Math Olympiad.

What can GPT-5 do?

YouTube

These teasers suggest ChatGPT will be even better at handling tasks, whether they concern coding or regular day-to-day chats you might have with the AI about all sorts of topics. Also interesting is the fact that Altman wants to make GPT-5 available for free without limits to any ChatGPT subscriber. ChatGPT Plus and Pro users will get access to even higher levels of intelligence than Free subscribers.

This week’s reports also indicate that GPT-5 will incorporate the various ChatGPT models you might be using now. Instead of choosing o3 for reasoning, GPT-4.1 for coding, and GPT-4o for regular chats, GPT-5 will pick the tools it needs to answer your prompt on its own. GPT-5 might also come in different versions, including mini and nano options that could be available for specific use cases. GPT-5 will power Microsoft’s Copilot as well, with some testers already spotting the new AI model out in the wild.

GPT-5 won’t be the only big ChatGPT upgrade available to users, though. OpenAI has just released ChatGPT Agent to all paid premium tiers, and the AI agent is available around the world. Agent should also be part of GPT-5. OpenAI’s open-source ChatGPT version, which was delayed a few times this summer, should launch before GPT-5, per Axios. The Verge mentions an early August release window. If both are correct, OpenAI is about to share at least a couple of announcements in the next two weeks.

Source

Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images

If you’re not using an iPhone, chances are you’ve got an Android phone in your pocket. Android is Google’s mobile operating system, and it powers a range of phones like the Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel. One thing nearly all Android phones have in common is their lithium-ion battery. These batteries are powerful and efficient, but only when they’re healthy. As they age or wear out, you might notice your phone losing charge faster, taking longer to power up, or even shutting down unexpectedly. That’s why keeping tabs on your battery’s health is more important than you might think.

There are two main ways you can check the battery health of your Android phone. You can use a dial code to run through your phone’s diagnostics. However, not all phones support this dial code. You can also use either an internal or third-party app that monitors your phone’s battery health, like Samsung’s Members app.

Using a dial code to check the battery health

Kinga Krzeminska/Getty Images

A dial code is a series of numbers and symbols you press as if you are going to call someone. On supported phones, a dial code can get you into an automated system that provides an overview of your phone’s diagnostics. This will include battery health and battery temperature.

On your phone’s dial screen, dial *#*#4636#*#*. After that, navigate through the menu to access your battery health diagnostics. This is usually referred to as Battery Information in the menu. The menu may be different depending on the type of phone you have.

Unfortunately, this code does not work on all Android smartphones. Some support it and some do not. If you still have your phone’s manual or can find it online, you can check if the model supports this dial code beforehand. Though it may be faster to simply dial it and see what happens.

Using an app to check the battery health

Framesira/Shutterstock

Some Androids have a personal app option to check the phone’s battery health. Samsung offers the Samsung Members app. Through that app, you go to Support and then Phone Diagnostics. From there, you can test various systems of the phone, including the battery.

You can also use a third-party app like AccuBattery. Go to the Google Play Store to download AccuBattery. It features a battery health monitor to show how well it is charging. It also provides real-time data on your phone’s battery performance. You can use this to optimize the battery and prolong its life.

Battery health is important to keep your Android functioning properly and to give it a long life. While the dial code is a quick battery check, not all phones support it. Downloading an app will allow you to monitor your battery’s health and get real-time reports to enhance battery performance. Armed with these tools, you can take good care of your phone.

Source

In this storage supplier profile, we look at Pure Storage, which is distinguished by being all-flash, unlike its competitors that all have hard disk drives (HDDs) somewhere in their array offer.

Like the rest, however, Pure has moved from a sharp focus on actual storage towards data management. That’s been driven as analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) have emerged as key tasks for organisations that want to squeeze all the value they can from the data they hold and to access it with agility.

At the same time, Pure has also embraced containerised workloads, and provision of the storage and data protection they require.

It has also made great headway in consumption models of storage purchasing, and offers a range of options that go from fully as-a-service to buy-once-upgrade-forever.

It claims more than half of revenue is now from as-a-service custom.

And where it barely saw profitability in the first decade of its existence, that seems to have turned around now, with positive net income more frequent than not in the past five years.

In this article, we look at the origins of Pure Storage, its key storage products, its approach to data management, the cloud, containers, and consumption models of storage purchasing.

Where did Pure Storage come from?

Pure Storage is a product of the flash storage era, formed in 2009 under the code name Os76 Inc in the Palo Alto offices of private equity firm Sutter Hill Ventures by John “Coz” Colgrave and former Yahoo! chief technology officer John Hayes.

The company went public in 2015, with venture capital injections following along the way. Core to the work of the company’s founders from early on was work to maximise capacity and endurance from the then emerging multi-level cell (MLC) flash media.

Core to the Pure story is that it initially used proprietary flash drives, but introduced its own DirectFlash Modules (DFM) by 2017. These work in tandem with the array-level operating system to allow them to go to much higher capacities than off-the-shelf solid state drives.

Pure Storage has expressed the view that such capacity increases will translate to lower per-GB prices for its flash than is possible with spinning disk, and lead to obsolescence of the latter by 2028.

How does Pure Storage rank against other storage players?

In 2023, IDC ranked Pure sixth in terms of market share, with 6.1%. That’s the same ranking as the second quarter of 2021, when IDC put Pure Storage last among the biggest six storage array makers at the time, with market share of 4.1%.

Despite the same ranking that marks an improvement because IDC now includes Huawei (second) and Lenovo (fourth) among external enterprise storage system suppliers. In other words, Pure has leapfrogged Hitachi Vantara and IBM of the previous big six storage array makers.

The big dog is still Dell, with 26.1% market share, with Huawei (9.7%), HPE (8.3%), Lenovo (7.7%) and NetApp (7%) behind them and above Pure. Below Pure in the rankings are Hitachi Vantara on 4.9% market share and IBM on 4.7%.

Pure Storage revenue was $440m in 2015, the first year it went public, and that figure had reached $2.76bn by 2023. Revenue in 2025 was $3.2bn.

It had only made a net profit during three quarters by the last time we surveyed the company in 2023, but has since achieved more stability of sorts, with a positive net income in five out of nine quarters.

What are Pure Storage’s key storage products?

Core to Pure’s flash storage hardware products are its DirectFlash Modules, for which capacity of 300TB was announced at its Accelerate event in Las Vegas in June, with shipping by the end of the year. DFMs are available in triple-level cell (TLC) for performance applications and quad-level cell (QLC) for capacity.

DFMs are designed to work in tandem with the array, so flash management functions – such as mapping data to physical media, garbage collection, wear levelling, etc – are built into system-wide operations. That’s unlike commodity solid state drives that do this at individual-drive level with dedicated media, such as DRAM, on the drive.

• FlashArray products aim at the highest performance workloads and use TLC flash on Pure DFM media.
• FlashArray//XL offer the highest capacities, up to 7.4PB effective in the 2025-launched R5 variant;
• FlashArray//X is aimed at mission-critical workloads up to 3.3PB effective capacity;
• FlashArray//C targets “business-critical” workloads – namely, those that are less performance-hungry – up to 8.9PB effective;
• FlashArray//E provides QLC capacity options with lower performance up to 6PB;
• FlashArray/ST – or FA//ST, as Pure execs like to call it – is aimed at deployments where extremely high-performance direct-attached storage would have been specified previously, such as in-memory databases, OLTP applications, log writing and sharded NoSQL databases. Remarkably, here Pure steps away from DFM-based media modules and uses high-performance commodity drives in the FlashArray//ST.
• FlashBlade is Pure’s fast file and object storage family, with rapid access to large-capacity storage and aimed at what have been seen as secondary storage use cases – backup, archive, analytics datastores – but which have evolved to require rapid input/output (I/O) for analysis, recovery and so on.
• FlashBlade//S is for the highest performance file and object workloads using TLC media, while FlashBlade//E provides capacity-focussed QLC media aimed at unstructured data use cases.

What markets and workloads does Pure Storage target?

Pure Storage can satisfy datacentre workloads that are the highest an enterprise might require. It also specialises in flash storage for workloads that would once have been deemed secondary, such as backups and less frequently used data.

Here, Pure makes the case that the fast access times of flash storage are needed because organisations may need to recover data quickly after a ransomware attack, or transfer and access data rapidly to satisfy AI training or inference needs.

How does the cloud fit Pure Storage strategy?

Pure Storage is oriented towards hybrid cloud operations and modern cloud-native applications. It has also thoroughly embraced the idea of a cloud model of operations.

That manifests in its pay-as-you-go models of purchasing (see below), but also in Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC), launched at Accelerate 2025, which allows for enterprise hybrid cloud visibility and management of storage resources.

EDC brings together:

• Purity storage OS, which is common to all the company’s arrays;
• Fusion, which allows discovery and management of storage resources;
• Pure1, which allows for fleet management in terms of performance and detailed management of resources, and;
• Evergreen, which is the company’s consumption purchasing offer that allows for as-a-service procurement.

Meanwhile, Pure Cloud Block Store, an enterprise-grade block storage service, is delivered natively in the public cloud, with access to the same protocols, snapshots and replication capabilities as Pure’s storage software.

What is the Pure Storage container strategy?

Pure bought Portworx for $370m in 2020, and it forms the core of its container strategy. Portworx centres on provision of persistent storage and data protection for containerised applications, and is a cloud-native data management platform that allows orchestration of Kubernetes and other container platforms across cloud and on-premise locations.

Portworx also provides data services such as databases, event handling and messaging platforms such as Cassandra, Kafka, PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, Redis and Zookeeper.

What consumption models of purchasing does Pure Storage offer?

Pure Storage offers consumption models of purchasing its Evergreen portfolio, which includes: 

• Evergreen Forever, which is buy-outright with lifetime upgrades;
• Evergreen Flex, where hardware is paid for and capacity is pay-as-you-go, and;
• Evergreen One, which is just pay-as-you-go.

Here, Pure aims to deliver a cloud-like experience with a unified as-a-service platform across on-premise, cloud and hosted environments with promised seamless upgrades and guarantees of zero planned downtime.

Source

Mamun_Sheikh/Shutterstock

Google Maps has become a pretty vital part of many of our lives. We use it to get to new places, or even to explore the cities we’ve called home for years. Google has even continued to enhance the app with new AI-powered features that make navigation even easier. For others, it’s an important part of their commute using public transit, and for a small amount of people that rely on it for that method, a new bug in Google Maps has made it difficult to get the directions they need.

According to multiple comments on a Reddit post on Friday (via Android Police), many Google Maps users on Android have been experiencing issues with the app crashing whenever they look for transit directions on their device. There doesn’t appear to be any particular device or version of the app that is causing this issue specifically, as far as I can tell, and I wasn’t able to replicate the bug on any of the three Android devices that I tested it on.

Google Maps bug only affects public transit

bbernard/Shutterstock

The good news, at least for most Google Maps users, is that the bug doesn’t seem to affect any other navigation modes. Despite the bug being reported by users in the U.S., the U.K., and even Germany, it doesn’t appear to be an especially widespread issue. However, users on both Pixel and Samsung devices have experienced the bug, and there doesn’t look to be any known solution for it at the moment.

No amount of clearing the cache or resetting your device seems to make a difference, and even if you’re running the latest update of the app, there’s no way to know if you’re safe from the bug unless you try searching for transit directions yourself. And since Google Maps has made it even easier to find public transit options, this bug nerfs one of the best features of the app.

It also appears that some Google Maps users are reporting issues with the app on Downdetector, too, and it has even made an appearance on the Google Maps forums, which should hopefully mean Google is working on a solution already.

Source

José Adorno for BGR

The Apple Watch has been available for a decade now. To this day, many people haven’t upgraded to a newer model since they first bought their Apple Watch. It’s understandable, given that all of the core Apple Watch features are available across the lineup: Heart rate monitoring, step counts, sleep analysis, and showing your iPhone notifications. But new hardware also unlocks new software features.

Since yearly upgrades for the Apple Watch hardware are even less enticing than recent iPhone upgrades, users might not feel the urge to get a new model the day that it launches. Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the battery degradation after a couple of years, I’d still be rocking my Apple Watch Series 6 today.

However, after getting the Apple Watch Ultra 2, I could finally see how much I was missing. Now, the company has decided to supercharge the newer Apple Watch models through watchOS updates, and watchOS 26 adds several compelling reasons to get a new model. Thanks to the larger displays, new sensors, and hardware changes, watchOS 26 can take newer Apple Watch models to the next level, and these new features could be the reason you’ll upgrade, whether or not you’re planning to wait for the Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3.

watchOS 26 features make newer Apple Watch even better

José Adorno for BGR

These are the watchOS 26 features that are exclusive to newer Apple Watch models, and the ones that might make you want to upgrade your smartwatch in the months ahead:

Live Translation: Available on Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple brings Live Translation capabilities to its wearable with watchOS 26 in the Messages app. The AI feature translates conversations to your preferred language. Whenever someone is chatting with you in a language other than the ones you speak, the Watch will automatically show a translated version of the messages.

Workout Buddy: This Apple Intelligence-powered feature is likely the most important addition in watchOS 26. This brand-new fitness experience “generates personalized pep talks using voice data from an Apple Fitness+ trainer.” With that, the Apple Watch can help set the mood for your workout while encouraging you based on the data available in the Health app. It also requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer.

Wrist Flick: Expanding on Apple Watch gestures, watchOS 26 brings a new Wrist Flick gesture to the Apple Watch. By turning your wrist over and then back, you can dismiss a notification or a call.

Smart Stack improvements: Every update, Smart Stack gets slightly better. With watchOS 26, the feature gets more insightful, so it can suggest the workout icon when you arrive at the gym or register your location in case you lose cellular connectivity and need figure out how to get back to where you started.

AI-powered Messages: Apple Watch understands the context of your text messages in watchOS 26, so an Apple Cash suggestion might appear when someone sends a bill or a Check-in might be suggested based on context clues.

Source

The success of UK government initiatives to accelerate the roll-out of gigabit broadband and 4G/5G across all parts of the country has been spelled out in financial terms in the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT’s) annual report, and accounts for the 2024–25 time period, making particular note that with the increased uptake of broadband nationally, suppliers have made higher profits than originally anticipated in some areas.

The report covers the accounting period of 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, and presents not just the UK government’s outturn for 2024–25, but also planned expenditure for 2025–26. Overall, DSIT says that in the second year of its operational existence, it has seen a significant expansion of both the department and of its agenda. It claims to have continued to play a central role in “driving the UK’s leading position in science and technology”.

Looking at the major communications mechanisms, the report notes that through the Shared Rural Network scheme, aiming to deliver 4G coverage to places where there is either limited or no 4G coverage at all, the UK government’s 95% geographic UK landmass target for the programme was met at the end of 2024, a year ahead of the December 2025 deadline.

4G geographic coverage from at least one mobile network operator stood at 96% by January 2025. The government is also aiming for all populated areas, including rural communities, to have higher-quality standalone 5G from at least one mobile operator by 2030. By January 2025, 5G coverage – combined standalone and non-standalone – was available outside 96% of premises across the UK.

In the realm of fixed communications, the report notes the rapid progress of access to gigabit networks, adding that in November 2023, gigabit broadband was available to less than 80% of UK premises, but by November 2024, total gigabit broadband availability rose over the period by 6.1% to total 85.7%. This is more than double the coverage level in 2021.

Publishing its view in March 2025 on the steps needed to give the UK almost total access to full-fibre connectivity, UK comms regulator Ofcom noted that full-fibre broadband was on course to become available to 96% of homes and businesses in the next two years, and that its proposal in the Telecoms access review 2026-31 will promote the necessary levels of competition and investment in full-fibre networks to hit this target.

At the heart of the growth was the work done by Building Digital UK (BDUK), DSIT’s executive agency providing public money for broadband deployments that are mandated to provide wholesale access to passive, active, backhaul and dark fibre. The UK government’s recent Spending Review saw BDUK gain £1.9bn to fund gigabit broadband services to 99% of UK premises by 2032. BDUK capital grants for core departments and agencies for 2024/25 totalled £269m.

The report emphasises that during the year, by introducing rolling market reviews, adding a further 12 signed contracts, tactical delivery through voucher projects and efforts to remove barriers on regulations, DSIT through BDUK almost doubled premises under contract to over a million premises.

It also notes that total innovation programme grants increased by £225m, predominantly attributable to the increase in capital grants of £205m that BDUK awarded relating to the Project Gigabit programme; Shared Rural Network and the Superfast Broadband initiative.

The latter has proved markedly successful. The scheme has a take-up claw-back for the recovery of grants paid to suppliers for provision of superfast broadband in areas that were deemed at the time not to be commercially viable.

The report observes: “With the increased uptake of broadband nationally, suppliers have made higher-than-originally-anticipated profits in some areas. Under the terms of this grant programme, these excess profits are clawed back by the department.”

The total claw-back for the year was £34.584m.

Source