"Google has signed its first partnership with a long-duration energy storage company," reports Data Center Dynamics. "The tech giant signed a long-term partnership with Energy Dome to support multiple commercial deployments worldwide to help scale the company's CO2 battery technology."

Google explains in a blog post that the company's technology "can store excess clean energy and then dispatch it back to the grid for 8-24 hours, bridging the gap between when renewable energy is generated and when it is needed." Reuters explains the technology: Energy Dome's CO2-based system stores energy by compressing and liquefying carbon dioxide, which is later expanded to generate electricity. The technology avoids the use of scarce raw materials such as lithium and copper, making it potentially attractive to European policymakers seeking to reduce reliance on critical minerals and bolster energy security.
"Unlike other gases, CO2 can be compressed at ambient temperatures, eliminating the need for expensive cryogenic features," notes CleanTechnica, calling this "a unique new threat to fossil fuel power plants." Google's move "means that more wind and solar energy than ever before can be put to use in local grids." Pumped storage hydropower still accounts for more than 90% of utility scale storage in the US, long duration or otherwise... Energy Dome claims to beat lithium-ion batteries by a wide margin, currently aiming for a duration of 8-24 hours. The company aims to hit the 10-hour mark with its first project in the U.S., the "Columbia Energy Storage Project" under the wing of the gas and electricity supplier Alliant Energy to be located in Pacific, Wisconsin... [B]ut apparently Google has already seen more than enough. An Energy Dome demonstration project has been shooting electricity into the grid in Italy for more than three years, and the company recently launched a new 20-megawatt commercial plant in Sardinia.
Google points out this is one of several Google clean energy initiatives :

• In June Google signed the largest direct corporate offtake agreement for fusion energy with Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

• In October Google agreed to purchase "advanced nuclear" power from multiple small modular reactors being developed by Kairos Power.

• Google also partnered with a clean-energy startup to develop a geothermal power project that contributes carbon-free energy to the electric grid.

Tesla open its first diner/Supercharger station Monday in Los Angeles, reports CNBC — an always-open two-story restaurant serving "classic American comfort food" next to 80-charging stalls surrounded by two 66-foot megascreens "playing a rotation of short films, feature-length movies and Tesla videos."

Tesla described the restaurant's theme as "retro-futuristic". (Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus was outside filling bags of popcorn.) There's souvenier cups, the diner's food comes in Cybertruck-shaped boxes, and the owner of a Tesla Model Y told CNBC "It feels kind of like Disneyland, but for adults — or Tesla owners." (And yes, one of the choices is a "Tesla Burger.")

"Less than 24 hours after opening, the line at the Tesla Diner stretched down the block," notes CNBC's video report. (One customer told CNBC they'd waited for 90 minutes to get their order — but "If you're a Tesla owner, and you order from your car ahead of time, you don't have to wait in line.")

The report adds that Elon Musk "says if the diner goes well, he's looking to put them in major cities around the world."

Pebble smartwatches are officially reclaiming their iconic name after Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky successfully recovered the Pebble trademark. "Great news -- we've been able to recover the trademark for Pebble! Honestly, I wasn't expecting this to work out so easily," Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky writes in an update blog. "Core 2 Duo is now Pebble 2 Duo. Core Time 2 is now Pebble Time 2." The Verge reports: As a refresher, Pebble was one of the OG smartwatches. Despite a loyal customer base, however, it wasn't able to compete with bigger names like Fitbit, the Apple Watch, or Samsung. In 2016, Pebble was acquired by Fitbit for $23 million, marking the end of the first Pebble era. Along the way, Fitbit was acquired by Google. That's important because the tech giant agreed to open-source Pebble's software, and Migicovsky announced earlier this year that Pebble was making a comeback. However, because Migicovsky didn't have the trademark, the new Pebble watches were initially dubbed the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2.

"With the recovery of the Pebble trademark, that means you too can use the word Pebble for Pebble related software and hardware projects," Migicovsky writes, acknowledging Pebble's history of community development.

Meta has appointed Shengjia Zhao as Chief Scientist of its new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Zhao was a former OpenAI researcher known for his work on ChatGPT, GPT-4, and the company's first AI reasoning model, o1. "I'm excited to share that Shengjia Zhao will be the Chief Scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs," Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads Friday. "Shengjia co-founded the new lab and has been our lead scientist from day one. Now that our recruiting is going well and our team is coming together, we have decided to formalize his leadership role." TechCrunch reports: Zhao will set a research agenda for MSL under the leadership of Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who was recently hired to lead the new unit. Wang, who does not have a research background, was viewed as a somewhat unconventional choice to lead an AI lab. The addition of Zhao, who is a reputable research leader known for developing frontier AI models, rounds out the leadership team. To further fill out the unit, Meta has hired several high-level researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Safe Superintelligence, Apple, and Anthropic, as well as pulling researchers from Meta's existing Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab and generative AI unit.

Zuckerberg notes in his post that Zhao has pioneered several breakthroughs, including a "new scaling paradigm." The Meta CEO is likely referencing Zhao's work on OpenAI's reasoning model, o1, in which he is listed as a foundational contributor alongside OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Meta currently doesn't offer a competitor to o1, so AI reasoning models are a key area of focus for MSL. The Information reported in June that Zhao would be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, alongside three other influential OpenAI researchers -- Jiahui Yu, Shuchao Bi, and Hongyu Ren. Meta has also recruited Trapit Bansal, another OpenAI researcher who worked on AI reasoning models with Zhao, as well as three employees from OpenAI's Zurich office who worked on multimodality.

A recent Echelon firmware update has effectively bricked offline functionality for its smart gym equipment, cutting off compatibility with popular third-party apps like QZ and forcing users to connect to Echelon's servers -- even just to view workout stats. Ars Technica reports: As explained in a Tuesday blog post by Roberto Viola, who develops the "QZ (qdomyos-zwift)" app that connects Echelon machines to third-party fitness platforms, like Peloton, Strava, and Apple HealthKit, the firmware update forces Echelon machines to connect to Echelon's servers in order to work properly. A user online reported that as a result of updating his machine, it is no longer syncing with apps like QZ, and he is unable to view his machine's exercise metrics in the Echelon app without an Internet connection. Affected Echelon machines reportedly only have full functionality, including the ability to share real-time metrics, if a user has the Echelon app active and if the machine is able to reach Echelon's servers.

Viola wrote: "On startup, the device must log in to Echelon's servers. The server sends back a temporary, rotating unlock key. Without this handshake, the device is completely bricked -- no manual workout, no Bluetooth pairing, no nothing." Because updated Echelon machines now require a connection to Echelon servers for some basic functionality, users are unable to use their equipment and understand, for example, how fast they're going without an Internet connection. If Echelon were to ever go out of business, the gym equipment would, essentially, get bricked. Viola told Ars Technica that he first started hearing about problems with QZ, which launched in 2020, at the end of 2024 from treadmill owners. He said a firmware update appears to have rolled out this month on Echelon bikes that bricks QZ functionality. In his blog, Viola urged Echelon to let its machines send encrypted data to another device, like a phone or a tablet, without the Internet. He wrote: "Users bought the bike; they should be allowed to use it with or without Echelon's services."

The Internet Archive has received federal depository library status from California Sen. Alex Padilla, joining a network of over 1,100 libraries that archive government documents and make them accessible to the public. Padilla made the designation in a letter to the Government Publishing Office, which oversees the program.

The San Francisco-based nonprofit organization already operates Democracy's Library, a free online compendium of government research and publications launched in 2022. Founder Brewster Kahle said the new designation makes it easier to work with other federal depository libraries and provides more reliable access to government materials for digitization and distribution.

Under federal law, members of Congress can designate up to two qualified libraries for federal depository status.

An Argentine captured naked in his yard by a Google Street View camera has been awarded compensation by a court after his bare behind was splashed over the internet for all to see. From a report: The policeman had sought payment from the internet giant for harm to his dignity, arguing he was behind a 6 1/2-foot wall when a Google camera captured him in the buff, from behind, in small-town Argentina in 2017. His house number and street name were also laid bare, broadcast on Argentine TV covering the story, and shared widely on social media.

The man claimed the invasion exposed him to ridicule at work and among his neighbors. Another court last year dismissed the man's claim for damages, ruling he only had himself to blame for "walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home." Google, for its part, claimed the perimeter wall was not high enough.

American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom criticized the use of AI in setting air fares during an earnings call, calling the practice "inappropriate" and a "bait and switch" move that could trick travelers. Isom's comments target Delta Air Lines, which is testing AI to help set pricing on about 3% of its network today with plans to expand to 20% by year-end.

Delta maintains it is not using the technology to target customers with individualized offers based on personal information, stating all customers see identical fares across retail channels. US Senators Ruben Gallego, Richard Blumenthal, and Mark Warner have questioned Delta's AI pricing plans, citing data privacy concerns and potential fare increases. Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said his carrier also has no plans to use AI in revenue management or pricing decisions.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Donald Trump vowed to save TikTok before taking office, claiming only he could make a deal to keep the app operational in the US despite national security concerns. But then, he put Vice President JD Vance in charge of the deal, and after months of negotiations, the US still doesn't seem to have found terms for a sale that the Chinese government is willing to approve. Now, Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed that if China won't approve the latest version of the deal -- which could result in a buggy version of TikTok made just for the US -- the administration is willing to shut down TikTok. And soon.

On Thursday, Lutnick told CNBC that TikTok would stop operating in the US if China and TikTok owner ByteDance won't sell the app to buyers that Trump lined up, along with control over TikTok's algorithm. Under the deal Trump is now pushing, "China can have a little piece or ByteDance, the current owner, can keep a little piece," Lutnick said. "But basically, Americans will have control. Americans will own the technology, and Americans will control the algorithm." However, ByteDance's board has long maintained that the US can alleviate its national security fears -- that China may be using the popular app to manipulate and spy on Americans -- without forcing a sale. In January, a ByteDance board member, Bill Ford, told World Economic Forum attendees that a non-sale option "could involve a change of control locally to ensure" TikTok "complies with US legislation" without selling off the app or its algorithm.

At this point, Lutnick suggested that the US is unwilling to bend on the requirement that the US control the recommendation algorithm, which is viewed as the secret sauce that makes the app so popular globally. ByteDance may be unwilling to sell the algorithm partly because then it would be sharing its core intellectual property with competitors in the US. Earlier this month, Trump had claimed that he wasn't "confident" that China would approve the deal, even though he thought it was "good for China." Analysts have suggested that China views TikTok as a bargaining chip in its tariff negotiations with Trump, which continue to not go smoothly, and it may be OK with the deal but unwilling to release the bargaining chip without receiving key concessions from the US. For now, the US and China are enjoying a 90-day truce that could end in August, about a month before the deadline Trump set to sell TikTok in mid-September.

New submitter davecotter writes: So Google's staring at its old goo.gl links and thinking, "Why is this perfectly functioning service still even a thing?" After many businesses and users adopted it like it was the second coming of the way-too-long hyperlink, Google's now decided to yank the plug. Starting August 23, 2024, you'll get a flashy "don't say we didn't warn you" pop-up, and by August 25, 2025, goo.gl links (unless made by Google itself) will vanish into the 404 abyss.

Translation: Thanks for trusting us -- now pack up and find a new shortener.

Apple has released the first public betas of its upcoming operating systems with its new design language called Liquid Glass. The list of new betas includes iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. The Verge's Jay Peters reports: The design language is inspired by visionOS and, as the name implies, features a lot of transparency. I felt it was a wild change to my iPhone when I tried the first developer beta, and Apple has already tweaked some of the translucency and changed how Control Center looks in subsequent betas.

The new operating systems also have an updated numbering scheme: they now all end with 26, taking cues from how the car industry names its cars after the following year. It's a simpler and better system, if you ask me, and it should make it easier to know if you're on the newest software.

Longtime Slashdot reader gbkersey shares a report from The Mirror: Elon Musk's satellite internet Starlink has been hit with a global outage preventing thousands of users from accessing the internet. According to DownDetector, reports of issues began to surge around 8pm GMT, with nearly 60,000 global users affected at the peak of the outage. "Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution," the company said in a post on X. "We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved."

Outages are being reported across the U.S., as well as along the Ukrainian frontline. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people in the UK have logged issues with Starlink since 8pm this evening. "The majority of the reports (64%) are concerning a total blackout, while the rest point to internet problems," the report says.

UPDATE: Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink Engineering, wrote in a post: "Starlink has now mostly recovered from the network outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours. The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network. We apologize for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to providing a highly reliable network, and will fully root cause this issue and ensure it does not occur again."

UPDATE #2: Starlink said in an update at 5:18 PM PT: "The network issue has been resolved, and Starlink service has been restored. We understand how important connectivity is and apologize for the disruption."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: Beyond AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google is working on "Web Guide" to better organize Search results into categories with additional context and insights. Simply, "Web Guide groups web links in helpful ways." There are headers and summaries before you see two or so links, with the ability to load "More." The goal is to make it "easier to find information and web pages," with this AI organization better surfacing pages "that you may not have previously discovered."

It leverages a "custom version of Gemini to better understand both a search query and content on the web." It uses a query fan-out technique, like AI Mode, to perform "multiple related searches to identify the most relevant results." Google says Web Guide is ideal for both open-ended searches ("how to solo travel in Japan"), and detailed queries in multiple sentences: "My family is spread across multiple time zones. What are the best tools for staying connected and maintaining close relationships despite the distance?"

In the latter example, grouping will see "pages related to specific aspects of your query." This is available in Search Labs (Web Guide) by going to the "Web" tab/filter. As such, you can switch to "All" for the usual experience. However, Google will experiment with showing AI-organized results in the All tab and other parts of Search over time. Further reading: Google Users Are Less Likely To Click on Links When an AI Summary Appears in the Results, Pew Research Finds

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Some customers of Broadcom's VMware business currently cannot access security patches, putting them at greater risk of attack. Customers in that perilous position hold perpetual licenses for VMware products but do not have a current support contract with Broadcom, which will not renew those contracts unless users sign up for software subscriptions. Yet many customers in this situation run products that Broadcom continues to support with patches and updates.

In April 2024, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan promised "free access to zero-day security patches for supported versions of vSphere" so customers "are able to use perpetual licenses in a safe and secure fashion." VMware patches aren't freely available; users must log on to Broadcom's support portal to access the software. Some VMware users in this situation have told The Register that when they enter the portal they cannot download patches, and that VMware support staff have told them it may be 90 days before the software fixes become available. "Because our support portal requires validation of customer entitlements for software patches, only entitled customers have access to the patches at this time," a VMware spokesperson said. "A separate patch delivery cycle will also be available for non-entitled customers and will follow at a later date."

The timing of that "later date" remains uncertain. The Register also notes that "users haven't had access to patches since May."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: In addition to sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a freshwater system and public health, the Romans also produced a lot of inscriptions. Making sense of the ancient texts can be a slog for scholars, but a new artificial intelligence tool from Google DeepMind aims to ease the process. Named Aeneas after the mythical Trojan hero, the program predicts where and when inscriptions were made and makes suggestions where words are missing. Historians who put the program through its paces said it transformed their work by helping them identify similar inscriptions to those they were studying, a crucial step for setting the texts in context, and proposing words to fill the inevitable gaps in worn and damaged artefacts. [...]

The Google team led by Yannis Assael worked with historians to create an AI tool that would aid the research process. The program is trained on an enormous database of nearly 200,000 known inscriptions, amounting to 16m characters. Aeneas takes text, and in some cases images, from the inscription being studied and draws on its training to build a list of related inscriptions from 7th century BC to 8th century BC. Rather than merely searching for similar words, the AI identifies and links inscriptions through deeper historical connections. Having trained on the rich collection of inscriptions, the AI can assign study texts to one of 62 Roman provinces and estimate when it was written to within 13 years. It also provides potential words to fill in any gaps, though this has only been tested on known inscriptions where text is blocked out.

In a test run, researchers set Aeneas loose on a vast inscription carved into monuments around the Roman empire. The self-congratulatory Res Gestae Divi Augusti describes the life achievements of the first Roman emperor, Augustus. Aeneas came up with two potential dates for the work, either the first decade BC or between 10 and 20AD. The hedging echoes the debate among scholars who argue over the same dates. In another test, Aeneas analysed inscriptions on a votive altar from Mogontiacum, now Mainz in Germany, and revealed through subtle linguistic similarities how it had been influenced by an older votive altar in the region. "Those were jaw-dropping moments for us," said [Dr Thea Sommerschield, a historian at the University of Nottingham who developed Aeneas with the tech firm]. Details are published in Nature and Aeneas is available to researchers online.

Thingiverse, a popular 3D printing file repository, has agreed to remove downloadable gun designs following pressure from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who is pushing for stricter moderation and voluntary cooperation across the 3D printing industry. "However, it's unlikely to slow the proliferation of 3D printed weapons, as many other sites offer downloadable gun designs and parts," reports The Register. From the report: Earlier this year, Bragg wrote to 3D printing companies, asking them to ensure their services can't be used to create firearms. On Saturday, Bragg announced that one such company, Thingiverse, would remove working gun models from its site. The company operates a popular free library of 3D design files and had already banned weapons in its terms of use, but is now promising to improve its moderation procedures and technology. "Following discussions with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office about concerns around untraceable firearms, we are taking additional steps to improve our content moderation efforts," Thingiverse said in a statement. "As always, we encourage our users to report any content that may be harmful." [...]

At any rate, while Thingiverse may be popular among 3D printing mavens, people who like to build their own guns look to other options. [...] Bragg's approach to 3D printing sites and 3D printer manufacturers is to seek voluntary cooperation. Only Thingiverse and YouTube have taken up his call, others may or may not follow. "While law enforcement has a primary role to play in stopping the rise of 3D-printed weapons, this technology is rapidly changing and evolving, and we need the help and expertise of the private sector to aid our efforts," Bragg said. "We will continue to proactively reach out to and collaborate with others in the industry to reduce gun violence throughout Manhattan and keep everyone safe." But it seems doubtful that the sites where Aranda and other 3D gun makers get their files will be rushing to help Bragg voluntarily.

T-Mobile has officially launched its Starlink-powered "T-Satellite" service nationwide, offering off-grid text messaging and location-sharing to both customers and non-customers. The service is currently $10/month (soon to be $15), supports over 60 devices, and will expand to include voice and "satellite-optimized" apps. The Verge reports: Your device will automatically connect to T-Satellite if you're in an area with no cellular coverage. As long as there isn't a heavy amount of cloud coverage or trees blocking your view of the sky, you should be able to send and receive text messages, including to 911, as well as share a link that temporarily tracks your location. T-Mobile's support page says the ability to send pictures is available on "most" Android phones, and the company plans on adding support for more devices soon.

T-Mobile is also aiming to enable voice messages and will eventually allow devices to connect to "satellite-optimized" apps, which it previously said could include AllTrails, Accuweather, and WhatsApp. The more than 650 Starlink satellites used by T-Mobile cover the continental US, Hawaii, parts of southern Alaska, and Puerto Rico. The carrier says it's working on offering satellite connectivity while abroad and in international waters as well. [...] In order to use T-Satellite, you'll need to have an unlocked device with support for eSIMs and satellite connectivity.

Internet outages spiked during the second quarter of 2025, driven by government-mandated shutdowns, infrastructure failures, and technical glitches, according to Cloudflare's quarterly disruption report.

Government restrictions returned after a quiet first quarter, with Libya, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Panama imposing internet cutoffs for reasons ranging from protest suppression to exam security. A massive power outage on April 28 knocked Spain's internet traffic down 80% and Portugal's by 90%, with service restored around 1 a.m. the following day.

Cable damage caused complete outages for Digicel in Haiti and a 90-minute disruption for Airtel in Malawi. Several major outages went unexplained, including an eight-hour blackout at SkyCable in the Philippines and a nationwide outage at Thai provider TrueMove H, with companies providing no official explanations for the service failures.

ItsJustAPseudonym shares a Reuters story:The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling. ItsJustAPseudonym adds: They call the use of hidden motors "mechanical doping". In 2010 it led to the ban of a rider from Belgium who had a hidden motor in her seat-tube during a cyclocross event.

"It's a bit of a technological arms race. Components are getting lighter, smaller. Easier to conceal, which is harder to detect", according to Nick Raudenski, the UCI Head of the Fight Against Technological Fraud.

Meta researchers published findings in Nature Wednesday detailing a wristband prototype that controls computers through hand gestures by reading electrical signals from forearm muscles. The device uses surface electromyography to detect signals from alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord that connect to muscle fibers, allowing users to move cursors with wrist turns, open applications with thumb-to-forefinger taps, and write text by tracing letters in the air.

The technology, developed at Meta's Reality Labs, trained neural networks on data from 10,000 participants to identify common muscle signal patterns. The wristband works without individual calibration across most users and can detect intended movements before physical motion occurs. Meta demonstrated the device controlling its Orion augmented reality glasses last fall and plans product integration over the next few years.