Author: InfoForTech

Sonos has a new app. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.The smart speaker company, long a darling of the audio industry, undid much of the goodwill it earned with its multiroom speakers through a bevy of software updates that broke its app in 2024. Almost all app users hated it, citing the loss of features like volume control and accessibility tools meant to help blind people use the wireless speaker system. Sonos eventually owned up to the mistake, considered bringing back the old app again, then booted its CEO and marched its new leaders out to apologize profusely…

Before graduate school, Kumar grew up in Philadelphia, attended the University of Pennsylvania, and worked on several projects at the intersection of technology and mental health or psychology research. Through those experiences, Kumar began to question whether the technology she was helping to develop was having the sustained impact she hoped for. “I had done a number of projects that were ‘tech for good,’” she says. “And I wasn’t seeing that what I was doing had a long-term impact.” Rather than walking away from technology altogether, Kumar began to rethink how it was created. “If we design technology in community-based ways and…

In the United States, building a data center now polls roughly as well as abolishing the police. If current trends continue, server warehouses may soon be less popular with Americans than pizza topped with pineapple and shattered glass.In an August survey from Heatmap Pro and Embold Research, just 15 percent of Americans said they would support a data center being built in their area, while 75 percent expressed opposition. One year earlier, 43 percent of respondents in the same poll had approved of nearby data center development, while just 42 percent opposed it.Data center projects are increasingly unpopular and vulnerable…

Information technology services company CBTS Technology Solutions LLC today launched Forge Agents, a platform that turns a plain-language description of a job into a working artificial intelligence agent and then runs it under enterprise security controls. Midmarket companies are the target buyer. They answer to the same regulators and sit through the same security reviews as large enterprises, CBTS argues, without the engineering bench to satisfy either. Accountability tends to be scattered as well. The company cited a June report from Forrester Research Inc. that found governance responsibility is split across seven or more roles with no single function owning…

Static analysis reads a file’s code and structure without running it, which catches obviously malicious code but misses anything that only reveals itself at runtime. Dynamic analysis runs the file inside an isolated environment and records what it actually does: registry edits, spawned processes, dropped files, and any malicious traffic reaching out to a remote address. Malware built with packing, obfuscation, or delayed execution is specifically designed to pass a static check and only show its real behavior once it’s running, which is exactly what dynamic analysis is built to catch.

Roland just unveiled the FP-40 digital piano, which has built-in Wi-Fi. It’s not uncommon to see pianos that connect via Bluetooth, but Wi-Fi is incredibly rare. I’ve seen some instruments that allow for the inclusion of Wi-Fi adapters, but this one goes a step further. It simply connects to a home network, like any other gadget. The primary use case here is for teaching apps and related software. Pianos with Bluetooth, like the well-regarded Casio PX-S7000, connect to proprietary teaching apps, but Wi-Fi is much faster and should offer a more seamless experience. To that end, Roland is also releasing…

Google Search now automatically expands AI Overviews on query results pages. It’s time for tech leaders and publishers to rethink their digital strategy today. Google just doubled down on its generative AI vision. The search giant now automatically expands AI Overviews at the top of query results, skipping the manual dropdown click entirely. Google previously showed a collapsed summary banner. Users had to tap a button to reveal the full generated answer. The expanded AI panel now greets users immediately, dominating the top fold on both mobile screens and desktop browsers. This change makes total sense from a product design…

Threat actors with ties to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka DPRK or North Korea) have been observed seeking job opportunities beyond the information technology (IT) sector, with recent investigations identifying suspected workers employed in sales and marketing and the medical profession. The ongoing insider threat is part of what has been described as the IT worker scheme, where North Korea leverages its network of skilled IT workers, both within and outside the country, to fraudulently land jobs in Fortune 500 companies and private sector firms across the world and remotely earn income to further Pyongyang’s unlawful nuclear weapons…

Streaming boxes just got a lot more expensive across the board, and Google’s newest hardware isn’t spared either. The Google TV Streamer quietly jumped from $99 to $149, a steep 50% increase, with the new pricing already live on the Google Store and Best Buy. If you’ve been holding off on buying one, you’ll want to act fast, since some retailers haven’t caught up to the new price yet. Streaming boxes keep getting pricier; Google TV Streamer is the latest to jump 50% Amazon recently hiked prices across its Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV lineup, pushing its Fire TV Stick…

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I was not expecting a British Royal Family clue, but 4-Down came through with one. Keep calm, and carry on for all the answers. Mini across clues and answers 1A clue: Peering pairAnswer: EYES  5A clue: “Hugs and kisses” sign-offAnswer: XOXO 6A clue: Support, as for a corporate planAnswer: BUYIN 7A clue: Words exchanged at the wedding altarAnswer: IDOS 8A clue: Email sign-offAnswer: BEST The completed NYT Mini Crossword puzzle for Sept. 1, 2026.NYT/Screenshot by CNET Mini down clues and answers 1D clue: Give off stronglyAnswer: EXUDE 2D clue: Toys on stringsAnswer: YOYOS…