Author: InfoForTech
So, what’s not to like? Well, early compatibility problems slowed the initial uptake of Snapdragon X, and the CPU’s integrated graphics performance turned out to be pretty terrible. And to date, powerful onboard AI features just haven’t proven important, as most AI workloads are still being done in the cloud. With the second-generation X2, Qualcomm set out to deliver on the original promise of faster performance.But what exactly does “faster” mean? As with most claims in the PC computing space, it’s all about the benchmarks. On the Zenbook A16, the tests I ran indeed showcased exemplary performance from the X2…
An AI prompt screen, as reimagined by Google Gemini. [Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series by Oren Etzioni about AI usage and best practices. See also “AI Coach or AI Ghostwriter? The Choice Is Yours,” and “How to read with AI.”] A friend asked ChatGPT for input on a professional matter and received a banal, lackluster response. I suggested she try a different approach: ask for 15 different ideas, scan them, pick the two that felt most promising, and then ask ChatGPT to refine. She came back overjoyed. ChatGPT had not gotten smarter, but she became better…
Enterprises are moving fast to embed artificial intelligence into everything from customer interactions to decision-making. The benefits are undeniable: speed, efficiency and scale. The danger isn’t necessarily sudden or dramatic. It’s quieter, more gradual, invisible and easy to justify along the way: It’s the slow loss of agency inside the company. A company loses agency with AI when humans stop setting direction, making judgments and owning outcomes, and instead become passive supervisors of systems that operate with increasing autonomy. No one announces this shift; it happens, one decision at a time. As philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously observed, “We shape our…
Ravie LakshmananMay 03, 2026Vulnerability / Container Security The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added a recently disclosed security flaw impacting various Linux distributions to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-31431 (CVSS score: 7.8), is a case of local privilege escalation (LPE) flaw that could allow an unprivileged local user to obtain root. The nine-year-old flaw is also tracked as Copy Fail by Theori and Xint. Fixes have been made available in Linux kernel versions 6.18.22, 6.19.12, and 7.0. “Linux Kernel contains an incorrect…
The copy-paste era is dead. Instagram’s new crackdown on content aggregators means that if you don’t create it, you can’t do anything about who sees it. Is your reach about to tank? If you’ve spent any time on Instagram lately, you know the infinite loop problem: you see the same viral meme, the same travel reel, and the same aesthetic sunset carousel five times in ten minutes, just posted by five different curation accounts. Well, Instagram has officially decided to stop playing nice as of yesterday. The latest crackdown from Meta is clear: if you aren’t making it, you aren’t…
Digitalvision/Getty Images Ask.com, the search engine previously known for its butler mascot named Jeeves, has officially shut down. While Ask Jeeves was rebranded to Ask.com in 2006 by its new owner at the time, InterActiveCorp, this latest closure puts an end to the entirety of the company’s search business. “As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com,” the statement on the website reads. “After 25 years of answering the world’s questions, Ask.com officially closed on May 1, 2026.”…
I didn’t bring the Pixel 8a to Camiguin to prove a point. I brought it because it’s still my phone, two years after I bought it as a stopgap when my OnePlus 7 Pro died. That’s annoying, because I wasn’t supposed to like this thing for this long. A week on the island gave it chances to fail. I used it for directions, island-hopping photos, Bluetooth music, online payments, and the usual checks when nobody remembers where the booking screenshot went. The Pixel 8a never let me forget it’s a cheaper phone. Charging was slow, and that showed. The more…
If your Galaxy phone still relies on Samsung Messages for everyday texting, its days are numbered. Samsung has confirmed it will retire its long-running messaging app this July, ending support for SMS, MMS and RCS on the platform across the US. The shift has been a long time coming. Google Messages has been the default on new Galaxy devices since 2024. But for holdouts, the looming shutdown means it’s time to act before your texts and chat history are stuck in limbo.On a page with information about the switch, Samsung points to instructions on how to swap over to Google’s Messages app, including…
Keeping my house clean can feel like an impossible task with a litter-kicking-happy cat and a two-year-old on a mission to throw everything, whether it’s Cheerios or pizza, onto the floor. One of the things that has made it easier, though, is my Shark handheld vacuum. The Shark UltraCyclone Pet Pro Plus is one of our favorite handheld vacuums, and it’s made it easy to clean up messes from both my cat and tiny human without needing to lug my old vacuum out for every mess. If you want a mess-free home for less, check our Shark coupon code.Get 10%…
Impacted employees reportedly received retrenchment notices on Apr 15 Global real estate consultancy JLL has laid off some staff in Singapore following a recent organisational restructuring exercise. According to a report from The Straits Times, the firm confirmed the restructuring but did not disclose the number of roles impacted. A former employee who spoke to the publication said that those affected, including colleagues in the US market, received retrenchment notices on Apr 15. Staff were given the option of an early release or serving out their full notice period. Separately, some JLL employees have also shared on LinkedIn about the…