I'm currently majoring in computer science, and most of my daily classes revolve around coding. And while I’ve always been passionate about my major and genuinely enjoy coding, I’d be lying if I said it’s easy. It can get overwhelming at times, and learning (let alone retaining) everything taught in class isn’t always straightforward.

Tesla is under investigation for faulty electronic door handles that can trap people inside their vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched the probe, saying it was responding to numerous complaints filed by Tesla owners, with a particular focus on children who have been locked inside the vehicle without any way to get out. The news comes a few days after Bloomberg published a bombshell report about Tesla owners who have been seriously injured after becoming trapped in their vehicles after crashes. Tesla’s door handles, which operate electronically and sit flush against the vehicle for improved aerodynamics, have been the source of some consternation for some time. China’s government is considering banning electronic door handles for safety reasons. And now NHTSA says it is investigating instances in which Tesla’s handles become inoperable as a result of low-voltage battery problems. The investigation specifically focuses on an estimated 174,290 Model Y SUVs, though the regulator said the investigation could widen:This investigation will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies. At this time, NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in whichthere is no manual way to open the door. The agency will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle, and [Office of Defects Investigation] will take further action as needed.NHTSA says its investigation was prompted by nine instances of children becoming trapped inside a Tesla vehicle as a result of low-voltage battery problems. Typically, parents were unable to reopen their Tesla’s doors to retrieve their children from the backseat. Tesla’s vehicles contain manual door releases, but the agency notes that certain people, especially children, may not be able to operate them. “Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle,” the agency states.This is the latest investigation to target Tesla. The company is also being examined for failing to report crashes involving its partially autonomous driving technology in a timely manner, and for its remote parking feature after several crash incidents were reported.

So I've been having fun mixing AI with D&D. I had AI make a dungeon for me to explore, and then got a few models to make me legendary D&D magic items, and the encounter players need to defeat to get them.

The post was up on Natalie's private Facebook page for 20 minutes - a crude joke about Charlie Kirk's death. When her husband suggested the comment was a bit much, she deleted it. The next day, Natalie received the first email telling her to kill herself. It didn't even take 24 hours to go viral.In the 20 minutes the post was live, someone had taken a screenshot of it. She doesn't know how the screenshot got to the right-wing influencer who posted it. Natalie, who owns her own small business, was on a client call as the death threats started to roll in. She told herself to focus on the call, but she was shaking so hard that she was having …Read the full story at The Verge.

Nothing’s Android-based Phone 3. London-based consumer tech startup Nothing has raised $200 million and vowed to usher in a new generation of “AI-native” devices running on operating systems that “are significantly different from the ones today.”In a press release that reads part ode to technology and part manifesto, Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei said the cash infusion — which values Nothing at $1.3 billion — will help the company ramp up distribution and accelerate innovation. At the heart of Nothing’s plans is AI. Pei said the company is “building the foundations for the future” on a focused “AI OS” to deliver a “hyper-personalized experience.” However, it’s unclear if Nothing’s operating system ambitions are built on top of Android like Nothing OS. We’ve reached out for clarification.This “AI-native platform” will run hardware in widespread use today like smartphones, headphones, and smart watches, Pei said, as well as other devices like smart glasses, electric vehicles, and humanoid robots. He confidently predicts Nothing’s new OS will run “whatever comes next,” too. That said, last October Pei just as confidently proclaimed that “AI is just a tool” and that the company’s OS should not be described as an AI operating system.Nothing plans to release its first AI-native devices next year. Its chief challenge will be generating demand in a category that has historically failed to engage the mass market and where success has eluded even the industry’s biggest players like Apple. There’s no shortage of competitors either, including the mysterious “screen free” device former Apple designer Jony Ive is creating with OpenAI. Nothing says it’s uniquely positioned to create these future AI devices. “Owning the last-mile distribution point with all its contextual and user knowledge is essential to developing an OS that will help people in their daily lives,” said Pei. “An AI OS that doesn’t know its user and isn’t ever-present can’t deliver a hyper-personalised experience. This is the next chapter for Nothing, integrating an AI experience into our hardware devices to reinvent how technology amplifies us.”

Google is testing a new search app for Windows. A blog post on Tuesday said the app, currently available on personal accounts via Google’s Search Labs, will allow you to use an Alt + Space shortcut to search for information from the files on your computer, in your Drive, and on the web.The app, which has a Chrome-like install process and requires you to sign in, also comes with Google’s visual search feature, Lens, built in. That means you can select and search for images on your screen, as well as translate text. In one example shared by Google, you can highlight a math problem on your homework and then ask Google’s AI Mode to help you find the answer.Just like Google’s search engine on the web, you can switch between all results, AI Mode, Images, Shopping, and Videos, and more, as well as choose between dark and light mode. It’s similar to the Spotlight on Mac, which can help you search through your files, apps, and the web. Windows has long had a built-in feature that lets you search through your files and the web, but it recently upgraded this capability with the launch of Copilot Plus PCs.Upon downloading the app, Google will plant a search bar directly on your desktop that you can drag anywhere on your screen and resize. You can minimize the search bar by hitting Alt + Space. The app also gives you the option to enable or disable AI Mode, as well as change the shortcut used to open the app by selecting your profile picture and hitting Configurations.You can try out Google’s new app for Windows now by enabling the experiment in Labs. It’s currently only available in English and for users in the US. You’ll need a PC with Windows 10 or up to download it.Update, September 16th: Added more information about the app.

Meta’s next big Connect conference is nearly here, and this year, we’re expecting to see a lot of news about glasses. AI-focused hardware is all the rage, and Meta arguably already has the best gadgets around in its Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses. At this year’s show, we’re expecting to see more about glasses, but also some standalone AI updates and even some talk of the metaverse.Here’s what we’re expecting from Connect, which will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg that we’ll be covering live on Wednesday at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.Smart glasses with a display and a wristbandMeta plans to announce new smart glasses with a small display in the right lens that can be controlled with hand gestures via a wristband, CNBC reports. The display apparently has a limited field of view and is only intended to show small pieces of information. The Verge reported on the glasses, codenamed Hypernova, in 2022.The wristband will apparently use surface electromyography (sEMG) technology that “reads and interprets the electrical signals from hand movements,” according to CNBC. The tech comes from CTRL-Labs, a startup Meta acquired in 2019, and Meta demoed it last year with its augmented reality Orion glasses. Meta is very optimistic about sEMG technology; in a recent blog post, it said that “sEMG could revolutionize how we interact with our devices” and that sEMG “may just prove to be the perfect input for virtually any device.”The new glasses are expected to cost “about $800,” CNBC says, and could be thicker and heavier than some of Meta’s other smart glasses offerings. And a now-removed video from Meta caught by UploadVR actually showed a pair of new glasses with a display with the branding “Meta | Ray-Ban” and “Display,” so it seems like Meta is on the cusp of actually launching these.Smart glasses without a displayMeta’s smart glasses have been a big success — EssilorLuxottica, which produces the Ray-Ban Metas, said that the company has sold 2 million pairs of the glasses — and rumors indicate that Meta could introduce new models at Connect.CNBC reports that Meta plans to announce third-generation Ray-Ban Metas. The timing would make some sense. Meta launched the previous-generation Ray-Bans about two years ago, and this year’s Oakley Meta HSTN Limited Edition glasses have a better 3K video resolution and double the battery life, so perhaps Meta will bring some of those improvements over to the Ray-Ban line.The Meta video spotted by UploadVR also showed off a pair of new wraparound “Sphaera” Oakleys with a camera on the nose bridge, so it seems like those could show up at Connect, too.New Quest VR headsets? We’ll seeMeta released the Quest 3 in 2023 and the Quest 3S in 2024, but it doesn’t seem like we should expect a new Quest at Connect this year. According to UploadVR, Meta is working on an ultra-light headset that offloads the compute to a puck that runs the company’s Horizon OS, but the headset isn’t scheduled for release until 2026. Meta has also started licensing Horizon OS to hardware companies like Lenovo and Asus, and a rumor from earlier this year indicated that Asus is developing a VR headset codenamed Tarius with eye tracking and face tracking. Should that headset be real, it could debut at Connect.The company is promising that Zuckerberg will touch on the metaverse in some way, so we’ll have to wait and see what that actually means.More Meta AIMeta, like most tech companies, is obsessed with AI right now, so it seems likely the company will tout AI features coming to its apps and hardware. Meta recently relaunched its companion app for its smart glasses as a standalone Meta AI app that lets you browse AI-generated creations posted by other users, and Meta could further build out its social features. The company has also continued to add AI tools to its smart glasses, so in addition to brand-new hardware, existing hardware could get some AI-focused upgrades.

Microsoft is adding automatic AI model selection to its Visual Studio Code editor that will automatically pick the best model for "optimal performance." This new auto model feature will select between Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, GPT-5 mini and other models for GitHub Copilot free users, but paid users will "primarily rely on Claude Sonnet 4."It's a tacit admission from Microsoft that the software maker is favoring Anthropic's AI models over OpenAI's latest GPT-5 models for coding and development. Sources familiar with Microsoft's developer plans tell me that the company has been instructing its own developers to use Claude Sonnet 4 in recent m …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Apple Watch SE 3 is the star of this year’s lineup. When I walked into Apple Park last week, there was one thing that I did not have on my bingo card: the $249 Apple Watch SE 3 stealing the show from the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Apple Watch Ultra 3.But here we are. It's 2025, and the entry-level Apple Watch is the one I'm most excited by.That's because compared to the iterative updates of the Series 11 and Ultra 3, the third-gen SE has gotten a massive, wide-ranging glow-up. Unlike the other watches, there also weren't any leaks suggesting this was even in the cards, making this jam-packed release a total surprise. And the cherry on top? In the lead-up to the event, I wrote the easie …Read the full story at The Verge.

This is one of those mini PCs that's built with a purpose. It isn't cheap, but it's extremely powerful, packing some of the best hardware you'll find in a compact size. Not only are you getting AMD's Ryzen Al Max+ 395 chip, but it's also paired with 96GB of LPDDR5X 8000MHz RAM.

Whether it's a research assistant like NotebookLM, a new foldable, or a handy Gmail feature, Google is always working on something or another. But one thing we don't see the tech giant do often is drop a dedicated Windows app.

The Series 11 is a great smartwatch, but it’s not the most exciting one. No one is going to wax lyrical about the Apple Watch Series 11. Not because it's a bad smartwatch - it's a great smartwatch, actually. There's just nothing that makes it feel special this year. Alas, the $399 Series 11 is the middle child of Apple Watches.It's not the Series 11's fault that the entry-level Apple Watch SE 3 got a major glow-up. It can't help that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 gets everything the Series 11 has plus satellite connectivity. But there's little to mask the fact that this watch doesn't offer much more than the entry-level SE 3. You're mostly paying extra for a bit of polish.Hardware-wise, the Series 11 is nearly iden …Read the full story at The Verge.