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Threads is overhauling its in-app analytics with more details, except for link clicks
Meta has overhauled the “insights” analytics panel on Threads, adding AI-generated summaries that give users more context about how their posts and profiles are performing. The update aims to demystify the platform’s “for you” algorithm, which drives most views for the majority of users regardless of follower count, by explaining in plain language why a…
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UK retiree builds 920-valve computer from Soviet-era tubes
A retired UK man known only as “Mike” has built a working computer inside his spare room using 460 recycled Soviet-era vacuum tubes, documenting the project on his own website and Hackaday. The build is notable because each 6N3P tube, originally rated for about 500 hours of life, had already been used and stored for…
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Billboard to Add Smart Media Albums As Chart-Eligible Sales Formats
Billboard is updating its album charts to allow qualifying “Smart Media Albums” to count towards its sales and consumption rankings, using new data from tracking partner Luminate. The change reflects how fans increasingly discover, collect and engage with music through emerging physical-digital hybrid products, and marks another step in the charts’ long history of adapting…
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Google halves Chrome’s update cycle to accelerate security fixes
Google is speeding up Chrome’s release schedule, moving from a four-week update cycle to a two-week one, starting with Chrome 153 on desktop, Android and iOS. The change, first promised in March, means new features, interoperability improvements and bug or security fixes will reach users roughly twice as fast as before, which matters because it…
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Computer game developer who stole ‘gold pieces’ from players’ online accounts is convicted of theft after legal battle over whether virtual money is property
A former Jagex employee has been convicted after stealing virtual “gold pieces” from players’ accounts in the online game Old School RuneScape and selling them on the black market for cryptocurrency. Andrew Lakeman, 32, who worked at the Cambridge-based games developer from 2015, exploited his internal access to raid 68 player accounts, taking hundreds of…
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Chipmakers coordinate push for 12-inch photomasks to cut costs
ASML and TSMC have launched an industry-wide push to move to 12-inch photomasks, arguing the larger format would cut costs and remove production constraints tied to the firms’ new high-NA EUV lithography systems. Intel Foundry and Samsung Electronics have also backed the initiative, which matters because it sets a coordinated roadmap for an industry transition…
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Security overtakes price as top priority for hybrid collaboration tools
A sponsored feature examines why security has become the top priority when choosing videoconferencing and meeting-room technology, as hybrid working expands the potential attack surface and regulators tighten requirements. Citing IDC research and comments from Barco ClickShare’s marketing director, Yannic Laleeuwe, the article argues that collaboration tools have become “mission-critical business systems” handling sensitive corporate…
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Channel 4 to cut 300 jobs in largest restructure yet
Channel 4 is preparing to cut around 300 jobs, roughly a quarter of its workforce, in the biggest round of layoffs in its 43-year history, as new chief executive Priya Dogra pushes through sweeping cost-cutting and a strategic overhaul. Dogra, who succeeded Alex Mahon in March, addressed staff at an all-staff meeting to set out…
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Adobe is trying to make its AI generators idiot-proof in Premiere
Adobe is overhauling how editors work with AI inside Premiere Pro, adding a new Generative Media tool that lets users create video, sound effects, music and soundscapes directly within the project timeline. Rather than switching to separate browsers or apps to source missing footage or audio, editors can now highlight a gap on a video…