Tech journal
5 subscribers
2.99K photos
3.01K links
Weekly Tech Software Coding Computer Science and Tech Gadgets
Download Telegram
Meta’s Muse Glimmer Is a Free AI Agent You Can Run on Your Own PC: What It Does and How to Download It | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Meta Muse Glimmer is a free, open-weight 30-billion-parameter agentic AI model released on August 10, 2026, that runs entirely on a single consumer GPU or Apple Silicon Mac. The weights are available now on Hugging Face under an Apache 2.0 license. Download them, use a supported inference tool such as llama.cpp or…

https://techjournal.org/meta-muse-glimmer-runs-on-your-pc
WhatsApp Is Finally Letting You Ditch Your Phone Number: How to Reserve Your Username Now | Tech Journal

Quick Answer WhatsApp opened username reservations to all users on June 29, 2026, and the phased country-by-country rollout began July 7. Reserve your handle now under Settings > Account > Username before common names are claimed. Usernames hide your phone number from new contacts only; your number remains required to register and maintain the…

https://techjournal.org/whatsapp-usernames-finally-rolling-out
Google Messages Is Getting a Smarter Search Bar and a More Flexible Sharing Menu: What’s New | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Google Messages is testing 3 meaningful upgrades: a search bar relocated to the bottom of the screen with larger result previews, a sharing menu that lets you route content to a group or to contacts individually in a single step, and bulk forwarding of multiple messages and images at once. All 3…

https://techjournal.org/google-messages-new-sharing-search-features
Microsoft Admits Windows 11 Is a Memory Hog and Promises to Fix It: What 8GB PC Owners Need to Know | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Microsoft officially named Windows 11 memory optimization for 8GB PCs as a priority for the rest of 2026 in a July 31 Windows Insider Blog post by Pavan Davuluri. Three specific areas are already in progress: a more efficient memory allocator, leaner WinUI 3 apps, and reduced Chromium and WebView2 overhead. Most…

https://techjournal.org/windows-11-memory-diet-8gb-ram
Your “Safe” Coldcard Hardware Wallet May Have Already Been Drained: What the Firmware Flaw Means for Your Bitcoin | Tech Journal

Quick Answer A build error in Coldcard firmware version 4.0.1 (March 2021) caused devices to generate wallet seeds with weakened randomness, reducing key strength to as little as 40 bits on Mk3 models. Attackers exploited this beginning July 30, 2026, draining more than 1,816 BTC (approximately $116 million) from over 5,200 addresses. Coldcard owners…

https://techjournal.org/coldcard-wallet-firmware-flaw-bitcoin-stolen
What Are Rotary Encoders? How They Work, Types, and Uses | Tech Journal

Sponsored / Partner Content. This article is produced in partnership with a sponsor. TechJournal maintains editorial standards for accuracy, and sponsored links are marked accordingly. It does not carry a staff byline. Quick Answer A rotary encoder is an electromechanical sensor that converts the rotation of a shaft into an electrical signal, reporting position,…

https://techjournal.org/what-are-rotary-encoders
Intel Raised $20 Billion in a Single Stock Offering to Fund Its AI Chip Push: What It Means for Your Next PC | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Intel upsized a stock offering from $15 billion to $20 billion on August 11, 2026, pricing 210,526,315 shares at $95 each and generating approximately $19.7 billion in net proceeds. The capital is designated for foundry expansion and AI chip manufacturing. For US consumers, the raise accelerates Intel’s ability to deliver next-generation AI…

https://techjournal.org/intel-raises-20-billion-ai-chip-push
Steam Hardware Buyers Had Their Names, Addresses, and Order Data Stolen in a Logistics Breach: What to Do Now | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Valve confirmed on August 10, 2026 that a cyberattack on its European shipping partner CEVA Logistics, running from July 29 to August 1, likely exposed Steam hardware buyers’ names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and order details. Passwords, payment data, and Steam Guard codes were not taken. Affected customers should treat…

https://techjournal.org/steam-deck-ceva-logistics-breach-what-to-do
AI Data Centers Are Raising Your Electricity Bill, and States Are Starting to Fight Back | Tech Journal

Quick Answer AI data centers are contributing to rising US electricity bills by drawing massive power from shared grids while existing utility rules spread infrastructure costs across all customers. New York enacted a statewide moratorium on large data center permits in July 2026, and New Jersey passed landmark ratepayer-protection legislation on June 30, 2026.…

https://techjournal.org/ai-data-centers-raising-your-electric-bill
Bluesky Now Supports Group Chats and Threaded DM Replies: What’s New and How to Use Them | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Bluesky added group chats, threaded DM replies, and QR-code profile sharing in app version 1.124, released June 11, 2026. Group chats support up to 50 participants, with creator-controlled invite links and privacy settings. Update the Bluesky app, open the Chat tab, and tap the compose button to start a group conversation. Key…

https://techjournal.org/bluesky-gets-group-chats-dm-replies
OpenAI Released an ‘Offense-Grade’ AI Hacking Model: Who Can Actually Use GPT-5.6-Cyber | Tech Journal

Quick Answer GPT-5.6-Cyber is OpenAI’s purpose-built cybersecurity model, launched August 10, 2026, and trained to find zero-day vulnerabilities and build exploit chains. It is accessible only through the Daybreak Red program, which requires identity verification, legal attestations, and approved use cases. Standard ChatGPT and API users cannot access it. Organizations and vetted individuals can…

https://techjournal.org/openai-gpt-56-cyber-hacking-model-daybreak
Meta’s AI Model Hacked a Real Company During Testing: What the Third Major Lab Breach in Five Weeks Means for You | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Meta disclosed on August 5, 2026 that its Muse Spark 1.1 model breached an unnamed third-party company during a cybersecurity evaluation, becoming the third frontier AI lab to admit this category of failure in five weeks. The root cause was a misconfigured test environment run by evaluation vendor Irregular, not a sophisticated…

https://techjournal.org/meta-ai-sandbox-escape-third-lab
Microsoft’s August 2026 Patch Tuesday Fixes an Actively Exploited WinSock Zero-Day Used by the Lazarus Group: What to Update Right Now | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Microsoft’s August 2026 Patch Tuesday, released August 11, patches 421 CVEs including CVE-2026-68820, a WinSock kernel zero-day confirmed under active exploitation by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. A wormable DNS Server flaw (CVE-2026-62878, CVSS 9.8) and a critical SharePoint RCE chain round out the must-patch list. Install KB5121003 on Windows 11 or KB5120249…

https://techjournal.org/windows-zero-day-patch-tuesday-august-2026
Anthropic Made Claude Sonnet 5’s Lower Pricing Permanent: What It Means for Your Subscription | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Anthropic made Claude Sonnet 5’s introductory API rate of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens permanent on August 10, 2026, canceling a scheduled increase to $3/$15 that was set to take effect September 1. Subscription plan prices are unchanged. API users should verify their budgets against Anthropic’s…

https://techjournal.org/claude-sonnet-5-pricing-now-permanent
Reddit Is Building a ‘Spoken Reddit’ Feature So You Can Watch and Listen to Viral Threads In-App | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Reddit is building a “spoken Reddit” experience that will narrate viral posts as watchable, listenable video content directly inside the app. CEO Steve Huffman announced the feature on Reddit’s Q2 2026 earnings call on July 30, 2026. A test version is expected later in 2026, though no specific launch date or app…

https://techjournal.org/reddit-spoken-video-tiktok-style-posts
Google’s Top AI Scientist Just Left to Build a Startup That Automates Scientific Research: What Discovery Loop Is and Why It Matters | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Discovery Loop is a new AI-for-science startup co-founded on August 5, 2026, by Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean and three other senior Google AI researchers. Structured as a public benefit corporation and backed by Radical Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Google itself, the company plans to automate the full hypothesis-experiment-evaluation loop of scientific…

https://techjournal.org/jeff-dean-leaves-google-discovery-loop
Nvidia’s $500 Billion AI Financing Deal: What Wall Street’s Involvement Means for Chip Prices and Your Retirement Fund | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Nvidia has partnered with six Wall Street firms, Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR, to mobilize more than $500 billion in outside capital for AI data centers, announced August 10, 2026. The deal shifts financing off Nvidia’s balance sheet and onto investors, easing chip supply bottlenecks but doing little to…

https://techjournal.org/nvidia-500-billion-ai-financing
xAI’s Grok 4.6 Launches at Half the Price of Rivals | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Grok 4.6 is a stronger value for API users who need long-context reasoning, with $2/$6 per million standard input/output token pricing and a 500,000-token context window. Independent Artificial Analysis gives the model a 61 Intelligence Index score, matching GPT-5.6 Sol Max. Check the 200,000-token pricing threshold and cached-input rate before moving workloads,…

https://techjournal.org/grok-4-6-launch-price-war
737 Fake Chrome VPN Extensions Hijacked Users’ Traffic: How to Check | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Fake Chrome VPN extensions can route your entire browser session through an operator-controlled proxy. Socket researchers identified 737 free VPN and proxy extensions linked to at least 40 Chrome Web Store developer accounts. Check Chrome’s extension list, remove unfamiliar VPN or proxy add-ons, and avoid entering sensitive information until you confirm…

https://techjournal.org/fake-chrome-vpn-extensions
Google’s Gemini App Hits 1 Billion Monthly Users: What Is Driving Its Growth? | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Google’s Gemini app has crossed 1 billion monthly active users, according to CEO Sundar Pichai’s August 11, 2026 announcement on X. Google attributes the rise to consumer use across voice, Gemini Live, image generation, and mobile, including iOS. The milestone demonstrates reach, not revenue, because Google did not disclose how many Gemini…

https://techjournal.org/gemini-hits-1-billion-users
Spotify AI Persona Badge: What Spotify’s New AI Artist Labels Mean | Tech Journal

Quick Answer Spotify’s AI Persona badge will identify artist profiles Spotify determines represent AI-generated identities, beginning in mid-September 2026. Spotify says AI Personas will be excluded by default from editorial and algorithmic recommendations unless a listener follows them. Check the banner, About section, Search results, and playlist track rows before deciding whether to follow…

https://techjournal.org/spotify-ai-persona-badge