🔍 Android 17 adds virtual gamepad for foldables

Android 17 introduces a gaming mode for foldable phones that turns half the unfolded screen into a virtual gamepad with touch buttons. It arrives in the coming months.

The virtual controller works at the system level, supporting any game with physical gamepad compatibility. It offers a full set of controls: D-pad, sticks, A, B, X, Y buttons, bumpers, triggers L1-L3 and R1-R3, plus start.

Users can customize the layout by moving sticks, resizing buttons, and adjusting vibration. The mode activates when unfolding the phone and hides or disables automatically if a real controller connects.

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🤖 OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol Beats Claude Mythos

OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol edges out Claude Mythos 5 in agent coding with 88.8% vs. 88% on Terminal-Bench 2.1. The Sol Ultra variant scores 91.9%.

Sol matches Anthropic’s model in cybersecurity using three times fewer tokens. The US government restricts its release, which OpenAI opposes.

OpenAI plans wider API and Cerebras access in July. Officials previously blocked Anthropic’s Fable 5, showing ongoing regulatory hurdles.

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💻 China’s LineShine Tops Supercomputer List Without GPUs

China’s LineShine from Shenzhen leads the TOP500 supercomputer ranking with 2.19 exaflops, 22% faster than the US’s El Capitan.

LineShine uses nearly 14 million computing cores and a custom design without GPUs, avoiding US export limits.

It combines scientific computing and AI, running a decade of weather forecasts over East Asia in 15 hours.

Though top-ranked, LineShine isn’t fastest for all tasks, some large clusters excel at less precise calculations but aren’t listed.

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🤖 Claude controls robot dog 20 times faster

Anthropic tested Claude on a four-legged robot with tasks that human teams completed less than a year ago. Claude connected to the robot’s camera and sensors, wrote control code, and set up object detection in under 10 minutes.

Claude] was 37 times faster than humans without AI and nearly 19 times faster than humans with AI. It wrote ten times less code than the previous human+Claude team, with most working on the first try.

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📊 Sunlight on Your Face Took 100,000 Years

A photon warming your face now began its journey from the Sun's core about 100,000 years ago, when early humans were just leaving Africa and Neanderthals still lived. Inside the Sun, photons collide constantly with electrons, bouncing randomly through dense plasma, making their path trillions of times longer than a straight line.

This slow random walk happens in the Sun's radiative zone, covering 70% of its radius. Photons lose energy step by step, shifting from high-energy gamma rays to visible light by the time they reach the surface. The final stretch through the convective zone takes only months, but the bulk of the journey is a century-long crawl.

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🔍 Gemini now searches and buys apps in Play Store

Google integrated Play Store into Gemini, letting users find apps by simply telling the AI what they need. For example, saying "map for travel abroad" prompts Gemini to locate and open the app page directly.

Gemini also enables buying Play gift cards and in-game items right in chat. This feature is limited to personal Google accounts, users 18+, and is rolling out gradually on Android.

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🤖 US Allows Anthropic Access to Mythos 5

The US government cleared Anthropic to expand access to Mythos 5 after a security review. The model was previously restricted due to concerns under the Trump administration.

Anthropic is now the first major AI lab to pass this government filter publicly. The exact security issues were not disclosed but have been resolved.

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🖥 Microsoft updates Excel Copilot for finance teams

Microsoft rolled out new features for Copilot in Excel aimed at financial teams. It now includes ready-made skills for common tasks, connections to six financial data sources, and full transparency of its actions.

Copilot uses templates to perform tasks like company valuation models or quarterly closes step-by-step instead of improvising. It pulls data directly from sources like CB Insights, PitchBook, FactSet, and S&P Global without manual input.

Before making changes, Copilot shows a detailed plan of affected cells and formulas. All edits are logged and marked as done by Copilot. The update is available for Microsoft 365 Copilot users on Windows, Mac, and browser.

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🍏 Apple Plans Touchscreen MacBook on M5 Chips

Apple is preparing a touchscreen MacBook using current top-tier M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, skipping the M6 Pro and Max generations. The new 14- and 16-inch models are expected between late 2026 and early 2027.

The laptop will feature an OLED display, Dynamic Island interface from iPhone, and a refreshed chassis design. The M7 chip series is still in testing and likely to arrive by the end of 2027, with M7 Ultra possibly in 2028.

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