FTC statistics reveal that in 2025, consumers fell victim to social media scams amounting to $2.1 billion, with Facebook accounting for the most significant reported losses, while investment, shopping, and romance scams were the primary contributors to this financial harm.
AI is arriving on Linux, but not in the annoying manner that will wear you down
Ubuntu is thoughtfully integrating AI into the operating system, emphasizing optional functionalities, local computing, and utilities that improve workflows while maintaining the conventional Linux experience.
LibrePods application, enabling AirPods to function seamlessly with Android devices, has finally resolved its most significant issue
LibrePods, the application that enables AirPods functionalities on Android devices, is now simpler to operate with its availability on the Play Store and diminished dependence on precarious root access.
Inllie’s bracelet is the most elegant fitness accessory I’ve ever encountered, and it comes at a reasonable price.
Inllie’s latest Luna Core Bracelet monitors health and fitness while appearing elegant enough to be worn as regular jewelry.
Colorado’s Repair Legislation Rejected
A controversial bill in Colorado aimed at undoing repair protections within the state has been defeated. Advocates for the right to repair had focused on the bill, perceiving it as a sign of how technology companies might seek to weaken repair legislation more broadly across the United States.
The state’s significant 2024 repair law, referred to as the Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment, came into effect in January 2026, ensuring individuals have access to the tools and documentation necessary to repair digital devices such as smartphones, computers, and Wi-Fi routers. The proposed SB26-090 bill aimed to introduce an exception for “critical infrastructure,” a term that is vaguely defined and raised concerns among repair advocates.
Introduced during a Colorado Senate hearing on April 2, SB26-090 gained backing from companies including Cisco and IBM and was unanimously passed in that hearing. It subsequently passed the Colorado Senate on April 16. However, during an extensive hearing in the Colorado House’s State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee, the bill was ultimately stopped with a 7 to 4 vote.
Danny Katz, executive director of CoPIRG, remarked on the collaborative effort to fight the bill, which included repair advocates from groups such as PIRG, Repair.org, iFixit, Consumer Reports, along with local businesses and environmental organizations.
“While we were making headway in reducing its momentum, we were still facing losses,” Katz stated in an email. He attributed the significant impact to the diverse testimonies from cybersecurity specialists, businesses, repair advocates, recyclers, and others.
Supporters of the bill, backed by firms like Cisco, pointed to possible cybersecurity threats as justifications for modifications to the law. They contended that granting repair tools to all individuals could enable malicious entities to reverse engineer essential technology. However, opponents argued that this logic was flawed, pointing out that most hacks occur remotely, rather than through physical interference.
During the hearing, Democrat Chad Clifford, a state representative from Colorado, emphasized Cloudflare’s use of a lava lamp wall for internet encryption, advocating for the necessity of keeping sensitive systems confidential for security purposes. He remarked, “How they accomplish that, in my opinion, should remain a secret, even in Colorado.” Nevertheless, cybersecurity experts highlighted that the majority of cyber attacks result from remote actions, not physical modifications.
Snapchat introduces AI-driven conversational ads within its application
On Tuesday, Snapchat revealed it is launching “AI Sponsored Snaps,” enabling users to engage directly with the AI representatives of brands. Sponsored Snaps are the advertisements positioned within the app’s main Chat section. Previously, users were unable to interact with these advertisements, but with the introduction of AI Sponsored Ads, they will now have the capability to ask questions and receive suggestions.
Naturally, not everyone may appreciate AI-sponsored ads, as they bring AI into yet another aspect of the Snapchat platform. Moreover, there are those not enthusiastic about more sophisticated advertising techniques.
Nonetheless, Snapchat stated in a blog post that its “community isn’t just receptive to AI in discussions, they’re already welcoming it,” considering that over 500 million users have communicated with its AI chatbot since its debut in 2023.
“Conversation is becoming the most coveted space in advertising,” stated Ajit Mohan, Chief Business Officer at Snap, in the blog post. “AI is hastening that transformation, converting chat into the venue where consumers discover products, pose queries, and make decisions in real-time. The genuine opportunity isn’t merely placing ads in those spaces; it’s crafting formats that feel intrinsic to the way people already converse.”
For brands, the new AI Sponsored Snaps provide access to Snapchat’s almost one billion monthly active users. They can introduce their own AI representatives on the platform to enhance engagement and drive sales.
Snapchat claims that the new format builds on the success of Sponsored Snaps, which already achieve 22% more conversions at nearly 20% lower cost per action. With the new format, they can interact with users through personalized, AI-driven conversations precisely where they are already chatting.
The company asserts that 85% of users are actively engaging within the Chat feed, having sent over 950 billion chats in Q1 2026 alone. Additionally, 57% of teenage Snapchat users message others on a daily basis, with 4 in 10 doing so multiple times each day.
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YouTube is experimenting with a search function driven by AI that presents curated responses
Individuals frequently look for recipes and travel itineraries on YouTube to locate videos pertinent to their inquiries. Now, the video platform is set to launch a new tool designed to meet those users’ demands with the rollout of an AI-driven interactive search feature that provides step-by-step outcomes alongside a blend of text and video.
With the new “Ask YouTube” feature, users can pose queries such as “organize a 3-day road trip from San Francisco to Santa Barbara” and receive step-by-step responses, which will include a mix of text, brief videos, and longer clips rather than solely video results. The company asserts it will display videos and pertinent video snippets with titles and channel information to aid users in discovering new creators.
Additionally, users can ask follow-up questions like “Where can I find good coffee?” and receive recommendations in a similar format.
This feature is accessible to Premium members in the U.S. who are 18 years or older. (Those interested will need to join this experiment via the provided URL.) Google has mentioned that it is working on making this feature available for non-Premium users as well.
Google has been advancing its AI mode-styled search across various platforms beyond YouTube. Last year, the company revealed AI mode, allowing users to ask multi-part inquiries and follow-up questions. This year, it introduced side-by-side web browsing and product price inquiry features for AI mode. The company also launched Gemini’s Canvas feature last month to organize projects within AI mode.
With this new feature trial on YouTube, Google could later investigate the possibility of showcasing different types of videos and incorporating sponsored placements.
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BCI startup Neurable aims to license its ‘brain-sensing’ technology for consumer wearable devices
BCI (brain-computer interface) technology — where neural signals are transmitted from a person’s brain to a computer — was previously confined to the realm of science fiction, but now this technology signifies a thriving segment of the tech industry. One of the frontrunners in the BCI commercialization race is Neurable, which recently declared its intent to license its “mind-reading” technology for consumer wearables.
Neurable focuses on “non-invasive” BCI, setting itself apart from companies like Neuralink—the startup founded by Elon Musk known for implanting computer chips directly into individuals’ skulls—by offering a product that does not necessitate users to undergo brain surgery to reap its advantages.
Neurable’s innovation utilizes a mix of EEG sensors and signal processing to scan a user’s brain activity, interpret it with AI, and deliver insights regarding an individual’s cognitive capabilities.
In December, Neurable secured $35 million in a series A funding round, which it aims to utilize to enhance the commercialization of its technology. This week, the enterprise revealed its plans to license its technology to a range of consumer-oriented companies as part of its growth strategy.
The concept is that mind-reading technology (which can yield comprehensive data about a person’s cerebral functions while they engage in different activities) could be incorporated into wearables across various sectors—including health, sports, productivity, and gaming products. “Through Neurable’s licensing framework, OEMs can seamlessly integrate its AI-driven brain-sensing technology into current hardware, such as headphones, hats, glasses, and headbands, while retaining full oversight of product design, user experience, and distribution,” the company stated in a press announcement on Tuesday.
Neurable has already formed alliances with several companies to evaluate its efficacy. This includes HP Inc.’s HyperX, a gaming label, with which it developed a headset intended to assist gamers in enhancing their gameplay by optimizing focus and performance. Additionally, it has teamed up with a firm called iMotions, a software platform focused on human behavior research, to support the company’s research endeavors.
In a recent interview, Neurable’s CEO Ramses Alcaide refrained from disclosing details about new partnerships in development, but mentioned that the company is aiming to broaden its horizons across multiple sectors.
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“In the past, we were very selective about our partnerships,” Alcaide stated, emphasizing that Neurable concentrated on a specific company to demonstrate that a distinctive commercial application was viable. With awareness that expectations can be met across numerous aspects, the startup is now focused on scaling, he noted.
“What we’re doing now is basically saying, ‘Hey, we’ve shown that we’re gaining significant traction’,” Alcaide remarked. “Let’s aim to make this as universal as heart rate monitors on your wrist, right?”
Despite the “non-invasive” designation, data about the brain is arguably more sensitive than information gathered from a heart rate monitor, leading to the question of what privacy safeguards a company like Neurable implements.
Alcaide mentioned that the company guarantees that user data is “secured and anonymized.” The firm’s privacy policy outlines various guidelines about when and how user data might be accessed and utilized. “We ensure compliance with HIPAA standards, going beyond what many startups would implement at our stage to guarantee data safety, encryption, and anonymization,” Alcaide explained.
Does Neurable use a user’s neural data to train its AI software?, we inquired. “We can do so with user consent, right?” Alcaide responded. “But we approach this in a very particular manner.” This distinct approach involves seeking consent from users regarding whether their data can be utilized for specific experiments, Alcaide clarified. “We’re not indiscriminately collecting data; it’s very targeted,” he added.
Alcaide expressed that his industry is at an “inflection point”—one at which there finally exists “a genuine business model in neuro-technology that can scale.” What follows this inflection point remains the pressing question.
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Red Hat’s OpenClaw maintainer has significantly enhanced the safety of enterprise Claw deployments.
On Tuesday, principal software engineer Sally O’Malley from Red Hat unveiled a new open source utility named Tank OS designed to facilitate the safe deployment and management of OpenClaw agents.
“This was a fun project that I assembled over the weekend, and I realized it would be a great fit for AI and our future direction,” she shared with TechCrunch, emphasizing her desire to distribute it “to the masses.”
Tank OS is tailored for advanced users wanting to operate OpenClaw on their own systems as well as IT professionals overseeing multiple corporate OpenClaw agents. It enhances the safety and simplifies the maintenance of OpenClaw in bulk.
Numerous individuals, companies, and startups are already innovating better methods to utilize OpenClaw — the open source initiative that deploys an AI agent onto a local machine. A rising number of startups are also developing competing alternatives to claw that they claim are more secure (for example, NanoClaw).
What sets O’Malley’s initiative apart is her role as an OpenClaw maintainer. This indicates that she is among the few software engineers collaborating with creator Peter Steinberger to determine which features and bugs are prioritized. Her focus is on improving OpenClaw’s performance in enterprise applications, along with various versions of the Linux operating system from Red Hat. (Although Steinberger was recruited by OpenAI, he continues to lead the independent open source initiative OpenClaw.)
O’Malley became involved with OpenClaw because she perceives it as a way to “enable everyone to run AI in a secure, open manner,” she stated.
However, she began contemplating the implications of OpenClaw entering an enterprise environment and resolved to create a tool for that scenario. She started with an open source container solution known as Podman, developed by a peer at Red Hat. Containers allow applications to run independently from the host computer, with all necessary components bundled together. For instance, they can enable a Linux application to operate on a Windows or Mac system.
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Podman is particularly secure since it operates in a “rootless” manner, meaning it does not grant the containers any privileges from the underlying machine, according to Red Hat.
Tank OS installs OpenClaw onto Red Hat’s Fedora Linux operating system within a Podman container and transforms that container into a bootable image, so it automatically executes and initiates OpenClaw upon system startup.
Her tool encompasses all elements necessary to make OpenClaw functional without human supervision, such as state (which enables memory retention); the capability to store API keys (credentials for accessing subscriptions and services); along with other functionalities.
Users can execute several Tank OS instances on one machine for varied tasks, ensuring that passwords or credentials are not shared, and no OpenClaw instance can access other operations on the system.
While O’Malley acknowledges that the OpenClaw initiative is striving to enhance agent safety, she remarks that “it’s an incredibly powerful application,” but it can also be “hazardous” if not correctly configured. “It’s not a tool that’s easy to use unless you possess some technical expertise,” she noted.
Numerous accounts exist, such as the Meta AI security researcher whose Claw started erasing all her work emails, or an agent that downloaded all of a user’s WhatsApp direct messages in plain text. There is also an increasing amount of malware targeting OpenClaw users.
It should be noted that Tank OS isn’t designed for beginners either, she notes. Users must be comfortable with installing and maintaining software on their devices, she stresses. Tank OS isn’t the only OpenClaw deployment within containers; for example, NanoClaw is undertaking a similar endeavor utilizing the well-known container technology Docker.
Nevertheless, Tank OS aims to be particularly advantageous for IT professionals (essentially, Red Hat’s primary clientele) who may eventually oversee a multitude of OpenClaw agents across corporate systems. It allows them to update agents in the same manner they already manage other containers.
“My involvement with OpenClaw reflects my genuine interest in it,” O’Malley expressed. “I’m excited about how it’s going to evolve when millions of these autonomous agents communicate with one another.”
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Otter’s latest functionality enables users to conduct searches across their business tools.
Applications for AI meeting note-taking have come to understand that merely transcribing meetings and offering summaries fails to substantiate their business models and valuations. They are now aiming to serve as complete workspaces where users can import data from various sources, search through it, and make business decisions. Following in the footsteps of notetakers like Read AI, Fireflies.ai, and Fathom, Otter is launching enterprise search by functioning as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client. This allows it to connect and extract data from external apps and services using a shared standard that is being quickly adopted by AI tools.
Otter has been in existence for almost ten years, but has recently been transitioning into an enterprise productivity tool. Last October, the firm introduced a method for organizations to construct custom MCPs to access Otter data externally. The company’s most recent initiative is focused on integrating external data into the application.
With this update, users are able to link their Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Jira, and Salesforce accounts to query that information alongside existing meeting data. The company announced that it will soon facilitate connections with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and Slack. Users will not only be able to search for information across these platforms but can also relay meeting summaries to Notion or compose a Gmail message.
The company has also revamped its AI assistant to be ubiquitously available throughout the interface, allowing users to pose questions at any moment. The assistant is capable of grasping the context of the screen, be it a specific meeting or channel, and respond to inquiries accordingly.
Meanwhile, a majority of notetakers are following Granola’s example by enabling botless meeting capture—recording meetings through the device’s system audio without having a bot participate. Otter indicated that it introduced this capability to its Mac app late last year and is now unveiling a Windows application with a similar function.
There has been ongoing discussion regarding meeting note-taking with bots (where a bot joins the meeting) versus without. Otter CEO Sam Liang noted that the firm’s enterprise customers prefer a meeting notetaker that actually joins the call.
“When we converse with enterprise clients, most of them actually favor the note taker that participates in the Zoom meeting because it enhances transparency. They also wish for the meeting notes to be accessible to all participants, ensuring that the notes aren’t confined to a single individual,” he shared with TechCrunch during a call.
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Otter stated that it includes a deduplication feature that prevents a multitude of bots from entering a meeting at once, avoiding circumstances where bots outnumber human participants in a call.
Last year, the company reported having 25 million users and $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Although the company did not present updated financial figures, it mentioned that the platform now boasts 35 million users.
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