TechCapsules

A U.S. legal framework permits companies to buy and sell personal data without explicit consent, leaving millions exposed despite Apple’s privacy tools such as App Tracking Transparency, Hide My Email, and iCloud Private Relay. Those tools only prevent future tracking; they cannot erase the vast troves of information already collected by data brokers over the past decade. Brokers aggregate details ranging from location history to Social Security numbers and sell them to marketers, scammers, and other buyers. [...]

On October 24 1946 a U.S. Army V‑2 rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range carried a 35 mm motion‑picture camera that snapped a frame every 1.5 seconds as it climbed to roughly 65 miles altitude. After the rocket and camera crashed at about 340 mph, the film—shielded in a steel case—was recovered from the desert and yielded the first photographs of Earth taken from space. The grainy black‑and‑white images showed the planet’s curvature against a black void, astonishing the scientists who retrieved [...]

Rockstar Games announced Agent, an open‑world stealth title set in the 1970s Cold War, at E3 2009 as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. The project entered development with several internal teams but never left the prototype stage. Co‑founder Dan Houser told IGN the studio repeatedly failed to reconcile the fast‑paced, globe‑hopping demands of spy narratives with Rockstar’s signature sandbox pacing, concluding the design was unsolvable. After years of rumors, Rockstar quietly abandoned the trademark and ceased public discussion, leaving [...]

Reports from Samsung Galaxy S24 owners indicate severe battery drain after installing the One UI 9 update. A user of the S24 Ultra logged a 95 % loss of charge in five hours and twenty minutes under “heavy use,” with just over three hours of screen‑on time. Another user claimed a 40 % drop while the phone sat idle for eleven hours. Similar complaints have surfaced for the newer S25 series, though some users see no change. A Korean Galaxy [...]

Almost eight months into President Trump’s confrontational policy toward Iran, analysts observe unexpected shifts in the global oil market. While the Strait of Hormuz remains a chokepoint, new vulnerabilities have emerged at Bab‑al‑Mandeb, the East‑West pipeline and in worldwide refinery capacity. More strikingly, the market shows signs of demand elasticity for the first time in history: global oil consumption is projected to drop 2‑3 million barrels per day in 2026, according to the EIA and IEA, despite the [...]

ASUS has unveiled the ProArt P16 RTX Spark, a high‑end laptop aimed at professional creators. The device combines a 16‑inch mini‑LED display with NVIDIA RTX graphics, positioning it as a workstation‑class portable. ASUS highlights a modular design that allows users to upgrade the GPU and storage, while maintaining a thin chassis and robust thermal solution. The ProArt line’s focus on color accuracy and media‑grade performance is reinforced by factory‑calibrated panels and support for multiple external monitors. Pricing starts in the [...]

PlayStation Store has slashed the price of Saber Interactive’s zombie shooter World War Z: Aftermath to $9.99 for PS5 owners, a 75 percent discount that runs until November 5 2026. The regular price of $39.99 will resume after the promotion. The World War Z: Aftermath Deluxe Edition, covering both PS4 and PS5, is also 75 percent off at $12.49, before returning to $49.99. Additional add‑ons receive 20‑40 percent reductions. The title, based on the Paramount film, offers cooperative play for up to [...]

Content creator Dantics, who says he served on a BioWare community council, posted on X claiming insider knowledge of the cancelled Mass Effect Universe, the planned sequel to the franchise. He alleges the game would take place more than 600 years after the Reaper War and focus on a galaxy‑wide Cold War among three superpowers: the Council races, a unified Human‑Krogan‑Batarian alliance, and the Geth. Dantics described a customizable N7 operative “like John Wick meets James Bond,” equipped with [...]