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You Can (Maybe) Run Meta's Latest AI Model Locally on Your Computer

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On Monday, Meta announced its latest AI model : Muse Glimmer. The company isn't necessarily advertising this model as its biggest and best, however. While Meta has plenty to say about Muse Glimmer's performance potential, there are two key selling points for the model in the company's eyes: The fact that it's open-weight, and that it's designed to run locally on "consumer" Macs and PCs—though perhaps not on your computer. What is Muse Glimmer? According ot Meta, Muse Glimmer is a 30-billion-parameter AI model optimized for "always-on local agent workflows." What that means is Glimmer is designed to run autonomously directly on your machine, rather than outsourcing that processing to the cloud. Local AI is much more secure than cloud-based, as your data stays within your system. When you tap into cloud servers, you're at the mercy of whichever company owns that network, potentially putting your data in jeopardy. While there are many use cas...

Five Ways to Make Gemini Behave More Like Google Assistant

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Google Assistant is about to get one heck of a headstone in the Google Graveyard . The voice assistant has been a handy tool for years, but the company has finally decided to replace it with Gemini entirely. If you’re not exactly thrilled about the AI-ification of every app you use, there are a few ways to make Gemini behave a bit more like the Assistant of yore. The switch from Assistant has been coming for a while; it’s a seismic shift for a lot of devices. On top of deprecating Assistant on Android phones and tablets, it’s also disappearing for Wear OS devices and some Android Auto cars. Some smart home devices and TVs will still support Assistant, but you can switch to Gemini (and you might want to since the choice is likely to be made for you eventually). Regardless of how you feel about AI chatbots, using Gemini might become unavoidable if you’re in the Google ecosystem. So, if you want to keep the functionality you had in your phone, car, or kitchen, ...

Apple Just Added These New Android Devices to Its Trade-In List

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It's a weird time to be shopping for new tech. On the one hand, " RAMageddon " is making devices more expensive and harder to find; on the other, companies are trying new tactics to get you to buy new stuff more frequently. Take Apple: While it might be more difficult than ever to buy a MacBook Air from the company, Apple will now let you "lease" new products for one-, two-, or three-year agreements. Sure, Macs and iPads might cost more than ever, but you might find it easier to pay those prices over 24 or 36 months, interest-free. Each device's payment plan is presented without a trade-in in mind, but you can apply a trade-in if you choose to lease. Apple will lower your payments based on the value of the device you hand over at the time of signing. The better the value of your device, the lower your payments will be. What's especially interesting given the current tech market is that Apple seems to be sweetening the pot for customers with trade-ins...

10 Screenshot Hacks Every Mac User Should Know

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While third-party screenshot apps are excellent on the Mac , Apple has steadily improved its default tools. Today, the Mac's built-in screenshot utility is good enough for most people. You can, of course, use it to take screenshots, but you can do so much more, such as record a video of your screen, or even create professional screencasts. If you find yourself taking screenshots on your Mac, these are the 10 best hacks you need to know. Clean up the clutter by saving screenshots to the clipboard I find I only need to save around 10% of the screenshots I take. Left to its default settings, my Mac would save the other 90%, adding to an endless clutter I'd never take care of. As such, I always save screenshots to my Mac's clipboard, so I can paste it in the app of my choice without saving the image at all. Goodbye clutter. On your Mac, you can do this by using two keyboard shortcuts. Press Command-Control-Shift-3 for a screenshot of the entire screen, or use Command-Contro...

Apple Just Blocked Hackers From Taking Advantage of This Serious Security Flaw

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Apple released three new security updates for Macs on Thursday, Aug. 6. You don't need to be running the latest version, macOS 26, to take advantage of these updates, either. While the company does have a new Tahoe update, Apple's security updates here include releases for both macOS 15 Sequoia and macOS 14 Sonoma as well—and all of these updates are aimed at patching a flaw that would let hackers share your screen without your permission. Apple's latest macOS security patches fix a Screen Sharing vulnerability macOS Tahoe 26.6.1 , macOS Sequoia 15.7.9 , and macOS Sonoma 14.8.9 all contain the same, singular security patch: Tracked as CVE-2026-65400, this fix is for a Screen Sharing flaw that Apple says could allow an attacker on your network to "authenticate to Screen Sharing without valid credentials." In layman's terms, this security flaw could let hackers activate Screen Sharing without permission, which would leave the contents of your Mac's displ...

The Apple Watch Series 11 Is $150 Off Right Now

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We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Series 11 is Apple's middle-of-the-pack smartwatch, sandwiched between the budget-friendly Apple Watch SE 3 and the flagship Apple Watch Ultra 3 . Right now, both versions of the Series 11 (GPS-only and GPS + cellular model) are on sale. The GPS version starts at $299 (originally $399), and the GPS + Cellular version starts at $349.97 (originally $499), reaching a record low price after a 30% discount, according to price-tracking tools . If you're looking for the bigger 46mm size , they're both also at least $100 off in the GPS and cellular versions. Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS) ...

Apple Could Owe Some Users up to $5,000 Each in This Class Action Lawsuit

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Apple is no stranger to class action lawsuits. The company had to pay customers $50 million over its infamous "butterfly keyboards," and $250 million over the AI features it promised to ship with certain iPhones but didn't. (Many of those features, by the way, are now coming out this year .) But in all my time covering Apple lawsuits, I'm not sure I've ever seen a potential payout this huge. As reported by The Times , Apple is facing a $32.5 billion class action lawsuit, though the actual suit might be even more notable than the sum. Why is Apple being sued? As The Times reports, the basis for the lawsuit surrounds Apple's collection of biometric data, specifically the data it collected from Illinois citizens. The suit claims Apple violated Illinois law by collecting these users' biometric data through facial recognition without properly notifying them. The state passed the "Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act" in 2008 to protect users...