Microsoft promises one machine for dev, AI, and gaming, and mostly gets there.

Tool calling lets an AI model request a function, API, search, or action using structured arguments. This guide traces the full tool-use loop and explains schemas, validation, permissions, and common failure modes.

Due to the global memory shortage, 8 gigabytes has once again become the standard among computer manufacturers. Fortunately, Microsoft has spent the past few months optimizing Windows 11 for computers with limited RAM. According to a post on the official Windows blog, the company has, among other things, improved background memory management. “Windows can now keep up to 2GB more of your active data in memory instead of moving it to slower storage, helping your PC stay responsive as you open more apps or browser tabs,” the post said. Other improvements for PCs with 8GB of memory or less include ensuring that widgets only load when you open them, freeing up an additional 200MB of memory. Microsoft says these changes make Windows 11 up to 20% more responsive than before. According to The Verge, Microsoft has also improved the Windows Hello sign-in process and sped up Bluetooth pairings.

The AI boom is seeing one of its first major busts, as Character.ai has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it searches for a buyer. Founded in 2021, Character.ai enables users to create customizable chatbots and interact with them, and by February 2025 claimed to have over 20 million monthly active users. However, it failed to turn them into a profitable revenue stream, and has been losing $8 million a month, according to Reuters. The company estimated in its bankruptcy filing that it only had assets of between $50 million and $100 million, and liabilities in the same range, despite receiving investments totalling almost $200 million over the years, pushing its valuation to a peak of around $1 billion. Character.ai told subscribers that during the bankruptcy proceedings their access to Character ai chatbots is unaffected, and they will continue to be charged for the service. To keep its chatbots chatting, the company has granted Disney a non-exclusive license to its technology for $20 million as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, a so-called stalking-horse deal that sets a benchmark for other bids. Character.ai’s troubles haven’t just been economic: It has faced several legal challenges over the psychological effects of its service on users. In January, the Kentucky Attorney General claimed that Character ai chatbots preyed on children. In May, the state of Pennsylvania sued the company over a chatbot that claimed to be a licensed psychiatrist and said it aimed to “stop the company from misrepresenting its AI companion bots as licensed medical professionals who can provide medical advice.” And in 2025, the company settled out of court with a mother who claimed that a Character ai chatbot had led to her son dying by suicide. These challenges have taken their toll on the company. “Character.ai has taken meaningful steps to sustain and improve its business in the face of significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds. After a comprehensive review of the available alternatives, the board determined that this court-supervised sale process provides the Company with the best opportunity to maximize value for all stakeholders,” said Colin Adams, CEO of Character.ai.

In a recent piece here on Unite.AI, Gil Feig laid out six best practices for building a secure MCP server. They are sound, and anyone shipping an MCP server should follow them. His advice to give each integration “its own fine-grained role, scoped strictly to required permissions” is exactly right. It also assumes the system on the other end has fine-grained roles. That points to a broader assumption that rarely gets stated: that the systems behind the server can be secured to the same…

Bloomberg: Taiwan plans to curb AI server and chip exports to China as part of a US trade deal and make shipping restricted AI hardware to China a criminal offense  —  Taiwan is preparing to tighten export controls on AI chips to further align with US restrictions, according to a senior official in Taipei …

Amazon's $75 Bee Frontier includes free AI notes, but longer memory costs extra. Here's what Bee Pro's $11.99 monthly plan unlocks. The post Amazon’s $75 Bee Frontier Includes Free AI Notes — Here’s What $11.99 a Month Adds appeared first on TechRepublic.

The pioneering reusable upper stage for Stoke Space's Nova rocket ships out for testing.

Overall, investors put $38.5 billion into reported seed- through growth-stage financings for Asian startups in Q3, per Crunchbase data. Of that, a majority went to AI-focused companies, echoing the trends we’ve seen globally.

The same three workloads show a much stronger JIT, but it still doesn't help every program The post I Reran My Python 3.14 JIT Benchmarks on Python 3.15 appeared first on Towards Data Science.

A network of AI-generated models is using comics’ material to funnel views to their OnlyFans and Fanvue accounts—and there’s not much comedians can do about it.

Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times: US candidates and PACs, mostly tied to Republicans, have spent $137M+ on 220 AI-generated campaign ads in 2026; ~70% of the 220 videos didn't disclose AI use  —  Republicans have used A.I.-generated content more often than Democrats, ranging from subtle enhancements to convincing deepfakes.

Waymo announced on October 16, 2026 that it is bringing its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to Toronto, its first operations in Canada, with the goal of welcoming its first riders in 2028. Element Fleet Management said the same day that it will manage onsite operations for Waymo's Toronto fleet under an expanded strategic partnership. Groundwork for a 2028 Launch Waymo laid out the plan in a post on the company blog, saying the expansion includes investment in local facilities and job…

Munsif Vengattil / Reuters: India's cyber agency says AI agents broke into Indian organizations' systems and read confidential files undetected; AI model providers flagged the incidents  —  AI models under test broke into Indian organisations' live systems and read confidential records undetected, India's cybersecurity agency said …

Bloomberg: China is considering adding 23 AI technologies to its export control list, including LLMs and chip designs, to keep closer control over homegrown advancements  —  China proposed adding advanced artificial intelligence technologies to its export-control list, potentially restricting overseas transfers …

The agency said it received multiple voluntary disclosures from AI model providers whose models had reached live systems of Indian organisations while conducting research and evaluation activities on the internet.

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk: OpenAI says its model paid for a deployment on an Ethereum test network with a wallet it did not own, after obtaining keys from public recovery phrases  —  An OpenAI research model stuck without funds on an Ethereum test network went looking for someone else's wallet, found one through recovery phrases …

The infrastructure is designed to support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade.

Android laptops are here, but Google has a lot of work ahead to make them good.

Widgets, widgets, widgets. Has there ever been an Android feature so full of promise that went unloved by Google for so very long? Okay, so maybe there has been — erm, lots of times, actually. But even so, Android’s widgets system is a perfect example of an exceptional advantage that Google basically buried, abandoned, and left on the brink of extinction up until its overdue revival in 2021’s Android 12 update. (And that revival, by the way, happened for no apparent reason whatsoever. Just a totally random, unprompted change of heart after a decade of indifference. Riiiiiiiiight.) Google may have given up on widgets for a while, but the good news is that (a) they’re back, baby — still now, more than ever, even in our overly AI-obsessed 2026 timeline — and (b) the Android developer community keeps chuggin’ along and coming up with ever-more creative new ways to embrace widgets beyond what Google itself sees fit to give us. That means no matter what Android version your favorite phone is running, you can step up your own Android widget game and give yourself some fresh and fruitful paths to make the most of your phone’s framework. Here, my dear, are some fantastic beyond-the-basics ways to put your favorite Android widgets to use and change the way you get stuff done on your phone.  [Psst: Love learning new things? Get my free Android Intelligence newsletter to get a tasty new tip in your inbox every Friday.] Android widget enhancement #1: The on-demand home screen pop-up Widgets are a wonderful way to interact with all sorts of info without ever having to open up apps, but having too many widgets can quickly lead to a cluttered and overwhelming home screen. Well, here’s a neat way to give yourself the benefit of a widget while still maintaining a neat and minimal space for working: An excellent app called Popup Widget lets you create an on-demand pop-up widget (get it?!) that looks like a regular ol’ icon on your home screen but then loads any widget you want when tapped. See? Any widget, anytime — with Popup Widget on Android. JR Raphael, Foundry You can even get really wild and set up a single icon that opens multiple widgets at the same time — like your inbox and your calendar together: Popup Widget can even let you summon two widgets together with a single tap. JR Raphael, Foundry Not bad, right? Popup Widget costs two bucks and doesn’t require any special permissions or manners of access. And it’s pretty simple and self-explanatory to set up: Once you install and open the app, it’ll walk you through adding in whatever pop-up widgets you want. You can choose the name and even the icon associated with each one along with its precise placement on your screen and how much the screen behind it should dim when it’s loaded. The app will offer to add the shortcut directly onto your home screen for you then, or you can also find all of your Popup Widget creations by pressing and holding the main Popup Widget icon in your app drawer. Alternatively, if you’re already using a custom Android launcher like Smart Launcher or Niagara, you can find similar options for summoning widgets on demand within their settings — no separate apps even required. And that, my widget-loving wallaby, is but our first winning widget possibility. Android widget enhancement #2: The on-demand universal pop-up If you like the idea of having a widget on demand but would rather have it be available to summon from anywhere instead of just from your home screen, this next wacky widget option is just the thing for you. It comes from a spectacular app called Edge Gestures, which works in conjunction with Popup Widget to take that same concept and make it universally accessible. (I told ya it was wacky!) When you first install Edge Gestures, the app will prompt you to enable it as a system accessibility service and to grant it the ability to display over other apps. These permissions sound scary — and they should! — but in the case of this specific utility, they’re absolutely appropriate and necessary in order for it to operate. The former is the only way an app is able to create a custom system-wide gesture, which we need for this setup to work its magic, and the latter is how your widget is able to be shown on top of whatever else you’re doing. (If you’re at all worried, note that Edge Gestures doesn’t request any other significant system permissions. Beyond that, it’s reputable, it’s been around for quite a long while, and it has a large number of overwhelmingly positive reviews.) Where were we? Oh, right: Once you’re inside the Edge Gestures configuration area, you’ll be able to select exactly what gesture you want to use for pulling up your widget. I’d think carefully about finding something that won’t interfere with anything else, like the system-level Android gestures, and that’ll be convenient to access without being a command you’re likely to trigger by mistake. So, for instance, you might make the gesture a simple swipe downward along the left side of your screen. To do that, you’d find the “Swipe down” option within the app’s “Left” tab, and you’d set it to “Popup Widget” — and then create or select whatever Popup Widget item you want. And remember: You can select one widget or multiple widgets, too. Prepare yourself for some serious oohing and ahhing: Your favorite widgets are never more than a swipe away with Edge Gestures on Android. JR Raphael, Foundry As you can see, this opens up a whole new world of mobile multitasking potential. I mean, really: How could you not love that?! The final thing worth doing is going into all the other gesture options in that same configuration area and tapping “Clear” for each of ’em to get rid of Edge Gestures’ default actions. I’d also go into whichever side of the screen you aren’t using — left or right — and tap the toggle to turn the gestures for that side off entirely. That way, you won’t inadvertently activate any gestures that you don’t actually want or need. Edge Gestures costs $2 to use. Android widget enhancement #3: The camera cutout command center All screen swiping aside, you can create a complete widget-summoning control panel that exists entirely in the camera cutout at the top of your phone’s screen — y’know, that otherwise useless black hole where the front-facing camera is hidden. The secret to this slice of Android widget sorcery is a snazzy little app called Material Capsule. You’ll have to spring for its $3.49 premium version (also available in a 99-cent monthly subscription, if you’d rather go that route) for the app’s widget wonders — but if you like the way it works, it’s well worth it. In short, the app lets you set up to five different gestures for calling up different widgets from anywhere on your device — with a tap, a double tap, a long press, and a swipe to the left or the right across the same camera cutout area. Any of those actions will bring whatever widget you choose into view for easy access, no matter what else you’re doing. Material Capsule’s on-demand camera cutout widgets in action. JR Raphael, Foundry It’s quite the upgrade and one of those things that’ll make you wonder why it wasn’t just built into Android itself from the get-go. I’ve got an entire separate guide to Material Capsule and its many powerful possibilities, if you’re interested in exploring it further. Android widget enhancement #4: The physical key call Next, here’s another interesting twist on that same on-demand Android widget idea: You can make any widget especially easy to access from anywhere without even having to mess around with any on-screen swiping or tapping by setting one of your phone’s physical keys as a trigger for the widget’s appearance. I’ll give you a second to catch your breath and process the sheer splendor of that spell. Back? Cool. So, the key to this feat (har har) is the combination of the aforementioned Popup Widget and a handy Android contraption called Key Mapper — which makes it easy to map your phone’s physical keys to all kinds of crazy custom actions. In this case, we’ll set it up so that pressing and holding one of your volume keys causes whatever widget you want to be summoned, like so: Yes, your volume key can cause a widget to appear (whoa!). JR Raphael, Foundry Pretty nifty, no? I’ve got step-by-step instructions for making this happen in this separate guide. Android widget enhancement #5: The floating bubble If you like the notion of having a widget always available but aren’t so keen on the hidden gesture concept, an app called Overlays will let you create a small floating bubble that you can position anywhere on your screen and then tap to pull any widget up when you want it — just like with Android’s recently revived Bubbles multitasking system, only compatible with any Android device and version and with the simplicity of a widget instead of the complexity of an entire app. Check it out: Overlays puts a floating icon on your screen for easy ongoing widget access. JR Raphael, Foundry By default, Overlays gives you a bunch of its own little widgets to choose from, but the real power comes from adding in widgets from the Android apps you actually rely on. To do that, tap the “Triggers” tab at the bottom of the Overlays configuration area, then tap the red plus button in the lower-right corner of the screen. Select “Manual,” then type in whatever name you want for your widget and tap the icon to pick any icon you like. Tap “Save,” then select “Widget” and find the widget you want from the list. At that point, you’ll see a preview of the widget. Move or resize it if you like, then hit the arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen to exit out of that interface. Last but not least, tap the name of your newly made widget on the screen that comes up next to change its status to “Always on.” As soon as you head out of the app and back to your home screen, your fancy new widget should pop right up. All you’ve gotta do is tap the little downward-facing arrow in its corner to minimize it down to a bubble, which you can then press and hold to move anywhere your widget-worshipping heart desires. Overlays can also create widgets that automatically appear based on context — so you could have something show up every time you connect to a certain Bluetooth device or Wi-Fi network, for instance. To explore those options, just follow the same steps from above but pick “Event” instead of “Manual” when you reach the “Triggers” tab configuration. Overlays is free with an optional $4 in-app upgrade that removes some ads from the configuration tool and unlocks a handful of advanced features. Android widget enhancement #6: The widget stack Last but not least in our collection of wacky Android widget possibilities is one of my favorite widget wonders — and that’s the ability to stack multiple widgets and then swipe between ’em on your home screen without having ’em take up any extra space. Check it out: The space-saving simplicity of stacked widgets, as seen in Smart Launcher. JR Raphael, Foundry This enhancement presents a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure-style path: First, if you’re using a reasonably recent Samsung Galaxy gizmo, the option is should already be present and available in your standard Samsung home screen setup. Just press and hold any open space on your home screen and then select the option to add a widget — then, once the widget is added, press and hold it and look for the “Create stack” command. With any other Android gadget — or even with a Samsung device, if you want extra options and flexibility — you can use a custom Android launcher like the aforementioned Smart Launcher or Niagara as well as the retro-geeky T9-themed Key Launcher I introduced to you this past summer. Those launchers replace your phone’s entire home screen environment and give you all sorts of interesting new possibilities for optimizing your interface and making it especially well-suited for you. And the stacked widget feature is just one small sliver of what they offer and how they’ll transform your Android experience. The setup interface for a widget stack within Smart Launcher. JR Raphael, Foundry So there ya have it: six wacky, wild, wonderful ways to make widgets even more wow-inducing. Some days, you’ve just gotta love Android and the endless customization, control, and power it provides. Put even more Googley goodness in your noggin with my free Android Intelligence newsletter — one exceptional new thing to try every Friday!