The Arctic Ocean is getting louder—more ships, more industrial activity, more tourism—and narwhals appear to be responding by getting quieter. Reporting summarized by Ars Technica (from Inside Climate News) points to field research in Canada’s Eclipse Sound suggesting that narwhals reduce vocal activity and change feeding behavior when ships pass nearby. That matters because narwhal […]

Notepad++ says its update traffic was hijacked for months in 2025, with attackers intercepting and selectively redirecting some users to malicious infrastructure. BleepingComputer reports the compromise began in June 2025 and ended on December 2, after the hosting provider detected the breach and cut off access. The incident is a useful reminder that “download over

Microsoft has expanded guidance on a Windows shutdown bug triggered by January 2026 updates, confirming it affects more systems than first reported. According to BleepingComputer, the issue can cause some devices to restart instead of shutting down or entering hibernation when specific security configurations are enabled. For most users, the symptom looks like “my PC

OpenAI has released a macOS desktop app for Codex, its coding-focused AI tool, moving beyond command-line and IDE extension interfaces. Ars Technica reports the app is designed around managing multiple coding agents in parallel—sometimes over hours—similar to the workflow popularized by Anthropic’s Claude Code. The interesting shift isn’t “a new client.” It’s that the user

Guinea worm disease is nearing global eradication, with only 10 human cases reported worldwide in 2025, according to figures cited by Ars Technica from the Carter Center. If the remaining transmission chains can be eliminated, Guinea worm would become only the second eradicated human disease after smallpox. Eradication is a very specific claim—it doesn’t mean

Mozilla says the next Firefox release will include a single settings toggle that blocks all AI “enhancements,” responding to users who want a clear way to opt out. BleepingComputer reports the feature arrives in Firefox 148, scheduled for February 24, and can disable both current and future generative-AI features from one place. This is an

Intel’s laptop CPU roadmap has been confusing for years: one generation improves performance but hurts battery life, another improves graphics but stalls CPU gains, and feature support varies by sub-family. Ars Technica’s early look at Panther Lake (Core Ultra Series 3) argues it’s the first lineup in a while that feels like a clean, across-the-board

A wave of malicious “skills” (plug-ins) targeting the local AI assistant OpenClaw has been used to deliver information-stealing malware, according to BleepingComputer. The packages were designed to look like helpful tools, but their setup instructions pushed victims into running commands that installed stealers. This is the familiar supply-chain story, adapted to a new ecosystem: when

A federal judge has ruled that the US Department of Energy’s “Climate Working Group” was formed unlawfully and that the government violated rules meant to keep advisory bodies balanced and transparent. Ars Technica reports that the lawsuit also forced disclosure of the group’s communications—emails that are now public. This kind of case can sound procedural,

Raspberry Pi has announced another round of price increases, blaming higher memory costs as shortages spread beyond data centers and PC parts into embedded and hobbyist hardware. Ars Technica reports this is the company’s second broad hike in two months, with the steepest increases landing on the highest-RAM boards. It’s a reminder that “AI chip