The US military has long known that cheap fixes could stop location data from exposing its troops. It adopted almost none--and now says adversaries are using the data to target soldiers during a war. For nearly a decade, the Pentagon was warned--by its own contractors, analysts, and intelligence agencies--that anyone with a credit card could buy a map of where American troops sleep, work, and store nuclear weapons. Now the bill has come due in a war zone. A newly disclosed letter shows the warnings went unheeded: US Central Command now confirms it has received "multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil US personnel in theater"--the first official acknowledgment that the data-broker economy is being used to hunt American forces in the Middle East.

PCWorld highlights how old USB drives can be transformed into powerful PC rescue kits using portable applications that run without installation. Essential tools include bootable OS creators like Rufus and Ventoy, antivirus scanners like ClamWin and Stinger, and system repair utilities. These portable rescue kits enable tech support across multiple computers, offering hardware monitoring, network diagnostics, and Windows optimization capabilities. Portable apps are applications and tools that can be started directly upon clicking them, with no prior installation needed. The advantage of this is that the programs are immediately ready for use and can be started from any storage drive -- including a USB flash drive. These useful tools are then available for analyzing and maintaining any computer you slap the flash drive into, making them utterly invaluable for informal tech support duties. Let's take a look at the best portable applications for hardware analysis and system tuning, as well as a basic setup with media player, image editing, and word processing tools.

Chrome users were caught off guard by a 4-GB Google AI model baked into Chrome, sparking privacy concerns. You might not want to. If you use Google's Chrome browser for desktop, there's probably a Gemini Nano AI model running on your computer right now and taking up about 4 GB of space. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn't know about it and don't want it, there's a way to turn it off. The file started auto-downloading for Chrome users in 2024 after Google built Gemini Nano into the browser.

HTTP/3 is a new application layer protocol supported by most browsers. It uses QUIC as an underlying transport protocol. QUIC provides multiple benefits, like faster connection establishment, reduced latency, and improved connection migration. Hence, popular browsers like Chrome/Chromium, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox have started supporting it. This paper presents an HTTP/3-supported browser dataset collection tool named H3B.

PCWorld reports that Mozilla Firefox is introducing comprehensive AI Controls in its browser, allowing users to completely disable or selectively manage AI features. This development matters as other major browsers like Chrome and Edge integrate AI extensively without easy opt-out options for users. The feature debuts in Firefox Nightly builds and will reach most users within two months, with settings persisting through updates. Mozilla Firefox has always seemed like the "cool kid" browser option, for the power users who don't want to deal with Google or Microsoft. So perhaps filling it up with "AI" features -- you know, the things people are kind of tired of seeing from Google and Apple -- might not be winning people over.

Plus: Vivaldi browser shuns AI, Samsung has a new sustainable display, and Frankfurt Airport tests Auracast for gate announcements. Samsung's first-ever Galaxy Z TriFold went on sale this past Friday, but it sold out in minutes . This folding phone differs from the 7th-generation Galaxy Z Fold7 in that its screen can expand to a whopping 10 inches, turning it into a proper tablet . That also means it commands an incredibly high price of $2,899. It's the first device of its kind here in the West, though Huawei has its own version in China.

I Let Google's'Auto Browse' AI Agent Take Over Chrome. Auto Browse can shop for clothes, plan a trip, and buy tickets for you. So, while testing Google's new "Auto Browse" feature for Chrome, I was filled with a strange sense of loss as I watched the AI agent open browser tabs and attempt to complete digital tasks with automated clicks. Sure, I felt some loss of control as the bot tapped away on my laptop screen. But also a kind of preemptive nostalgia for how the internet currently works, flaws and all, considering Google's plans to fundamentally alter the user experience.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. If you use AI tools all the time, one of the biggest frustrations is switching back and forth between tabs. If you don't want to interrupt your workflow, try switching to BrowserCopilot AI . This new AI Chrome plugin puts some of the most popular AI tools right into your browser, so you don't have to switch back and forth. BrowserCopilot is a Chrome-based AI assistant that lives directly inside your browser, so it can help on the exact page you are already using.

Google Chrome is launching agentic AI "autobrowsing" that automates web tasks like form filling, reservations, and license renewals for paid Google AI subscribers. PCWorld reports that a new Gemini AI sidebar will be available to all Chrome users, accessing personal data from Gmail and other apps.

Google's latest addition to its Chrome browser puts generative AI behind the wheel and you in the passenger seat. Google debuted a new "Auto Browse" feature for Chrome on Wednesday. The tool, powered by Google's current Gemini 3 generative AI model, is an AI agent designed to take over your Chrome browser to help complete online tasks like booking flights, finding apartments, and filing expenses. The release of Auto Browse is part of Google's continued integration of AI features into Chrome. Last year, Google dropped the "Gemini in Chrome" mode to answer questions about what's on web pages and synthesize details from multiple open tabs.