Apple patched an iPhone notification bug that let deleted messages linger in system storage, closing a privacy gap exposed by an FBI Signal case.

The post Apple Fixes iPhone Bug After FBI Retrieved Signal Messages appeared first on TechRepublic.

Google Pixel users are reporting severe battery drain after recent Android updates, with complaints spanning multiple models and no confirmed fix yet.

The post Google’s Pixel Update Sparks ‘Severe’ Battery Drain Across Multiple Models appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple’s $599 Mac mini is now sold out, with shortages spreading across configurations amid supply and demand pressures.

The post Apple’s $599 Mac mini Just Sold Out Everywhere appeared first on TechRepublic.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. We are seeing Google volatility get heated again...

Danny Sullivan from Google spoke at the Google Search Central event in Toronto a couple of days ago and a few of his slides spoke about it is important to produce "unique, authentic and non-commodity content." And then Sullivan dug into what commodity content is.

Google may now hold your review replies for approval before showing them in Google Maps or Google Search. Previously, those replies were immediately shown but that may have changed.

I know it has been a while since I covered the Google Search ranking volatility and algorithm twitches but I am now seeing signs of the volatility heating up. These signs are mostly coming from the tools; the community seems busier with other things.

Google is experimenting with the new tab view in Chrome. This view brings more Gemini features to the forefront, such as Deep Search and Create Images.

Google recently posted a new job listing for a GEO Partner Manager. The position calls for you to be responsible for the "transition Google's engagement model from Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) discovery to formal ecosystem advocacy."

Google has released version 24 of the Google Ads API, this is a major release with dozens of updates. This update includes changes to Demand Gen, travel feeds, conversion types, shopping, reporting, videos, and much more.

In October, we announced we were building new ways to support parents as they help their teens navigate AI. This included providing parents with insights into the topics their teen has been discussing with Meta’s AI assistant. These insights are now available for parents supervising Teen Accounts in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Brazil, and they’ll roll out to supervising parents globally in the coming weeks. 

Giving Parents More Insight Into Their Teens’ Conversations With AI

Parents using supervision on Facebook, Messenger, or Instagram will now see a new Insights tab within supervision, both in-app and on web. From there, parents will be able to see the topics their teen has been asking Meta AI about in that specific app over the past week. Topics can range from School, Entertainment, and Lifestyle to Travel, Writing, and Health and Wellbeing, among others. 

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Parents can tap on a topic to see the different categories that fall within each one. For example, categories within Lifestyle include fashion, food, and holidays, and categories within Health and Wellbeing include fitness, physical health, and mental health. 

This is just the starting point. As we roll out these insights to parents around the world, we’ll keep listening to feedback from both parents and experts, and explore ways to make them even more valuable. 

Complementing Existing AI Protections for Teen Accounts

These new insights complement the safety protections already built into AI experiences for Teen Accounts. For example, our AI experiences have been inspired by 13+ movie ratings criteria and parent feedback, meaning Meta AI should not give age-inappropriate responses that would feel out of place in a 13+ movie. This means Meta AI may not answer certain questions, and in some cases may direct teens to resources instead. We’ll still show parents the topic their teen was asking about, even if Meta AI didn’t respond to the question. 

While the insights are designed to give parents greater visibility into the general topics their teens are asking Meta AI about, for sensitive issues related to suicide and self-harm, we’re going further. We recently announced that we’re developing new alerts to let parents know if their teen tries to engage in conversations related to suicide or self-harm with Meta AI — and we’ll have more to share on those alerts soon. 

These new insights and proactive alerts are just some of the ways we’re working to make parental supervision even more valuable for parents. They build on the supervision features already available, which — among other things — allow parents to set time limits, schedule breaks, and see who their teen has been chatting to in the past seven days. We’re encouraged to see these tools are proving helpful to families, with the number of US teens enrolled in supervision more than doubling since last year. 

Helping Parents Approach Conversations About AI

We understand that AI is a new and evolving technology, and one that parents may not always feel confident talking about with their teens. That’s why we worked with the Cyberbullying Research Center to develop conversation starters: open-ended questions parents can ask their teens that are designed to help start non-judgmental conversations about their experiences with AI. Each question comes with guidance for parents, explaining what the specific question is designed to address, and how to approach it. These conversation starters are available on the Family Center website, and parents can also access them through a link in the new Insights tab.

Introducing Meta’s New AI Wellbeing Expert Council

Finally, we’re sharing more information about Meta’s new AI Wellbeing Expert Council, a group of experts who will provide ongoing input on our AI experiences for teens, to help make sure they continue to be safe and age-appropriate. We have a long history of working closely with experts to help inform our policies and products, including our existing AI experiences. Our Suicide and Self-Harm Advisors, Youth Advisors, and Body Image Experts also advise on specific issues, and we’re extremely grateful for their expertise.

Our AI Wellbeing Expert Council is made up of members of these three existing advisory groups, as well as new members with specific expertise in responsible and ethical AI, who are affiliated with the National Council for Suicide Prevention, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas, and the University of Southern California, among others. Meta teams will meet with the AI Wellbeing Expert Council regularly to share updates on the latest AI experiences we’re building for teens and gather feedback for our policy and product teams. This work has already started, with the AI Wellbeing Expert Council providing valuable input in the development of the new insights for parents that we’re announcing today.

The post Helping Parents Understand the Conversations Their Teens Are Having With AI appeared first on Meta Newsroom.

The Google Cloud AI Agent Bake-Off highlights a shift from simple prompt engineering to rigorous agentic engineering, emphasizing that production-ready AI requires a modular, multi-agent architecture. The post outlines five key developer tips, including decomposing complex tasks into specialized sub-agents and using deterministic code for execution to prevent probabilistic errors. Furthermore, it advises developers to prioritize multimodality and open-source protocols like MCP to ensure agents are scalable, integrated, and future-proof against rapidly evolving model capabilities.

Square is a payment processing platform with built-in POS and business management tools for in-person and online sales. Here’s how it works, what it costs, and its ideal use cases.

The post What Is Square? Pricing, Features & How It Works appeared first on TechRepublic.

Google I/O returns May 19–20 to showcase major updates in AI, Android, Chrome, and Cloud, beginning with a keynote on the "agentic era" of development. The event will focus on new tools designed to automate complex workflows and simplify the creation of high-quality, AI-ready applications. Attendees can register to access live sessions, technical demos, and professional development resources both live and on-demand.

Google has released version 1.0.0 of the Agent Development Kit (ADK) for Java, introducing powerful new features like Google Maps grounding, built-in URL fetching, and a standardized Agent2Agent protocol for cross-framework collaboration. The update enhances agent control through a new "App" and "Plugin" architecture, which allows for global logging, automated context window management via event compaction, and "Human-in-the-Loop" workflows for action confirmations. Additionally, the release provides robust session and memory services using Google Cloud integrations like Firestore and Vertex AI to manage long-term state and large data artifacts.