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Bloomberg reports that Google "must renegotiate any contract to make its search engine or artificial intelligence app the default for smartphones and other devices every year, a federal judge ruled." Judge Amit Mehta in Washington sided with the US Justice Department on the one year limitation in his final ruling on what changes the search giant must make in the wake of a landmark ruling that the company illegally monopolized online search. The yearly renegotiation will give rivals — particularly those in the burgeoning generative AI field — a chance to compete for key placements. The final judgment will still allow Google to offer its products to Apple Inc. for use in its popular iPhone and pay other electronics makers like Samsung Electronics Co. for default placement. But the judge said those contracts must be renegotiated annually. Mehta noted in his ruling that both Google and the US government said they could work with the one-year limitation on default contracts. As such, "the court holds that a hard-and-fast termination requirement after one year would best carry out the purpose of the injunctive relief."

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"Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway," reads the headline at Futurism: As Daily Dot reports, a New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. "She just broke my Meta glasses," said the TikTok user, who goes by eth8n, in a video that has since garnered millions of views. "You're going to be famous on the internet!" he shouted at her through the window after getting off the train. The accused woman, however, peered back at him completely unfazed, as if to say that he had it coming. "I was making a funny noise people were honestly crying laughing at," he claimed in the caption of a followup video. "She was the only person annoyed..." But instead of coming to his support, the internet wholeheartedly rallied behind the alleged perpetrator, celebrating the woman as a folk hero — and perfectly highlighting how the public feels about gadgets like Meta's smart glasses. "Good, people are tired of being filmed by strangers," one user commented. "The fact that no one else on the train is defending him is telling," another wrote... Others accused the man of fabricating details of the incident. "'People were crying laughing' — I've never heard a less plausible NYC subway story," one user wrote. In a comment on TikTok, the man acknowledges he'd filmed her on the subway — it looks like he even zoomed in. The man says then her other options were "asking nicely to not post it or blur my face". He also warns that she could get arrested for breaking his glasses if he "felt like it". (And if he sees her again.) "I filed a claim with the police and it's a misdemeanor charge." A subsequent video's captions describe him unboxing new Meta smartglasses "and I'm about to do my thing again... no crazy lady can stop me now." I'm imagining being mugged — and then telling the mugger "You're going to be internet famous!" But maybe that just shows how easy it is to weaponize smartglasses and their potential for vast public exposure.

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"Researchers engineered a strained germanium layer on silicon that allows charge to move faster than in any silicon-compatible material to date," reports Science Daily. "This record mobility could lead to chips that run cooler, faster, and with dramatically lower energy consumption. "The discovery also enhances the prospects for silicon-based quantum devices..." Scientists from the University of Warwick and the National Research Council of Canada have reported the highest "hole mobility" ever measured in a material that works within today's silicon-based semiconductor manufacturing.... The researchers created a nanometer-thin germanium epilayer on silicon that is placed under compressive strain. This engineered structure enables electric charge to move faster than in any previously known silicon-compatible material... The findings establish a promising new route for ultra-fast, low-power semiconductor components. Potential uses include quantum information systems, spin qubits, cryogenic controllers for quantum processors, AI accelerators, and energy-efficient servers designed to reduce cooling demands in data centers. This achievement also represents a significant accomplishment for Warwick's Semiconductors Research Group and highlights the UK's growing influence in advanced semiconductor materials research.

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