Jeff Bezos badly wanted a voice computer. He had been saying so publicly since the very early days of Amazon, telling anyone who would listen about why voice might make it easier and more natural to interact with technology. (And to buy stuff from Jeff Bezos.) But when a team at Amazon set out to […]

An emotionally gripping adventure with a little pink alien

Alistair Barr / Business Insider:
TrueUp data shows over 67,000 software engineering job openings, up 30% so far in 2026 and the most in three years, with listings up about 2x since mid-2023  —  The US jobs report on Friday was surprisingly strong.  That's not the only part of the job market that's doing better than expected.

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the ups and downs of AI, follow Stevie Bonifield. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Most people probably know Grammarly for its browser […]

In short: Every time you visit LinkedIn in a Chrome-based browser, a hidden JavaScript routine silently probes your browser for more than 6,000 installed extensions, collects 48 hardware and software characteristics about your device, encrypts the resulting fingerprint, and attaches it to every API request you make during your session. The practice, labelled “BrowserGate” by researchers, […]

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