7 Days: JDownloader obtained hacked, Chrome downloading 4GB file, and Steam Controller bought out

7 Days is a weekly roundup of picks of what is been taking place on this planet of expertise – written with a splash of humor, a touch of exasperation, and an countless provide of (black) espresso.

This week’s highlights embody JDownloader getting hacked, the story behind the TAB key, Google Chrome silently downloading a 4GB AI file, and Apple knocking on Intel’s door for future chips. Let’s get began.

JDownloader obtained hacked

Let’s begin with some large safety information from the week. Attackers compromised the favored obtain supervisor, JDownloader, to serve malware-infected installers to Home windows and Linux customers for over a day. A Reddit person was among the many first to report suspicious exercise after Home windows SmartScreen flagged contemporary downloads, which the JDownloader group later confirmed as a breach and took down the web site to repair.

A serious provide chain assault focusing on the imaging software program DAEMON Instruments was additionally uncovered, the place malicious installers have been distributed by means of official channels since early April 2026. Its mum or dad firm confirmed that the incident was brought on by unauthorized interference inside its construct surroundings, leading to compromised set up packages being distributed.

A quick historical past of TAB key

Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen shed gentle on a lesser-known story from the times of OS/2. The Redmond big and IBM debated which key ought to transfer the cursor between fields in dialog bins. It was a hilarious battle as the problem reached IBM’s VP, who opposed the TAB key alternative. Microsoft successfully ended the dispute by responding: “Invoice Gates’s mom will not be within the TAB key.”

Faux moustaches

The UK authorities is making an attempt to guard children by placing them behind age checks whereas utilizing the web. A brand new report tried to verify the actual impacts of the On-line Security Act and located that dodging age verification programs on-line will be as straightforward as typing the incorrect birthday or drawing a faux mustache on the face throughout image-based checks.

In the meantime, tech giants and civil rights teams, together with Mozilla, Tor, and Proton, warned that the UK’s age verification plan threatens the open net. It is argued that the measures would require all customers to show their age, and may additionally consequence within the creation of huge databases filled with delicate ID knowledge.

Talking of underage customers, Meta can also be deploying an AI on Fb and Instagram to scan images and movies for bodily cues, similar to top and bone construction, to determine if a person is underneath 13.

PCIe 8.0 is on the best way

Your SSDs and GPUs are going to get quite a bit sooner within the coming future, due to the freshly introduced PCIe 8.0 specification Draft 0.5. The following-gen interconnect commonplace is on observe for a 2028 launch, bringing help for NVMe SSDs as much as 8x sooner than Gen5.

It is “by design”

A brand new proof-of-concept and dealing demo highlighted how passwords get dealt with in Microsoft Edge. It hundreds saved person credentials into system reminiscence in plaintext at startup, even after they’re not being actively used. Whereas it exposes the browser to potential password leaks, Microsoft apparently categorized this conduct as “by design” when the researcher knowledgeable the corporate in regards to the situation.

On a optimistic notice, Microsoft is baking a brand new Edge characteristic to simplify web site troubleshooting by serving to you resolve compatibility points immediately from the browser interface. The browser will present contextual prompts when an internet site will not be functioning correctly or as meant.

Google Chrome caught within the act

Google is pushing AI closely, however typically, it may be behind your again. Chrome 147 was caught silently downloading an on-device Gemini Nano file named weights.bin, which takes up 4GB of storage. Whereas it raises privateness, knowledge, and authorized issues, it was reported that deleting the file causes Chrome to re-download the mannequin with out telling you. There’s an official Home windows 11 Registry mod that blocks the automated obtain.

Spotify goes old style

A command-line instrument might be the very last thing you’d count on from Spotify, an organization that makes a residing by streaming audio to your ears. However Spotify had causes to launch a brand new CLI instrument; it lets AI brokers create and add AI-generated podcasts on to your library.

Save to Spotify can join with brokers similar to OpenClaw, Claude Code, or OpenAI Codex, permitting customers to create customized audio briefings, examine guides, and day by day itineraries, and hear to those Private Podcasts within the Spotify app.

Shopping for eBay

GameStop desires to add eBay to its purchasing cart. Whereas eBay is about 4 occasions larger, the online game retailer proposed to accumulate 100% of eBay for $125 per share. It is an try to learn from eBay’s 1,600 US places, which can give GameStop a nationwide community for authentication, consumption, success, and stay commerce. GameStop will prepare the cash by slicing bills in numerous departments.

Notepad++ on macOS (unofficially)

The unique creator of NotePad++, Don Ho, has distanced himself from a brand new macOS port developed by Andrey Letov. The vibecoded port works natively on each Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. Nevertheless, Letov confronted backlash from Ho and the Notepad++ neighborhood for utilizing the Notepad++ title and chameleon icon, making it seem like an official product. The developer later introduced that they might use a brand new emblem, a refined title, and a brand new area with model 1.0.6.

Goodbye 3D avatars

Tech corporations take away the options that do not get traction. WhatsApp is pulling the plug on a four-year-old characteristic known as 3D avatars. A message posted on its assist middle revealed that the moment messaging app began shutting down the characteristic on Android and iOS, noting that any customized sticker pack you have already got will “nonetheless be out there to make use of.”

Finish of end-to-end encryption

Meta-owned Instagram has stopped providing end-to-end encryption in its DMs. To start with, Instagram’s E2EE was a handbook choice buried within the chat settings on a per-conversation foundation, not a default setting like WhatsApp. The corporate mentioned it is killing the characteristic as a result of only a few individuals have been utilizing it. Be aware that chats will nonetheless be encrypted with the usual transport-level encryption to guard messages after they journey between your system and Meta’s servers.

What occurred at Google this week

There have been a number of different attention-grabbing tales associated to Google over the week:

• Annoyed Pixel customers: Google’s Might 2026 replace for Pixel brings a number of fixes, however it does not seem to deal with the extensively mentioned idle battery drain drawback. Person experiences claimed that extreme battery drain occurs even when the telephone will not be in energetic use.
• New Fitbit is right here: Google lastly launched the new Fitbit Air screenless health tracker with a beginning value of $99.99 to rival Whoop and Oura. Even with so many sensors, the band can last as long as every week, and tags together with the Google Well being Coach service for AI-powered insights.
• Killed by Google: With the brand new well being service in place, the search big pulled the plug on Google Match and the Match app, changing them with the Google Well being app as the brand new unified platform.
• Google Dwelling updates: A main replace for Google Dwelling arrived this week, bringing a wave of recent automation starters, digicam options, and different updates for sensible dwelling customers.
• Automated livestream fallback: A new Google Meet characteristic improves giant conferences by robotically redirecting further customers to a stay stream reasonably than turning them away.
• Google Circulation Music: Google has partnered with Consider to push its AI music creation instruments to the following era of musicians, enhancing its Circulation Music AI instrument within the course of.
• AICore consuming storage: Google up to date Android’s AICore help web page to notice that the service quickly makes use of additional storage to retailer each outdated and new AI mannequin variations throughout background updates.

What occurred at Apple this week

Apple is a couple of month away from internet hosting one in every of its greatest tech occasions of the 12 months, WWDC 2026. Within the meantime, you may compensate for a number of tales associated to the Cupertino big:

• Show you are a scholar: Within the US, Apple now requires college students and lecturers to supply paperwork and proof of their standing earlier than accessing schooling reductions on its on-line retailer.
• Made by Intel: Apple might have deserted Intel-designed chips for Mac computer systems. However the firm is in early talks with the silicon big to fabricate Apple-designed chips for future gadgets. The iPhone maker is additionally in talks with Samsung and Intel to make use of their US-based manufacturing services for processor manufacturing.
• Similar Similar, however completely different: One other leak strengthened rumors that the upcoming iPhone 18 can have some parts interchangeable with these of the iPhone 18e to cut back manufacturing prices.
• Cool app concepts: Apple showcased some attention-grabbing app concepts from younger builders on the Swift College students Problem this 12 months. 50 Distinguished Winners shall be invited for a three-day expertise at Apple Park.

What occurred at Microsoft this week

For these questioning what occurred underneath the Redmond big’s roof this week: Microsoft Defender flagged “Cerdigent” trojan malware worldwide, confronted contemporary criticism for eradicating an impactful Outlook characteristic, its increasing Outlook recall to work throughout tenants in Alternate On-line, and extra.

Usama’s new opinion put up mentioned how Home windows 11 is getting sooner in a lazy means. You’ll be able to take a look at Taras’s freshly baked Microsoft Weekly roundup to compensate for all of the attention-grabbing tales this week.

Linux…

Linux 7.1 RC2 arrived with a surge in AI-driven code and large KVM refactoring whereas delivering essential GPU fixes for Intel and AMD. Torvalds famous that KVM selftests made up an unusually giant chunk of the patches, primarily resulting from a lot of renamings occurring within the selftests to match kernel conventions.

CachyOS is seemingly getting a brand new performance-focused characteristic from Python’s growth pipeline. The typical efficiency enchancment signifies roughly 1-5% throughout commonplace benchmarking suites.

Linux uncovered an vital AMD Ryzen efficiency characteristic that is additionally heading to Home windows 11. AMD is including a brand new CPPC characteristic that ought to let the OS learn CPU increase clocks way more precisely.

Going south

No person’s occurring a trip. It is simply AMD, which expects its gaming income to drop by greater than 20% within the second half of the 12 months resulting from rising reminiscence and part prices that clients cannot sustain with. This got here after AMD had a file income of $10.3 billion in Q1, and CEO Lisa Su mentioned the corporate is “planning the enterprise accordingly.”

OpenAI brings new fashions

The AI big lifted the curtains off a handful of recent fashions throughout completely different merchandise. For starters, ChatGPT’s default Prompt mannequin was changed with a brand new one, GPT-5.5 Prompt, for improved accuracy and personalization.

OpenAI additionally launched its new, upgraded GPT 5.5-Cyber, which is fine-tuned for defensive cybersecurity use circumstances and is presently out there in restricted preview. Its three new real-time audio fashions (GPT-Realtime-2, GPT-Realtime-Translate, and GPT-Realtime-Whisper) are actually out there through APIs for builders engaged on voice brokers, stay translation, and transcription.

As well as, the Codex obtained a brand new browser extension to work immediately inside Google Chrome on Home windows and macOS. It permits Codex to do browser-based work, similar to navigating structured pages, finishing complicated knowledge entry flows, checking dashboards, and extra.

AI is consuming jobs

Whereas tech CEOs hold claiming AI is not right here to exchange you, extra individuals are shedding their jobs. DeepL CEO Jarek Kutylowski introduced that his firm plans to take away 250 roles to organize for an “AI-native” future.

In different AI information, Anthropic is tapping into SpaceX’s Colossus supercomputer to make the most of 300 megawatts of compute capability on the Colossus 1 knowledge middle. The newest replace for Copilot Cowork launched cell help for iOS and Android, permitting customers to handle background duties remotely.

Offered in a blink!

Valve put its latest-generation Steam Controller on sale this week, and it vanished like steam from a boiling pot. The demand was a lot that the Steam Controller retailer web page went down momentarily and commenced exhibiting an “Out of Inventory” message for customers within the US.

Following the shaky launch, Valve put restrictions on who should buy the brand new Steam Controller after restocking in a transfer to deal with scalpers who might have had a hand in inflicting the disruption. Valve additionally launched CAD information, enabling customers to mod their controller whereas limiting use to non-commercial phrases.

What else in gaming?

The newest situation of Pulasthi’s Weekend PC Sport Offers curates a number of thrilling video games on sale this week. This week’s perks from the Epic Video games Retailer are the informal video games Trash Goblin and Arranger: A Position-Puzzling Journey.

Xbox Free Play Days promotion introduced two new titles for these with Sport Go: CATAN – Console Version and Deadside. In the meantime, Xbox Sport Go subscribers obtained loads of day-one releases in Might, together with Forza Horizon 6, Subnautica, Outbound, and extra.

Amazon Prime members can replenish their gaming libraries in Might with Mafia II: Definitive Version and ten extra video games. Cloud gaming followers with GeForce NOW obtained a contemporary slate of video games as a part of the weekly replace schedule, together with Lifeless as Disco.

That mentioned, listed here are some extra tales from the gaming world:

From the evaluation nook

This week, Pulasthi obtained his arms on an early entry launch of Lifeless as Disco by Mind Jar Video games, which mixes flashy rhythm motion with tight fight controls and a killer soundtrack. With a $24.99 price ticket, the sport presents satisfying rhythm gameplay, well-directed music video-style boss battles, and customized music help. On the flip facet, its curated content material can final just for a number of hours, and problem will be missing.