Belkin brings semi-solid-state batteries to a $70 power bank
Belkin brings semi-solid-state batteries to a $70 power bank

The car industry keeps calling this battery chemistry a decade away. Belkin has just put it in a $69.99 power bank. The company announced three product lines at IFA 2026 in Berlin on Thursday. They arrived as three separate releases, covering portable …

Vara wins world’s first CE mark for AI that clears mammograms alone
Vara wins world’s first CE mark for AI that clears mammograms alone

A Berlin company has won the world’s first regulatory clearance for AI that closes a breast screening case. No radiologist looks at it. Vara, which trades as MX Healthcare GmbH, announced the certification on Wednesday in a statement issued through Bus…

Opera loses EU court fight to have Microsoft Edge labelled a gatekeeper
Opera loses EU court fight to have Microsoft Edge labelled a gatekeeper

Microsoft Edge will stay outside the European Union’s toughest tech rulebook. The bloc’s General Court on Wednesday rejected Opera’s challenge to the European Commission’s decision not to designate the browser as a gatekeeper service under the Digital …

The European Commission is looking at Oracle’s licensing, two months after settling with SAP
The European Commission is looking at Oracle’s licensing, two months after settling with SAP

The European Commission is gathering information on how Oracle licenses its software in the cloud, following a similar approach it used against SAP two months ago. Reuters reported the inquiry on Monday, citing a person familiar with it, after MLex fir…

Brussels is asking publishers whether Google’s AI opt-out is any use
Brussels is asking publishers whether Google’s AI opt-out is any use

Google gave publishers a way to opt out of its AI search features in June without affecting their ordinary search rankings. The European Commission has spent the summer trying to work out whether that option actually gives publishers any meaningful cho…

Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software
Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software

Pollen Robotics has unveiled a bipedal robot called Microduck, at an introductory price of $399 before taxes and shipping. The Bordeaux company is owned by the AI platform Hugging Face. Its new machine has one eye and 15 motors, stands 25cm tall, and w…

Reform UK wants to scrap the UK GDPR and copy New Zealand’s privacy law
Reform UK wants to scrap the UK GDPR and copy New Zealand’s privacy law

Reform UK wants to abolish the UK GDPR. It would replace the regime with a lighter privacy law modelled on New Zealand’s. Nigel Farage and the party’s economy chief Robert Jenrick announced the pledge on Tuesday evening, inside a package aimed at small…

Google will pay £260m to settle a UK class action over Play Store fees
Google will pay £260m to settle a UK class action over Play Store fees

Google has agreed to pay £260m to settle a class action brought on behalf of UK app developers, ending a case that was due to go to trial next month. The deal appeared on Thursday and is worth about $353m, Reuters reported. Lawyers had previously value…

ChatGPT becomes the first AI chatbot designated under the DSA
ChatGPT becomes the first AI chatbot designated under the DSA

The European Commission has classified ChatGPT as a search engine. Monday’s designation brings the chatbot under the Digital Services Act as a Very Large Online Search Engine, alongside Reddit and Roblox, which have been designated as Very Large Online…

Europe has ordered a €388M AI supercomputer from its own state-owned champion
Europe has ordered a €388M AI supercomputer from its own state-owned champion

Europe is buying another AI supercomputer, and this one is headed to Kajaani in northern Finland. LUMI-AI is a €387.8 million system, roughly $449 million, that will be built by Bull, the French supercomputer maker that the French state bought outright…