7 Days: Funeral for Windows 10, AI-powered Wardrobe, and solar energy without Sun

A week of tea about AI, rumors about OpenAI smartphone, Netflix app getting TikTokified, and Claude for Creatives.

7 Days is a weekly roundup of picks of what's been happening in the world of technology - written with a dash of humor, a hint of exasperation, and an endless supply of (black) coffee.

This week's highlights include a funeral for Windows 10, Google's AI-powered wardrobe on your phone, WhatsApp planning cloud storage, Ubuntu embracing AI, and a platter of cool reviews. Let's get started.

The rise of the machines

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants people to believe that his company is here to "augment and elevate" humans, not replace them. In his X post, Altman continued, "jobs doomerism is likely long-term wrong," and that people may find new, different, more fulfilling work.

This comes after we have seen mass layoffs and several instances of employees being fired and replaced by an AI system they built. Altman was previously criticized after suggesting that many white-collar jobs being eliminated were "not real work" when compared to physical work like farming.

Sitting on a gold mine

Another top boss expressed thoughts on AI this week. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman commented that the platform is "the fuel" that powers AI bots. Apparently, Reddit is among the companies profiting from the AI wave without needing to build its own AI, thanks to all the human conversations taking place every second. The company reported a 69% revenue surge to $663 million in the latest quarterly earnings.

RAM shortage isn't ending soon

The global memory shortage is real, affecting OEMs and customers alike. One of the leading RAM manufacturers, Samsung, now expects that the shortage can continue into 2027 and beyond due to high demand from AI companies. While manufacturers are trying to figure out how to get things back on track, it was predicted earlier that the wafer shortage could persist until 2030.

In other Samsung news, its Wallet app is now challenging travel management apps with the new Trips feature that creates a unified timeline for flights, hotels, and bookings in the US, UK, and Korea.

Funeral for Windows 10

Some tech drama unfolded in France as several environment-focused organizations staged a protest to showcase the symbolic death of Windows 10, including a coffin. They accused Microsoft of pushing e-waste through its "planned obsolescence," as users will be forced to pay for new Windows 11-compatible devices. Microsoft offers an ESU program for Windows 10, which activists argue is not enough, and support should be extended until 2030.

Speaking of Windows, Samsung could reshape its laptop identity and raise serious questions about Microsoft's operating system. Reports suggest that Samsung is considering ditching Windows 11 in favor of Android 17-based One UI 9 for its Galaxy Book laptops. While exact reasons aren't known, it's believed that the change could improve UI consistency across Samsung's hardware offerings.

Solar energy without the sunlight

No, it won't work that way. You need direct sunlight to produce solar energy on Earth. But obvious limitations and the rising energy demands of AI infrastructure have pushed Meta to explore new ways to harvest it. That's why it teamed up with Overview Energy to deploy specialized satellites in the Earth's geosynchronous orbit to capture uninterrupted sunlight and beam energy back to Earth. For storage, Noon Energy is developing a long-duration system capable of storing energy for over 100 hours.

Modern data centers are power hogs. It was reported that an upcoming hyperscale data center campus in Box Elder County, Utah, will consume more power than the entire state.

Switch to passkeys

Passkeys have been around for about four years now and are seen as a modern replacement for passwords. The UK government's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has updated its guidance to recommend that you should pick passkeys over passwords as the first login choice across all digital services. For websites that don't support passkeys yet, it's advised to create a strong password using a password manager and use 2FA.

Drawing the line

The Open Rights Group warned that the Children and Schools Wellbeing Bill, backed by UK MPs, will force millions to hand over personal data amid concerns over weak safeguards. The bill seeks to extend age verification across online platforms, rather than just to prevent access to adult content.

In other news, age restriction is a focus in Utah as well, and its new law is about to make life difficult for VPN users. Senate Bill 73 (SB 73) creates a liability trap to stop people from using VPNs to bypass Utah's age-verification rules for adult websites. The European Commission accused Meta of not adequately enforcing its age-verification measures on Facebook and Instagram.

Netflix (TikTok-ified)

Netflix pushed a redesign of its mobile app and added a TikTok-style feature you might take for granted by now. Clips offers a vertical video feed for movies and TV shows, where you can preview titles in short clips. The streaming giant re-arranged some buttons to make the app's navigation a bit easier.

Easy to switch

If you use multiple devices as part of your daily workflow, Logitech pushed a helpful update that lets you easily switch your mouse/keyboard to another device with a single keypress on your keyboard instead of the Easy-Switch button at the bottom of the mouse. A new version of the Options+ app introduces the Enhanced Easy-Switch feature, making it easier to switch accessories between PCs.

Rufus 4.14 and other updates

Another hot story from the week is about Rufus 4.14, a major update released as the final version with several big improvements, including silent installation, removal of bundled Microsoft apps, fixes for Windows To Go, and more.

Popular screenshot tool ShareX reached version 20 in its latest public update, bringing a reworked Image Editor with a more modern interface and multiple effects and tools. Meanwhile, Firefox 15.0.1 arrived with important security fixes, higher limits for Relay, and several bug fixes.

What happened at Microsoft this week

For those wondering what happened under the Redmond giant's roof this week: Microsoft's secret K2 plan for Windows 11 upgrades leaked, it's removing another Windows 8 UI relic, and recorded an AI run rate of $37B in Q3 2026 earnings.

A new Windows 11 concept strips AI clutter and ads for a cleaner, customizable UX, but bold changes to Start and Taskbar may divide users. You can check out Taras's freshly baked Microsoft Weekly roundup to catch up on all the interesting stories this week.

Google Photos AI Wardrobe

Google is making full use of its AI muscles. It baked a new Wardrobe feature for Google Photos that uses AI to analyze what you are wearing in your photos and create a database. You can then use the virtual try-on to wear your outfits digitally and see how they look on you.

Speaking of AI, Gemini can now generate downloadable files directly from a chat. You can use the chatbot to get popular formats, including Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, Markdown, Google Docs, Slides, and more.

The AI surge in recent years has turned out to be a money machine for Google's parent Alphabet. In its latest earnings call, the company reported a revenue of $109.9 billion for Q1 2026, up by 22% year-over-year.

What's in store for Apple

The iPhone maker is getting John Ternus as the new CEO, whose tenure will start in September this year. It was reported that the iPhone Fold will mark the first major milestone for the new chief, alongside nine other products in the pipeline, including the Smart Home Hub, Tabletop Robot, Home Security System, Smart Glasses, and more.

Apple also announced a new subscription option for developers on the App Store. They can now offer monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment for their apps as a new payment option. Apple notes that this would make subscriptions more affordable, as users can pay the annual price (usually discounted) in small installments.

You can read about the new Apple museum, iPhone photos from Space, and other big Apple Stories in our latest issue of Apple Rewind.

WhatsApp cloud

WhatsApp is working on a paid version of the app but it's also readying an encrypted cloud backup service, offering Android users 2GB free storage and a 50GB pair tier for $0.99 ((it's unclear is this is per month or per year).

OpenAI smartphone

An AI-powered smartphone seems like the next obvious thing for OpenAI. It's reportedly working on one, with MediaTek and Qualcomm as chip partners, and Luxshare Precision Industry as the exclusive manufacturing partner. OpenAI plans to run AI agents on its smartphone and even build an ecosystem around it.

The AI giant has amended its agreement with Microsoft to go multi-cloud. While Microsoft's Azure will remain its primary cloud provider, OpenAI will be able to offer all its products to customers across any cloud provider. AWS soon announced that it's bringing OpenAI's frontier models and agentic AI to Amazon Bedrock.

Claude for Creative Work

Anthropic launched Claude for Creative Work while echoing Altman's stance that its AI is not a replacement for humans. It brings a suite of new connectors to plug the AI chatbot into various apps and platforms used by creative professionals, including Adobe, Autodesk, Ableton, Blender, and Splice.

Microsoft 365 Copilot will also become a new home for Anthropic's AI models. It will add Anthropic as a subprocessor in Word, alongside OpenAI models, to help tidy up documents. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will expand its options by adding models from Google and Meta.

New drivers

An Intel story that went hot this week is that the silicon giant released new wireless drivers for compatible network cards to improve Bluetooth and Wi-Fi stability on PCs running Windows 10/11. Intel's driver versions 24.40.0 (Wi-Fi) and 24.40.0.3 (Bluetooth) are now available for download with stability and performance improvements.

NVIDIA's WHQL-certified 596.36 Game Ready driver went live with support for Conan Exiles Enhanced upgrade and the new RTX 5070 laptop GPU configuration. The free update for Funcom's eight-year-old multiplayer RPG will bring improved visuals, enhanced performance, and modern rendering technologies on May 5.

Ubuntu embraces GenAI

The AI wave is everywhere, and Ubuntu-maker Canonical announced that it's going all in on generative AI. However, it's "treading carefully" in how it introduces generative AI in Ubuntu, and that these AI models will be local-first.

Canonical also announced that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS reached the end of standard Expanded Security Maintenance with Ubuntu Pro. If you wish to extend support until April 2031, you must buy the Legacy add-on via Ubuntu Pro.

Sony's new DRM story

It was reported that Sony is pushing a new DRM system for PS4 and PS5 users following the recent March system update, requiring them to validate recently purchased titles online once every 30 days. However, Sony clarified that the countdown timer is real but not a continually occurring one, meaning buyers need to verify their purchase once to confirm the game license, and no further check-ins are needed.

Steam Controller refresh

Valve revealed this week that the second-generation Steam Controller will arrive next week, on May 04. at 1 am PT. The controller is rumored to carry a $99 / £85 / €99 price tag. The company hinted that the Steam Machine announced last year, alongside Steam Frame, is almost here. Speaking of gaming hardware, the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X devices got updated with TV enhancements, Auto Super Resolution, and other features.

What else in gaming?

The latest issue of Pulasthi's Weekend PC Game Deals curates several exciting games on sale this week. GeForce NOW got loaded with 16 new titles in the latest expansion, including 007 First Light, Playground Games' Forza Horizon 6, Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, and much more.

In its latest weekly giveaway, Epic Games put up Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure on its store, and it's also hosting a special giveaway of Hogwarts Legacy to mark the 25th anniversary of the movie franchise (until May 3). Xbox players can try out four games this weekend as part of the latest Free Play Days offer.

That said, here are some more stories from the gaming world:

• Alien: Isolation sequel looms as Creative Assembly drops teaser
• Arc Raiders Riven Tides update lands with new map, traversal gadgets, and massive enemies
• Windows 11's new full-screen Xbox Mode is now rolling out
• Obsidian updating the original Outer Worlds with bug fixes, features, and free upgrades

From the review corner

This week, Steven got his hands on the UGREEN Revodok Maxidok 17-in-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station, which can help with future-proofing. It comes with plenty of ports, good support for USB4/TB4, PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 storage, and premium build quality. However, while it supports Thunderbolt 5 on paper, the cable in the box doesn't work over TB5, the PCIe Gen4x4 SSD runs like PCIe Gen3x4, the 2.5GbE port runs less than half speed, and the price tag is on the expensive side.

TerraMaster D1 SSD

It's a palm-sized disk enclosure from TerraMaster, but in the budget segment. TerraMaster D1 SSD is a premium-built, dust-tight (IP67) and water-resistant up to 1 meter, and can be submerged for up to 30 minutes. The device, weighing 146g, is compatible with PCIe 3.0/4.0/5.0 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD, 8TB raw capacity, and supports up to USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds (10Gbps). However, one of the cons is the lack of an M.2 latch system.

DXRACER TANK Series

DXRACER describes TANK series as "Heavy-Duty Gaming Chair For Big and Tall Gamers." It is made from eco-friendly materials, highly durable and comfortable, offers a five-year warranty, and comes with magnetic pillows. A downside of the gaming chair is that it doesn't offer built-in adjustable lumbar support.

Akko Dash V9 Ultra

If you're looking for a new mouse that offers a mix of performance, lightweight design, and an affordable price tag, you should check out Taras' review of Akko Dash V9 Ultra. It comes in a super-light build with good ergonomics, plenty of accessories, a flagship sensor, and browser-based software. However, the scrolling wheel is average, and it may not be the best option for big hands.

You can also check out the hands-on experience of the upcoming game Incoherence: Dark Rooms, developed by pmrd. It's available on Steam to add to the wishlist.

Have a great weekend!

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 4 May 2026 at 7:32 am AEST (my time).

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