• TikTok quietly launches a micro drama app called ‘PineDrama’

    January 16, 2026

    TikTok has quietly released a new standalone short drama app called PineDrama in the U.S. and Brazil. The app offers access to micro dramas, which are essentially bite-sized TV shows that can be watched in a series of one-minute episodes. Think TikTok, but every single video you come across is a short episode of a fictional story. PineDrama is available on iOS and Android. It’s free and currently ad-free, though that could change in the future. The news was first reported by Business Insider. You can find content through the app’s “Discover” tab, where you can sort through “All” or…

  • Black Forest Labs Releases FLUX.2 [klein]: Compact Flow Models for Interactive Visual Intelligence

    January 16, 2026

    Black Forest Labs releases FLUX.2 [klein], a compact image model family that targets interactive visual intelligence on consumer hardware. FLUX.2 [klein] extends the FLUX.2 line with sub second generation and editing, a unified architecture for text to image and image to image, and deployment options that range from local GPUs to cloud APIs, while keeping state of the art image quality. From FLUX.2 [dev] to interactive visual intelligence FLUX.2 [dev] is a 32 billion parameter rectified flow transformer for text conditioned image generation and editing, including composition with multiple reference images, and runs mainly on data center class accelerators. It…

  • Porsche sales down 10 per cent globally in 2025

    January 16, 2026

    Porsche had a rough 2025, and that’s reflected in the sales figures the company has just released. The luxury sports car maker sold 279,449 cars last year, down 10 per cent from 2024’s 310,718 units. Just two years earlier Porsche notched its best sales numbers ever (320,221). Combined with falling profitability, and a course correction back towards petrol and plug-in hybrid vehicles, new CEO Michael Leiters, who began work on New Year’s Day, has a lot on his plate. Models The Macan (84,328) became the company’s top selling model. The second-generation EV-only Macan accounted for 45,367 or 53.8 per cent…

  • Mitsubishi Triton accessories simplified with two new packs

    January 16, 2026

    Mitsubishi Australia has introduced two new accessory packs for its Triton dual-cab ute, intended to make its range of genuine accessories easier to digest for fleet and lifestyle buyers. Designated as special-edition models, both packs are now available. One is the Triton GLX-R Special Edition with Tradie Accessory Pack, priced at $58,490 before on-road costs, which adds work-ready gear including side steps, a bed liner, and rubber floor mats, finished in a unique white paint colour. The other is the Triton GSR Special Edition with Touring Accessory Pack, which includes a black nudge bar, weather shields, and a matte black bonnet…

  • Despite its flaws, the value is hard to beat

    January 16, 2026

    CyberGhost is the middle child of the Kape Technologies VPN portfolio, but in quality, it’s much closer to ExpressVPN than Private Internet Access. I mainly put it on my best VPN list because it’s so cheap, but I wouldn’t have done that if it didn’t earn its place in other ways — affordable crap is still crap, after all. My universal impression of CyberGhost is a VPN that’s not perfect but is always genuinely working to make itself better. It makes decisions based on what will help its users, not to set itself apart in a crowded market. This makes…

  • ChatGPT users are about to get hit with targeted ads

    January 16, 2026

    An ongoing conversation—both within and outside of the tech community—has been about just how and when OpenAI, which is currently valued at $500 billion, will make money. Well, there’s one surefire way to do that, and that is through advertising. In the near term, that seems to be the AI giant’s plan, as it announced this week that limited ads are headed to certain ChatGPT users. In a blog post published Friday, OpenAI said that it will begin testing ads in the U.S. for both its free and Go tiers. (Go accounts, which cost $8 a month, were introduced globally…

  • Lego’s latest educational kit seeks to teach AI as part of computer science, not to build a chatbot

    January 16, 2026

    Last week at CES, Lego introduced its new Smart Play system, with a tech-packed Smart Brick that can recognize and interact with sets and minifigures. It was unexpected and delightful to see Lego come up with a way to modernize its bricks without the need for apps, screens or AI. So I was a little surprised this week when the Lego Education group announced its latest initiative is the Computer Science and AI Learning Solution. After all, generative AI feels like the antithesis of Lego’s creative values. But Andrew Silwinski, Lego Education’s head of product experience, was quick to defend…

  • X is down for the second time this week

    January 16, 2026

    Elon Musk’s X is experiencing its second large-scale outage this week. The site and app, formerly known as Twitter, are either not loading at all or are glitching into life briefly before throwing up error messages like gang signs. The site Down Detector shows nearly 80,000 reports of X being down, starting at around 10 a.m. Eastern time, and is still down at the time of this writing. This is the second major outage at X this week, following an earlier technical issue. It comes as the platform faces criticism after Grok, xAI’s chatbot that is integrated into X, has…

  • Canada cuts tariffs on Chinese EVs as part of new deal

    January 16, 2026

    Canada has agreed to drastically reduce its tariffs on imported Chinese EVs from 100 percent to 6.1 percent as part of a between the two countries. In return, China will be reducing tariffs on Canadian canola seeds from 84 percent to about 15 percent. The move is a break from the United States, which maintains a 100 percent tariff on EVs from China, effectively banning them in the country. Mexico currently tariffs the vehicles at 50 percent after last year. Under the agreement, which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “preliminary,” Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the…

  • How a hacking campaign targeted high-profile Gmail and WhatsApp users across the Middle East

    January 16, 2026

    On Tuesday, U.K.-based Iranian activist Nariman Gharib tweeted redacted screenshots of a phishing link sent to him via a WhatsApp message. “Do not click on suspicious links,” Gharib warned. The activist, who is following the digital side of the Iranian protests from afar, said the campaign targeted people involved in Iran-related activities, such as himself. This hacking campaign comes as Iran grapples with the longest nationwide internet shutdown in its history, as anti-government protests — and violent crackdowns — rage across the country. Given that Iran and its closest adversaries are highly active in the offensive cyberspace (read: hacking people),…