Kindles and Kobos are relatively comfortable to use, but if those are too big and restrictive, the smartphone-like Boox Palma is a fantastic alternative that’s grown on us considerably. A new model is on its way, but if you don’t need the smoother performance it promises, you can save a bit on the original today. It’s down to $245.99 ($34 off) at Amazon, which is a new all-time low price.

The Palma’s hardware sheet and appearance resemble a smartphone, but it has neither calling capabilities nor a traditional display. It uses a 6.13-inch backlit E Ink Carta 1200 display instead, offering a crisp 300 ppi resolution. There’s a microphone and speaker, a microSD card slot for expanding its 128GB of internal storage, volume buttons that can double as page-turning buttons, and even a 16-megapixel camera with a flash for scanning documents and handwritten notes. Its pocket-stowable and one-handed form factor makes it more ideal for your everyday carry than a full-sized reader.

One big advantage of the Boox Palma compared to most ebook readers is that it runs Android 11 with Google Play, so you can supplement its built-in tools and apps by downloading anything else you like. That means you aren’t locked into any particular ebook ecosystem and don’t have to ditch your favorite sources. Missing your Amazon Kindle library? Just download the Kindle app — a much better proposition than manually sideloading everything. You can also use your preferred music streaming service and news apps.

However, the laggy user experience that befalls any E Ink device can be limiting outside of reading and perhaps some casual listening and productivity tasks (and even some New York Times’ crossword puzzles, The Verge’s David Pierce found). It’s fine if you’re just scrolling through pages of your monthly reads, but not ideal for social media deep-diving and other visually rich shenanigans.

The incoming Boox Palma 2 brings a faster octa-core chipset and an Android 13 upgrade (and adds a fingerprint sensor), but no one has tested it yet to find out whether those changes will translate to improved usability in a practical sense. If you’re looking to save a bit and start reading today, you may not miss much by staying a generation behind.

A database believed to belong to the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women has been discovered unsecured online, containing financial reports, bank account information, staff details, victim testimonies and more.

The database, containing a total 228 GB of information, was discovered by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler and reported to vpnMentor.

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for discoveries and inventions that formed the building blocks of machine learning.

This year’s two Nobel Laureates in physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning, the Nobel committee said in a press release.

Hopfield’s research is carried out at Princeton University and Hinton works at the University of Toronto.

Three scientists won last year’s physics Nobel for providing the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses.

The 2023 award went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz for their work with the tiny part of each atom that races around the centre and is fundamental to virtually everything: chemistry, physics, our bodies and our gadgets.

Six days of Nobel announcements opened on Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize for their discovery of tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on and off switches inside cells that help control what the cells do and when they do it.

If scientists can better understand how they work and how to manipulate them, it could one day lead to powerful treatments for diseases like cancer.

The physics prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (USD 1 million) from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. It has been awarded 117 times. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

Nobel announcements continue with the chemistry physics prize on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on October 14.

Bloomberg has reported that chip architecture company Arm Holdings PLC is terminating its licensing agreement with Qualcomm Inc., and has sent the U.S. firm a 60-day cancellation notice. If the cancellation goes through, Qualcomm could be forced to stop selling Arm-based chips — which includes the majority of its smartphone chips and the new Snapdragon chips used in Copilot+ PC lineup.

The two companies have been caught in a legal dispute for multiple years now. It started in 2021 when Qualcomm acquired the chip design company Nuvia (started by former Apple employees who worked on the M1 chip). The disagreement centers around Nuvia’s licensing agreements with Arm and whether Qualcomm’s acquisition of these licenses violated Arm’s terms of agreement. Arm wants the licensing terms to be renegotiated now that Nuvia is under new ownership, while Qualcomm argues that renegotiation isn’t necessary.

The cancellation notice demands that Qualcomm cease and desist developing Arm-based Nuvia chips and also stipulates that all existing stock should be destroyed. This is quite an extreme demand and a Qualcomm spokesperson described the situation to Bloomberg as Arm trying to “strong-arm a longtime partner.” In other words, the cancellation may just be an attempt to disrupt or influence the legal battle between the two companies.

Aside from the recent dispute, Qualcomm and Arm have worked together for years, with Qualcomm announcing its first Arm license over 25 years ago in 1998. Right now, Qualcomm has an annual revenue of almost $40 billion and a large majority of it comes from chips built on Arm standards.

They’re used to power most current Android phones, and the newly announced Snapdragon 8 Elite is expected to power the next wave of Android devices. Qualcomm’s recent expansion into laptop processors has also been successful, with the Snapdragon X Elite chips powering a whole range of Copilot+ PCs running Windows-on-Arm. With all this said, it’s easy to see why a permanent falling out between the two companies would have an extreme impact.

It seems like Qualcomm would be risking a lot by ignoring the cancellation order and continuing to refuse Arm’s demands for licensing renegotiations — the company’s shares have already fallen by 5% since the Bloomberg report was published. But we’ll have to wait to see how the company officially reacts over the next few weeks.

Apple is allegedly making a new app like the App Store dedicated to games. While the Cupertino tech giant has already released the iOS 18 version to the public, it could also be working on future software updates. One of these updates could bring a dedicated store for games.

Apple’s new app for games will combine features from the App Store and Game Center in one place

The source claims that Apple’s new app for games will combine the functionality from the App Store and Game Center in a single place. It will be a dedicated hub for gamers to find popular games. With the new app, Apple wants to entice gamers to buy iPhones. The new gaming app isn’t going to replace the game store. In fact, it will integrate with an Apple user’s Game Center profile.

Apple’s upcoming game app is going to promote special gaming events. It will also be important about the latest games. The app will feature multiple tabs. There will be a “Play Now” tab, a dedicated tab for the user’s games, friends, and more. Similar to the Xbox app and Steam, it will also show challenges, leaderboards, and achievements.

Apple could also integrate the new game app with FaceTime and iMessages

Notably, Apple will also integrate the new game app with the FaceTime and iMessage applications. This will allow users to communicate with their friends regarding gaming. In addition, the app will allow developers to offer mini-games based on App Clips. The new app will work like the Xbox app for iPhones. The Microsoft app already allows users to see their status, see their friends’ activity, search for new games, and check their library.

As of now, Apple devices have the Apple Arcade, a dedicated subscription service that provides access to premium games. There’s no word when exactly Apple is planning to launch the new app. It could arrive either in one of the iOS 18 updates or in iOS 19.