SOFTWARE

Microsoft veteran recalls how a CPU errata, a mythical ICE, and a single sneaky NOP saved Clippy’s big debut

Veteran Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen shared another fireside tale – one to strike fear into the hearts of engineers everywhere: the bug that can’t be replicated in the debugger.

The story begins near the end of the Word 97 release cycle, when a defect surfaced in the test labs but vanished the moment engineers reached for a debugger.

It was maddening. A script could trigger the crash fairly reliably, yet the instant anyone tried to hunt it down, the bug ducked out of sight.

Chen recalled: “The development team was very anxious, because a bug that appears only sporadically in the lab is going to occur regularly in the wild. But how do you debug a problem that resists debugging?”

It is every developer’s nightmare, even for those smug types who lean back in their chairs and tell testers “works alright here, mate.” There is a special place reserved in the afterlife for these developers.

With the bug refusing to cooperate, talk turned to an ICE (an In-Circuit Emulator, not the immigration agency), which could stand in for the CPU and allow breakpoints inside the emulated chip itself.

“To most software developers,” said Chen, “in-circuit emulators existed only in myth, and the possibility of acquiring one and using it was met with the excitement of a five-year-old boy who learns that he might get to ride on a fire truck.”

Eventually the team traced the problem to a specific manufacturer, and from there to a CPU erratum. The compiler in use at the time had been updated to dodge the problematic code sequence. However, by then the toolset had already been locked. Swapping in a new compiler risked introducing fresh, unknown bugs, so that was off the table.

The solution? Scour the binaries to find instances of the code that might upset CPUs. One was found. “To avoid introducing any new problems as a side effect of the fix, the team opted to do a binary patch to the binary to insert a nop into the offending code sequence.”

Word 97 introduced plenty of headline features. There was the arrival of Clippit (aka Clippy) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). And then there was a binary patch produced by determined engineers, which received far less attention. But without it, Word 97 could have been distinctly wobbly. ®

After months of leaks and rumors, Apple is set to reveal its fall hardware lineup on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at its Surprise and Shine event. And from everything we know so far, the event will be unlike most others.

For one, this year’s event is a bit sentimental for the Cupertino company. Tim Cook announced in April that he is stepping down from his role as CEO, a job he has held for nearly 15 years after legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs stepped down in 2011. John Ternus, the company’s hardware engineering chief, will be stepping into the top role just days before the event. 

Apple is also heavily rumored to break with its usual routine by holding off on releasing a base iPhone 18 until next year, meaning only the more expensive Pro models will be revealed in September. That would give another highly anticipated release center stage: the foldable device expected to be called the iPhone Ultra.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the price tags. Apple raised prices across its computer and home devices this summer, attributing the cost increases to memory chip supply chain issues, largely driven by the AI race. Additional price hikes on Apple Music and Apple TV subscriptions aren’t helping cash-strapped consumers, either.

Read more: Win a New Apple Watch as CNET Guessing Game: Apple Edition Returns for Round 3

New iPhone 18 models, joining the foldable fun

Apple’s iPhone 18 lineup is likely going to look a little different this year. One of the biggest rumors is that Apple is going to do an extended rollout. This September, we expect to see the foldable iPhone Ultra, the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, but we likely won’t get the base iPhone 18, iPhone 18E and a possible iPhone Air 2 until spring 2027.

The iPhone Ultra, as Apple’s much-rumored first foldable phone is tentatively named, has a book-style design, according to analyst leaks. Think more Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which opens like a book into a mini tablet — not like an OG 90s flip phone. 

But the possible $2,000 price tag means the Ultra likely won’t be a replacement for the base iPhone 18. More likely, it will be more of a luxury option. That may be one reason why a majority of US adults (75%) don’t care about foldable phones, a recent CNET survey found.

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max models are rumored to have bigger batteries, variable-aperture cameras and run on the new Apple A20 processor. More satellite connectivity, a smaller Dynamic Island and tweaked back camera islands are also possibilities. And these new phones could come in colors such as light blue, dark cherry and dark gray.

Running on all these devices is the already announced new family of operating systems. iOS 27, with the anticipated Siri AI revamp, is likely to be released this fall, along with MacOS Golden Gate, Apple TVOS 27 and more. Since we learned about these at WWDC in June, we’ve been playing around with the public betas to see what’s inside.

Apple Watch Series 12: Apple Health and Touch ID?

A Series 12 Watch is “all but guaranteed,” CNET wearables expert Vanessa Hand Orellana says. Less likely are a new Apple Watch SE and Ultra model since they were refreshed in 2025. But any new watches, the Series 12 and Ultra 4, are likely to come with a new processor, which should extend their life and usefulness for you.

The biggest design change expected is largely mechanical, not aesthetic. A more energy-efficient screen technology could be included to extend the watches’ battery life without sacrificing screen brightness. A new processor — probably named the S12 to match the line-up’s naming, despite “S11” being next in line — would also help with this.

Another potential addition could be biometric authentication — in other words, a Touch ID for Apple Watch. Some internal code leaks suggest Apple is working on integrating this tech into its wearables, but it’s unclear when it will be publicly available. Health features, like blood pressure monitoring, are also rumored to be in progress, but again, no guarantees. The Apple Health App’s AI overhaul has also reportedly run into issues.

Our early testing shows WatchOS 27 with Siri AI will bring a big boost to devices — at least, for the ones it’s compatible with, which isn’t all of them. Watches were excluded from Apple’s summer price hike, but similar raises from watches by Google and Samsung mean a higher starting price isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

AirPods with or without cameras

Possibly the biggest Apple rumor has been that the next generation of Apple AirPods will be equipped with a new, tiny infrared camera — not to take photos, but to scan its physical environment to power its visual intelligence, or AI, answers. 

These rumored “AirPods Ultra” sparked a lot of concern and outrage from tech enthusiasts, who have spent most of the summer criticizing other AI-and-camera-enabled wearables, like Meta’s smart glasses. Apple is known to tout its focus on privacy, so it will be interesting to see if Apple ultimately comes out with these earbuds and, if so, how it defends them.

AirPods are generally on a two-year refresh cycle, so we may get the AirPods 5 and AirPods 5 Pro this year. The previous model, the AirPods 4 with active noise canceling, is “something of a technological marvel,” CNET headphones expert David Carnoy said. Effective noise canceling is hard to achieve with an open-earbud design, but Apple’s previous success sets the foundation for even more progress here. The Apple-owned Beats 360 headphones could also get refreshed this fall.

For more, check out the best iPhones and best MacBooks for 2026.

Katelyn Chedraoui

Reporter 2

Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators. Her work explores how new AI technology is infiltrating our lives, shaping the content we consume on social media and affecting the people behind the screens. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in media and journalism. You can reach her at kchedraoui@cnet.com.

See full bio

Whisper it quietly, but certain bricks in Apple’s walled garden might be getting taken away.

Thanks to some recent upgrades added to Android by Google, it’s now easier than ever to share files between an iPhone and an Android phone, without installing any new apps (though that’s still an option too).

So if you need to send a photo, contact card, web link, or anything else, these are the options you have available. As is often the case with Android, they may vary depending on the make and model of your handset, though you should find at least one of these methods works for you.

Share Files via AirDrop

This is the big one: Google recently figured out a way to add support for AirDrop—Apple’s previously closed-off, device-to-device sharing protocol—to newer Pixel phones. It doesn’t appear that Apple was involved in the process, but the company hasn’t gotten in Google’s way since, and the functionality has been rolled out to other phones (including the recent Pixel and Galaxy handsets).

Some prep work may be required. On Samsung phones, you need to open Settings, then choose Connected devices > Quick Share and enable Share with Apple devices—though there’s no such toggle switch on Pixel phones—it’ll just work right away. It needs enabling on iOS too: From Settings, tap General > AirDrop, and Everyone for 10 Minutes.

An iPhone appearing as a sharing option on a Samsung Galaxy device.Photograph: David Nield

With that done, whenever you tap the share button anywhere in any Android app, you can choose Quick Share from the resulting pop-up panel to communicate with a nearby iPhone. The iPhone should show up in the available devices, so select it to start the transfer—which will still need to be accepted on the iPhone.

It will work the other way too, starting from AirDrop on an iPhone, as long as the Android device is set up to receive from any other device. From Settings, tap either Connection preferences (Google Pixel phones) or Connected devices (Samsung Galaxy phones), then select Quick Share > Who can share with you.

Share Files via QR code

Google hasn’t stopped with AirDrop on Android. It has also recently pushed out a QR-code-based option for sharing from Android to iOS. It’s a bit more clunky than AirDrop, but it’ll work no matter what kind of Android phone you’ve got.

Again, you need to go through Quick Share, which pops up as an option whenever you try to share something in Android—no matter what the app or item you want to share. You won’t see an iPhone appear if you don’t have the AirDrop functionality, but you should see a Use QR code option on the right, under Share with iPhone and other devices, which after a few moments shrinks down to just a QR code symbol.

If your phone’s acting up or you’re transferring it to someone else, you’ll need to reset it.

How to force restart your iPhone

How to soft reset your iPhone

lilgrapher/Shutterstock

How to hard reset your iPhone

Since early 2023, photographer Jingna Zhang and a small crew of volunteers have worked tirelessly to maintain an image-sharing social media and portfolio app called Cara. So far, it has attracted about 1.5 million artists. What drew them to the platform? A shared opposition to the unauthorized use of their work to train AI models and a desire to publicize their art while avoiding exploitation by Big Tech.

But while Cara filters out AI images and offers some minimal protective features, preventing scrapes themselves is nearly impossible. And just this month, beginning on August 13, Cara was subjected to three major scrapes, which spiked its server fees and alarmed creators who had migrated there from platforms like Instagram, where all content is explicitly available to Meta as training data.

The first of these incidents came to light when the individual responsible took to the subreddit r/DefendingAIArt to announce he had obtained a 12-terabyte archive of 12 million works from Cara—more or less its entire library of publicly available images. “It was a fun project,” he wrote under the handle MandarinDawnPoppy994 in his since-deleted post, saying the process cost him less than $10.

“We actually found out about it through our users tagging us,” Zhang tells WIRED, since the scraper was “gloating and looking for other people to join him to do something with the dataset on Reddit,” sparking a fierce debate across AI-related forums about the ethics of what he had done. “I just feel it’s targeted and very hurtful,” she adds, noting that “laws are not caught up on” protections against such data harvests, meaning that scrapers can often justify it as technically legal. (Zhang is separately part of two ongoing class actions brought by visual artists, one against Stability AI, Midjourney, and others and the second against Google, alleging that the companies’ image generator tools were trained on their copyrighted work.)

In a surprising turn of events, however, the person who grabbed all the art off Cara would turn out to regret his stunt and agree to collaborate with Zhang on a new open-source tool to protect artists.

In the meantime, unfortunately, other scrapers continued to take advantage of Cara’s vulnerabilities and minimal resources. While a number of AI proponents objected to going after Cara, a few were apparently emboldened by MandarinDawnPoppy994 to carry out what Zhang sees as “copycat” attacks.

A second scraper pulled about 8.5 million links from Cara, as well as metadata like usernames, titles, and tags, and uploaded these to Hugging Face, the AI developer platform. After Hugging Face was bombarded with takedown requests, it responded in a statement that while it would issue a notice to the user, “CaptiveDreamer,” to remove the personal metadata, it could not do the same for the URLs, since “no copies of the artworks are hosted here,” and the links “point to the copies the artists published on Cara.” The company concluded that “further copyright reports on the same basis will not change this outcome.”

Finally, on August 22, a third scraper obtained 123,000 images from Cara, along with text posts and user bios that included personal information, sharing it all on a site called Academic Torrents. Zhang then launched a GoFundMe for legal fees, setting a goal of $120,000, explaining that the money would go toward exploring any and all strategies of defending Cara through cyber and copyright laws. As of Thursday, she has raised more than $100,000, and she says Cara is actively looking for any additional legal assistance.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles put the ID. California Cruise on the floor at Düsseldorf’s Caravan Salon as the first battery-powered member of a name that has lived on diesel since 1988. Built on the ID. Buzz Pro, the van arrives in short and long wheelbases and keeps the familiar two-tone shape, adding only California lettering on the tailgate and Cruise graphics along the flanks. German pricing starts at €60,761, about $70,500, which undercuts the midsize diesel California Beach by a few thousand euros. First customer vans are due in early 2027, with more electric California variants promised by 2028.

Short wheelbase variants feature a 79 kWh useable pack and a WLTP range of around 286 miles. The extended wheelbase variants offer a little more, with an 86 kWh battery pack and a range of around 302 miles. Unlike what you may anticipate, they both employ the same rear motor: 210 kW, 286 horsepower, and 560 Nm of torque. Official 0 to 62 mph times range from 7.6 to 7.9 seconds, with DC charging reaching 185 kw on the short van and 200 kw on the long one. This will take you from 10 to 80 percent in approximately 26 to 30 minutes. Just bear in mind that adding camping gear will likely reduce your range significantly, thus trip planning must now be done in the California app, which maps out charging stations along your route and even allows Plug & Charge at compatible stations.

Sale

LEGO City Holiday Adventure Camper Van Building Toy Set – Vacation Toy for Kids, Boys and Girls, Ages…

• CAMPER VAN BUILDING SET – Kids can enjoy vacations every day with this LEGO City Holiday Adventure Camper Van building set
• TOY FIGURES & CAMPER PLAYSET – This vehicle set includes everything kids need to build a camper van with a detailed living space, plus a campfire…
• FUN FEATURES – The camper van opens up for full access to an interior living space with a kitchen, toilet, 2 bunk beds, a crib and a removable…

The back seats fold flat, and a 9cm mattress pops out over them to provide a comfortable 80 by 47 inch sleeping platform for two persons. Blackout blinds cover the windows, including the optional panoramic roof, and ventilation grills are put in up front to allow the cabin to catch some fresh air without having to open the doors. A folding table and a set of chairs are stored in dedicated areas under the bed platform and slide out when needed, right next to the open hatch. You won’t receive a pop top or a built-in kitchen, so you’ll need to bring your own induction cooktop or portable fridge to charge your gadgets.

California mode is the piece of software that makes it all work, as it keeps the lights, USB ports, and climate control running while the van is parked overnight, with VW claiming a reasonable 48 hours of heating or cooling depending on the battery charge and outside conditions. However, if the charge level dips below 20%, it will turn off that mode, ensuring that you have somewhere to charge in the morning. If you need to charge some toys while camping, VW has a solution: a PowerSocket adapter on the charge port that offers 2Kw continuous and 3.6Kw peak, which is enough to power a coffee machine, an induction plate, or even an e-bike charger. So, the same battery that powers the car may now power your campground without the use of a generator.

Exclusive Miwo seat covers feature high-quality California woodwork and typography. This van is all about interior style and comfort, which come as standard, along with a handy discharge adapter. Storage is straightforward and simple: simply fold the mattress in the tailgate area when you’re on the go, and there’s room underneath for chairs and a table. Any extra room is just used for luggage. Getting set up takes minutes, not hours, as with other aftermarket boxes. This factory-built sleeper is ideal for brief weekend vacations or short tours while driving normally during the week.

However, the Americans will not be receiving this same variant of the badged van. VW stopped ID. Buzz sales in the United States for 2026, and they’re bringing it back for 2027 with a new Trim called Tourer, which is just a direct copy of the same idea, a fold-out mattress and platform, some window shutters, front panels for ventilation, a table and chairs outside, and their Overnight Mode software. Captain’s seats and an electric canopy that darkens are optional features on the US version. In Europe, the ID. California Cruise remains the first real electric California, a little two-person campervan that costs less than the diesel it replaces and makes room for a larger electric family van later.
[Source]

Apple made headlines earlier this year with the launch of the MacBook Neo, which we called “the best budget laptop you can buy” in our review thanks to its low AU$899 launch price and premium materials — all while in the midst of RAM and storage shortages.

The RAM crisis did eventually come calling for the MacBook Neo, and the inevitable price increase saw its starting price increase for AU$1,049. Despite this, the MacBook Neo is still a great budget laptop that’s leagues ahead of its Windows and Chromebook competitors.

The price hike does sting a bit, but this discount from Amazon for the base 256GB variant brings the MacBook Neo down to AU$997 — a deal that’s hard to pass up if you missed out on the launch price.

Apple achieves the low-for-a-MacBook AU$1,049 price point by cleverly employing an iPhone processor, the A18 Pro chip found in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, instead of its M-series silicon found in higher-end MacBooks. The Neo also only comes in a base configuration of 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. You can increase storage to a 512GB SSD and gain Touch ID capabilities for AU$1,249 — Amazon currently has it discounted to AU$1,199.

What I like the most about the Neo is its repairability, which is very much an improvement over its more expensive siblings, with plenty of online content creators having demonstrated how easy the laptop is to take apart and reassemble.

Even with the price increase, I still believe the Neo is a fantastic budget laptop that will easily handle basic tasks like web browsing and media consumption, and it can even do some light gaming and video editing. Our tests have found that the 8GB RAM isn’t as much of a limitation as initially thought, with the laptop running most Mac apps with no issues.

The all-metal chassis, hi-res display and repairability still make the MacBook Neo a standout in the budget space, and the fun colours are a nice touch as well.