At TechRadar this weekend we’ve got one eye on the best Labor Day sales that you can pick up — with big discounts on offer on tech and so much more — and another eye on the week that just finished, which was as hectic as most weeks in technology tend to be.

We had a host of new products on show at the IFA 2026 tech event in Berlin, OpenAI dropping its best ChatGPT model yet and declaring the age of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), and Dyson bringing out its first toothbrush. Oh, and we also made time to review the Pixel 11 Pro and have an exclusive chat with Sonos CEO Tom Conrad.

Google’s AirDrop-compatible Quick Share feature may finally be reaching some older Pixel devices that were left out of the initial rollout.

As spotted by Android Authority, Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 users have started receiving notifications saying they can now share files with Apple devices through AirDrop. Similar support has also been spotted on the Pixel Tablet, which has so far been absent from Google’s official compatibility list.

The development is especially interesting for the regular Pixel 8. Google previously extended direct AirDrop compatibility down to the Pixel 8a, leaving the older Pixel 7 series and the more expensive Pixel 8 waiting.

How it works on older Pixel devices

If support is fully enabled, the process should work the same way it does on newer Android phones. Pixel users can open Quick Share, select a file, and send it directly to a nearby iPhone, iPad, or Mac as long as AirDrop is set to “Everyone for 10 Minutes.”

The system also works in reverse, allowing Apple devices to send files directly to supported Android phones. Google first introduced Quick Share compatibility with AirDrop on the Pixel 10 series in November 2025 before gradually expanding it to more Pixel, Samsung, OPPO, Vivo, Honor, and OnePlus devices.

The rollout may still be in progress

There is no confirmation from Google yet that the Pixel 7, Pixel 8, and Pixel Tablet have officially joined the compatibility list. Some users who received the notification also report that file sharing still does not work, suggesting the feature may be rolling out gradually or depend on another software update to become functional.

Older Android devices already have another way to exchange files with iPhones through Google’s Quick Share QR code system. Direct AirDrop compatibility is still the cleaner option, and these sightings suggest Google may finally be extending it further down the Pixel lineup.

Google has updated the Chrome browser to address an actively exploited high-severity zero-day flaw in the V8 engine and 11 other vulnerabilities.

The exploited security issue, identified as CVE-2026-85046, is described as a type confusion. It was reported to Google by researcher Salvatore Gulizia, known online as “Serotav.”

The update brings Chrome to version 152.0.7977.82/.83 on Windows and macOS, and 152.0.7977.82 on Linux, as part of a gradual rollout..

“Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2026-85046 exists in the wild,” the advisory reads.

The company did not disclose any technical or specific exploitation details about the flaw to give users and dependent projects time to apply the fix.

Type confusion flaws cause software to misinterpret one type of object as another, allowing attackers to corrupt memory.

V8 is Chrome’s open-source JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which compiles and executes code used by websites.

Hence, CVE-2026-85046 could potentially be triggered by a specially crafted HTML page containing malicious JavaScript, potentially allowing remote code execution within Chrome’s sandboxed renderer process.

The update also addresses nine other high-severity vulnerabilities, including use-after-free and out-of-bounds memory flaws in Crash Reporting, Network, Compositing, WebGL, CacheStorage, DevTools, Skia, and a race condition in V8.

CVE-2026-85046 is the sixth actively exploited bug Google has fixed in Chrome since the start of the year. Previous fixes include:

• An out-of-bounds read and write vulnerability in Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine (CVE-2026-11645), exploited in the wild and patched in June.
• An iterator invalidation vulnerability (CVE-2026-2441) in CSSFontFeatureValuesMap, Chrome’s implementation of CSS font feature values, fixed in mid-February.
• Two additional Chrome zero-days exploited in March attacks: an out-of-bounds write flaw in the Skia 2D graphics library (CVE-2026-3909) and an inappropriate implementation issue in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine (CVE-2026-3910).
• A use-after-free vulnerability in Dawn (CVE-2026-5281), the cross-platform implementation of the WebGPU standard used by Chromium, was patched in April.

Chrome users are recommended to apply the available update as soon as the rollout reaches them by going to Settings > About Chrome and waiting for the update to download and install.

After the update process is done, a browser restart is required for the fixes to apply.

A similar action is recommended for users of Chrome-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi, though it may take a couple of extra days for fixes to arrive on those apps.

Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.

The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.

Get the report

Microsoft is working to resolve an ongoing Exchange Online outage that is delaying email sent to and received from external domains.

The company first acknowledged this incident (tracked under EX1467029) at 02:19 AM EDT, when it began investigating reports of intermittent “Server busy” errors.

“This issue impacts users who may be attempting to send and receive email messages from external domains in Exchange Online. Users may experience intermittent ‘Server busy’ errors, affecting multiple mailboxes,” Microsoft said in a service alert seen by BleepingComputer.

“Depending on the client, the service should attempt to periodically retry sending the email previously impacted by the issue. If the initial sender received an NDR after 24-72 hours (different clients or email providers can vary), they will need to send a new email.”

Microsoft says these ongoing email issues may be aggravated by anti-spam protections, which further delay affected accounts.

The company did not provide a timeline for full remediation, saying it’s still investigating the issue to understand the root cause and will provide further details later today.

“Our initial investigation has identified instances where anti-spam protections may be contributing to impact for a subset of users,” the company added. “We are continuing to analyse the behaviour and review service telemetry to better understand the underlying cause and determine the most effective mitigation path.”

While Microsoft has yet to disclose which regions are impacted by this ongoing outage or how many users are affected, it has flagged it as an incident, which usually involves noticeable user impact.

In April, Microsoft also resolved an Exchange Online outage that prevented users from accessing mailboxes and calendars via Outlook on the web, Outlook desktop, Exchange ActiveSync, and other Exchange Online connection protocols. and Exchange Online mailbox access issues that intermittently affected Outlook mobile and macOS users for weeks.

More recently, in June, it addressed a similar service issue affecting the mail flow for customers in North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Europe.

Earlier this week, on Thursday, it also mitigated a massive outage that caused authentication issues, connection problems, service delays and failures, and other issues for Microsoft 365 customers.

Update September 04, 10:26 EDT: Microsoft says that the EX1467029 issue has been resolved for new emails.

“Telemetry shows that the service is performing as expected for new emails and this is in line with organizations confirming that the issue no longer occurring,” Microsoft said. “We’re monitoring email queues and performing final validations to confirm the issue is fully resolved.”

Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.

The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.

Get the report

“Broadcom has burned all the bridges. While it may be easier to migrate to whatever this new [vSphere] Standard release is from vSphere 8, they have already shown both customers and [channel] partners they can’t be trusted,” he told Ars Technica.

You can find similar sentiments about trust in online discussions about VMware’s announcement.

“Too little, too late. We’ve moved on,” a Reddit user named bakonpie wrote about the upcoming update.

Broadcom’s stated interest in smaller sales comes as VMware rivals are openly vying for disgruntled VMware users, especially those that are SMBs.

“An updated vSphere Standard signals Broadcom heard the market, but three years of neglect, quote refusals, and VCF-only sales tactics have already pushed many SMBs toward Nutanix, Proxmox, and [Microsoft] Hyper-V,” Sumit Bhatia, co-author of the book Navigating VMware Turmoil in the Broadcom Era, told Ars. “Trust, not features, is the real deficit. Broadcom must prove sustained commitment—stable pricing, reliable renewals, and real investment—before SMBs treat vSphere Standard as safe again.”

A vSphere Standard update would need “predictable, published pricing with no surprise renewal spikes; a genuine capped-term or perpetual-style license option; core features, like [vSphere] vMotion, [vSphere High Availability], and backup integration without upsell gates; simplified per-socket licensing instead of per-core minimums built for hyperscale environments,” Bhatia said.

“VMware’s biggest challenge is convincing a burned market that Broadcom won’t repeat the bait-and-switch once switching costs make customers captive again,” he added

It’s unclear how important SMBs truly are to Broadcom’s overall goals. The conglomerate’s software business has thrived since its VMware takeover and made $8.75 billion in revenue (a 29 percent year-over-year increase) in fiscal Q3 2026.

Still, if Broadcom puts an effort into making vSphere Standard more appealing and, critically, accessible again, it could make some SMBs more comfortable sticking with VMware instead of spending time and money determining how to properly migrate.

Brisbane step up their bid to win a third flag in a row as they face Sydney in an enticing AFL 2026 Qualifying Final at the SCG. The Lions will be looking to prey on a Swans team missing several players as they hunt a place in the preliminary finals.

The reigning champions know exactly what it takes to reach and indeed win an AFL Grand Final, doing so in each of the past two years — including beating Sydney in the 2024 showpiece at the MCG. Brisbane look menacing again this time around, winning 10 of their last 11 matches by an average of 48 points to finish third in the ladder.

When the Fenix 8 finally dropped in 2024, it quickly earned a reputation as the best Garmin GPS watch money can buy, even if that meant parting with a lot of money. I gave it a thorough test on the 11-day trek to Everest Base Camp, and with Garmin’s full suite of training features, a bright AMOLED display, microphone and speaker, plus an LED torch, there was no doubt that it was a big step up from the hugely popular Fenix 7.

Last year, Garmin followed the Garmin Fenix 8 up with the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro, which took the winning formula and added built-in LTE cellular and inReach satellite connectivity for phone-free messaging and SOS alerts. I tested it at the Love Trails running festival this summer, and genuinely started to doubt the rumours that a Fenix 9 could really be imminent. What more could there possibly be to add?

science

Eight year after launch, Mercury probe and its Mercury Transfer Module consciously uncouple as orbit approaches

After nearly eight years, ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo spacecraft is finally nearing Mercury, as engineers begin the arrival sequence by jettisoning the power module that got it this far. 

The spacecraft stack separated from the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) on September 3 at around 1400 CEST. After a tense few minutes, controllers confirmed that a preliminary Doppler signal had been detected, indicating that the MTM had separated successfully; by 1552 CEST, it was confirmed that signals had been picked up, indicating that all had gone to plan. The solar panels of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) were charging the spacecraft’s batteries.

The next stage involves dropping into orbit around Mercury on November 21. Then the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) – aka Mio – will be released between December 9 and 10, and a week later MPO will start moving to its final orbit over 480 x 1500 km, with science commencing in April 2027.

The arrival is a year later than planned. BepiColombo was supposed to have been orbiting Mercury in December 2025, but problems with the spacecraft’s Solar Electric Power (SEP) system meant the trajectory had to be rethought, which extended the spacecraft’s cruise.

BepiColombo is no stranger to Mercury and has performed six flybys of the planet since 2021. It has also conducted flybys of Venus and Earth following its 2018 launch.

The spacecraft is an impressive example of international cooperation. The MPO and MTM are ESA contributions, while the MMO comes from JAXA. ESA also provided the sunshield to protect the MMO during transit. This sunshield will be ejected after the MMO is released.

The MPO is the big brother of the BepiColombo partnership, with a main body measuring 2.4 x 2.2 x 1.7 m and a mass of 1,230 kg (including an 85 kg science payload). JAXA’s MMO is 1.8 m in diameter and 1.1 m high, and weighs 255 kg (45 kg of which is the science payload). While MPO is 3-axis stabilized and nadir-pointing, MMO will be spin-stabilized at 15 rpm, with its spin axis 90 degrees to the Sun.

The goal of the mission is a study of Mercury, “from the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, to the properties of its large iron core and the origin of its magnetic field.”

The initial mission at Mercury is planned for one Earth year (approximately four Mercury years), although it could be extended by another Earth year. ®

Hohem has unveiled the Eyepic, a new pocket gimbal camera that combines three-axis stabilisation with a detachable camera for hands-free filming.

Revealed at IFA 2026, the device can switch between stabilised handheld shooting and a wearable camera, while also recording native 4K vertical video at up to 60fps.

The detachable design is the main selling point. When attached to its gimbal, Eyepic works as a conventional handheld camera, with the three-axis stabilisation designed to keep footage smooth as you move. Detach the camera and the gimbal retracts and locks, allowing it to be worn using the included hat clip or lanyard.

That opens up some interesting possibilities for filming while cycling, walking, travelling or spending time with family. The camera can also attach to suitable magnetic metal surfaces and is waterproof to 10m (32.8ft), making it better suited to outdoor use than a typical pocket gimbal.

An anonymous security researcher who uses the “Nightmare Eclipse” handle released a CrowdStrike Falcon zero-day exploit named “FalconFlank” that lets attackers escalate privileges on up-to-date Windows systems.

Nightmare Eclipse says the new vulnerability (which has yet to be assigned a CVE ID) affects devices running the latest versions of Windows 11 and Windows Server, as well as CrowdStrike’s endpoint security platform.

Successful exploitation allows attackers to spawn a command prompt with SYSTEM privileges by abusing CrowdStrike Falcon’s Office malicious macros remediation feature.

“FalconFlank is a 0day privilege escalation that abuses the office malicious macros remediation in Crowdstrike Falcon Sensor, obviously by the time I drop this Crowdstrike would already have detections for it so if you want to test you either have to add it to the exclusions or obfuscate the PoC and change the dll load technique,” Nightmare Eclipse said. “As of now it works in a fully updated windows 11 25H2 / Windows Server 2025 with Crowdstrike Falcon.”

When BleepingComputer asked for more details about this vulnerability, a CrowdStrike spokesperson said the company is investigating the researcher’s claims and advised customers to disable the Microsoft Office Windows policy setting that toggles the security software’s File Suspicious Macro Removal feature.

“We are actively investigating these claims and advise customers to disable the Microsoft Office File Suspicious Macro Removal Windows policy setting,” the spokesperson told BleepingComputer. “Customers remain protected through the Cloud Anti-malware for Microsoft Office Files settings. We refer customers to the FalconFlank Tech Alert in the CrowdStrike support portal.”

Although the company also shared this link to the tech alert regarding the FalconFlank zero-day exploit, the advisory is not public, and customers can access it only if they have an account on CrowdStrike’s support portal.

CrowdStrike has yet to reply to a second email asking for a copy of the FalconFlank tech alert and whether a CVE ID has been assigned to the FalconFlank flaw.

Kaspersky, Avast, Nvidia, and Microsoft zero-days

This week, Nightmare Eclipse has also released privilege escalation zero-day exploits for Kaspersky Antivirus for Endpoint (named HardBreacher) and GenDigital Avast Antivirus (PrettyPrague), as well as a denial-of-service zero-day for Nvidia (named GreenSection) that will crash the system.

Cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont confirmed on Thursday that the privilege escalation exploits released by Nightmare Eclipse this week are real and work.

Nightmare Eclipse has also disclosed multiple zero-day exploits targeting multiple Microsoft products since April, including Microsoft Defender, BitLocker, and various other Windows components.

These Microsoft zero-days are known as LegacyHive, RoguePlanet, BlueHammer, RedSun, YellowKey, GreenPlasma, MiniPlasma, and UnDefend. While the LegacyHive, RoguePlanet, YellowKey, GreenPlasma, and MiniPlasma flaws have since been fixed, the other security flaws remain zero-days and are still awaiting an official patch.

After Nightmare Eclipse disclosed the first zero-days, Microsoft responded with warnings of legal action against people engaging in “malicious activity causing real harm to our customers,” prompting many to believe that the company was directly threatening the security researcher.

Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.

The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.

Get the report