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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 the final beta of Android 17, Linux 7.0, Meta working on an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg, and a chance to win $1 million USD for using the Edge browser. Let's get started.
You can check out recent issues of the '7 Days' weekly series here.
ZuckerBot is coming.jpg)
Get over Gemini and ChatGPT because Meta is reportedly working on an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with company employees, fueling the long-running joke that the Meta CEO is a robot. The project is a top priority, according to sources familiar with the matter, and ZuckerBot (or whatever it's called) will be trained to mimic the billionaire's mannerisms, tone, voice, pictures, and publicly available statements.
Galaxy phones got expensive
Samsung dropped a silent shocker this week and updated (increased) the prices of many Galaxy smartphones, foldables, and almost every tablet it sells in the US. The list of expensive Samsung devices includes the Galaxy Z Flip7, Galaxy S25 F, and Galaxy S25 Edge.
In other Samsung news, the company is upgrading AI-powered audio tools with the latest version of Audio Eraser on the Galaxy S26 series. The feature can reportedly identify and isolate different audio layers, such as voices, music, and background noise, in real time, and works not only on recorded content but also on streamed media, including OTT platforms and social apps.
$1 million for using MS Edge
Microsoft is desperate for people to use its web browser. It's running a new promotion where you can win $1 million USD or a car in its latest sweepstakes. Among various things, you share the promotion with your friends, use the Microsoft Rewards extension, leverage Bing/Copilot mobile apps, and more.
This is where Chrome lacks
Other browsers might have an edge over Chrome, thanks to a new report suggesting that Google Chrome offers "almost no native anti-fingerprinting defences, unlike Brave, Firefox, or Tor." It investigated security features offered to protect users against device fingerprinting and browser fingerprinting, and most of them seemed subpar.
AI Mode fixes biggest frustrations
Google pushed a big update for Chrome's AI Mode to address one of the biggest frustrations people have with it. AI Mode got a split-screen view so that people can open web links in the same UI alongside the ongoing conversation with the chatbot. AI Mode is contextually aware of the active page, as it can see what you are browsing.
On a side note, AI Mode found a new home on the Google desktop app for Windows. The search giant upgraded the app recently and highlighted the new features in a brief blog post.
In other browser news, Google Chrome now lets you save Gemini AI prompts as reusable skills that get synced across your devices. Meanwhile, Vivaldi for Android now comes with a native PDF reader, reducing the need for a separate PDF reader. However, the feature is currently available in development builds.
50% off on YouTube
Similarly, Google is offering 50% off on YouTube Premium for an entire year if you are a Google One subscriber paying $10+ each month and live in the US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, or Japan. However, make sure to cancel your existing Premium subscription before claiming the add-on.
In a surprising move, YouTube pushed a silent update to the Time Management dashboard, allowing users and parents to put a hard stop on the Infinite Shorts feed in the app. The video sharing platform is also trying to protect the vibe by disabling livestream ads during peak chat engagement.
Apple's smartglasses
While Meta remains the leader in the smartglasses market, Apple wants a share of the cake too. The Cupertino giant is reportedly testing four new designs, along with colors, for its upcoming display-free smartglasses. The smart glasses are internally codenamed N50 and expected to arrive sometime in early 2027.
In other Apple news, the company announced that 30% of materials used across all products shipped in 2025 came from recycled sources, reaching a new environmental milestone.
Same Same
One of the reasons to use macOS is the built-in handy utility that lets you quickly minimize all apps and access your desktop by clicking anywhere on an empty area. A Microsoft engineer put time and energy into building an app, called PeekDesktop, that brings the "Show Desktop" feature to Windows 11.
In other macOS news, Microsoft Threat Intelligence discovered a sophisticated job interview scam targeting macOS users to steal passwords and crypto data. It informed Apple, which strengthened its infrastructure on macOS and Safari.
Google also launched the Gemini app for Mac, which lets you "see" anything on your screen after you enable sharing. You can open a mini chat overlay by pressing Option + Space.
Goodbye, we have AI
Snapchat's parent company has announced another mass layoff. This time, it's kicking out around 1,000 people, representing about 16% of its workforce. CEO Evan Spiegel said that "rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers."
(Not) an iPhone Fold
While the iPhone Fold is yet to arrive, Huawei has already baked an answer to it in the form of Pura X Max, slated to arrive on April 20. The device features a passport-style form factor that resembles a mini tablet instead of looking like two phones glued together, and appears well-positioned against upcoming devices like the Galaxy Wide Fold.
Android 17 final beta
The final beta of Android 17 has arrived, marking platform stability before the public release in June. It enforces strict RAM limits and hardware-level security to improve device performance. Among various changes, Android 17 prevents developers from opting out of resizability and orientation constraints on large-screen devices, and moves toward quantum-safe security by integrating NIST-standardized cryptographic signatures into hardware.
New Fire🔥
Amazon launched a new Fire TV Stick HD, which flaunts the tag of being its slimmest HD streaming stick yet. Priced at $34.99, it's about 30% narrower, more than 30% faster than the previous generation, and you can power it directly from the TV's USB port.
In other Amazon news, the e-commerce giant is eyeing a major satellite connectivity expansion. It has officially signed an agreement to acquire Globalstar to fuel its Amazon Leo satellite services.
Digital Connections
Stardock has released Connection Explorer 1.0 to add a visual layer to the data connections your Windows PC creates. It can turn hidden network activity into an easily readable map of your digital world, with advanced insights and monitoring tools.
DaVinci Resolve ups its game
The DaVinci Resolve 21 update from Blackmagic Design is now in beta, with several major features and changes. A highlight among them is the new Photo page, which lets you use Hollywood-level color tools to edit still photos. Apart from that, there is IntelliSearch for fast content search, CineFocus for focal point adjustment, and more.
Child safety is important
Image via DepositPhotos.com
The UK government is already doubling down on child safety with its Online Safety Act and age-verification requirements for adult websites. In the latest, it wants tech giants to know they can't look the other way when it comes to protecting kids online. Social media bosses from Meta, Snap, Google, YouTube, TikTok, and X were called for a talk and told that "things can't go like this."
Don't go back
The websites that use the back button to serve ads to people are on Google's radar. The search giant warned site owners and set a June 15 deadline to disable all "back button hijacking" practices or risk demotion in search results.
In other Google news, a new update for students and teachers allows them to export their Google Photos data via Google Takeout after they leave their organization.
Pricey VR
The global parts shortage has pushed the cost of manufacturing for Meta Quest headsets, according to the social media giant. That's why the prices of the Meta Quest 3S 128GB/256GB variants increased by $50, and the standard Meta Quest 3 (512GB) now costs $600 instead of $500.
In other Meta news, the company joined hands with Broadcom to build a massive AI silicon empire for billions of users. The duo is co-developing the next-generation Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) chips.
Intel on a budget
The original silicon giant's new Intel Core Series 3 mobile processors (codenamed Wildcat Lake) are meant for home users looking for budget options, small businesses, and edge deployments. It's the 'first hybrid AI-ready" processor for budget PCs, promising improved performance, battery life, and built-in AI capabilities.
In other Intel news, it's suggested that Intel's leaked Nova Lake-S CPU could make budget graphics cards obsolete. The company is secretly building a mid-range chip packed with enough GPU cores to make a separate graphics card unnecessary.
OpenAI bakes more into Codex
The Codex app on Windows and Mac is evolving from a simple GUI for LLM responses to a software development companion, with support for background computer use, a new in-app browser developers can use to give exact instructions to the agent, and over 90 new plugins.
In other OpenAI news, OpenAI announced a new biology-focused AI model named after the British chemist Rosalind Franklin. GPT-Rosalind is purpose-built for biochemistry, genomics, and protein engineering.
The ChatGPT-maker is also challenging Anthropic's strategy of opening up security-focused AI models to trusted entities. While Anthropic's Mythos is somewhat restricted, OpenAI is expanding its Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) program to thousands of developers, which includes its latest GPT-5.4-Cyber model.
Anthropic's app is going haywire
Microsoft's AI rival Anthropic is having a hard time with its Claude desktop app for Windows 11/10. Among various issues, there have been confirmed user reports about installation failures on Windows where the app would redirect them to the Microsoft Store, only to find that there is no Claude app available to download.
In other Anthropic news, the AI tech giant launched Claude Opus 4.7 as its new flagship AI model with a specific focus on complex software engineering tasks and improved vision capability. The model is topping coding benchmark charts, beating OpenAI's GPT-5.4.
Anthropic is trying to turn Claude into a full-blown design tool with its latest update. It launched a new workspace, Claude Design, that helps users create UI prototypes faster than ever.
Linux 7.0 is out
Linux Torvalds finally published Linux 7.0 after several ups and downs in recent test builds. The milestone released brings massive hardware gains for Intel and AMD, alongside an AI-refined code and self-healing filesystems.
In other open-source news, Zorin OS 18.1 landed with better hardware support, new features, and more polish. It's Windows app detector expanded by 40%, meaning people can now have over 240 apps instead of installing their original Windows EXEs.
Raspberry Pi OS 6.2 is mostly a platter of security updates and bug fixes made over the past months. But it disables passwordless sudo by default, making the OS slightly more inconvenient to use.
What happened at Microsoft this week
For those wondering what happened under the Redmond giant's roof this week: Microsoft is bundling $500 worth of services with select Windows 11 PCs, it's once again reworking Windows 11's Start Menu, and Microsoft isn't removing Copilot from Windows, it's just renaming it.
We published a list of the top 10 cool and useful apps for Windows 11 in 2026. You can check out Taras's freshly baked Microsoft Weekly roundup to catch up on all the interesting stories this week.
GeForce Now expansion
NVIDIA's cloud gaming service finally set foot in India, rolling out GeForce NOW in beta on a first-come, first-served basis. Meanwhile, several new titles are on GeForce NOW's official supported list, including PRAGMATA and Windrose. Its latest 596.21 WHQL driver features DLSS 4.5 support for PRAGMATA, NTE (Neverness to Everness), and Windrose.
On a side note, Intel also added support for PRAGMATA in its 32.0.101.8724 non-WHQL driver update, alongside a handful of bug fixes.
Call of Duty movie is coming
It's already known that the popular first-person shooter is turning into a movie, but now, we have a release date. The official COD account posted this week that the movie will arrive in theaters on June 30, 2028. It was known last year that Paramount is in charge of producing, developing, and distributing the movie. It's reported that Lone Survivor fame Peter Berg will direct the movie, and Taylor Sheridan (Sicario and Hell or High Water) will write the script.
It's too expensive
Netflix and YouTube price hikes will feel like pennies if you start paying for Xbox Game Pass, which is hitting $30 a month. Unsurprisingly, even the new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma isn't a fan of the Game Pass prices either. "Game Pass has become too expensive for players," Sharma said in an internal memo, adding that there is a need for "better value equation."
What else in gaming?
The latest issue of Pulasthi's Weekend PC Game Deals curates several exciting games on sale this week. Among fresh titles to try out, Microsoft brought two new titles to Free Play Days: Football Manager 26 and South Park: Snow Day. On the Epic Games Store giveaway, the real-time stealth tactics game The Stone of Madness is free to claim after the weekly refresh.
That said, here are some more stories from the gaming world:
From the review corner
This week, Steven got his hands on the UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Pro, refreshed with the Intel Core i3-1315U CPU, dual PCIe 4x4, and 8GB DDR5-5600 RAM. Its list of pros includes a premium build, quiet operations, Full 4K decode/encode streaming support, and Type-A and Type-C ports on the front. However, there is a lack of UPS notifications or status; UGOS Push notifications could be improved; and there is still no surveillance package for IP cameras.
REPLACED by Sat Cat Studios
Pulasthi published a detailed review of the cyberpunk thriller indie game REPLACED this week, calling it a "cinematic masterpiece" and "a remarkable 2.5D experience that exceeds expectations in almost every department." The game missed its launch window by a mile after the original 2021 announcement.
Set in an alternate 1980s, the game offers weighty animations, a gorgeous cyberpunk setting, an engrossing storyline and characters, and a simple but effective combat system. However, you may encounter a few glitches and wish there were some more side stories.
More price drops!We got you covered with some hot tech deals all week. For some reason, if you missed out on a great discount, here is a summary of some recent deals that are still alive:
To view all of our recent deals, click here.
So, these were some of the biggest tech news and other updates from this week. There will be more issues of our 7 Days series in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing to extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.
Have a great weekend!
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