Author: Awais

Meet CC, a new experimental AI agent from Google Labs designed to proactively manage your day by pulling context from your Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and the web. Without a prompt, the agent shows up in your inbox with a daily briefing; you can also task the agent to handle some of the mental load you usually carry yourself.Early access begins today (December 16) starting with Google AI Ultra subscribers. You also join the the waitlist for CC.What is Google’s CC AI agent? CC is an email-based AI agent built on Google’s Gemini models. Once connected to your Google…

Safari 26.2 adds support for measuring Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and the Event Timing API, which is used to calculate Interaction to Next Paint (INP). This enables site owners to collect Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) data from Safari users through the browser Performance API using their own analytics and real user monitoring tools. LCP And INP In Apple Safari Browser LCP is a Core Web Vital and a ranking signal. Interaction To Next Paint (INP), also a Core Web Vitals metric, measures how quickly your website responds to user interactions. Native Safari browser support…

Are you looking to expand your reach on LinkedIn? Hashtags remain one of the most underutilised yet effective strategies for growing your professional presence.

The best long-range routers, especially mesh and mesh-compatible systems, offer the best results for fixing annoying Wi-Fi dead zones in your home. Here are the options that offer the most coverage, ease of use, and expandability. Note: Prices are subject to change. Credit: Amazon TL;DR: Perfect for the multi-level home, the Netgear Orbi 970 delivers up to 10,000 square feet of coverage, quad-band frequencies, and a whole lot more. Why We Recommend It If you have a big, multi-level home and require the biggest possible coverage, the latest-generation Netgear Orbi 970 is hard to overlook. While it requires an investment,…

The Black Friday streaming deals bonanza is over. But holiday streaming deals continue in December, and some of the December deals are better than the one I signed up for in November. Buyer’s remorse is eternal, but this time it’s also reversible.The best December streaming deals are ad-free. It’s not an eye-poppingly low number, but you can get a 4K-streaming, ad-free bundle of HBO Max, Disney+, and Hulu for $33. That’s more than 40 percent off—or $23 less than list price. But most important: no ads.In fact, I plan to upgrade to the no-ad bundle. Because it turns out I…

You should never be clicking unexpected links sent to you via text.  Karl Tapales/Getty ImagesThe holiday season is full of cheer, chilly nights and bright lights, but it’s not all about the Christmas spirit. It also brings new phishing emails and scams that can turn your holiday into a real nightmare. Scammers have gotten more sophisticated over time, and they’re targeting more and more people each year. That can make it difficult to tell whether that email in your inbox has a genuine link or whether it’s someone out to steal your data. Putting a stop to these digital Grinches…

If there’s one person we turn to during the holidays for guidance—no matter how old we get—it’s mom. After all, our moms (or the mother figures in our lives) were often the reason the holidays feel magical in the first place. And when it’s suddenly your turn to create Christmas traditions of your own, her advice feels essential. That’s true in every family—even if your holiday memories were made in the White House. So, as Jenna Bush Hager makes holiday magic for her own children, she still draws on one of her mom’s simplest (and sweetest) lessons: a three-ingredient recipe…

[Submitted on 15 Aug 2025 (v1), last revised 15 Dec 2025 (this version, v2)] View a PDF of the paper titled From Clicks to Preference: A Multi-stage Alignment Framework for Generative Query Suggestion in Conversational System, by Junhao Yin and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Generative query suggestion using large language models offers a powerful way to enhance conversational systems, but aligning outputs with nuanced user preferences remains a critical challenge. To address this, we introduce a multi-stage framework designed for progressive alignment between the generation policy and user intent. Our pipeline begins with prompt engineering as a…

Elon Musk’s X is updating its Terms of Service to indicate it still lays claim to the “Twitter” trademark. The move to add this detail to the company’s terms follows an announcement from a Virginia-based startup, which recently filed an application to trademark the term “Twitter.” The startup, Operation Bluebird, claims that X had abandoned the brand “Twitter” by renaming its social networking service “X.” In its petition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filed on December 2, the startup pointed to a post from X owner Musk on July 23, 2023, which proclaimed that the social network would…

Shopping for the best noise-canceling headphones for work, travel, or play? We tested and researched top models, and here are our picks for the headsets that offer the best overall sound-blocking and audio quality. Note: Prices are subject to change. Credit: Lifewire / Jason Schneider TL;DR: Bose is a heavyweight in the noise-canceling space, and the QuietComfort Ultra delivers a great listening experience. Why We Recommend It The Bose brand has taken its noise-canceling prowess to the next level with the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, which deliver shockingly pristine noise isolation and adaptive, active cancellation. Sound quality is a crucial focus…