Jul 26, 2026 · 3 min listen · Last updated July 26, 2026
From storyflo. This is your daily audio brief. It's Theo. July 26th, tech roundup — five stories, here's number one. Let's get into it. First, from Slashdot. Firefox's New Tab Page Will Get Widgets - Including an AI-Powered Daily Crossword.
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Daily Tech Brief · July 26th
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Firefox's New Tab Page Will Get Widgets - Including an AI-Powered Daily Crossword
So Firefox is changing up its New Tab page by adding these widgets, which are basically little tools and features that can help you stay organized or entertained. One of the widgets is a daily crossword puzzle that's generated by an AI, and it's actually pretty cool because it's based on current events. But that's not all - there are also widgets for things like to-do lists, timers, and even a world clock.
The idea is to make the New Tab page a destination in itself, rather than just a place to start a new search. And the good news is that you can customize which widgets you see, or even turn them off altogether if you don't want them. Some users are already seeing these widgets, but if you don't have them yet, you can actually enable them manually in the latest versions of Firefox.
It's worth noting that these widgets are optional, so if you don't want to see them, you can just hide the widget area or disable the individual widgets you don't want. And if you're feeling adventurous, you can even try enabling them manually by tweaking some settings in the about:config page. Mozilla is still testing these features, but it's likely we'll see them rolled out to everyone soon.
32 of 35 Students Caught Using Hilariously Wrong AI-Generated Answers for Professor's Midterm
A history professor caught 32 of his 35 students using AI-generated answers for a midterm, and it's not just the cheating that's surprising – it's how lazy they were with it. The professor had included a hidden prompt to use the word Madagascar in a nonsensical way, and sure enough, that's exactly what the AI-generated answers did. One student wrote that Madagascar "floats sideways through the afternoon," while another said it "whispers to the ceiling." It's clear that these students didn't even bother to proofread their AI-generated responses.
What's even more telling is that none of the students seemed to put in any effort to check if what the AI wrote made sense. They just copied and pasted, and hoped for the best. The professor shared some of the responses in a follow-up video, and it's a bit cringeworthy to see how little effort these students put in. It's not just about the cheating, though – it's about the lack of critical thinking and academic integrity.
This isn't an isolated incident, either. Another professor at Brown University discovered that over half his students were using AI to cheat on an exam, and Princeton University has even dropped its Honor Code tradition due to a chatbot cheating scandal. It's clear that educators are struggling to navigate the implications of AI on academia, and it's not just about finding ways to prevent cheating – it's about preserving the value of education in the first place.
The professor in question, Jason Gibson, is right on the money when he says that we don't know best practices for navigating academia with AI. It's a complex issue, and one that requires a nuanced approach. But for now, it's clear that some students are taking the easy way out – and it's not just about the technology itself, but about the lack of effort and critical thinking that comes with it.
Claude Opus 5 Is Powerful. Your Setup Decides How Powerful: This is Full Setup Guide
One Opus 5 test explains this release better than any benchmark.
Anthropic gave the model a drawing of a machine part, then removed its normal way of viewing that drawing. It could have stopped there. Instead, Opus 5 wrote its own computer-vision pipeline, pulled the shape from the raw pixels, and rebuilt the part as a working 3D model.
In another test, it found the real cause of a software bug and fixed an edge case that an existing patch had missed.
On the markets — Kalshi traders have been actively repricing this story in the last day.
I Asked AI to Find Every Photo of Me Online. It Found Many I’d Never Seen.
This started as a pure experiment out of curiosity.
I went looking for every photo of me on the internet.
Not the ones I posted.
The ones I forgot about, the ones other people uploaded, the ones sitting on sites I’ve never visited.
And I found this.
I found an Indian newspaper published my image without my consent. My face on the thumbnail. They had taken it off one of my Instagram reels.
I never sent them that photo. I never approved it.
Firefox' New Tab Page Will Get Widgets - Including an AI-Powered Daily Crossword
So Firefox is updating its New Tab page to include widgets, which are essentially small tools and features that can enhance your browsing experience. One of the widgets is a daily crossword puzzle that's powered by an AI platform called Particle, which generates puzzles based on recent news articles. The idea is to make the New Tab page a destination in itself, rather than just a starting point for new searches.
These widgets are optional, so you can disable the ones you don't want to use or turn them all off if you prefer a more minimal experience. Some of the other widgets include a to-do list, timer, stock checker, and weather widget. Firefox has also experimented with offering real-time information, such as match scores and fixture information during the World Cup.
The widgets are being rolled out to users in certain regions and locales, and you can also manually enable them in Firefox 153 and later by tweaking some settings in the about:config page. It's not clear when the feature will be widely available, but with Firefox's fortnightly release schedule, it's likely that we'll see these widgets become more widespread soon.
The goal of these widgets is to provide a more personalized and engaging experience for Firefox users, and to make the browser more than just a tool for accessing websites. By offering a range of useful features and tools, Firefox is trying to become a more integral part of your daily browsing routine.
Amazon EKS Adds Kubernetes Version Rollback Within 7 Days of an Upgrade
Hey, I just read about Amazon EKS adding this new rollback feature for Kubernetes upgrades. So, basically, if you're running a cluster and you upgrade to a new version of Kubernetes, but it turns out to be a bad idea, you can now roll back to the previous version within 7 days. That's a big deal because it reduces the risk of those in-place upgrades going sideways – it's like having an emergency brake for your cluster. It's not a full rollback to zero, but it gives you a safety net to recover from a problematic update.