Month: July 2026

Mario Kart World 1.7.0 is out now: new Knockout Tour routes

Mario Kart World just got its 1.7.0 update on Nintendo Switch 2. The patch adds two new Knockout Tour routes, plus a round of gameplay changes. The new rallies are Drill Rally, which runs from Wario Shipyard to Bowser’s Castle, and Boomerang Rally, which goes from Salty Salty Speedway to Whistlestop Summit. You’ll need to clear one Knockout Tour rally before either route unlocks.

There are a couple of smaller additions too. Photo Mode now lets players place collected stickers onto their shots, and the game now supports Thai.

Mario Kart Tour Download

Nintendo also adjusted the handling balance a bit. Lower-acceleration characters and vehicles now build speed faster, some characters move quicker while gliding, and the patch includes more general gameplay fixes and bug tweaks. The changes look more focused on making weaker setups feel viable than on blowing up the current meta.

If you’re still dropping in regularly, this one’s worth downloading, especially if Knockout Tour is your mode. Nintendo says more free routes are coming, and Mario Kart World is already huge: 14.7 million copies sold worldwide as of March 31, 2026, which makes it the best-selling Nintendo Switch 2 game so far.

The 1.7.0 update is free and available to download now on Nintendo Switch 2.

Discord is now on Meta Quest: native app adds voice chat and streaming

Discord is now in the Meta Horizon Store as a native Quest app. Meta says it went live on June 30, 2026 for Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro. On the headset, you get the usual Discord essentials: voice calls, text messaging, server access, direct messages, and an in-game overlay.

Discord Download

That’s a big improvement for anyone who’s been forcing Discord to work in VR through browser tabs or sideloaded Android apps. You can keep it running inside the headset while you play, hang out, or hop between apps, without dealing with the clunky performance, microphone issues, and shaky streaming that came with those older workarounds. Meta and Discord also say you can stream gameplay straight from your headset to Discord friends and use Meta Avatars in video calls. This feels like more than a basic port.

If you use Discord on Quest a lot, this one’s worth downloading. It’s the native app Meta said was coming at Meta Connect 2025, and it builds on the account-linking update from December 2025 that lets you share your VR activity status. Meta says the app is available now from the Meta Horizon Store, and Discord says anyone who logs in before September 30, 2026 will get one free month of Discord Nitro.

Reddit’s old.reddit.com will require a login next month

Reddit has made a change to old.reddit.com. Starting next month, the company says anyone who wants to browse the classic interface there will have to sign in. Logged-in users will still be able to use old Reddit. If you’re logged out, browsing stays on the main reddit.com site. Reddit says the move is meant to cut down on abusive scraping, automated traffic, and the infrastructure strain on an older version of the site that doesn’t have the newer security protections.

Reddit Download

A lot of old Reddit users are skeptical. Requiring a login gets rid of anonymous browsing, brings up the usual tracking concerns, and, for plenty of people, feels like another push toward Reddit’s newer interfaces, where the company has tighter control over features, monetization, and user behavior. That feeling has been building for a while. Additions like auto-translation have shown up on the modern site and app, r/all was removed there but kept on old Reddit for signed-in users, and late-2025 policy changes , including the Responsible Builder Policy and the end of self-service public API access, tightened control over data and access more broadly.

If you rely on old Reddit because it’s faster, easier to navigate, better for moderation, more accessible, more useful for international browsing, or better for digging through archived content, here’s what has changed: the classic site is still around, but it’s becoming more controlled. Its long-term future still isn’t clear.

You can still use the older interface by signing in at old.reddit.com, or browse while logged out on reddit.com.

Claude Fable 5 is back worldwide: US lifts export curbs

Anthropic is putting Claude Fable 5 back online worldwide starting Wednesday, July 1, after the U.S. Department of Commerce dropped the export controls that kept the model offline for 18 days.

Claude Download

The outage started with a June 12 directive that barred foreign nationals from using Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Anthropic then pulled both models worldwide because it couldn’t verify every user’s nationality in real time. Access is returning because the Commerce Department no longer requires a license, after Anthropic agreed to take a more proactive approach to security issues, work with the U.S. government on future standards for powerful models, and ship a fix for the jailbreak Amazon discovered, one that could steer the model toward identifying software vulnerabilities instead of sticking to ordinary chatbot prompts.

If you use Claude for development or research, having Fable 5 back matters. Even so, the brief ban has already intensified arguments around AI oversight, shared standards for jailbreaks, and how much users rely on U.S.-based providers. Mythos 5, for its part, is only coming back for a limited set of U.S. critical-infrastructure organizations.

You can use Claude Fable 5 again through Anthropic’s web app, the developer API, AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry. Some paid subscribers will also get temporary free usage before their usage credits start applying again.

ChatGPT Download

Google Drive gets Ask Gemini on mobile: file summaries now rolling out

Google is starting to roll out Ask Gemini and Overviews in the Google Drive apps for Android and iPhone, bringing AI-generated summaries and plain-language search to mobile.

Google Drive Download

On Google’s account, you’ll now see short summaries right in Drive search results before you even open a file or folder. You can also use Ask Gemini to ask follow-up questions about documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and folders, with added context pulled in from apps such as Gmail and Google Calendar.

Google also says Drive’s existing security and permission settings still apply, so Gemini should only show content you already have access to. The feature is launching in English and 28 other languages.

If you search through Drive files on your phone all the time, this update could save you a lot of tapping. Finding budget updates, project details, or meeting notes should be quicker when you don’t have to open file after file just to check what’s inside.

Google says these features are available in the Google Drive app on Android and iOS, but only on paid plans. That includes Google One AI Premium, along with Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus.

Meta now caps Conversation Focus on its smart glasses: 3 hours free, 15 with Meta One

Meta just updated Conversation Focus, the voice-enhancement feature on its smart glasses. In the latest software update, free users now get 3 hours a month, while Meta One Premium subscribers paying $19.99 get 15.

That’s where the backlash is coming from. Critics point to tests showing Conversation Focus keeps working even with Wi-Fi, cellular, and internet access turned off, which suggests it runs entirely on-device. The feature appears to rely on the glasses’ microphones, beamforming, speakers, and spatial processing to lift the voice of the person in front of you and cut down the surrounding noise.

That hits differently if you use Meta smart glasses in bars, on busy streets, or at crowded events. Same if you have mild hearing difficulties. And it’s happening while Meta pushes Meta One across Facebook and Instagram, sells new in-house glasses starting at $299, keeps rolling out assistant and camera upgrades, and highlights 54% shipment growth, an 81% market share, 7 million Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta sales in 2025, and daily usage that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says has tripled.

If you were planning to rely on Conversation Focus, this looks more like something to watch than something to pay for. Putting a cap on access to a feature that seems to work offline, while privacy concerns still hang around over possible human review of some footage and earlier facial-recognition-related code, can feel like paying twice.

You can get Conversation Focus on Meta’s current smart glasses, including Ray-Ban Meta models and the newer lower-cost Meta glasses, once you install the latest software update.

Gemini Spark reaches Mac: Google starts rolling it out

Google says Gemini Spark has started rolling out for the Gemini app on macOS, with availability beginning around June 30, 2026. The feature first showed up at Google I/O in May.

Google Drive Download

With your permission, Gemini Spark can do more than answer prompts. Google says it can work directly with files on your Mac, which means you can hand off jobs like cleaning up your Downloads folder, sorting PDFs into folders, organizing documents on your desktop, building a budget spreadsheet from invoices stored locally, and then keeping that sheet updated through Google Workspace.

Google says another update is coming later that will let you start tasks from your phone and have Gemini Spark complete them remotely on your Mac. One example the company gives is finding a report on your computer and emailing it out.

On privacy, Google says Gemini Spark can only access folders you explicitly approve. Even so, anyone wary of a cloud-connected service looking through personal files will probably want to think carefully about how much access to give it. Google also says Spark can watch specific topics and notify you when something changes, like a stock hitting a target price or new match highlights going live.

If a lot of your day goes to moving information between local files and productivity apps, this looks like a useful update, especially for freelancers, students, and small business owners.

Google says Gemini Spark is available in beta through the Gemini Mac app in the US for users 18 and older who subscribe to Google Ultra, which costs $99 per month.

It’s not available yet in the UK, Canada, the EEA, Australia, or Japan. Google also says integrations for Google Tasks, Google Keep, Canva, Dropbox, Instacart, OpenTable, and Zillow Rentals are rolling out on web and mobile first, with Mac support coming later, as Google pushes into the same Mac automation space as Apple, ChatGPT, Claude Desktop, and Raycast.

Google Maps now prioritizes greener routes: switch back to faster ones

As of June 2025, Google Maps has rolled out fuel-efficient routing worldwide. That means the app now leans toward greener directions by default, rather than always sending you on the absolute fastest route.

Google Maps Download

Google says those route suggestions can lower fuel use, emissions, and what you spend on a drive. It makes those estimates by looking at things like road grade, traffic patterns, and roads where you can keep a steadier speed. You can also make the recommendations more accurate by telling Google Maps whether your car is gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric.

If your main goal is saving a few minutes, on the commute, you’ll probably want to look at this setting. You can switch off “prefer fuel-efficient routes” in Google Maps navigation settings, and the app will default back to the fastest route. Even then, Google Maps will still often show you more than one route before you head out.

Google says eco-routing first launched in the U.S. in 2021, and by June 2025 it had gone global. The company also says the feature has already prevented millions of metric tons of carbon emissions, which it compares to taking hundreds of thousands of cars off the road for a full year.

Still, not everybody buys it. Some drivers say the detours add more traffic lights, more turns, extra congestion, or routes through areas they don’t feel are safe. A campus study from November 2024 also found a gap between Google’s eco-routes and microsimulation models.

According to Google, the setting is available now in Google Maps on iOS and Android worldwide.

Waze Download