Author: Jezca Felarca

Episode 2 of The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe hits HBO Max in the U.S. on Thursday, July 30, 2026, at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET. In most international markets, it’s expected to arrive a day later, on Friday, July 31.

The show looks set to follow a weekly rollout, so new episodes should keep showing up on Thursdays in the U.S. and, in most places overseas, on Fridays. Season 1 premiered on July 23, runs for 10 episodes, and, at least right now, is on track to wrap on September 24.

This spinoff centers on Stuart Bloom, who sets off a multiverse-scale disaster after using a machine built by Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter. It’s also the first direct sequel in The Big Bang Theory franchise to switch to a single-camera format, and it leans much harder into sci-fi. Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, and Zak Penn are executive producing.

Episode 1 introduced the whole multiverse Armageddon setup and closed with what looked like the death of a major Big Bang Theory character. Episode 2 is expected to bring the first full universe jump. If you’re already watching, this is the point where the show could really start opening up. The early reception is decent too: 76% on Rotten Tomatoes from 38 reviews, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and 68/100 on Metacritic, according to Metacritic.

You can watch Stuart Fails to Save the Universe on HBO Max in the U.S. International availability will depend on local partners.

In late July 2026, Google Chrome Canary looked to be trying out a translate button inside Chrome’s Reading Mode, a change that could let people switch languages without leaving Chrome’s reader view.

Google Chrome Download

@Leopeva64 spotted the button on X in late July 2026. It now shows up for some users in Reading Mode’s settings, right next to theme, font, images, and links, though user reports say it doesn’t do anything yet. If Google actually flips it on, you’d be able to translate web pages and PDFs from inside the stripped-down view instead of bouncing back to the full page.

If you read articles, documents, or PDFs in more than one language, this is probably one to keep an eye on, especially since Chrome’s Reading Mode already clears out ads and clutter and lets you tweak the font, text size, and background color. It would also line up with Google’s recent push around Reading Mode, which has brought in a redesigned full-page view, read-aloud, split view, PDF annotations, vertical tabs, and the option to save to Google Drive.

Not everyone can see the button yet, which is normal enough for Chrome Canary, and Chrome still offers built-in translation along with the Google Translate extension, which, according to its Chrome Web Store listing, had more than 39 million users in May 2026. You can test this in Chrome Canary if you want, but it may still be limited, unfinished, and a long way from proving itself in a browser used by about 3.83 billion people.

Ford looks set to be the first carmaker to adopt Apple’s MapKit for Automotive SDK in 2027, which would put Apple Maps directly inside Ford’s infotainment system instead of routing it through Apple CarPlay. Since Apple’s mapping software would sit inside Ford’s own system, it could tap into vehicle data for turn-by-turn guidance, real-time battery status, charging-stop planning, battery preconditioning ahead of chargers, and map support for Ford BlueCruise, giving Ford EVs a better read on the roads, exits, and conditions coming up.

For iPhone users, that makes Ford one to watch as the company tries to clean up its software and get lower-cost EVs to market, especially now that General Motors has gone the opposite way and dropped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of Google’s Android Automotive OS. The first vehicle expected to get it is Ford’s next-generation midsize EV, due in 2027 at about $30,000, though Ford still hasn’t said how the rollout will work outside North America, including Europe and Asia, or what the licensing and revenue-sharing arrangement will look like.

Tesla has now filed a Houston robotaxi crash report with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it shows that a remote operator was controlling a Tesla Model Y when it hit a tree stump. In NHTSA report 13781-15395, Tesla says the car was getting remote assistance off a dead-end road when it drifted onto a grassy slope and struck the stump at 2 mph. Nobody was injured. The damage was minor.

Tesla Download

One detail in the filing jumps out. The Driver/Operator Type is listed as “Remote (Commercial / Test),” the first time Tesla has used that label across 22 NHTSA reports. Based on Tesla’s NHTSA filings, this also appears to be the third crash after a remote takeover, after a July 2025 fence strike at 8 mph and a January 2026 barricade hit at 9 mph. Tesla doesn’t disclose how often those handoffs happen.

For people who follow robotaxi safety, the bigger picture here matters. Research has linked Tesla’s Texas fleet to 22 collisions in under a year, with more than half possibly tied to Full Self-Driving or remote operators. Teleoperators are limited to repositioning vehicles at under 10 mph. Regulators have raised concerns about latency, camera views, interfaces, and training. Waymo told Sen. Markey in February 2026 that its remote staff guide vehicles, aside from a 2 mph stuck-vehicle prompt that it said hadn’t been used. And NHTSA’s Autopilot/FSD probe has now moved into engineering analysis.

You can read the filing on NHTSA’s site.

Microsoft is testing a refreshed version of Windows 11 Search for Insiders in the Experimental channel. The update cleans up the design and shifts the experience back toward local-first results.

Everything Download

The old Recommended feed is gone. So are trending searches, image cards, and a lot of the promotional clutter. Open Search now and the view is much simpler, with recent searches taking up most of the space.

Start typing and your own apps, files, folders, and Settings show up before web results. Microsoft also says Search is better at handling typos, partial words, and even very short queries, including searches with just two characters.

Results now come with more context too: file type, modification date, previews, metadata, and clearer Open actions. Microsoft says the same overhaul should also help with reliability, cutting down on crashes, glitches, and slow load times.

If you mostly use Windows Search to launch apps or find a file quickly, this update looks useful. Web answers have been pushed lower, and you can now turn off Web Searches and Microsoft Store suggestions separately under Settings > Privacy & Security > Show Suggested Search Results.

You can try it now on Windows 11 through the Insider Experimental channel. There’s still no public release date, though, and the wider impact for enterprises, developers, and international users is still hard to pin down.

Sony launched Digital Audio Tape, or DAT, in 1987. It was supposed to be the digital heir to the compact cassette, offering CD-quality recording in a small, portable shell that looked like it might change the way people recorded music.

It sounded like the future on paper, but consumers never really embraced it. DAT machines were expensive, and record labels pushed copy controls like the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS). Professional audio went a different way. Studios and field recordists adopted DAT for its clarity and portability, even with the fragile helical-scan mechanism and the fact that tapes recorded on one machine didn’t always play back cleanly on another.

DAT ended up mattering much more in another role, when the same tape technology was turned into Digital Data Storage (DDS). That gave IT departments a compact backup format that started at roughly 2GB uncompressed and grew to 20GB by DDS-4 at the end of the 1990s.

The cartridges were small, easy to carry off-site, and well suited to disaster recovery. For a lot of IT teams, DAT became a familiar, fairly affordable backup workhorse before growing data volumes pushed companies toward Digital Linear Tape (DLT) and later Linear Tape-Open (LTO).

When people talk about forgotten formats, DAT is easier to remember for the server backups it quietly handled than for the music revolution it never pulled off.

Sony ended DAT hardware in 2005, but the format’s legacy is still easy to spot in tape systems like LTO, where air-gapped storage still has real value against ransomware.

Google is changing how Android backups are counted. Starting July 7, 2026, SMS messages, call history, device settings, and other parts of your Android backup will start using space from your Google storage limit.

Google One Download

That data will now sit alongside the stuff that already counted against your quota, including Google Photos and MMS. If you’re on the free 15GB plan, you might notice a small dip in available space. Google says the average increase should be around 40MB, so for most people this will be pretty minor. It matters more if you’re already close to the limit, or if you keep huge message archives, long call logs, or a lot of backed-up apps and settings.

Google says new Android users will see the change first, then existing accounts will be moved over in the months after that. If your storage is already running tight, this is something to keep an eye on now, before it turns into failed backups or interrupted uploads in Gmail and Google Drive later.

The company is also adding more detailed Android backup controls. You can still keep a full-device backup if that’s what you want, or switch off SMS, call history, device settings, or individual apps you don’t want taking up storage.

It’s a smaller change, but it lines up with Google’s recent 5GB test for some unverified new accounts and the broader adjustments it’s been making to Google One. Those new options are rolling out through Android backup settings.

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.