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 most repairable MacBook in years, a Windows exploit on sale, Google Maps" big navigation upgrade, and the 150-year-old hidden side of copper and gold. Let"s get started.
You can check out our previous issues of 7 Days from here.
$220,000 for Windows exploit
Something went up for sale, but of a different kind that no one wants. Bad actors put up a Windows exploit on sale on the dark web for $220,000, granting attackers system-level access. The zero-day exploit specifically targets Windows Remote Desktop Services, giving system-level privileges on a compromised PC. The related vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-21533; however, the attacker must already have low-privilege authenticated access to a local machine.
Long live Firefox
Mozilla once again pushed back on the end of support for Firefox 115 ESR, which allows Windows 7 users to continue using the web browser. It will push security updates for another six months, until August 26, given that there are still enough Firefox users on Windows 7/8/8.1. Firefox also received a new bug-fixing update to address YouTube bugs, poor video quality on NVIDIA GPUs, and other issues.
Most repairable MacBook
Apple made headlines for launching the most repairable MacBook in a decade. The MacBook Neo received an overall repairability score of 6/10, as Apple made it quite easy to replace the battery and other modular components.
It was also reported that the arrival of MacBook Neo prompted more Apple users to opt for a Mac trade-in. Former Windows head Steven Sinofsky praised the low-cost Mac and said he was "completely blown away by Mac Neo."
Anthropic sues the DoD
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei promised last week that the company would sue the US Department of Defense, and it did. Anthropic filed two lawsuits against the DoD to challenge a recent decision to label it as a "supply chain risk." The lawsuits claim that the government"s move is unlawful and violates the company"s First Amendment rights of free speech. However, the lawsuits don"t close the doors for renegotiation with the Pentagon, the company clarified.
The AI company also made progress in image generation; its Claude AI assistant has been upgraded to render data visualizations, interactive user interfaces, and architectural diagrams directly in a dedicated pane next to the chat history.
Apple starts early celebration
Apple is turning 50 in a few weeks, and the company has already started celebrating the occasion. Tim Cook shared a personal letter on Apple"s website, thanking the entire Apple team, the developer community, and millions of users. At the same time, Apple also set up a new Instagram account called @helloapple.
The Cupertino giant is also busy patching older devices to protect them from a severe exploit hit known as Coruna. Apple released a bunch of security updates this week, including iOS 15.8.7, iPadOS 15.8.7, iOS 16.7.15, and iPadOS 16.7.15.
New devices on the market
Two tech giants put up a number of devices on the shelves this week, on March 11. Samsung"s AI-focused Galaxy S26 series (S26, S26+, S26 Ultra) went on sale globally alongside Galaxy Bud4 and Galaxy Book6. One of Samsung"s biggest features is the new Privacy Display, which prevents nosy strangers from peeking at your screen.
Apple also started shipping its newest devices, including the MacBook Neo, M5 MacBook Air, M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pro, Studio Display XDR, and M4 iPad Air, all of which were unveiled during the first week of March.
Shazam in ChatGPT
You can always use Shazam to find out the name of a song you don"t recognize at a cafe. Apple joined hands with OpenAI to add Shazam"s superpowers to ChatGPT. In other words, you can identify songs without leaving the chatbot"s interface. You can type @Shazam or ChatGPT to identify the song being played, and a button to activate the mic will show up. The identified tracks are present as cards inside the chat.
Chrome"s new kill switch
Google is reportedly readying a new kill switch for Google Chrome to beef up the browser"s security. You"ll be able to turn off the WebGPU feature on Android 16 via Advanced Protection Mode. Since 2023, the WebGPU interface has enabled web apps to access the device"s GPU directly for heavy 3D rendering and complex ML workloads. However, granting access to core components presents a security risk.
In more browser news, Google is finally bringing native Chrome support to ARM64 Linux devices, expected to happen between April and June this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft Edge added a small but useful feature that many might take for granted: the ability to create or remove desktop shortcuts for profiles.
Don"t debloat Windows using AI
Time and again, you might have thought about debloating Windows and getting rid of all the bloatware Microsoft forces upon us. However, you should shy away from using AI-generated scripts to debloat Windows 11. Usama penned a piece this week highlighting how such things often modify Windows Registry values, which can have unintended consequences and even break your Windows installation.
The wait gets long for Linux 7.0
The second release candidate for Linux 7.0 from last week was one of the biggest releases in recent history. Linux founder released the third RC this week, which turned out to be even bigger, and we could end up with a longer cycle again.
Torvalds is not worried, as a considerable portion of RC3 is selftests, and nothing looks particularly "scary." Per his new thesis, Linux 6.19 was delayed an extra week, with RC8 serving as an additional release. More features are added during the merge window, and subsequent RCs are bigger, as they"re fixing more items.
Google Maps gets a big upgrade
Whether to take the flyover or the road underneath is a big dilemma for Google Maps users. Thankfully, its biggest upgrade in a decade might fix those woes. Google has added an Immersive Navigation feature and a new Gemini-powered chatbot to answer all your questions.
Speaking of new stuff, Google announced several Gemini features for its Workspace apps just a day after Microsoft announced Copilot Wave 3. Its upgraded Gemini Embedding 2 model with multimodal support is now available through the Gemini API and Vertex AI.
The search giant also added a six-year-old cybersecurity startup, Wiz, to its shopping bag for a $32 billion. It"s a cloud security platform that offers comprehensive protection for everything a company builds and runs in the cloud.
Make Android faster!
Google is making some under-the-hood changes in Android to give a big boost to system performance. The Android LLVM toolchain team announced that it will deploy Automatic Feedback-Directed Optimization (AutoFDO) to the Android kernel. Interestingly, AutoFDO is a five-year-old feature introduced in Android 12, and it works similarly to Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) in Windows, Linux, and Google"s own Chromium-based apps.
Those who use Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android will soon get live transcriptions with speaker attribution, timestamps, and optional translations. Its general rollout for worldwide and GCCH customers will happen from April this year through May.
WhatsApp for pre-teens
Your kid below 13 can use WhatsApp to communicate with you, thanks to the new parent-managed accounts launched by WhatsApp. However, it does come with guardrails to protect kids from talking to strangers.
Meta acquires Moltbook, updates content guidelines
Meanwhile, its parent Meta acquired the vibe-coded social media platform Moltbook to "open up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses." Its creators, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, will join Meta"s Superintelligence Labs, which is led by Alexandr Wang. Meta also announced new scam protection tools for WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.
The social media giant updated its Facebook content guidelines to tell what qualifies as "original" content, what actions will reduce your reach, and could get you demonetized. Meta is also testing an improved version of its content protection tool to detect potential impersonation.
AMD"s new chipset drivers, Intel"s claims
One of the AMD stories that caught eyeballs this week is about the latest Windows 11/10 chipset driver for Ryzen 9000, 7000, 5000, 3000, and other series. In addition to optimizations from the previous version, the cumulative release includes support for the AMS Mailbox driver and the S0i3 filter driver.
Meanwhile, Intel claims its latest Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and 5 250K Plus processors can outperform AMD"s counterparts on Windows 11 25H2. Intel says that the 250K Plus is up to 103% better than the Ryzen 9600X, and the 270K Plus is up to 92% better than the Ryzen 9700X.
150-year-old hidden side
Scientists used a laser to uncover a hidden side of two of the most valuable things to humans: Gold and Copper. They found a way to spot very faint magnetic signals in everyday metals that do not behave like metals in daily life, using only light and a refined technique to see how magnetism changes the reflection of light.
New memory breakthrough?
A team of researchers achieved a breakthrough in magnetic materials by showing that thin films of ruthenium dioxide (RuO₂) exhibit altermagnetism. It turns out to be a better option over ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism, opening new doors for spintronics devices. They plan to explore memory devices that will be faster and more efficient at processing data than current RAM and SSDs.
Plasma brings back a dead feature
KDE developers are bringing back a dead feature introduced back in 2020: long-pressing physical keys to access characters and symbols, similar to how we do it on virtual mobile keyboards.
The feature is making its re-entry as part of the new Plasma Keyboard Module, and you can enable it by going to System Settings > Keyboard > Virtual Keyboard. The team has also removed an "accusatory" message from Plasma 6.7 that appeared when users tried to save a system color scheme.
What happened at Microsoft this week
For those wondering what happened under the Redmond giant"s roof this week, Office apps are getting an easy way to share documents, Patch Tuesday improves File Explorer, a highly requested Windows 11 taskbar feature is returning, and Microsoft finally fixed an obvious flaw in its Office apps.
Other than that, a new Windows 12 File Explorer concept surfaced online, which makes the current one look ancient. You can check out Taras"s freshly baked Microsoft Weekly roundup to catch up on all the interesting stories this week.
Perplexity"s Personal Computer
Every tech company next door is trying to build AI agents, and Perplexity is no different. The company announced its second AI assistant, called Personal Computer, at the Ask 2026 developer conference. It runs on a Mac mini to help you with research, writing emails, preparing morning briefs, and other actions. You can power the AI agent with the latest frontier models, including Gemini, Claude, or Grok, and deploy multiple models to talk to each other.
Full-screen Xbox Mode, Project Helix
Windows 11 is about to get more gaming-friendly, as Microsoft is readying a full-screen Xbox gaming experience that lets you jump into games whenever you want. Already available on the Asus Xbox ROG Ally, the Xbox mode will arrive on all Windows 11 form factors in April 2026, including laptops, desktops, and tablets.
Sharing bits on the next-generation Xbox, Microsoft confirmed that Project Helix will be powered by a custom AMD SoC (system-on-chip) with support for multi-frame generation, along with massive improvements in ray-tracing performance.
NVIDIA GeForce NOW upgrades, new driver
Another update to GeForce NOW adds new titles like Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (check out our review below) and John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando. NVIDIA announced upgrades to VR gaming on Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, and Pico, enabling 90fps streaming with the Ultimate membership.
Meanwhile, its latest WHQL-certified 595.79 Game Ready driver added support for two highly anticipated games: Crimson Desert from Pearly Abyss and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach PC port from Sony and Kojima Productions. These titles will support DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation for the RTX 50 series.
What else in gaming?
The latest issue of Pulasthi"s Weekend PC Game Deals curates a number of multiplayer games on sale this week. EA"s major free trial offer will bring Battlefield 6 next week on March 17 at 5 AM PT. Xbox Free Play Days is back with another round of games, including Diablo IV and Killing Floor 3, among various titles.
Epic Games announced that V-Bucks, the virtual currency in Fortnite, will become more expensive starting this month. Capcom revealed that it has big plans for Resident Evil Requiem, which was released about two weeks ago and sold over five million copies.
That said, here are some more stories from the gaming world:
- Minecraft Live showcase announced for next week as Mojang teases "Secret Stuff"
- Beaver-themed city-builder Timberborn exits early access with a massive update
- Cozy Grove and Isonzo are free to claim on the Epic Games Store
From the review corner
This week, Steven got his hands on the "no nonsense does what it says" GMKtech AD-GP1 eGPU docking station, powered by the Radeon RX 7600M XT with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. Tested with the M7 Ultra Mini PC, the dock turns it into a capable gaming PC for less than the cost of its desktop equivalent. However, AD-GP1 seems to struggle with heat dissipation due to its short rubber standoffs, and it doesn"t ship with an instruction manual in the box or on its official website.
GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition
GEEKOM refreshed its mini PC once again, this time with a new CPU, calling it the "2026 Edition." Steven published his review of the GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition; it"s a 652g device fitted with AMD Ryzen™ 5 7530U, AMD Radeon Graphics (Vega 7), 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM, Bluetooth 5.2, and Wi-Fi 6. It has an all-metal build with a tiny footprint and can connect to up to four screens at a time. However, the lack of a USB-C port on the front, the DDR4 memory, and the old Vega 7 iGPU are the turn-offs.
Cuktech 15 Air
Taras" latest review toy was the Cuktech 15 Air power bank, offering a stylish design, 15,000 mAh capacity, and silicon-carbon batteries that can support 100W fast charging. It comes with a 1.15 ft 240W cable in the box, but the device"s output is a bit of a turn-off at 65W, considering the power bank sits on the higher end of the price spectrum. However, it justifies the $79.99 price tag by using high-quality materials and cutting-edge battery tech.
Monster Hunter Stories 3
In the gaming zone, Pulasthi published his review of Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, calling it a "high-stakes combat meets addictive monster taming." The franchise has given back-to-back blockbuster releases in the past decade. Its new title features a complex but rewarding combat system, interesting questlines and side-stories, satisfying monster min-maxing, anime-like visual style, and unobstructive menus. However, it doesn"t seem friendly to newcomers, and the number of systems could get overwhelming.
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:
- Sennheiser HD 599 open-back audiophile headphones for $135.99 (43% off)
- D-Link Nuclias Connect AX3000 for $69.99 (50% off)
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800XD 8-core 16-thread AM5 CPU for $429.99 (50% off)
- Samsung HW-Q910D 9.1.2 ch Soundbar for $699.95 (46% off)
- Beats Studio Pro Noise-cancelling headphones for $169.95 (51% off)
- Anker Prime 3-in-1 wireless charging station for $115.99 (23% off)
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.