eBay's board of directors today rejected GameStop's $55.5 billion offer to buy the company.

"We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive," eBay Chairman Paul Pressler wrote in a letter to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen. Pressler said the board and its independent advisors thoroughly reviewed GameStop's unsolicited bid and found numerous problems.

"We have taken into account such factors as 1) eBay's standalone prospects, 2) the uncertainty regarding your financing proposal, 3) the impact of your proposal on eBay's long-term growth and profitability, 4) the leverage, operational risks, and leadership structure of a combined entity, 5) the resulting implications of these factors on valuation, and 6) GameStop's governance and executive incentives," Pressler said.

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Google took its first swing at laptops with Chromebooks way back in 2011 . These web-first laptops have seen success over the years, mostly in enterprise and education. Google insists Chromebooks aren't going away, but the company's focus has shifted to something new: Googlebooks. That's what Google has decided to call the new line of Android-powered laptops, which will begin shipping later this year.

If you thought other Google products were steeped in Gemini, you haven't seen anything yet.

Google says it designed Googlebooks from the ground up with Gemini Intelligence, and it all starts with the cursor. Google calls this the Magic Pointer. Just wiggle the cursor back and forth, and it will activate a full-screen Gemini experience. The AI will see what's on your screen so it can make contextual suggestions and pull in data from multiple apps.

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Google's I/O conference is next week, and we expect to hear a lot about the company's AI endeavors. The company says there's so much to talk about that it's spilling the Android beans a little early, and yes, a lot of AI is involved. In the coming months, Google will roll out more smartphone AI features under the Gemini Intelligence banner, bringing more automation and customization to your phone.

App automation will be a major element of Android going forward, Google says. Automation for apps is expanding after Google began testing it earlier in 2026 with DoorDash and Uber on Pixel and Samsung phones. It was a very frustrating experience at launch, but Google says it has spent the intervening months fine-tuning the system.

Google promises that Android will be able to handle more complex automations across apps. For example, the robot could find a course syllabus in Gmail and then hop to a shopping app to add the necessary books to your shopping cart. Google also suggests taking a picture of a travel brochure and telling Gemini to book something similar in the Expedia app.

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Amazon employees are using an internal AI tool to automate non-essential tasks in a bid to show managers they are using the technology more frequently.

The Seattle-based group has started to widely deploy its in-house “MeshClaw” product in recent weeks, allowing employees to create AI agents that can connect to workplace software and carry out tasks on a user’s behalf, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Some employees said colleagues were using the software to automate additional, unnecessary AI activity to increase their consumption of tokens—units of data processed by models.

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For the third time in three years, SpaceX has stacked a new version of its enormous Starship rocket on a launch pad in South Texas, just a few miles north of the US-Mexico border. The newest-generation Starship, known as Starship Version 3, is taller and more powerful than the ones that came before it.

The upgrades on Starship are numerous. Perhaps the most notable changes are higher-thrust, more efficient Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, a new reusable lattice-like structure at the top of the booster for hot staging, and three—not four—modified grid fins to help bring the first stage back to Earth for recovery and reuse.

If all goes according to plan, this is the version of Starship that SpaceX will use to begin experimenting with in-orbit refueling, a capability engineers must master before sending ships anywhere farther than low-Earth orbit. In the near-term, refueling will enable Starships to fly to the Moon to serve as landers for NASA's Artemis program. Starship remains an iterative development program, and new versions are in the pipeline, but Starship V3 should mark a step toward SpaceX actually using Starships in space, rather than solely proving they can get there and get home.

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Linux users have been bitten by yet another vulnerability that gives containers and untrusted users the ability to gain root access, marking the second time in as many weeks that a severe threat has caught defenders off guard.

The threat, known as Dirty Frag, allows low-privilege users, including those using virtual machines, to gain root control of servers. Attacks are particularly suitable in shared environments, where a server is used by multiple parties. Hackers can also gain root as long as they have access to a separate exploit that gives a toehold into a machine. Exploit code was leaked online three days ago and works reliably across virtually all Linux distributions. Microsoft has said it has spotted signs that hackers are experimenting with Dirty Frag in the wild.

Immediate and significant threat

The leaked exploit is deterministic, meaning it works precisely the same way each time it’s run and across different Linux distributions. It causes no crashes, making it stealthy to run. A vulnerability known as Copy Fail, disclosed last week with no patches available to end users, possesses the same characteristics.

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Audi provided flights from Washington, DC, to Munich, Germany, and accommodation so Ars could see the new Q9 (and drive something you can read about later). Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

MUNICH—Later this summer, Audi will unveil its new flagship model. In the past, that role had been filled by the A8 , but that was before SUVs found so much favor; even in Europe, a majority of car buyers now swing that way. But forget Europe for a moment. The new Q9 is Audi's first full-size SUV, underscoring the importance of the North American market. Late in development, the company even redesigned the cupholders to fit those giant insulated mugs that briefly became a retail obsession.

We can only show this exterior-camouflaged Q9 for now, but the photos show the production interior. Or at least that's one of the possible trims; if you want the interior to evoke more of an Endor or Tatooine feel rather than Mustafar, there are beiges and browns, including an interesting open-grain olive wood alternative to the coarse carbon fiber you see here. The mix of different textures really helps elevate the Q9's interior, which leaves glossy finishes behind in favor of matte wherever possible.

The view up front was inspired by the way the brand's 2021 Grandsphere concept wrapped its dash around front seat occupants. The Grandsphere didn't have to rely on actually available technology, and it didn't bother with screens for the future it was imagined for. The Q9 doesn't have that luxury, but it does have acres of digital real estate. The main instrument display and infotainment screens curve around the driver, but they aren't particularly tall, so you have a clear view down the hood over the interaction light that runs along the base of the windshield and provides an additional visual cue when you use your turn signals or hazard lights.

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The Federal Communications Commission is relenting a bit on its restrictive router rules, saying it will allow foreign-made routers to receive software and firmware updates until at least January 1, 2029. The FCC also expanded the waiver to cover more types of software updates.

Previously, the FCC said routers currently on the market or already sold to consumers could receive security patches and other updates only until March 1, 2027. On Friday, the agency announced a waiver extension that lets devices receive updates until January 1, 2029, and said the waiver may eventually become permanent.

The software-update cutoff date is part of a sweeping set of rules the FCC announced in March. Claiming that restrictions are needed for national security reasons, the FCC imposed a ban on new hardware and related limits on software updates for routers that were authorized for sale before the ban was implemented.

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A curious case in Georgia serves as a warning for many parts of the US hastily approving data center developments without first updating their water systems to better monitor for severe upticks in usage.

On Friday, Politico reported that one of the country's biggest data center developments had guzzled nearly 30 million gallons of water without paying for it. Even worse, the water grab came at a time when nearby drought-stricken residents were warned to restrict their personal water consumption and some reported sudden decreases in water pressure.

An investigation conducted by utility officials in Georgia's Fayette County found that the Quality Technology Services (QTD) facility had two industrial-scale water hookups that weren't being monitored. "One water connection had been installed without the utility’s knowledge, and the other was not linked to the company’s account and therefore wasn’t being billed," Politico reported.

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