Technologies

Google Reportedly Working on a Mysterious ‘Magic View’ for NotebookLM

The new feature resembles a Lite Brite, but don’t expect it immediately.

Google is continually expanding and strengthening the features for NotebookLM, its free AI-powered research assistant. An upcoming feature, code-named Magic View, should eventually land in the Studio panel alongside popular features like Audio and Video Overviews.

At the moment, there’s no clear indication as to what Magic View is (or will do) when it formally arrives in NotebookLM, but it’s clear that Google keeps improving what I’d consider its best AI tool available today.

The leak comes from the AI news site, Testing Catalog, which has spotted several upcoming NotebookLM features through feature flag analysis and code review. A representative for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google officially released Video Overviews in late July, bringing a more visual approach to its successful Audio Overview feature that has since expanded into several other products in the tech giant’s portfolio. Whatever the actual function of the upcoming Magic View, it seems to be part of Google’s effort to visualize your data sources.

Remember Lite Brite?

A screenshot grabbed by Testing Catalog shows Magic View as a dotted grid with plot points filled in with different colors. If you remember the kids’ toy Lite Brite, it sort of looks like that, but with a larger grid.

The plot points could represent an assortment of potential things, but we’ll hold any specific guesses until the picture becomes clearer. According to Testing Catalog, it could «take the form of a game, an app, or something more experimental.» It wouldn’t be surprising if Magic View was focused on learning or aimed at students, as this is where NotebookLM shines.

Like most features within the Studio panel of NotebookLM, Magic View will be a feature you can optionally generate. It appears that it’ll be nestled under a Notebook Apps dropdown, which is also new. We’d expect upcoming flash cards and interactive quizzes to find a home here, too.

There’s no date for the release since nothing has been announced, but don’t expect it soon. If it were built out further, we would likely have a better idea of its function within the code. Since it’s not, the feature is probably in early development.

For more, don’t miss the 11 things for which you should stop using ChatGPT.

Technologies

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Leak Claims Nov. 14 Release Date, No Switch 2 Version Yet

What new conspiracies will be revealed in Black Ops 7?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be the next entry in Activision’s military shooter series, which typically comes out in October every year, making it one of the last big game releases before Black Friday. A leak suggests that the new CoD might come out a little later than usual, but still in time for the big shopping day.

Black Ops 7 will reportedly be released on Nov. 14, according to a leaker who goes by the name billbil-kun from a post on the French website Dealabs. Along with the supposed release date, the leak says there will not be a Switch 2 version when the game launches.

A spokesperson for the franchise said in an emailed statement that details about Black Ops 7 will be revealed at Gamescom Opening Night, which is this coming Tuesday, Aug. 19.

The Call of Duty series release dates typically straddle the late October and early November period. The last CoD game to come out mid-November was Black Ops Cold War, which was released on Nov. 13, 2020. It’s unclear if the later release was due in part to Battlefield 6 coming out on Oct. 10, which would allow for some time between the releases of the two popular military FPS games.

The lack of a Switch 2 version at launch could mean that the team working on that version of the game needed some more time before its release. While the original Switch has become too underpowered for modern games, Nintendo boosted the performance of the Switch 2, which makes it capable of running more graphics-intensive games, potentially including Call of Duty. Black Ops 7 will still likely be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S on launch day as it is every year.

In Black Ops 7, players will jump into the role of David Mason, played by Milo Ventimiglia. The year is 2035, and Mason is struggling with hallucinations of enemies from his past. The character was first introduced in 2012’s Black Ops 2 and was also in 2024’s Black Ops 6.

While other Call of Duty games tend to focus on certain eras of warfare, such as World War II and the Iraq War, the Black Ops series focuses on secret missions typically conducted by the US and range from the Cold War era to more modern and even futuristic times. Black Ops 2 took place in 2025, while Black Ops 6 was set in 1991.

Technologies

Beijing’s ‘Robot Olympics’ Are Off and Running (and Falling)

Strike up the Chariots of Fire theme and grab a flag, the futuristic Games are on.

China just turned a pair of Olympic venues into a playground for robots.

The inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, running from Aug. 15-17, opened Friday with soccer, sprints, kickboxing and table tennis, as well as a healthy number of face-plants. The games feature 280 robot teams from 16 countries and hundreds of bipedal bots vying for medals and whatever passes for bragging rights to robots.

Events are split between two 2022 Winter Olympics landmarks: China’s National Stadium and the National Speed Skating Oval. On the schedule: track and field, football (soccer to Americans), table tennis, and «scenario» trials such as medicine sorting, cleaning services and industrial handling—the kind of practical skills that robot-makers actually care about.

The highlight reel revealed more chaos than control: robots colliding mid-match, sprinters crumpling mid-stride and kickboxers needing a reboot. But there were bright spots, too. Some bots popped back to their feet unassisted and even finished middle-distance runs as handlers puffed behind them. There was even a 1,500-meter race. Tickets ran 128–580 yuan (about $18–$81).

The robot athletes are supplied by a combination of academia and industry, including China’s Unitree and Fourier, with squads also from the US, Germany, Brazil, Japan and more. Organizers pitch the weekend as data collection under pressure, with sports forcing the robots to demonstrate balance, vision and decision-making, all of which later will translate over to the robot’s work in factories, logistics and as home helpers.

China is using the Games to showcase its bet on embodied AI — software linked to machines that can navigate human spaces. The country has poured billions of dollars into robotics and is planning a 1-trillion-yuan ( about $137 billion) fund for startups as part of a push to counter an aging-workforce crunch and compete in advanced manufacturing.

Rules vary by event, but organizers say competitions span autonomous control and remote operation: either way, no mid-match «player swaps» for fresh robots are allowed. That means lots of stress testing on robot batteries, heat management and recovery behaviors in real-time chaos.

The Associated Press has streamed some of the Games if you want to check it out.

The event runs through Aug. 17.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Aug. 16, #1519

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle, No. 1,519 for Saturday, Aug. 16.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle was a puzzler for me. I know the answer word, and the letters aren’t super-rare, but I didn’t seem to be able to put them in the right places. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.