IT Today: Essential Technology News (August 2025)

You may have recently heard about Sohon Pere, the software engineer who managed to work simultaneously and secretly at several top jobs in Silicon Valley, juggling offers from companies such as Playground AI and earning an annual income of over a million dollars. Although such “juicy” stories are fascinating and say a lot about the current state of the tech market, they are only a small part of the technological landscape. 

To successfully navigate this ever-changing field, you need information that really matters. That’s why, here on the NewTech Academy blog, we are launching a new monthly series: “IT Today: Essential Technology News.” Each month, we will present a selection of news and trends from the key areas we follow closely: cybersecurity, digital marketing, web development, AI, and UX/UI. Our promise is simple: to deliver the essentials, filter out the noise, and keep you up to date with the innovations that will shape your career. Onward and upward!

AI News

ChatGPT Introduces “Study Mode” for Guided Learning

OpenAI has launched “Study Mode” in ChatGPT, a feature that turns the chatbot into an interactive tutor. Instead of providing direct answers, the mode guides users step by step through the problem-solving process, using Socratic dialogue to encourage critical thinking and stimulate a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Perplexity Launches Comet, an AI Browser that Will Compete with Google Chrome

Comet, currently available only on a waiting list, is a web browser that integrates an AI assistant directly into the interface. Built on Chromium, Comet not only searches for information but also automates complex tasks such as scheduling meetings, filling out forms, or even placing food orders, representing a strategic step beyond simple online search.

Meta Launches AI Chatbots with Celebrity Personalities

Meta has announced the launch of AI chatbots with personalities inspired by celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner, and Naomi Osaka. These virtual assistants, integrated into WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, are designed to provide more entertaining and personalized interactions: Snoop Dogg is the “Dungeon Master” and assists gamers, former NBA star Dwyane Wade is “Victor” and helps users get more exercise, and Kendall Jenner will be “Billie,” meaning “big sis.”

Digital Marketing News

New Rules in SEO: From Semantic Content to the Importance of Soft 404 Errors

SEJ describes how Google uses tokenization to understand content semantically. Focusing on useful topics is currently essential in SEO, a big difference from the now bygone era when keyword research and exact keyword matching dominated content marketing. At the same time, “soft 404” errors are considered critical because they unnecessarily consume the crawl budget and can negatively affect the indexing of valuable pages.

When Agentic AI Does Your Shopping: How Will Online Stores Survive?

Valentin Radu from Omniconvert predicts that autonomous AI assistants will soon revolutionize e-commerce by shopping directly for us. Activated by voice, they will completely ignore the website design, interacting directly with APIs for instant decisions. Online advertising is transforming as a result of this trend, and the future winners will be those who master this new layer of technological data.

Marketing Departments Are Embracing Generative AI En Masse

A Gartner survey reveals that 63% of marketing leaders plan to invest in GenAI over the next two years. Despite the fact that Martech technology (the ecosystem of applications and systems used by marketers), where owned by companies, is currently underutilized (only 33% of capacity), most practitioners (56%) are still joining the race to adopt increasingly sophisticated technologies and believe that the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, signaling a strategic reorientation of budgets.

Cybersecurity News

Shade BIOS: The New Technique that Makes Malware Completely Invisible to Security

Researchers have developed “Shade BIOS”, a method of running malware in the BIOS environment, even after the operating system has booted up. The technique tricks the system into keeping the BIOS active in memory, creating a parallel attack environment that is completely invisible and inaccessible to any security solution (antivirus, EDR), allowing undetectable malicious code to be executed.

Double-Masked Phishing: Attackers Abuse Security Services to Steal Passwords

Cybersecurity experts have discovered a new phishing tactic that has affected hundreds of systems globally, using multi-level redirect chains to steal Microsoft 365 credentials. This attack exploits the “link wrapping” feature of security services such as Proofpoint. Attackers compromise protected accounts so that their links are automatically masked by a trusted URL. Using redirect chains (sometimes via Bitly), they bypass security filters to lead victims to fake pages designed to steal Microsoft 365 account credentials.

A Cybersecurity Paradox: The Digital Generation Is The Most Vulnerable

Contrary to common perception, recent data from Deloitte and Kaspersky show that young people (Gen Z) are up to twice as vulnerable to cyberattacks as older generations. This phenomenon can be explained by two main factors: first, their familiarity with technology leads to a false sense of security and risky behavior (quick clicks, reuse of passwords). Second, economic pressures cause them to have multiple jobs, which multiplies the number of online accounts and exposure to phishing, increasing the risk for employers as well.

Programming News

Apple Has Launched a Linux Containerization Framework for Mac

Among the most important announcements at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2025 was the launch of the Linux containerization framework for Mac OS. This native containerization framework is optimized for Apple Silicon and allows native container execution on Macs, with the potential to outperform tools such as Docker.

Gemini’s AI Coding Assistant is Now Available Free of Charge to Individual Users

Google has launched a free version of its AI programming tool, Gemini Code Assist, aimed at individual developers. The main advantage is the extremely generous usage limit: 180,000 code completions per month, 90 times more than its direct competitor, GitHub Copilot. The tool, integrated into VS Code and JetBrains, helps generate and deploy code.

GitHub Copilot has Surpassed 20 Million Total Users

With rapid growth of 5 million in the last quarter and 90% adoption among Fortune 100 companies, GitHub Copilot’s success confirms that AI programming tools are a lucrative and highly competitive market. Powerful rivals such as Cursor, Google, and Cognition (Devin) are fighting for supremacy, developing AI agents that can automate the work of programmers.

UI/UX Design News

Liquid Glass, a New Language in Interface Design

Apple introduced a design language called “Liquid Glass” in iOS 26, which is essentially a rebranding of the glassmorphism concept, with an emphasis on transparency. This style is similar to what Microsoft tried with Windows Vista over a decade ago.

Why “Move Fast and Break Things” Is a Mistake: A Plea for Perfectionism

Jack Vanstone, founder of the NaughtyDuk agency, presents a work philosophy that goes against the industry trend, advocating the principle of “quality over speed.” He argues that an integrated approach, from design to infrastructure, and perfectionism lead to superior results. Specializing in entertainment, they also offer the community open-source tools such as LiquidGL, a GitHub library built on Liquid Glass.

AI in Design: a Tool, Not a Strategist

An experienced designer explains to UX Magazine the real impact of AI in this field. Although artificial intelligence accelerates processes such as research and drafting, its value lies in being a tool, not a strategist. He emphasizes that designers must validate AI-generated data, think strategically (bird’s-eye view), and continue to apply fundamental design principles, as human intuition and deep user understanding remain essential.

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Beyond the industry news and technical updates we have covered, we want you to leave each article with a positive mindset. Because we know that rapid changes in the landscape of work and life, driven by technological advances, can sometimes be overwhelming, we offer you an inexhaustible source of inspiration for resilience: the timeless wisdom of the Stoics.

Here are a few lessons on how to move forward, from the Daily Stoic: 

Ancient wisdom teaches us that perseverance is not just about enduring hardship, but about facing it while keeping your character and dignity intact. Among the key lessons of this philosophy is Amor Fati (actively accepting the circumstances of life, or fate, without fighting them or adopting a defeatist attitude). The Stoics propose that we give up the lamentations that weaken us, act so as not to surrender control of our suffering, and, above all, replace the emotional judgments that torture us with objective facts. In this way, we remember that we can always be in control: not of events, but of the way we choose to respond to them. 

See you soon!