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• goo.gl links will stop working on August 25, 2025
• Some users were being blocked from creating new goo.gl links years ago
• Google began warning users the links would stop working in 2024

A little over a year the company confirmed Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available, Google is still sticking to its guns, meaning we're just weeks away from the end of goo.gl links.

From August 25, 2025, all goo.gl links will stop working, returning an 404 error. This comes around a year after interstitial warning pages started appearing for some goo.gl links, stating that they would stop working soon.

Google had already closed down the goo.gl URL shortener in 2019 due to changes in how people find content online, with 99% of goo.gl links reporting no activity in June 2024.

goo.gl links will stop working from August 25

URL shorteners have generally become less relevant, however developers could still see some impact from their deprecation. For example, goo.gl links embedded in 302 redirects or with social metadata may fail to function correctly.

Interestingly, links from Google apps like Maps will continue to work, even after the shutdown.

Although users were able to bypass the interstitial page by adding the query param “si=1” to existing goo.gl links, the impending deprecation means that users and developers will now need to transition their links to another URL shortener or risk disruptions.

The Google URL Shortener lived for a relatively short nine years, from 2009 to 2018. When the company first confirmed anonymous and new users would no longer be able to create new goo.gl links starting April 13, 2018, it pointed users in the direction of bit.ly and ow.ly.

Although tech companies often get slated for enacting pretty major changes with insufficient notice, goo.gl users have had around seven years to get ready for the change, and with fewer than 1% of goo.gl links reporting activity a year ago, the impacts are likely to be minimal.

Anyone looking to re-situate or re-build their online presence should check out our list of the best website builders around, as well as advice on how to choose a domain name for your website.

Via The Verge

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• GitHub wants the EU to create a Sovereign Tech Fund for OSS maintenance
• Microsoft hasn't committed to any contributions as yet
• GitHub says OSS is crucial infrastructure, just like roads

Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub is urging the European Union to establish a publicly funded Sovereign Tech Fund to support open source software (OSS) maintenance.

GitHub Director of Developer Policy Felix Reda explained in a blog post that open source continues to be underfunded, and that the public sector could get involved to help financially support development.

The proposal is based on a study commissioned by GitHub and conducted by Open Forum Europe, Fraunhofer ISI and the European University Institute, and describes open source software a critical digital infrastructure that economies and societies rely on.

GitHub wants the EU to fund open-source development

Reda, together with the research, noted open source remains underfunded compared with traditional, physical infrastructure like roads, despite contributing €65-95 billion annually to the EU economy, and up to $8.8 trillion globally.

The survey showed one in three open source software maintainers are unpaid, with another one in three unable to make a living solely from their open source work.

As such, GitHub is proposing that the EU adds €350 million to its budget to fund open-source software maintenance. National governments and industries should also contribute to funding, GitHub believes, although the Microsoft-owned company has not volunteered any contributions itself.

GitHub identified five key investment areas, including: identifying critical EU OSS dependencies; investing in OSS maintenance; funding OSS security improvements; supporting project enhancements; and strengthening the overall OSS ecosystem.

Supporting GitHub's argument, Mercedes-Benz Chief Software Officer Magnus Östberg wrote: "Without sustainable funding and support, it is entirely foreseeable that ever more open source software projects will not receive the diligence and scrutiny appropriate for software of such criticality."

With the first legislative proposals for the EU budget "hit[ting] the desks" of the European Parliament and the national governments in the Council of Ministers, GitHub is urging the community to voice their support for the Sovereign Tech Fund.

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• Assassin's Creed Shadows is getting a bunch of updates throughout the year
• It starts with a New Game Plus update next week
• Further changes and an expansion are set to arrive in September

Ubisoft has provided a huge update for Assassin's Creed Shadows' upcoming content roadmap.

Revealed in a post to the official series website, the 'summer roadmap' begins with a progression update, arriving next week on July 29. Headlining this update is the arrival of New Game Plus, which lets players carry over character level, gear, skill points, Hideout progression and knowledge rank into a new game after they've rolled credits.

The progression update also brings a level cap increase from 60 to 80, new knowledge ranks, a new forge level and the addition of more achievements and trophies (depending on your platform of choice).

At the start of September (date TBC), Ubisoft will bring a 'quality-of-life improvement update' to Assassin's Creed Shadows. This free update will finally allow players to fast forward the time of day, 'unfog' the world map, and bring more Hideout and general content updates.

This update will also uncap the frame rate in cutscenes, though this is a feature that will only be found in the PC version of the game.

Lastly, on September 16, Assassin's Creed Shadows will receive its first story expansion. Known as Claws of Awaji, the expansion adds a new region to explore, as well as all-new weapons, abilities, gear, and enemies.

Ubisoft claims the expansion will add more than ten hours of content, and will unlock only after you've beaten the base game story. Likely, this means the expansion will carry on the story from the original ending.

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• The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could have a wider aperture for two of its cameras
• It might also be thinner and lighter than the S25 Ultra, and have faster charging
• However, the main sensor might not change, and there are disagreements over whether the battery will increase in size

There has been a flurry of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra rumors in the last day or so, and they’re largely promising – pointing to improved cameras, higher charging speeds, and more, but there are some elements to the tips that sound less positive.

Starting with the cameras, reputable tipster @UniverseIce has claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will have a new lens with a wider aperture for its main 200MP camera. This should improve low light photos in particular, but they suggest all kinds of photos taken with this lens will benefit, with this apparently being “the most obvious upgrade since the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.”

So that certainly sounds promising, though what’s less promising is that this new lens apparently won’t be paired with a new sensor, with the ISOCELL HP2 supposedly being used again.

BREAKING！Galaxy S26 Ultra :HP2+ large aperture ！will greatly increase the light input, improve the dim light quality, and improve all existing problems. The actual effect it brings will be the most obvious upgrade since Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.July 25, 2025

The same source has made numerous other claims about the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra over on Chinese social media site Weibo, including that its 50MP 5x telephoto camera will also apparently have a wider aperture than on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

On the same site they’ve also said that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will be under 8mm thick, which is down from 8.2mm for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It will also apparently be a few grams lighter than the 218g Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Faster charging and a debated capacity

Sadly though, in slimming the phone down Samsung might not be leaving space for a larger battery, with this source also claiming that will once again come in at 5,000mAh. But it will apparently at least charge at a higher 60W – up from 45W on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

And there is some disagreement on the battery side of things, with leaker @chunvn8888 claiming the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra will actually have a larger 5,500mAh battery and 65W charging.

They also have a solid track record, though given Samsung’s seeming reluctance to go beyond 5,000mAh batteries, we suspect @UniverseIce is right in this instance.

We’ll probably find out for sure in early 2026, as that’s when the entire Samsung Galaxy S26 line is likely to launch.

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• Most firms fail high-severity compliance checks, report claims
• Many fall short at critical levels, putting them at risk
• Misconfigured firewalls could lead to downtime and cyberattacks

Firewalls are a staple of corporate cybersecurity and, next to multi-factor authentication (MFA) and endpoint protection solutions - essentials in every security tech stack.

However, how many companies run a misconfigured firewall which gets in the way instead of helping?

A new report from FireMon found 60% of enterprise firewalls fail high-severity compliance checks “immediately upon evaluation”, with another third (34%) “failing short at critical levels”.

How to stay safe?

For the researchers, this is a sign of deeper governance issues that could result in audit failures, operational downtime, or increased threat exposure.

The problems are not contained to a single environment - on-prem, cloud, and hybrid, all suffer from the same woes - misconfigurations, outdated rules, and bloated policies, leading to reduced performance, compliance risks, and more.

FireMon found that 95% of application objects and 82% of service objects show zero usage, which means they are unnecessary overhead and are just expanding the attack surface.

A third (30%) of firewall rules are completely unused, too , with 62.6% lacking any owner or documentation, leading to audit gaps and operational blind spots.

Finally, more than 10% of rules are either redundant or shadowed, reducing performance and hiding dangerous misconfigurations.

“Firewall complexity isn’t just a configuration issue, it’s a threat to resilience and trust,” said Jody Brazil, CEO and founder at FireMon. “Security teams are buried under policies they can’t explain, map to business objectives, or manage at scale.

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• Intel plans to cut even more workers by the end of the year
• Its most recent quarterly revenue was better than anticipated
• Other cost-cutting measures are being used

Intel is reportedly planning to reduce its workforce by around 15% by the end of 2025, bringing total headcount to the 75,000 mark.

Thousands of Intel workers have already lost their jobs in 2025, including a staggering 22,000 in April and a further 5,000 in July.

Intel has described the changes as cost-cutting efforts, through which it hopes to reduce middle management layers that cause operational efficiencies.`

Intel continues to cut jobs

Despite the economic challenges it faces, Intel managed to post a flat year-over-year quarterly revenue, at $12.9 billion, however the period saw the company rack up an estimated $1.9 billion in restructuring charges.

Speaking about Intel's second quarter, new CEO Lip-Bu Tan praised the company's performance: "We delivered revenue above the high end of our guidance, reflecting solid demand and execution across the business."

"The changes we are making to reduce our operating costs, improve our capital efficiency and monetize non-core assets are having a positive impact as we work to strengthen our balance sheet and position the business for the future," CFO David Zinsner added.

Besides tackling inefficiencies by removing thousands of workers, Tan is also an office-working advocate, citing enhanced productivity as a key reason behind the company's recently adjusted return-to-office policy which he says is "on track" for a September 2025 implementation.

In his letter to company workers, Tan explained Intel had previously invested "too much, too soon" in its foundry businesses, and that some changes would be coming that way.

Previously planned projects in Germany and Poland have been pulled, while assembly and test operations in Costa Rica will be consolidated to Vietnam and Malaysia.

Tan stressed that Intel remains committed to its x86 chips, like Panther Lake and Nova Lake consumer and enterprise models and the data centre-destined Granite Rapids.

"We must continue acting with urgency, discipline and focus in everything we do," he concluded.

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The complex settlement allowed both sides to claim victory. It gives the university access to federal funds that had been frozen, and restores some terminated contracts.

Too often, organizations still delay serious conversations about compliance until they’ve reached a certain size or revenue milestone. But this reactive approach is inherently risky; recent SurveyMonkey data shows that 52% of UK businesses have experienced data-related issues since GDPR came into effect seven years ago. Addressing the issue only after it becomes a legal or reputational crisis is, quite simply, too late.

Data protection isn’t merely a big business issue, and it should not be only a legal or IT concern; it is an organization-wide responsibility for every business. Yet, many companies focus exclusively on appointing a team or employee with special responsibility for privacy, or on purchasing automation tooling and frameworks.

In doing so, they overlook the most critical component: without a strong culture, even the most robust tools and policies fall flat. Culture, not just compliance, is what truly transforms policy into sustained practice.

Data protection is everyone’s responsibility

One of the most common misconceptions about data protection is that it belongs solely to legal, compliance, or IT teams. In reality, nearly every department interacts with sensitive data daily. Marketing teams manage customer preferences, procurement assesses third-party vendors' system access, and product teams collect user insights. Even frontline employees, increasingly using AI tools, can inadvertently expose data. It’s not about how many employees you have, but the volume and sensitivity of the data you manage, and how exposed that makes your organization.

That’s why data protection must be treated as a shared, organization-wide responsibility. The goal isn’t to turn everyone into a compliance expert, but to foster shared understanding and accountability. This empowerment encourages teams to proactively flag issues, without fear of blame, when something doesn’t feel right, and to educate on the pathways for escalation. Such vigilance significantly bolsters an organization's defenses and reactions to both malicious cyberattacks and human error.

Crucially, businesses shouldn’t wait until they’ve scaled to embed this mindset. The earlier organizations integrate accountability into their everyday thinking, the easier it becomes to maintain trust and mitigate risk as it grows. However, even with shared responsibility in place, policies remain ineffective unless people truly understand why they matter.

Asking ‘why’ should sit at the heart of every data policy

A common challenge is that many employees don’t fully understand the fundamental importance of data protection. Everyone across an organization needs to understand the types of data they’re working with, the potential risks involved, and the guardrails in place to prevent misuse. Without a clear sense of purpose, data policies risk becoming an afterthought, or worse, a box-ticking exercise.

For data protection to be truly effective, leadership needs to define and communicate the ‘why’ of the organization’s data protection program and policies, and that should be embedded into the cultural fabric at every level—not just during formal training or audits, but in everyday discussions and decisions. Leaders play a crucial role in setting this tone by openly questioning the rationale behind data decisions and discussing their broader impact. Beyond leadership, businesses can actively create space for employees to ask questions by making the ‘why’ visible in practical ways.

This could mean gathering feedback from employees through a survey tool to understand how much employees understand privacy policies and decisions, incorporating short, plain-language explanations into every new policy rollout or tool to address knowledge gaps, detailing not just what the rule is, but why it exists. It could also involve having privacy champions or stewards who introduce regular ‘privacy moments’ in team meetings, where staff are encouraged to bring questions or explore hypothetical scenarios related to data use.

When employees grasp the ‘why’, understanding the potential risks to the business, customer trust, and legal standing becomes second nature, rather than a chore. Embedding this understanding into daily behavior starts with how we continuously train and support teams.

Continuous, role-specific training and awareness

Ongoing, tailored training is essential for effective data protection. By offering targeted training paths and regularly reinforcing policies, organizations can help employees stay ahead of evolving risks and technologies. This training should directly reflect the specific data challenges of each role: from marketing teams managing customer consent, to procurement staff assessing vendor risk, to developers handling user data securely, and beyond.

At a minimum, organizations should provide formal training every year, with shorter refreshers or updates quarterly for high-risk or data-heavy roles and privacy champions. Scenario-based exercises, such as simulated phishing attacks or breach response tabletops, help reinforce learning and build practical resilience. Regular touchpoints, whether through internal updates, team discussions, or quick tips, keep awareness high and help embed data protection into day-to-day thinking.

Prioritizing this continuous awareness not only ensures organizations are compliant today but also prepares them for the challenges of tomorrow. With 92% of UK business leaders saying strong data privacy gives them a competitive edge, this commitment to awareness reduces risk and also builds trust.

Ultimately, getting data protection right isn’t just about avoiding fines or ticking regulatory boxes; it’s about earning and maintaining trust. That means recognising it's a company-wide responsibility, clearly communicating the ‘why’ behind every policy, and equipping teams with role-specific training to stay ahead of evolving risks.

It also means ensuring accountability flows from both the top down and the bottom up. Whether you're a start-up or a scaling business, building this foundation early creates a safer, smarter, and more trusted organization.

Now is the time to invest in your data culture, not just the controls, because true protection starts with people.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

“It turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”

You wouldn’t expect to hear that from Steve Jobs, a man famous for his short temper and strong opinions. Yet as it turns out, being removed from his own company transformed Jobs, helping him grow into the creative force that, years later, would spawn world-changing products like the iPhone, the iPod, and the best Macs and MacBooks.

His ouster went down 40 years ago in 1985, and it’s worth looking back on what happened at that time and how it changed Jobs – and Apple, and perhaps even the wider computing world – for the better.

Far from being the end of the road for Jobs, this was just the beginning. After leaving Apple, he founded another computer company, NeXT, and later took the helm at Pixar. Under his watch, it became the foremost animation studio on the planet. In his absence, Apple lost its way, churning out uninspired products and coming within a hair’s breadth of going bankrupt.

Twelve years later, Jobs returned to Apple and led it to one of the most dazzlingly potent periods in its history. Yet that likely would never have happened had Jobs not been very publicly fired from his own company. Here, I want to show you why.

Showdown at Apple

(Image credit: Apple)

By the mid-1980s, Steve Jobs was running the Macintosh division at Apple, taking the lead on a product that would go on to change the world of computing forever.

At the same time, Apple was searching for a new CEO, and Jobs thought he had found one in the form of Pepsi marketing chief John Sculley. After luring Sculley in with his famous powers of persuasion (“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?” Jobs asked him), the new hire was on board.

But after a year-long honeymoon period, cracks began to appear. Jobs felt Sculley was not a 'product person' and simply didn't get his way of thinking. For Sculley, Jobs was too obsessive and obnoxious.

The showdown came in 1985, when disappointing sales of the Macintosh and Jobs’s chaotic management style led to questions over his leadership abilities. Although it was suggested that Jobs could run a small “skunkworks” team developing exciting new moonshot devices, Jobs rejected the idea, leading Sculley to conclude that he had to be forced out of the company.

Eventually, Sculley convinced the board to remove Jobs from his role as head of the Macintosh division, a plan that was executed over a few days in May 1985.

Jobs was given the symbolic role of Chairman of the Board, but it was a position with no actual power and influence inside Apple. He had been trapped inside the airlock, unable to influence the company or the direction it took. Jobs recognized this, and in September 1985, he left to form his own computing company called, fittingly enough, NeXT.

He was 30 years old and exiled from the successful company he had founded ten years earlier. For many people, it would be a chance to leave the industry and never look back. But for Jobs, it was the beginning of a learning process that brought him back stronger than ever.

Finding focus

(Image credit: Apple)

Jobs (unsurprisingly) took his firing very personally, feeling that he was both a personal failure and that he had let down those around him. Yet this didn't stop him from leading companies and getting hands-on with their operations.

At first, he exhibited some of his worst habits at NeXT. Released from the strictures of a board and CEO that didn’t look kindly on his antics, he indulged his taste for perfectionism at every turn, regardless of the cost or time implications.

As such, NeXT struggled to put out a competitive product on time and under budget. After a few years of little progress, it exited the hardware world altogether, instead focusing entirely on software. This would later prove to be a fortuitous decision.

But it was at Pixar that he truly turned things around. After becoming CEO, he took a more hands-off approach and focused on funding and dealing with Disney, with which Pixar had partnered to make films. Pixar was led by a team of artists and creatives – a class of people who Jobs truly admired – and he was happy to let them do their thing.

Pixar became the most important animation studio in the world, with a string of hits like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and A Bug’s Life. Jobs could marry technology with art – the thing he believed he was doing at Apple, and an idea that would define how he worked later in his life. Jobs had found a way to be focused, creative, and productive without imploding.

The value of being fired

(Image credit: Getty Images)

In the late 1990s, Sculley was gone and Apple was nearly bankrupt, but it had enough cash to buy NeXT and bring Jobs back on board, first as interim CEO, then as CEO in a full-time capacity. NeXT’s operating system – now part of Apple’s stable – went on to become the foundation of what we now know as macOS.

When Jobs returned to Apple, he was a changed man. Under his renewed leadership, the company went on an incredible creative tear: the iPhone, iMac, iPod, iTunes, and much more were produced under his watch. He not only brought Apple back from the dead, but made it one of the strongest – and hippest – tech companies in the business.

Yet Jobs believed that none of this could have happened if he had not been fired from Apple. As he said in the commencement address he gave at Stanford University in 2005, years after being ousted from his own company, “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

Perhaps the most important aspect was that Jobs realized he still loved what he was doing. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life,” he said, “and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

For Jobs, it took being fired from Apple to realize that. But things could have been very different if it had never happened at all.

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