Google's "Call Home" Is No Longer Available

BGR reported that several Google Home users noticed that a useful feature had suddenly vanished from the interface of the Google Home app. First introduced in 2019, Google's "Call Home" feature added support to directly call Google Home devices like the Nest Hub Max, allowing users to reach out to their home devices easily right from the app.

However, Google Home users over on Reddit noticed a couple of months ago that the feature seemed to have vanished from the app following recent updates. Even more reports started cropping up recently, too, with 9to5Google further corroborating the feature removal by digging through the app.

While the feature wasn't especially well known, it was useful. Some parents have even noted that it was the primary way they contacted their children at home, as it didn't require another device to be present in the home beyond their Google Home devices. Some even used it as a way to broadcast messages to their family throughout the house, making it easy to keep up with everyone.

This change comes right on the heels of Google's Gemini push in Google Home as it works to turn the AI assistant into a true Google Assistant replacement. For anyone that followed Assistant's downfall, you've likely become used to Google removing features as time goes on, with those features likely expected to return with the arrival of Gemini sometime in the future. Well, the AI-powered changes have already started rolling out to users, but we're still seeing useful features removed.

What's more frustrating for users about this recent change, though, is that Google continues to remove useful features without any warning.

One user on Reddit noted that they had were trying to be patient because of how much they'd invested in their smart home setup using Google. However, they did note that the "last straw" for them was when Google continued to remove features they used for no apparent reason, even pointing toward specific features like the ability to trigger automations using NFC tags.

Of course, whether or not the feature could make a comeback at any point is unclear. For now, it seems Google has removed it entirely, with the latest update officially pulling it out of the app for even more users. It might not have been the most popular feature, but those who did use it are definitely going to miss it.

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X Will Try To Counter Start-Up's Claim To "Twitter" Trademark

Despite changing its name and using decidedly bird-free branding, X wants to retail its hold to its original Twitter trademarks, TechCrunch reports. The xAI-owned social media platform has updated its terms of service to include references to Twitter after previously only mentioning X, and seemingly attempted to counter a startup's petition to cancel the company's Twitter trademarks with a petition of its own.

The startup X appears to be responding to is Operation Bluebird, a company cofounded by former Twitter general counsel Stephen Coates that went public last week with plans to capture what remains of Twitter for its own use. The first step in that process was filing a petition with the US Patents and Trademark Office to cancel X's control of Twitter’s trademarks.

"The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.’s products, services and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark," Operation Bluebird explained in the petition. "Petitioner seeks to use and register the TWITTER and TWEET brands for new products and services, including a social media platform that will be located at the website twitter.new."

In fairness to Operation Bluebird, Elon Musk was very open about his plan to abandon the Twitter name and bird logo after he acquired the company in 2022. "And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds," Musk posted in July 2022, not long before Twitter was rebranded to X. Even after the platform rebranded, though, at least one remnant of the original Twitter brand has stuck around: Twitter.com still redirects to X.com.

The updated terms of service TechCrunch spotted now say that as of 16 January 2025, "nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use the X name or Twitter name or any of the X or Twitter trademarks, logos, domain names, other distinctive brand features, and other proprietary rights, and you may not do so without our express written consent." The company's counterpetition also reiterates that the Twitter trademarks are X's "exclusive property."

In a statement to Engadget, Coates said that Operation Bluebird’s cancellation petition was "based on well-established trademark law" and that he believes the upstart will prevail. "X legally abandoned the TWITTER mark, publicly declared the Twitter brand ‘dead,’ and spent substantial resources establishing a new brand identity. Our cancellation petition is based on well-established trademark law and we believe we will be successful. They said goodbye. We say hello."

At the time of writing, Operation Bluebird has convinced over 145,200 people to claim a handle on the company's new social platform. Maybe X sees that early interest as a threat, but it's just as possible Operation Bluebird's public comments were enough to tip the company off so it could try to hold on to trademarks it clearly believes still hold some value.

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Microsoft Forced To Scale Down AI Sales Targets

Microsoft has reportedly reduced its sales targets for its agentic AI software after struggling to find buyers interested in using it.

In many cases, targets have been slashed by up to 50 percent, suggesting Microsoft overestimated the potential of its new AI tools. Indeed, compared with ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Copilot is falling behind, raising concerns about Microsoft's substantial AI investment.

Microsoft was an early investor in many of the latest AI companies. It ended up with a serious stake in OpenAI and benefited from early access to its models, creating Bing Chat and Copilot when Google, Meta, and Anthropic were just getting started. But now its momentum has stalled, and like everyone else, it's not making much money from its AI products. That's because no one is buying them, and that is because very few people actually find them useful, The Information reports.

"The Information’s story inaccurately combines the concepts of growth and sales quotas," Microsoft said in a very defensive statement (via Futurism), adding that "aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered."

Petulance aside, tests from earlier this year found that AI agents failed to complete tasks up to 70 percent of the time, making them almost entirely redundant as a workforce replacement tool. At best, they're a way for skilled employees to be more productive and save time on low-level tasks, but those tasks were already being handed off to lower-level employees. Having an AI do it and fail half the time isn't exactly a winning alternative.

Other AI companies are just doing better, too. Windows Central reports that OpenAI's ChatGPT commands over 61 percent of the market, and Google's Gemini is now less than 1 percent behind Microsoft's 14 percent with Copilot. That's after a 12 percent growth over the last quarter, too, suggesting Gemini is well on its way to becoming the real second-place alternative to ChatGPT.

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Is This "Space Force" Or "Magic: The Gathering"?

The U.S. Space Force is looking at some unlikely sources of inspiration for naming its spacecraft and space weaponry.

At the 3rd Annual Spacepower Conference, held in Orlando, Florida from 10 to 12 December, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told attendees that Space Force is adopting new naming schemes for each of its different mission areas that will "cement the identities of space weapon systems" much like the names of iconic aircraft, such as the A-10 Thunderbolt II or F-22 Raptor, have done for the U.S. Air Force.

But while symbols for some of Space Force's mission areas will be similarly borrowed from real-life animals, others are more mythological in nature, Saltzman said. "These include Norse Pantheon, representing the power and dominance of orbital warfare; mythological creatures, conjuring the cunning and adaptability of cyber warfare systems; constellations, reflecting the reach and enduring connection of satellite communications; and ghosts, evoking the silent presence of space domain awareness, just to name a few," Saltzman said at the conference.

Seven different naming categories were chosen, one for each of Space Force's mission areas:

• Orbital warfare: Norse pantheon
• Electromagnetic warfare: Snakes
• Cyber warfare: Mythological creatures
• Navigation warfare: Sharks
• Satellite communications: Constellations
• Missile warning: Sentinels
• Space domain awareness: Ghosts

After announcing the new naming scheme, Saltzman explained two specific names that had been chosen for specific spacecraft. The first, a communications satellite in geostationary orbit previously known as the Ultra-High Frequency Follow-On system, will now be known as as Ursa Major.

"The Big Dipper — as you all know, part of the Ursa Major constellation — famously points to Polaris, our north star, always linking us to our most important missions," Saltzman said.

Another spacecraft operated by Space Force's 1st Space Operations Squadron (1 SOPS) used to track satellites in high orbits will now be taking a name from Norse mythology: Bifrost.

"Bifrost is a bridge between Earth and the realm of the gods," Saltzman explained, "just as the Bifrost system in low Earth orbit bridges the divide between the Earth and the higher geostationary orbit of the other 1 SOPS systems."Saltzman stressed that the new naming scheme will help the newest branch of the U.S. military establish its own identity. "These symbols conjure the character of the systems, the importance of their mission, and the identity of the Guardians who employ them," Saltzman said. The new names will serve as "a way to own the identity of our space systems as they enter the joint fight," he added.

Unlike the U.S. Air Force's iconic aircraft or the U.S. Army's ground vehicles such as tanks, the public rarely gets a glimpse at Space Force's assets in orbit. This is partly by design; many of Space Force's spacecraft are highly classified, which can make it difficult for the service to communicate its missions and capabilities both to the public and throughout the U.S. armed services.

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OpenAI Is Adding Layered Safeguards To Protect Itself

Tech giant OpenAI says its cybersecurity-focused models are rapidly advancing, with CTF performance jumping from 27 percent on GPT-5 in August 2025 to 76 percent on GPT-5.1-Codex-Max in November 2025.

According to the report of Neetika Walter from Intersting Engineering, the spike shows how quickly AI systems are acquiring technical proficiency in security tasks.

The report added that company expects future models could reach "High" capability levels under its Preparedness Framework.

That means models powerful enough to develop working zero-day exploits or assist with sophisticated enterprise intrusions.

In anticipation, OpenAI says it is preparing safeguards as if every new model could reach that threshold, ensuring progress is paired with strong risk controls.

OpenAI is expanding investments in models designed to support defensive workflows, from auditing code to patching vulnerabilities at scale.

The company says its aim is to give defenders an edge in a landscape where they are often "outnumbered and under-resourced."

Because offensive and defensive cyber tasks rely on the same knowledge, OpenAI says it is adopting a defense-in-depth approach rather than depending on any single safeguard.

The company emphasizes shaping "how capabilities are accessed, guided, and applied" to ensure AI strengthens cybersecurity rather than lowering barriers to misuse.

OpenAI notes that this work is a long-term commitment, not a one-off safety effort. Its goal is to continually reinforce defensive capacity as models become more capable.

At the foundation, OpenAI uses access controls, hardened infrastructure, egress restrictions, and comprehensive monitoring. These systems are supported by detection and response layers, plus internal threat intelligence programs.

Training also plays a critical role. OpenAI says it is teaching its frontier models "to refuse or safely respond to requests that would enable clear cyber abuse," while staying helpful for legitimate defensive and educational needs.

Company-wide detection systems monitor for potential misuse. When activity appears unsafe, OpenAI may block outputs, redirect prompts to safer models, or escalate to enforcement teams.

Both automated tools and human reviewers contribute to these decisions, factoring in severity, legal requirements, and repeat behavior.

The company is also relying on end-to-end red teaming. External experts attempt to break every layer of defense, "just like a determined and well-resourced adversary," helping identify weaknesses early.

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