Opening thoughts. EA says they won’t release a new game next year as part of the F1 franchise. Only a paid DLC (that’s what the cool gamer kids call downloadable content) to bring the F1 25 game up to speed with the new season which itself would mean significant changes since F1 in the next season undergoes significant tech regulation changes (redesigned power units, a more powerful hybrid setup and active aero at the front and back, to list some). Back to the game, and EA seems to be hinting at a complete redo for F1 27. “In 2027, EA SPORTS will deliver the next full game in the franchise – a deeply authentic and innovative representation of the action and thrill of Formula 1,” they say. For now, the release timing and pricing of the DLC is not yet announced — expect those details sometime later in the first quarter of 2026.
Last week on Wired Wisdom: Phantom energy, Meta’s behaviour and inefficient hyperservice
ANALYSIS: GOOGLE’S GEMINI 3 ERA BEGINS
Google has released Gemini 3, as Gemini 3 Pro in preview and across Google’s services. This marks the beginning of the third generation of Google’s AI models for consumers and enterprises, as Gemini completes two years. This means, the current iteration of Gemini 3 Pro is now accessible in the Gemini app. Also, Gemini 3 is now available in AI Mode in Search for complex reasoning, and also marks the first time the latest Gemini model is available as part of search on the very first day of release. There is also the Gemini 3 Deep Think, the enhanced reasoning model, that is being given the runaround by safety testers before it’ll be made available to Google AI Ultra subscribers.
There is of course much enthusiasm regarding Gemini 3’s capabilities. “Gemini 3 Pro also brings a new level of depth and nuance to every interaction. Its responses are smart, concise and direct, trading cliché and flattery for genuine insight — telling you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear,” the company says. They of course point to a number of AI benchmarks (there is some debate whether current benchmarks are good enough) and Gemini 3 Pro seems to be doing much better than Gemini 2.5 Pro across all tests. There is significant emphasis on the multimodal improvements, which directly lead into the agentic capabilities. Gemini 3 Pro scores a significantly higher 81% in the MMMU-Pro multimodal understanding and reasoning benchmark, compared with 68% for Gemini 2.5 Pro and 76% for OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5.1.
EDITOR’S MARGIN: 3D PRINTING NO LONGER A HOBBY FLEX
Apple just pulled off something the tech world thought was impossible at scale – they’re now 3D printing the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Series 11 titanium cases using 100% recycled aerospace-grade titanium. This isn’t some gimmicky sustainability PR move; it’s a genuine manufacturing breakthrough that cuts raw material use in half compared to traditional methods. The kicker? Apple estimates they’ll save over 400 metric tons of titanium this year alone. The process uses six lasers building each watch case layer by layer across 900 operations, with precision down to 60 microns. They’ve even applied this to the iPhone Air’s USB-C port, allowing it to be thinner than ever before.
And here’s what matters — you can’t tell the difference. The watches look, feel, and perform exactly the same as before, which was the whole point. Apple’s executives were adamant that environmental gains couldn’t come at the cost of quality or design. Kate Bergeron, VP of Hardware Engineering, explains how they had to overcome the perception of 3D printing as just a hobbyist weekend activity and scale it to industrial precision. What makes this interesting is how it fits into Apple’s 2030 carbon neutrality goal. Sarah Chandler, their VP of Environment and Supply Chain Innovation, is clear they want others to copy this approach – the point isn’t just Apple going green, it’s changing how the entire industry manufactures premium products. Getting supply chains to shift from decades-old processes wasn’t easy, but that’s exactly the disruption they’re after.
The real test? Making sustainability improvements that don’t compromise quality or design. Apple’s betting that 3D printing actually expands what’s possible – better antenna performance, improved water resistance, and design flexibility that traditional machining couldn’t achieve. Constraints that limited what engineers could design have quietly fallen away. It’s early days, but this could be the blueprint for how premium tech gets made going forward.
SECOND THOUGHTS: WINDOWS 11 HURTLING TOWARDS DISASTER
Microsoft is warning Windows 11 users that AI agents could be used to install malware on their computing devices, at a time when Microsoft itself is insisting on pushing through agentic AI tools within the operating system. I mean this doesn’t need a rocket scientist to decode millions of PCs will be at risk, with users not even aware of these risks, simply because Microsoft has t0o be seen talking about AI all the time, and has investors to please. “As these capabilities are introduced, AI models still face functional limitations in terms of how they behave and occasionally may hallucinate and produce unexpected outputs. Additionally, agentic AI applications introduce novel security risks, such as cross-prompt injection (XPIA), where malicious content embedded in UI elements or documents can override agent instructions, leading to unintended actions like data exfiltration or malware installation,” the company writes, in a detailed support document. Then why do it, is all we ask?
