Tech News Roundup — July 10, 2026 (NOON)
Lead: A quieter NOON edition. A Brown University economist’s controlled comparison of take-home vs. in-class exams — and the steep grade gap it produced — is making the rounds on social media, framed as a striking real-world data point on ChatGPT use by students. WhatsApp is preparing an opt-in contact-birthday reminder system with a dedicated in-app section. Phoronix closes out its 2026 summer Premium sale tonight.
AI / Society
- Brown economist’s take-home vs. in-class exam comparison goes viral. A University of Brown economist set out to measure the real impact of ChatGPT on student work by comparing grades from a take-home exam against a follow-up in-class assessment. The result was a brutal drop in scores, captured in a single chart that has since circulated widely as informal evidence of how broadly ChatGPT is now being used on unsupervised coursework. Pplware walks through the methodology and what the grade gap does and does not prove. [Pplware]
Apps & Mobile
- WhatsApp to add a contact-birthday reminder feature. WhatsApp is preparing a new feature that will surface upcoming birthdays of a user’s contacts both through notifications and a dedicated in-app section. The aim is to keep users from missing personal dates without requiring a separate birthday-tracking app — and to give WhatsApp another reason to be opened every morning. The feature is described as “very interesting” by Pplware and is positioned as one of the platform’s more user-friendly additions of the year. [Pplware]
In Brief
- Phoronix Premium 2026 Summer Support Special ends tonight. Michael Larabel’s annual summer sale on Phoronix Premium wraps up tonight. Subscriptions keep the site’s 22 years of original Linux/open-source reporting, hardware reviews, and benchmarking running. [Phoronix]
Roundup compiled from the TTRSS Tech feed. 3 articles from 2 sources summarized.