This could finally be the year the iPad gets a built-in calculator app
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
It’s been over a decade since the release of the very first iPad — and it may finally get Apple’s Calculator app. MacRumors reports that Apple plans to introduce its native calculator in iPadOS 18, which Apple will likely introduce during its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10th.
For years, iPad users have had to download third-party calculator apps or access a web browser just to do math. Many of these third-party apps aren’t all that pleasant to use, as some of them come filled with ads or just don’t mesh well with the iPad’s interface. Not to mention that the better calculator apps, like PCalc, cost money to download.
This isn’t the only calculator rumor we’ve heard recently, either. Earlier this month, a report from A...
The VWFNDR Keirin is an expansive new concept for the future of cameras
The The VWFNDR Keirin camera concept.
This past weekend, a local startup held an exhibition not too far from where I live in Tokyo to show off its idea for an entirely new take on camera hardware. That’s not the sort of thing that happens every weekend, even in Tokyo, so I biked on over to take a look.
VWFNDR is a project started by UX designer Álvaro Arregui Falcón of Nuevo.Tokyo and independent industrial designer Mireia Gordi i Vila. The team later brought on London-based engineer Lucas Seidenfaden, who developed the first working prototype for their concept.
That concept is called Keirin.
Named after the Japanese cycling discipline that takes place on a similarly oval track, the Keirin is a camera focused on panorama photography. Its standout visual feature is a curved...
I Played Fallout 76 All Weekend And Kind Of Loved It
I finally caved. After years of being petitioned by my friends and spurred on by the new TV show, I spent this past weekend largely playing Fallout 76, Bethesda’s survival MMO based on the open-world RPGs. When it first launched in 2018, Fallout 76 couldn’t have had more working against it. Not many seemed to want it…
Bringing Fallout’s gritty retrofuturism into the real world
Image: Amazon
For production designer Howard Cummings, Fallout wasn’t just the name of his most recent project — it also became a verb. As he was working on Amazon’s live-action adaptation of the game series, Cummings and his team used the word Fallout as a shorthand to describe the particular retrofuturistic, post-apocalyptic style the franchise is known for. “Everything had to be Fallout-ed,” he tells The Verge. “For locations, I’d say: ‘How do I Fallout this grocery store?’”
Initially, though, that wasn’t the plan. Going into the project, Cummings — who previously worked on shows like Westworld and Lovecraft Country — didn’t know all that much about the games and thought he might have to update the visual style to make it “slicker.” That changed...
7 Days To Die Exits Early Access After A Decade, But Console Players Have To Rebuy The Game
Open-world zombie survival game 7 Days to Die launched in Early Access on Steam in 2013. Three years later, the game arrived on consoles. And now, over a decade after its initial launch, 7 Days to Die is finally leaving Early Access with its 1.0 update. However, console players will have to re-buy the game to see the…
What's at stake as the Supreme Court hears Idaho case about abortion in emergencies
The Supreme Court will consider the question: Should doctors treating pregnancy complications follow state or federal law if the laws conflict? Here's how the case could affect women and doctors.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
SallyStrange@eldritch.cafe ("Sally Strange") wrote:
@fromjason they were lying from the get-go
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Where are all the free-speech, social-media-is-a-market-place-of-ideas techno libertarians at? The US Government is about to ban a platform with 170 million Americans on it. Nothing to say?
Samsung’s new glare-free OLED TV is receiving its first discount
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Don’t kick yourself if you missed out on Samsung’s free TV preorder promo from earlier this month. The company is now offering a much better cash discount on one of its most notable new models: the glare-free Samsung OLED S95D TV. The smallest TV in the lineup, the 55-inch model starts at $2,299.99 ($300 off) at Best Buy and Samsung, while the 77-inch is also $300 off for $4,299.99 (Best Buy, Samsung). The 65-inch TV, meanwhile, is receiving an even steeper $400 discount for $2,999.99 (Best Buy, Samsung).
Back in January, we saw for ourselves how well the S95D OLED eliminated most noticeable reflections, even as the TV sat right next to a light source. At the same time, the TV’s display is brighter than ever, with the OLED screen...
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses get video calling, Apple Music, and a new style
There’s a new cat-eye frame called the Skyler. | Image: Meta
Meta just announced a slew of new updates for its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. CEO Mark Zuckerberg just dropped an Instagram reel showing off a new cat-eye frame style for the glasses and a video calling feature. You can also now connect the glasses with Apple Music, and last but not least, the multimodal AI assistant is live for everyone in the US and Canada.
You can peep a pretty clear demo of the video calling feature from Zuckerberg’s reel. In it, he talks to Eva Chen, who runs fashion at Instagram, about the new Skyler frames and... chain lengths, of all things. The existing Wayfarer and Headliner models are also getting some new colors. The Headliner, which has rounder lenses, is also getting a low-bridge fit for folks who have...
How To Get The Most Out Of Final Fantasy XIV In One Month
Final Fantasy XIV is a gargantuan experience, and that’s saying something for the series’ standard. The MMORPG is soon to welcome its latest expansion, Dawntrail, on June 28 for those who pre-ordered it. If you’re starting to get FOMO and you want to discover what all the fuss is about, there’s quite a bit of ground…
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have multimodal AI now
Overall, pulling out your phone is still faster, but it is handy for identifying things when you’re out and about. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
It can be handy, confidently wrong, and just plain finicky — but smart glasses are a much more comfortable form factor for this tech.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
dublininquirer@mastodon.ie ("Dublin Inquirer") wrote:
If you like what we do, we'd love it if you'd subscribe🙏 We're a tiny team, supported mostly by subscribers (thank you!) as we don't sell ads. We don't use our money to buy flops or donate to political parties – it's for salaries, printing, normal stuff. https://dublininquirer.com/subscribe/
This Horror Dating Sim Sets A Hot New Standard
When Sucker for Love: First Date was released in 2022, its blend of cosmic horror vibes with dating sim mechanics made it a cult hit. But it’s essentially one big joke about how funny it would be to make Cthulu into a busty babe that you could kiss as long as you did progressively more horrific things for her. It’s a…
Razer’s Viper V3 Pro mouse puts its dongle where it belongs
The white Razer Viper V3 Pro next to its large bundled HyperPolling Wireless Dongle. | Image: Razer
Does your gaming mouse track its own position 8,000 times per second? If you’re the kind of person who cares, I suspect you might also want that mouse to track that fast out of the box — instead of having to buy an extra dongle for that feature.
That’s the most obvious difference Razer is announcing today with its flagship Viper V3 Pro mouse for esports pros and those who aspire to be one. For $160, the new Viper V3 Pro includes the $30 Razer HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, where the $150 Viper V2 Pro did not.
Mind you, the 58-gram Viper V2 Pro was already an impressive piece of kit, taking the crown for the lightest wireless gaming mouse at its debut, and the V3 Pro now sheds an extra four grams to hit 54 grams and firmly cement itself...
Destiny 2: The Final Shape’s New Cayde-6 Trailer Is A Temporal Gut Punch
The latest trailer for Destiny 2: The Final Shape takes players on a tour of the Pale Heart, a lush paradise plagued by corruption fans have been waiting a decade to visit. The trip is narrated by Nathan Fillion, who’s reprising his role as the wise-cracking cyborg Cayde-6, except this time he’s deadly serious. The…
This Is The Best Mario Kart 8 Build, According To Math
You ever play Mario Kart 8 and get absolutely dusted by your friends? Maybe, after losing all four races in a single cup, you take your build back to the garage, tinkering with the stats in an effort to create the fastest racer your friend group has ever seen. Well, science has now given us the tools to find the most…
Asia is officially the most ‘disaster-prone’ region in the world
Residents clean debris of their destroyed houses at the Khaung Dote Khar Rohingya refugee camp in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on May 15th, 2023, after Cyclone Mocha made landfall. | Photo by Sai Aung Main / AFP via Getty Images
No other region on Earth experiences more climate, weather, and water-related disasters than Asia, according to a new report. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its 2023 State of the Climate in Asia today, which found that risks are only rising.
From heatwaves to flooding and storms, climate change makes all kinds of disasters more intense all over the world. But the problem is particularly acute in Asia, which is heating up faster than the global average thanks to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
“The report’s conclusions are sobering.”
“Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment...
Amazon launches an unlimited grocery delivery subscription
Image: Amazon
Amazon is bringing back free(ish) grocery deliveries for orders over $35 in the form of a new monthly subscription program the company announced today. It’s $9.99 per month for Prime members and includes unlimited one-hour grocery delivery where it’s available, as well as unlimited 30-minute grocery pickups, with a half-cost option for low-income non-Prime members who qualify.
Amazon launched a trial of the subscription in three cities last year but now says it’s available in 3,500 cities across the US. Deliveries include groceries from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh but also local grocers and specialty retailers that it’s partnered with. Subscribers get “priority access” for recurring weekly groceries, too.
This new subscription could be...
GTA V Trevor Actor Says He Shot Scenes For DLC Before It Was Scrapped
We previously learned that Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar’s neverending success story that has outsold entire franchises on its own, once had several pieces of single-player DLC in the works. According to previous reports, the studio scrapped planned story mode add-ons in favor of focusing on the money-printing Grand Theft…
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
We have a new occupant of our house.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/04/23/behold-our-new-king/
Attachments:
nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
Me: "what is up with half of the security scene having anime profile pics, so weird"
Also me: "this is great source code audit music"
Attachments:
Netflix’s Atlas is looking more and more like a buddy cop movie about working with AI
At first glance, Netflix’s upcoming action thriller Atlas,starring Jennifer Lopez, seemed like it was going to be a rather serious movie about a mech pilot fighting to survive on an inhospitable planet. That could still be the case, but the movie’s latest trailer makes it out to be a bit more of a sci-fi buddy cop affair with an emphasis on human / robot alliances.
Though a maniacal machine (Simu Liu) dead-set on eradicating humanity presents the biggest threat in Atlas, the movie’s new trailer puts a spotlight on how an AI-powered battle armor will join Atlas Shepherd (Lopez) in her fight to save the world. With so many killer robots on the loose and doing a bang-up job of destroying cities, it makes sense that Atlas would be...
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
College students are just weird.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/04/23/just-another-spring-day-on-campus/
Attachments:
Apple announces May 7th event for new iPads
Illustration: The Verge
After kicking off 2024 with the launch of the Vision Pro, the next act in Apple’s 2024 script is a May product launch event. Apple has started inviting members of the media to a “special Apple Event” on May 7th at 7AM PT / 10AM ET. The invite’s image includes the Apple Pencil, making it abundantly clear that iPads will be the focus of this virtual event.
Rumors suggest the iPad Pro will get some of its most significant improvements since the 2021 M1 overhaul, including an OLED display (with a slight size bump to 13 inches for the bigger model), an updated M3 chipset, and the long overdue horizontal repositioning of its front-facing camera. There might also be a new Apple Pencil and a redesigned Magic Keyboard with an aluminum build and a...
Anker’s minimalistic home backup batteries are ready for blackout season
If you can afford this home, you can probably afford Anker’s whole-home battery backup solution. | Image: Anker
Nearly a year since it was first announced, Anker is finally selling its Solix whole-home battery backup solution in North America. The Solix X1 is just 5.9 inches thick and attaches to a wall like a Tesla Powerwall. It’s a more permanent and minimalist alternative to Anker’s modular F3800 kits, which can be quickly detached to power a weekend away.
The Solix X1 can be configured to deliver between 3kW and 36kW of power with a stackable design that supports between 5kWh and 180kWh of LFP battery capacity. It’s covered by a warranty of 10 years or 16.5MWh throughput, whichever comes first. Cutover from the grid to the battery happens in less than 20ms, so you might not even notice the next power outage.
Calculating how much power and...
Team Fortress 2 Patch Fixes Bug That Had Game Thinking Players Were Gordon Freeman
Team Fortress 2 is 17 years old, and one day we are all going to die. The in-built cruelty of entropy ensures our universe is finite, and all things must eventually fade into heat-death. Staving off a small element of this inevitability was Valve’s online shooter getting a big patch last week, which in turn caused the…
Congress takes on TikTok, privacy, and AI
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
The TikTok ban appears to be for real this time. (Technically, “the TikTok ban or divesture but hopefully divesture” is probably more accurate, but everybody’s just calling it a ban.) Only a few weeks ago, all momentum for the ban seemed gone. Now, it’s back with a vengeance, with a couple of small tweaks and a new political strategy. And it could get a vote in the Senate in the next few days.
There’s also a new bill, known as the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), starting to gain some traction among important people looking to pass comprehensive privacy regulation in the US. Of course, we’ve heard that before. Many times. So will the APRA succeed where other bills have failed?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we chat with The Verge’...
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
inquiline@union.place ("Can-crisociality 🦀〰️🥫") wrote:
Hats off:
"Billionaire Elon Musk, found dead in his home last night, says it is not the role of social media networks to determine what is true or not.
The Tesla and X owner, who is believed to have died from a heroin overdose while watching animal porn, said he would fight any attempts to stop the spread of misinformation on his platform"
https://theshovel.com.au/2024/04/23/elon-musk-dead-at-52-misinformation-laws/
Fortnite Festival now supports Rock Band 4 guitar controllers
Image: Epic Games
If you still have your old Rock Band guitars lying around, it’s now possible to use them in Fortnite’s Rock Band-like music mode. As promised at launch, Fortnite Festivalnow supports a handful of guitar controllers across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. The announcement comes as part of a fresh update headlined by Billie Eilish.
The supported controllers include the Riffmaster Wireless Guitar Controller, Rock Band 4 Rivals Wireless Fender Jaguar Guitar, and Rock Band 4 Wireless Fender Stratocaster Guitar. They can be used for playing both lead and bass guitar in Festival. Epic also says that “we’ll have more instrument controller news to announce in the future,” so don’t toss that plastic drum set just yet.
While it may seem a bit weird, the...
Sonos announces redesigned app that puts everything on your homescreen
Image: Sonos
Today, Sonos is officially introducing the redesigned mobile app that I showed you earlier this month. It’ll roll out for both Android and iOS on May 7th, but the company’s desktop apps aren’t coming along for the ride: Sonos will discontinue its controller apps for Windows and macOS in the near future. Taking their place is a new web app that will allow you to control and access your Sonos speakers from anywhere — not just when you’re home on Wi-Fi.
But for now, let’s get back to the smartphone app. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up to be more reliable. Sonos’ fundamental goal was making everything feel faster and getting you where you want to be without relying on a tabbed navigation bar. Now, everything is on the homescreen, and...
Elon Musk is fighting Australia to host a stabbing video on X
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Image: Getty Images
Elon Musk is currently embroiled in a battle with Australian authorities over demands for X to remove violent content of a stabbing that took place during a livestreamed service at a church in Sydney last week. Musk is arguing that such decisions could give countries the power to control “the entire internet,” while the Australian government is arguing that geoblocking content isn’t enough in its plea for decency and social responsibility.
“Our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?” said Musk, noting that the objectionable content is already geoblocked in Australia...
SimpliSafe’s new outdoor monitoring service combines AI with live agents
SimpliSafe’s new live guard outdoor protection service allows its agents to monitor your outdoor security cameras for potential intruders. | Image: SimpliSafe
SimpliSafe is bringing live monitoring to its outdoor cameras, adding to the indoor live monitoring service it launched last year. The new live guard outdoor protection service lets SimpliSafe’s human agents view a live feed from its outdoor camera when the system is armed, the camera detects a person, and its AI and facial recognition algorithms determine that person is likely to be a stranger. The idea is that SimpliSafe could more proactively prevent someone from breaking in than traditional alarm systems, which typically only trigger after a home's perimeter has been breached.
The DIY smart home security company’s new service uses a combination of on-device AI, cloud-based computer vision, and facial recognition to determine when...
Tesla’s in its flop era
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Grzegorz Wajda, Getty Images
When Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers. But Musk will also face increasingly urgent questions about its current state of affairs — and why everything seems to be going to shit.
Earlier this month, the company reported its first year-over-year sales drop in four years, a sign of rougher waters ahead. Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 40 percent since the start of the year, including a 13 percent drop in the last week. The company laid off over 14,000 employees last week, 10 percent of its global workforce — which could end up being closer to...
Announcing the Hookdeck SDK on JSR
Hookdeck, an event gateway for distributed and async architecture, now has an SDK on JSR.
Gaza solidarity protests sweep U.S. colleges; SCOTUS tackles Starbucks union case
Tensions are high as campus protests over the war in Gaza stretch across the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear a case about pro-union Starbucks employees.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Sempf@infosec.exchange ("Bill") wrote:
This is such a brilliantly simple flaw, I can't believe I didn't think of it.
Maybe because it is brilliant. And simple.
https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/22/edr_attack_remote_data_deletion/
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Ailantd@mastodon.art ("Ailantd Sikowsky🔻") wrote:
Remains of a long gone exoplanet civilization.
Quick sketch with digital color overlay.
#scifi #scifiart #alien
Attachments:
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
howinhell did I miss this paper?
https://escholarship.org/content/qt6x5933cw/qt6x5933cw_noSplash_7856234f97c374a0d948b1888fc1d407.pdf
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
reeks of a corrupt bargain:
‘“Nauta was also told that even if he gets charged with lying to the F.B.I., FPOTUS” — an abbreviation for former president of the United States — “will pardon him in 2024.”’
Ben & Jerry’s Parent Backpedals on Social and Environmental Vows
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Unilever is to scale back its environmental and social aims, provoking critics to say its board should “hang their heads in shame.” The consumer goods company behind brands ranging from Dove beauty products to Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream was […]
United Methodists will again debate LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings
The United Methodist Church is holding its first General Conference since the pandemic and will consider whether to change policies on several LGBTQ issues.
What the Starbucks case at the Supreme Court is all about. Hint: It's not coffee
Starbucks and some of its baristas have been in a contentious fight over unionizing since 2021. Now, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could have implications for unions far beyond Starbucks.
Talks for a plastic pollution treaty are stalling. Could the U.S. be doing more?
Critics say the U.S. has been unwilling to push for measures in a global agreement that would drive big cuts in plastic waste.
Concerns over antisemitism rise as Jews begin observing Passover
Protests on college campuses related to the Israel-Hamas War have many Jews nervous heading into the holiday.
Biden is campaigning in Florida a week before a new abortion ban takes effect
There's a referendum on abortion rights on the ballot in Florida in November. President Biden's campaign says that could help buoy his chances there.
New federal grants aimed to support elections. Many voting officials didn't see a dime
Voting officials cheered when it was announced that a portion of a multibillion-dollar federal grant program would go to election security. But in many cases, the allocations didn't go as planned.
After 26,000 public comments, FTC to vote on rule banning noncompete agreements
The Federal Trade Commission will vote Tuesday on whether to issue a final rule banning noncompete agreements. The Biden administration has argued that noncompetes harm workers and stifle competition.
3 Maryland juveniles are charged with hate crimes. How did it get to that point?
The arrests of the three middle schoolers came last month. Experts say young kids are increasingly exposed to hate ideologies, leaving communities to figure out how to respond.
Ex-National Enquirer publisher testifies against Donald Trump in hush money trial
David Pecker has previously cooperated with federal investigations into payments made to two women who were going to allege they had affairs with Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Well, hello, Voyager 1! The venerable spacecraft is once again making sense
After a nasty computer glitch five months ago, Voyager 1 is once again able to communicate with Earth in a way that mission operators can understand.
Adobe’s new Firefly model makes it easier to use Photoshop’s AI tools
Unlike other Firefly-powered tools that generate sections of an image, Photoshop’s new Generate Image tool will fill the entire canvas. | Image: Adobe
Adobe is adding some new generative AI tools to its Photoshop creative software that aim to give users additional ways to control the designs they generate. Powered by Adobe’s new Firefly Image 3 foundation model, these new tools are available today via the Photoshop beta desktop app, and will be generally available “later this year” according to Adobe’s Press release.
The most notable tool is Reference Image, which uses user-uploaded images to inspire the output generated by Adobe’s AI, matching similar elements in style and color. For example, instead of repeatedly tweaking a prompt description like “a blue vintage truck with flower decals,” users can instead provide a reference image that Photoshop will use as a guide.
“Prompting is a...
Microsoft launches Phi-3, its smallest AI model yet
Illustration: The Verge
Microsoft launched the next version of its lightweight AI model Phi-3 Mini, the first of three small models the company plans to release.
Phi-3 Mini measures 3.8 billion parameters and is trained on a data set that is smaller relative tolarge language models like GPT-4. It is now available on Azure, Hugging Face, and Ollama. Microsoft plans to release Phi-3 Small (7B parameters) and Phi-3 Medium (14B parameters). Parameters refer to how many complex instructions a model can understand.
The company released Phi-2 in December, which performed just as well as bigger models like Llama 2. Microsoft says Phi-3 performs better than the previous version and can provide responses close to how a model 10 times bigger than it can.
Eric Boyd,...
xor@tech.intersects.art ("Parker Higgins") wrote:
Is it possible to extend the set of filetypes that Gmail will preview as an attachment? Is there a way I could write or install an extension to allow it to read and display info from a custom file?
Fortnite will let players hide mean emotes
YouTube
Fortnite is rolling out an update on Tuesday that includes a new setting that filters out “confrontational” emotes. The v29.30 update will let players “choose not to see” the following emotes: “Laugh It Up”, “Take the L”, “Whipcrack”, and “Make it Plantain.”
The four emotes won’t exactly be hidden per se, they’ll appear as still images in the game — but players performing them won’t dance and they won’t play music. Players can opt to only see these emotes from friends, or hide them altogether.
Though Fortnite has hundreds of different emotes, this group of four are controversial because of how and when players will use them. Fortnite players will often play emotes like “Laugh it Up” and “Take the L” after killing another player or...
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
"Are you super-duper sure you want to keep sending your posts to that dark scary place? 👻 ☠️"
Attachments:
The U.K.'s plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda has cleared Parliament
The British government has pushed the plan as a way to deter asylum-seekers from taking boats to Britain. But the U.N. human rights office has warned aviation authorities not to take part.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
taylorlorenz ("Taylor Lorenz") wrote:
Bodies were found with hands and feet tied “and there were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed.” https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/22/middleeast/khan-younis-nasser-hospital-mass-grave-intl/index.html
TikTok ban expected to become law, but it's not so simple. What's next?
The Senate is poised to pass the bill the House advanced over the weekend. President Biden is set to sign it. From there, TikTok says the battle will move to the courts.
Terry Anderson Was a Pawn in a Nasty Game, and a Hero for Journalists
Beirut was the place to be if you were an action-junkie journalist in the 1980s. Civil War. Militias, the PLO, an Israeli invasion, the occupation of Lebanon. Car Bombings. Truck bombings. And more. It was an exotic city with an ancient corniche winding along the Mediterranean to the snow-capped Shouf mountains some 30 miles away. […]
Reblogged by collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth"):
ErikUden@mastodon.de ("Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied:") wrote:
Attachments:
- A Twitter screenshot showing user “Roshan Patel” saying “I've been thinking a lot about IRL podcasts: bring a few friends together, no mics, nothing is recorded, have a free form discussion, can even have food & drinks. Has anyone tried this?” To this ser @anshnanda_ responds saying “Tech bro just discovered 'hanging out'” (remote)
How Columbia’s Student Radio Station Is Meeting the Moment
Since last week, at Columbia University—as students have gathered to protest the war in Gaza and call for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel’s military campaign—the college radio station, WKCR, has taken on a new role: near-constant news. It has suspended its usual programming and doggedly covered the demonstrations on campus. And, […]
collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:
I'm sorry, but no matter who you are, you cannot and will not have 31 good songs on one album. (Most artists don't have 31 in their entire career.)
At a certain point, all you're doing is diluting.
Biden Unveils $7 Billion “Solar for All” Investment for Earth Day
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden marked Monday’s Earth Day by announcing a $7 billion investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be “historic climate actions.” The president was […]
collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:
Every writer needs a good editor, because every writer loves everything they write, and will make it at least 2–3 times longer than it needs to be, in the belief it's much more interesting than it really is, without someone there to say "no, actually, a lot of this is not that great and you should just get to the point," and what I'm getting at is: Taylor Swift has needed a good editor for at least five years but especially now.
Why DolphiniOS’s Wii and GameCube emulator isn’t coming to the App Store
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
DolphiniOS, a fork of the popular Dolphin emulator for Nintendo Wii and GameCube games, has confirmed that it’s not coming to the Apple App Store even though emulators are now supported. In a post on Friday, the developer behind the emulator says it’s because Apple doesn’t allow DolphiniOS to use its underlying performance-boosting tech.
As explained by developer OatmealDome, DolphiniOS — along with other Wii and GameCube emulators — uses something called Just-in-Time (JIT). This is a compiler that “translates” the GameCube and Wii’s PowerPC-based code into a language other devices can understand, making emulations run a lot smoother.
Even with the recent App Store policy changes, DolphiniOS still cannot be submitted to the App Store...
Why Should the U.S. Send Aid to Ukraine?
The U.S. Congress is poised to finally approve a package of aid to Ukraine worth over $60 billion, with the House having approved the funds on Saturday. The Ukrainian prime minister was in Washington to urge for the aid to be passed and explains why Americans should continue to assist in his country's war effort.
Tomb Raider 3 Update Secretly Nukes Lara Croft Pinups
Well, this is weird. Pinups of Lara Croft appear to have gone missing in Tomb Raider I-III Remastered following a patch earlier this month to fix a bunch of bugs. Whether intentional or not, some fans are now calling it out as heavy-handed censorship of retro classics.
Gaza Solidarity Encampments Are Spreading Far Beyond Columbia’s Campus
A growing number of college students nationwide are staging encampments to protest their universities’ investments in Israeli entities in light of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has reportedly killed more than 34,000 Palestinians. The protests have sparked mass arrests and suspensions, including at Columbia University, where more than 100 students—including some from Barnard, the all-women’s […]
Amazon is shutting down its drone delivery service in California as it looks to other markets
This drone might migrate south to a new location in Arizona. | Image: Amazon
Amazon is winding down its Prime Air drone delivery program in Lockeford, California — an early testing zone for a service that allowed local residents to order products weighing up to five pounds and get them delivered to their location via drone in 30 minutes.
In the same press release, Amazon also announced that the company is launching a new Prime Air location in Tolleson, Arizona. The new location is expected to provide “same-day” deliveries to residents in the West Valley Phoenix metro area. Amazon expects to begin operations in Arizona starting later this year.
The press release doesn’t provide a clear reason as to why the Lockeford location, which opened for business in 2022, is closing, though it does say employees at the...
Fortnite's Battle Royale Mode Was Designed During An Uber Ride
Fortnite’s battle royale mode is so huge and popular in 2024 that most people forget the game actually launched without it. And Fortnite’s former boss, Donald Mustard, revealed in a recent interview that the popular mode was basically designed in the back of a car on the way to a meeting.
nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
If you’re sick of how much Google search sucks these days, try Kagi. I’ve been on it for a while, doubt I’ll ever look back: https://kagi.com
isagalaev ("Ivan Sagalaev :flag_wbw:") wrote:
Birch. Planted a birch outside my window. This is my way of keeping the connection with my Russian culture. That part of it that doesn't want to murder everyone refusing to kneel before the current god-annointed czar.
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Anker’s 8-in-1 charging station is matching its lowest price to date
Anker’s versatile charging orb functions as both a power strip and a StandBy-ready phone stand. | Image: Nathan Edwards / The Verge
A cluttered desk can easily hijack your focus, which is why Anker’s Qi2-certified MagGo Magnetic Charging Station (8-in-1)can prove helpful. It’s small, but it can quickly clear up space by replacing a good chunk of your chargers while doubling as a sturdy phone stand. It normally runs $99.99, but now until 4:45PM PT / 7:45PM ET on April 28th, you can pick up the charger at its all-time low of $69.99 ($30 off) at Amazon and Anker (with promo code WS7DV2GPRWSL).
The speedy orb-shaped charger can supply up to 15W of power to MagSafe-equipped iPhones — specifically iPhone 12, 13, 14, and 15 models — while functioning as a versatile power strip that can charge up to seven other devices. It supports up to 67W total power output and comes...
Final Fantasy XVI’s Expansions Offer Windows Into What Could’ve Been
Spoilers for Final Fantasy XVI and its expansions follow.
The Biggest Misconception From Trump’s Historic Jury Selection
Last week, Justice Juan Merchan pulled off an impressive feat in the New York Supreme Court’s criminal division: He finished empaneling 18 jurors in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president. This was not easy. Donald Trump’s first criminal trial—of the four he faces in the coming months—concerns 34 counts of falsifying business records, […]
Microsoft hires former Meta exec to bolster AI supercomputing team
Illustration: The Verge
Former Meta executive Jason Taylor is joining Microsoft’s AI supercomputing team. In a LinkedIn post on Monday, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott says Taylor will take on the role of corporate vice president and deputy CTO to help “build the next set of systems that will push the frontier of AI forward.”
Taylor worked at Meta from 2009 to 2022, where he most recently served as the company’s vice president of infrastructure. He handled AI, data, and privacy infrastructure, as well as managing the company’s server budgets, according to his LinkedIn profile. Taylor was also the chair of the Open Compute Project Foundation from 2015 to 2017, an organization that promotes open-source designs in data centers.
Microsoft and OpenAI need more robust...
Eiyuden Chronicle Is A Rough But Beautiful Love Letter To Suikoden
The late Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Murayama got the crew back together for one last job in 2020: a crowdfunding campaign for a spiritual successor to the beloved Japanese RPG series raised $4.5 million, the third most of any gaming Kickstarter ever. Four years later, the team at Rabbit and Bear Studios has delivered E…
Europe’s warming up at nearly twice the global average, says new report
Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge
Europe is warming up at twice the global average, leading to deadly heatwaves and severe flooding, according to the European State of the Climate (ESOTC) report for the year 2023, released Monday.
According to the report, temperatures in Europe are rising 2.3 degrees Celsius (or 4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, according to a five-year average, compared to 1.3 degrees Celsius (roughly 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) globally. The report, jointly issued by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization, covers the year 2023, which was the second warmest year on record for Europe. Parts of southern Europe experienced between 60 and 80 days of “strong heat stress,” with...
Clothing store Express, a mall favorite, has filed for bankruptcy
Express, which dressed generations of mall shoppers in slacks and blouses, now owns Bonobos and UpWest. It's closing dozens of stores but also plans to get sold to a consortium to survive.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
ieure@retro.social ("Wendigo Girls") wrote:
What I'm listening to today: "Fanny - Hey Bulldog."
Fanny is one of the first all-women rock groups to have some mainstream success. They were relatively short-lived, but were objectively extremely good and also very influential.
This is a live version of their cover of Hey Bulldog, originally by The Beatles. It's a deep cut, though has been reappraised and is much more well-known than it use to be. Fanny's version is off their third album, Fanny Hill, from 1972.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
fraser@m.universetoday.com ("Fraser Cain") wrote:
Last November, NASA's Voyager 1 sent home garbled data, and engineers traced the problem to the flight data subsystem (FDS). The problem turned out to be a single chip in the FDS memory. They couldn't repair the chip but could move the affected code into sections and store them in different parts of the FDS system. They tested the new system this week, sending signals to the Voyager 1, 22.5 light-hours away. It worked, and Voyager 1 is back.
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Video Game Adaptations Keep Coming As A Hit Indie Shooter Gets A Movie
El Paso, Elsewhere, an indie third-person neo-noir shooter heavily inspired by Max Payne, is the latest video game getting a Hollywood adaptation. And while it’s surprising to see a smaller, indie game get a movie, El Paso, Elsewhere is a perfect candidate for a film adaptation.
Who Is David Pecker—and What’d He Have to Tell Trump’s Jury?
The first criminal trial of a former US president is underway, with Donald Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments allegedly made in 2016 to cover up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s the latest—the key updates and absurd moments—from the historic trial. “The people call […]
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
#Meta announces Meta Horizon OS for 3rd party headset makers including Lenovo. It's also opening the Quest App Store.
Meta is no longer a social media company with its own cloud infrastructure. It's a cloud services company.
The next logical step, imo, is to open up its cloud to 3rd party social platforms as a PaaS.
https://about.fb.com/news/2024/04/introducing-our-open-mixed-reality-ecosystem/
Meta wants to be the Microsoft of headsets
Mark Zuckerberg onstage at Meta Connect 2023. | Getty Images
Meta has started licensing the operating system for its Quest headset to other hardware makers, starting with Lenovo and Asus. It’s also making a limited-run, gaming-focused Quest with Xbox.
On the theme of opening up, Meta is also pushing for more ways to discover alternative app stores. It’s making its experimental App Lab store more prominent and even inviting Google to bring the Play Store to its operating system, which is now called Horizon OS. In a blog post, Meta additionally said that it’s working on a spatial framework for developers to more easily port their mobile apps to Horizon OS.
Crucially for Meta, Horizon OS includes the Horizon social layer, a 3D, Roblox-meets-The Sims open-world platform. After a buggy and sluggish...
Is your PC having trouble? Your smart TV might be to blame
Maybe your home should be dumb! | Illustration by Adrián Astorgano
It turns out your TV can actually mess up your computer — at least if you’re using a Hisense TV and Windows.
Kevin Snow, a video game narrative designer, wrote on Cohost that they’d been having trouble with their PC. The “Display Settings” menu didn’t open. The “Task Manager” started hanging. Then things necessary to making the computer work started to fail. Spelunking in hidden comments on Microsoft forums revealed the problem: Snow’s TV.
“I felt like I’d solved a murder.”
Basically, the TV had been generating Universal Plug and Play IDs and had, over the course of several years, convinced Snow’s computer that there were essentially an infinite number of devices on their network. Snow’s smart TV, a Hisense 50Q8G, had inadvertently...
An Xbox VR headset is on the way, but it’s a ‘limited edition’ Meta Quest
How Meta envisions an Xbox-branded VR headset. | Image: Meta
Microsoft is teaming up with Meta to create a limited edition Meta Quest VR headset that’s “inspired by Xbox.” While both Microsoft and Meta aren’t sharing full details on this VR headset, it sounds like it’s simply going to be a skinned Meta Quest 3 (or future unannounced version) that comes bundled with an Xbox controller.
“We’re working together again [with Microsoft] to create a limited-edition Meta Quest, inspired by Xbox,” says Meta in an announcement today. It’s part of Meta opening up its operating system that powers its Quest VR headsets to third-party hardware makers. Asus and Lenovo are creating dedicated headsets that run the Meta Horizon OS, but the partnership with Microsoft sounds like it’s simply a limited-edition headset...
Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:
The blogging platform #Ghost is working on adding #ActivityPub integration. That means, among other things, being able to follow Ghost-powered blogs and comment on articles right from your Mastodon account. The website they made to explain their plans is really nice! This is what momentum looks like.
California proposes law to allow Arizona doctors to perform abortions as ban proceeds
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says his administration is working on emergency legislation. Earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a near-total abortion ban could take effect.
AI Adin Ross Tricks Fans Into Smashing Their Stuff
Controversial streamer Adin Ross has a rabid fanbase that’ll do anything for attention, including driving a car into a lake because…reasons. These dare streams of Ross’ tend to come with the promise of a carrot at the end of the proverbial stick, whether that comes in the form of expensive products or cold hard cash.…
Billie Eilish will be the bad guy in Fortnite
Image: Epic Games
Finally, you can bury a friend as Billie Eilish. Fortnite has revealed its next major musical collaboration, and it will see Eilish become a playable character starting on April 23rd. You should see her in a Victory Crown.
There aren’t many details just yet, but the singer will be the featured artist for the next season of Fortnite Festival, the Rock Band-like in-game experience that launched last year. That means you can expect her songs to be playable in that mode and her neon green character skin to appear in the in-game shop (presumably with a Lego variant).
Of course, this is far from the first big-name star to be featured in the game. Eilish follows the likes of Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and Eminem; more recently, Fortnite held its...
bcantrill ("Bryan Cantrill") wrote:
Recently, we saw an embarrassingly ham-handed (and false!) allegation against OpenTofu. While the specifics were new, the tactic is nearly as old as computing: this is FUD -- the "fear, uncertainty and doubt" made famous by IBM when used against the upstart Amdahl. Today on Oxide and Friends, @ahl and I are going to talk about this latest FUD -- as well as FUD's storied history in our industry. Bring your own examples, and join us today, 5p Pacific!
Newsletter platform Ghost adopts ActivityPub to ‘bring back the open web’
Image: Cath Virginia | The Verge
Open platforms keep gaining support out there — newsletter platform Ghost just published what amounts to a manifesto in support of the ActivityPub protocol with plans to ship ActivityPub integration “in 2024.”
That’s a big shot of support for the fediverse — the network of open and interoperable social services that have all been gaining momentum over the past year. Ghost founder John O’Nolan recently said that federation over ActivityPub was the platform’s “most requested feature over the past few years” — a comment he made on Meta’s Threads, which itself is slowing beginning to federate.
The idea here is that all these networks will allow users to follow and share content between them, keeping you from needing to have multiple accounts...
Tip line that guards against child sexual abuse images may struggle against AI
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
A new report from Stanford’s Internet Observatory said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline needs to improve its technology if it wants to meet the influx of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The report said CyberTipline, the first defense against CSAM on the internet, already struggles to handle the high volume of calls it receives. According to the center, the tip line received 36.2 million CSAM reports in 2023, a 12 percent increase from 2022.
The rise of AI-generated CSAM would only make things worse. The tip line receives reports from online platforms like Facebook and Google through a manual reporting API, but this API doesn’t ensure all important fields are filled out. Stanford also...
How the Founding Fathers' concept of 'Minority Rule' is alive and well today
Journalist Ari Berman says the founding fathers created a system that concentrated power in the hands of an elite minority — and that their decisions continue to impact American democracy today.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau: The Kotaku Review
“In loving memory of those who touched our lives. This game is a tribute to their enduring spirit,” reads the opening screen of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, the new Metroidvania from EA Originals and Surgent Studios. My lip trembles. “Don’t start crying, you’ve barely started,” I chastise myself.
Will the Supreme Court Make Homelessness a Crime?
Helen Cruz has been a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon, for roughly four decades, but for the last five of those years, she’s had no home in which to live. She’s not alone. Her small mountain town with a population of 39,189 provides no public homeless shelters. She is among up to 600 people experiencing […]