Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
Call me old fashioned but this is still the best wearable ever made.
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Broadcast TV still exists, and now it’s sort of getting a built-in DVR
Please note the pause button. Yes, that will really appear on your TV, no DVR or app required. | Image: Roxi
Broadcast TV is in trouble, and for a long time now, a lot of people have pointed to a new broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0, as the way it can be saved and finally compete against streaming, YouTube, and TikTok. And finally, after years of hype that failed to deliver, there’s an actual glimmer of hope for your local TV stations. Local news is about to get a lot more interactive.
Part of that’s because of Roxi, a company we covered back at CES. Then, the company was showing off an app that streamed music over the airwaves to your ATSC 3.0-outfitted TV and let you skip tracks, choose genres, and interact with it like you would a traditional smart TV app. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones utterly delighted by the technology Roxi showed off....
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Oh, what a tangled social web we weave when first we practice to deceive
Yoko Taro Explains Why He Envies Stellar Blade And Its Director
The similarities between Nier: Automata and Shift Up’s upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, Stellar Blade, are evident—and not just because the former inspired the latter. Both games center women piecing together a world at its collapse, which makes the two sisters of a sort. And as it does between sisters, jealousy…
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
BlueSky has a dead butterfly logo and I cannot unsee it.
https://www.emilydamstra.com/please-enough-dead-butterflies/
Final Fantasy VII: The Kotaku Retro Review
After helping my childhood friend, Cloud, through a reality-bending experience to reclaim his identity, I listen as he apologizes for his worst actions and explains to a room full of people why he misled everyone. Yes, his mind was under the influence of an invasive presence, but this confession comes from a place of…
Reblogged by nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi"):
infosecrodney@infosec.exchange ("Infosec Rodney Dangerfield") wrote:
I used quantum cryptography to secure my messages. The good news is they're secure. The bad news? I need a quantum computer to read them.
Reblogged by nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi"):
infosecrodney@infosec.exchange ("Infosec Rodney Dangerfield") wrote:
I decided to beef up my email security. Now, all my spam comes encrypted.
The internet really is a series of tubes
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
Hundreds of cables. Hundreds of thousands of miles. The internet runs, in vastly more ways than we realize or think about, through a series of garden-hose size tubes on the ocean floor. Without those tubes, the modern world sort of collapses. And the folks responsible for keeping them functioning have bigger, harder, stranger jobs than you might think.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk to The Verge’s Josh Dzieza, who has been reporting on the undersea cable world and just published a feature about some of the folks who keep it running. It’s a story worthy of a high-seas action movie, and it’s all about cables.
Then, we chat with The Verge’s Tom Warren and Joanna Nelius about the new generation of PCs that Microsoft and others...
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
The Cass Report seems to be a kind of palimpsest that allows everyone to read their preferred interpretation into it.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/04/16/the-only-summary-of-the-cass-report-that-i-need/
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Jabba Is Not Just A Pre-Order Bonus In Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft Confirms
Ubisoft’s decision to keep a mission featuring everyone’s favorite intergalactic crime lord, Jabba the Hutt, behind the most eye-wateringly expensive versions of Star Wars Outlaws caused widespread internet panic in recent days. Given how much of the game’s promotion has featured the grumpy space worm, was the key…
The Echo Pop is down to one of its best prices to date with a free smart bulb
You can buy Amazon’s entry-level smart speaker in a wide array of fun colors for just $5 shy of its all-time low. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
From helping me as a caregiver to cracking me up with fart jokes, Amazon’s budget-friendly smart speakers have added a lot of value to my life. That’s why I own one for almost every area of my home — and why I got excited when I saw Amazon is selling the Echo Pop for $22.99 with a free Kasa Smart Color Bulb. That equates to a savings of about $40, though you can also buy the standalone speaker for $22.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is just $5 shy of its all-time low.
For a mere $20 or so, the colorful Echo Pop packs a lot of tech into a small, semi-spherical package. Like the fifth-gen Echo Dot, it offers a host of Alexa-based smarts designed to make your life easier, including the ability to quickly check the news and...
If You’re Worried About The Fallout TV Series Messing With Canon, You’re Missing The Point
What makes a good video game adaptation? For some, it’s a rock solid story set in a well-known world, but for a very vocal group of gamers, it’s a faithful, beat-by-beat recreation of beloved source material. Those who fall into that latter school of thought are the same people who are angry that Master Chief had sex…
The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
Photo by Go Takayama for The Verge
On the afternoon of March 11th, 2011, Mitsuyoshi Hirai, the chief engineer of the cable maintenance ship Ocean Link,was sitting in his cabin 20 miles off Japan’s eastern coast, completing the paperwork that comes at the end of every repair. Two weeks earlier, something — you rarely knew what — damaged the 13,000-mile fiber optic cable connecting Kitaibaraki, Japan, and Point Arena, California. Alarms went off; calls were made; and the next day, Hirai was sailing out of the port in Yokohama to fix it.
The repair was now nearly done. All that remained was to rebury the cable on the seafloor, which they were doing using a bulldozer-sized remotely operated submersible named Marcas — and, of course, the paperwork.
Suddenly,...
Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift ticketing fiasco might have just led to a lawsuit from the DOJ
Photo by Ashok Kumar / TAS24 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
The Department of Justice is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit could reportedly come as early as next month and will target the company’s alleged monopoly in the live ticketing industry.
Live Nation drew antitrust scrutiny when it merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. But those concerns boiled over in November 2022 when a Ticketmaster crash blocked thousands of Taylor Swift fans from purchasing tickets for the Eras Tour due to “unprecedented demand.” The DOJ opened an investigation into Live Nation shortly after, The New York Times reported.
Lawmakers also levied heavy criticism against the ticketing company, with Sen. Amy...
How to improve the quality of the audio in your streaming apps
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
When you load your music streaming app of choice onto your mobile device, your audio quality settings are worth taking a minute or two to configure. If you don’t have these set to as high a quality as possible, you’re missing out on the best audio experience your streaming apps can offer.
Because they are managed separately for streaming music over cell and Wi-Fi networks and for downloading tracks to your device for offline listening, there is a tradeoff. Increased sound quality and fidelity means more data gets used (which might be a concern if you’re not on an unlimited cellular plan), bigger file sizes (which take up more room on your device), and a longer wait for downloads. But even if you have to compromise some settings, it’s a...
Finally! Tough new safety rules on silica dust are out to protect miners' lungs
Addressing a problem first identified 50 years ago, federal regulators say stricter new rules to limit miners' exposure to silica dust are expected to finally go on the books on Tuesday.
Fire ravages 17th-century Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, toppling the iconic spire
Passersby rushed to help emergency services save priceless paintings and other valuables as a fire raged through one of Copenhagen's oldest buildings on Tuesday.
Sony wants 60fps PS5 Pro ‘Enhanced’ games, but it’s happy to settle for less
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Sony is working on a new “high-end version” of the PS5, codenamed Trinity and likely to debut as the PS5 Pro later this year. The Verge confirmed leaked specs about the PS5 Pro earlier this week, and we’ve also obtained details on how existing and new PS5 games can be “enhanced” to take advantage of the PS5 Pro hardware. Sony is also working on an ultra-boost mode for older games to make them run better on the PS5 Pro.
Sources familiar with Sony’s plans tell The Verge that Sony is asking developers to create a new PS5 Pro-exclusive graphics mode in games that combines Sony’s new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling to 4K resolution with a 60fps frame rate and ray-tracing effects. Insider Gaming first reported on some of...
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
I was asked to give my opinions of Frayn's play, Copenhagen.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/04/16/copenhagen/
Insta360’s first 8K camera comes with a removable lens guard
The Insta360 X4 is the latest action camera from Insta360.
Insta360 has launched its latest 360-degree action camera, the X4. The most obvious upgrade that the $500 camera offers over its predecessor, the X3, is the ability to shoot video in 8K at 30 frames per second. That extra boost in resolution and detail may come in handy for watching action videos on anything larger than your phone, panning around 360-degree footage on platforms like YouTube or cropping out a perspective you like from a 360-degree recording. It also includes a new 2,290mAh battery rated for 75 minutes of 8K footage and 135 minutes of 5.7K footage.
The X4 supports recording 5.7K at 60 frames per second as well as 4K at 100 frames per second. (The X3 was limited to 5.7K at 30fps and 4K at 60fps.) Similar to older models,...
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
MostlyHarmless@thecanadian.social wrote:
I just blew all my party money on bills again.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
detachedspork@mastodon.ie ("detached spork") wrote:
This is of course the main problem with being "politically correct" - the people who believe it's shameful to be fat will require you say "Body diversity" and the people who believe "fat" is merely a descriptive term for people who have more body fat than the default people, will just say fat.
Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
detachedspork@mastodon.ie ("detached spork") wrote:
Just had two comments removed from a subreddit for using the word "fat" (about my own body, in one instance, and about a tv show character who is, like me, fat).
And frankly I'd rather be called fat by someone who didn't think fat is something shameful than called "plus sized" by someone who felt they had to euphemise what my body looks like.
Biden has to decide soon whether to sanction Venezuela. Here's what to know
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government faces a deadline this week — to commit to holding free and fair elections or face renewed U.S. oil sanctions.
Report: China continues to subsidize deadly fentanyl exports
Fentanyl made from Chinese chemicals is killing tens of thousands of Americans. A House committee report found new evidence the Chinese government supports tax breaks to subsidize the drug trade.
Anker’s latest Soundcore Sleep earbuds actually improve slumber for less than $90
The Soundcore Sleep A20 are decent passive earbuds that are great for side sleepers, even if Anker overpromises.
Motorola is bringing the wooden phone back with its new Edge series
Weird phones are back, baby. | Image: Motorola
Motorola is introducing three new Edge series phones, reviving a classic design feature it first introduced a decade ago: a wooden back panel. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra is the highest spec’d device of the trio, and it’s the only one with the “real wood” back panel option (though the peach fuzz vegan leather looks awfully nice, too). Motorola will launch the phones first outside of the US “in the coming weeks,” but says it’s committed to “expanding the Edge family in North America this year.”
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra uses the new Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset, which is a slight step down from the 8 Gen 3. There’s a 6.7-inch OLED with up to 144Hz refresh rate, which has been “Pantone-validated.” Say what? Motorola says this designation...
Iran hails attack on Israel as a 'victory'; Photos of Sudan, 1 year into a brutal war
Iran says its attack against Israel was a success, despite the fact that 99% of the drones were intercepted. A Sudanese photographer documents how war has upended life in his country.
Rise and grind? Working late, volatile hours may lead to depression, illness by 50
Burnt out much? A study links working late, or variable shifts with health problems later in life. Maybe it's time to quit hustle culture for good.
nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
In Shamir secret sharing, is it alright for the leading coefficient of the polynomial to always be non-zero?
If you answer "No", please justify your answer or be prepared to face me in mortal combat.
NASA confirms origin of space junk that crashed through Florida home
The four-inch tall metal object tore through a roof in Naples, Florida last month. | Image: Alejandro Otero
NASA has confirmed suspicions that the strange object that crashed into a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS). The agency analyzed the cylindrical object after it tore through the roof and two floors of a house in Naples on March 8th, and established that it came from a cargo pallet of aging batteries that was released from the ISS back in 2021.
More specifically, NASA revealed in a blog post on Monday that the offending object was a support component used to mount the batteries on the 5,800-pound (2,630-kilogram) pallet released from the space station. Made from Inconel (a metal alloy that can withstand extreme environments like high temperature, pressure, or mechanical loads), the...
Indiana Will Test a Highway That Can Charge Moving Vehicles
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Blake Dollier spoke excitedly as he watched the construction crews pulverize concrete along a quarter-mile stretch of US Highway 52 where it passes through West Lafayette, Indiana. Soon, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), where Dollier works as the public […]
Suicides make up majority of gun deaths, but remain overlooked in gun violence debate
Suicide is the leading cause of gun-related deaths in the United States. But it's often only an afterthought in the public debate about gun violence.
NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism
NPR has suspended Senior Editor Uri Berliner after he wrote an essay accusing the public radio network of becoming too progressive in its news coverage and losing the public's trust.
A new generation is uncovering the tiny doodles left by engineers on old microchips
Engineers left these drawings as a way to sign their work. Many are puns that made them chuckle to themselves. Now social media has rediscovered them and hobbyists try to keep that history alive.
Why homeless people are losing health coverage in Medicaid mix-ups
Nearly 130,000 Montanans lost Medicaid coverage during recent eligibility reviews. People who are homeless are more likely to have chronic health issues and particularly vulnerable to losing coverage.
Senate trial on Mayorkas set to start, but Democrats are likely to dispose of charges
On Tuesday House impeachment managers will deliver the impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate.
ABBA, The Notorious B.I.G. and Green Day named to the National Recording Registry
Every year, the Library of Congress names 25 "audio treasures" to be preserved permanently. This year's selections range from ABBA and Green Day to World War I-era jazz pioneer James Reese Europe.
As Iran attacked Israel, old and faked videos and images got millions of views on X
Images and videos from previous conflicts, video games and AI generators were often spread by accounts that pay to be boosted on the social media site once known as Twitter.
Bitcoin is about to hit an event called the halving — and it may spark a huge rally
Crypto investors are getting excited about an upcoming quadrennial event called the halving that will effectively reduce the supply of new bitcoin in half. Here's what it all means.
ISIS destroyed his instruments. He made a new one from scraps and composed an album
Musician and composer Ameen Mokdad opens up about his album The Curve, which he composed while living under ISIS occupation in Mosul, Iraq.
Supreme Court hears challenge to law used to prosecute hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants
The case tests the statute used to prosecute hundreds of defendants charged with invading the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral ballots for president in 2020.
nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
Response posted by Chen: http://www.chenyilei.net/
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and bridges in major cities
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's airports.
Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are selected in the first round of the WNBA draft
Caitlin Clark became the all-time leading scorer in college basketball history during her time as a student, while Angel Reese led the SEC division in points and rebounds for two seasons.
A knife attack in Australia is being treated as terrorism
Australian police say a knife attack in Sydney that wounded a bishop and a priest during a church service as worshippers watched online and in person, and sparked a riot was an act of terrorism.
nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi") wrote:
"In this short note we point to an error in the claims of Chen’s paper." https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/583
Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):
mttaggart@infosec.town ("Taggart :donor:") wrote:
The recent attempted XZ Utils backdoor (CVE-2024-3094) may not be an isolated incident as evidenced by a similar credible takeover attempt intercepted by the OpenJS Foundation, home to JavaScript projects used by billions of websites worldwide. The Open Source Security (OpenSSF) and OpenJS Foundations are calling all open source maintainers to be alert for social engineering takeover attempts, to recognize the early threat patterns emerging, and to take steps to protect their open source projects.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO (Jan 2024) https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/artificial-episode-3-chatgpt/835fdc63-75ff-4ef1-b18c-f40537807cfe# :
> The honest answer is we have no idea. We have never made any revenue. We have no current plans to make revenue. We have no idea how we may one day generate revenue. We have made a soft promise to investors that once we've built this sort of generally intelligent system, basically we will ask it to figure out a way to generate an investment return for you.
Deeply unserious people.
The House plans to hold separate votes on aid for Israel and Ukraine after delays
Aid for Israel became more urgent after the weekend's attack, House Speaker Mike Johnson said. After months of delays, he is also putting forward a bill that provide additional aid to Ukraine.
Reblogged by nadim@symbolic.software ("Nadim Kobeissi"):
scottarc@infosec.exchange ("Scott Arciszewski") wrote:
So funny story about this PuTTY vulnerability https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/vuln-p521-bias.html
Literally every time I've ever reviewed an ECDSA over P-521 implementation, this was the absolute first thing I thought to look for. I've never actually found an implementation in the wild that was susceptible to this sort of weakness, but it seemed like a foot-gun that someone would implement eventually.
Turns out, it was PuTTy. Incredible.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
https://fromjason.xyz/p/notebook/any-technology-indistinguishable-from-magic-is-hiding-something/
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Any technology indistinguishable from magic is hiding something.
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
reading “The Atrocity Files” by @cstross left me wandering around on the “First-order logic” page… of course it did
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
jdp23@blahaj.zone ("Jon") wrote:
As a Jewish American, I grew up appreciating the Anti-Defamation League's work combatting antisemitism. But as I got more experienced with progressive activism, I realized that it's a lot more complex than that. #DropTheADL has a good summary at https://droptheadl.org/ -- signed by dozens of groups including If Not Now, Jewish Voice for Peace, United We Dream, Mijente, Movement for Black Lives, National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
"Many organizations in our communities find themselves in spaces with the ADL, using its anti-bias education materials, or counting on the ADL to support our political goals. In light of a growing understanding of the ADL’s harmful practices, many progressive groups are rethinking those relationships.
Even though the ADL is integrated into community work on a range of issues, it has a history and ongoing pattern of attacking social justice movements led by communities of color, queer people, immigrants, Muslims, Arabs, and other marginalized groups, while aligning itself with police, right-wing leaders, and perpetrators of state violence. More disturbing, it has often conducted those attacks under the banner of “civil rights.” This largely unpublicized history has come increasingly to light as activists work to make sense of the ADL’s role in condemning the Movement for Black Lives, Palestinian rights organizing, and Congressional Representative Ilhan Omar, among others.
We are deeply concerned that the ADL’s credibility in some social justice movements and communities is precisely what allows it to undermine the rights of marginalized communities, shielding it from criticism and accountability while boosting its legitimacy and resources. Even when it may seem that our work is benefiting from access to some resources or participation from the ADL, given the destructive role that it too often plays in undermining struggles for justice, we believe that we cannot collaborate with the ADL without betraying our movements."
Their primer on https://droptheadl.org/the-adl-is-not-an-ally/ goes into a lot more depth and is really worth reading.
Boeing challenges whistleblower allegations, details how airframes are put together
Two Boeing engineering executives went into detail Monday to describe how panels are fitted together, particularly on the 787 Dreamliner.
collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:
I think we're focused on the wrong thing when we look at what tech works for a company like Amazon or Facebook or Netflix.
We should be looking at what tech works when you *don't* have a small army of staff engineers optimizing it. I want to know what I can scale *without* paying someone a half million dollar salary to do it.
There should be more case studies on things that don't have a billion-dollar company propping them up, humming along quietly on a cheap-ass VPS somewhere.
Here are the best iPad deals right now
iPads go on sale quite frequently, but some discounts on more powerful models are getting harder to find. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
While the best iPad deals usually land during major sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon’s various Prime Days, many of the best iPad deals from the holiday season have persisted into 2024. The discounts come and go like changing winds, but you can still take advantage of sales on many models today, particularly on the more affordable iPads. What’s more, prices are likely to drop even further when Apple ushers in a new slate of iPad Pro and iPad Air models, which will reportedly happen in May.
Forthcoming models aside, it’s difficult to know where exactly you can find the most notable iPad deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing...
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
So. Don't k*ll me.
#decentralization X axis speaks to the centralization of power and authority, not just tech.
#federation Y axis speaks to ability to move from node to node- data, content, identities.
Note: This assumes BlueSky executes most of what they say they will. Not where they are now (which would be further down the Y axis).
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Truth Social shares tumble again. It's making for an incredibly volatile ride
Trump Media & Technology Group fell sharply after saying it was issuing new shares. Trump's stake is still worth billions of dollars, however.
Supreme Court temporarily revives Idaho law banning gender affirming care for minors
The law makes it a felony for doctors to medically treat gender dysphoria in minors. It will now go into effect except in the case of two anonymous plaintiffs who may continue to receive treatment.
Iran's attack on Israel is a major escalation. What comes next for the region?
Iran launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend, saying it was in response to an airstrike earlier this month that hit Iran's consulate in Syria and killed seven Iranian military officials, including two generals.Israel neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the Syria strike, though the Pentagon said Israel was responsible.Sima Shine is a former senior Israeli intelligence official. She now runs the Iran desk at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. She says this attack is "crossing the Rubicon" from the point of view of Iran, and explains what Israel's retaliation could be.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
UK mulling potential AI regulation
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
Officials at the UK’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology have started drafting legislation to regulate AI models, Bloomberg reports. It’s unclear how any future regulation will intersect with the UK’s already-extant AI Safety Institute, which already conducts safety tests of the most powerful AI models.
After hosting the first global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November 2023, which was attended by many world leaders, the UK established an AI Safety Institute the following November. The institute began evaluating AI models for safety this year, though some technology companies requested more clarity on the timelines and what would happen if AI models are found risky. The UK also agreed to do joint safety testing...
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
I love this aesthetic:
“Harold Halibut is teeming with little details and detours. If you opt to sit down and watch a tiny television in a break room, you can catch eight minutes of a surreal, unsubtitled Turkish-language telenovela that the developers wrote, built from clay and animated from scratch.”
Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now
The entry-level Apple Watch SE is a gateway smartwatch if there ever was one. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
In September, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.
But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, launched in September on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the...
The CFPB wants to rein in data brokers
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to propose new regulations that would require data brokers to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In a speech at the White House earlier this month, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the agency is looking into policies to “ensure greater accountability” for companies that buy and sell consumer data, in keeping with an executive order President Joe Biden issued in late February.
Chopra said the agency is considering proposals that would define data brokers that sell certain types of data as “consumer reporting agencies,” thereby requiring those companies to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The statute bans sharing certain kinds of data (e.g., your credit report) with...
Cybertruck owners say deliveries halted over bad accelerator pedal
Image: Parker Ortolani / The Verge
Over the last few days, Tesla has delayed some Cybertruck deliveries. The company hasn’t specified why or even publicly commented on the delays, but commenters in the Cybertruck Owners Club forum have reported receiving texts or calls telling them their deliveries were being rescheduled.
One user said they’d been told by their dealer that the truck was recalled over its accelerator pedal. Another claimed Tesla sent them a text saying it’s not scheduling deliveries at the moment for the same reason. Several others reported receiving texts about issues with “the preparation of your vehicle.”
An Elon Musk fan account called @WholeMarsBlog posted on X that deliveries have been halted for seven days, but that hasn’t been confirmed, and Tesla...
NASA needs a cheaper, faster way to bring Mars dirt back to Earth
Image from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover captured in April 2024. | NASA
Budget constraints have NASA looking for a faster and cheaper method to bring samples from Mars’ surface back to Earth. In a teleconference on Monday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that an independent review concluded that the agency’s current plan to bring the first samples collected by the Mars rover Perseverance could cost up to $11 billion and would likely not be achievable until 2040. The fiscal 2025 budget for the space agency, as well as additional anticipated budget cuts, are behind how slowly the current plan is being executed.
“That is unacceptable to wait that long,” Nelson said about the mission to return samples of dust and rocks from Mars to Earth. “It’s the decade of the 2040s that we’re going to be landing...
Now That Iran Has Attacked Israel, What Happens Next?
Following the attack of more than 300 weaponized drones and missiles launched by Iran at Israel, the Israeli prime minster is getting pressure from the U.S. for Israel to be measured in its response, while some domestic politicians are demanding a strong reaction. Our correspondent in Tel Aviv gives us the latest. And Jordan was part of the success in shooting down the majority of projectiles bound for Israel. We hear what the reaction has been in that country where 60 percent of the population is of Palestinian origin.
The Best Rocket Launcher In Destiny 2 And How To Get It
Destiny 2 is back on the menu thanks to a brilliant new horde mode called Onslaught. As players return to the sci-fi shooter MMO in droves following the free Into The Light update that’s been showering them with loot, a lot of you are no doubt behind on the latest top gear. Fortunately, Apex Predator is arguably the…
Keanu Reeves is voicing Shadow the Hedgehog in the third Sonic movie
Keanu Reeves as John Wick. | Image: Lionsgate
The third Sonic movie already seemed like it was going to kick all kinds of ass by bringing Shadow the Hedgehog into the picture, but Paramount’s just upped the ante by adding one Keanu Reeves to its cast.
According to both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Keanu Reeves has been tapped to voice Shadow, the anthropomorphic hedgehog best known for his jet-powered sneakers and fondness for guns. While the studio’s yet to make an official announcement, news of Reeves’ casting comes after director Jeff Fowler teased that the next Sonic movie will be inspired by Sonic Adventure 2, the Dreamcast game that first introduced Shadow in 2001.
Shadow’s cinematic arrival was also teased at the end of the last Sonic movie, where he appeared to be...
Keanu Reeves Is Shadow In Sonic The Hedgehog 3
Two years after he made his debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, we finally know who is voicing Shadow the Hedgehog in Paramount’s live-action movies. Keanu Reeves of The Matrix, Cyberpunk 2077, and John Wick fame is voicing the Ultimate Lifeform in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Trump’s Trial Marks the Return of “Individual-1”
The justice system finally caught up with Individual-1—a.k.a. Donald J. Trump. On the opening day of Trump’s historic trial for his porn star/hush-money caper—no former president has ever been on trial for criminal charges—New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan had to clear up a few pending legal issues before moving to the arduous task […]
YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown now includes third-party apps
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube is bringing its ad blocker fight to mobile. In an update on Monday, YouTube writes that users accessing videos through a third-party ad blocking app may encounter buffering issues or see an error message that reads, “The following content is not available on this app.”
Last year, YouTube “launched a global effort” to encourage users to allow ads while watching videos or upgrade to YouTube Premium. It also began disabling videos for users with an ad blocking extension enabled.
But now, YouTube says its policies don’t allow “third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership.” This appears to target mobile ad blockers like AdGuard, which lets you open YouTube within the ad...
collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:
If your product is a docs generator, the one thing you should definitely have is good docs.
The Best Games And Biggest Deals To Grab In Steam’s Massive FPS Fest
FPS Fest, a large Steam sales event featuring big and small PC shooters is happening right now, and we’ve got a list of some of the biggest and best deals to grab before the event ends later this month.
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:
Does anyone else find it frustrating that tech news blogs refuse to do anything more than publish tech leaders' claims as is without a whisper of scrutiny or critical thinking?
Searching about any tech company, start-up, novel technology, etc. and you're met with a sea of long-form advertisements disguised as news articles.
How do we ever fix this?
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
timnitGebru@dair-community.social ("Timnit Gebru (she/her)") wrote:
Hello friends,
I am happy to announce that my paper with Dr. Émile P. Torres, The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence, is finally out on this issue of First Monday, along with a set of terrific papers by our colleagues. I suggest you read all the papers in this issue.
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636/11599
Fallout Show Hides A Terrifying Easter Egg In Plain Sight
Amazon’s Fallout show is, miraculously, pretty fun and great. It manages to capture the satire of the games and somehow makes it even sharper by trimming much of their fat. Because of this, the elements which the show lifts from the games feel like they’re lent even more space to shine prominently, and this is…
Drugmakers' low U.S. taxes belie their high sales
Most of the largest pharmaceutical companies report losing money in the United States, despite the majority of their sales coming from Americans. The result is lower U.S. taxes for the companies.
2021’s Best Narrative Game Is Cheaper Than A Cup Of Coffee Right Now
It’s not often that I kick down someone’s door and get real close to their face to tell them something Homer Simpson-style, but dear readers, one of the best games of 2021 is so cheap right now it’s practically a steal. If you haven’t played Before Your Eyes, it’s available on Steam for real cheap for a few more days.…
Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
owa ("Open Web Advocacy") wrote:
Q: What effect has Apple's browser ban on iOS had?
A: https://ios404.com/
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):
sarahjamielewis ("Sarah Jamie Lewis") wrote:
I'm also growing rather tired of wading through undisclosed advertorials from pretty much every outlet.
It used to be that journalists limited themselves to a few of those a year, taking a corporation up on their offer of an interview with an "expert" or a field trip to see some "innovation", or a celebrity on how they discovered some health concern "just in time" after a trip to some private screening clinic.
Maybe it's frequency illusion, but I feel like those articles are everywhere now.
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
There really are Apple fans out there who will still uncritically lap up the meticulously engineered self-congratulation....in 2024. It's wild.
Is a watchdog for corporate climate commitments caving to industry?
Pigeon River Country State Forest in Vanderbilt, Michigan, U.S., on Wednesday, April 20th, 2022. State and local governments in the US are enrolling public-owned forests in carbon projects that could earn them tens of millions of dollars but provide little new help in the fight against climate change.
The charity that serves as a major watchdog on corporate climate commitments faces allegations that it’s caving to industry pressure to relax standards.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) assesses companies’ sustainability pledges and develops standards for how companies can set goals to fight climate change that are backed by science. SBTi’s policies are supposed to prevent greenwashing, which is when companies make misleading statements about their environmental impact.
One way SBTi has tried to crack down on greenwashing is by limiting the use of carbon offsets. Offsets are supposed to cancel out some of a company’s carbon footprint, even though that’s often only reflected on paper and not in the real world. SBTi’s tough...
Harold Halibut: The Kotaku Review
As I play through the sci-fi adventure that is Harold Halibut, I am often reminded of walking through an aquarium. It’s partially because the game’s gorgeous environments are submerged in, but it’s also because I feel a childlike frustration at the events unfolding in front of me. Like a kid tapping the glass in hopes…
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
four generations of us have taken the oath, and taken it seriously… it has no ‘sell by’ date.
I hope my grandnephew has the intestinal fortitude to refuse unlawful orders if this country elects a petty dictator to be his Commander-in-Chief.
Photos: A year of war in Sudan
A year of war has torn through Sudan, causing devastation and more than 8 million people to be displaced.
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
this was a Regular Army unit… back then, units were not comprised of a mix of US & RA
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
my brother was with the 4th Infantry, but long after this gentleman defended the Union & fought against slavery.
Attachments:
'Rust' armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed sentenced to 18 months in prison
Gutierrez-Reed has been in custody since she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March by a New Mexico jury. Her attorney asked for probation and will appeal the case.
Apex Legends Tournament Sparks Backlash From Queer Fans And Allies
Respawn’s hero shooter battle royale Apex Legends is an incredibly inclusive game for the queer community. It has several playable LGBTQIA+ legends, has given players Pride Flag cosmetics to showcase their identities in-game, and developer Respawn even put a statement supporting trans rights in the game itself. After…
Deliberately friend-sized and friend-shaped, with a soft surface material and soft, squishy stuffing, you will soon be able to have a #Mastodon in your home:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/04/mastodon-stuffed-toy-coming-soon/