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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
484 stories archived
Cosmonaut Aleksandr Samokutyaev, 56, is first former ISS crew member to die
Two expeditions, two spacewalks, 322 days in space.
If AI Is Sentient Then So Is ‘Age of Empires II’
“The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily."
Don’t wait for Prime Day. We found the 31 best early deals from Amazon and its competitors
Love or hate Amazon, its 23-26 June Prime Day event is a good time to snag discounts on tech, fashion and more, including much-loved brands such as Anyday and Caraway Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things You don’t have the wait until after Turkey Day: early summer is actually one of the best times of the year to snag a deal. Amazon is kicking off its annual summer sale on 23 June, and just as Christmas songs start playing in stores two months early, the company and many other retailers are slashing prices in advance. We’ve handpicked 31 of the best deals based on products the Filter has tested and loved in the past, including discounts on some of our favorite brands such as Field Company , Anyday and Caraway . If you want to shop at Amazon, we’ve handpicked products that are actually worth your money, and very few require a Prime subscription. If you prefer other retailers, we have oodles of those too. Best tech deal: AirPods Pro 3 Best home deal: Levoit Tower Fan Continue reading...
Salesforce’s Internal AI Leaderboard Has Teams Competing for Little Trophies
The leaderboard, sorted by executive and the teams underneath them, has a feature that shows users which employees have not earned the badges. “click to see who 👀,” the leaderboard says.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales review – a playable love letter to Zelda
PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, PC; Team Asano/Square Enix Upbeat, charmingly retro RPG full of treasure-hunting, temple-roaming, monster-slaying and princess-saving is an absolute blast to play You can’t help but wonder if developer Team Asano is in a private competition with itself to come up with the most ridiculous name for a video game. Following Project Triangle Strategy and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy we have this mouthful: The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. It’s a playable love letter to the Zelda adventures of yesteryear rendered in the studio’s trademark glorious 2D-HD art style, melding evocative pixel sprites with modern visual effects. From west Philabieldia, born and raised, our hero is adventurer Elliot. The antagonist making trouble in the neighbourhood is a king’s dastardly aide intent on summoning an ancient evil. The story is pure after-school-TV schlock, fully voice-acted but still unafraid to make you sit through reams and reams of text, and the action comprises treasure-hunting, temple-roaming and dispatching monsters. It’s part Chrono Trigger, part Oracle of Seasons as our almost obnoxiously upbeat hero journeys through the ages in order to solve puzzles, tip his fedora and of course, save a princess. Continue reading...
The best LED face masks in the UK, tested: 11 light therapy devices that are worth the hype
They claim to fix fine lines, blemishes and redness – but which stand up to scrutiny? We asked dermatologists and put them to the test to find out • The best anti-ageing creams, serums and treatments LED face masks are booming in popularity – despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products to hit the market. They claim to either reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots or calm redness, with some even combining different types of light to enhance the benefits. However, it’s wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I interviewed doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices work. Best LED face mask overall: CurrentBody Series 2 Best budget LED face mask: Silk’n LED face mask 100 Continue reading...
Gig workers are endlessly exploited. AI could make more of us share their fate
As companies integrate AI and hire fewer employees, a shift toward a ‘gig economy’ will commence In 2024, the buy-now-pay-later company Klarna announced that it would cut hundreds of customer service roles and begin using an artificial intelligence chatbot instead. The move was expected to save the company millions. But a year later, after customers complained about the degraded quality of customer service, Klarna began to quietly recruit human customer service agents back. At first glance, the reversal appeared to be a victory for human workers in the age of AI. The reality was more complex. Instead of bringing on full-time customer service agents, who Klarna contracts through an outside agency, it instead brought on workers in what Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has described as “an Uber type of set-up”. Now, an AI chatbot continues to handle most of customers’ basic queries, while a growing number of gig workers handle the more advanced ones. “Just like somebody can go and drive an Uber for a while, they can actually jump on and work for Klarna’s customer service,” Siemiatkowski said on a podcast in February. Continue reading...
Hulk, Punisher join Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer
Peter Parker to Bruce Banner: "I didn't know you could get that big."
The malignant rise of OnlyFans managers: ‘It’s exploiting. It’s grooming. It’s predatory’
As the pornography platform has exploded in popularity, a side industry has emerged: middlemen who encourage young women into the industry, then take a large cut of their earnings Markuss Hussle wants his online students to understand one thing: he knows how to make money. There is no subtlety involved. He gives an hour-long presentation in one video, sitting next to his silver Lamborghini. In another, he splices his money-making tips with footage of a ski weekend with his friends in Courchevel, in the French Alps, including shots of private jets, helicopters and a girlfriend in a fur coat. He claims the trip cost $100,000 (£75,000). He shows off his watches and his swimming pool and talks about how his mother worked three jobs as a cleaner until he “retired her” and bought her a home by the sea. If you were not paying close attention to the spreadsheets and presentations interspersed with the motivational lifestyle content, you might guess he was offering guidance on how to trade shares or invest in cryptocurrency. There are a lot of performance graphs and much discussion of account management, optimisation, scaling, working smart and tripling profits. Continue reading...
Inspired by Ukraine, and worried by China: Taiwan teaches its citizens how to fly drones
Ordinary Taiwanese, young and old, are joining courses to learn how to fly drones amid looming China military threat In a small, crowded room in Taipei, Pan Chien-chin is trying to keep a drone hovering steadily. Imagining himself flying a plane, he gently nudges controller joysticks to guide the insect-like device as it hums through the air. Cheers break out as Pan, who has never flown a drone before, steers it around a rectangular course marked by traffic cones without crashing. Around him are about two dozen fellow trainees, all signed up for the same course: Taiwan’s first civil defence drone training programme. Continue reading...
Second carcass-eating fly species cleared by FDA for maggot wound therapy
Maggot therapy lacks robust data, but it has fans and a fail-safe "bacon therapy."
Sooner than expected? Useful quantum error correction promised for 2028.
Elsewhere, beyond-classical quantum hardware, plus classical computing fires back.
California says AT&T lied to FCC in attempt to shut off old phone network
FCC considers AT&T petitions to preempt state rules and discontinue phone service.
Massive breach spills credentials for thousands of sensitive networks
The affected include Oracle, Lenovo, FedEx, a NATO contractor, and Fortinet.
Tesco moving 40,000 server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's “abusive conduct”
Tesco claimed Broadcom hiked its VMware prices by about 175 percent in UK court filings.
AI coding agents can autonomously direct robot training
NVIDIA’s self-improvement program for robots enlists teams of AI coding agents.
The Slate Truck's price may have leaked, starts at $24,950
The official launch takes place next week.
"Dangerous" AI models are coming no matter what
AI models with advanced hacking capabilities will soon be the norm.
The best power banks and battery packs in the UK for reliable charging on the go, tested
Forever running out of juice? Top up your battery-powered devices with our expert picks, from tiny smartphone chargers to super speedy models • The best iPhones: which Apple smartphone is right for you It’s disempowering when your smartphone, laptop or other important gadget runs out of battery. With the flash of a graphic or a plaintive bleep, we lose a way to entertain ourselves, get things done, stay in touch or even get home safely. There’s a time and a place for a digital detox – but what is the time, and where am I? Carrying a power bank is your ticket out of electronic oblivion. These pocket-sized cuboids plug into compatible devices and charge them, often via assorted connections, including USB-C and USB-A. Most power banks are made for charging smartphones and smaller gadgets, such as fitness trackers and earbuds, but some models can also charge power-hungrier laptops and large portable speakers. Best power bank overall: Belkin BoostCharge Pro 3-port 20k Best budget power bank: Belkin BoostCharge 10k with integrated cable Continue reading...
Ten months later, the $100 Google Home Speaker is finally available for preorder
Google's new smart speaker is more about Gemini than audio quality.
Towers once planned for California shuttle launches leveled for SpaceX rockets
"Space Launch Complex-6 represents six decades of American innovation."
"Truly evil" FDA rejection of gene therapy overturned after Trump official ousted
Gene therapy company UniQure had another FDA meeting after Vinay Prasad's exit.
ICE Appears to Be Buying Immigrants’ Tax Identifiers from a Data Broker
A $10 million procurement reviewed by 404 Media indicates ICE is buying records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers. “It looks for all the world like Trump is trying to skirt the law and a court order to fuel his mass-deportation campaign,” Senator Ron Wyden said.
Fears for Xbox as it puts its developers on the chopping block once again
After the billion-dollar company’s leaders sent staff a memo saying the brand had ‘over-extended’, game studios may be in the firing line Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here In March 2000, Bill Gates stood onstage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and, to a packed crowd, officially announced the company’s long-anticipated video game console. “We want Xbox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world,” he told attenders – and that was indeed the intention of the small, dedicated team who put together the blueprints of that first machine. The Xbox landscape seems very different 25 years later. Last week, mere days after a bullish summer showcase full of Gears of War revivals and promises of a renewed focus on Xbox’s gaming strengths, new CEO, Asha Sharma, and chief content officer, Matt Booty, wrote a memo to Xbox staff inviting them to brace for “hard truths”. “Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20bn on ongoing investments in our content, platform and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue,” it read. Continue reading...