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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
740 stories archived
Apple's long-rumored foldable becomes reality with the $2,000 iPhone Duo
Apple's first foldable can be yours next month.
When it comes to Beatles references, scientists can't let it be
New study detects 3,200 references to Beatles song titles and lyrics in academic papers.
Doctor Doom Thanked Seattle for All the Surveillance Cameras
‘We must work to crush any dissent to Doom’s vision of public safety,’ the Marvel supervillain told the city as it considered multiple surveillance proposals.
Lawsuit: Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks and chairs
Four women sue Amazon, say company denied basic accommodations and fired them.
Apple debuts $129 AirPods 5 with better noise cancellation and transparency mode
AirPods 5 with noise cancellation is cheaper than its predecessor.
Apple starts preorders for Watch Series 12, Ultra 4 with new Health Sensing System
New Apple Intelligence features, too.
The quick guide to fall vaccines and when you should get them
Here are the evidence-based recommendations and this year's vaccine rollout.
The Remnants of a Lost ‘Supercontinent’ Just Rewrote the History of Life on Earth
A team discovered that Gondwana, an ancient landmass that formed more than 500 million years ago, was in fact large enough to be deemed a supercontinent, a finding that sheds light on the “explosion” of ancient Cambrian life.
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro adds variable camera aperture and a more powerful chip
There's also a new thermal management system, reducing overheating.
Smear Campaign Says Anti-Flock Movement Is Chinese Propaganda
Sinclair Broadcasting is pushing the idea that China and the No Kings protesters are the reason people don't like Flock.
Popular navigation apps unlikely to ditch Mercator maps despite UN resolution
UN-backed Equal Earth map has educational value but won’t alter navigation apps.
Anthropic researcher quits with a warning: Self-improving AI could "kill us all"
"We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!"
Prime Video releases full trailer for Mike Flanagan's Carrie
"All I ever wanted was to go to school."
Podcast: DHS’ Secretive ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit Pulling People Over
Secretive predictive policing units; a funk shirt designed to fool AI; and our third anniversary party.
Google's AI genome system evaluates every possible one-base change
Most one-base changes to the human genome do nothing, but a few are significant.
First ‘Take It Down Act’ Sentencing Puts Man Behind Bars for 15 Years
James Strahler was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “cybercrimes that included both real and AI-generated sexually explicit images and threats of violence to numerous victims.”
'Tell Everyone:' A Man Died by Suicide After Talking to ChatGPT. His Former Partner Wants to Warn the World About AI
After allegedly becoming emotionally reliant on ChatGPT, Austin died at 40 years old, leaving behind family and friends who loved him. Megan wants everyone to know what happened.
Streaming from the cloud was meant to change games forever – what happened?
Once hailed as the future, even the likes of Google, Sony and Microsoft have struggled to make streaming games fun, fast or affordable • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here In August 2009, at the very first Gamescom expo, I sat in a small meeting room in Germany and played Mario Kart and World of Warcraft on a laptop, via technology that was then completely new: cloud gaming. It was a demonstration for a yet-to-be-launched service called Gaikai that promised to let you play any game in a browser window, without a console. (Here is an ancient video of that demonstration, featuring a very young Keza.) With a single click I could launch into any game, hosted on servers hundreds of miles away. It really did look like the future. Since then, plenty of companies have tried to be the first to truly crack game streaming, vying to be the Netflix of games. Sony ended up buying Gaikai for $380m (£242m) in 2012; its technology now powers the streamable classic games library on PlayStation, and the PS5’s advanced game streaming. OnLive, Gaikai’s first competitor, launched in 2011 but shut down after less than a year, leaving Sony to acquire all its patents. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming service also imploded, launching in 2019 and shutting down three years later. Continue reading...
NOAA is putting commercial fishing ahead of conservation
Critics say the new agenda could weaken science-based rules and marine protections.
Will it kill off humanity? Computer scientists and politicians wrestle with risks of AI
Alarming warnings from industry insiders increase pressure for curbs on artificial superintelligence Does artificial superintelligence really pose a risk greater than nuclear weapons? Is there a significant chance of “a Chornobyl-sized catastrophe”. Might there even be a greater than 10% chance that AI could “kill all humans” in the next decade? These warnings were issued over the past 48 hours on both sides of the Atlantic about the potential impact of a technology that most people still think of as a more talkative search engine. Continue reading...
The Man on a Quest to Digitally Preserve America’s Public Restrooms
The Restroom Archive is a museum-style repository of 3D scans of the world's restrooms.
Man told ChatGPT he was feeling delusional. ChatGPT insisted he was Jesus.
Man with bipolar disorder sued OpenAI after surviving ChatGPT-linked suicide attempt.
Grand Theft Auto VI: can playing a video game count as cheating on your partner?
Historically a new Grand Theft Auto game inspired controversy around violence – but this time people are getting exercised about its romance There was never any doubt that Grand Theft Auto VI’s extended look would elicit a viral reaction from the internet. Having won the Game Awards’ Most Anticipated award twice consecutively, Rockstar’s forthcoming crime opus is one of the most frothed-over games in recent memory, or indeed ever. It’s nothing short of a cultural phenomenon . One aspect of the game has provoked an unexpectedly vehement response on social media: not violence, but romance. Protagonists Lucia and Jason are in love, you see, and as a player, part of your job is keeping their spark alive and their relationship strong, so that their criminal escapades are underpinned by a strong connection to one another. Holding hands, enjoying a date at the beach, spontaneously texting one another when apart – all of these interactions will strengthen their bond. You’ll be putting in a lot of work to ensure this couple thrives, which is why some people have come to believe that playing GTA VI counts as micro-cheating. Continue reading...
UK datacentres will create just 25% of jobs predicted by tech sector, analysis finds
Facilities likely to employ 10,400 workers, compared with 40,000 in industry estimates, thinktank says Datacentres in the UK will create just a quarter of the jobs predicted by the tech sector, while consuming vast amounts of energy, according to new research. Environmental thinktank Verdant predicts that all the datacentres currently planned are likely to directly employ 10,400 workers – compared with the more than 40,000 cited in projections by the industry lobby group TechUK. Continue reading...