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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
741 stories archived
Valve secretly leaked a Left 4 Dead 2 trailer to dodge the ESRB
"I think we can't get in trouble for that now. It's like 20 years ago."
Second complete map of a fruit fly brain completed
Every neuron and connection in the brain of a fly has been mapped—twice.
Anthropic’s $2 trillion IPO puts powerful external trustees in spotlight
Public-market scrutiny will intensify pressure on the Claude maker’s unusual attempt to balance profit and purpose.
The Trump White House’s fetish for gamer culture has moved up a level with new arcade
A string of distractions on the US government’s own website invite you to catch pixelated migrants – showing gaming’s potential to be nastily weaponised The Trump White House on Thursday released a horrible little propaganda arcade via its website, a collection of nasty little riffs on popular games. Wrapped in the cutesy, nostalgic aesthetic of early-90s pixel art, these little fascist diversions are harmless-looking, but their intent is stomach-turning: this is the appropriation of play in service of propaganda. It’s just the latest in a series of attempts from Trump’s administration to use video game memes and imagery to further its messaging. Having riffed on Halo and Pokémon in social media ads last year, inviting potential ICE recruits to “stop the flood” and “catch ’em all”, this time the administration has ripped off a series of recognisable games. Flappy Bill, perhaps the least gross, is a version of the old mobile hit Flappy Bird, except here you’re an eagle with a scroll in its claws. Supply Line could almost be an educational game about healthy food in schools, where you sort junk food off a conveyor belt destined for school lunches, except for some reason you play as a boxer who becomes more bloodied with every seed-oil containing, ultra-processed food item that you fail to punch into the garbage chute. Continue reading...
Musk wins court order to block use of “Twitter,” but not “tweet” and bird logo
Saying X is “formerly Twitter” in App Store lets Musk block use of Twitter name.
Trump White House just tossed a grenade into international space relations
"Let me be clear: America is not only welcome—we want you there."
I dug through hundreds of Labor Day sales to find real deals on things that last
Cut through the noise with our round up of 60+ worthy Labor Day deals at brands including Caraway, Kiehl’s, Monos and Sony Wearing white before Labor Day weekend ends? A stylist’s simple tricks to remove stains from clothes Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things Labor Day offers one last hurrah for summer, a chance to reset for fall, and if you’re shopping, some choice end-of-season discounts. No matter your plans for the long weekend, we found sales on products to make the most of it while helping you prepare for the colder months ahead. Continue reading...
Rocket Report: Engines installed for Artemis III; Long March 6C breakup in LEO
Two of Europe's leading launch startups announced new fundraising this week.
Nearly impossible? How Fairphone built the ethical, repairable Fairphone Gen 6+.
Fairphone's CTO explains how and why the Dutch company builds a different kind of smartphone.
Thieves target mail order sales as Pokémon card prices soar
As one card recently sold for £12m, opportunistic thefts have surged – envelopes are being opened en route, costing small businesses thousands Pokémon’s success over the last 30 years has seen it grow from a much-loved Game Boy classic, to a world-dominating brand with TV shows, spin-off games, toys and even a theme park. The trading card game is a huge part of that, with more than 85bn cards printed over its lifetime, and the appetite for them shows no signs of slowing down. Packs get snapped up after release so quickly it’s now almost impossible to find them in shops , and a booming resale market is driving the hobby into murky waters. One card recently sold for an eye-watering £12m , and an increasing number of people have gotten into the collecting business on the hunt for huge profits, leading to a rise in thefts targeting card shops . More recently though, some small businesses have reported that their sales have been hit by thieves targeting envelopes within Royal Mail, leading to thousands in lost revenue. Continue reading...
The best hair dryers for smooth, speedy styling at home – whatever your hair type
Want every day to be a good hair day? We tested 22 hair dryers to find the best, from gentle diffusers to high-speed and travel-ready models • The best hot brushes, tried and tested by our expert In my years of reviewing beauty tech, it was upgrading my hair dryer that made the biggest difference to my routine. I used to dread hair-wash days: the chore of shampooing, conditioning and rinsing my hair, plus the time – and aching arms – spent getting it dry again. My clunky, bargain-bucket hair dryer of seven years was weighty, deafeningly loud, and took a painstaking 20 minutes to dry my hair. So happier days really did arrive when I switched to a new model. Continue reading...
Reports: RFK Jr. ordered measles deaths deletion; CDC still secretly counts them
CDC staff had already accepted the measles death reports when RFK Jr. meddled.
Xbox imposes harsh new time limits for Game Pass game streaming
Over 1 million Game Pass subscribers will have to pay more for their heavy streaming use.
150 research primates got diarrhea, flooding lab with priceless vaccine data
Researchers now have clear new targets and insights for developing a Shigella vaccine.
US senator calls on the NSA to give guidance for use of VPNs
Open source, commercial, single-hop, multi-hop, mixnet? The array of options is dizzying.
NJ urges SCOTUS to rule that Kalshi sports bets are gambling, not "swaps"
Circuit split raised the odds that SCOTUS will rule on Kalshi fight against states.
VMware migration reduces Tottenham Hotspur's licensing fees by 85 percent
Pro soccer team's CTO points to "issues with the Broadcom takeover."
OpenAI hails ‘new era of artificial general intelligence’ with Astra model release
Astra’s arrival comes days after Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, described AGI as an ‘irrelevant marketing term’ The president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, has claimed the world has entered a new era of artificial general intelligence after the release of his company’s latest model, Astra, which it described as the “world’s most intelligent and aligned model”. Brockman made the claim on Thursday as the San Francisco company released the model only weeks after a serious AI safety incident involving other models under its development caused international concern and a pause in Astra’s training. Continue reading...
Just like a fruit fly, a new algorithm never forgets old scents
Insect-inspired "sparse coding" does fast learning, avoids catastrophic forgetting.
Four major AI models suffer rare overlapping downtime
Service interruptions hit ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini practically simultaneously.
Trump’s 100% drone tariff has cops and firefighters panicking
Americans fear there are no cheap alternatives as tariffs suddenly hit drones.
Meet the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners
The annual award ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and "24/7" lectures.
Flock Taught Cops How to Surveil No Kings Protesters
A Flock webinar teaches police how to surveil protests, fireworks shows, parades, bike races, and more.
The six best e-readers in the US, for every kind of book lover
Whether you’re on a budget, looking for an easy way to read when you travel, or want one for kids, here are our picks for the best ebook readers In the UK? Check out our top-rated UK e-readers here. Bookworms may still cherish the feel of leafing through pages, the whiff of new-book smell, and stacking their shelves with beloved tomes, but nothing beats an e-reader (ebook reader) for convenience. You can bring your entire library on vacation without an extra suitcase. If you’re working through a 1,349-page novel such as Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, your wrists will thank you. And unlike a phone, your e-reader won’t constantly interrupt you with news alerts and texts, so you can lose yourself in a new world or focus on learning something new. What we like and dislike about every e-reader How I tested (and who I am) More info: ebook reader questions and answers Continue reading...