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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
546 stories archived
GM to pay $220 million after selling customer Smart Driver data
Owners of GM cars found their driving data had been sold to insurance companies.
Hackers steal $6.3 billion from Binance in record crypto heist
Binance scrambles to freeze billions after record-breaking hack linked to North Korea.
Apple Is Entering Its Slop Era
I might finally buy an iPhone now that Apple has been taken down a peg.
2027 Nissan Rogue Hybrid: Drives like an EV, but there's no plug involved
Nissan’s series hybrid e-Power system has been retuned for American roads.
Review: You Can See Everything blurs the view of Elizabeth Holmes' deceit
Elizabeth Holmes has some people falling for her act all over again.
Rocket Report: Winter is coming for Themis; Cowboy Space adds iron to the fire
It's been a good week for ULA with a big NASA contract and Vulcan nearing return-to-flight.
After 50 years of playing video games, I’m finally starring in one
Voicing the main character in Black Tides Draga’s Wake led to me making the kinds of noises I haven’t made since my honeymoon but also one of my favourite moments as a father “I listen to you on the radio and I keep hearing your voice in my head!” Not a typical opening to a creative partnership, but that is how Greg Strangis introduced himself to me 16 months ago, when he asked me to come to his garage in the middle of nowhere and have a look at a game he was making called Black Tides Draga’s Wake. Continue reading...
Reddit is moving to “a logged-in-only experience,” CEO says
Reddit's search traffic "was down meaningfully" last quarter.
Amazon gives Wall Street mixed financial picture in earnings report
E-commerce company posts high cloud computing sales but gives a cautious sales forecast for the fourth quarter Amazon offered a mixed picture of its financial health on Thursday in its quarterly earnings report. The e-commerce company gave a cautious sales forecast for the current fourth quarter, which encompasses the critical holiday shopping period, after delivering fiscal third-quarter results that came in below Wall Street analysts’ expectations. Continue reading...
Windows 11 gets right-click menu improvements as PC revenue slides
The latest update also brings a cloud recovery option for PCs that won't boot.
Pentagon IG refuses to investigate Starlink/Starshield slowdown in Ukraine
Inspector general rejected request from Democratic and Republican senators.
Trump declares robot imports a national security threat
President orders trade talks on foreign-made factory robots, threatens tariffs.
Massive Fanfic Site Archive of Our Own Says It’s Going Down for 'Up to 4 Weeks'
Oh my god?
Report: Trump did nothing with intel that China planted spy close to Nvidia CEO
Spy accused of exploiting Trump ties to Huang, funneling secrets to China.
Turning a solar power system into its own backup
Plant design allows it to run on either stored solar heat or combustion.
Podcast: Flock CEO Says the Backlash Isn’t Real
Leaked audio of Flock's CEO, why Marisa Mayer can't keep pretending, and a CashApp nightmare.
Google admits AI search makes less money, but it's fixing that with more ads
Google's negative cash flow balloons to -$9.06 billion, and stock price tumbles following Q3 earnings.
What is it like to work when your co-workers are AI agents?
Using AI for roles from executive assistants to chiefs of staff, companies are boasting about doing more with less, creating tension with their human workers On an average workday, Dhruv Amin chats with dozens of colleagues to get things done at his AI startup Anything. He might ask Gwen, his executive assistant, to schedule a meeting, then troubleshoot a technical problem with Cody, his coding partner. Then he might check in with Betsy for search engine optimization, or Juno for onboarding customers. If the office runs out of snacks, he sends a Slack message to Justin, the office manager charged with stocking the kitchen. But none of these co-workers are people. They’re artificial intelligence agents, software that handles tasks without human intervention. Anything is one of several startups building them, and betting on a future where workplaces will increasingly turn over their sales, marketing, coding and other tasks to semi-autonomous AI. At Anything, there are 15 human employees and roughly 150 agents – a ratio that Amin believes will soon be the norm. Continue reading...
Puddlesuits, movie nights and daytime baths: how to survive rainy days with small kids
Wet weather dampening your plans? From screen-free stories and craft kits to waterproof gear, here’s how to keep little ones – and grownups – entertained • The best gifts for kids by age Before becoming a mum, I never appreciated quite how complicated getting out the front door would be with kids in tow. But in my four and a half years of parenting two small people, I can confidently say it’s nothing compared with the challenge of a day spent inside when outside is off-limits. Whether because of endless rain or illnesses you don’t want to pass on, I panic at the thought of filling the hours spent indoors. Being outside is profoundly helpful for my mental health, and it comes with its own built-in entertainment for small children: a bus ride becomes a sensory experience, a trip to the doctor’s an opportunity to pick up role-play ideas. Continue reading...
Manifestos, Fear, and ‘Loser Thinking’: Inside Proton’s AI Reckoning
Proton CEO Andy Yen projects a calm persona and rails against Big Tech and critiques AI. Internally, he is pushing engineers to build Proton with AI, even when they have security concerns.
Massive leak exposes 41,000 DHS workers and undercover ICE agents
The leak reveals undercover agents, surveillance groups, and sensitive DHS access.
Computerized clairvoyance: psychics push back against AI-generated readings
Human practitioners warn computer-generated offerings lack the empathy and connection central to divination “This journey isn’t just about algorithms or data,” an AI psychic named Urban Mystic recently told me. The chatbot, featuring an AI-generated profile photo of a smiling woman surrounded by palm trees, also said I will get married soon, that I have a pink aura and that I may have been an herbalist in a past life. “It’s about connecting on a soulful level,” the chatbot said. Continue reading...
Night Plane review – join the jumbo jet to hell in this indie horror game
Liquid Static Studio; PC You take on the role of flight attendant in this clever and absorbing retro-style game that veers from daft horror spoof to genuinely disturbing There was always something creepy about the job-simulator genre. All those mindless automatons queueing up to use your bus, bar or bed store, or whatever workplace you are trapped in for the duration of the game. The endless repetitive tasks. The emptiness of the world beyond your corporate existence. Together, these elements scream existential terror … which is perhaps why we are now seeing a new indie sub-genre of job sim horror games, including Home Safety Hotline, Dredge and more recently, Grease Trap ’99, a Lovecraftian mystery set in a Scottish chip shop. Now, we have Night Plane, in which you take on the role of a flight attendant on a jumbo jet to hell. It all starts kind of normally. You turn up for the first day of your new job, meet your colleagues, then take your spot at the departure gate, checking in customers and being careful to root out anyone with invalid tickets. Once on the plane, you roll your trolley down the aisle, serving booze and inedible meals, and occasionally dealing with passenger complaints. Then the plane crashes and, frankly, it all goes downhill from there. Continue reading...
SpaceX no longer needs NASA, and that's a problem for America's space agency
"NASA desperately needs SpaceX, and SpaceX knows it, and Elon knows it."