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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
546 stories archived
A new wave of electric ferries is here in the US. Some even fly
Replacing diesel-powered ferries with electric vessels could reduce emissions and improve air quality Cutting through New York Harbor in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the small white boat we were riding on caught the attention of passengers aboard a nearby sightseeing ferry. “It’s quite a curiosity at the moment,” Eric Laakmann, the chief executive and co-founder of Vessev, said. Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. Continue reading...
Despite the teething issues, Dyson’s Camerajet toothbrush packs in a lot of clever tech – but is it worth £420?
Dyson’s first electric toothbrush watches you brush and flosses for you, but there are far cheaper ways to get an effective clean • The best electric toothbrushes for every budget When Dyson announced it was entering the toothbrush market , the world responded almost as one: “Four hundred and twenty pounds? For a toothbrush!?” No, it wasn’t a stray decimal point – or if it was, Dyson is doubling down and leaning into the mistake. Unlike high-end brushes from Oral-B or Philips Sonicare, where the “recommended” in “recommended retail price” is doing a heroic amount of heavy lifting given the frequent discounts, the Dyson CameraJet will actually set you back £419.99. Continue reading...
Senators Demand Meta Answer for 'Pervert Glasses' Following 404 Media Investigation
"Meta’s smart glasses have increasingly been implicated in disturbing invasions of users’ and bystanders’ privacy," a letter sent to Meta from Ron Wyden and Edward Markey says.
Investors turn on Google owner Alphabet after profit miss, ad slowdown and high spending
Net profit slid 25% from a year earlier to $26.2bn, well short of expectations, though revenue rose to $127.6bn Shares in Google parent Alphabet fell more than 10% in after-hours trading Wednesday, erasing tens of billions of dollars in stock market value from the $4tn tech giant. The company had reported lower-than-expected profit and a slowdown in its advertising business while it maintained big spending on AI. Net profit slid 25% from a year earlier to $26.2bn in the July-to-September period, or $2.12 a share, well short of expectations by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Continue reading...
ULA's Vulcan rocket is set to return to flight on Friday the 13th
This Vulcan launch will be the first to utilize a full complement of six solid rocket boosters.
As US ties fray, Europe plans first undersea cable link to Greenland
Europe's Pan-Arctic Cable will bypass US to link Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
Peptide peddlers cheer as RFK Jr. unilaterally grants access, overruling FDA
Six unproven peptides popular with MAHA now under "enforcement discretion policy."
Trump admin sues Utah to save Kalshi from the state's total ban on gambling
US agency has sued 10 states for trying to stop gambling on prediction markets.
The last, best hope for space tourism just rolled onto a runway in Arizona
It has been nearly a year since any space tourism flights occurred.
Touchscreen MacBook Pro hands-on: OLED looks great on a Mac
It's not as different from the previous model as you might have expected.
Google announces Gemini 4 Carbon, its latest frontier AI model that you can't use
Gemini 4 Carbon is essentially a slightly better version of Argon.
Amazon turns its most capable smart speaker into a smart camera, too
The Echo Studio with Home Camera can "see and understand what's in front of the camera."
Cadillac Escalade IQ review: Huge battery, huge range, huge SUV
With more than 200 kWh, this luxury three-row can go 460 miles on a charge.
Google AI gets cagey when asked who won the 2020 elections
But the AI responses get more forthright when asked outside the US.
Florida county won’t investigate sketchy Flock cameras removed by mystery owners
Florida county claims it lacks resources to find owners of unpermitted Flock cameras.
Apple announces touchscreen MacBook Pro with OLED display
The OLED display is the main draw, but the price is a lot to reckon with.
Buckle up for more body-swapping hijinks in Jumanji: Open World trailer
"We have to be ready for whatever's coming next. If we lose in here, there won't be a home to go back to."
‘Light therapy without remortgaging the house’: the best LED face masks – tested
They claim to reduce fine lines, blemishes and redness – but which stand up to scrutiny? After consulting dermatologists and putting them to the test, we have crowned a brand new number one • 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 reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots and 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. Continue reading...
Social media is full of weird video game mashups. Where are they all coming from?
AI tools are making it easier to modify and recreate games, raising questions about piracy, copyright and how far the technology could disrupt the industry • Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here If your social media algorithms have clocked that you’re into video games, something strange will have happened in the past few weeks. Your feed, like mine, will have been full of clips of streamers playing bizarre mashups of popular video games . Skyrim in Minecraft. Halo, except the main character is Mario. Skate 2 in Call of Duty maps. A flood of professional-looking fan-coded game mods that are mildly interesting to look at for 30 seconds, but ultimately inconsequential. Would I download a mod that lets me play Wii Bowling inside a zombie shooter? No, but I am very interested in where they came from. Of course, the answer – or at least, most of the answer – is AI. After a week of researching this (thanks especially to Replay Mode on YouTube for this informative video , which set me down this track) I now understand that these mashup mods are not just AI-generated videos, but AI-assisted coding. Basically, as of a few weeks ago, Anthropic’s Claude has become extremely good at decompiling video game code. Games are written by humans in readable code and then compiled into binary 1s and 0s that the PC or console running it can read; decompiling is the reversal of that process, revealing a game’s source code, which humans can then edit and mess around with for fun. This used to be an extremely laborious process. But now it is not, because humans aren’t doing much of it any more. Continue reading...
Objection, your honor
If you're in the EU or UK, you might be able to object to Meta's new AI scraping terms. Also: this week's pod's out and more from around the web.
If You're In the UK or EU, Here's How to Object to Meta's AI Training
In light of Meta's new terms that will allow it to scrape users' data for AI, people in the EU and UK have the option to "object" to certain uses of their information, for now.
A hidden ocean change near Antarctica could have global consequences
Antarctic waters are getting saltier as sea-ice loss reshapes ocean circulation.
‘Elonville’: Mississippi residents say Musk’s xAI is buying up homes if they don’t sue over noise
Several homes have been purchased near datacenters and one resident said realtor outlined target to buy more than 400 People in a Mississippi neighborhood, many of whom dislike a nearby power plant central to Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence ambitions, have received a stark offer – to sell their houses to his company and make way. Real estate agents have been going door to door in Southaven, Mississippi, on behalf of xAI, Musk’s AI company that was folded into the SpaceX entity in February, touting a deal to purchase houses as long as the owners agree to not join a lawsuit against the company over the power plant’s noise. Continue reading...
China’s snooping around Pacific undersea cables raises risks for Big Tech
US-owned trans-Pacific cables face growing risks from sabotage and China.