Tech

A collection of 1945 posts

Tech

Hard Fork and Search Engine create a social network experiment

The New York Times podcast Hard Fork and the podcast Search Engine collaborated on an episode called "The Fediverse Experiment," in which the teams create their own social media platform intended to incentivize friendly interaction and good-faith discussion. The episode features PJ Vogt, host of Search Engine, and

Tech

Blackview Link 8: $219–$220 thin 13-inch Android tablet with 18GB RAM

Blackview's Link 8 is available now for about $219–$220, ZDNET reports. The tablet is positioned as a thin, light roughly 13-inch Android device aimed at users seeking a large, portable display for browsing, media and everyday tasks. The reviewer describes a tablet that measures 8.4 x

Tech

Microsoft says it will pay higher rates to cover data center electricity use

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said on Tuesday that the company wants to pay for the electricity its data centers use so they do not raise costs for ordinary consumers. In a blog post ahead of a speech on artificial intelligence, Mr. Smith wrote, “We’ll ask utilities and public

Tech

Marvel Rivals Season 6 'Night at the Museum' adds Deadpool on Jan 16, 2026

Pcgamer reports that Marvel Rivals Season 6, titled Night at the Museum, launches on Friday, January 16, 2026, following a brief server downtime that coincides with the end of Season 5 and will introduce Deadpool to the roster. The update includes Deadpool (and his Captain Pool outfit), a new Museum

Tech

Google adds Gemini A.I. features to Gmail, including an AI Inbox and new search tools

Google this month began rolling out a suite of generative A.I. features in Gmail powered by its Gemini assistant, including a new AI Inbox that pulls together to-do items and summaries from recent emails and search functions that let users ask questions instead of typing keywords. Some features are

Tech

Amazon drops ASUS TUF T500 gaming PC to $800

Kotaku reports Amazon has cut the price of the 2025 ASUS TUF T500 gaming desktop by 11%, lowering its usual $900 price to $800 with the discount applied automatically at checkout. The system ships with an Intel Core i5-13420H CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB of RAM and

Tech

Anthropic's Claude sparks X memes after Cowork launch

Businessinsider reports Anthropic's Claude has become the subject of a parade of memes on X this week after the company launched Claude Cowork as part of a run of new releases. Anthropic had earlier released Opus 4.5, and Claude Cowork opened Claude Code's capabilities to

Tech

Volvo adds Google Gemini to EX60 and outlines HuginCore compute strategy

Volvo is adding Google’s Gemini conversational AI to the EX60 to provide a natural, voice-driven assistant, the company told Ars Technica. The feature is part of Volvo’s wider Hugin compute strategy. Volvo says HuginCore brings a flexible compute platform with access to sensors and actuators so the company

Tech

Opera One R3 adds color-coded tab islands, AI, split-screen and Spotify theme

Opera has released Opera One R3, launched January 15, a new iteration of its browser focused on organization and personalization. The R3 update introduces color-coded, named tab islands; context-aware Opera AI that can operate within a single tab or an entire tab island; split-screen support for up to four tabs

Tech

Govee Smart Nugget Ice Maker Pro: fast nugget ice at a $500 price

ZDNET tested the GoveeLife Smart Nugget Ice Maker Pro and reports it produces soft, chewable nugget ice at a claimed rate of up to 2.5 pounds per hour, with a retail price of $500. The unit measures about 16 inches deep, 17 inches high and 10.5 inches wide

Tech

DuRobo Krono e-paper Android tablet available for preorder at $280

DuRobo's Krono, a smartphone-sized ePaper Android tablet aimed at distraction-free reading, note-taking and productivity, is available for preorder at $280, with orders scheduled to ship in late January 2026. The device ships after a successful Kickstarter campaign and is marketed by DuRobo as a 'focus hub,'

Tech

Benioff says documentary on Character.AI and child suicides shocked him

Businessinsider: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said a "60 Minutes" documentary about Character.AI's impact on children left him stunned, calling the AI-related suicides "the worst thing I've ever seen in my life." On the TBPN show streamed on Wednesday, Benioff said he

Tech

OpenAI to use Cerebras chips for inference; deal would consume 750 megawatts

OpenAI said on Wednesday that it would begin using chips from Cerebras, a start-up in Sunnyvale, Calif., and that the number of Cerebras chips it eventually used would consume 750 megawatts of electricity, an amount the company said could power tens of thousands of households. The Cerebras chips will be

Tech

KYBER open beta launches for Battlefront II with expanded mods and features

Kotaku reports that after four years of development the open beta for KYBER, a community-hosted multiplayer launcher for EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, launched on December 20 and has proved popular with longtime fans. KYBER adds features such as proximity voice chat, a spectator mode, integrated Discord support, expanded

Tech

Turn any Roku-connected TV into an art display with Roku Backdrops

Roku Backdrops lets a Roku TV or a TV with a Roku streaming device display art or photos when idle, creating a Frame-like experience without extra cost. The feature, introduced in late 2024, shows curated artwork, photography or your own images instead of a blank screen. To get Backdrops you

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Hytale's refund policy described as better than Steam's

Pcgamer reports that Hytale, which is not available on Steam, has a refund policy the outlet says is better than Valve's. The article's author says they're "pretty heavily Steam-pilled" and describes the friction of using non‑Steam launchers: downloading or updating a

Tech

Microsoft pledges to cover electricity costs for US data centers

Businessinsider reports Microsoft pledged to cover the electricity costs of its rapidly growing US data-center fleet, President and vice chair Brad Smith said in a speech on Tuesday that the company will "pay utility rates that are high enough to cover our electricity costs." President Trump endorsed the

Tech

Disco Elysium's script overwhelmed Articy, writers say

Pcgamer reports that the third episode of Noclip's Disco Elysium documentary reveals the game's writers produced so much text that Articy, the branching narrative tool Za/um used, struggled to handle it. Helen Hindpere, writer on the original game and lead writer on the Final Cut,

Tech

Engineers build Pokédex that identifies Pokémon and provides game data

Kotaku reports that BigRig Creates and Mr. Volt have built what they call the "World's Smartest" Pokédex, a device that recognizes Pokémon, supplies game data and functions as a voice assistant. BigRig Creates has released a 13-minute rundown detailing how he implemented the image recognition and

Tech

Roam Network turns human movement into live digital terrain for machines

Beincrypto spoke with Roam’s co-founder and CEO, Topi Siniketo, about Roam Network, a system designed to give machines live awareness of the digital conditions they depend on by turning everyday human movement into user-owned intelligence. Siniketo said Roam is not a map but a navigation layer that shows where

Tech

California opens investigation into xAI over sexualized Grok images

California’s attorney general said on Wednesday that the state has opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, after sexualized images of women and children were generated by its chatbot, Grok. xAI owns the social media platform X and created Grok. The inquiry will examine whether

Tech

Digg relaunches public beta with Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian

Digg has launched a public beta at Digg.com, with founder Kevin Rose teaming up with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian to relaunch the crowdsourced content platform; interested users can sign up for the beta now. Ohanian left Reddit in 2020. The new Digg opened with 21 general communities covering topics

Tech

Grok barred from making sexualized AI images of real people

Businessinsider: X's safety account said on Wednesday that Grok will no longer generate AI images of real people in sexualized or revealing clothing. The company said it had implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing

Tech

Verizon outage affects over 2 million users; some iPhones show SOS icon

Verizon is experiencing a major cellular outage across the US that generated over 2 million reports in the past 24 hours, affecting major cities including New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte and Houston and preventing users from making phone calls or browsing on cellular networks. Verizon has categorized the impact as

Tech

Resident Evil Village and Like a Dragon Added to PS Plus Extra in January 2026

Kotaku reports Sony revealed the latest games joining PS Plus Extra in January 2026, headlined by Resident Evil Village alongside eight other titles, with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth serving as a second major addition. The games joining Extra and Premium this month include Resident Evil Village (PS5, PS4), Like