My uncanny AI valentines
My uncanny AI valentines

Hopping over a pile of dirty snow, I arrived on a frigid February evening at a wine bar in midtown, a purple neon sign reading “EVA AI cafe.” Inside, several people were seated at tables and booths, staring at phones. Servers milled about, placing mini potato croquettes and nonalcoholic spritzers on each table. Like many […]

A powerful tool of resistance is already in your hands
A powerful tool of resistance is already in your hands

In an eyewitness video analyzed frame by frame by The New York Times, Alex Pretti raises one hand and holds a phone in the other. Federal agents tackle him, and one appears to find and remove a gun holstered on his hip. Then, an agent shoots – and a second follows. They appear to fire […]

Ring’s Flock breakup doesn’t fix its real problem
Ring’s Flock breakup doesn’t fix its real problem

The most striking thing about Ring’s statement that it had parted ways with Flock Safety is what the home security company didn’t say. There was no mention of the public backlash around ties to ICE, or any promise to address users’ concerns about the company’s relationships with law enforcement. In an increasingly authoritarian political climate, […]

The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor, this man remotely accessed thousands of them
The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor, this man remotely accessed thousands of them

Sammy Azdoufal claims he wasn’t trying to hack every robot vacuum in the world. He just wanted to remote control his brand-new DJI Romo vacuum with a PS5 gamepad, he tells The Verge, because it sounded fun. But when his homegrown remote control app started talking to DJI’s servers, it wasn’t just one vacuum cleaner […]

What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?
What’s behind the mass exodus at xAI?

The past few days have been a wild ride for xAI, which is racking up staff and cofounder departure announcements left and right. On Tuesday and Wednesday, cofounder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced his departure and that it was “time for [his] next chapter,” with cofounder Jimmy Ba following with a similar post later that day, […]

Can Democrats post their way to midterm victories?
Can Democrats post their way to midterm victories?

During the 2024 presidential election, @KamalaHQ was something of an alter ego for Vice President Kamala Harris – as Harris ran a buttoned-up campaign, the online accounts shared clips of her set to viral TikTok sounds, shitposted unflattering pictures of Donald Trump, and adopted a voice that was at times indistinguishable from the average 20-something […]

Trump Mobile’s origins lie with a Mexican middleweight boxer
Trump Mobile’s origins lie with a Mexican middleweight boxer

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. Last week, we spoke to executives from the company for the first time, and this week we’re back with more details on how it began. Trump Mobile may bear the US president’s name, but he didn’t come up with the idea, and […]

ICE moves out to the suburbs
ICE moves out to the suburbs

We sat in a parking lot and waited. We watched, knowing we were being watched in return. Two men, masked and presumably armed, idled in a gray SUV. “They’re all on this fucking street now,” Lety, a lifelong resident of the Minnesota suburbs, told me. ICE had been spotted at a gas station and a […]

The hottest indie game is about breeding cats with ADHD and dyslexia
The hottest indie game is about breeding cats with ADHD and dyslexia

When the Mewgenics team announced in 2024 that it had added autism to the list of disorders the game’s cats could inherit, developer Edmund McMillen – best known as the co-creator of Super Meat Boy – was unprepared for the reaction. “It was like the most positive response I’ve ever had to anything I posted,” […]

HP’s laptop subscriptions are a great deal — for HP
HP’s laptop subscriptions are a great deal — for HP

There’s been some hullabaloo over HP’s laptop subscription service, recently brought to light by a Linus Tech Tips video. And for good reason: it feels like everything is a subscription these days. But it’s not just the dystopian feeling that companies are happy to sell you access to movies, music, games, phones, printers, and now […]