The EV industry can’t shake its human rights abuse problem
Mining companies face hundreds of allegations of abuse. Car companies are still buying minerals from them.
Mining companies face hundreds of allegations of abuse. Car companies are still buying minerals from them.
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Yes, in a few days, says German tech site WinFuture, citing unnamed sources (and Samsung’s site). That includes a 16-inch Galaxy Book 4 Edge Pro that’s equipped with the highest-end version of the Snapdragon X ARM chip that’s meant to take on Apple’s custom M-series chips.
Expect other Snapdragon X laptops soon, including from Microsoft, Dell, and Asus.
The company announced that it’s “opening up its source code” and invites developers to contribute to the Windows version of its music player. It’s also releasing a mobile app in July. As ZDNet points out, the company will still own and decide what goes into the official version.
Winamp didn’t immediately reply to a request for more information, like whether and what open-source license it’ll use.
On The Vergecast: what’s new from OpenAI and Google, the future of search, and more.
Apple retail stores will offer a little more money for iPhone trade-ins in the US and Canada for people upgrading to the iPhone 15 series of phones from May 20th to June 3rd, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
He didn’t say what the new values will be. At the moment, the most Apple offers is $630 for an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The app’s “Now Playing” screen has a gradient background now, as 9to5Google spotted. Also, the three tabs at the bottom aren’t on a visually separate bar anymore, though you can still swipe up to reveal them.
If you don’t see it at first, try swiping the app closed from the app switcher and relaunching — worked for me.
Ken and Roberta Williams are some of the most influential video game designers ever, and also founded a video game publisher that did a whole lot more — until Sierra On-Line became a victim of massive accounting fraud and dramatically collapsed.
Vice’s Waypoint published this must-read feature story about it, before it, too, became a victim. Now, an authorized Sierra documentary is coming:
GM staged a blackout to demonstrate how EVs can power an entire home — and also shore up our aging grid infrastructure.
Actually, no! io9’s ever-reliable James Whitbrook found legit reasons to love the Star Wars movie we don’t talk about. A slideshow that delivers:
After pledging to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, Microsoft’s climate pollution has grown by 30 percent as the company prioritizes AI.
It wasn’t initially clear whether Cillian Murphy might return for Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later. But Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman revealed to Deadline that we can expect to see Murphy show up in a “a surprising way and in a way that grows,” when the movie hits theaters on June 20th, 2025.
Perhaps of note: their Binance accounts and their Deltec accounts; Deltec was allegedly key in giving FTX secret money to buy Tether. Criminal complaint here.
And though the charges are for laundering at least $73 million, the wallet in question received $341 million between April 2021 and the date of the indictment. Hm!
After a week of watching AI demos of ChatGPT and Google’s Project Astra, reset with comedian Conner O’Malley’s new special Stand Up Solutions.
O’Malley performs as startup founder Richard Eagleton, pitching an “AI standup comedian” product for an audience of VCs. The unhinged presentation parodies tech bro lingo and exaggerated business promises — which is probably NSFW, especially if you work in Big Tech.
We found all sorts of gadgets and goodies to celebrate the class of 2024, from the practical to the poignant.
Despite the studio’s closure, Arkane Austin is squeezing out one final update for its vampiric shooter Redfall. This follows the final patch for Hi-Fi Rush from Tango Gameworks, which was also shut down.
Post-apocalyptic wastelands are all the rage right now, and soon that will extend to Fortnite. When the game’s Greek mythology season ends next week, it will give way to something that will hopefully make the wait for Fallout 5 a little easier.
If you use Uber with an iPhone, you can turn off unwanted marketing notifications — but the feature is a leetle hard to find. Okay, it’s a lot hard to find. John Gruber found it, though: go to Account > Settings > Privacy > Offers and Promos from Uber and tap the word here. You can then unsubscribe from some or all Uber marketing emails or notifications.
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Both companies are competing to build a combination of ChatGPT and Search. Now, it’s a matter of who can out-maneuver the other.
FromSoftware’s monster designs have really nailed the inherent horror of living in ambulatory sentient meat sacs and this new one from Shadow of the Erdtree is just...
That is a uterus, y’all and if it means Shadow of the Erdtree will tread the “transformative horrors of childbirth” like Bloodborne did, I am so on board. I cannot wait for June 21st, my uterus is ready.
Chevy Bolt owners who were forced to have their battery range nerfed (because of fire risk) might get promised compensation thanks to LG agreeing to pitch in with GM on the relief fund.
The European Commission has given Microsoft until May 27th to hand over the information it needs to assess Bing’s generative AI features, or else face fines of up to six percent of the company’s global annual income.
The EU suspects that tools like “Copilot in Bing” and “Image Creator by Designer” may have violated its DSA rules regarding deepfakes, voter manipulation, and ‘hallucinations.’
[European Commission]
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided that Microsoft’s Mistral AI investment “does not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.” The brief statement comes weeks after the CMA signaled it was looking into Microsoft and Amazon’s AI partnerships. Microsoft invested around $16 million into Mistral and also hired a bunch of Inflection AI staff.
Correction: Microsoft’s Mistral investment was around $16 million, not $2.1 billion.