Android is getting its biggest visual update in years, and rather than unveiling it for the first time at its big annual developer conference, Google announced Material Three Expressive at a pre-show event broadcast on YouTube the week before. If a major design language shift for the world's most popular mobile OS doesn't qualify as […]
Search giant to restore critical Android permission after user outcry
In a turn of events to warm our withered hearts, Google has offered to restore the permission that was revoked from Nextcloud's Files app for Android.…
Meta’s building a new AI data center so massive in Louisiana that the local utility company has plans to construct three new gas-fired power plants to provide it with enough electricity. Now, advocates and lawmakers are pressing Meta for answers about how it’ll clean up pollution stemming from the data center’s energy consumption. Sen. Sheldon […]
Phony LinkedIn recruitment ads? Groundbreaking
Chinese government snoops - hiding behind the guise of fake consulting companies - are actively trying to recruit the thousands upon thousands of US federal employees who have been fired since President Trump took office.…
Criminals must be licking their lips at the possibilities
Uncle Sam's consumer watchdog has scrapped plans to implement Biden-era rules that would've treated certain data brokers as credit bureaus, forcing them to follow stricter laws when flogging Americans' sensitive data.…
GameStop will have additional Switch 2 stock available in-store and online when the console launches next month, according to a post on X. The company also shared timing for its in-store events leading up to the June 5th launch. “Launch event begins in-store at 3PM local time on June 4th,” according to the company. “Switch […]
Activision is starting to wind down Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile just over a year after its global launch. The game “has not met our expectations with mobile-first players like it has with PC and console audiences,” according to a post on X. The company will be pulling the game from the App Store and […]
Agitprop? Protest? An attempt to suck up to the boss?
Elon Musk's xAI has apologized after its Grok generative chat-bot started spouting baseless conspiracy theories about White genocide in response to unrelated questions.…
Python, TypeScript, Azure SDK devs among those let go
Microsoft's recent round of layoffs appears to have fallen largely on software developers, including several prominent Python developers and a veteran TypeScript developer.…
An overdependence on hyperscalers and a mountain of debt could pull the rug out
Comment CoreWeave this week said it would plow between $20 and $23 billion into GPU bit barns by year's end in order to meet growing demand from model builders and hyperscalers.…
Nintendo announced last month that it would be updating a handful of Switch games to run better on the Switch 2, and now some details about the planned improvements are available on its website. The improvements vary per game, but they include things like optimizing visuals for the Switch 2’s larger screen, better framerates, HDR […]
It’s a great time to catch up on some big games you might’ve missed out on recently. Epic Games is holding a Mega Sale that includes big discounts on a ton of PC games, including Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced, which is on sale for $14.99 instead of $29.99, and The Last of Us Part […]
Microsoft has quietly launched an updated Spotlight-like launcher app for Windows that provides quick access to commands, apps, and development tools. The software maker originally launched its PowerToys Run launcher for Windows 10 nearly five years ago, and the updated version — Command Palette — now includes search for apps, folders, and files, calculations, system […]
Microsoft is going to allow Xbox owners to pin apps and games directly to the Home UI. The latest change to homescreen section of the Xbox dashboard will be available to Xbox Insiders this week, alongside options to hide system apps, choose the number of apps and games listed, and modify the size of the […]
Fortnite maker Epic Games has announced that Apple has blocked the game’s return to iOS. Following the rejection, Fortnite is no longer available on iPhones and iPads even in the European Union, where it had previously been available to download through the Epic Games Store. “Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release […]
Tax bods characterize it more as a brainstorming session, says Elon's unit wasn't involved
Congressional Democrats are again demanding answers from a federal agency over whether DOGE's latest tech makeover could put taxpayer data at risk.…
Verizon’s $20 billion deal to acquire the fiber internet provider Frontier is officially happening. On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the merger, which will allow Verizon to “upgrade and expand” Frontier’s existing fiber networks. Verizon expects to bring fiber to 1 million homes each year following the acquisition. The deal went through […]
After The Washington Post earlier this month revealed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had instructed the State Department to help Starlink expand in order to fend off Chinese technological influence, an extensive ProPublica article published Thursday dove deeper into what those campaigns looked like at the ground level. According to cables sent between the […]
Succession creator Jesse Armstrong has never been subtle with his commentary on the rich and powerful, but the new trailer for his HBO feature Mountainhead spells out exactly what makes its central characters people you shouldn’t be rooting for. Set in a remote cabin at the top of a mountain, Mountainhead revolves around a quartet […]
Epic's latest submission blocked right after CEO offered truce with Cupertino
Apple has blocked Epic Games' submission of Fortnite, just as it was set to return to iOS in the US. Now it cannot be found in the US App Store nor via the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union.…
xAI has published the system prompts for its AI chatbot Grok after an “unauthorized” change led to a slew of unprompted responses on X about white genocide. The company says it will publish its Grok system prompts on GitHub from now on, which provide some insight into the way xAI has instructed Grok to respond […]
Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away
Microsoft is pulling the free MS365 Business Premium licenses granted to non-profits and replacing them with Business Basic and discounts for its other services.…
Spotify announced earlier this month that podcast creators and listeners would get a new data point: how many plays an episode has gotten. The idea, according to Spotify, was that listeners could discover new shows they hadn’t heard of, enticed by this new public measure of fandom. Podcasters did not see it that way. Since […]
'We hope it makes attendees feel safe reporting violations'
A Seattle court this week dismissed with prejudice the defamation case brought against DEF CON and its organizer Jeff Moss by former conference stalwart Christopher Hadnagy.…
Bungie has issued a statement on social media saying it is investigating how unauthorized artwork appeared in the closed alpha test of its PvPvE shooter Marathon. Earlier this week, Scottish artist Fern Hook posted on social media that her work had appeared in the Marathon alpha without her knowledge or permission. “Its environments are covered […]
OpenAI's next "low-key research preview" has arrived. This time, it's not ChatGPT, but a coding agent dubbed Codex that is being made available to ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team subscribers starting Friday. By drumming up comparisons to how ChatGPT was first described, CEO Sam Altman and other company leaders are positioning Codex as the company's […]
Four years after the company released its first wireless arcade-style controller, 8BitDo is debuting a new version that’s almost one-third as thick as the original. Its new Arcade Controller managed to slim down by ditching the original’s joystick and focusing on only buttons in a unique layout. Often referred to as a leverless controller, or […]
The US Army is done relying on contractors to repair its equipment. Earlier this month, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll committed to including right-to-repair provisions in all existing and future contracts with manufacturers, a change Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told The Verge will “put an end to our dependence on giant defense contractors who charge billions […]
When Fortnite players meet Darth Vader in the game’s ongoing Star Wars event, they will be able to speak with the Sith Lord directly, and he’s going to respond with a voice that sounds exactly like James Earl Jones. Though Darth Vader has previously appeared as an NPC (and a battle pass skin) in Fortnite, […]
Extend each device's life by 12 months? Like taking 2M cars off the road each year
Tech buyers should purchase refurbished devices to push vendors to make hardware more repairable and help the shift to a more circular economy, according to a senior analyst at IDC.…
Microsoft says it has found no evidence that the Israeli military has used its Azure and AI technology to harm Palestinian civilians or anyone else in Gaza. The software maker says it has “conducted an internal review and engaged an external firm,” to perform a review, after some Microsoft employees have repeatedly called on the […]
At this point, there are more than enough ways to play Street Fighter II. But Project Justice and Plasma Sword? Well, those are something entirely different, and much harder to find. And Capcom has made the smart decision to continue to make some of its more obscure fighters the focal point of its growing library […]
It's not TV, it's HBO. No, sorry, it's HBO Go. And also HBO Now. But now it's HBO Max, except wait, now it's not HBO at all? It's just Max? Actually, I'm being told it is once again HBO Max. Thank you for joining us on this wild and utterly nonsensical branding journey. Please keep […]
Charter and Cox have announced plans to merge in a $34.5 billion deal that will create a cable and internet behemoth. The two telecom companies say the merger will allow them to “aggressively compete” against larger broadband companies and mobile providers that have rolled out internet plans of their own. Charter, which currently has 31.5 […]
To potentially make it easier for users of streaming services like Spotify to switch, Apple Music has introduced a new built-in tool for importing libraries and playlists. A support page added to Apple’s website this week includes details on how to use the feature, as spotted by MacRumors, but it also points out that it’s […]
The tech biz was in the process of dropping the payroll company as it learned of the breach
EXCLUSIVE A ransomware attack at a Middle Eastern subsidiary of payroll company ADP has led to customer data theft at Broadcom, The Register has learned.…
One morning last month, I walked into my kitchen to get a glass of water, but my smart faucet was out of battery. I went to sit down in my front room, and the shade was still shut - it was out of battery. I walked down the hall and found a beached robot vacuum […]
Acer is announcing a whole slew of new laptops at the Computex 2025 computer show in Taiwan, including the Swift Edge 14 AI that weighs half a pound less than the MacBook Air, and the Predator Triton 14 AI for a mix of both gaming and content creation. There are over a dozen new models […]
Beast of Redmond runs scared from EC antitrust cops half decade after rivals complained
Microsoft is offering to make a series of concessions for up to ten years to pacify European Commission antitrust regulators. This follows protests from users that tying Teams with its biz productivity applications hinders competition.…
CEO warns energy demands will overwhelm grid without extra generation capacity
The UK needs more nuclear energy generation just to power all the AI datacenters that are going to be built, according to the head of Amazon Web Services (AWS).…
Anthropic has responded to allegations that it used an AI-fabricated source in its legal battle against music publishers, saying its Claude chatbot made an “honest citation mistake.” An erroneous citation was included in a filing submitted by Anthropic data scientist Olivia Chen on April 30th, as part of the AI company’s defense against claims that […]
If you've spent any time on the internet, you may have seen the "what I expected vs. what I got" memes. If I could make one for Doom: The Dark Ages, in my expected column I'd reference the earlier Doom games - Eternal and the 2016 soft reboot of the franchise. But for the "what […]
When it launches next summer, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Greek epic The Odyssey will be historic in more ways than one: it will be the first feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX film. The Odyssey isn’t the first film to be shot entirely using IMAX hardware — that honor belongs to Avengers: Infinity War […]
Wooting set the standard for gaming keyboards with the original 60HE three years ago, and now it’s ready to launch a successor with an upgraded design. The 60HE v2 will be available later this year with true 8K polling, a new closed-bottom switch, and an aluminum case that should all add up to a faster […]
We suspect Philippe Salle will need it, not to mention staff and customers
If at first you don't succeed, transform, transform, and transform again is the corporate motto at Atos these days. The lumbering French-based megacorp has created another blueprint to return to its glory days, and it includes job cuts, offshoring and... AI.…
Success of UK's Universal Credit has lessons for government IT projects, former minister claims
Former UK government minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith has told a committee of MPs that the digitization of Universal Credit is a success story other government departments can learn from.…
DPM signs off 96MW bit barn, citing national policy shift
The British government has stepped in to overturn a local council's refusal of a proposed datacenter on green belt land, citing updated national planning policy that urges councils to find space for bit barns, labs, gigafactories, and other strategic infrastructure.…
After xAI’s chatbot Grok spent a few hours on Wednesday telling every X user that would listen that the claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious, the company has blamed the behavior on an “unauthorized modification” to Grok’s code. Wednesday’s hours-long outburst saw Grok insert discussion of alleged white genocide in South […]
After UK spends hundreds of millions, several say existing systems are better
English hospitals are voicing their concern about the functionality provided by Palantir, the US spy-tech firm that won a £330 million ($437 million) deal to run the Federated Data Platform for NHS England, as around a third of trusts go live on the system.…
Self-taught coders who work in HR and have a doctorate in English tend to do that
On Call Bosses often ask IT pros to clean up messes made by amateurs, and in this week's On Call – The Register's reader-contributed tech support column – we have just such a tale to tell.…
Gives both platforms the ‘generative AI will freshen it up and shift it to the cloud’ treatment
In 2017 Amazon Web Services and VMware were best buddies as they launched a combined cloud service. In 2025 AWS is dismissing Virtzilla as a legacy outfit that needs to be re-platformed to the cloud ASAP before it sinks your business.…
Fears surrendering to GenAI makes humans less competitive
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson has suggested AIs should be allowed to fight other AIs, because evolution brings balance to ecosystems, but also thinks humans should stop using AI before it dumbs down our species.…
Lawyers prepare to get suited and booted if 'Plan B' to address unfair competition claims is a no show
Microsoft has failed to deliver a special version of Azure for EU cloud providers on time, raising the specter of legal action if it is unable to devise a "commercially equivalent solution" in less than two months' time.…
Cupertino's plan to spend $500bn stateside wasn’t enough to placate the tycoon of tariffs
US president Donald Trump has told Apple CEO Tim Cook he has a problem with his plan to manufacture iThings in India.…
They're smishing, they're vishing
The FBI has warned that fraudsters are impersonating "senior US officials" using deepfakes as part of a major fraud campaign.…
Meta has filed a motion for judgment on the antitrust case it’s currently fighting in court. The motion argues that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has failed to produce any evidence that Meta unlawfully monopolized part of the social networking market, something the government argues it did through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The […]
When it comes to finding a device to read ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on X. If you are looking for […]
Entire process took less than five minutes, prosecutors say
A former DoorDash driver has pleaded guilty to participating in a $2.59 million scheme that used fake accounts, insider access to reassign orders, and bogus delivery reports to trigger payouts for food that was never delivered.…
Epic Games has been waiting for Apple to approve Fortnite for the US iOS App Store for nearly a week, and now Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is using X to try and put pressure on Apple. On Thursday, he highlighted examples of Fortnite lookalikes that are currently on the App Store and made a direct […]
In September, Apple launched its latest smartwatch, introducing the Apple Watch Series 10 alongside a black rendition of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE, but the recent introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models […]
Failure could've triggered a small explosion
NASA has revived a set of thrusters on the nearly 50-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft after declaring them inoperable over two decades ago. …
TikTok will interrupt teens’ feeds with guided meditation after 10PM. The platform has been testing the feature with a “wind down” prompt, but now it’ll show the notification with guided meditation by default to all users under 18. TikTok’s wind-down prompt initially only played calming music to remind teens to take a break from the […]
Watching the behavior of our tech overlords has answered questions I'd never thought to ask. How do you NDA an army of baby mamas? Is there anything more embarrassing than impersonating Benson Boone? (Also, who is Benson Boone?) And now, the latest: how long after a sovereign ruler of a repressive state murders one of […]
AI footnote fail triggers legal palmface in music copyright spat
An attorney defending AI firm Anthropic in a copyright case brought by music publishers apologized to the court on Thursday for citation errors that slipped into a filing after using the biz's own AI tool, Claude, to format references.…
Coinbase says cyber criminals “bribed and recruited” support workers to help steal customer data and trick victims into sending money to attackers. As a result of the attack, bad actors obtained the names, addresses, phone numbers, government IDs images, account data, and partial social security numbers of a “small subset of users,” according to a […]
After five years, I was still happy with my phone, even though its battery had started the inevitable process of slowing to a stop. But Donald Trump's tariff nonsense pushed me to make a decision: buy a new phone or fix the old one now, before the prices go up. The answer was clearer than […]
Every shipment you make, every FLOP you generate, Uncle Sam will be watching you
Proposed legislation gaining steam in Congress this week would require high-end GPUs and AI chips to include location-tracking safeguards to ensure US-designed components don't end up in nations against Uncle Sam's wishes, with exporters on the hook for compliance.…
Surely Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has nothing to do with it
US immigration officials say they are winning the war on H-1B fraud – and say they've got the numbers to prove it.…
YouTube now has a chart that tracks the top 100 podcasts in the US. The Joe Rogan Experience took the number one spot during the week of May 5th to the 11th, followed by Kill Tony, Rotten Mango, and 48 Hours. YouTube will update the chart every Wednesday and rank each show by watchtime, according […]
Whether you’re buying your first pair of AirPods or replacing a well-used older pair, it’s easy to understand why so many iPhone owners prefer Apple’s earbuds and headphones over other options. Apple has spent years gradually adding new features that work best — and sometimes only work at all — within the company’s walled garden. […]
Pinterest has apologized for a recent wave of “over-enforcement” that erroneously deactivated many accounts. The platform has experienced some weird moderation issues in recent weeks, and outraged users reported their accounts had been suspended without warning or explanation. In response to many appeals, the platform cited unspecified community guideline violations. The company initially addressed ban […]
DragonForce-riding ransomware ring also has 'shiny object syndrome' so will likely move on to another sector soon
Interview The same miscreants behind recent cyberattacks on British retailers are now trying to dig their claws into major American retailers' IT environments – and in some cases possibly even deploying ransomware, according to Google.…
May and June are rarely considered the best time of year to land a streaming deal, though that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to save if you can forgo big-name services like Netflix and Hulu. Now through May 30th, for instance, both new and returning subscribers can sign up for a year of ad-supported Peacock […]
Garmin's back with a bunch of goodies for runners. That includes two new Forerunner watches, a new chest strap, and several new running and triathlete features that won't be paywalled behind its newly launched Garmin Connect Plus subscription. On the watch front, there's the $749.99 Forerunner 970, which replaces the 965 as its top-of-the-line running […]
One expert tells us: 'It is the most unique breach disclosure I've ever seen'
Coinbase says some of its overseas support staff were paid off to steal information on behalf of cybercriminals, and the company is now being extorted for $20 million.…
Audio-Technica’s engineers are seemingly working overtime to elevate the design of the record player. Following the reveal of its floating, glowing Hotaru turntable last month, the company has announced its new AT-LPA2 featuring a chassis and platter made from transparent acrylic. With electronics like its power supply and playback controls packed into a separate unit […]
You might want to prepare for things to pay more at Walmart. The company’s CFO, John David Rainey, told CNBC that the Trump administration’s tariffs are “still too high” and that consumers could see higher prices “likely towards the tail end of this month, and then certainly much more in June.” “We’re wired for everyday […]
Sony's WH-1000XM6 noise-canceling headphones have arrived three years after their popular predecessors. That's a longer gap than usual for the lineup, but don't expect any earth-shattering changes. Whereas the 1000XM4 to 1000XM5 upgrade brought a significant design overhaul, this time Sony is mostly focusing on sound, noise cancellation, and quality-of-life hardware refinements, rather than messing […]
Microsoft has been quietly killing off a number of Surface devices over the past few years. At first it was the Surface Headphones and Surface Earbuds that started to disappear, then came news of a changed "hardware portfolio" amid 10,000 job cuts at Microsoft in early 2023. A year later, Microsoft then killed off the […]
Google is rolling out a handy update for Chrome on Android, as it will now allow you to zoom in on text without affecting the appearance of the webpage. You can use a slider to enlarge text, and then set it for one page or for all the sites you visit. Previously, when you zoomed […]
Netflix is working on a new type of ad that will use AI to let advertisers “marry” their product with the streaming service’s shows and movies. This may sound like Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to turn its IP into commercials, but during Netflix’s Upfront event on Wednesday, the company demonstrated an example that placed the […]
Today, I’m talking with Gerrit Kazmaier, the new president of product and technology at Workday, an enterprise software company. Decoder listeners probably know the name Workday; a lot of companies use its platform for HR and finance management, which the suits have started bundling into a phrase they call “human capital management.” I invite you […]
Sometimes, less information is more
In its latest gambit to reduce the noise of unnecessary security alerts, Socket has acquired Coana, a startup founded in 2022 by researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark that tells users which vulnerabilities they can safely ignore.…
While we all wait to find out what effect the upcoming — well, maybe upcoming — tariffs will have on prices, many of us are making mental lists of some of the items we might need that, hopefully, won’t demand a bank loan to be affordable. Last year, we asked the staff members here at […]
Last Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Newark mayor Ras Baraka outside a detention center. Baraka was trying to visit the facility - which opened recently and is operated by the GEO Group, a private prison company - with members of New Jersey's congressional delegation. Baraka was not only denied entry but arrested […]
Threads is making it easier for creators to share personal links with their communities and followers. The link-sharing update announced today now allows Threads users to add up to five links to their account bios and provides performance insight that shows how many people have visited links shared in posts and profiles. Meta previously only […]
Devs told to swap raw results for LLM-generated summaries as August shutdown looms
Microsoft is retiring Bing Search APIs on August 11, directing customers toward AI products as an alternative.…
President Donald Trump told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the company to move iPhone production to India. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said during his visit to Qatar. “You’re coming in with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India… We’re not interested in […]
You’re about to start seeing even more characters from Warner Bro. Discovery’s films and series popping up in ads for stuff like condiments and insurance. In addition to its plan to start calling HBO Max by its proper name again, WBD announced this week that it’s launching something called the “WBD Storyverse,” a new ad […]
We weren’t that impressed with the Hummer EV when it first came out — too big, too expensive, and crazy inefficient — but we did appreciate the novelty of the Crab Walk feature that let the massive truck rotate all four wheels to drive diagonally at low speeds. Our reviewer, Emme Hall, called it “the […]
You can’t buy the Huawei Watch 5 in the US, but it has an interesting twist on health tracking. Most smartwatches and fitness trackers measure your metrics from a sensor array that presses into your wrist. The Watch 5 has that, but it also adds a new sensor on the watch’s side that measures EKGs, […]
It’s not the next mainline entry in the series, but Atlus did announced a new Persona game today. It’s called Persona 5: The Phantom X, and it’s a spinoff that’s launching on both mobile and PC on June 26th. As the name implies, The Phantom X is set in the same universe as 2017’s Persona […]
If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-expanding AirPods lineup. Both the new AirPods Max and AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) now consistently receive discounts, as do the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C. The same goes for the original AirPods Max, which are nearly indistinguishable from the last-gen […]
Meta announced two new features designed to assist blind or low vision users by leveraging the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses’ camera and its access to Meta AI. The news came as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Rolling out to all users in the US and Canada in the coming weeks, Meta AI can now […]
Lessons learned from last year's security snafu
interview Being the chief information security officer at Snowflake is never an easy job, but last spring it was especially challenging.…
The Motorola Razr Ultra is something special, but it's not quite Ultra. It's gorgeous. It's a delight to use, and even after several generations of this revamped Razr flip format, checking bus arrival times on the outer screen still feels like getting away with something. This phone is a lot of things - but Ultra […]
Roblox is going to let creators sell physical items from their games. The company has been testing its tools to do so since last year, but today, it’s announcing that it’s opening up its Commerce APIs to eligible Roblox creators. Shopify is the first “integrated partner” for the APIs, and if a creator or brand […]
Aiming for the stars, but sometimes hitting the Caribbean
SpaceX supremo Elon Musk says the next Starship will launch next week, however, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hasn't yet given it the green light.…
At its best, Netflix's Love, Death, and Robots creates the same feeling as picking up a collection of sci-fi short stories. You don't always know what to expect, and not everything is brilliant, but you're guaranteed to experience something interesting. That was especially true of volume 3 of the animated anthology, which offered nine shorts, […]
Apple is officially rolling out the next generation of CarPlay — and it’s called CarPlay Ultra. The update is available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the US and Canada, but it will be rolling out to existing models with supported infotainment systems in the “coming weeks.” Carmakers like Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis are […]
