Many years ago, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 gained notoriety when its batteries caught fire in a series of incidents. There’s been a steady stream of similar, though isolated, incidents ever since. Despite the high-profile coverage of batteries gone wrong, however, the vast majority of lithium-ion batteries are safe. The chemical reaction that occurs inside…
Spotify, it’s fair to say, has made some weird user-experience choices. There are a number of panels in the app, and the layout is confusing. The service constantly tracks your activity. The app also seems to have an odd hostility to playing actual albums. This all works to create a general feeling that Spotify’s designers…
The app also offers workouts, which auto-adjust the speed to your pace via sensors under the belt. It felt awkward, since I couldn’t figure out how to slow the pace without the device totally stopping. You switch between modes within the app or on the display, and you can stop and start the machine using…
Kini is very reliable. I tested it in a drawer and a cabinet, and it always alerted me when they were opened. It also keeps a log with times listed. While alerts go via the cloud, maker Kinisium says it doesn’t collect data, and you can turn off logging entirely if you prefer. Kini also…
There’s no shortage of bonkers details about Polymarket. The government alleges that both a special forces soldier and a longtime Google employee used the prediction market to amass small fortunes by insider trading; CEO Shayne Coplan had his apartment raided by FBI agents, who entered via battering ram; and one of its executives reportedly paid…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intends to renew its contract with a subsidiary of data broker giant Thomson Reuters at a rate of up to $25 million per year for up to five years in order to accommodate an urgent, “multiplied” demand for data that can identify “unaccompanied minors” as well as anyone involved with…
Anthropic threw its support behind the first wave of frontier AI safety laws in the United States last year, securing new transparency requirements in California and New York that much of Silicon Valley fought against, arguing they would stifle the AI boom. But Anthropic says those laws may already be outdated, and the company is…
Ever looking to underline its space-faring pedigree, Omega has again joined forces with Swatch to release another limited-edition MoonSwatch featuring Omega’s proprietary 18K Moonshine Gold alloy. But whereas previous special versions had only a sliver of the shiny stuff, this new model doesn’t hold back, featuring a dial, hands, crown, and pushers all made from…
Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence company started by exiles from OpenAI, has released its first model, called Inkling. The startup’s new model is open-weight, which means that researchers and startups will be able to download and modify it. In a a blog post, the company says Inkling was trained from scratch to make sense…
Mere moments after Argentina lost to France in a Round of 16 match during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, commentators were already predicting it would be his final time on a World Cup pitch. “This was Lionel Messi’s final World Cup match, surely,” one stated, “and maybe his final game for his country.” Messi…