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‘Xbox is not for sale’ says Microsoft’s gaming chief

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has denied reports that Microsoft is considering selling off its Xbox business. The Information reported in June that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood had been considering spinning out Xbox entirely, and then reported earlier this month that

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📱 Hey Siri, How Do I Limit AI Data Access? | EFFector 38.17

With the launch of iOS 27, Apple is rolling out a variety of new AI features to its familiar voice assistant, Siri. But how are AI tools like these handling our data? In our latest EFFector newsletter , we're talking about the privacy complications of AI phone features. JOIN

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Asus won’t say how it escaped the US router ban

This spring, the United States banned all future foreign-made consumer routers - effectively all future routers - unless their makers could 1) convince the US government that they weren't a national security threat, and 2) submit "a detailed, time-bound plan to establish or

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Fontaines D.C. – “Tongue”

Fontaines D.C.'s upcoming Dopamine Chamber promises to be one of the biggest rock albums of the fall, and it could be something special. The band has been debuting new songs live lately, and we've already heard lead single " Marianne ." The record has the group's first-ever

Trump Uses Decades-Old Law to Collect Flock Data Nationwide

Thanks to a 1980s anti-drug trafficking program, cities across the U.S. are being forced to turn over their license plate reader data to the Trump administration. 404 Media reports that the federal government is using the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program to collect

Mogwai – “Underground” (Feat. Iggy Pop)

Scottish post-rock warriors Mogwai have had a hell of a run over the past 30 years or so. Early next year, they'll release a career-spanning collection under the title Happy Tears . It's funny to think that Mogwai are the kind of band to put out a greatest-hits album, but it

Earth and Mars: Built from different cosmic recipes

Four and a half billion years ago, Earth and Mars were born in the rotating cloud of gas and dust that would eventually become our solar system. Yet exactly how the planets formed remains one of the most disputed questions in planetary science.

Alpine bacteria show unexpected ability to fight viruses

A silent, long-running competition has been taking place in Swiss alpine lakes for millions of years, killing trillions of organisms every day without anyone noticing. This competition between bacteria and viruses pushes both into a relentless evolutionary battle.

R.E.M. Announce Reveal (25th Anniversary Edition)

Fairly often these days, I see a fresh round of social-media discourse on whether or not R.E.M. have been forgotten, whether new generations don't appreciate what the college-rock godfathers brought to the game. Basically, people constantly talk about whether R.E.M. get talked

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Israelis march between once-closed West Bank settlements

Hundreds of Israelis marched Wednesday between newly rebuilt settlements in the northern West Bank to celebrate a Jewish holiday, a symbolic show of their return to an area until recently almost fully Palestinian. Settlers of all ages carried traditional bundles of fruit and

All the latest news on Meta’s cute, creepy Muse AI agent

Meta launched a new Muse AI agent it claims can help you with everything from firing off emails to buying stuff online. Muse can be surprisingly effective at delivering on those promises — if you’re willing to trust Meta with your data and hand Muse your credit card. Since the

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Potato by air

The Wing Hummingbird 7000W-B delivery drone weighs less than 15 pounds. It has 16 propellers - four for horizontal movement and 12 for vertical - a top speed of 60 miles per hour, a carrying capacity of up to 2.7 pounds, and a delivery radius of about six miles. It is

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Early ’80s Synthpop Duo 50/50 Are Finally Releasing An Album

In 1979, two British musicians, singer David Cowles and producer/multi-instrumentalist Richard Haines, got together to form a synthpop duo called 50/50. At the time, both of them had demanding careers outside of music, and they weren't willing to devote themselves to the group

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