Tech

We’ve seen purported renders of the Pixel 9, now 9to5Google points out Rozetked (also a source for Pixel 3 era leaks) photos of a prototype 6.1-inch Pixel 9 Pro.

In a picture of the boot screen, it says the “caiman” device has 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM onboard (up from 12GB on the Pixel 8 Pro), along with 128GB of storage.

A Tesla delivery center in Virginia reportedly has a way to deal with the now-recalled accelerator pedal on Cybertrucks.

In a Facebook post, Jim McGlone wrote that they installed a temporary rivet to secure the pad that might slip off and get stuck. With that in place, he picked up his new Cybertruck yesterday after it had been in a “containment hold.”

Microsoft’s new AI model, VASA-1, transforms a single still image and an audio clip into an animated video, which is impressive, if not a little creepy.

The benefits – such as enhancing educational equity, improving accessibility for individuals with communication challenges, offering companionship or therapeutic support to those in need, among many others – underscore the importance of our research and other related explorations.

Microsoft says it won’t release a demo, API, or product with VASA-1 “until we are certain that the technology will be used responsibly.”

It’s not just us Swifties who have been waiting impatiently for April 19th — The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) release day. It appears Mark Zuckerberg had a carefully worded pun locked and loaded for today, which also marks the pop superstar’s debut on Threads.

The amendment would reverse a provision included in the recent House bill reauthorizing Section 702 of FISA that expands the definition of “electronic communications service provider,” which critics say would force Americans to essentially spy for the government.

“Forcing ordinary Americans and small businesses to conduct secret, warrantless spying is what authoritarian countries do, not democracies,” Wyden said in a statement. 

That’s why I’m keen on this rumor from AppleInsider that says macOS 15 will add a sidebar that gives you an overview of previous calculations. The app will supposedly look more like the iOS version and get unit conversions too.

Good! Sign me up for anything that makes math less painful.

Sources tell The New York Times that Sony and investment firm Apollo Global Management are in talks to submit a bid to acquire Paramount. At the same time, reports suggest Paramount is getting closer to making a deal with Skydance.

Sales for the game rose by 7,500 percent week-on-week across Europe, according to Gamesindustry.biz, with Steam charts showing a similar spike in players that suggests a wider, global trend. Not bad for a near-decade-old game.

The new Prime Video series is likely driving this as we saw a similar phenomenon with The Last of Us following its own TV adaptation.

While US lawmakers take aim at TikTok, The Wall Street Journal reports that several popular messaging apps were removed by Apple at the request of the Chinese government which will make it harder for people in the country to download the apps for use with a VPN. Reuters notes that Meta apps like Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram are still available.

Here’s Apple’s statement on the matter:

“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns. We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree.”

Apple’s headset doesn’t have an official Netflix app, but MacRumors mentions Best Buy’s app has arrived.

Just put on your Vision Pro, open the Best Buy Envision app and scroll through hundreds of options to see them appear digitally, right in front your eyes, in your physical space.

Now, all we need is a Netflix app for those virtual TVs.

Like Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty, and Destiny 2, the developers of Overwatch 2 are going after players who use “unapproved peripherals” to combine the precision of mouse and keyboard controls with the aim assist granted to controller players.

Over the next few weeks, there will be permanent account bans against players who are the most severe abusers of unapproved peripherals. These actions will be targeted towards high-ranked players who have been reported by others and who our data clearly shows are using an unapproved peripheral.

Zhang Yiming founded ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, but previously served as the CEO of 99Fang, a Chinese home finder startup with “very powerful” tech for search, image processing, and recommendations.

Now, The New York Times reports that former contractors suing Susquehanna, an investor in both companies, claim technology they developed for 99Fang was used to create TikTok without compensating them.

Futurism spotted what looks to be AI photo shenanigans in Netflix’s What Jennifer Did, a true crime documentary detailing a murder-for-hire plot. The possible AI-generated images appeared in scenes describing the subject, Jennifer Pan’s personality. Futurism rightly points out that fake AI images in a true crime documentary are controversial, at the least.

In 2020, Apple sued a recycling partner after more than 11,000 pounds of gadgets disappeared. But a Bloomberg report reveals that workers pilfering iPhones isn’t the only problem with Apple’s recycling program.

The company regularly ordered the recycling partner to destroy “tens of thousands” of refurbishable devices, legal filings show. Such waste occurs regularly throughout the globe.

Co-CEO Greg Peters says the streamer doesn’t have a “set position” on a ceiling for its subscription pricing:

You can look at pay TV as a potential markers for where people have spent before but we really actually don’t think of it so much is defined by that... As we add more entertainment value, then of course we can go back to our subscribers and ask them to pay a little bit more to keep that virtuous cycle moving.

If it pushes through, the European Commission could look into whether Microsoft’s $13 billion investment into OpenAI restricts competition, Reuters reports. The commission floated the possibility of an investigation in January.

The partnership between the two companies already drew scrutiny from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the Federal Trade Commission in the US.

Eisenberg sent the price of MNGO tokens up, then withdrew $110 million in crypto. He did not testify.

His defense pointed out the was permitted by the crypto’s code. Turns out code isn’t law!

The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act has been circulating since at least 2020, seeking to close this loophole in constitutional privacy protections. A version of the bill finally passed Wednesday evening, in a 212–199 vote.