Category: Technology

AI could soon surpass Bitcoin mining in energy consumption, according to a new analysis that concludes artificial intelligence could use close to half of all the electricity consumed by data centers globally by the end of 2025. The estimates come from Alex de Vries-Gao, a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Institute for Environmental Studies…

Amazon has a new ZeroOne team focused on “breakthrough” devices, and it’s led by Xbox cofounder and former Microsoft executive J Allard, CNBC reports. Based on a job listing for the team, one of those products is a smart home device. J Allard was one of the main faces of the original Xbox and Xbox…

Instagram now supports photos that have a 3:4 aspect ratio, meaning that when you upload a photo with that ratio, “it’ll now appear just exactly as you shot it,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri says in a Threads post. He also notes that “almost every phone camera defaults to” that format. An image from Instagram’s broadcast…

The legal battle between two Amazon influencers with unsettlingly similar styles and vibes is nearing resolution. On Wednesday the two influencers asked a judge to dismiss the copyright case, more than a year after it was initially filed and six months after I wrote about it in The Verge.  The lawsuit was simultaneously disconcerting and…

Microsoft’s combination of Xbox and Windows for handheld gaming PCs can’t come soon enough. Windows on handhelds is in desperate need of some love, and Lenovo’s Legion Go S is the best evidence yet that Microsoft has a big Windows-shaped problem it has to solve on any upcoming Xbox-branded handhelds. YouTuber Dave2D managed to test…

The Insta360 Link 2 has dropped to a new all-time low price. If you’re looking to upgrade your work-from-home setup, the Insta360 Link and Link 2 are gimbal-equipped 4K webcams packed with features to improve how you present in video calls. Now through June 8th, both are down to all-time low prices, with the original…

Blink launched the second generation of its video doorbell this week. Amazon’s budget security camera company, Blink, has launched the second generation of its popular video doorbell. The new Blink Video Doorbell adds a head-to-toe view and improved video resolution. It can also now alert you when a person is at your door instead of…

Today, I’m talking with Megan Greenwell, a former top editor at Wired and Deadspin, about her new book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. It comes out on June 10th, and it’s a searing account of how private equity goes far beyond impacting failing businesses and deeply affects and transforms…

Democratic senators are probing whether RealPage, a software company accused of colluding with landlords to raise rents, lobbied for a proposed ban on states regulating AI for the next decade. In a letter to RealPage CEO Dana Jones, four Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Tina…

Fifteen Iranian students and researchers sued the Trump administration for completely halting student visa interviews while it determines whether to vet all visa applicants’ social media accounts. The suit, filed against Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Virginia federal court, claims that the pause on student visa interviews violates the Administrative Procedures Act, a…