Tech

VLGE is making it easier to world build and shop on Roblox | TechCrunch

VLGE is making it easier to world build and shop on Roblox | TechCrunch

In Evelyn Mora’s early career, she realized that fashion designers, although often deeply focused on sustainability, couldn’t stage environmentally friendly large-scale fashion shows.   In 2021, she launched VLGE, a gaming and immersive-world-building platform that specializes in working with brands. It lets brands build their own worlds, fill them with interactive content and games, and export said worlds to other platforms like …

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We Toted Lunch, Water Bottles, and Beach Towels in All the Best Tote Bags

We Toted Lunch, Water Bottles, and Beach Towels in All the Best Tote Bags

Compare Top 7 Tote Bags Honorable Mentions Photograph: Kat Merck Peak Design Everyday Tote for $160: The first time I subbed in this tote for my usual bag, at a youth basketball tournament, I disappointed about a dozen parents who had clocked it as a cooler. “I thought you had brought drinks,” a friend said, dejected. And to their credit, …

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SK Telecom’s AI unit offers staff voluntary retirement program just weeks after launch | TechCrunch

SK Telecom’s AI unit offers staff voluntary retirement program just weeks after launch | TechCrunch

South Korean telco giant SK Telecom is making big changes at its new AI division, AI CIC, just weeks after it was launched. Staff employed by the unit are being offered a voluntary retirement program as part of a broader effort to bring together the company’s various AI-related divisions, SK Telecom confirmed to TechCrunch. “In late September, SK Telecom announced …

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Jabra’s Enhance Select 700 Are Top-Tier Hearing Aids That Don’t Add Much

Jabra’s Enhance Select 700 Are Top-Tier Hearing Aids That Don’t Add Much

So what is it about the Enhance Select 700 aids that makes them 200 better than the Select 500? The big sell is a new audio feature called SoundScape Auto Focus. This technology is designed to improve speech clarity in noisy conditions, filtering out background sounds and automatically prioritizing human voices. Auto Focus is integrated into the hardware and can’t …

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The Best Mattresses You Can Buy Online: We’ve Slept on 100-Plus

The Best Mattresses You Can Buy Online: We’ve Slept on 100-Plus

Compare Our Top Picks Honorable Mentions We have tested 100+ mattresses over the years and have removed many that are out-of-stock or out-of-date. Here are a few more products that are still available, which we liked but didn’t love as much as the ones above. Puffy Cloud for $949: This enhanced all-foam mattress offers profound pressure relief without feeling too …

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The Blurred Truths of Sora

The Blurred Truths of Sora

As a purely creative instrument, Sora, the new AI video app from OpenAI, is a game changer. Dream up any scenario and it appears in an instant. Freddy Krueger as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars. Mr. Rogers teaching Tupac Shakur the lyrics to the legendary rap diss “Hit Em Up.” But just as its innovations are remarkable, so …

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Meta previews new parental controls for its AI experiences | TechCrunch

Meta previews new parental controls for its AI experiences | TechCrunch

Meta on Friday previewed its upcoming parental control features for teens’ conversations with AI characters on its platforms. The features, which will be rolled out next year, include the ability to block certain characters and monitor conversation topics. Starting in the coming months, parents will be able to turn off chats with AI characters entirely for teens. This action won’t …

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The Bourbon Industry Is in Turmoil. Could Tech Provide the Shot It Needs?

The Bourbon Industry Is in Turmoil. Could Tech Provide the Shot It Needs?

If you’ve never toured a whiskey distillery, the experience can be uncommonly old-fashioned. While newer distilleries thrive on automation, many still tout their “by hand” operations as a defining characteristic, a heritage that gives them street cred. Many distilleries are downright smug about the lack of computers or even climate control in any facet of their operations—even if this means …

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ByteDance’s Other AI Chatbot Is Quietly Gaining Traction Around the World

ByteDance’s Other AI Chatbot Is Quietly Gaining Traction Around the World

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has built what is currently the most popular AI chatbot in China: Doubao. Launched in 2023, the app has risen to the top of the country’s generative AI market, reaching more than 157 million monthly active users by August, according to Chinese analytics firm QuestMobile. But what’s less known is that Doubao also has …

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How to See Comet Lemmon This October

How to See Comet Lemmon This October

It was early January 2025 when a faint light spot was observed at the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona. Follow-up observations revealed that the object was a comet visiting from the outer edge of the solar system, and it was named Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6). Its “period”—the time it takes to complete its lengthy orbit of the sun—is about 1,350 …

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