Tech

3 Years Later, Playdate Is Still Gaming’s Best-Kept Secret

3 Years Later, Playdate Is Still Gaming’s Best-Kept Secret

“Panic gave the platform a playful and friendly character from the start, and promoted an openness that other platforms simply don’t have, allowing anyone to cheaply and easily make games for it with a variety of different tools,” says Nicola Cocchiaro, a veteran developer and software engineer. After working on Red Dead Redemption 2, he set up his own studio …

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For Days, I Ate Only Factor High Protein Meals. I Get It Now

For Days, I Ate Only Factor High Protein Meals. I Get It Now

The Protein Plus options are pretty broad, comprising about half of Factor’s menu items overall. The meals remain mostly stolidly middle American: garlic herb chicken, barbecue wings, a red pepper frittata for breakfast. Jamaican jerk salmon and a Thai yellow curry chicken were among the most peripatetic options I tried, but even these feel domesticated, accessibly tame. (I did in …

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Beware coworkers who produce AI-generated ‘workslop’ | TechCrunch

Beware coworkers who produce AI-generated ‘workslop’ | TechCrunch

Researchers at consulting firm BetterUp Labs, in collaboration with Stanford Social Media Lab, have coined a new term to describe low-quality, AI-generated work: “workslop.” As defined in an article published this week in the Harvard Business Review, workslop is “AI generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” BetterUp Labs …

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AI startup Friend spent more than $1M on all those subway ads | TechCrunch

AI startup Friend spent more than M on all those subway ads | TechCrunch

If you’ve been on the New York City subway recently, you’ve probably seen stark white ads promoting a wearable AI device called Friend. CEO Avi Schiffman told Adweek that the company spent more than $1 million on a campaign with more than 11,000 cards on subway cars, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels. Some stations, like West 4th Street, …

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Trump demands Microsoft fire global affairs head Lisa Monaco | TechCrunch

Trump demands Microsoft fire global affairs head Lisa Monaco | TechCrunch

President Donald Trump declared Friday that Microsoft needs to fire Lisa Monaco, the company’s president of global affairs. Citing her roles as “a senior National Security aide under Barack Hussein Obama, and a Lawfare and Weaponization obsessed Deputy Attorney General under Crooked Joe Biden and Lisa’s Puppet ‘Boss’ Attorney General Merrick Garland,” Trump posted on Truth Social that Monaco’s current …

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Get the Support You Need With the Best WIRED-Tested Body Pillows for Side Sleepers

Get the Support You Need With the Best WIRED-Tested Body Pillows for Side Sleepers

Compare Our Picks Photograph: Molly Higgins Others Tested Pillow Cube Side Cube for $66: This isn’t technically a body pillow, but it’s specifically designed for side sleepers (and I love it), so it’s included in this list. This cuboid pillow is designed for the side sleeper, and aims to help with headaches and back and shoulder pains through its unique …

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An App Used to Dox Charlie Kirk Critics Doxed Its Own Users Instead

An App Used to Dox Charlie Kirk Critics Doxed Its Own Users Instead

New research released this week shows that over the past few years the US Department of Homeland Security has collected DNA data of nearly 2,000 US citizens. The activity raises questions about legality and oversight given that DHS has been putting the information into an FBI crime database. Some of the genetic data is from US citizens as young as …

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Ultrahuman’s Home Environment Tracker Is Ultra Expensive and Underbaked

Ultrahuman’s Home Environment Tracker Is Ultra Expensive and Underbaked

The Ultrahuman Home is a futuristic-looking home environment monitor that tracks air quality, light, sound, and temperature. All this data flows into the Ultrahuman app on your phone, offering potential insights into your environment and suggestions on how you could make it healthier. Sadly, this mostly amounts to reminders to crack a window open, because most of the touted features …

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How South Korea plans to best OpenAI, Google, others with homegrown AI  | TechCrunch

How South Korea plans to best OpenAI, Google, others with homegrown AI  | TechCrunch

From tech giants to startups, South Korean players are developing large language models tailored to their own language and culture, ready to compete with global heavyweights like OpenAI and Google.  Last month, the nation launched its most ambitious sovereign AI initiative to date, pledging ₩530 billion, (about $390 million), to five local companies building large-scale foundational models.   The move underscores …

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If You Own a Samsung Phone, the Buds3 FE Might Be for You

If You Own a Samsung Phone, the Buds3 FE Might Be for You

I’ve been very impressed with Samsung’s third-gen wireless earbuds. The Galaxy Buds3 Pro ($190), which were released in 2024, were a solid AirPods Pro competitor for Android owners. Now, they’ve been joined by the Galaxy Buds3 FE, a new entry-level model that looks nearly identical to the Buds3 Pro but trades away a lot of bells and whistles for a …

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