A Reuters stream showed the scene in Cuba on Friday, where the power grid crashed completely following a failure at the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant, its largest thermoelectric plant.
CNN’s Havana bureau chief Patrick Oppman writes that after five hours, “Cubans know blackouts all too well but this one feels different.”
Additional reports: CNN, Associated Press, CiberCuba, Granma.
More than two years after adding Banjo-Kazooie, Nintendo has announced that on October 25th, its sequel Banjo-Tooie will join the library of classic N64 games available to Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers.
This New York Times report mentions Microsoft’s investment hesitations after last year’s upheaval, that Oracle deal, and the Inflection acquihire as notable stressors on the “bromance.”
Also, “some” at OpenAI might blame Microsoft if it’s beaten to AGI “because it hasn’t given OpenAI the computing power it needs,” while noting that successfully building AGI could activate a contract clause cutting Microsoft off from OpenAI’s tech.
Interesting.
Amazon’s new streaming stick improves the one we reviewed in 2020 with an Alexa voice remote and HDMI-ARC.
However, it’s still limited to 1080p, and even at $34.99, you’re still probably better off waiting for another sale on the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Other cheap alternatives include the Roku Express and the 4K-capable Chromecast with Google TV.
Note: If you buy something from these links, we might get affiliate revenue.
Can self-driving shuttles give people a reason to ride the bus or a train? Waymo says it will test the idea with a credit for riders who connect “to or from eligible Bay Area transit stations.”
Starting today, Waymo One riders that connect to select transit stations in San Francisco and the Peninsula will receive a $3.00 credit on their Waymo account for use on future rides. Credits will be applied to riders’ Waymo accounts when they take Waymo One to or from eligible Bay Area transit stations.
While platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and the App Store deal with Digital Markets Act regulations put on powerful digital gatekeepers, the service formerly known as Twitter won’t have that problem:
Following a thorough assessment of all arguments, including input by relevant stakeholders, and after consulting the Digital Markets Advisory Committee, the Commission concluded that X does indeed not qualify as a gatekeeper in relation to its online social networking service, given that the investigation revealed that X is not an important gateway for business users to reach end users.
New York City Verizon customers complained about problems on Monday night as they experienced slow or intermittent internet connections reflected in this data from the connectivity trackers at Netblocks.
The number of reports on Downdetector had already been dropping, and Verizon spokesperson Ilya Hemlin confirmed it’s fixed in a statement sent to The Verge:
On Monday evening, some Fios customers in NYC briefly experienced intermittent network issues. The issue was quickly resolved and service is operating normally.
Update: The service is now back online.
Rolling Stone reports that just like FEMA, meteorologists are dealing with more pushback than they’re used to — one is quoted saying “ideas that once would have been ridiculed as very fringe, outlandish viewpoints are suddenly becoming mainstream.”
CBS Morning meteorologist Katie Nickolaou also tweeted one example of what she’s seeing (below).
There’s white smoke from ESPN’s HQ in Bristol, CT, today, as Shams Charania broke the news of his own free agent signing, saying:
I am honored to join ESPN as the company’s Senior NBA Insider.
He will take over the spot from his one-time mentor and longtime rival, Wojnarowski, who announced his retirement last month.
