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The $69.99 HyperMegaTech! Super Pocket Activision Edition! comes with 34 retro games pre-installed that were all available on Atari consoles decades ago. Bundled titles include Pitfall!, Chopper Command, and River Raid, but the handheld is also compatible with Evercade’s ever-growing collection of multi-title cartridges.
Filings spotted by leaker Digital Chat Station claim that the iPhone 18 Pro’s battery will be 4,288 mAh, while the Pro Max’s will be 5,567 mAh, as MacRumors reports. Both would be a modest boost over the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max’s batteries, especially the 479 mAh bump for the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Meta says four US states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties, according to Reuters, in a filing published ahead of an upcoming August trial that accuses the company of purposefully designing Facebook and Instagram to addict young users. Meta’s market cap is $1.5 trillion and it’s already lost back-to-back trials on the matter and settled another.
Memory chip demand by AI datacenters continues to be very good for Samsung, and some of its workers who are eligible for average annual bonuses of $340,000 this year. Per Reuters:
Samsung Electronics on Tuesday flagged a 19-fold jump in second-quarter operating profit, surpassing its combined earnings over the past three years.
From Summer Games Done Quick, here’s a 15-minute run of Rail Heist, one game from the massive game collection UFO 50. Can’t ask for much more from this one: I learned about a game I hadn’t played before, the runner does some cool tech, and there are some unexpected shenanigans.
BTW, if you see any other runs I should highlight, let me know? I’ll probably post a few more during the event, which is happening now.
By looking through data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), researchers uncovered a planet through microlensing for the first time — a concept theorized by Einstein that picks up on planets as their gravity warps space-time.
Though the ESA’s now-retired Gaia telescope first discovered hints of the planet in 2023, TESS’s data revealed a planet that’s 1.6 times Jupiter’s mass and almost 40,000 light-years away from Earth.
It’s been missing from the first two versions of the beta, but you can now continue conversations from your phone on your wrist, and vice versa. I’m playing around with it now, but I’m curious to hear from fellow smartwatch nerds. (You’ll need a Series 9, Ultra 3, or SE 3 and later to run the dev beta.)
The company formerly known as xAI has referred to itself as SpaceXAI before following the acquisition by SpaceX. There’s a new logo, too.
The gen AI psyop known as Tilly Norwood is reportedly going to be in a movie produced by Particle 6. Put more plainly: the company that created Tilly Norwood in the first place is making an elaborate commercial about one of its products.
[Los Angeles Times]
In hopes of winning its ongoing legal battle with Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery Midjourney is trying to force the studios to reveal the extent to which they use artificial intelligence internally. This would establish whether “they are doing exactly what they are suing Midjourney for doing.”
One Piece, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Beef, and The Night Agent have experienced big season 2 slumps, with some losing up to 70 percent of their audience, according to Bloomberg.
Netflix is reportedly trying to figure out the reason for the dip, which The Guardian has linked to the streamer’s binge-release model and a focus on subscriber growth. What do you think is contributing to the dropoff?
The total number of jobs impacted “could be as much as half the development team,” and a community manager has already shared that the game’s roadmaps “will be shifting,” according to Kotaku.
There are currently more than 13,000 people in-game just on Steam, SteamDB says — and since it’s also on PlayStation and Xbox, the total number is likely higher — so any changes to the game’s development will affect a not-insignificant number of players.
Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 315 on Monday, as first reported by CBS News. The “Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act,” passed in May, follows similar bills in New York and California aimed at improving AI transparency and safety, and will require independent third-party audits at AI companies.
[The State of Illinois Newsroom]
TeraWulf, the crypto mining company turned AI infrastructure provider, expects to earn $19 billion in revenue from the agreement, according to an announcement on Monday. The Hawesville, KY data center will come online with an “initial capacity” in the second half of 2027 before ramping up to 401 megawatts of power delivery in 2028.
[The Wall Street Journal]
The company says its AI-powered spam detection tools are blocking 23 million spam views each day, while catching around 25,000 new “spammy posts and comments,” and revoking nearly 2 million “inauthentic votes.” Reddit is also working to combat “coordinated patterns of fake behavior and artificial hype,” which we’ve seen with AI systems trying to game AI search results.
As Bloomberg reports, the new Broadcom chips will be in “multiple generations of Apple products.” It’s an expansion of Apple’s existing partnership with Broadcom, which is also collaborating with Apple on AI server chips and has long been making 5G and wireless components for Apple devices.
It follows last year’s EXP 15 “design concept,” and follows Bentley tradition by taking its name from the El Torcal de Antequera natural landmark in Andalusia, Spain. Bentley’s CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser says it “may just be the most considered car in our history.” We’ll find out more on September 23rd.
The new affordable earbuds will launch alongside the Phone 4B, but WinFuture has published what appear to be official promo shots of the buds in all four colors: yellow, pink, white, and black. Will we see a return of the odd charging case microphone Nothing introduced in the more premium Ear 3?
ITV is selling its media and entertainment business, including the ITVX streaming platform and free-to-air channels, to Comcast-owned Sky for up to £1.6 billion ($2.13 billion). The acquisition excludes ITV’s studio operations and will create the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, better positioning it to compete with YouTube and streaming rivals like Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix.
Trump has injected himself into Netflix’s business dealings, intervened in the antitrust case against Ticketmaster, and turned the FCC into his attack dog. Now he’s reportedly sullied the beautiful game by pressuring FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review the suspension of the United States’ top scorer, Folarin Balogun.
[The New York Times]
Rossmann tried to replace his dead 4TB 990 Pro under warranty. Samsung sent the dead drive back, claiming it worked. Then it said the drive was out of stock (even though it’s not). I’m sure the fact that the 990 Pro now sells for over $900 instead of the $330 Rossmann paid has nothing to do with it.
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Catch the event over the next week on Twitch, though my preferred way to watch is to catch VODs after the fact on YouTube.
You can browse the whole schedule on the GDQ website. This year, there’s even a pinball showcase.
[Games Done Quick]
According to Game File, in private communications, Sony told developers that games released before the January 1, 2028 cutoff could still get reorders of physical copies in 2028. So expect a glut of unfinished games to hit shelves in December 2027, just to ensure companies can still get discs.
The landmark James Cameron blockbuster turns 35 this year. It’s easy to forget sometimes how difficult it must have been for ILM to solve the problems posed by early ‘90s CGI, develop new technologies, and scale up to the over 100 CG shots required by T2.
