The Stepback

The schemes and shenanigans behind the Nexstar-Tegna deal.

OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are eating the software world alive.

AI-generated ‘Expert Reviews’ weren’t a hit with users or experts.

Apple’s iPhone empire spans the globe — and so does legal pushback.

Lawmakers don’t want VPNs to stand in the way of online age verification.

These are not normal video games.

Plug-in hybrid owners rarely actually plug in their vehicles, practically negating the climate advantages of the technology.

The old sport is going all-in on chasing virality.

Invasive government and corporate surveillance isn’t inevitable — but Congress needs to act.

The $82.7 billion deal will force Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, Peacock, Apple TV, and other rivals to make some changes.

Phone manufacturers are throwing everything they have at long-distance lenses in order to stand out.

New Jersey just approved a wildly out-of-step new law that restricts all e-bikes, regardless of speed or power capabilities. Will other states follow?

The problems were baked in.

App stores are gateways. Lawmakers want them to have checkpoints.

China sees humanoids as an economic engine and Musk wants a ‘robot army.’

There’s been a surprising development.

Competition is coming, but it might never catch up.

Welcome to the new old internet.

The streamer is the place for premium sci-fi, but can it catch up with the competition?

Studios specializing in vertical video production are slowly but surely shaking up the entertainment industry.

Music recommendation algorithms were supposed to help us cut through the noise, but they just served us up slop.

We’re all paying for Donald Trump’s erratic policies.

Things are getting weird.

What could go wrong?

Porn is increasingly age-gated. Social media is next.

More cities are adopting OMNY-like open-loop payment systems for transit. Can it keep transit from slipping into a death spiral?

AI startups want to brute force their way into the movie business, even though the tech isn’t ready for its closeup.

On Sony, Microsoft, and the future of game consoles.

Silicon-carbon cells are leading to thinner phones with longer battery life.

Supply, demand, and deregulation.

But they’re getting better.

The US is saying ‘to hell with the international mining code.’

Dust could spell death for a foldable’s inner screen.

‘Car bloat’ is what you get when companies prioritize profits over safety.

We’re launching two exclusive newsletters and a partnership with Lowpass by Janko Roettgers.