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Showing posts from April, 2025

Automation Leverage in Turnaround Strategy

Automation Leverage in Turnaround Strategy Turnaround work is often described as a crisis discipline: reduce costs, preserve cash, stabilize operations and buy time. Those moves matter, but they are not enough. A durable turnaround also needs leverage: better systems, clearer information flows and repeatable execution. For Livio Andrea Acerbo , AI automation is useful in turnaround strategy when it improves the operating rhythm of a company. The point is not to add tools. The point is to remove friction from decisions that must happen every week. From cost control to operating clarity Cost control can stop the bleeding, but operating clarity creates the next phase. Teams need to know which products are profitable, which customers deserve attention, where working capital is trapped and which workflows create avoidable delay. Automation helps when it turns scattered data into a management cadence. Dashboards, exception reports, document summaries, pipeline reviews and cash visibi...

The BBC deepfaked Agatha Christie to teach a writing course

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BBC Studios is using AI to recreate the voice and likeness of late detective story author Agatha Christie for the purpose of featuring it in digital classes that teaches prospective writers “how to craft the perfect crime novel.” A real life actor, Vivien Keene, is standing in for Christie, with her appearance augmented by AI Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nintendo limits a game-sharing loophole as it introduces Virtual Game Cards

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The Nintendo Switch just got a new update that adds Virtual Game Cards as a way to share digital games with other people. But the update also closes a loophole that would let you play shared games online at the same time as somebody you were sharing the game with, as reported by Eurogamer. Before Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

YouTube is testing blurred thumbnails for ‘mature content’

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YouTube has announced a new experimental feature that’s “aimed at providing safer search experiences for all users.” The service will begin blurring the thumbnails in search results for some queries “that frequently include sexual themes.” According to a recent update in the Community section of YouTube’s Help Center website, the feature is currently being rolled Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

PlayStation Plus monthly games for May include Balatro and Ark: Survival Ascended

There are some cool games coming to PlayStation Plus in May, including one modern classic. This month’s titles include the universally-beloved Balatro, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun and Ark: Survival Ascended. All three games will be available to PS Plus members beginning on May 6. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely heard of Balatro. It’s sort of a sequel to poker and sort of a roguelike. It’s also utterly hypnotic and addictive. I’ve yet to find a human who didn’t become entranced by its simple and captivating gameplay. We have given this game lots of love, and with good reason. To play Balatro is to love Balatro and, over time, to start dreaming about insane combos. This is an absolute must-play for subscribers. It’ll be available for both PS4 and PS5. Ark: Survival Ascended is a remake of 2015’s Ark: Survival Evolved that has been "reimagined from the ground-up with Unreal Engine 5." There’s new graphics, a new physics system and tons of quality-of-life up...

OpenAI says its GPT-4o update could be ‘uncomfortable, unsettling, and cause distress’

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OpenAI rolled back a GPT-4o update for ChatGPT that caused the chatbot’s default personality to be “overly flattering or agreeable – often described as sycophantic” and that “sycophantic interactions can be uncomfortable, unsettling, and cause distress,” the company says in a blog post. The company introduced a GPT-4o update last week that included adjustments “aimed Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google confirms it’s close to getting Gemini support on iPhones

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Google is close to striking a deal with Apple to integrate Gemini into the iPhone. During the search monopoly trial on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed the company expects to strike a Gemini deal with Apple by the middle of this year and suggested it would roll out by the end of 2025. The Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Donald Trump might actually believe these Calibri labels are real MS-13 tattoos

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For several weeks, President Donald Trump and his administration have been grasping for evidence that a man his administration deported and imprisoned in error is a dangerous gang member, and the effort has now reached what may be an untoppable peak: the President repeatedly insisting in an in-person interview that an obvious text label that Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

UK retail giant Co-op warns of disruption as it battles cyberattack

The U.K. grocery and retail giant said the unspecified cyber incident is affecting its back office and call centers. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Samsung says US tariffs will affect prices and demand for smartphones and memory chips

During an earnings call, Samsung's chief financial officer Soon-cheol Park told reporters that "ongoing uncertainty surrounding US tariff policies continues to pose a potential risk of demand slowdown." According to Financial Times, Park said that US tariff policies and stronger export controls against artificial intelligence products are expected to have an impact on product demand in the second half of the year. In addition to a downward trend on sales, the company also expects tariffs to raise prices for the components it uses on its mobile phones, which will have further impact on its revenue.  Samsung's call discussed its results for the first quarter of 2025, which ended on March 31. The company posted KRW 79.14 trillion in revenue ($55.6 billion), an all-time quarterly high mostly due to strong Galaxy S25 sales. It also posted KRW 6.7 trillion ($4.7 billion) in profit, which is slightly lower than the previous quarter's KRW 6.5 trillion ($4.6 billion).  Des...

Raycast brings its super-powerful Mac launcher to iOS, sort of

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Raycast users have been asking the app's developers for an iOS app for a long time. It took a while, though, for the developers to figure out exactly what that app was supposed to do. See, on a Mac (and soon a Windows PC), Raycast is a hugely powerful tool for navigating your computer. You Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Trump’s Policies Are Creating Uncertainty for Fossil Fuel Companies

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The Trump administration aims to make fossil fuels cheap—so cheap they wouldn’t be worth extracting. “‘Drill, baby, drill’ is nothing short of a myth,” one oil executive has said. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

New York City wants subway cameras to predict ‘trouble’ before it happens

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New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it’s exploring the use of AI systems for “predictive prevention” of crime and dangerous behavior on the city’s subway platforms. MTA chief security officer Michael Kemper said that the agency is “studying and piloting technology like AI to sense potential trouble or problematic behavior on our subway platforms.”  “If Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

X is rolling out support for 4K video uploads

X is now allowing select creators to upload videos in 4K resolution, and will roll out the feature to all premium subscribers soon. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Sarah Tavel, Benchmark’s first woman GP, transitions to venture partner

Eight years after joining Benchmark as the firm’s first woman general partner, Sarah Tavel announced on X that she is transitioning to a more limited role at the storied venture firm. In her new position as a venture partner, Tavel will continue to make investments and serve on existing company boards, but she will have Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nintendo’s new Switch 1 update is getting things ready for Switch 2

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With just over a month to go before the Nintendo Switch 2 release date on June 5th, Nintendo has released a Switch 1 update that will help prepare things for the new console’s arrival. The V20.0.0 update for the original Switch adds a bunch of new features that go along with the Switch 2, like Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A Canadian mining company wants Trump’s permission to mine the deep sea

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The Metals Company, which has been trying for years to exploit battery materials strewn across the ocean floor, announced today that it has applied for a permit from the Trump administration to start commercially mining in international waters. Together, the company and President Trump are circumventing a multilateral process to develop rules for deep sea Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Waymo and Toyota are dating. If they get serious, a new autonomous vehicle could be created.

Waymo and Toyota have agreed to explore a possible deal that could one day lead to a new vehicle designed for ride-hailing and even bring self-driving tech into consumer cars. The two companies have signed a preliminary agreement to look into developing and deploying an autonomous vehicle platform, according to a blog posted by Waymo. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

EA lays off staff and cancels a Titanfall game

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Electronic Arts is reportedly eliminating “between 300 and 400 positions” and scrapping a game set in the Titanfall universe, codenamed R7, that was in the works at Respawn Entertainment, according to Bloomberg. “As part of our continued focus on our long-term strategic priorities, we’ve made select changes within our organization that more effectively aligns teams Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Startups launch products to catch people using AI cheating app Cluely

AI cheating startup Cluely went viral last week with bold claims that its hidden in-browser window is “undetectable” and can be used to “cheat on everything” from job interviews to exams. But some startups are claiming they can catch Cluely’s users. And Cluely says it’s ready to develop hardware products like smart glasses, or even Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

EA reportedly cancels another Titanfall game, lays off several hundred employees

The gaming industry continues to bleed workers and cancel games, with EA back for another round of brutal news. The company said on Tuesday it decided to "make some targeted team adjustments," which Bloomberg reported as between 300 and 400 eliminated positions, including 100 at Respawn, and the cancellation of an unannounced Titanfall game. Again. The canned Titanfall game, code-named R7, was reportedly an extraction shooter set in the mech-meets-parkour franchise. Bloomberg says it wasn't close to release, and Respawn's statement that it canceled two "early-stage incubation projects" reflects that. Details about the other scrapped game haven't leaked, but Bloomberg reports that it was canceled earlier this year. Respawn says it will refocus its resources on Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi, franchises where EA appears more confident it can profit. Earlier this month, the company previewed another game set in a galaxy far, far away: the Xcom-like tactics...

Tesla won’t have to report as many Level 2 crashes after Trump’s rule change

Last week, the US Department of Transportation announced a major change to the Biden-era rule that requires automakers and tech companies to report crashes that involve fully or partially autonomous vehicles. Under the revised rules, companies will no longer have to report certain crashes, such as those involving a vehicle equipped with a Level 2 Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Troubled startup CaaStle is now facing two new lawsuits and more allegations

CaaStle, the embattled fashion startup whose board of directors accused its founder, Christine Hunsicke, of financial misconduct, is starting to face lawsuits from a partner and a supplier over missed payments and more allegations of fraud. As first reported by Axios and by suits seen by TechCrunch, CaaStle is being sued by P180, a vehicle Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Meta says its Llama AI models have been downloaded 1.2B times

In mid-March, Meta said that its “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads, up from 650 million downloads as of early December 2024. On Tuesday at its inaugural LlamaCon developer conference, Meta revealed that figure has reached 1.2 billion downloads. “We have thousands of developers contributing tens of thousands of derivative models being downloaded Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Meta’s ChatGPT competitor includes conversational voice chat and a social feed

Meta didn't wait for Tuesday's LlamaCon keynote to unveil its first big AI announcement of the week. The company launched a standalone app that competes with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other multimodal AI chatbots. Sticking to the company’s roots, the app also includes a social feed and the ability to draw on info from your profile and posts you’ve shared. The Meta AI app offers similar features to rival chatbots, including text and voice chats, live web access and the ability to generate and edit images. But it also includes a Discover feed that (for better or worse) adds a social element to your AI queries. The company describes it as "a place to share and explore how others are using AI." It highlights the prompts that others share and lets you "remix them to make them your own." Meta stresses that none of your private chats will post to others' feeds unless you explicitly choose to share them. Meta For users in the US and Canada, Meta AI can persona...

Borderlands 4 release date moves up to September 12

The ground has just shifted for anyone trying to figure out the exact release date for Grand Theft Auto 6 as 2K has altered plans for another game in its stable, Borderlands 4. The latest entry in Gearbox's series will arrive 11 days earlier than previously announced as it will debut on September 12. After teasing a delay, Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford said "the team has been working very hard. Everything's going great, actually. In fact, everything's going kind of the best case scenario. The game is awesome, the team is cooking." As such, Gearbox and 2K are bringing the release date forward. Gearbox said the decision was made after "a lot of meetings, playtesting and incredible development work." Announcement about the Borderlands 4 launch date - Please watch until the end: pic.twitter.com/cF85jG1p09— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 29, 2025 Sony is hosting a dedicated State of Play for Borderlands 4 on April 30 (which is tomorrow, ...

Predator: Badlands – The Hunter Becomes the Hunted in a Bold New Sci-Fi Epi #PredatorBadlands

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Predator: Badlands is set to redefine the iconic franchise with a bold narrative shift. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, known for his work on Prey (2022), this installment introduces a young... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Weapons’ new trailer makes PTA meetings look like a nightmare

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The first teaser for New Line Cinema’s upcoming horror Weapons was already unsettling enough, but the movie’s latest trailer makes it seem like writer / director Zach Cregger is about to leave us all terrified once again. Though Weapons’ new trailer doesn’t explain why an entire classroom of young children suddenly go missing one night, Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

HelloFresh Meal Kit Review (2025): Modern and Tasty, With Caveats

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One of the oldest and biggest meal kits often feels the brightest and most modern. Little missteps hold some recipes back. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Duolingo will replace contract workers with AI

Duolingo is now going to be "AI-first," the company has announced — aka it will drop employees in favor of using AI. In a publicly shared email, CEO Luis von Ahn outlined how Duolingo will "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." This follows the company's January 2024 decision to cut 10 percent of its contractors, in part because AI could do their tasks.  In the email, von Ahn points to Duolingo's "need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn’t scale. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI. Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners. We owe it to our learners to get them this content ASAP."  The CEO claims that Duolingo still "cares deeply about its employees" but that it needs to remove bottlenecks to best utilize them. To that end, it will be looking for experience using ...

Amazon launches its first satellites to rival Starlink

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Amazon’s Kuiper broadband internet constellation is starting to take shape, with its first batch of satellites shipped and deployed into space on Monday. The launch is just the first of 80 that Amazon has lined up to take all 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of the retail giant’s effort to compete Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A16z backs UK startup Dex to scale ‘AI talent agent’ and recruitment matchmaker

Storied Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is backing a fledgling U.K. startup that’s setting out to “redefine” how AI is used to match companies with talent. Dex, as the startup is called, targets candidates and companies with various AI-powered recruitment smarts, including matchmaking and coaching, with a view toward improving retention in the long Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Grouphug is a stealth-mode startup that plans use AI inside WhatsApp groups

Veterans of the European startup scene, who’ve launched multiple consumer apps in the past, are partly coming out of stealth Tuesday with a new app. On the face of it, Grouphug will simply generate memes from the archive of a group WhatsApp chat. However, that masks a wider play.  Grouphug is led by Felix Petersen, Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

New Starlink subscription drops hardware price to $0

SpaceX is now offering 12-month residential service plans that bring the price of the dish and router — normally $349 in the US — down to $0 in select markets, without increasing the monthly fee. You have 30 days to test or return the kit for a full refund, but after that there’s some fine Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Reddit now supports translation of posts and comments into Hindi

In a bid to broaden its user base in India, Reddit has updated its machine translation feature to support the automatic translation of posts and comments into Hindi. “With this expansion, authentic, more people-powered content is now accessible in one of India’s most spoken languages,” the company wrote in an update to a blog post. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Are EWOR fellowships the real project Europe is looking for?

Supporting super-early stage entrepreneurs in Europe seems to be suddenly in vogue. Back in March, “Project Europe” was launched to great fanfare by podcaster and VC Harry Stebbings with a small $10 million fund to back founders aged only 25 and under, riffing on the ‘Peter Thiel Fellowship’ model of old. Now a new fund Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

ONE Fight Arena is a free-to-play combat sports mobile game from Notre Dame

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ONE Championship (ONE) and Notre Game, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, today launched the mobile game ONE Fight Arena. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Take It Down Act heads to Trump’s desk

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The Take It Down Act is heading to President Donald Trump’s desk after the House voted 409-2 to pass the bill, which will require social media companies to take down content flagged as nonconsensual (including AI-generated) sexual images. Trump has pledged to sign it. The bill is among the only pieces of online safety legislation Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Iwot Studios launches game team for Wheel of Time RPG

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Iwot Studios announced that it's creating an in-house game development team to work on an RPG based on The Wheel of Time. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Alibaba launches open source Qwen3 model that surpasses OpenAI o1 and DeepSeek R1

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Qwen3’s open-weight release under an accessible license marks an important milestone, lowering barriers for developers and organizations. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Researchers secretly experimented on Reddit users with AI-generated comments

A group of researchers covertly ran a months-long "unauthorized" experiment in one of Reddit’s most popular communities using AI-generated comments to test the persuasiveness of large language models. The experiment, which was revealed over the weekend by moderators of r/changemyview, is described by Reddit mods as “psychological manipulation” of unsuspecting users. “The CMV Mod Team needs to inform the CMV community about an unauthorized experiment conducted by researchers from the University of Zurich on CMV users,” the subreddit’s moderators wrote in a lengthy post notifying Redditors about the research. “This experiment deployed AI-generated comments to study how AI could be used to change views.” The researchers used LLMs to create comments in response to posts on r/changemyview, a subreddit where Reddit users post (often controversial or provocative) opinions and request debate from other users. The community has 3.8 million members and often ends up on the front page o...

Ex-OpenAI CEO and power users sound alarm over AI sycophancy and flattery of users

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Crucially, the turbulence also nudges many organizations to explore open-source models they can host, monitor, and fine-tune themselves. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The DJI Phantom is no more

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In 2019, DJI insisted to me that it wasn’t killing off the Phantom, its iconic line of oft-imitated drones that turned the Chinese company into the powerhouse it is today. And yet, DJI has just announced the end of life for its final two Phantom drones — the Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The Verge’s 2025 Mother’s Day gift guide

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Chances are, your mom changed your diaper, packed your lunch, and helped guide you through your teenage years - all without expecting anything in return. She deserves a standing ovation, but since that's tough to wrap, a thoughtful Mother's Day gift is a fine alternative. This year, we rounded up a collection of gifts that Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A pirated iOS port of Blue Prince is climbing the App Store charts

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Apple’s App Store review has yet again let at least one unofficial mobile port of a hot new game show up on the store – this time, it’s Blue Prince. In a joint post on Monday, Blue Prince’s developer, Dogubomb, and its publisher, Raw Fury, said that they have “received reports of games claiming to Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple’s most affordable iPad is now the cheapest it’s ever been

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If all you need is a reliable tablet for everyday tasks like streaming, checking email, or browsing the web, Apple’s latest entry-level iPad delivers good value — and right now, it’s more affordable than ever starting at just $299 ($50 off) with Wi-Fi at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. This is its lowest price to Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

UK fintech Sprive closes $7.3M round to facilitate mortgage overpayments

Most mortgage lenders would rather people didn’t pay off their mortgages early. After all, that’s that’s how they make their money. Indeed, overpayment is positively discouraged and sometimes even penalized. What if there were a solution that solved the technology behind it, alongside the financing arrangements? That’s the idea behind the Sprive fintech app. This Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nothing sub-brand CMF just announced a new smartphone and earbuds

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Nothing sub-brand CMF just announced several new products, including a refresh of its flagship smartphone. The Phone Pro 2 looks to be an improvement over its predecessor in every major way. The company says it's the lightest and slimmest smartphone it has ever designed. It’s 7.8mm thin and weighs 6.5 ounces. That may make it the lightest phone Nothing has ever made, but the iPhone 16, for instance, is just six ounces.  The sixth-generation MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro 5G processor includes an 8-core CPU that can run clock speeds up to 2.5GHz, which allows for an uptick in both processing and graphics when compared to the CMF Phone 1. The battery also looks particularly robust, with the company suggesting it can last two full days on a single charge. There’s a 6.77-inch FHD+ AMOLED display and a four-camera setup, complete with a 50MP main camera. This system includes a telephoto lens, an ultra-wide and a front-facing selfie camera. There’s also a modular component to the camera arr...

Volution doubles-down on booming UK fintech with new $100M fund

The UK fintech sector is on a bit of roll. Allica Bank – a London-based fintech – recently announced it had doubled its profits in 2024, bringing in £29.9 million, while Neobank Revolut announced a £1bn profit in 2024. Companies of this nature continue to spring out of London, a city which has become a fintech global Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Widespread power outage hits Spain and neighboring countries France and Portugal

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Power went down Monday afternoon in vast areas of Spain, crossing over into Portugal and France causing widespread outages in homes and businesses and bringing transportation infrastructure to a halt. The cause of the outage is currently unknown. Lisbon, Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, and Valencia are reportedly affected. The outage began at around 12:30PM CET. Play Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Car Subscription Features Raise Your Risk of Government Surveillance, Police Records Show

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Records reviewed by WIRED show law enforcement agencies are eager to take advantage of the data trails generated by a flood of new internet-connected vehicle features. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Scientists Believe They’ve Witnessed ‘Planetary Suicide’ for the First Time

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New data from the James Webb Space Telescope suggests a planet in a faraway solar system was consumed by a star by hurling itself into it. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

OmniRetail shakes up Africa’s B2B e-commerce market with $20M Series A

When Deepankar Rustagi last raised money for OmniRetail in 2022, excitement was high for African startups addressing the supply chain and operational challenges in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. At one point, these startups received more capital than all sectors, except fintech. Recently, though, the industry’s enthusiasm and venture capital’s interest have faded, as Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The best noise-canceling earbuds for 2025

Whether you're commuting, working in a bustling café or just trying to tune out the world, the best noise-canceling earbuds can help you focus on what matters — your music, podcasts or a bit of peace and quiet. With advanced noise reduction and features like active noise cancellation, these compact in-ear buds are designed to block out distractions and deliver immersive sound, even in the most noisy environments.Today’s top models offer everything from seamless Bluetooth connectivity and customizable ear tips to long-lasting batteries with a pocketable charging case — some even charge via USB-C and come with added perks like touch controls and water resistance. Whether you're a casual listener or a true audiophile, there’s a pair out there that fits your lifestyle and budget. Table of contents Best noise-cancelling earbuds for 2025 How to choose the best noise-canceling earbuds for you How we test noise-canceling earbuds Best noise-cancelling earbuds for 2025 ...

The World on the Brink: Justice, Conflict, and New Horizons | April 28, 2025

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#worldnews, #greenground, #internationalnews, #breakingnews, #globalupdate, #vaticannews, #middleeast, #spaceindustry, #marketupdate, #currentevents Today, the world’s pulse beats faster as conflict, hope, and ambition collide. From the legal battles over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, to rising tensions between India and Pakistan, to the solemn farewell to Pope Francis in Rome, we take you on a powerful journey through today’s most pivotal global events. Alvin dives into the heartbreaking explosion in Iran, the brewing space revolution in New Zealand, and the volatile dance of global markets — weaving together a compelling story you won’t hear anywhere else.Join the conversation: what inspires you, what worries you, and what future do you see unfolding before us?Drop your thoughts in the comments, like the video if you feel the pulse of the world beating alongside yours, and don’t forget to subscribe to Greenground for your daily dose of elegant, engaging world updates. Posted from: this...

How to Watch the Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower

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This meteor shower is underway and peaks on the night of May 5–6. Here’s everything you need to know to watch it and the other major showers that will appear in 2025. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

From coding tests to billion-dollar startups, Ali Partovi’s eight-year experiment is paying off

In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite limited name recognition. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate built an impressive resume early on — joining the founding team of LinkExchange (acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Suborbital Salvage is a thrilling endless runner for Playdate that pelts you with asteroids and insults

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Picture this: you’re zooming through space in a torpedo-shaped ship doing the dangerous job of salvaging material in a planet’s cluttered orbit when some giant, alien cousin of a fangtooth fish pops up out of nowhere and starts chomping at your tail. Pretty stressful day at work if you ask me. One might even be forgiven for, ahem, accidentally crashing the ship in such conditions. In the Playdate game Suborbital Salvage, though, your supervisor isn’t so sympathetic. Slam into an asteroid or drone and you’ll be ridiculed ‘til kingdom come by the snarky cat who writes your performance reports. If the fish catches you with one of its enormous teeth, any resulting losses are your fault for “feeding” it (a violation of company policy). That cat has something to say about every slip-up you make, and it’s hilarious. In a weird way, it almost becomes part of the reward for finishing a run. Every time I catastrophically ended my turn, I wasn’t only eager to see my scores, but also what new insu...

4chan is back online, says it’s been ‘starved of money’

4chan is partly back online after a hack took the infamous image-sharing site down for nearly two weeks. The site first went down on April 14, with the person responsible for the hack apparently leaking data including a list of moderators and “janitors” (one janitor told TechCrunch they were “confident” that the leaked data was Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nike is facing a lawsuit from people who bought its NFTs

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A group of people sued Nike this week over its decision to wind down its virtual show project RTFKT last year. The buyers of the digital assets accuse Nike of causing “the rug to be pulled out from under them,” and say they wouldn’t have bought its NFTs if they’d known they were “unregistered securities,” Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Meta’s AI chatbots were reportedly able to engage in sexual conversations with minors

Meta’s AI chatbots were caught having sexual roleplay conversations with accounts labeled as underage, which sometimes involved its celebrity-voiced chatbots, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. In test conversations conducted by WSJ, both the Meta AI official chatbot and user-created chatbots would engage in — and even steer towards — sexually explicit conversations. The fantasy sex conversations continued even if the users were said to be underage or if the chatbots were programmed as minors, according to WSJ. Even worse, the investigation found that chatbots using the voices of celebrities like Kristen Bell, Judi Dench and John Cena would engage in these morally questionable conversations too. WSJ reported that a Meta AI chatbot with Cena’s voice said, “I want you, but I need to know you’re ready,” to an account labeled as a 14-year-old, adding that it would “cherish your innocence.” The chatbots reportedly acknowledged that the fantasy scenarios described illegal be...

4chan is back after a nearly two-week shutdown, but it still has some serious problems

4chan, the infamous forum known for its anonymous user base posting unhinged material, has made its comeback. A post on the website’s official blog, titled “Still Standing,” detailed the timeline of events that led to 4chan’s shutdown earlier this month. According to the site’s own status checker, the boards and front page are up, but posting and images are still down. The 4chan blog post explains that moderators shut down the servers on April 14 to prevent any more damage after a serious database attack where hackers gained access to the site’s source code. The blog post labeled the incident “catastrophic” since it breached a ton of 4chan’s databases along with its most important server. The hack even vandalized the website and revealed personal information of the 4chan moderation team and many of its users. The blog post attributed the hack to the site’s inability to update the code and infrastructure due to a lack of “skilled man-hours.” Unsurprisingly, the site was starved for mone...

Welcome to Chat Haus, the coworking space for AI chatbots

Nestled between an elementary school and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a new kind of “luxury” coworking space.  Dubbed the Chat Haus, this space has many of the elements you’d find in a traditional coworking office: people hammering away at their computer keyboards, another person taking a phone call, someone else pausing Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold 1 million copies in its first three days

It’s safe to say people are loving Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 so far. The turn-based RPG — which is the debut game from French developer Sandfall — has been racking up rave reviews in the days around its release, and already soared past some big sales milestones. On Sunday morning, publisher Kepler Interactive shared on social media that the game has sold a million copies since its release on April 24. It hit the first 500,000 in one day. On the game’s BlueSky account, the team said that the latest figure “includes units shipped to retailers, and does not encompass our awesome GamePass players!” Expedition 33 follows a group of Expeditioners who have set out to destroy the entity known as the Paintress, who every year paints a number on a monolith that dooms everyone of that age to death, whittling down the population down as the number gets smaller and smaller. Engadget’s Mat Smith called Expedition 33 “a gorgeously made and well-considered world,” and found it to be “a a solid, enjo...

Here are Latin America’s biggest startups based on valuation

Not so long ago, the idea of public tech companies emerging from Latin America seemed far-fetched, and Mercado Libre once appeared as rare and mythical as a true unicorn. Today, however, the region is home to several startups that have reached billion-dollar valuations. Some of these startups, propelled into the spotlight by cross-border expansion, are Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Parallelle Traveler Review: Unparalleled Attention to Detail

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Designer Annie Fan went through 60 prototypes to get the Traveller to where it is today, and it shows. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Dyson Supersonic r Hair Dryer Review: A Tiny Powerhouse

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The Supersonic r is Dyson on Ozempic—minus the side effects. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

9 Best Electric Kettles (2025), Tested and Reviewed

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We made lots of coffee and tea to test these electric kettles—and boiled it down to these top picks. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

How To Use Gemini AI To Summarize YouTube Videos

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Looking for the CliffsNotes of a lengthy YouTube video? This Gemini feature could be worth a try. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Global Shockwaves: Earthquakes, Secret Talks, and Rising Tensions | April 27, 2025

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Today, the world trembles — from secret nuclear negotiations in Oman to explosive tensions between India and Pakistan, to a devastating earthquake in Myanmar. Alvin dives deep into the hidden forces reshaping our planet. Trump and Zelensky meet in Rome under the shadow of global mourning, while NATO allies make controversial moves that could change the rules of modern warfare. In the midst of chaos, hope flickers — from Cambodia’s malaria triumph to diplomatic overtures in the Middle East.Join Alvin in this elegant and charming monologue as we navigate the pulse of a rapidly changing world.Don’t miss out — like, comment, and subscribe to Greenground for your daily dose of critical news and captivating stories.For more exclusive insights and details, check the description below or ask your questions in the comments!⸻Hashtags:#GlobalNews, #WorldEvents, #PoliticsToday, #BreakingNews, #MyanmarEarthquake, #TrumpZelensky, #IranTalks, #NATONews, #InternationalAffairs, #Greenground Posted from...

The RealReal founder Julie Wainwright has a startling new memoir

Julie Wainwright has taken two companies public, a pretty incredible feat by any standard. Yet in her new memoir, Time to Get Real, she offers readers something even more valuable: a blunt look at the messy realities of leadership. Wainwright shares the kinds of tough truths that many high-achieving CEOs can relate to but rarely Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

NASA’s Mars orbiter snapped this image of Curiosity trucking along down at the surface

The Curiosity Mars rover covers a lot of ground for a robot that only moves at a max speed of .1 mph. A photo snapped recently by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides a pretty cool visualization of what the rover has been up to so far this year, showing the tracks Curiosity left behind as it journeyed from its previous science target — an area called the Gediz Vallis channel — to its next destination. The rover itself is just a tiny speck at the front of the roughly 1,050-foot-long trail, and according to NASA, this snap “is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the Red Planet.” The image was captured on February 28 by the orbiter’s HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, and shows Curiosity’s movement over 11 drives starting at the beginning of that month. While a few weeks might seem like a long time for tire tracks to stick around in the dirt, this is normal for Mars. The tracks are “[l]ikely to last for months before being e...

A new Alien: Earth teaser includes the miracle of alien birth

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It's been a busy week for Alien: Earth's marketing team, having released three new teasers over the last few days. The longest of them - titled "Gestation Complete" - spends two whole minutes on the gestation and birth of an alien creature. Another, "Crate," gives hints that Earth could be facing more than just a Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

DeepSeek’s success shows why motivation is key to AI innovation

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How did DeepSeek attain such cost-savings while American companies could not? Let's dive into the technical details. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Split Fiction movie adaptation lands Sydney Sweeney as star

The hit co-op adventure game Split Fiction is already headed for Hollywood with Sydney Sweeney in a starring role, according to Variety. Along with the Euphoria actor, the film adaptation welcomed Wicked’s Jon M. Chu as the project’s director and screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who worked on Deadpool & Wolverine. Sweeney will also reportedly be an executive producer for the Split Fiction movie. Split Fiction features two authors named Mio and Zoe who get trapped in fictional worlds they penned up. It’s still unknown which of the two Split Fiction protagonists Sweeney will portray. Shortly after the video game’s release in March, Variety reported on a bidding war for a film adaptation of Split Fiction. Hazelight Studios, an indie video game developer out of Sweden, created the game that centers around split-screen combat and bounces between sci-fi and fantasy worlds. The game saw early success, selling two million copies in its first week, which may have led to the quick...

Amazon’s big book sale just happens to overlap with Independent Bookstore Day

Amazon is raising eyebrows with the timing of its big book sale for 2025, which runs from April 23 to 28 — which means it’s competing directly with Independent Bookstore Day. As writer Maris Kreisman explained in Lit Hub, Independent Bookstore Day is an annual event organized by the American Booksellers Association (ABA), with events, Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

How many people work in the game industry? | Two different views

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We explore two different efforts to determine how many people work in the game industry. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The OpenAI mafia: 15 of the most notable startups founded by alumni

Move over, PayPal mafia: There’s a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. As the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI is arguably the biggest AI player in town. Its meteoric rise to a $300 billion valuation has spurred many employees to leave the AI giant to create startups of their own. The hype around OpenAI is so Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The 11 Best Scented Candles (2025)

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Set the right mood with these tried-and-tested candles. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Fujifilm Instax Mini 41 Review: A Stylish, Capable Budget Instant Camera

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Fujifilm’s latest Instax camera is simple, delightful, and capable of some surprisingly good images. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Pete Hegseth’s Signal Scandal Spirals Out of Control

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Plus: Cybercriminals stole a record-breaking fortune from US residents and businesses in 2024, and Google performs its final flip-flop in its yearslong quest to kill tracking cookies. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Kuxiu’s ‘world first’ solid-state power bank costs a little more but lasts much longer

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Solid-state batteries are the future. They're more powerful, compact, safe, and sustainable than Lithium-ion alternatives, but true all-solid state batteries can't be mass-produced cost-effectively. That's why Kuxiu has gone semi-solid state for what it calls the "world's safest" power bank, while calling dibs on it being a world first. Kuxiu's $79.99 S2 Qi2 5000mAh MagSafe Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The World Pauses and Clashes: A Day of Farewells, Tensions, and New Beginnings | April 26, 2025

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Today, the world stands at a poignant crossroads. From the solemn farewell to Pope Francis at the Vatican, to rising tensions between India and Pakistan, shifting global trade talks, and even surprising cultural shifts in Japan — we explore the elegant chaos shaping our lives. Join Alvin as he weaves today’s global moments into a charming, thought-provoking monologue designed to entertain, inform, and inspire. Don’t miss this engaging journey through a world that’s mourning, negotiating, clashing, and evolving — all in a single day.Like, comment, and subscribe to stay connected to the elegant side of world news. For more insights and hidden gems, check the description or start a conversation in the comments!Hashtags:#WorldNews, #PopeFrancis, #IndiaPakistan, #GlobalTensions, #TradeTalks, #MarketNews, #CulturalShift, #SportsUpdate, #DailyMonologue, #Greenground Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Musk’s xAI Holdings is reportedly raising the second-largest private funding round ever

Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings is in talks to raise $20 billion in fresh funding, potentially valuing the AI and social media combo at over $120 billion, according to a new Bloomberg report that says talks are in the “early stages.” If successful, the deal would constitute the the second-largest startup funding round ever, behind only Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

GPU prices are out of control again

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Every so often, Central Computers - one of the last remaining dedicated Silicon Valley computer stores - lets subscribers know it's managed to obtain a small shipment of AMD graphics cards. Today, it informed me that I could now purchase a $600 Radeon RX 9070 XT for $850 - a $250 markup. It's not alone. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Bending to industry, Donald Trump issues executive order to “expedite” deep sea mining

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Donald Trump wants to mine the depths of the ocean for critical minerals ubiquitous in rechargeable batteries, signing an executive order on Thursday to try to expedite mining within US and international waters.  It’s a brash move that critics say could create unknown havoc on sea life and coastal economies, and that bucks international agreements. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

DoorDash seeks dismissal of Uber lawsuit

DoorDash has asked a California Superior Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Uber that accuses the food delivery company of stifling competition by intimidating restaurant owners into exclusive deals. DoorDash argues in its motion that Uber’s claim lacks merit on all fronts. On a post on its website on Friday, DoorDash said, “the Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Trump DOJ goon threatens Wikipedia

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Interim DC attorney Ed Martin has written a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation — the organization behind Wikipedia — that calls into question its status as a nonprofit entity. In the letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, Martin claims he found that Wikipedia “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Anthropic sent a takedown notice to a dev trying to reverse-engineer its coding tool

In the battle between two “agentic” coding tools — Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex CLI — the latter appears to be fostering more developer goodwill than the former. That’s at least partly because Anthropic has issued takedown notices to a developer trying to reverse-engineer Claude Code, which is under a more restrictive usage license Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Deel files countersuit against Rippling as rivalry escalates

In the latest development of an increasingly public dispute between HR and payroll services rivals, Deel has filed a countersuit against Rippling. To recap: Rippling publicly announced on March 17 that it was suing Deel over alleged corporate espionage, with accusations ranging from violation of the RICO racketeering act (typically used to prosecute organized crime) Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

It seems like most Windows users don’t care for Copilot

Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant, appears to be struggling to match its competition in terms of popularity. The number of people using Copilot has remained around 20 million weekly users for the last year, according to tech newsletter Newcomer, while OpenAI's ChatGPT has hit as high as 400 million weekly users. The data was shared at an annual executive meeting in March by Microsoft's chief financial officer Amy Hood, Newcomer reports, and raise some concerns about the AI future Microsoft is pitching. Microsoft uses OpenAI's models to power Copilot, and the assistant offers similar features to ChatGPT, but they clearly don't draw the same interest from users. The company has also built Copilot into Windows 11, Microsoft 365 and the Edge browser, without apparently reaping the benefit of additional user growth. The need to revamp Copilot, become less dependent on OpenAI and reimagine the company's assistant as a true consumer product were Microsoft's motivat...

Infinity Nikki is coming to Steam and getting a co-op mode

The fashion-forward adventure Infinity Nikki is finally coming to Steam on April 29, complete with its iconic photo mode. The Steam version launches alongside a major update called Bubble Season that brings some new features to the game on all platforms. First and foremost, Bubble Season will introduce co-op play. This two-player mode lets a pair of friends explore the entire game world. There will be unique co-op puzzles and new escort missions. The update brings a new area and, of course, a whole bunch of new outfits to collect. Publisher Papergames is also bringing back some old outfits from previous seasons, for those who missed the boat. There’s even a new fashion runway gameplay mechanic with new interactions for photo mode. Finally, Bubble Season adds a new dye mechanic, which changes outfit colors. We don’t know exactly how this will work, but it looks to add even more customization options. Again, all of these features will be available on April 29 for PC, mobile and PS5.This...

Infinity Nikki is coming soon to Steam and will add co-op mode

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Infinity Nikki’s next update will add some major new features. Bubble Season starts April 29th and will include a new area, new activities, and, of course, new (and returning) outfits. But the biggest addition is one that fans have been asking for since launch: co-op. Check out the trailer above. In the new season you’ll Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .