hightechz.net

1709 Posts
Louisiana sues Roblox for creating an environment where ‘child predators thrive’

Louisiana sues Roblox for creating an environment where ‘child predators thrive’

The state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, alleging that the company has “permitted and perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive, directly contributing to the widespread victimization of minor children in Louisiana.”  Roblox sees more than 111.8 million daily active users, and it’s hugely popular with children, with users under 13 comprising nearly 40 percent of players last quarter. However, the platform has come under significant scrutiny over reported failures to protect children on the platform, with Bloomberg publishing a major report last year about predators on Roblox and the investment firm Hindenburg Research alleging…
Read More
What my first five Steam purchases say about me

What my first five Steam purchases say about me

There's a meme currently going around Bluesky where people are posting their first purchases on Steam. Taking a look presents a neat time capsule, offering a glimpse of who we used to be. It also gives us a chance to compare our gaming habits now with what they were 10 or more years ago - that is, if you're one of the Olds that's been around that long. On a lark, I looked at mine and got the thrill of being able to place a date on when exactly my current life began. Sometimes, examining your earliest Steam purchases presents…
Read More
Fortnite login is back after an outage

Fortnite login is back after an outage

Fortnite players are able to hop into matches following a login issue that Epic Games described as preventing users from “getting in reliably.” “This log-in outage is resolved; all players are able to log-in again across all platforms,” Epic said at 8:54PM ET. “We’ll continue monitoring our services to ensure there are no other issues.” Epic posted its initial status message about the issue at 6:39PM ET, and shared that things were mostly fixed with the exception of PlayStation at 8:02PM ET. While the login issue was happening, I wasn’t able to get into the game on my Nintendo Switch…
Read More
Supreme Court opens door to social media age-gating in US

Supreme Court opens door to social media age-gating in US

The Supreme Court will let Mississippi’s social media age verification law take effect while the case is being argued in court. In an unsigned ruling on Thursday, the court declined to block the law after an emergency petition from trade association NetChoice. The order offers no explanation, but in a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the law was “likely unconstitutional” — but that NetChoice hadn’t“sufficiently demonstrated” a risk of harm. The law, HB 1126, requires social media platforms to verify the age of the person creating the account, while blocking users under 18 unless they have permission from…
Read More
The best Xbox controller to buy right now

The best Xbox controller to buy right now

We live in a golden age of controllers. The gamepads on the market now are of higher quality, more versatile, and more customizable than anything from even one console generation ago. If you play games on an Xbox Series X or Series S (or a Windows PC), you have the unenviable task of choosing between several high-quality controllers from Microsoft as well as a plethora of great options from the likes of 8BitDo, PowerA, Razer, Scuf, Nacon, and Turtle Beach. Some of them have drift-resistant Hall effect or TMR-based joysticks for improved longevity, yet all of them are good for…
Read More
China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card

China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card

MicroSD cards are tiny but slow; the M.2 storage sticks in your PC are blazing fast but bigger and fully enclosed. Now, a new type of SSD out of China could be the best of both worlds — and it’s already set to appear in two cutting-edge gaming portables. Chinese storage manufacturer Biwin is calling it the “Mini SSD,” though another manufacturer refers to it as the “1517”; it measures just 15mm x 17mm x 1.4mm thick, smaller than a U.S. penny and just slightly larger than MicroSD. Despite that, it offers maximum sequential read speeds of 3,700 megabytes per…
Read More
Nanoleaf’s smart lights are cheaper than ever in its back-to-school sale

Nanoleaf’s smart lights are cheaper than ever in its back-to-school sale

Nanoleaf’s Lines let you unleash your creativity as you can arrange them in all kinds of fun patterns. Some cool decor can help a new dorm or apartment feel like home, which is why Nanoleaf’s back-to-school sale is worth checking out.  The company’s offering all-time low prices on a wide range of its modular smart light gear, from skylights to smart light display cases. Some of our favorite deals include Nanoleaf’s Blocks Combo XL, which Amazon, Nanoleaf, and Best Buy are selling for $179.99 ($20 off). The Nanoleaf Lines is another highlight that’s down $20 to $139.99 (Amazon, Nanoleaf, Best…
Read More
Tesla’s graphics are about to get Unreal

Tesla’s graphics are about to get Unreal

Tesla’s in-car visualizations for features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving might be getting an upgrade with a switch to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. As reported by Not a Tesla App, Tesla hacker greentheonly says they found evidence of the change in Tesla’s 2025.20 firmware for Tesla Model S and Model X cars with AMD chips. Unreal Engine is perhaps best known as a development tool for video games, but Epic has been making a bigger push as of late for automakers to use Unreal Engine. Currently, Tesla uses the Godot engine for the visualizations, according to greentheonly, so if Tesla…
Read More
Kodak says it’ll figure things out and won’t shut down

Kodak says it’ll figure things out and won’t shut down

In a regulatory filing on Monday, Kodak warned investors that the 133-year-old photography company didn’t have the financing it would need to pay around $500 million of debt obligations that were coming due, raising doubts about the company’s ability to continue. But in a statement shared with The Verge, Kodak says it plans to use money from the company’s pension fund to pay off a large portion of its debt before it comes due. “The “going concern” language in Kodak’s 10-Q is essentially required disclosure because Kodak’s debt comes due within 12 months of the filing,” according to Denisse Goldbarg,…
Read More
Stripe apologizes for customer service agents claiming LGBTQ products were banned

Stripe apologizes for customer service agents claiming LGBTQ products were banned

Stripe, a financial services company that acts as a payment processor for millions of businesses including itch.io, has issued an apology following reports that members of its support team told callers the business does not support the sale of LGBTQ content. "We apologize: the information given by our support team was totally wrong," said Stripe spokesperson Casey Becker in an email to The Verge. "Stripe has no prohibitions on the sale of LGBTQ+ content or goods." Angry customers have been calling payment processors on behalf of the creators who have had their adult content deindexed - or removed from search…
Read More