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GPD’s monster Strix Halo handheld requires a battery ‘backpack’ or a 180W charger

GPD’s monster Strix Halo handheld requires a battery ‘backpack’ or a 180W charger

Yesterday, I mentioned how GPD is teasing the most potent handheld yet made — a GPD Win 5 that will house the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip, with AMD’s most powerful integrated graphics yet, inside a PlayStation Vita-shaped machine. If you’ve been wondering how that huge chip could even fit, handheld expert Cary “The Phawx” Golomb now has the answer: the 7-inch handheld will apparently have no internal battery taking up space. The Win 5 is designed to either be plugged into the wall, with a gaming laptop sized 180-watt charger providing the juice — or powered by a big…
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DJI couldn’t confirm or deny it disguised this drone to evade a US ban

DJI couldn’t confirm or deny it disguised this drone to evade a US ban

DJI barely sells drones in the United States anymore. The shelves are bare; resellers are jacking up prices. It appears an unofficial ban at US customs is to blame. But on Amazon, you can now buy a drone that's a a dead ringer for the DJI Mini 4 Pro - the SkyRover X1 - for a reasonable $758. And that's probably because DJI made it happen. There's evidence suggesting so, and DJI was not able to deny the SkyRover X1 was a DJI product one day after we reached out. As reported by DroneXL, security researchers have discovered the SkyRover…
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Google gets its swag back

Google gets its swag back

This week, I take a look at the surprisingly strong state of Google, Meta gets a new chief AI researcher, and more. If you haven't already, be sure to check out this week's Decoder episode about deepfakes and where they are headed. Also, do you use an AI coding tool like Cursor or GitHub Copilot? I'd love to know what works and what doesn't… "I think we are doing very well through this moment" After spending time with Google executives during the company's I/O conference in May, it was clear that they were feeling confident. Now, I'm beginning to see…
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Comcast’s fix for streaming service overload is in your cable box

Comcast’s fix for streaming service overload is in your cable box

Streaming has become a tangled web of subscriptions, and now Comcast says it can help by putting all your services into one hub. Comcast is launching a new hub on its set-top boxes, called the StreamStore, where you can buy and manage subscriptions for more than 450 streaming apps and channels. The StreamStore lives within Xfinity’s Xumo Stream Box and on X1 devices. It’s also available on the web, and features a collection of more than 200,000 movies and TV shows to rent or purchase. Xfinity will let you add or drop channels through the store, while tacking on new subscriptions…
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Breaking Bad creator’s new sci-fi show hits Apple in November

Breaking Bad creator’s new sci-fi show hits Apple in November

As promised, Apple has finally revealed Pluribus, a new show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan that’s coming to Apple TV Plus. In addition to a very brief teaser involving some gross donut behavior, the streamer also confirmed that the show will premiere on November 7th. The show has been in the works for a while, as Apple first announced that it had picked up a Gilligan project back in 2022. It stars Rhea Seehorn, who previously worked with Gilligan on Better Call Saul. But there aren’t a lot of details other than that. According to Apple, the show —…
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Paramount-Skydance merger approved after companies agree to government speech demands

Paramount-Skydance merger approved after companies agree to government speech demands

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs but feature a “diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.” In light of the Trump administration’s critiques of CBS’s alleged anti-conservative bias — including collecting a $16 million settlement over the president’s lawsuit over an allegedly deceptively edited video of then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes — the companies’ commitment to address bias in the lawsuit likely means featuring more conservative programming. Skydance agreed to employ an ombudsman for…
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Starlink’s satellite internet is back online after a massive outage

Starlink’s satellite internet is back online after a massive outage

Starlink users reported they couldn’t connect to SpaceX’s satellite internet service for a few hours on Thursday afternoon before service was eventually restored. Widespread Starlink outages, like the ones we reported on in 2022 and 2023, have been rare, and this appears to be the first one in 2025. The outage began around 3:15PM ET or so, with users receiving error messages saying there is “no healthy upstream.” Starlink posted a message on X at 4:05PM ET: “Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience, we’ll share an update once…
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No, Instagram didn’t suspend Zohran Mamdani’s account for being ‘too socialist’

No, Instagram didn’t suspend Zohran Mamdani’s account for being ‘too socialist’

In a story published earlier this week, a site called “NYC Journals” claimed to have a bombshell: that Instagram had suspended the account of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for being “too socialist.” The story claimed that Mamdani’s account was down for three hours; it also cited a “leaked memo” from inside Instagram that said his content went against US national interests. The article is surprisingly detailed — it includes quotes attributed to Mamdani himself, as well as a “political communications expert” lamenting the control tech platforms have over political discourse. It would be a huge story in a…
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Intel reveals it will shed 24,000 employees this year and retreat in Germany, Poland, and Costa Rica

Intel reveals it will shed 24,000 employees this year and retreat in Germany, Poland, and Costa Rica

In April, Intel attempted to announce layoffs without announcing layoffs. “We have not set any headcount reduction target,” Intel spokesperson Sophie Metzger told The Verge. But the company has laid off thousands of employees since — and today, in the company’s Q2 2025 earnings, it has revealed that Intel will dramatically shrink as a result of those layoffs. Intel says it will retreat from planned projects in Germany and Poland, end its assembly and test operations in Costa Rica, and finish 2025 with just around 75,000 “core employees” in total. Intel employed 109,800 people at the end of 2024, of which…
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VTuber agency VShojo shuts down after talent exodus

VTuber agency VShojo shuts down after talent exodus

VTuber Ironmouse has left VShojo over claims of unpaid funds, including a $500k charity donation. VShojo, the VTuber agency that billed itself as “talent first,” is shutting down. VShojo CEO Justin “Gunrun” Ignacio made the announcement today on X, writing, “I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us to this point.” Earlier this week, VShojo came under fire as Ironmouse, the agency’s top-performing VTuber, announced she was leaving the company over a missing $500,000 charity donation and her own unpaid funds. Her departure triggered a mass exodus of VShojo talent, with 12 of the company’s 13 creators officially…
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