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The best ereader to buy right now
12 May

The best ereader to buy right now

hightechz.net0 CommentsProducts
Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof or offer physical page-turning buttons, while a few even let you take notes. I’ve been using ebook readers for nearly a decade, and I’ve gone hands-on with dozens, from the Kindle Paperwhite to lesser-known rivals like the Pocketbook Era. Whether you want something your kid…
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Duolingo is replacing hearts with energy
12 May

Duolingo is replacing hearts with energy

hightechz.net0 CommentsProducts
Duolingo is making a big change: it’s moving on from hearts in favor of a new “energy” mechanic. The idea is to switch from a system that punishes mistakes to one that’s intended to feel more motivating — and a bit more gamified. Under the old system, you’d lose a heart if you made a mistake while doing a lesson. To earn hearts back, you could do things like watch an ad, pay for a full refill using Duolingo’s Gems currency, or just wait for the hearts to refresh. Under the new system, you’ll spend one unit of energy to…
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Trump administration announces ‘illegal’ rollback of energy and water efficiency standards
12 May

Trump administration announces ‘illegal’ rollback of energy and water efficiency standards

hightechz.net0 CommentsEnergy & Green Tech
The US Energy Department says it’s rolling back long-standing efficiency standards for appliances, which advocates are calling a clear violation of the law. Continuing the Trump administration’s assault on federal water and energy efficiency programs, the department announced today what it’s calling its “largest deregulatory effort in history.”  The agency is trying to rollback 47 regulations it says are “burdensome and costly,” including more than a dozen efficiency standards for appliances and battery chargers. The proposed rules target the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), which contains an anti-backsliding provision — and that the Trump administration is seemingly trying to…
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Mexico is suing Google over how it’s labeling the Gulf of Mexico
11 May

Mexico is suing Google over how it’s labeling the Gulf of Mexico

hightechz.net0 CommentsBusiness
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum speaking on April 22, 2025. | Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Friday that her government is suing Google for relabeling the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America” for US users, CBS News reports. The company had done so in Google Maps after President Trump ordered the name change at the beginning of his Presidential term. The lawsuit makes good on Sheinbaum’s February threat that Mexico would “proceed to court” if the company didn’t change the name, which it kept as Gulf of Mexico for users in Mexico, but…
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Apple may release a ‘mostly glass, curved iPhone’ in 2027
11 May

Apple may release a ‘mostly glass, curved iPhone’ in 2027

hightechz.net0 CommentsProducts, Trending
The iPhone 16 Pro Max, pictured here, is already pretty glassy. This morning, while summarizing an Apple “product blitz” he expects for 2027, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter that Apple is planning a “mostly glass, curved iPhone” with no display cutouts for that year, which happens to be the iPhone’s 20th anniversary. That follows a report last weekend from The Information, which said that “at least one 2027 iPhone model that will place the front-facing camera underneath the screen to enable a truly edge-to-edge display.” Late last year, a report from The Elec said Apple is…
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Trump fires head of Copyright Office two days following report that AI training may not be fair use
11 May

Trump fires head of Copyright Office two days following report that AI training may not be fair use

hightechz.net0 CommentsAI
The Trump administration has reportedly fired Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter, who leads the US Copyright Office, following the office’s choice to release a pre-publication version of its opinion on the fair use status of AI training data that’s made up of copyrighted information.  Representative Joe Morelle, the ranking Democrat of the Committee on House Administration, called her firing an “unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” linking the firing directly to her report, which he says amounted to her refusing “to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.”  Among the report’s conclusions…
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Giant Bomb goes independent
11 May

Giant Bomb goes independent

hightechz.net0 CommentsBusiness
At the beginning of the month, things weren’t looking good for gaming site Giant Bomb after its content was put on hold amid reports of editorial interference from its parent company, Fandom. Today, some feel-good news: Giant Bomb announced it is now an independent, employee-owned entity. “Giant Bomb lives! Fandom has sold the site to us,” the outlet wrote on Bluesky yesterday evening. In a post on its website about the new development, the Giant Bomb says it’s “not serving an algorithm or executives,” and that it aims “to lean into what’s always made Giant Bomb special, and that’s the…
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What lies beneath: filming gators in Florida springs
11 May

What lies beneath: filming gators in Florida springs

hightechz.net0 CommentsEnergy & Green Tech
If you're like me, you've been anxiously searching for any relief from the Bad Newsâ„¢ and endless stream of AI slop plaguing your feed. Joseph Ricketts' breathtaking wildlife videos could be the antidote. An alligator taking a nap on the floor of a crystal clear spring. Schools of fish glittering in the darkness. A cosmic cloud of burnt orange tannic river swirling into clear blue water. A giant salamander battle on an Appalachian riverbed. Joseph is an ecologist, underwater videographer, and alligator researcher based in Florida. He brings a calming and curious gaze to some of the more obscure underwater…
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The FTC puts off enforcing its ‘click-to-cancel’ rule
10 May

The FTC puts off enforcing its ‘click-to-cancel’ rule

hightechz.net0 CommentsSecurity
The FTC seal. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was set to start enforcing the remaining provisions of its “click-to-cancel” rule on May 14th, requiring that subscriptions be as easy to cancel as to start. Now, the agency says it won’t enforce the rule until July 14th, as TechCrunch reports. Also known as the Negative Option Rule, the big component of click-to-cancel is that it forbids companies from making customers jump through hoops that differ from the process to sign up for an account. If you can sign up online, you must be able to cancel online, too. As the FTC…
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Pope Leo XIV names AI one of the reasons for his papal name
10 May

Pope Leo XIV names AI one of the reasons for his papal name

hightechz.net0 CommentsAI, Trending
Pope Leo XIV speaking to the College of Cardinals on May 10th. | Photo by Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool / Getty Images As Pope Leo XIV laid out his vision for the papacy in an address to the College of Cardinals, he also explained why he picked his papal name. Incredibly, artificial intelligence played a big part. In the Vatican’s translation of his speech, Pope Leo XIV explained that his name references Pope Leo XII, who presided over the church at the dawn of the industrial revolution. …I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There…
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