Business

Giant Bomb goes independent

Giant Bomb goes independent

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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Google will pay a $1.375 billion settlement to Texas over privacy violations

Google will pay a $1.375 billion settlement to Texas over privacy violations

Google is set to pay $1.375 billion to settle claims of data privacy violations brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to a press release. Texas filed two lawsuits in 2022 against Google for “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data,” the release says. Before now, no single state has “attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations greater than $93 million.” “This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda tells The…
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Netflix is removing Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Netflix is removing Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Netflix is removing the last two shows listed on its Interactive Specials page: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, reports What’s on Netflix. The two specials will be pulled on May 12th, 2025, according to the publication, so if you want to watch them, you’ll want to catch them soon. Bandersnatch wasn’t Netflix’s first interactive special, but it was arguably the platform’s most famous. It was a dark, choose-your-own-adventure-style movie, and after it launched, Reddit detectives immediately went to work to decode the many choices throughout the film. (Though it didn’t work on every device…
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Instagram CEO testifies about competing with TikTok: ‘You’re either growing, or you’re slowly dying’

Instagram CEO testifies about competing with TikTok: ‘You’re either growing, or you’re slowly dying’

When Adam Mosseri took over Meta-owned Instagram as CEO in 2018, the app was experiencing what he'd later call "concerning" drops and plateaus in user engagement, thanks partly to fierce competition from a new app: TikTok. Instagram estimated in 2019 that 23 percent of the decline in time spent on Instagram in the US was due to TikTok. Bytedance's video app kept expanding through the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. "We can't explain it all, but what's clear at this point is that we need to adapt, and do so quickly," Mosseri wrote to his team in March 2020. Instagram…
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Eddy Cue is fighting to save Apple’s $20 billion paycheck from Google

Eddy Cue is fighting to save Apple’s $20 billion paycheck from Google

Microsoft's Bing or DuckDuckGo probably won't disrupt Google's dominance in search, said Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue - but AI services easily could. Cue was returning to a courtroom in Washington, DC where he last testified in the Justice Department's trial against Google's search monopoly in September 2023. During the current remedies trial on Wednesday, Cue said that in the time since, well-funded generative AI upstarts have made such significant advancements that they could ultimately disrupt that monopoly - perhaps more effectively than the court could. Cue was also, however, there to defend a significant source of…
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Amazon’s Zoox issued a robotaxi software recall after a crash in Las Vegas

Amazon’s Zoox issued a robotaxi software recall after a crash in Las Vegas

Amazon-owned Zoox says it issued a software recall for all 270 of its vehicles after an unoccupied robotaxi in Las Vegas crashed into a passenger vehicle on April 8th, Reuters reports. The update rolled out between April 16th and 17th to address a risky situation that could arise when the vehicle operating at over 40mph closed in on another vehicle that approaches its lane from a perpendicular driveway before stopping. In a press release on Tuesday, Zoox said there was only minor damage to both vehicles and no injuries were reported. Zoox shared how the incident played out in the…
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Meta awarded $167.25 million over Pegasus spyware attack

Meta awarded $167.25 million over Pegasus spyware attack

NSO Group, the Israeli spyware-maker behind Pegasus, must pay Meta $167.25 million for hacking 1,400 users across WhatsApp. A federal jury in California made the decision on Tuesday after the court found the NSO Group liable for the attacks last year. Meta sued NSO Group in 2019 after Citizen Lab found a vulnerability that allowed the spyware vendor to install Pegasus through a phone call – even if users didn’t pick up. Pegasus could then turn on a user’s camera and microphone, look through emails and text messages, and access location information. The hack targeted activists, journalists, diplomats, and others.…
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Rivian gets $16 million from Illinois to build new supplier park

Rivian gets $16 million from Illinois to build new supplier park

Rivian is receiving $16 million in state incentives to help construct a new 1.2 million-square foot supplier park near its EV manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois, according to Illinois Governer JB Pritzker and Rivian, who both made official announcements today. As part of the deal, Rivian will invest nearly $120 million towards the project, which is expected to directly create about 100 new jobs. In a press release, Pritzker says Rivian’s investment in the new facility will create “an entire ecosystem” that will help attract global investment  and create jobs, as well as “strengthening the EV manufacturing supply chain.” Rivian…
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Roku is looking into complaints about washed-out HDR streams

Roku is looking into complaints about washed-out HDR streams

Roku is investigating user reports of washed-out colors when streaming HDR content from Disney Plus, according to a thread on the Roku issue tracking board. However, the issue seems to go beyond that, affecting almost any app for Roku TVs, suggest user comments on the thread over the last week. The problem appears to be tied to a recent Roku software update. A community moderator called RokuEmmanuel-D writes in an update from Thursday that the company is “investigating the Disney Plus HDR content that was washed out after the recent update,” and asks for community members to share examples and…
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Nintendo is suing accessory maker Genki after its unofficial Switch 2 mockups

Nintendo is suing accessory maker Genki after its unofficial Switch 2 mockups

Earlier this year, accessory maker Genki showed off a 3D-printed mockup it said was based on the Nintendo Switch 2’s official dimensions just days before the console’s first official reveal. The company has since started offering Switch 2 accessories that it says will be compatible with the system at launch. Now, Nintendo is suing the company, reports The Game Post. Filed May 2nd, Nintendo’s complaint alleges that Genki is guilty of five counts of “trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising,” and that its actions violated multiple laws, including the Trademark Act of 1946. It claims that Genki’s use of…
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