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09 May

The game that makes me actually want to exercise

hightechz.net0 CommentsGames, Trending

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 127, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, my Scorpion challenges your Sub-Zero to a duel, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been reading about Hasan Piker and lines and David Sacks and sleep learning, catching up on Andor (for me) and Young Jedi Adventures (for my toddler), poring over thousands of new Artemis II photos, listening to many hours of possibly the longest YouTube video ever, taking more walks thanks to Pedometer++ 8.0, losing…

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22 Jan

Samsung’s smallest Frame TVs have fallen to their lowest prices to date

hightechz.net0 CommentsProducts, Trending

Samsung’s aptly titled Frame TV is designed to blend in with the rest of your home decor. Unless you’re dead set on picking up a larger panel, Samsung’s forthcoming 2026 Frame lineup represents a fairly minor upgrade. That makes last year’s model an easy rec for those on the hunt for an art-inspired 4K TV, especially given the 43- and 50-inch models are down to the lowest prices we’ve seen at Woot, selling for $597.99 ($302 off) and $697.99 ($402 off), respectively, through January 31st. Samsung The Frame (2025) Where to Buy: $899.99 $597.99 at Woot (43-inch) $1099.99 $697.99 at…

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15 Jan

Grok undressed the mother of one of Elon Musk’s kids — and now she’s suing

hightechz.net0 CommentsAI, Trending

Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of X owner Elon Musk's children, is suing his company for enabling its AI to virtually strip her down into a bikini without her consent. St. Clair is one of the many people over the past couple weeks who have found themselves undressed without permission by X's AI chatbot, Grok. The chatbot has been gingerly complying with users' requests to remove clothing from many women and some apparent minors, or put them in sexualized poses or scenarios. The feature has caused an uproar from policymakers around the world who have launched investigations and…

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15 Jan

X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t

hightechz.net0 CommentsAI, Trending

Following the proliferation of the nonconsensual sexual deepfakes on X, the platform has detailed changes to the Grok account's ability to edit images of real people. They match the changes reported on Tuesday by The Telegraph, as Grok's responses to prompts like "put her in a bikini" became censored. But in tests of the feature on Wednesday, we found that it was still relatively easy to get Grok to generate revealing deepfakes, while X and xAI owner Elon Musk blamed the problems on "user requests" and "times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected." As of Wednesday evening,…

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08 Jan

UK Prime Minister says ‘we will take action’ on Grok’s disgusting deepfakes

hightechz.net0 CommentsBusiness, Trending

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the country will take action against X following reports that the platform's Grok AI chatbot is generating sexualized deepfakes of adults and minors, as reported earlier by The Telegraph and Sky News. "It's disgusting," Starmer says during an interview with Greatest Hits Radio. "X need[s] to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it's simply not tolerable." @ghrnews EXCLUSIVE: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer tells us he "will take action" on "disgraceful and disgusting" reports around child abuse imagery on Elon Musk's Grok AI.…

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19 Dec

TikTok ban: all the news on the app’s shutdown and return in the US

hightechz.net0 CommentsBusiness, Trending

After briefly going dark in the US to comply with the divest-or-ban law targeting ByteDance that went into effect on January 19th, TikTok quickly came back online. It eventually reappeared in the App Store and Google Play as negotiations between the US and China continued, and Donald Trump continued to sign extensions directing officials not to apply the law’s penalties. Finally, in mid-December, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees that the agreements to create TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX as part owners, have been signed, and the deal is expected to close…

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06 Dec

Apple’s chip chief might be the next exec to leave

hightechz.net0 CommentsBusiness, Trending

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is reporting that Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies, told Tim Cook he is “seriously considering” leaving Apple for another company in the near future. It was reported in October that Srouji was “evaluating his future at the tech giant.” While nothing is confirmed, it seems the executive is leaning towards not having a future at Cupertino. If Srouji leaves, he would be just the latest in a string of high-profile shakeups in the company’s C-suite. COO Jeff Williams announced his retirement in July, which led to some shifting of roles. But things have only…

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30 Nov

Data centers in Oregon might be helping to drive an increase in cancer and miscarriages

hightechz.net0 CommentsTechnology, Trendingai, Data Centers, technology

Morrow County, Oregon is home to mega farms and food processing plants. But it’s also home to several Amazon data centers. And now, some experts believe, that combination is leading to an alarmingly high concentration of nitrates in the drinking water that is driving up cancer and miscarriage rates in the area. Rolling Stone’s exposé details how Amazon, despite not using any dangerous nitrates to cool its data centers, is accelerating the contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer, which residents rely on for drinking water. It’s a combination of poor wastewater management, sandy soil, and good old physics that…

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24 Nov

DOJ settles with RealPage over its software’s alleged rent price fixing

hightechz.net0 CommentsBusiness, Trending

The Department of Justice has announced a settlement with RealPage, the widely used rent-setting software that it accused of engaging in collusion to drive up rent prices by sharing previously private information from competing landlords. The settlement puts limits on RealPage’s ability to collect and use that data, and blocks it from being used to set rents. Last year, the DOJ and several other states filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, claiming that the company’s rent-setting software combines data from competing landlords to provide daily rental price suggestions. “As competitor-landlords increase their rents, RealPage’s software nudges other competing landlords to…

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24 Nov

DOGE is no more, and in its wake, only chaos

hightechz.net0 CommentsTechnology, Trending

In April, Elon Musk began backing away from his role as head of DOGE. By June, he was more or less fully gone from DC. In his wake, he left a power vacuum and significant ill will that has apparently led to the dissolution of DOGE eight months before its charter expires.  To call Musk’s DC tenure contentious would be an understatement. As a man accustomed to getting what he wants and functioning as a powerful executive, he swept through Washington with a figurative chainsaw, slashing budgets, firing workers, and making audacious power grabs. Musk’s brash behavior angered government employees…

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