Can my favorite Game Boy gadget tell fake cartridges from real?

The $50 Epilogue GB Operator has a brand-new trick up its sleeve. In addition to backing up Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges and saves to a PC, it can now plug into your phone with a brand-new Retrace app for Android and iOS. The idea: check if cartridges are legit, […]

There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series

In the coming years, HBO wants its new Harry Potter series to become "the streaming event of the decade" as it adapts each of the franchise's seven original books. The show could very well become a hit that captures the imaginations of a new generation of fans who weren't there for the first wave of […]

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is a great time to get a fancy, AI-powered bird feeder

Bird feeders have come a long way since their inception in the early 1900s. These days, it’s not all that surprising to see feeders kitted out with cameras and solar roofs, two marquee features you’ll find on feeders from both BirdBuddy and Netvue. And while modern hoppers can command a pretty penny, Amazon’s Big Spring […]

The Macintosh changed computers forever

Apple's most legendary computer has two legacies: there's the computer itself, and there's the commercial. That commercial. Only a couple of days before Steve Jobs debuted the computer that would both help cement his legacy and contribute to his unceremonious exile from Apple, the company dropped a Super Bowl ad that is still one of […]

Apple’s long, bitter App Store antitrust war

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the legal travails of Big Tech, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The year was 1998, and reigning personal computer […]

Suno leans into customization with v5.5

Suno just released one of its biggest updates yet with v5.5 of its AI music model. Where previous updates focused mostly on improving fidelity and creating more natural vocals, v5.5 is about giving users more control. It includes three new features: Voices, My Taste, and Custom Models. In the release notes, Suno says that Voices […]

SteelSeries’ feature-packed Nova Pro Wireless headset is $80 off

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless came out almost four years ago, yet it’s still one of the best gaming headsets you can buy. Turns out, it’s not easy for other companies to duplicate all that SteelSeries got right with this one — mixing multiple audio sources, active noise cancellation, a retractable mic, hot-swappable batteries, […]

TikTok’s policy for AI ads isn’t working

I've been struggling to tell whether the ads appearing in my TikTok feeds have been made with generative AI tools. As someone who spends a great deal of time scrutinizing images and videos for the usual "tells" that something was synthetically generated, some of the promotions I've seen have definitely sparked suspicion. For several weeks, […]

Meta’s legal defeat could be a victory for children, or a loss for everyone

Is social media not just bad, but illegally bad? Should tech companies pay for making it that way? According to two US juries - and no shortage of outside commentary - the answer to both questions is "yes." Earlier this week, two juries - one in New Mexico, one in Los Angeles - held Meta […]

A classic Zelda-style adventure, but a lot more cozy

The Legend of Zelda games are grand adventures, but they can also be very comforting, with quaint villages to explore and warm landscapes to take in. Under The Island takes that idea a step further. It still offers the sense of exploration and puzzle-solving that makes Zelda games so satisfying, but it also takes place […]