MAGA populists call for holy war against Big Tech

If you wanted a sense of the current relationship between the tech right and the populists, you had to be sitting in Breakout Room C on the first day of NatCon 5, the annual gathering of the MAGA right's powerhouses. At the end of the afternoon panel on the culture wars ("The Need for Heroism"), […]

First look: Dyson’s Spot+Scrub Ai robot seeks out stains

The Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai Robot is the company's first combination robot vacuum and mop. It debuted at Dyson's Berlin store during the IFA tech show this week and is a follow-up to the company's 360 VisNav robot vacuum, which launched in 2023. Featuring a new round design, a self-cleaning roller mop, lidar navigation, and Dyson's […]

The best robot vacuums we’ve tested for 2025

Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well and — thanks to bigger batteries and better robot brains — rarely get tired of doing their job. Over the last few years, they have gone from being utilitarian devices that sweep your floor to full-fledged home robots that can vacuum and mop your […]

Silicon Valley’s most powerful alliance just got stronger

Eddy Cue deserves a raise. As the executive overseeing Apple's services division, he's highly incentivized to protect the tens of billions of dollars a year that Google pays to be the default search engine in Safari. "I've lost a lot of sleep thinking about it," he said from the witness stand during Google's antitrust trial […]

Classic Sesame Street episodes are coming to YouTube

YouTube is getting “hundreds” of full classic Sesame Street episodes beginning in January 2026. Once the episodes are available, “YouTube will have the largest digital library of Sesame Street content,” Sesame Workshop says. YouTube is already has a wealth of popular content focused toward kids, including big channels like Cocomelon (which is getting a theatrical […]

Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion to authors in landmark AI settlement

In what’s potentially the first major payout to creatives whose work was used to train AI systems, Anthropic has reached an agreement to pay “at least” a staggering $1.5 billion, plus interest, to authors to settle its class-action lawsuit. The amount breaks down to smaller payouts expected to be approximately $3,000 per book or work. Lawyers […]

Showrunner wants to use generative AI to recreate lost footage from an Orson Welles classic

Showrunner — the startup that wants to “revolutionize” the entertainment industry by charging people to prompt up AI-generated videos featuring copyrighted IP — is working on a new project to restore an Orson Welles classic. On Friday, Showrunner announced that it has designed a new generative AI model that is meant to help recreate lost […]

I tested 30 smart locks, and these are the best

A smart lock is an easy solution to some common problems. Locked yourself out? Need to let a friend in to water the plants? Your latchkey kid lost their key? Hands are full, and it’s raining cats and dogs? A smart lock solves all of these problems and more. One of the best smart home […]

The Lenovo Legion Go 2 will get Xbox-flavored Windows in spring 2026

The just-fully-announced Legion Go 2 will be the first handheld outside of Asus that’s confirmed to get the new Xbox full-screen experience (FSE). Lenovo spokesperson Jeff Witt tells me buyers will be able to manually switch the handheld to Xbox FSE after it’s ready in the spring 2026 time frame, months after the Legion Go […]

Google fined $3.5 billion by EU for ad tech abuse

The European Commission has waged a €2.95 billion (~$3.5 billion) fine against Google for “abusing its dominant position” in advertising technology. In its announcement, the Commission claims that Google’s alleged anticompetitive practices have increased costs for advertisers and publishers, potentially raising prices for consumers as a result. The Commission has ordered Google to come up […]