Enlarge . The partnership initially aims to raise $30 billion in private equity capital, which could later turn into $100 billion in total investment when including debt financing. The group will invest in data centers and supporting power infrastructure for AI development. "The capital spending needed for AI infrastructure and the new energy to power it goes beyond what any single company or government can finance," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a statement.
Business Read on Ars TechnicaThe remnants of a mosasaur show a sea predator that was ill equipped for slashing bites, and likely preferred to swallow its prey whole.
Environment Read on GizmodoMarvel's latest Disney+ series follows WandaVision breakout Agatha Harkness in her own redemption series.
Entertainment Read on GizmodoEnlarge Elon Musk's X temporarily became accessible again in Brazil despite government orders requiring Internet service providers to block the social network. X's revival was enabled by the company switching to a different network provider, namely Cloudflare, but Cloudflare reportedly made changes that allow ISPs to resume their blocking of X. "When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America was no longer accessible to our team," X's Global Government Affairs account said last night. "To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users. While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again shortly, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil." X's statement that restoration of service in Brazil was "inadvertent" surprised Abrint, a trade group for Brazilian ISPs. The BBC quoted Abrint official Basílio Rodriguez Pérez as saying, "everything that happened during the day led us to believe that it was on purpose."
Politics Read on Ars TechnicaEurostar is considering scrapping its services in the Netherlands next year due to “increasing reliability problems, capacity restrictions, and frustrating delays for passengers,” Eurosta
Politics Read on NL TimesBefore Sony went all in with a pricey mid-cycle console refresh by announcing its upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro, Microsoft laid out plans for a premium console with aesthetics at the forefront. The 2TB “Galaxy Black” special-edition Xbox Series X is mostly the same as the standard Series X, but it features a double-capacity SSD and a slick paint job. We’re inching toward its October 15th release, and interested parties willing to pony up the $599.99 asking price can already preorder one at Best Buy and directly from Microsoft. Those who crave the pricier Xbox are primarily getting three unique things for their money:
Business Read on The Verge TechAmazon has introduced a batch of new generative AI tools that aim to improve the retail experience for both customers and sellers on the platform. One of the more notable features announced at the Amazon Accelerate event on Thursday will use customers’ preferences, search, browsing, and purchase history to create personalized product recommendations on Amazon’s homepage. Instead of the “more like this” feature that suggests similar, specific items, the new recommendations will be offered as larger categories based on a customer’s shopping habits — such as those catering to holiday events or sporting activities. The company says it’s leveraging a large language model to recommend products with specific features, but it’s not clear how...
Business Read on The VergeSave $100 on an adjustable gaming chair with a footrest and lumbar pillow. Game in comfort and style!
Entertainment Possible ad Read on GizmodoImplementing Project 2025, the conservative manifesto written by ex-Trump officials, could have serious repercussions on public health, former Environmental Protection Agency employees warn. Air quality protections issued over the past four years are supposed to cut down pollution and associated health risks, preventing premature deaths and hospital visits for years to come. A group called the Environmental Protection Network (EPN), created by hundreds of former EPA employees during an exodus of scientists from the agency under the Trump administration, counted up the benefits in a recent report. But that outcome isn’t guaranteed. Many of the policies recently enacted under the Biden administration could be in jeopardy if Donald Trump...
Environment Read on The Verge ScienceGravitational lenses bend and focus light from the more distant cosmos, offering astronomers a cheat code for chronicling the history of the universe.
Environment Read on GizmodoTop policy executives from Meta, Microsoft, and Google testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday about what they’re doing to protect US voters from foreign election threats in 2024. But the elephant in the room was the pressure campaign social media companies have faced from the right to take a more hands-off approach when it comes to labeling or demoting misinformation. With 48 days until the US presidential election, Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) called in tech companies to discuss the threats they’re seeing so far and how they’re responding. Warner took pains to emphasize that his chief concern was with foreign malicious activity, not domestic — seemingly in an effort to find common ground with his...
Economy Read on The Verge TechPaul Giamatti, Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi, and Emma Corrin are just a few of the names coming to Netflix in 2025.
Entertainment Read on GizmodoUnited Airlines announced last week that it came to an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring the Starlink internet service to its entire fleet. That’s a huge partnership for both parties, and as this rollout takes place, anyone who flies United will be able to access free Wi-Fi on their flight. Right now, United […]
Politics Read on TechCrunchGoogle is improving passkey support in Chrome by making it easier to use the passwordless sign-in credentials across different devices. The search giant is introducing a Google Password Manager PIN that allows users to securely save and synchronize passkeys for use across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android devices. These updates are available in beta on ChromeOS as well, with iOS support “coming soon.” Passkeys needed to be saved to Google Password Manager on Android prior to this update and required users to scan a QR code on their Android device to access them on other platforms. The new PIN replaces the need to scan the QR code while ensuring that your saved passkeys remain protected by end-to-end encryption, so not even Google can...
Economy Read on The VergeGoogle announced that starting today, passkeys added to Google Password Manager will automatically sync between Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and ChromeOS devices for logged-in users....
Politics Read on Bleeping ComputerPreorders are now open for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 through the Microsoft Store. The next installment of the franchise will launch on Xbox and PC on November 19th, with updates that include new aircraft like hot air balloons and a more realistic-looking simulated earth. But the most welcome upgrade could be a much smaller installation size. The current version of Microsoft Flight Simulator needs over 130GB of storage, but that’s just for the base version of the game. Players can enhance their experience by downloading additional aircraft or installing world updates that bring more details to local scenery and airports, but that can gobble up even more storage. Those playing on the Xbox Series S, which only offers players 364GB of...
Business Read on The Verge TechA joint law enforcement operation has dismantled an international criminal network that used the iServer automated phishing-as-a-service platform to unlock the stolen or lost mobile phones of 483,000 victims worldwide. ...
Crime and Courts Read on Bleeping ComputerA new Hype button is about to join the Like button.
Entertainment Read on GizmodoSeveral dozen Dutch municipalities are investigating whether they can organize asylum reception “in-house” without assistance from the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (
Environment Read on NL Times