Human rights groups have launched a new legal challenge against the use of algorithms to detect error and fraud in France's welfare system, amid claims that single mothers are disproportionately affected.

On a scorching 100-degree day, I find Henry Dorado’s booth at the Brooklyn Flea Market. Above, trains rattle loudly on the Manhattan Bridge. The outdoor market is a small but trendy event that fills this corner every weekend, rain or oppressive shine. Among the typical antique market wares — racks of thrifted clothes, watches behind glass, bins of art — Dorado’s booth stands out. People slow down, sometimes chuckle, take photos, and summon friends over to look at all this. A crowd surrounds the modest shop, just a few fold-out tables covered in pink tablecloths. Dozens of point-and-shoot cameras line the tables in rows, face up and laid flat; the circular lenses on each make it feel like you’re browsing whole fish at a seafood market....

The next big release from A24 might also be its cutest to date. The studio just released the first trailer for The Legend of Ochi, a fantasy adventure that also happens to star a cute-as-hell creature to rival Grogu. While it looks like a somewhat familiar “kid befriends mysterious creature” story, the film does have some interesting aspects, including not only the titular critter, but also what appears to be some kind of post-apocalyptic fantasy setting. Here’s the official description: In a remote northern village, a young girl, Yuri, is raised to never go outside after dark and to fear the reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. When a baby ochi is left behind by its pack, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to reunite it...

Scientist Michel Brahic's new book delves into the world of prions, the culprits behind some of the scariest illnesses around.

The Tesla CEO called his PAC "centrist" because you can just say whatever you want on the internet.

Amazon is shaking up its entire Kindle e-reader lineup today, at least by the slow-moving and relatively placid standards of the e-reader market. The company is announcing a major refresh to the pen-centric Kindle Scribe, a screen-size bump for the mainstream Kindle Paperwhite, and small tweaks to the basic Kindle—a rare simultaneous refresh for devices that the company usually updates one or two at a time. In addition to the monochrome e-readers, Amazon introduced its first color e-reader today. The new Kindle Colorsoft, covered in more detail here, looks almost identical to the new Paperwhite and launches on October 30 for $279.99. Going from most to least significant: The new Kindle Scribe's upgrades are mostly meant to make it a more paper-like writing experience. It has a new textured screen coating, a white screen bezel that blends into the screen (we've also seen this deployed in tablets like the reMarkable Paper Pro), and a tweaked Premium Pen accessory with a "new soft-tipped eraser" that feels more like an actual pencil eraser. Read full article

The greatest nemesis in animation history is back to menace Wallace and Gromit once more—and maybe this time it'll work.

For years, Kindle users have asked Amazon to make a color version of its e-reader. Now, the company is finally delivering: it’s launching the new Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, a device that has a lot in common with the new Paperwhite, except instead of black and white it’s color all over. The Colorsoft costs $279.99 and is available for preorder today, with shipments starting October 30th. Making the Colorsoft happen, Amazon executives said at a launch event on Tuesday in New York City, required a lot more than just swapping in a new display. “Frankly, the technology just wasn’t ready” before now, says Kevin Keith, who runs Kindle products for Amazon. “And we now think the tech is ready.” (Kobo, Remarkable, and others might...

A lot has been said about TV in 2004. That it was the best year of television of all time, the peak of the Golden Age of television. Or maybe that it was the year reality television became too much, suddenly showing up on every channel as we flipped the switch. But as famed Hollywood producer and UFO enthusiast Bryce Zabel wrote for the Los Angeles Times in 2004, it was the end of television as we knew it. He chalked it up to the prevalence of TiVo and DVR in American households and predicted an upheaval so severe the whole advertising business would crumble — and he didn’t even know about streaming yet. The shift was one that a lot of people felt in real time. For many, it was through the show Lost, which debuted in 2004 and created a...

Ever since Amazon launched the Kindle Scribe in 2022, the company has been noticing some unusual ways people are using the device. Scribe users read more nonfiction than normal Kindle owners; a full 60 percent of Scribe buyers use the device at work. That’s maybe not shocking, given that the Scribe is the largest Kindle and the one with an included stylus for taking notes. But still: this is maybe the first Kindle ever to not be mostly a reading device, but rather equal parts book and notebook. With the new Scribe, which the company announced on Wednesday (and leaked on Tuesday night), Amazon is leaning into the notebook side of things in a big way. The new Scribe, which will cost $399.99 for a 16GB version (a 32GB is $419.99, while the...

Amazon introduced updated versions of the Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite on Wednesday, only a few hours after inadvertently leaking them both. The Paperwhite is getting one of its biggest design refreshes ever, with a larger screen that’s completely flush with the bezels of the device, while the entry-level model is getting updated with a pop of color and some speed improvements. We got to try both at Amazon’s launch event in New York City and came away impressed. Neither is a reinvention of the whole Kindle format, but both are nice devices. Of the two e-readers, the Kindle Paperwhite is receiving more significant changes. The e-reader is now bigger, with a seven-inch screen, while boasting the highest contrast ratio of any Kindle. It’s...

Amazon just announced four new Kindles, including a revamped Paperwhite, a more capable Scribe, and the first-ever color Kindle.