Russell T. Davies turned to fantasy to make Doctor Who think harder
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies says that bringing a bit more fantasy to the sci-fi show was key to making the new season feel fresh.
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies says that bringing a bit more fantasy to the sci-fi show was key to making the new season feel fresh.
Feed refreshed
Ken and Roberta Williams are some of the most influential video game designers ever, and also founded a video game publisher that did a whole lot more — until Sierra On-Line became a victim of massive accounting fraud and dramatically collapsed.
Vice’s Waypoint published this must-read feature story about it, before it, too, became a victim. Now, an authorized Sierra documentary is coming:
Actually, no! io9’s ever-reliable James Whitbrook found legit reasons to love the Star Wars movie we don’t talk about. A slideshow that delivers:
It wasn’t initially clear whether Cillian Murphy might return for Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later. But Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman revealed to Deadline that we can expect to see Murphy show up in a “a surprising way and in a way that grows,” when the movie hits theaters on June 20th, 2025.
GM staged a blackout to demonstrate how EVs can power an entire home — and also shore up our aging grid infrastructure.
Perhaps of note: their Binance accounts and their Deltec accounts; Deltec was allegedly key in giving FTX secret money to buy Tether. Criminal complaint here.
And though the charges are for laundering at least $73 million, the wallet in question received $341 million between April 2021 and the date of the indictment. Hm!
After a week of watching AI demos of ChatGPT and Google’s Project Astra, reset with comedian Conner O’Malley’s new special Stand Up Solutions.
O’Malley performs as startup founder Richard Eagleton, pitching an “AI standup comedian” product for an audience of VCs. The unhinged presentation parodies tech bro lingo and exaggerated business promises — which is probably NSFW, especially if you work in Big Tech.
Despite the studio’s closure, Arkane Austin is squeezing out one final update for its vampiric shooter Redfall. This follows the final patch for Hi-Fi Rush from Tango Gameworks, which was also shut down.
After pledging to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, Microsoft’s climate pollution has grown by 30 percent as the company prioritizes AI.
Post-apocalyptic wastelands are all the rage right now, and soon that will extend to Fortnite. When the game’s Greek mythology season ends next week, it will give way to something that will hopefully make the wait for Fallout 5 a little easier.
If you use Uber with an iPhone, you can turn off unwanted marketing notifications — but the feature is a leetle hard to find. Okay, it’s a lot hard to find. John Gruber found it, though: go to Account > Settings > Privacy > Offers and Promos from Uber and tap the word here. You can then unsubscribe from some or all Uber marketing emails or notifications.
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We found all sorts of gadgets and goodies to celebrate the class of 2024, from the practical to the poignant.
FromSoftware’s monster designs have really nailed the inherent horror of living in ambulatory sentient meat sacs and this new one from Shadow of the Erdtree is just...
That is a uterus, y’all and if it means Shadow of the Erdtree will tread the “transformative horrors of childbirth” like Bloodborne did, I am so on board. I cannot wait for June 21st, my uterus is ready.
Chevy Bolt owners who were forced to have their battery range nerfed (because of fire risk) might get promised compensation thanks to LG agreeing to pitch in with GM on the relief fund.
The European Commission has given Microsoft until May 27th to hand over the information it needs to assess Bing’s generative AI features, or else face fines of up to six percent of the company’s global annual income.
The EU suspects that tools like “Copilot in Bing” and “Image Creator by Designer” may have violated its DSA rules regarding deepfakes, voter manipulation, and ‘hallucinations.’
[European Commission]
Both companies are competing to build a combination of ChatGPT and Search. Now, it’s a matter of who can out-maneuver the other.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided that Microsoft’s Mistral AI investment “does not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.” The brief statement comes weeks after the CMA signaled it was looking into Microsoft and Amazon’s AI partnerships. Microsoft invested around $16 million into Mistral and also hired a bunch of Inflection AI staff.
Correction: Microsoft’s Mistral investment was around $16 million, not $2.1 billion.
Remember that 15-year-old Tolkien fan movie that Warner Bros. pulled from YouTube last week for sharing the same name as its upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum title? Well, it’s back!
Adrian Webster, who played Aragorn in the fan-made film, told IGN:
“Perhaps it was an automated copyright block due to the same title. It’s not quite clear. Anyway, we’re happy it’s back online again just now.”
Anbernic’s Game Boy Advance SP homage goes on sale tomorrow for $65, and the just announced $339 Ayn Odin 2 Mini is a dead ringer for PlayStation Vita but with Qualcomm, Wi-Fi 7 and a 1080p mini-LED screen. Then on Saturday, Ayaneo will reveal its takes on the original Game Boy and Game Boy Micro.
Choices, choices!
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In a WhatsApp groupchat, prominent businessmen discussed how to use their “leverage” to persuade Columbia’s president to call in the NYPD.
Some members, including hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, attended a Zoom meeting with NYC mayor Eric Adams on April 26th. Some participants offered to pay for private investigators to help crack down on protesters, while others promised to donate to Adams’s campaign.