Death Stranding is getting an animated film

The strange world of Death Stranding just keeps on expanding. As Deadline reports, Hideo Kojima’s ghostly, post-apocalyptic video game is getting a spinoff in the form of an animated film. While there aren’t a lot of details yet, the animated feature will supposedly be in the same mold as other animated spinoffs like the recent … Read more

Futureproof

AI tools are flooding the culture ecosystem — and no corner of the arts space is immune. In this series, we’re looking at the ways artists are embracing AI, pushing back on it, or trying their best to find an equilibrium with a new technology that’s both sweeping and destabilizing. We talk to perfumers questioning … Read more

NFC is getting a range boost

Tap-to-pay wont actually require a tap soon thanks to extended NFC range capabilities. | Image: Leonie Asendorpf/picture alliance via Getty Images The next version of the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard aims to make it easier to make payments, pair devices, and unlock doors using your phone or smartwatch. The most notable improvement is a … Read more

Google tests real-time AI voice chats in Search

Tapping the sparkle button beneath the search bar will open Search Live. Google is building Search Live into AI Mode, allowing you to have a back-and-forth voice conversation with the company’s AI chatbot right from its search engine. The test, which is rolling out now to Labs users in the US, currently doesn’t support camera-sharing, … Read more

What happens when you feed AI nothing

If you stumbled across Terence Broad’s AI-generated artwork (un)stable equilibrium on YouTube, you might assume he’d trained a model on the works of the painter Mark Rothko – the earlier, lighter pieces, before his vision became darker and suffused with doom. Like early-period Rothko, Broad’s AI-generated images consist of simple fields of pure color, but … Read more

This smart light has party speaker aspirations

With RGB color changing and tunable white light, this smart lamp / Bluetooth speaker can party all weekend and serve as a task light the rest of the week.  The most surprising thing about Govee’s colorful smart lamp with a speaker built-in is that we didn’t get something like this sooner. We’ve had color-changing smart … Read more

Framework Laptop 12 review: plastic fantastic

There isn’t another laptop as fun or as cute as this. Framework finally made a touchscreen laptop, and the convertible 2-in-1 is one of the coolest-looking computers ever made. It doesn’t have top-tier specs, but its two-year-old 13th Gen Intel Core i3 processor isn’t on its last legs just yet. Like Framework’s Laptop 13, the … Read more

RFK Jr. is coming for your vaccines

Last November, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that, as secretary of health and human services, he would not “take away anybody’s vaccines.” If you believed him, you were duped. The longtime anti-vaccine crusader remains intent on vilifying lifesaving immunizations and promoting the lie that the shots cause autism and all manner of other conditions. Maybe … Read more

Even Klarna is launching a mobile phone service now

Klarna, the buy-now-pay-later service, is launching a mobile phone service. The $40 per month phone plan is launching in the US in the “coming weeks,” offering unlimited 5G data, calls, and texts on AT&T’s network — making it yet another MVNO in an increasingly crowded space. MVNOs, or mobile virtual network operators, are companies that … Read more

VanMoof’s co-founders have a new e-bike coming from Raleigh

A leaked image of the new Raleigh e-bike developed with VanMoof’s co-founders. Ties and Taco Carlier, who founded VanMoof as an alternative to Big Bike, are working for Accell Group, the Dutch cycling giant responsible for over a dozen bicycle brands including Batavus, Sparta, Carqon, and Raleigh. According to multiple sources, the first e-bike, developed … Read more

Leica is launching its own 35mm film

Leica has announced the first 35mm film produced under its own name, Monopan 50. It’s an ultra-fine grain black-and-white film, and will cost $10 per 36-exposure roll when it goes on sale on August 21st. Leica says that the new film is produced in Germany, though wouldn’t name a manufacturer when asked. The specs, right … Read more

Netflix will air traditional TV channels inside its app in France

Starting in summer 2026, Netflix subscribers in France will be able to watch commercially broadcast TV content “without ever having to leave the service.” The streaming giant has announced a distribution deal with French media company TF1 Group to make TF1’s free-to-air live TV channels and on-demand TF1 Plus streaming content available to French Netflix … Read more

Iran is going offline to prevent purported Israeli cyberattacks

In a purported attempt to limit Israel’s ability to wage cyberwarfare, Iran has begun throttling its civilians’ access to the internet and plans to disconnect entirely from the global internet by Tuesday night. Fateme Mohajerani, a government spokesperson, said during a recent television broadcast that the speed reduction was “temporary, targeted, and controlled, aimed at … Read more

Trump is giving TikTok another ban extension

For the third time, President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Trump will sign an executive order this week extending the deadline another 90 days, landing the new … Read more

Senate confirms Trump’s FCC pick, Olivia Trusty

The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, installing another nominee by President Donald Trump and ending the brief lack of quorum at the agency. The vote was 53-45, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) being the only Democrat to vote in her favor.  Trusty will join Republican … Read more

Meta is making all Facebook videos reels

Meta is making a change to how sharing videos works on Facebook. Right now, you can share videos as a video from the post composer or as a reel, and both have different sharing workflows. In “the coming months,” however, “all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels,” according to a blog post. “Facebook … Read more