A massive Microsoft Azure outage is taking down Xbox and 365

Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud computing service, is experiencing an outage just one week after issues with AWS took out swaths of the internet. The issues appear to be impacting Microsoft’s services that run on Azure, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, and even Minecraft. Microsoft confirmed Azure Portal issues on the service’s status page, adding that … Read more

Chrome is about to show even more safety warnings

You’re going to start seeing more warnings in Chrome when accessing insecure sites. Starting next October, Chrome will soon warn users when they visit a public website without an encrypted HTTPS connection. Chrome already issues a “Your connection is not private” message when you visit pages that have an HTTPS connection that’s misconfigured. But this … Read more

Nvidia is officially a $5 trillion company

Nvidia has become the world’s first $5 trillion company. Shares soared by up to 5 percent to over $211 around 9:30AM ET on Wednesday morning, according to Bloomberg, marking the latest milestone for a company that only just hit the $4 trillion mark in July. Nvidia shares have been on the rise as the company … Read more

Amazon’s Echo Studio is smaller but mightier

The redesign and smaller size of the Echo Studio allows it to fit better in more situations. The majority of Amazon smart speakers lean more into the “smart” than the “speaker,” except for the Echo Studio. That device, which arrived in November 2019, was an imposing, sound-quality-first speaker that delivered Alexa functionality alongside impressive sound … Read more

Grammarly is changing its name to Superhuman

AI writing aid Grammarly is now part of Superhuman, alongside Coda, Superhuman Mail, and a new AI assistant called Superhuman Go. The new Superhuman suite, including all those tools, will be available starting today for everyone with a paid Grammarly Pro subscription. Superhuman Go will be available to subscribers for no extra cost through February … Read more

YouTube will let you opt out of AI upscaling on low-res videos

Creators can avoid YouTube remastering their old, low-resolution videos. YouTube has announced several new features that aim to improve the viewing experience on TV screens, including an instant shopping tool and visual upgrades for low-resolution videos. Specifically, YouTube says it will start automatically upscaling videos uploaded below 1080p, using AI to bump them to HD … Read more

Cameo sues OpenAI over Sora’s ‘cameos’

Cameo is requesting a court order to block OpenAI from using the term “cameo.” | Image by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images Cameo is suing OpenAI over Sora 2’s “cameo” feature, accusing the ChatGPT maker of using the name to compete directly with its personalized celebrity video service. The trademark infringement lawsuit filed in a … Read more

YouTube will restrict more content showing ‘graphic violence’ in video games

YouTube is updating its policy to age-restrict more content containing video game scenes with “graphic violence,” the company announced on Tuesday. The update will go into effect on November 17th and will prevent accounts under 18 and signed-out users from watching videos with games focused on showing “realistic human characters” involved in scenes of “mass … Read more

Amazon is ditching MMOs and cranking out party games

A screenshot from Throne and Liberty, one of Amazon’s MMOs. As part of Amazon’s mass layoffs announced today, the company is making “significant” changes to its gaming division, including halting much of its work on first-party AAA MMOs, according to a memo from Steve Boom, VP of audio, Twitch, and games.  “While we’re proud of … Read more