This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the bleak state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Microsoft closed out Summer […]
Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a new commercial asks: What if the Founding Fathers had access to Google Workspace?
The Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, but recent solar storms have pushed its orbit lower, and it’s in danger of burning up in Earth’s atmosphere as soon as this year. To try and stave off its demise, NASA has enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies. The company’s Link spacecraft launched Friday with the goal of intercepting […]
As part of an ongoing legal dispute with three Hollywood studios, Midjourney is seeking to compel those studios to reveal how they use AI themselves.
Alibaba has reportedly classified Claude Code as high-risk software.
The US Department of Energy reportedly deleted about 6,000 pages related to energy conservation as a historic heatwave tears across the country. The deletion was suspiciously timed, following Republican outrage over Mayor Zohran Mamdani asking New Yorkers to help reduce strain on the grid by setting their AC to 78 degrees. Republicans like Ted Cruz […]
The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum by a pretty comfortable margin. If you’ve been thinking about buying one, you may want to plan on doing it sooner than later. The company will raise its price by $250 on September 9th, going from $1,245 to $1,495. Matic told The Verge that the new price reflects […]
Mistral AI, which offers some open source AI models, has raised significant funding since its creation in 2023, with the ambition to “put frontier AI in the hands of everyone.”
Erick the Architect is a founding member of, and the primary producer for, the legendary Flatbush Zombies. He’s toured the world, performed on Kimmel and Fallon, played Coachella, and collaborated with everyone from Joey Bada$$ and the Rza to James Blake and hardcore punk band Trash Talk. But perhaps the most unexpected collab was with […]
I know a vocal group of people who swear by the number pad on their keyboard. And yet, for years I haven’t cared about using one – until I put my hands on the Epomaker RT98. It’s a mechanical keyboard with a charming retro aesthetic, a fun CRT-like screen, VIA compatibility, a nice typing feel, […]