In the week’s least surprising news, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that the company is exploring ways to bring ads to Alexa Plus, its new generative-AI-powered voice assistant. During a conference call following the company’s second-quarter earnings report, Jassy said that “there will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multiturn conversations [with Alexa […]
Evo 2025, the biggest fighting game tournament in North America, starts this weekend. If you tune into one of the nine different Evo Twitch channels, you’ll see some of the top players in the world compete in fighting game staples like Street Fighter and Tekken and newer games like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves […]
Just about every piece of hardware that Nintendo sells is getting a little more expensive in the US – with the exception of the Switch 2. That includes all models of the original Switch, a bunch of accessories, and even a motion-activated alarm clock. The changes were made ahead of sweeping Trump administration tariffs that […]
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wanted to make Google dance two years ago, with an AI overhaul of Bing that was designed to steal Google’s all-important search market share. Now, there are plenty of signs that Microsoft has successfully taken search share off Google, both in the US and worldwide. Earlier this week Microsoft reported that […]
With the Switch 2, Nintendo seems to be closing the release date gap with some of its third-party games. It’s a problem that plagued previous Nintendo consoles, which often received games years after other platforms, if at all. While today’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase may have lacked the splash of anticipated third-party games like Hades […]
Microsoft first started using the “Xbox PC” term in a blog post announcing the Gears of Wars remaster in early May. It was a new branding effort designed to signal that games are available on PC through its own Xbox PC app and store. The Xbox PC branding didn’t last long though, as Microsoft has […]
Roblox and Fortnite are two of the biggest games around, and a huge part of why is because they aren’t just one game: instead, they’re vast platforms where you can party up with your friends, dress up in ridiculous digital outfits, and quickly jump from one experience to another. Back in the day, Fortnite copied […]
On July 25th, the UK became one of the first countries to widely implement age verification. Its Online Safety Act requires sites hosting porn and other content deemed “harmful” – including Reddit, Discord, Grindr, X, and Bluesky – to verify that users are over the age of 18. The early results have been chaotic. While […]
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have railed for years against foreign regulation of US tech companies, including online safety laws. As the US fights a global tariff war, it may bring those rules under fire – just as some of them are growing teeth. Over the past weeks, Trump has touted a blitz of […]
The 2025 TV Shootout went down over the weekend, and the results are shocking: yes, the Sony Bravia 8 II won the overall competition and my personal award for silliest name, but the LG G5 came in last place by a huge margin. I was one of the judges, and I think I have a […]