Silicon Roundabout
Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images
President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app within a year.
The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three months if he sees progress.
While just recently the leg
‘PBS Retro’ is coming to Roku as a FAST channel
It’s where Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood lives. | Image: PBS Distribution via The Wrap.
Parents, it’s time to green-light more screen time.
PBS classics from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, including titles like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Thomas and Friends, are coming to streaming. PBS Distribution is making the edutainment programming available for free in the form of a FAST (free, ad-supported streaming) channel called PBS Retro, which is accessible through The Roku Chan
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Stellar Blade on PS5 has flash and fun but is mostly dull
Image: Shift Up
While the combat is challenging and rewarding, it takes far too long to get to the good stuff.
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Microsoft is now showing ads in Windows 11's Start menu. Here's how to block them
<div>Appearing for all Windows users via a new update, the ads highlight recommended apps from the Microsoft Store.</div>
Studiotools: Performance Marketing Expert
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We produce the infrastructure for "New Work". Our claim is not simply "office furniture", but we want to shape the future of work. Our first collection has already won numerous international awards and we are proud that many of the most innovative companies from all over Europe are among our customers.
What sets us apart from all our competitors in the workspace furniture sector (apart from our product design) is our vertically integrat
A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget
The Rabbit R1 is a fun little thing — and oh boy, is it orange.
There were times I wasn’t sure the Rabbit R1 was even a real thing. The AI-powered, Teenage Engineering-designed device came out of nowhere to become one of the biggest stories at CES, promising a level of fun and whimsy that felt much better than some of the more self-serious AI companies out there. CEO Jesse Lyu practically promised the world in this $199 device.
Well, say this for Rabbit: it’s real. Last n
Qualcomm strong-arms its way into Windows laptops this summer
Image: Joanna Nelius / The Verge
On Wednesday, Qualcomm announced the impending arrival of its Snapdragon X Plus laptop processor alongside more information for its previously announced Snapdragon X Elite chips. While this is not the first time we’ve seen Qualcomm processors in a laptop, it’s the first time the company could have a chip that rivals Apple, Intel, and AMD on speed.
The Snapdragon X Plus is Qualcomm’s entry-level laptop chip. It has 10 cores, 42MB of cache,
App Store video game emulators: all the news on retro console ports for iOS
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
iPhone users can finally enjoy retro gaming emulators without jailbreaking their phones.
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Lamborghini’s popular Urus SUV grows a plug — and goes hybrid
Lamborghini’s mission to produce gas-electric hybrid versions of all of its models continues with today’s release of the plug-in hybrid Urus SE. The SUV is the top selling vehicle in Lamborghini’s lineup, and a hybrid version is sure to draw a lot of interest from the Italian automaker’s customer base of luxury-minded one-percenters.
The electrified luxury SUV’s hybrid powertrain can put out a total of 800 CV (a metric unit of horsepower that translates to 789 hp), or 588 kW, th
What happens after your country runs on 99 percent renewable electricity?
Kenneth Lobo Méndez, director of planning and sustainability in electricity management, and Marco Jiménez Chavez, an engineer, at the state-run electricity utility Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). | Collage by Israel Vargas | Photos by Justine Calma
Costa Rica gets more than 99 percent of its electricity from renewables — it’s still not enough.
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Adobe’s impressive AI upscaling project makes blurry videos look HD
Adobe claims its new VideoGigaGAN generative AI model can upscale video clips more consistently and in higher quality than other VSR methods. | Image: Adobe
Adobe researchers have developed a new generative AI model called VideoGigaGAN that can upscale blurry videos at up to eight times their original resolution. Introduced in a paper published on April 18th, Adobe claims VideoGigaGAN is superior to other Video Super Resolution (VSR) methods as it can provide more fine-gr
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Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone
The app recommendations in the Windows 11 Start menu. | Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu.
“The Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store ap
The Mercedes G-Wagen, the ultimate off-road status symbol, goes electric
Image: Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes’ box-shaped luxury off-roader finally gets an electrified makeover.
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Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to President Biden’s desk
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images
A bill that would force China-based company ByteDance to sell TikTok — or else face a US ban of the platform — is all but certain to become law after the Senate passed a foreign aid package including the measure.
It now heads to President Joe Biden, who already committed to signing the TikTok legislation should it make it through both chambers of Congress. The House passed the foreign aid package that incl
Steam will stop issuing refunds if you play two hours of a game before launch day
Eight years ago, Valve began offering no-questions-asked refunds for any game you buy on Steam — as long as you asked for that refund within 14 days of purchase and hadn’t played more than two hours of a game.
But when Valve started letting you play games ahead of their release dates with its “Early Access” and “Advanced Access” programs, it introduced a loophole: people could play for many, many hours ahead of launch and still request a refund after.
Today, Valve’s closing the
ClickGUARD Inc.: Senior MERN Developer
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URL: https://www.clickguard.com/
We are seeking a highly experienced Senior JavaScript Developer proficient in Node.js, Express.js, React.js, and advanced MongoDB concepts. The ideal candidate will also have significant experience in DevOps practices, particularly within the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and hands-on familiarity with GCP services like BigQuery. As a Senior JavaScript Developer, you will play a pivotal role in the design, development, and maintenan
This Game Boy-looking phone stand is why MagSafe is good
That’s a nice looking charger. | Image by Elago
MagSafe isn’t a particularly controversial standard, but I’ve heard people grumble about it. They get upset because it doesn’t charge quite as efficiently as an old-fashioned cable and they get annoyed that any phone case needs to be MagSafe-compatible. But could charging by cable provide you with something as stupidly fun as this new phone stand from Elago?
The Elago MagSafe MS W5 Charging Stand is a mouthful of a name for
The EU’s new right-to-repair rules make companies fix your device after a warranty expires
Cath Virginia / The Verge
The European Union has officially adopted a new set of right-to-repair rules designed to encourage people to repair broken devices, rather than replace them. One of the rules extends a product’s warranty by one year if it’s repaired while still covered.
The European Union already requires companies to offer a two-year minimum warranty on products, but these new rules take things a step further. Even after the warranty period ends, companies are “