Mar 14
Cut Off From Donors, Russia’s ‘Free Press In-Exile’ Launches Global Crowdfunding Campaign
Posted in: Today's ChiliMeduza, a Latvia-based Russian news outlet, wants to keep poking holes in Putin’s new iron curtain.
Mar 14
You’ll soon get more than just a cursory look at Hogwarts Legacy. Sony and WB Games Avalanche have announced a State of Play stream on March 17th devoted solely to the open-world Harry Potter RPG. The 20-minute presentation will finally share more details for the title, including 14 minutes of PlayStation 5 gameplay. The stream starts at 5PM Eastern on PlayStation’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
Hogwarts Legacy was originally slated to arrive in 2021 before the developers pushed the release to sometime this year. The game has you create a wizard who perfects spells, tames beasts (of the fantastic variety, of course) and otherwise explores Hogwarts in the 1800s, long before Harry and many other well-known characters rose to prominence. The game will also be available for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.
The single-game focus isn’t a shock. Avalanche is keen to note people have viewed the Hogwarts Legacy debut trailer over 28 million times — there’s clearly a lot of demand between Harry Potter fans and the gaming community at large. The State of Play could help Sony tap into that demand and spur more PlayStation sales.
Mar 14
Taking a look back at the illustrious first-gen Honda NSX that debuted in 1990, the path that led to its creation, and where Honda plans on going next.
Mar 14
Analysis suggests Apple may take a different approach to their yearly iPhone family refresh. Instead of new processors across the board, there may be a split.
Mar 14
A closer look at the next midrange smartphone hero from Samsung, the Galaxy A53, complete with a box that’s not much bigger than the phone itself.
Mar 14
Birds do it, bees do it—even the wasps that kill bees do it. A clever team of scientists now has an idea to use the Asian giant hornets’ horniness against them, in hopes of stopping the invasive species from decimating U.S. bee populations. They’ve identified the sex pheromones of the queen and propose trapping the…
Mar 14
Big Rocket Energy: Pete Davidson Scores Free Seat on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Flight
Posted in: Today's ChiliA crew of six, including Pete Davidson of Saturday Night Live, will attempt to venture past the Kármán line on March 23 aboard a Blue Origin rocket.
Mar 14
As io9’s resident Walking Dead viewer and whiskey enthusiast, I was very surprised to discover I’d somehow missed the partnership between the show and The Sexton Single Malt Irish Whiskey during the first third of the show’s eleventh and final season. Luckily for me, Sexton has released a second special edition for…
Mar 14
Pete Davidson Is Riding A Rocket Into Space Cause This World Isn’t Big Enough
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe “Saturday Night Live” star is about to go where William Shatner has gone before — the edge of space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket.
Mar 14
Ukraine is now using Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology for purposes such as identifying Russian soldiers, its CEO claimed. Hoan Ton-That told Reuters the company offered Ukraine’s defense ministry free access to its system following the invasion by Russia.
According to the report, Clearview suggested Ukraine could use the tech to reunite refugees with family members, fight misinformation, assess at checkpoints whether someone is a person of interest and to identify dead bodies. The company hasn’t offered its technology to Russia.
Engadget has contacted the defense ministry for comment. Ukraine officials previously suggested they were considering using the tech.
It’s not clear exactly what Ukraine is using the system for, Ton-That said, while noting it shouldn’t be used as the sole means of identification. He and Clearview advisor Lee Wolosky claimed other Ukraine government agencies plan to start using the tech over the coming days.
Ton-That said Clearview has access to more than 2 billion photos from VKontakte, the Russian social media service, and more than 10 billion images overall in its database.
Clearview’s controversial tech has come under fire from many quarters over the last few years. This month, Italy fined the company €20 million ($27.9 million) and ordered it to delete images of Italian nationals. The UK provisionally fined Clearview £17 million ($22.6 million) in November for breaking data protection laws.
Canada, Australia and France are among the countries that have told Clearview to delete images of its residents and citizens. It’s also facing privacy lawsuits in the US, where lawmakers have urged federal agencies to stop using the tech. Meta, Google, Venmo, Twitter and other platforms have demanded that Clearview stop scraping images from them as well.
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