Crypto is, once again, exploding. Momentum born of a potentially friendlier regulatory atmosphere has met rising coin values, with Bitcoin more than doubling in value last year. Meanwhile, powered by advances to the underlying infrastructure, crypto is evolving beyond speculation and into real utility.  That’s driving new use cases for AI and enabling seamless experiences across gaming and more.

Saga has emerged as a key enabler of these shifts, providing scalable, on-demand blockspace for AI, gaming, and decentralized finance (DeFi). The company’s efforts are facilitating industry acceleration — “more, faster,” as Saga puts it — expected to continue throughout 2025. With that in mind, here are a few predictions for what’s to come.

AI will unlock new possibilities

Artificial intelligence continues to work its way into more and more of our daily lives. It’s getting better at automating tasks and enhancing our work, and continued investments will only keep growing AI’s influence. But when it comes to certain real-world datasets, AI runs into some limitations. It would never be trusted with the keys to its own bank account, for instance.

But its own crypto walle …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Hey, and welcome to Decoder. This is Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge. I’m guest hosting today’s episode for Nilay.

Today, we’re diving into the bromance between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, and more specifically, how it’s impacting the changing right-wing political movement here in the United States. 

There’s no better place to get that temperature check than the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. Musk showed up there this year for a wild interview — you may have seen clips of him waving around a literal chainsaw. 

Since Musk got close to Trump, I’ve been curious to know how MAGA diehards really feel about that relationship. I’ve also been wondering if this administration will go easier on tech companies now that so many of their CEOs have kissed the ring.

Thankfully, The Verge’s policy reporter, Gaby Del Valle, was on the ground for us at CPAC this year. As you’ll hear her say, she barely slept. But she got a front-row, fascinating look at how the world of MAGA really feels about Musk, his Department of Government Efficiency, and regulating big tech. Even if you’re already sick of hearing about the current state of American politics, I think you’ll learn something from our conversation. I know I did.

If you’d like to learn more about the topics we discussed in this episode, check out the links below:

• I cannot describe how strange Elon Musk’s CPAC appearance was | The Verge
• At CPAC, the world’s populists parrot the leader who inspired them | Politico
• Government still threatening to ‘semi-fire’ workers who don’t answer Musk email | The Verge
• Saying ‘no’ to Musk | NYT
• What that chainsaw was really about | NYT
• Sequins, merch, chainsaws: Trump’s return to CPAC | NYT
• Bannon calls Musk a ‘parasitic illegal immigrant’ | NYT
• New York got $80 million for migrants. The White House took it back | NYT
• Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE | AP
• National Park Service layoffs, hiring delays impact visitors | NPR

In 2022, I watched a video of mine and wanted to hide under a rock. My skin looked sallow, the dark circles under my eyes pronounced. Loved ones reassured me I was seeing things, but commenters confirmed my worst insecurities. While relating my woes to a friend, she interrupted my pity party to say I was using the wrong foundation color. Did I know my undertone? Choosing the wrong color, she warned, could make me look far more jaundiced on camera than in real life. 

About three years later, I finally found the right shade of foundation. I didn’t find it at Sephora, Ulta, or the K-beauty counter at my local H Mart. I custom-printed it using the $295 BoldHue.

BoldHue is a foundation printer that pairs with your phone. The back panel hides six cartridges: five for pigments (red, blue, yellow, white, and black), and a sixth containing a base with skincare ingredients, including glycerin, propanediol, vitamin E, vegan squalane, and antioxidants like tremella mushroom and rice bran extract. These are popular ingredients to hydrate and protect the skin. Unlike most commercial foundations, which use four pigments, BoldHue adds blue to the mix, increasing the number of possible shades. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Like its predecessor, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is bringing back three classic starter pokémon to get you started on your next adventure.

Though Pokémon Legends: Z-A will likely introduce a number of new creatures, Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile will be the first three partner pokémon you can choose between as you journey into the depths of Lumoise city. The starters were the star of the Pokémon Legends: Z-A teaser The Pokémon Company’s debuted during this year’s Pokémon Presents. Details about the game are still sparse, but we now know a little bit more about how its battles will work.

Like other Pokémon games, you will be able to fight wild pokémon found throughout certain areas, but rather than just launching attacks turn-by-turn, Legends: Z-A will require players to think strategically about the range moves have and where their monsters are on the battlefield. The video — which focuses on how moves can have different ranges of effect and levels of damage depending on a pokémon’s position on the field — makes Legends Z-A’s battling look a bit like fighting in Diablo. 

The video also emphasizes how, because the game is set entirely in Lumiose, many of the areas where wild pokémon can be found are special locations like alleys and rooftops where the creatures are learning to cohabitate with humans. Like in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, players will be able to catch monsters without battling in some cases by simply throwing pokéballs at them from a distance.

That mechanic in particular should make the game feel much more fluid than Scarlet and Violet, but we won’t know for sure until Pokémon Legends: Z-A debuts for the Switch family of system some time later this year.

Reviews for the iPhone 16e have arrived, offering a lot of praise for the new device but also plenty of criticism about one omission in particular: the removal of MagSafe. But according to Apple representatives who spoke with John Gruber, the feature’s absence won’t actually be a problem for most users.

more…

Save yourself 25% on the Google Pixel Tablet during this limited time deal at Amazon.

Bitcoin earlier this week sank to a three-month low below $90,000 amid declines in global equity markets.

Snowflake announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft Azure to offer access to OpenAI models on Wednesday.

Fintech has fragmented into increasingly specialized, cucumber-sliced micro-services, ranging from embedded buy-now-pay-later loans to specialized neo banks to yet more payment processing systems. What opportunities remain for innovators in such a fragmented landscape? One U.K. startup, Just Move In, zoomed out and realised that the home had been overlooked by everyone in the industry. And […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Digital payments platform Stripe has yet to lay out plans to go public, but in the meantime the company has thrown past and present employees a line for some liquidity. The company on Thursday confirmed a tender offer where investors will buy up shares from those employees at a valuation of $91.5 billion. Stripe said […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Katelyn Heck is leaving the anchor desk at WMAZ after 13 years. On social media, Heck said she was also leaving local TV. "This new chapter will give me the opportunity to spend more time with my husband and my kids, something invaluable to me," Heck said. "I've learned from being in the news just...

The numbers 6.4 million -- The global streaming subscribers added by Warner Bros. Discovery in the fourth quarter. 116.9 million -- WBD's total global subscribers across 70 countries. $2.65 billion -- Fourth-quarter revenue for WBD's streaming segment, led by Max. That's up 5% from $2.53 billion in the same quarter last year. $409 million --...

To celebrate the day when Pikachu pika’d his way into our hearts and minds almost 30 years ago, The Pokémon Company held a Pokémon Presents showcase highlighting what games and experiences to expect in the coming months. There were updates on Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a new season of Pokémon Concierge, and a totally new multiplayer gameplay: Pokémon Champions.

While the reveal was light on the specifics, Champions appears to a game focused solely on battling. Players will be able to import their pokémon from Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, Pokémon Home, and other games into Champions to use in battles against players around the world. There are restrictions, however, on the pokémon you can use. The fine print says that not every pokémon available in Home and elsewhere will be available in Champions and those obtained in Champions cannot be ported back to Home.

It seems like Champions is a gamified version of the online battle simulators competitive Pokémon players use to test team composition and monster builds. The Pokémon Company was specific in that the game is coming to “the Nintendo Switch family of systems,” indicating this game might make an appearance on the forthcoming Switch 2. It’s also coming to Android and iOS.

Pokémon is a very malleable franchise, able to fit a wide variety of game genres that The Pokémon Company seems keen to experiment with. There was Pokken Tournament for the fighting game community, Pokémon UNITE for the MOBA fans, all the casual co-op and 1v1 experiences in the mainline games, and so much more. (Anybody remember Pokémon Conquest, the strategy RPG that was essentially Pikachu meets Nobunaga’s Ambition?) With Pokémon Champions, The Pokémon Company has found yet another way to reach gamers outside of its core games.

The next entry in the Pokémon Legends series takes us back to the region first explored in Pokémon X and Y later this year.

Time to tackle those heavier messes with a machine that can handle it all.

The platform has since reinstated the videos.

Kia has officially launched the EV4, its first electric sedan and hatchback, at the 2025 Kia EV Day in Tarragona, Spain. The company first unveiled the EV4 as a concept at CES last year, along with several other models. Buyers can choose between the 58.3 kWh standard and the 81.4 kWh long-range battery options, with the long-ranger sedan being able to run for 630 km (391.5 miles) on a single charge. Meanwhile, the standard battery sedan can last for 430 km (267 miles), whereas the hatchback vehicle has a range of 590 km (366.6 miles). The vehicle's 150 kW motor can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.4 seconds for the standard battery variant and 7.7 seconds for the long-range variant. Both variations have a top speed of 170 km/h. 

The EV4 models use Kia's Digital Key 2.0 system that will let owners control certain functions remotely, such as being able to the start the vehicles' engines, through an app across 15 different devices. It even works with Apple Watch. The electric vehicles come with Kia's Highway Driving Assist technology that give owners access to Driver Attention Warning, Forward Collision Avoidance Assist, Lane Following Assist, Intelligent Speed Limit Assist and Remote Parking Assist Entry. There's also an advanced feature called Driving Package F+ that can detect hazardous situations using cameras and radars and can help drivers maneuver their vehicles to safety.

Kia will be manufacturing the EV4 sedan in Korea, where it will initially be available starting in March. It will produce the five-door hatchback version, meant for sale in Europe in the second half of the year, in Slovakia. The company has yet to reveal when it will start manufacturing the EV4 for the North American market, but it assured interested buyers that it's releasing the vehicle in the United States. 

In addition to launching the EV4, Kia has also unveiled the Concept EV2 (pictured below) during the event. It described the EV2 as compact and city-friendly, with an expandable interior that has folding second-row seats. Kia is planning to sell the EV2 in "Europe and other regions" starting in 2026. 

Kia

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/kias-ev4-its-first-electric-sedan-will-be-available-in-the-us-later-this-year-140039030.html?src=rss

©

© Kia

Therabody’s most advanced and latest Theragun is a beast for muscle recovery, but it might be too intense for some.

As the EV4 sedan and EV2 mini SUV round out Kia's electric offering, the brand confirms its PV5 Light Camper is inbound, and an even larger model is likely on the way.

Scan the online brochures of companies who sell workplace monitoring tech and you’d think the average American worker was a renegade poised to take their employer down at the next opportunity. “Nearly half of US employees admit to time theft!” “Biometric readers for enhanced accuracy!” “Offer staff benefits in a controlled way with Vending Machine Access!”

A new wave of return-to-office mandates has arrived since the New Year, including at JP Morgan Chase, leading advertising agency WPP, and Amazon—not to mention President Trump’s late January directive to the heads of federal agencies to “terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person … on a full-time basis.” Five years on from the pandemic, when the world showed how effectively many roles could be performed remotely or flexibly, what’s caused the sudden change of heart?

“There’s two things happening,” says global industry analyst Josh Bersin, who is based in California. “The economy is actually slowing down, so companies are hiring less. So there is a trend toward productivity in general, and then AI has forced virtually every company to reallocate resources toward AI projects.

Read full article

Comments

© Thomas Barwick via Getty