The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is still pushing to break up Google, according to a revised proposal filed Friday with federal Judge Amit Mehta. As in its proposal last year, the DOJ says Google should be forced to sell its web browser, Google Chrome, and potentially Android, as punishment for being a monopolist, as Judge Mehta found last year, reports The New York Times.

In its new filing, the DOJ calls Google “an economic goliath” that it says “has denied users of a basic American value—the ability to choose in the marketplace.” To deal with that, “Google must divest the Chrome browser … to provide an opportunity for a new rival to operate a significant gateway to search the internet.” The department also still recommends that Google must change its Android business practices to enable competition or be ordered to sell the operating system. It dropped a suggestion that the company be allowed to sell Android in lieu of making the changes.

Both spin-offs were part of the proposal the DOJ filed last year. But whether it would hold that line under Trump, whom tech companies have plied with money and praise since his election, has been a mystery. The President has stepped back some Biden-era tech regulations on things like AI safety and cryptocurrency, but has also suggested that the threat of regulation can be useful for getting the results he wants.

The department’s proposal eases up in some ways. The DOJ now supports letting Google pay Apple for services unrelated to search. It also no longer calls for Google to drop its AI investments — the Times writes that, instead, the DOJ reccomennds requiring the company to “notify federal and state officials before proceeding with investments in AI.”

Google filed its own proposal that doesn’t include selling Chrome but instead suggests the court place restrictions on the sorts of deals it can make, such as barring it from requiring that a phone maker that licenses Google Play also preinstall other Google software, like the Google Search app or Chrome. As noted by the Times, a hearing on the proposals is scheduled for April.

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Apple Business Manager (and School Manager) is Apple’s web-based portal that helps IT teams deploy and manage their Apple fleets at scale, ensuring automatic enrollment, configuration, and oversight of company-owned hardware that connects to their device management system of choice. Over the years,

With a recent update, Apple Business Manager now provides IT administrators with additional visibility into released and replaced devices. This makes it easier to monitor when a device was removed, which person authorized the release, and whether a replacement device has been issued.

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Disney's making the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu even more special with a Galaxy's Edge mission arriving the same day as the movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has tapped Fast & Furious director Justin Lin to direct its upcoming movie adaptation of BRZRKR, the popular comic by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt about an immortal warrior. Netflix first announced plans to create both a live-action movie and an anime based on BRZRKR back in 2021, with Reeves starring in the former and returning to voice his character in the animated show. But, we’ve heard little about the projects since. In the meantime, Reeves and author China Miéville dove back into the BRZRKR lore with The Book of Elsewhere, which was released last year.

There are still no details on when the Netflix adaptations will air, but we can safely expect both to bring violence and plenty of action. BRZRKR follows a half-mortal, half-god man known as “B” who has fought his way through 80,000 years of life. By the time he accepts a job killing for the US government, he’s very much over his immortality and looking for a way out. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Terminator Zero showrunner Mattson Tomlin is writing the script for the movie and the anime.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/the-netflix-film-adaptation-of-keanu-reeves-brzrkr-now-has-its-director-184902694.html?src=rss

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The Groov app's insoles are made based on images taken by your iPhone, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it learned the odd shape of my feet.

Worst. New coworker. Ever.

In case you missed it, Apple announced two new iPads, the M3 iPad Air, and the new iPad 11th generation. As an iPad first user, these iPads just add to the excitement because they allow you to get even more power for at a cheaper price point! Another nice aspect is that these are internal upgrades, meaning that accessories that worked with their predecessors will also work with these newly revamped iPads. Here are some of my ‘must get’ accessories for your new iPad Air!

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Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at OpenAI potentially charging $20,000 a month for a specialized AI agent, the unexpected return of early-internet darling Digg, a company genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur, and more! Let’s do this. OpenAI could charge up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI “agents.” […]

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Artificial intelligence is advancing at a neck-breaking speed, but a critical issue looms: AI models, especially large language models (LLMs), need real-time data from external sources to deliver relevant, context-aware responses. Today, developers must build custom integrations for every API—whether […]

The post MCP and the need for AI interoperability: Why we must avoid vendor lock-in to ensure a unified future first appeared on Tech Startups.

If you, like me, still have your DVD collection hanging around, now is a good time to dust off your DVD player and make sure they haven’t succumbed to disc rot. That’s because many of the discs produced by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) between 2006 and 2008 are failing prematurely, the company acknowledged in a statement to JoBlo in an article update this week.

The company gave JoBlo this statement on the matter:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is aware of potential issues affecting select DVD titles manufactured between 2006 – 2008, and the company has been actively working with consumers to replace defective discs.

Where possible, the defective discs have been replaced with the same title. However, as some of the affected titles are no longer in print or the rights have expired, consumers have been offered an exchange for a title of like-value.

Consumers with affected product can contact the customer support team at [email protected].

Disc rot is not a new phenomenon, but as ArsTechnica notes, properly-cared-for DVDs should be playable for up to 100 years, according to Sony. However, failing WBHE discs have stood out in particular amongst the physical media faithful, who have been posting about the problem for years in forums like DVD Talk and Home Theater Forum.

The above 2021 video from YouTuber Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader that Ars points to suggests disc rot is affecting a broader range of discs, from 2006 to 2009, than WB has acknowledged. As for figuring out which of your discs may have the issue, he says the most reliable way to look for playback problems — DVDs that won’t load at all, freeze while you’re watching the film, or have unplayable special features.

Crusader’s video description links to some Google Docs, one of which is a list he compiled showing what he believes are “known rotted DVD titles” he found reported online, as well as those from his own collection that seem to be affected. The list features discs for popular series like Batman: The Animated Series as well as movies, such as a Stanley Kubrick Director’s Series edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and all of the Superman films up to Superman Returns.

Another of Crusader’s Google Docs largely pins the faulty DVDs made “roughly from 2006 through 2009” on a Cinram manufacturing plant in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. WB hasn’t substantiated the claim, as Ars notes. Crusader says you can identify discs produced there using codes printed on the inner ring of a disc’s underside.

There are plenty of us who have held onto our physical media as a bulwark against losing access to the films, TV shows, and games we love — something that can happen without notice as platforms are deprecated or distribution licenses dry up. But even maintaining a physical collection isn’t perfect if some manufacturing issue that occurred years earlier can break your discs.

It’s nice to know that even if I hadn’t backed up my DVDs to my home server in the last couple of years, Warner Bros. appears to be doing the right thing and I wouldn’t necessarily lose them. But there’s no guarantee that other companies will do that if their discs start failing in large numbers. It makes a great argument for taking up the digital packrat lifestyle 404 Media wrote about last month, and backing up your physical media early and often.

The BRZRKR movie may finally be coming, and Fast & Furious' Justin Lin will be the one to direct.

These are the new releases that belong on your reading list. This week, we've got a haunting novel from Charlotte McConaghy that blends mystery with environmental thriller, and a comic mini-series about the legendary Jersey Devil.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-fiction-wild-dark-shore-mystery-dark-horse-comics-let-this-one-be-a-devil-171026492.html?src=rss

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Last year was a monumental year for the AI industry in the U.S. and beyond. There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch. Three companies raised more than one “mega-round” last year, and seven companies raised rounds at $1 billion or larger. How […]

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

Apple has just wrapped up a number of its spring releases, including , iPad Air, Mac Studio, and iPhone 16e. For the most part, that’s probably the end of what the company plans to announce for a little while. However, there’s more in the pipeline for the middle of this year, including the long-rumored 2.

Here’s what we’re expecting with the next generation of Apple’s popular and affordable item tracker, AirTag, later this year. It may sound boring, but it’s meaningful.

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The biggest Apple news of the week was the announcement of a sky blue MacBook Air and an M3-powered iPad Air; however, in the deals world, it was all about the Apple Watch Series 10. That’s because, right now, Apple’s flagship smartwatch is on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy in its 42mm base configuration with Wi-Fi starting at $299 ($100 off), its lowest price to date. You can also grab it in the larger 46mm variant at Amazon and Best Buy for $329 (also $100 off).

Apple’s latest mainline watch is a pretty minor update of the Series 9, though that’s not to say the iterative changes aren’t welcome. The bigger, wide-angle OLED display makes text more visible from just about every angle, and at a mere 9.7mm thick, it’s noticeably thinner than the Apple Watch Ultra. The latest Series is also outfitted with a larger charging coil inside, which translates into significantly faster charging. In fact, the Series 10 can go from zero to 80 percent in just 30 minutes, which makes its 18-hour battery far less of a concern. 

That said, the more significant updates arguably come in the form of FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection and support for watchOS 11. The former leverages the watch’s accelerometer while you sleep to detect minor wrist movements linked with breathing disturbances, which Apple can use to alert you of either moderate or severe sleep apnea. Support for the latest version of watchOS, meanwhile, means you’ll be able to make use of several training-focused fitness features, smarter widgets, and — my personal favorite — the ability to pause your Activity Rings. After all, recovery days are essential, too.

Read our full Apple Watch Series 10 review.

More deals and discounts of note

• New and eligible returning subscribers who sign up before March 31st can get four months of Disney Bundle Duo Basic for just $2.99 a month, which equates to about $32 in savings. The twofer of a deal provides access to both Hulu and Disney Plus (with ads), though keep in mind the plan will auto-renew at its usual price of $10.99 a month at the end of the promotion window. Still, even if you decide not to renew your subscription, that’s plenty of time to check out Disney’s new Daredevil series and catch up on Andor before the second season arrives on April 22nd.
• Now through March 16th, you can grab a refurbished Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro on sale at eBay for about $207 when you use promo code STARTFRESH, which knocks nearly $400 off the MSRP. The Android TV projector isn’t as compact as the nifty Aurzen Zip we reviewed last month, though it’s still a reasonable size, with good picture quality and sound. You can also run the all-in-one projector via a USB-C power bank and, unlike the Zip, cast Netflix from your phone thanks to built-in Chromecast support. Read our review.
• Belkin’s 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad — which kind of functions like a Qi2-certified successor to Apple’s ill-fated MagSafe Duo — is currently down to $60.99 ($59 off) at Best Buy, which is easily the lowest price we’ve seen. The fabric-wrapped charger can supply up to 15W of power to any MagSafe-equipped iPhone while simultaneously charging either an Apple Watch or a pair of AirPods; the square pads also conveniently fold into a stack when you need to head out, making it great for travel.

Something special went down in the desert outside of Las Vegas this weekend: two EVs took on the Mint 400 for the first time. Since the Mint 400 launched back in 1969, vehicles in this iconic desert endurance race have been powered by dead dinosaurs. Spectators and race participants alike are used to the smell […]

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The downsides of doomscrolling and screen addiction are well documented, but while many of us would like to spend less time glued to a smartphone, it’s easier said than done. Much has been written about the so-called dumbphone revival, where individuals regain some respite from pings and push notifications by downgrading to a basic feature […]

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

Suikoden is a game that I’ve been meaning to play for years. A highly regarded roleplaying game from the original PlayStation era, it’s renowned for its sprawling storyline and huge cast of playable characters. That also makes it pretty intimidating, and I’ve had a copy sitting on my PS Vita just waiting for when I might have the free time to finally dig in. After all that waiting, I’m now playing a new remastered collection that includes the first two games in the series instead. And it made me realize that, for the past several months, my personal gaming time has been dominated by classic, turn-based RPGs — an experience that has really made clear the genre’s realm of possibilities.

It started with the excellent new version of Dragon Quest 3, which launched last November. That game was the equivalent of video game comfort food: an exceedingly straightforward fantasy adventure that has been spruced up with gorgeous visuals, a lush orchestral soundtrack, and some very welcome quality of life tweaks. Soon after that, Mistwalker released an updated version of Fantasian. It’s technically not an old game — it originally debuted on Apple Arcade in 2021 — but it has t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Sam Bankman-Fried is clearly angling for a pardon from Trump.

Critics and some audiences sure have gone in on The Electric State, which hits Netflix on March 14.