Many people using older Chromecast devices experienced a shock in recent days when their units lost the ability to cast content. The company ended the brand last year, which led folks to think that this was a planned obsolescence of some kind. Here’s some good news. It’s just a software issue and Google is working on it.
The company sent an email to users to say that its engineers are "working to resolve this as soon as possible, and will keep you updated when there is more to share.” Google was fairly vague in its wording here, but at least we know a fix is coming.
The issue primarily impacts older Chromecasts and the Chromecast Audio device and prevents them from casting. Google says the cause of the problem has been identified but didn’t reveal any specifics.
However, it has cautioned users to not factory reset impacted Chromecast devices. This will lock users out of the gadget entirely. Google has suggested it would help these people, because performing a factory reset would likely be one of the first troubleshooting steps, but hasn’t provided a time frame.
One Reddit user claims to have found the problem that caused the devices to lose functionality, noting that it was “most definitely due to the certificate baked into the Chromecast having expired.” This person said that the certificate specified it would no longer be active after March 9 and, well, that’s the day before many models started failing.
For the uninitiated, the issue causes an “untrusted device error” whenever someone tries to cast on certain models. The only option is to dismiss the error, which disables casting. Impacted units include the 2nd-gen Chromecast from 2015 and the Chromecast Audio.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/google-apologizes-for-chromecast-outage-and-promises-a-fix-172103579.html?src=rss
Since Donald Trump Jr. joined VC firm 1789 Capital after his father won the election, he’s been busy monetizing the Make America Great Again (MAGA) ecosystem. He’s been making bets in media, pharmaceutical, guns, and crypto while pushing against environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the Financial Times reported. The […]
Jeff Lilly has been named director of technology for Nexstar's Chicago owned station WGN. Lilly will oversee the day-to-day operations of the engineering department and the Bradley Place facility. He is responsible for all technology for WGN-TV, supporting Nexstar Media Group's national cable news network NewsNation studios in Chicago, and national multicast networks AntennaTV &...
On February 11th, as thousands of civil servants wondered whether they’d have a job — or whether their federal agencies would exist at all, as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk took a wrecking ball to the federal government — McLaurine Pinover had other things on her mind. Pinover, a political appointee of the Trump administration and the communications director at the Office of Personnel Management, was uploading her outfit to Instagram.
“Me and my emotional support shoulder sweater,” Pinover captioned a video (along with the hashtags #cozy, #petiteoutfitinspo, #dcstyle, and #classicwithatwist) as she posed for the camera. In another clip, uploaded January 29th, 2025, Pinover models a brown skirt and top, hands on hips. “New office, new office look,” she writes. “I’ve been sick + started a new job but excited to share my looks on this new adventure!” Here’s a quick reminder of what was happening that day in Washington, DC.
Pinover’s Instagram is long gone, deleted minutes after CNN reporters contacted her for a story revealing her side hustle, where she was also trying to monetize her content. But I was able to find a few of the cached pages on Google:
Luckily, I have an idea of where the OPM can start. Many of Pinover’s videos are filmed in a nondescript but tidy office. CNN, which broke the story, includes an incredible quote from a former OPM communications official: “I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office.’” CNN also reports that Pinover’s Sears catalog-esque outfits were shared during working hours — seems wasteful to me! Pinover’s fashion account, @getdressedwithmc, only had around 800 followers, with some videos getting just a few dozen likes, which is not very efficient or effective. If you are going to use your government office on taxpayers’ dimes to film milquetoast outfit videos, at least have the decency to be good at it.
It is one thing to share your very normal and average outfits on a private account — still kind of cringe, but probably not worthy of news coverage. But according to CNN, Pinover was also trying to monetize her content via affiliate links. For actual influencers, affiliate links can be incredibly lucrative: they make a commission every time someone purchases a product using their link. But with 800 followers, it’s unclear if Pinover was making any money. She was trying, though, with CNN reporting she was hawking products like a $475 skirt. Government watchdog groups told CNN that Pinover’s actions appear to run afoul of rules against using government resources for a private business and other unauthorized purposes.
“Content creation” as a job has become more financially and socially viable in the last decade, and many people with day jobs dabble in making Reels or TikToks or YouTube vlogs. In 2022, I wrote about the trend of big tech employees going viral on the clock, recording footage in the offices of companies like Apple, Google, and Discord and discussing their careers and lifestyle. In this world, your day job is part of your content niche, blurring the lines between the role that pays your bills and your social media platform that you clearly want to bolster. While Pinover didn’t identify herself as a member of the Trump administration, her willingness to unabashedly promote her ShopMy affiliate links signals two things to me: these are not serious people; and also, this is what’s happening in workplaces across America, conflicts of interest and professional reputation be damned.
Then again, we have plenty of evidence that many connected to this administration think of themselves as influencers first and public servants second. The White House is but a backdrop for a pop-up Tesla dealership as Musk’s business flounders. Over on X, disgraced former member of the House of Representatives Matt Gaetz is busy being a shill for a random precious metals investment firm (seemingly without proper disclosures, I might add). The OPM did not immediately respond to my questions about whether Pinover’s actions constitute waste, fraud, or abuse — but I am not holding my breath, given what her bosses are up to. What’s that saying about when in Rome?
“No Lives Matter” has emerged in recent months as a particularly violent splinter group within the extremist crime network known as Com and 764, and experts are at a loss for how to stop its spread.
Most new AI models go big—more parameters, more tokens, more everything. Google's newest AI model has some big numbers, but it's also tuned for efficiency. Google says the Gemma 3 open source model is the best in the world for running on a single GPU or AI accelerator. The latest Gemma model is aimed primarily at developers who need to create AI to run in various environments, be it a data center or a smartphone. And you can tinker with Gemma 3 right now.
Google claims Gemma 3 will be able to tackle more challenging tasks compared to the older open source Google models. The context window, a measure of how much data you can input, has been expanded to 128,000 from 8,192 tokens in previous Gemma models. Gemma 3, which is based on the proprietary Gemini 2.0 foundation, is also a multimodal model capable of processing text, high-resolution images, and even video. Google also has a new solution for image safety called ShieldGemma 2, which can be integrated with Gemma to help block unwanted images in three content categories: dangerous, sexual, or violent.
Most of the popular AI models you've heard of run on collections of servers in a data center, filled to the brim with AI computing power. Many of them are far too large to run on the kind of hardware you have at home or in the office. The release of the first Gemma models last year gave developers and enthusiasts another low-hardware option to compete with the likes of Meta Llama3. There has been a drive for efficiency in AI lately, with models like DeepSeek R1 gaining traction on the basis of lower computing costs.
Authors think that Meta's admitted torrenting of a pirated books data set used to train its AI models is evidence enough to win their copyright fight—which previously hinged on a court ruling that AI training on copyrighted works isn't fair use.
Moving for summary judgment on a direct copyright infringement claim on Monday in a US district court in California, the authors alleged that "whatever the merits of generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI, stealing copyrighted works off the Internet for one’s own benefit has always been unlawful."
In their filing, the authors accused Meta of brazenly deciding to torrent terabytes of pirated book data after attempts to download pirated books one by one "posed an immense strain on Meta's networks and proceeded very slowly."
Back in 2010, Rackspace and NASA launched a project called OpenStack, which was meant to become an open-source option for running an AWS-style cloud inside of private data centers. The two companies then moved OpenStack to the OpenStack Foundation, which has steadfastly shepherded the project through its many ups and downs. Right now, with the […]
In a world where AI decisioning and autonomous agents are reshaping the advertising landscape, data and identity have never been more important. After all, how can you market to someone if you can't find them? But the rise of AI-driven platforms like Google's Performance Max (PMax) and Meta's Advantage+ has fundamentally altered how advertising operates....
Moft’s Dynamic Folio case elevates and positions the iPad at different angles. | Image: Moft
Moft has announced a new folio-style cover case for iPads that could improve the tablet’s ergonomics for anyone working with the Apple Pencil or simply watching videos. The Moft Dynamic Folio uses an origami approach to transform into a stand that can elevate the tablet by up to three inches, while other configurations let you support a smartphone at the same time. The flexibility lets Moft’s case go above and beyond the limited folding functionality of Apple’s own Smart Folio iPad cases.
The company is making its new Dynamic Folio available to consumers through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that has already surpassed its $10,000 funding goal. The case will be available in three sizes and support the iPad Mini as well as 11 and 13-inch versions of the iPad, Pro, and Air. Early backers can preorder the Mini case for $34, the 11-inch version for $45, or the 13-inch for $55, while full pricing is expected to be closer to $39, $49, and $69, respectively. Shipping is expected to start as early as May 2025.
Made from fiberglass covered in Moft’s own scratch-resistant vegan leather alternative called MOVAS, the largest version of the Dynamic Folio adds 292 grams of weight to an iPad, so it’s also lighter than Apple’s iPad cases. It attaches magnetically so you can easily pop it off when you want to use your iPad without a case, but its design doesn’t completely protect the tablet on all sides like many silicone cases do. When attached, the Dynamic Folio will help protect the screen and back of the iPad from scratches, but it leaves several sides exposed. If you happen to drop it, there’s a chance the iPad could still get dinged and dented depending how it lands.
The primary use cases include two floating modes. One elevates the iPad two-inches at a lower 30-degree angle that’s useful for working, playing games, or browsing the web, while the other positions the iPad at a 60-degree angle three-inches above a desk or table for reading or watching videos.
Moft’s case can be folded in several other ways to support the tablet in portrait and landscape modes, to add an additional support for a smartphone, or to make it easier to balance the tablet on your knee when you don’t have access to a work surface. Moft also offers an optional Apple Pencil holder that magnetically attaches to the case and adds a bit more protection for the pricy stylus.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencerwarned in November that the mythical Xbox handheld is a few years away and only at the prototype stage right now. But if you read the headlines this week, you might think itâs actually arriving later this year.
A new report from Windows Central claims that âXbox’s new hardware plans begin with a gaming handheld set for later this year, with full next-gen consoles targeting 2027â and that Microsoft is working on a âProject Keenanâ handheld in partnership with an unnamed OEM. The report has generated plenty of headlines about an Xbox handheld arriving in 2025, but the reality is a little more complicated and related to Microsoftâs Xbox platform work to compete with SteamOS.
Sources familiar with Microsoftâs plans tell me the companyâs Xbox platform plans for this year and beyond are centered on one big goal: the unification of Windows and Xbox. Jason Ronald, VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystem, revealed to The Verge in January that the company is combining âthe best of Xbox and Windows togetherâ and that weâd start to see changes later in 2025.
I understand the Xbox work that has hit the headlines this week is actually c …
A Saudi Arabian company that was created by the Saudi Arabian government just purchased Pokémon Go, the most popular augmented reality game of all time, with a collective worldwide player base of more than 100 million people and their locations in the real world.
Niantic is selling Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now to Scopely, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Saudi Arabian company called Savvy Games, which itself is owned by the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund. Scopely, Niantic, and Savvy Games have collectively publishedsixseparateblogpostsabout the $3.85 billion deal, none of which specifically address what is happening with the location data of Pokémon Go’s 100 million players and none of which address how location data collected in the future will be handled under Scopely and its Saudi Arabian owners.
Two other apps, called Campfire and Wayfarer, are also part of the deal. Campfire is a tool that lets people meet up in the real world to play Pokémon Go (or other Niantic games) together, and Wayfarer is an app that specifically leverages the players of Niantic games to map real-world locations for Pokémon Go. Niantic will keep Ingress, its first augmented reality game, and another game called Peridot.
Niantic said that a knock-on effect of this massive deal is that it will be spinning off its nascent AI mapping business, which was using Pokémon Go data to create a “large geospatial model,” into a separate company called Niantic Spatial. Notably, Scopely is a new investor in the Niantic Spatial, which suggests an ongoing relationship between Niantic and Scopely, and an interest from Scopely in the use of Pokémon Go user data to create an AI mapping business. The companies’ collective blogs make it seem like Niantic Spatial—a data business—is going to become a totally separate entity, but Scopely’s direct, $50 million investment in it suggests that monetizing Pokémon Go players’ location data and AR camera scanning data is very much still part of the plan.
What is happening here, then, is that an already very complicated and vast location data ecosystem that was previously controlled by only one American company (Niantic) has now become a far more complicated location data ecosystem controlled by an “American” company that is wholly owned by a Saudi Arabian conglomerate whose largest shareholder is the Saudi Arabian government. Pokémon Go and all of the games Niantic is selling to Scopely require a player’s location in order to work at all, and Pokémon Go is partially monetized with in-game, location-targeted ads.
There is no world in which Scopely does not collect players’ locations moving forward. But what remains unclear is what is going to happen with location data moving forward and what is going to happen with historic location data.
None of this is explained to users in any of the many blog posts about this deal, but Ed Wu, who leads the Pokémon Go team, called it a “partnership” with Scopely, and Scopely’s blog post says they are “teaming up” with Niantic. It remains very unclear whether there will be any ongoing relationship between Scopely and Niantic and whether it includes any data sharing, what will happen to data that Scopely collects, how it will be monetized, and how and if it will flow to Savvy Games or the Public Investment Fund.
This opacity is unfortunately par for the course when it comes to the monetization of any user data and, especially, location data collected through apps. As Joseph has reported numerous times, it is essentiallyimpossible for any single person to track how their location is being collected and who it is being sold to and what it is being used for after it has been collected.
Niantic and Scopely did not respond to a request for comment about whether there would be ongoing data sharing and what would happen to historic location data collected from these games.
