Minimalist News

Simply the latest news, updated on the hour.

Sat, Mar 14, 2026, 7:21 AM EDT

Tech

AI Summary

  • The tech industry is grappling with significant AI advancements, from potential mass casualty risks to new AI agents with human context, while also seeing efforts to address AI-related issues like impersonation on platforms like Facebook.
  • Major players like Apple are adjusting their business models, evidenced by reduced commission rates in China, while new hardware like the MacBook Neo emerges, sparking discussions about its capabilities and repairability.
  • The AI narrative continues to be dominated by significant developments, including OpenAI reportedly planning to integrate Sora video generation into ChatGPT and Meta expanding its AI's access to international news.
  • The gaming and entertainment sectors are also feeling the AI wave, with concerns about malware in Steam games, PEGI ratings for loot box content, and the expansion of AI-driven features in services like Peacock.
  • Amidst the rapid pace of innovation, established companies are retooling or shutting down, as seen with Digg, while new ventures like Travis Kalanick's Atoms focus on robotics, and chip supply chains face disruptions impacting production.

TechCrunch


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Ball x Pit on mobile, Piece by Piece x2 and other new indie games worth checking out an hour ago by Kris Holt
    Video Games, Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Kris Holt

    Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. A bunch of intriguing games arrived this week, including a mobile port of one of the most absorbing things I’ve played in years and two completely different titles with the same name. Let’s get things started with a look at a few projects that were featured in the latest edition of the Future Games Show. Hyperwired (from SidralGames and publisher SelectaPlay) is a 2D roguelike shooter with an interesting resource-management twist. To recharge your weapons and systems, you have to plug a cable that trails behind your

  • OpenAI reportedly plans to add Sora video generation to ChatGPT 14 hours ago by Ian Carlos Campbell
    Software, Mobile Apps, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

    OpenAI plans to add its Sora video generation model directly into ChatGPT, The Information reports . The standalone Sora app was seen as a smash hit when it launched alongside Sora 2 in September 2025, but interest in the video generation app has fallen in the time since as users ran into limits on the amount and kinds of videos they could create. Adding Sora to the ChatGPT could give the model a second life, and ideally grow the ChatGPT app's weekly active users from the 900 million OpenAI reported in February, to a billion or more. According to The Information,

  • Meta is bringing more international news to its AI 15 hours ago by Karissa Bell
    Social & Online Media, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Karissa Bell

    Meta AI should soon be better at surfacing international news content thanks to a set of new deals with publishers. The company announced new agreements with international outlets and offered additional details on its recent deal with News Corp.  The latest deals bring French newspaper Le Figaro, Spanish media company Prisa and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung into the fold. Together, along with News Corp, which runs a number of outlets in the UK, these sources should give Meta AI better access to timely info about world events. Meta didn't disclose terms of the deals — The Wall Street Journal previously reported

  • Adobe agrees to pay settlement for making its subscriptions hard to cancel 15 hours ago by Ian Carlos Campbell
    Business, Company Legal & Law Matters, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

    Adobe has agreed to pay the US government $75 million to settle its lawsuit over the company's allegedly harmful approach to subscriptions. The suit started in 2024, when the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed a joint complaint alleging the company deliberately made it difficult to cancel subscriptions and obscured the frequently expensive "early termination fee" customers have to pay to get out of annual subscriptions that are paid monthly. "While we disagree with the government’s claims and deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to resolve this matter," Adobe writes. "We have agreed to provide $75 million

  • Nothing updates its AI app with semantic search and a new way to track events 16 hours ago by Ian Carlos Campbell
    Software, Mobile Apps, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

    In the mad dash many companies have made to incorporate AI features into their phones, Nothing arrived at one of the better ideas with Essential Space on the Nothing Phone 3a in 2025. The AI-powered app turns screenshots and voice recordings into actionable to-do lists and transcriptions, and now Nothing is rolling out an update to make the app easier to search and capable of recognizing new kinds of content. As part of the update, Essential Space now recognizes "Events," displaying them in their own card with fields for the date, time and location. That means, for example, if you add


The Verge

  • European retailers yank popular headphones after study reports trace amounts of hormone-disrupting chemicals an hour ago by Justine Calma
    Analysis, Environment, Gadgets, Headphones, Health, Report, Science

    Some European retailers have stopped selling certain headphones after an EU-funded study found that they contained hormone-disrupting chemicals. The study included leading brands such as Apple, Beats, Samsung, Bose, JBL, and Sennheiser. Online stores Bol.com, Coolblue, and Mediamarkt didn't respond to inquiries from The Verge about which headphones they pulled, but local news outlets report that they're among the retailers that have decided to yank some of the worst-scoring models off the market. The study authors analyzed 81 different types of headphones, and found that all of them contained at least traces of harmful chemicals includi … Read the full story at The

  • States’ anti-monopoly case against Live Nation continues Monday 14 hours ago by Lauren Feiner
    Antitrust, Entertainment, Policy, Report

    The Live Nation-Ticketmaster trial is back on. Dozens of states are expected to move forward with their claims against the company's alleged concert industry monopoly beginning on Monday, following a brief hearing on Friday. The Justice Department and a handful of states have accepted settlements with the company, but the majority of the 40 state and district attorney general plaintiffs - as of now - are continuing their fight in court. The states that are pressing forward withdrew their motion for a mistrial, filed after the DOJ announced its settlement in court Monday, and showed up with new outside counsel to

  • Spotify tests letting users directly customize their Taste Profile 14 hours ago by Terrence O’Brien
    Entertainment, News, Spotify, Streaming

    Less slop please. | Image: Spotify Spotify Premium users in New Zealand will be the first to experience the service's latest personalization feature. The company is letting users view and make changes to their Taste Profile directly. If your algorithm is serving up too much Bieber, you can politely tell the algorithm to ease up. Beta testers will be able to access the feature by tapping on their profile icon and then selecting Taste Profile from the sidebar menu. The Taste Profile tells you not only what artists you frequently listen to, but also identifies trends in your listening habits. In a

  • Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant is coming to current-gen Xbox consoles this year 15 hours ago by Emma Roth
    AI, Gaming, Microsoft, News, Tech, Xbox

    Xbox is getting ready to launch its Gaming Copilot AI assistant on "current-generation consoles" this year, according to a report from GamesRadar. Sonali Yadav, Xbox's product manager for gaming AI, revealed the news during a panel at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), adding that the company will also add the assistant to "more services that players are playing." Microsoft has been working on its gaming-focused Copilot assistant for months now, with the company launching it in beta on the Xbox mobile app, Windows 11, and Xbox Ally handhelds. Players can use their voice to call upon the Gaming Copilot if they

  • Trump Mobile is just one in the crowd of conservative carriers 15 hours ago by Dominic Preston
    Mobile, Policy, Politics, Report, Tech

    Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. This week, I wanted to see how Trump Mobile stacks up to its conservative carrier competition. Trump Mobile isn't unique. I mean, it is in some pretty specific senses - it's not every day the president's family launches a phone company while he's in office - but it's far from the first company to offer a mobile carrier targeted at the conservative crowd. In fact, there's a rich history of smaller networks trying to make their money from patriots, Christians, and Republican voters. Like Trump Mobile, they're all MVNOs


Wired


Looking for more? Search Google News