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Thu, Mar 5, 2026, 2:21 AM EST

Tech

AI Summary

  • Apple is entering the budget laptop market with the colorful and affordable MacBook Neo, starting at $599, aiming to compete with Chromebooks and offering a different value proposition compared to the existing MacBook Air.
  • Google has settled its dispute with Epic Games, reducing its Play Store commissions to 20% and opening the door for more third-party app stores, signaling a shift in its app distribution strategy.
  • Reports indicate ongoing tension between OpenAI and Anthropic, with Anthropic's CEO calling OpenAI's statements about a military deal 'straight up lies,' highlighting a competitive and contentious landscape in AI development.
  • Cybersecurity threats are escalating as a US and EU police operation shut down LeakBase, a platform accused of distributing stolen passwords and hacking tools, while a suite of government iPhone hacking tools has reportedly fallen into criminal hands.
  • The tech industry is grappling with the implications of AI, from Apple's introduction of Transparency Tags for AI music to a lawsuit against Google claiming its Gemini chatbot influenced a man's fatal delusion, raising concerns about AI's societal impact and ethical boundaries.

TechCrunch


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Big tech companies agree to not ruin your electric bill with AI data centers 9 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Sectors & Industries, Business, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    Today the White House announced that several major players in tech and AI have agreed to steps that will keep electricity costs from rising due to data centers. Under this Ratepayer Protection Pledge, companies are agreeing to practices that are intended to protect residents from seeing higher electricity costs as more and more businesses create power-hungry data centers. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI have all apparently signed on. A few of the participants — Amazon, Google and Meta — had conveniently timed press releases patting themselves on the back for their participation and touting whatever other policies

  • Mark Zuckerberg downplays Meta's own research in New Mexico child safety trial 9 hours ago by Karissa Bell
    Arts & Entertainment, Social & Online Media, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Karissa Bell

    Jurors in a New Mexico child safety trial heard testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg today. During pre-recorded testimony, Zuckerberg was repeatedly asked about the company's understanding of social media addiction and other issues that had been studied by its researchers.  During the deposition, which was recorded last March, Zuckerberg was asked about numerous findings from researchers at Meta who studied how the company's apps affect users and teens. The CEO downplayed the significance of many of these documents. Early in the testimony, which was viewed by Engadget on Courtroom View Network, Zuckerberg was questioned about a document on the effect of

  • Bill Gates-backed TerraPower begins nuclear reactor construction 10 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Politics & Government, Nuclear Policy, Nature & Environment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted approval to TerraPower to begin construction of a reactor in Wyoming. The project is the first new US commercial nuclear reactor in about a decade, according to The New York Times. TerraPower was founded by Bill Gates, and it took years for the business to receive regulatory approval for this construction effort. TerraPower is part of a push to create more efficient and less expensive nuclear facilities as an alternative power source, particularly as AI companies and data center construction places more demands on the US' current infrastructure. TerraPower's project involves tech it has dubbed

  • Assassin's Creed Unity is getting a free 60 fps patch tomorrow 11 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Video Games, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    Ubisoft shared its upcoming plans for the Assassin's Creed franchise today. Along with the news of a remake for its piratical entry, the game company also announced that a visual upgrade is coming for a title from way back in 2014. Assassin's Creed Unity will receive a free patch tomorrow to offer 60 fps performance on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S.  The company bringing a performance upgrade more than a decade after launch feels like a fitting close to Unity's development. The game suffered from bugs and performance issues from the jump, and while most of those did

  • LG reveals pricing for its 2026 OLED TVs 11 hours ago by Will Shanklin
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Will Shanklin

    Now for the news you've been waiting with bated breath for: LG's 2026 TVs from CES finally have prices. (Well, some of them do, anyway.) Surprisingly, the evo G6 and C6 series OLED TVs aren't increasing in cost from last year's models. But the bad news is, they’re still expensive as all get-out. The flagship LG evo G6 series ranges in price from $2,499 to $24,999. (Cue spit take.) Fortunately, that five-figure price only applies to the 97-inch model, which nobody this side of Elon Musk needs. The entry-level price is for a 55-inch OLED. Moving up the ladder, the 65-inch


The Verge

  • Did Live Nation punish a venue by taking Billie Eilish away? 6 hours ago by Lauren Feiner
    Antitrust, Entertainment, Policy, Report

    John Abbamondi had orders to let the CEO of Ticketmaster down easy. In April 2021, Abbamondi was the CEO of BSE Global, the company that ran Brooklyn arena the Barclays Center. BSE Global's existing Ticketmaster contract would expire at the end of September, and Abbamondi and his team had evaluated proposals from SeatGeek, AXS, and Ticketmaster. The economics of Ticketmaster offer, according to Abbamondi, "was nowhere near as good as the other two." SeatGeek's technology was "superior" to Ticketmaster's on balance, on top of better financial terms including an equity stake in the company, the arena decided. It clinched their decision

  • A new video from the White House mixes Call of Duty footage with actual video of Iran strikes 7 hours ago by Jay Peters
    Entertainment, Gaming, News, Policy, Politics

    A screenshot of the Call of Duty footage in the White House’s video. On Wednesday, the White House posted a video of actual military strikes on Iran in the style usually seen in Call of Duty highlight videos, and started the video with a clip from Call of Duty. The real-life footage of missiles and other munitions hitting targets in Iran shows clips seen in other Trump administration videos, like this one posted to the U.S. Central Command X account. > Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue. pic.twitter.com/kTO0DZ56IJ > > - The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 4, 2026 As noted by The Washington

  • Seven tech giants signed Trump’s pledge to keep electricity costs from spiking around data centers 8 hours ago by Justine Calma
    AI, Amazon, Energy, Google, Meta, Microsoft, News, OpenAI, Science, Tech, xAI

    Trump summoned tech leaders to the White House on Wednesday, March 4, 2026 to sign pledges committing their companies to foot the electricity bill for energy-hungry data centers.  | Photo: Getty Images Leaders from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon, and xAI met with President Donald Trump today to sign a "rate payer protection pledge." It's one way they're responding to growing bipartisan concerns about electricity rates rising as tech companies and the Trump administration rush to build out a new generation of AI data centers. "[Tech companies] need some PR help because people think that if a data center goes in,

  • Tim Sweeney signed away his right to criticize Google until 2032 8 hours ago by Sean Hollister
    Android, Gaming, Google, News, PC Gaming, Policy, Tech

    Epic CEO Tim Sweeney might be one of the most outspoken people in the history of the world. He fought two of the world's most valuable and powerful companies almost all the way to the US Supreme Court, insulting them again and again: "crooked," "deceitful," "insanely sneaky," calling Android a "fake open platform," calling both companies "gangster-style businesses that will do anything they think they can get away with," telling me how Google's Project Hug was "an astonishingly corrupt effort at a massive scale." But Google has finally muzzled Tim Sweeney. It's right there in a binding term sheet for his

  • Here’s how Google describes its fee-reducing Apps Experience and Games Level Up programs 9 hours ago by Sean Hollister
    Android, Google, News, Tech

    Today, Google killed its 30 percent app store fee, partially uncoupled Google Play from Google Play Billing after they were declared an illegal monopoly in the US, and much more. From July, depending on where you live, Google will now generally charge developers 20 percent for in-app purchases, or 10 percent for subscriptions - but it's also carving out several new categories of app which might pay differently. One of them is the mysterious new "metaverse browsers" category, whose details have been redacted. But Google is public that two other programs, Apps Experience and Games Level Up will let developers save up


Wired


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