• Nvidia CEO pushes back against report that his company’s $100B OpenAI investment has stalled

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Saturday that a recent report of friction between his company and OpenAI was “nonsense.” Huang’s comments came after The Wall Street Journal published a story late Friday claiming that Nvidia was looking to scale back its investment in OpenAI. The two companies announced a plan in September in which Nvidia would invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and also build 10 gigawatts of computing infrastructure for the AI company. However, the WSJ said Huang has begun emphasizing that the deal is nonbinding, and that he’s also privately criticized OpenAI’s business strategy and expressed concerns…

  • Apple TV signs TV and movie deal for Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy books

    Brandon Sanderson, a popular author of high-fantasy and science fiction books, has signed a deal with Apple TV to adapt his works set in the Cosmere fictional universe into films and TV shows. Sanderson said last year at Celsius 232, Spain’s annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, that his ultimate dream project is a “really good Mistborn film.” Apple TV is making that come true: Some of the first projects to come out of the deal are feature film adaptations of the Mistborn books and a TV show based on series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sanderson’s deal with the streaming…

  • Are VPNs really safe? The security factors to consider before using one

    Virtual private networks (VPNs) have been household technology for a while now, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty around them. This is partly due to the fact that they can conceal online activity that local or national governments deem illegal — up to and including, say, circumventing ID checks for age verification. Consumers aren’t helped by the sheer amount of duds sold in app stores right next to the best VPNs, especially when they’re purposefully exploiting moments that have people rushing to shore up their online anonymity. If you’ve almost decided to start using a VPN, you may be…

  • HomeBoost’s app will show you where to save on your utility bills

    A few years ago, Selina Tobaccowala’s daughter started leaving post-it notes around the house, telling everyone to “turn off the lights” and such. Tobaccowala had just sold her last startup, Gixo, to OpenFit and was looking for a new challenge. “I saw the kids and thought, ‘Let me see if there’s something there on the sustainability and climate side,’” she told TechCrunch. “There had to be something more than like turning our lights off.” Without a background in climate science or hardware engineering, she wasn’t sure where to start. So Tobaccowala turned to something she knew well: surveys. “Given my…

  • Blue Origin is pausing its space tourist flights to work on lunar landers for NASA

    Blue Origin plans to put a focus on the development of its human lunar capabilities, so it won’t be sending tourists to space for at least the next two years. That means we won’t be seeing any New Shepard launches for quite some time. Blue Origin is one of the companies NASA chose to develop human landing systems for its Artemis program, along with SpaceX. Specifically, it will work on landers for the Artemis III and Artemis V missions. The company was originally contracted to build the human landing system that would transfer astronauts from NASA’s Gateway station to the…

  • Pick up AirPods Pro 3 while they’re down to $199 right now

    AirPods Pro 3 have returned to an all-time-low price. You can pick them up for $199 right now, which is $50 off and the best discount we’ve seen since the earbuds came out at the end of last year. We gave these AirPods a score of 90 out of 100 in our review and we consider them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone users. The third generation model is a substantial update to an already impressive product, bringing new features like live translation to the table. Apple Upgrade to the new AirPods Pro 3 while they’re on sale for an…

  • MG U9 Explore Pro vs Kia Tasman X-Pro: Spec battle

    The two newest members of Australia’s ever-expanding dual-cab ute segment – the MG U9 and Kia Tasman – have created lots of headlines this year. In high-spec guise at least, both are pitched at the lifestyle end of the spectrum, aimed at adventure-seeking families as rugged go-anywhere alternatives to an SUV, rather than the hi-viz tradie crowd that desires a traditional load-lugger. But which one does what best? Let’s find out… How much? The MG U9 is the newest arrival, landing in showrooms a couple of months behind the Kia Tasman, and is offered in three model variants: entry-level Explore,…

  • How to turn on hypertension alerts on Apple Watch

    Apple has steadily expanded the Apple Watch’s health monitoring features over the years, moving beyond fitness tracking into areas that can offer early insight into potential medical concerns. One of the most recent additions is hypertension alerts, which are designed to notify users when their blood pressure trends are elevated over time. While Apple Watches cannot directly measure blood pressure, this feature can still play a useful role in highlighting patterns that may be worth discussing with your doctor. Here, we’ll explain what hypertension alerts do, how they work and how to enable and manage them on the Apple Watch.…

  • Highguard, a hyperpop arena shooter and other new indie games worth checking out

    Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. There are tons of interesting games out this week. But first, there’s been some discourse around the Nintendo Switch version of Dispatch, which arrived this week as well. On other platforms, there’s an option to censor genitalia and other explicit content, but that’s not present in the Switch version. Instead, such content is censored by default, with black rectangles covering up characters’ bits and someone flipping the bird. Noises that suggest sexual pleasure are said to be toned down too. “We worked with Nintendo to ensure…

  • The Nex Playground channels the spirit of Xbox’s Kinect

    You might not have heard of the Nex Playground, but it’s a tiny gaming system built entirely around Kinect-like games. With its camera and computer vision processing, the $249 Nex Playground can track up to four players as effectively as Microsoft’s old Xbox motion tracker, according to Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar. NEX (NEX) The hardware is cute and well-designed, there are plenty of games, and it works offline. The only issue is the ongoing subscription needed to access most games. Check out our full review to learn more. — Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed Even if demand…