The White House quietly removed 'Build the Wall,' a Tetris-inspired browser game from its new WhiteHouse.gov 'Arcade' section, after The Tetris Company publicly disavowed the game and warned it takes copyright infringement seriously. The game had players stack border-wall bricks to block pixelated 'zombies' representing migrants, but unlike real Tetris, completed lines never cleared, making every round end in a 'Border Breached' message. Other games in the same arcade, modeled on Flappy Bird and Snake, remain live.
Sixty years after its 1966 debut, Star Trek is being credited with popularizing several concepts that eventually became real-world technologies. Despite airing only three seasons before cancellation, the show grew into a massive media franchise with films, spinoffs and merchandise, and its speculative gadgets influenced generations of engineers and inventors.
Google Cloud and Accenture are forming the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group, a joint unit that will place trained engineers directly inside client companies to help them adopt Google's AI tools. Google plans to train up to 1,000 Accenture engineers for this 'forward-deployed' role, following similar moves by OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Amazon.
Slow Horses season 6 premieres September 16 on Apple TV with weekly episodes through October 21, marking the show's first season under new creative leadership and adapting two Mick Herron novels instead of one. Early critic reviews from outlets like Decider, Comic Book Club, and Next Best Picture praise the season as the strongest yet, citing sharp twists and strong character work.
OpenAI has released ChatGPT Images 2.5, which includes a new Sketch feature allowing users to draw a rough doodle inside ChatGPT and have it converted into a polished image based on typed instructions. Users can invoke the tool by typing @Sketch, then annotate specific parts of the generated image with comments to request targeted edits, such as changing eye color. OpenAI says the update also improves lighting and texture quality, strengthens multi-turn editing consistency, and cuts image generation latency by up to 50% compared to the previous version.
After five years of development, Pistol Shrimp Games has launched a free public demo of Free Stars: Children of Infinity, the sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters made by that game's original creators. The demo focuses solely on the melee combat mode, letting players choose from 38 ships—including nearly all classic Ur-Quan Masters vessels plus new additions—for head-to-head arcade battles. It's available now on Steam and GOG for Windows, Mac, and Linux, with console versions still to come.
The OECD's latest PISA assessment found 15-year-olds scoring at their lowest levels since testing began in 2000, with reading falling from 501 in 2012 to 466, science from 506 to 486, and math from 502 to 469. The organization attributed the decline to increased screen time, less voluntary reading, and hasty reading habits, noting students who frequently used AI chatbots for schoolwork scored roughly 20 points lower in science.
Multiple Waze users report that switching the app from split-screen to full-screen view on Android Auto causes the navigation information box—showing ETA, arrival time, next turn, and remaining distance—to vanish. Some say the data briefly reappears when an alert pops up, only to disappear again once the alert clears, while at least one user reports the map failing to center properly in either view. Android Authority has contacted Google, and it remains unclear whether the fault lies with a recent Android Auto or Waze update.
Archaeologists studying a 3,200-year-old inscription believe it may reveal clues to the whereabouts of Mesen, an ancient Egyptian settlement that has not been definitively located. Researchers say the site once held strategic importance for Egypt's military operations during that era.
Amazon is selling Anker's compact Nano Laptop Docking Station for $111.99, a 25% cut from its $149.99 list price. The dock offers 13 ports total, including a removable 6-in-1 hub, and supports triple monitors via dual HDMI and one DisplayPort output.
Jury selection begins in a long-running federal case against Huawei Technologies, which faces charges including wire and bank fraud, trade secret theft, and violating U.S. sanctions on North Korea. Prosecutors also allege Huawei equipment helped Iran surveil protesters during 2009 demonstrations. Huawei has called the government's case 'demonstrably false' and previously sought to have it dismissed as vague and overreaching.
Meta introduced Muse, a personal AI agent that can autonomously handle tasks like online shopping, sending emails, and trip planning by opening browsers, filling out forms, and even negotiating on a user's behalf. The assistant will launch in the US on iOS, Android, and muse.ai, with support for AI glasses planned, and will be free for most users while Meta develops unspecified paid tiers for heavier use.
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