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F1 may ditch hybrids for V10s and sustainable fuels

High-revving naturally aspirated engines and their associated screaming soundtracks might be on their way back to Formula 1. Not with next year's rule changes—that will see even bigger lithium-ion batteries and an even more powerful electric motor, paired with a turbocharged V6. But the sport is starting to think more seriously about the technical rules that will go into effect in 2030, and in an Instagram post yesterday, the man in charge of those rules signaled that he's open to cars that migh

“Bouncing” winds damaged Houston skyscrapers in 2024

On May 16, 2024, a powerful derecho swept through Houston, killing seven people and causing significant damage to several of the city's towering skyscrapers. Those buildings were constructed to withstand much stronger hurricane-force winds up to 67 meters per second, as one would get with a Category 4 hurricane. The derecho's winds peaked at 40 meters per second, well below that threshold. And when Hurricane Beryl hit Houston that July with roughly comparable wind speeds of 36 meters per second,

Asus’ new “Fragrance Mouse” is a wireless mouse that also smells

PC- and accessory-maker Asus has never been one to shy away from a strange idea, whether it's a tablet that you need to slide your smartphone into before you can use it, a laptop touchpad that's also a screen, or going with "Rock Solid, Heart Touching" as a corporate slogan. But an announcement the company made today stands out: Asus is launching something called the Asus Fragrance Mouse, a fairly regular-looking wireless mouse that also smells. Yes, the main differentiating feature of the Frag

Robot with 1,000 muscles twitches like human while dangling from ceiling

On Wednesday, Clone Robotics released video footage of its Protoclone humanoid robot, a full-body machine that uses synthetic muscles to create unsettlingly human-like movements. In the video, the robot hangs suspended from the ceiling as its limbs twitch and kick, marking what the company claims is a step toward its goal of creating household-helper robots. Atherton, California-based Clone Robotics designed the Protoclone with a polymer skeleton that replicates 206 human bones. The company bui

Researchers figure out how to get fresh lithium into batteries

As the owner of a 3-year-old laptop, I feel the finite lifespan of lithium batteries acutely. It's still a great machine, but the cost of a battery replacement would take me a significant way down the path of upgrading to a newer, even greater machine. If only there were some way to just plug it in overnight and come back to a rejuvenated battery. While that sounds like science fiction, a team of Chinese researchers has identified a chemical that can deliver fresh lithium to well-used batteries

Under new bill, Bigfoot could become California’s “official cryptid”

You might suspect that a one-line bill about Bigfoot that bears the number "666" is a joke, but AB-666 is apparently a serious offering from California Assemblymember Chris Rogers. Rogers represents a California district known for its Bigfoot sightings (or "sightings," depending on your persuasion—many of these have been faked), and he wants to make Bigfoot the "official cryptid" of the state. His bill notes that California already has many official symbols, including the golden poppy (official

Texas measles outbreak reaches 90 cases; 9 cases in New Mexico

An ongoing measles outbreak that began in one of Texas' least vaccinated counties has mushroomed to 90 cases across a cluster of seven counties in the state, according to an update by the Texas Department of State Health Services on Friday. The outbreak may have also spread across the border to New Mexico, where nine cases have been reported. In an email to Ars, Robert Nott, the communications director for the New Mexico Department of Health, said that as of today, the department has not confir

German startup to attempt the first orbital launch from Western Europe

Isar Aerospace, a German startup founded seven years ago, is positioned to become the first in a new generation of European launch companies to reach orbit with a privately funded rocket. The company announced Friday that the first stage of its Spectrum rocket recently completed a 30-second test-firing on a launch pad in the northernmost reaches of mainland Europe. The nine-engine booster ignited on a launch pad at Andøya Spaceport in Norway on February 14. The milestone follows a similar test

The World Is in a Polyester Crisis. One Company Is Trying to Recycle a Way Out

I’m on an overnight flight from New York to Frankfurt, Germany, and the accoutrements given to me in business class have a sustainable sheen. Both the polyester blanket and polyester flight kit proudly claim they are made of fabric spun from recycled plastic bottles. But doesn’t United Airlines know that recycled bottles are so yesterday’s green material? No, the new hot and hyped technology is recycling polyester into polyester. And I’m on my way to observe the most well-capitalized innovation

This New Drug Could Help End the HIV Epidemic—but US Funding Cuts Are Killing Its Rollout

After a lifetime on the frontiers of the fight against HIV, Linda-Gail Bekker could finally see the end of the epidemic in sight. For decades, HIV experts had dreamed of an elusive vaccine to block the ongoing chain of infections, which still sees more than 1 million people worldwide contract the virus annually. Bekker, a 62-year-old medical professor from the University of Cape Town, had helped identify a drug that could do just that. But now, thanks to the Trump administration’s executive ord

DOGE’s USDS Purge Included the Guy Who Keeps Veterans’ Data Safe Online

When the so-called Department of Government Efficiency recently fired dozens of people from the US Digital Service—the agency DOGE subsumed last month—it may not have realized the extent of the collateral damage. The USDS doesn't operate in a vacuum; part of its longtime mandate is to consult with federal agencies to help improve their digital platforms and websites. So when DOGE terminated Jonathan Kamens in its agency purge, it may not have fully grasped that it was firing the security lead f

The first iOS 18.4 developer beta is here, with support for Priority Notifications

is a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget. Apple just released its first developer betas of a new round of software updates, and early testers have spotted support for Priority Notifications in the iOS 18.4 preview. It’s an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that uses on-device processing to try to detect which updates are especially important and sort them into a separate section

Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and more: all the news about the handheld PC gaming revolution

In July 2021, Valve revealed the Steam Deck, a Switch-like handheld device packed with features including a huge variety of control options, a 7-inch touchscreen, the ability to connect to external displays, and a quick suspend / resume feature. The device began shipping in February 2022, starting at $399. Now Valve’s new revision of the Steam Deck adds an OLED screen along with tons of other improvements that Sean Hollister says make it “everything the original should have been.”

The GSA is shutting down its EV chargers, calling them ‘not mission critical’

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages buildings owned by the federal government, is planning to shut down all of its electric vehicle chargers nationwide, describing them as “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages contracts for the government’s vehicle fleets, is also looking to offload newly pu

All the news about EV charging in the US

The state of electric vehicle charging in North America is shaping up like the smartphone charging wars — but focused on much more expensive hardware. Right now, like USB-C and Android phones, the Combined Charging System (CCS, Type 1) plug is on a greater variety of cars. Meanwhile, Tesla’s plug was long compared to Apple and Lightning. But while Apple eventually adopted USB-C, Tesla is opening up its connector, renaming it the North American Charging Standard (NACS), and trying to shove CCS o

How the EU’s DMA is changing Big Tech: all of the news and updates

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has come into force, and it’s meant that some of the world’s biggest tech companies are having to make major changes to how they operate. The law, which is designed to increase competition in the EU’s digital markets, designates some large online companies and their services as “gatekeepers.” Those that have received the gatekeeper designation — the companies on the list are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft — have to meet str

Crypto exchange Bybit says it was hacked and lost around $1.4B

Crypto exchange Bybit announced on Friday that “a sophisticated attack” led to the theft of Ethereum (ETH) from one of the company’s offline wallets. Bybit’s chief executive and co-founder Ben Zhou said in a livestream that the hackers stole around 401,346 ETH, which at the time of the theft amounts to about $1.4 billion. Both crypto security firm Elliptic, as well as crypto security researcher ZachXBT, the total amount of ETH stolen is worth around $1.4 billion, making this the largest known

Apple takes on recipe apps with Apple News+ Food

Recipe app developers just got new competition. On Friday, Apple introduced a soon-to-launch feature for Apple News+ subscribers called Apple News+ Food, a new section that will allow users to search, discover, save, and easily cook recipes from dozens of existing News+ publishing partners. It’s set to roll out as part of iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, but only in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. Instead of building a stand-alone recipe app that could import content from all over the

Despite recent layoffs, Meta is expanding in India

Meta made headlines last month for announcing plans to cut 5% of its employees, controversially deeming them “low performers.” But the job cuts aren’t holding Meta back from expanding in certain geographic areas. Meta is setting up a new site in the country’s tech hub of Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), multiple Meta employees posted on LinkedIn this month. Meta is currently hiring for 41 positions there, according to its careers webpage, most of which were posted over the last month.

Norway’s 1X is building a humanoid robot for the home

Norwegian robotics firm 1X unveiled its latest home robot, Neo Gamma, on Friday. The humanoid system will succeed Neo Beta, which debuted in August. Like its predecessors, the Neo Gamma is a prototype designed for testing in the home environment. Images of the robot show it performing a number of household tasks like making coffee, doing the laundry, and vacuuming. 1X says the bipedal robot is set to step outside the lab, with limited in-home testing, though the company is quick to add that the

Topics: 1x gamma home neo robot

Report: OpenAI plans to shift compute needs from Microsoft to SoftBank

In Brief OpenAI is forecasting a major shift in the next five years around who it gets most of its computing power from, The Information reported on Friday. By 2030, OpenAI expects to get three-quarters of its data center capacity from Stargate, a project that’s expected to be heavily financed by SoftBank, one of OpenAI’s newest financial backers. That represents a major shift away from Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest shareholder, who fulfills most of the startup’s power needs today. The change w

iOS 18.4 will bring Apple Intelligence-powered ‘Priority Notifications’

Apple on Friday released its first developer beta for iOS 18.4, which adds a new “Priority Notifications” feature, powered by Apple Intelligence. The addition aims to help users manage their notifications by prioritizing important alerts and minimizing distractions from less important ones. These priority notifications are displayed in a separate section on the phone’s Lock Screen. Apple Intelligence will analyze which notifications it believes should be shown in this section, but you can still

Brian Armstrong says Coinbase spent $50M fighting SEC lawsuit — and beat it

Coinbase on Friday said the SEC has agreed to drop the lawsuit against the company with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again. The move, which is still subject to the approval of the SEC’s Commissioners, is yet another signal that the Trump administration plans to be more friendly to crypto than the SEC was under former leader Gary Gensler. The SEC’s lawsuit, filed in 2023, alleged that crypto assets were securities and that Coinbase was operating as “an unregistered national securities

Court filings show Meta staffers discussed using copyrighted content for AI training

For years, Meta employees have internally discussed using copyrighted works obtained through legally questionable means to train the company’s AI models, according to court documents unsealed on Thursday. The documents were submitted by plaintiffs in the case Kadrey v. Meta, one of many AI copyright disputes slowly winding through the U.S. court system. The defendant, Meta, claims that training models on IP-protected works, particularly books, is “fair use.” The plaintiffs, who include authors

Research shows AI will try to cheat if it realizes it is about to lose

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust Surprise! A recent study showed that some of the newest AI reasoning models aren't above cheating to achieve a goal. Computer scientists found that AI systems can now manipulate chess AIs to gain an unfair advantage. Some models did this without human interaction or prompting, raising concerns about the future integrity of AI-driven systems beyond the chessboard. A Palisade Research study found tha

Users can now sign up for Meta's Community Notes on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads

In brief: Meta has announced that it is now accepting sign-ups for Community Notes, the feature that is replacing third-party fact checkers. Much like the X version that inspired it, Meta's Community Notes allows users on the company's platforms to decide if a post is misleading and add more context. At the start of January, just as Donald Trump's inauguration was approaching, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta's third-party fact checkers had become too politically biased and destroyed mor

Free Grand Theft Auto V PC update adds ray tracing, DLSS, and more features next month

Something to look forward to: GTA V and GTA Online received new content and upgraded graphics when Rockstar released native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions three years ago, but the company never discussed plans for extending the enhancements to PC users until now. A free, optional upgrade will push the PC version beyond the console spec early next month. The PC versions of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online will receive a free update on March 4 that includes features and content previousl

MLB is testing robotic umpires in Spring Training, eyes 2026 implementation

Forward-looking: Major League Baseball is testing a computerized system for calling balls and strikes during spring training exhibition games. This Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), which has been in development for four years in the minor leagues, could aid MLB home plate umpires as early as 2026. The ABS uses a network of cameras installed in stadiums to track each pitch and determine whether it crosses home plate within the strike zone. The current iteration uses Hawk-Eye pose-tracking cam

Meta raises executive bonuses by up to 200% after cutting 5% of its workforce

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust A hot potato: Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has described 2025 as "an intense year" as the company looks to streamline its business. Part of that involves laying off 5% of its workforce, close to 4,000 people. The company is also giving its executives more money, having just approved a plan giving them bigger bonuses – up to 200% of their base salary. According to an SEC filing submitted yesterday, Met

Among Us is going 3D with a new release, no VR headset required

Why it matters: Innersloth is pushing the big red button, not because they've found the imposter but because they have an awesome announcement to make. Among Us is breaking into the three-dimensional world, though this time you won't need VR headsets. The developer has announced a new title called Among Us 3D where you'll be able to play from a first-person perspective, instead of the usual top-down view of the original title. This new view is reminiscent of the Among Us VR game that launched

Topics: 3d game new steam vr