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Red Rooms makes online poker as thrilling as its serial killer
It's rare for a movie to get technology right. And it's even rarer for that movie to be a thriller or horror, where realism takes a backseat to scares and tension. But Red Rooms mostly gets it. Nothing takes me out of a film quicker than a tech MacGuffin that might as well be literal […]
Bluesky’s new app is an AI for customizing your feed
The latest app from the team behind Bluesky is Attie, an AI assistant that lets you build your own algorithm. At the Atmosphere conference, Bluesky's former CEO, Jay Graber, and CTO Paul Frazee, unveiled Attie, which is powered by Anthropic's Claude and built on top of Bluesky's underlying AT Protocol (atproto). Attie allows users to […]
The best deals we’ve found from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (so far)
Amazon loves to manufacture an event. March is historically a dry spell for deals; however, with Amazon’s third annual Big Spring Sale, which runs through March 31st, the retail behemoth is hoping to lure in would-be shoppers with the promise of steep(ish) savings and discounts on more seasonal, spring-centric items to hold folks over until […]
All the latest in AI ‘music’
AI has touched every part of the music industry, from sample sourcing and demo recording, to serving up digital liner notes and building playlists. There are technical and legal challenges, fierce ethical debates, and fears that the slop will simply crush working musicians through sheer volume. Is it art or just an output? What exactly […]
There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series
In the coming years, HBO wants its new Harry Potter series to become "the streaming event of the decade" as it adapts each of the franchise's seven original books. The show could very well become a hit that captures the imaginations of a new generation of fans who weren't there for the first wave of […]
The Macintosh changed computers forever
Apple's most legendary computer has two legacies: there's the computer itself, and there's the commercial. That commercial. Only a couple of days before Steve Jobs debuted the computer that would both help cement his legacy and contribute to his unceremonious exile from Apple, the company dropped a Super Bowl ad that is still one of […]
Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is a great time to get a fancy, AI-powered bird feeder
Bird feeders have come a long way since their inception in the early 1900s. These days, it’s not all that surprising to see feeders kitted out with cameras and solar roofs, two marquee features you’ll find on feeders from both BirdBuddy and Netvue. And while modern hoppers can command a pretty penny, Amazon’s Big Spring […]
Suno leans into customization with v5.5
Suno just released one of its biggest updates yet with v5.5 of its AI music model. Where previous updates focused mostly on improving fidelity and creating more natural vocals, v5.5 is about giving users more control. It includes three new features: Voices, My Taste, and Custom Models. In the release notes, Suno says that Voices […]
Apple’s long, bitter App Store antitrust war
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the legal travails of Big Tech, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started The year was 1998, and reigning personal computer […]