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The ‘mad rush’ to install solar panels before tax credits run out

Ed Murray has been in the solar business long enough to remember the bloodbath of 1985. That's when President Ronald Reagan ended Jimmy Carter-era solar tax credits meant to decrease US reliance on fossil fuels following the 1970s oil crisis. "It was a sad time," says Murray, who is president of the trade group California […]

Silksong is getting a free expansion next year

It's still hard to believe that Hollow Knight: Silksong actually came out this year, but now, we all have a new thing to wait for: the game is getting a free expansion in 2026, titled Sea of Sorrow. Team Cherry calls it the game's "first big expansion." "New areas, bosses, tools, and more!" Team Cherry […]

A new Micro RGB TV is coming from LG

In what is sure to be the beginning of a slew of announcements, LG has confirmed it is releasing its first flagship RGB TV in 2026. It wasn't a huge secret, considering "a premium LCD TV with Micro RGB technology" won a CES 2026 Innovation Award in November. But it's now certain that the LG […]

21 states and DC join the FTC’s lawsuit against Uber

On Monday, nearly two dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, filed an amended complaint in the FTC's lawsuit against Uber. According to the lawsuit, Uber charged consumers for the Uber One subscription without their consent, billed them before the end of a free trial, and shared misleading claims about how much consumers can save […]

Starlink and Chinese satellites nearly collided last week

A collision in space was narrowly avoided last week when a newly deployed Chinese satellite came within a few hundred meters of one of the roughly 9,000 Starlink satellites currently operating in low Earth orbit. SpaceX is laying the blame on the satellite operator for not sharing location data. "When satellite operators do not share […]

Who is Picea Robotics, Roomba’s new owner?

iRobot, the owner of the Roomba robot vacuum, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, stating that it will be acquired by its contract manufacturer, Picea Robotics. The Chinese-based company assumed iRobot's $190 million loan earlier this month and, under the terms of iRobot's restructuring, will waive that debt, along with the $161.5 million iRobot owes […]

You need to listen to Sudan Archives’ violin opus for the club

My introduction to Sudan Archives was the song "Nont for Sale" from her first EP Sink in 2018. I've been a die-hard fan ever since. With each album, she finds new ways to sculpt the sound of her violin, contorting it in defiance of expectations. Athena found her in conversation with it, leaving its timbre […]

Grok is spreading misinformation about the Bondi Beach shooting

Grok's track record is spotty at best. But even by the very low standards of xAI, its failure in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia is shocking. The AI chatbot has repeatedly misidentified 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who heroically disarmed one of the shooters, and claimed the […]

Inside the high drama of the iPhone 4

By 2010, the iPhone era was in full swing. Smartphones were still a new and unfinished idea - the iPhone had only just gotten copy and paste! - but it was clear that these big slabs of glass were going to change the way we did pretty much everything. Apple was also already on an […]

The end of OpenAI, and other 2026 predictions

Here's a thought: what if the next-generation Siri is awesome? Not just awesome for setting timers and dictating text messages (though that would be nice), but so awesome and fun to talk to that people actually start falling in love with their iPhones. We may not be prepared for what happens next. On this episode […]

A Kinect for kids is outselling Xbox to become the hot toy this holiday

It's a small sample size, likely driven by Black Friday discounts and temporary virality, but the Nex Playground has gone from little-known console curiosity to best-seller. It's now on track to quadruple its sales from last year. According to research firm Circana, the Playground was the second best-selling console in the US for the week […]

Slab is the first MIDI controller built exclusively for Serato Studio

Native Instruments and Ableton have had incredible success with their custom MIDI controllers that integrate with their DAWs (digital audio workstations), Maschine and Live, respectively. Native Instruments' Maschine (yes, it's the name of the hardware and the software) and Ableton's Push are pretty much the gold standard for integration between music-making software and hardware. Serato […]