Companies deliberately design customer service friction to discourage refunds and claims, according to research into a practice academics call “sludge.” The term, coined by legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein and economist Richard H. Thaler in their updated…
Apple plans to release a cheaper MacBook powered by the A18 Pro chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro line, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The laptop will be priced below $999 — first time for a MacBook Air — and go into production in late 2025 or early…
A founding member of the Xbox team says she believes Xbox hardware is “dead” and that Microsoft appears to be planning a “slow exit” from the gaming hardware business. Microsoft recently announced partnerships with external hardware companies including…
Nintendo pulled its products from Amazon’s US site after a disagreement over unauthorized sales, meaning the e-commerce company missed out on the recent debut of Nintendo’s Switch 2 — the biggest game console launch of all time. From a report: The Jap…
Framework — a company that makes upgradeable and repairable laptops — will pause sales on several versions of one of its models in America thanks to Trump’s tariffs, it said. From a report: “Due to the new tariffs that came into effect on April 5th, …
Framework — a company that makes upgradeable and repairable laptops — will pause sales on several versions of one of its models in America thanks to Trump’s tariffs, it said. From a report: “Due to the new tariffs that came into effect on April 5th, …
SpaceX’s Starlink has secured its first agreement in India, partnering with telecommunications leader Bharti Airtel to bring high-speed satellite internet to the world’s most populous country, the companies announced Tuesday [PDF].
The landmark deal …
smooth wombat writes: In what can only be described as a no-brainer, Volkswagen has announced it will have once again have physical buttons in all its vehicles. As Andreas Mindt, design chief at the company said, removing buttons was “a mistake”.
“Fr…
Reinforcement learning pioneers Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton have warned against the unsafe deployment of AI systems [alternative source] after winning computing’s prestigious $1 million Turing Award Wednesday. “Releasing software to millions of peo…
Public interest groups on Tuesday asked the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling that the Federal Communications Commission lacked legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules. From a report: The decision by a thr…