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The US is banning foreign robots

A humanoid robot from Unitree
The Chinese robot maker, Unitree, will likely be impacted by the ban. | Bloomberg via Getty Images

The US government is targeting China with a new import ban on "advanced robotic devices" and power inverters made in foreign countries, as reported earlier by Reuters. In an announcement on Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission says the ban will include "mobile" robots, such as humanoid and quadruped models - but it is not limited to robots that walk around.

Though the FCC says the move isn't targeted at a specific country, it will have a major impact on China as the country ramps up efforts to produce humanoid robots, some of which we've seen in viral videos stumbling to Michael Jackson, partaking in MMA fights, and even appearing …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ariana Grande is suing the hackers who’ve been leaking her songs and videos for years

Ariana Grande filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Los Angeles County Superior Court against the currently unidentified hackers who allegedly stole and leaked private content. It aims to "uncover the identities of these currently unknown and unscrupulous individuals," referred to as "John Doe 1 and John Does 2 through 100." The lawsuit also says that "In 2023 alone, 45 unreleased songs" were "hacked, stolen, and leaked," adding that hundreds of similar leaks have happened since Grande's music debut in 2011.

The stolen content is said to include "still-in-production, unreleased masters and demos, footage from recording sessions, music videos, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The union drive at the Wikimedia Foundation is expanding

Wikipedia logo on a grey background.

In June, UK staff at the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia became the first to announce their intention to form a union. Now, US-based employees at the Wikimedia Foundation are joining the union drive, but management at the nonprofit has declined to voluntarily recognize their union.

"While the Wikimedia Foundation touts to the public that they plan to take a neutral stance in our organizing efforts, they have already proven that not to be the case behind the scenes," a press release sent by Communications Workers of America, with which Wiki Workers United is affiliated, reads in part. "When the Foundation rejected our request for voluntary rec …

Read the full story at The Verge.

eBay’s bizarre cyberstalking saga ends with a $56 million settlement

Illustration showing the Ebay logo.

eBay and three former executives will pay $55.7 million as part of a settlement with a Massachusetts couple targeted with a bizarre harassment and cyberstalking campaign in 2019, as reported earlier by CNBC. The settlement will resolve a lengthy legal saga that revealed how eBay's former executives sent live insects, a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath, and other strange items to David and Ina Steiner over their newsletter's coverage of eBay.

The Steiners, who operate the EcommerceBytes newsletter, sued eBay and its former executives - including ex-CEO Devin Wenig - in 2021. The lawsuit accused the company and its executives of launching a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AI leaders sign a statement asking the government to do something about automated AI

Photo illustration of a computer with a brain on the screen.

Employees of OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Google, Meta, Thinking Machines, Microsoft, Mistral, and other leading AI labs, have written a statement to the US government supporting a potential slowdown of sorts for frontier AI development - or at least a speed-up of global coordinated governance efforts.

"Al could help create a dramatically better future, but that outcome is not guaranteed," the employees wrote in the statement. "The world's leading Al companies believe they could be close to automating Al research. It is hard to predict exactly how much this will accelerate Al progress, but there is a real risk that capability developmen …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Is it illegal to trick the US government into wiping your phone during a questionably legal search?

Illustration of a password above an open combination lock, implying a data breach.

A Georgia man was charged with a felony for allegedly wiping his phone while being questioned by Customs and Border Protection. Samuel Tunick had something in common with others who have had their devices searched at airports: He was an activist.

Unlike others who have had their phones seized with no explanation, Tunick was told that CBP needed to search his device to determine whether it contained child sexual abuse material, according to court filings. But Tunick's attorneys argue that the search "was a pretext for a fishing expedition" into his connections with the Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta, in which dozens of people were charged …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AI’s finally expensive enough to make Wall Street nervous

A bear appears, surrounded by down arrows
Working hard, or bear-ly working? | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

It's earnings season, and investors got an unpleasant surprise from Google: an increase on its spending estimate, to as much as $205 billion - from the last quarter's projection of up to $190 billion. Even the lower end of Google's new projected range - $195 billion - is much more than the company had previously forecast as its top end spending. Now, look, I recognize that there's an impulse to say things like "What's $15 billion between friends?" but from an investor's perspective, Google has essentially said that it can't accurately forecast its costs, which is a scary thing. Plus, Google is spending more money than it's making. And Google …

Read the full story at The Verge.

This comfy gaming headset that can play audio from two sources is $25

The Hybrid adds Bluetooth functionality to the wired H3, seen here. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

While most gaming headsets have moved towards low-latency wireless connections, there’s something to be said for a budget-friendly, capable wired headset. The EPOS H3 Hybrid is on sale for just $24.99 at Woot, a whopping 75 percent off its original price of $99.99. It has an unorthodox batch of features: USB-A and 3.5mm options for connecting to a controller or a PC, and Bluetooth support for listening to music and taking calls. Notably, it can play audio from wired and wireless sources concurrently, and it can last up to 37 hours per charge.

EPOS H3 Hybrid

Where to Buy:

My colleague Cameron Faulkner spent some time with the wired-only version of this headset five years ago, and was impressed by its balanced sound profile, comfortable fit, and generously-sized volume knob. He had some qualms about USB connectivity and lack of sidetone, both of which seem to have been addressed in the Hybrid version of the headset that’s available at a steep discount right now. This version also has two microphones — a removable boom mic and a built-in microphone — so you can still take calls via Bluetooth without looking like an airline pilot.

Logitech will pull a Nintendo — only European mice will come with replaceable batteries

A Logitech G502 Lightspeed mouse, black, rakish angles of its buttons towards the camera, surrounded by screws, an adjustable wrench, a precision screwdriver, and several hex keys.

In June, Nintendo announced a new version of the Switch 2 that should let you easily replace its battery pack - but only for Europe. Logitech will do much the same. User-replaceable batteries will be the law in Europe in February 2027, but instead of bringing them to the rest of the world, Logitech plans to ship one version of its wireless mice to Europe and a different version everywhere else.

That's the word from Logitech's new gaming boss, Robin Piispanen. We talked about it over iced vanilla lattes at my local cafe, right after discussing how Logitech isn't sure it wants to make another gaming handheld.

Why? Logitech believes that les …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple won’t turn on any ‘restricted mode’ for missed lease payments

iPhone 17E on a desk

Apple says it won't limit the capabilities of devices leased through its new Upgrade program if you miss a payment. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Apple spokesperson Brian Bumbery says, "There will be no restricted mode and/or there will be no limitations put on device functionality due to missed payments or default with the Apple Upgrade program."

This confirmation comes after 9to5Mac uncovered code in an iOS 27 beta for a new "App Managed Features" system. This would reportedly allow financial partners to "perform ongoing status checks" on a device, as well as have Apple's system services put a device in "Restricted Mode" if its ow …

Read the full story at The Verge.