The Trump phone sure looks a lot like this HTC handset
Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts, and have stopped getting a response. This week, thanks to a reader tip, we think we've found the original phone the T1 is based on.
A long time ago, back when the Trump phone was but a single, inaccurate render and a contradictory spec sheet, we tried to figure out what other phone it might be based on. Now, eight months, two spec overhauls, and one redesign later, I have a good guess: the HTC U24 Pro.
I didn't spot this by myself. A reader first tipped me off to the similarities between the U24 …
CISA is getting a new acting director after less than a year
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is getting a new acting director, as reported by ABC, less than a year after Madhu Gottumukkala took charge of the agency as deputy director and acting director in May 2025.
CISA's executive assistant director for cybersecurity, Nick Andersen, will become the agency's new acting director while Gottumkkala will now be serving as director of strategic implementation at DHS. The leadership change comes just a month after reports that Gottumkkala uploaded sensitive documents to ChatGPT. Gottumkkala had requested special permiss …
AI deepfakes are a train wreck and Samsung’s selling tickets
On Thursday morning, I attended a Q&A panel with four top Samsung smartphone executives. Until 2025, Samsung was the world's largest smartphone manufacturer, and by association, the world's largest maker of cameras. It's still the second largest after Apple.
Samsung handed me the microphone first. I asked:
We see a divide in society between people who want AI to do impressive things with their photos and videos, and those who don't want AI to do anything with photos and videos because it's eroding our ability to believe that what we have seen is real, destroying the concept of photographic evidence.
Metadata tools like C2PA have utterl …
FedEx will refund customers for Trump’s tariffs — if there ever are any refunds
FedEx plans to pass along any refunds resulting from the Supreme Court's ruling that some of President Donald Trump's tariffs are "illegal." In a statement on its website, FedEx notes that while "no refund process has been established by the courts," the company will reimburse shippers and consumers impacted by tariffs if it gets its money back.
The delivery giant issued the statement after filing a lawsuit in the US Court of International Trade, asking the Trump administration for a "full refund" of tariff payments. Though FedEx covers the cost of duties and tariffs on a customer's behalf when packages arrive in the US, it bills customers …
Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Plus gets a better interface and a 40 percent discount
When Amazon first showed off its redesigned Fire TV OS at CES, we were impressed. It’s faster, better organized, and feels similar to Google’s top-notch TV interface. The update is now finally rolling out to the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, making it an even better buy now that it’s on sale for $29.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target — $5 shy of its best price to date. If you want something cheaper and don’t mind waiting for the update to arrive, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select is also on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, for $19.99 ($20 off), which is $2 more than its all-time low price.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus
Where to Buy:
The new Fire TV OS update makes navigating content even easier, adding tabs across the top for search, home, movies, TV shows, sports, news, and live content that pull recommendations from all of your subscriptions. Your apps now live on their own row, and you can pin up to 20 favorites instead of just six. You also get support for Alexa Plus, letting you search for specific types of content with your voice, jump to particular scenes, control compatible smart home devices, check sports scores, and more. The update also improves the remote, with a long press of the Home button opening a panel so you can quickly adjust audio or check on devices like Ring cameras.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Plus is also a good streaming device on the hardware front. The middle child in the Fire TV stick lineup, it offers half the storage of the $40 Fire TV Stick 4K, but otherwise shares support for HDR10 Plus, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. You also get an Alexa Voice Remote included, for quick access to apps and voice controls. For most people, it offers a good balance between features and price.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select
Where to Buy:
We’d recommend the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus overall, but if you just want a cheap and basic 4K streaming stick — maybe one for a second or third TV — the standard Fire TV Stick 4K is hard to ignore at $20. The redesigned Fire TV OS has yet to roll out to the stick, and it has half the RAM so it’s slower. It also lacks Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support, but it still supports HDR10, HDR10 Plus, and Alexa Plus while including an Alexa Voice Remote. You also get access to all the major streaming services, while Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can stream select games from the cloud as they can on Amazon’s other sticks.
AI vs. the Pentagon: killer robots, mass surveillance, and red lines
Can AI firms set limits on how and where the military uses their models? Anthropic is in heated negotiations with the Pentagon after refusing to comply with new military contract terms that would require it to loosen the guardrails on its AI models, allowing for “any lawful use,” even mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous lethal weapons.
Pentagon CTO Emil Michael is pushing for Anthropic to be designated a “supply chain risk” if it doesn’t comply, a label usually only given to national security threats. Anthropic’s rivals OpenAI and xAI have reportedly agreed to the new terms, but even after a White House meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is still refusing to cross his company’s red line, stating that “threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.”
Follow along here for the latest updates on the clash between AI companies and the Pentagon…
- We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robots
- Anthropic refuses Pentagon’s new terms, standing firm on lethal autonomous weapons and mass surveillance
- Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon AI bro squad includes a former Uber executive and a private equity billionaire
- Inside Anthropic’s existential negotiations with the Pentagon
Woot’s ‘Video Games for All’ sale features some of our favorite games
There’s a sale happening at Woot that’s delivering Black Friday-esque deals on video games through March 5th. The “Video Games for All” sale includes discounts on physical games for most modern consoles, making it a great time to treat yourself (or a pal) to some titles that you’ve been waiting to see big price drops for. There are also deals on gaming accessories like totes, controllers, and more. Through February 27th at 11:58PM CT, you can score an additional 20 percent off products looped into this sale by entering the code LEVEL20 at checkout (it caps at $30 total off your order).
Everyone’s tastes are different, but some picks in this sale that especially vibe with me include Silent Hill F, which is fun and very different beast from Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake (less item hunting, more countering enemy attacks). Of course, who can argue against the pure fun contained within the Super Mario Galaxy double-pack for Switch that includes the original title and its sequel? It’s always cliché to say that there’s something for everyone here, but I think it’s actually true this time.
More deals and discounts
- Sometimes, a rug or table can pull the room together. In the event that doesn’t work, Govee’s Pendant Light might just be the ticket. This height-adjustable smart light makes for a fun upgrade in your home, and it’s now selling at its lowest price yet at Amazon. Normally $149.99, it’s down to $109.98. The dimmable LED enclosure is shielded by a smokey, translucent shell, and it’s capable of displaying three different lighting configurations at once. In other words, you can create some interesting color combinations if the mood strikes, or simply use it as a regular light. It can go between 2700K and 6500K color temperatures, and it’s Matter-compatible so it ties in neatly with plenty of smart home ecosystems.
- There is always a new set of wireless earbuds to consider. Companies launching in the $200 or so price range have their work cut out for them because there are already well-established leaders, but it’s another story for the sub-$50 models. Despite the low price, they can be mighty impressive. An example of that is the Skullcandy Dime 3 earbuds, which are just $19.88 at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy (originally $34.99) in multiple color schemes. This price has been available for much of this month, but in case the right time to buy for you is now, these offer up to 20 hours of battery life thanks to their lanyard-equipped charging case. Other features include multipoint pairing, letting you tether to more than one device over Bluetooth simultaneously. The Dime 3 also offer built-in Tile tracking, which is possible through the Tile mobile app.
- So much for the Super Bowl being when the biggest TV deals land. LG’s 48-inch C5 OLED TV is currently selling at its best-ever price at Amazon, costing $819.99 (this model was $999.99 at the beginning of this month). Currently, it’s just about $80 cheaper than the smaller 42-inch version, and almost $400 cheaper than the 55-inch version. The 48-inch version packs in all of the enhancements found in bigger, pricier sizes, including four HDMI 2.1 ports for gaming at up to 144Hz at 4K, plus Dolby Vision HDR.
We don’t have to have unsupervised killer robots
It's the day of the Pentagon's looming ultimatum for Anthropic: allow the US military unchecked access to its technology, including for mass surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons, or potentially be designated a "supply chain risk" and potentially lose hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts. Amid the intensifying public statements and threats, tech workers across the industry are looking at their own companies' government and military contracts wondering what kind of future they're helping to build.
While the Department of Defense has spent weeks negotiating with Anthropic over removing its guardrails, including allowing t …
The US military reportedly shot down a CBP drone with a laser
The US military mistakenly shot down a drone belonging to Customs and Border Protection near the Mexican border in Fort Hancock, Texas, according to reports from Reuters and The New York Times. The Thursday incident reportedly led the Federal Aviation Administration to close the airspace where the military fired the anti-drone laser.
This marks the second time this month that officials closed airspace near the US-Mexico border due to an incident involving an anti-drone laser. On February 11th, officials closed airspace around the El Paso International Airport for hours after CBP fired an anti-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA, T …
Here’s your first look at Kratos in Amazon’s God of War show
Amazon has slowly been teasing out casting details for its live-action adaptation of God of War, and now we have our first look at the show. It's a single image but a notable one showing protagonist Kratos and his son Atreus. The characters are played by Ryan Hurst and Callum Vinson, respectively, and they look relatively close to their video game counterparts.
There aren't a lot of other details about the show just yet, but this is Amazon's official description:
The God of War series storyline follows father and son Kratos and Atreus as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, …