The Social Reckoning is flopping at the box office
As important as some of the messages in The Social Reckoning are, the movie has been drastically underperforming at the box office. Per Variety, Aaron's Sorkin's follow up to The Social Network only grossed a measly $5.5 million this past weekend against a budget that's somewhere within the $30-42 million range. That would make it a certifiable flop that's costing Columbia Pictures (and Sony) quite a bit of money - especially when you compare it to The Social Network's $22 million opening.
This isn't entirely surprising given how middling reviews for the film have been. It's currently got a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has widely been …
Meta has some Wonder Full new AI models
Meta is making up for lost time in the AI race. After launching Muse Spark, the first model from its revamped Superintelligence Labs division, and buzzy AI agent Muse, it's now launching two new models it claims can go toe-to-toe with the industry's best.
The new models, Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, are available for Muse Code subscribers starting today. Wonder can also be accessed through the Meta Model API, Meta said.
Meta says it eventually plans to power its Muse AI agent with Wonder, starting with subscribers, and will develop specialized models it "can bring to everyone using Muse." It hasn't shared specifics or provided a tim …
Elon Musk has donated over $276 million to Republican midterm efforts
Elon Musk has handed out at least $276 million to Republican groups since July, The New York Times reports, making him both the party's top known donor and the biggest established midterm donor. $158 million of that money - one of the largest political donations in American history - has been funneled into the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC that aims to secure and maintain a Republican Senate majority. Among others, it's fighting to retain the party's Senate seat in Texas, which serves as a major hub for Musk's business empire.
He's also donated over $76 million to America PAC, a super PAC Musk founded in 2024 that canvasses for …
The Yandex outage probably didn’t blitz Russian bots
Multiple Ukrainian drone strikes over the last week have taken Russian data centers offline and reportedly caused online bot traffic to plummet - but in reality it's probably not the kind of bot activity most people associate with Russia.
A chart citing Cloudflare data has been circulating around social media platforms, showing a sharp decline in bot traffic following attacks on Yandex servers - a technology company often described as "Russia's Google." While many people are inferring that the chart refers to bot farms that push disinformation, conspiracy theories, and other harmful content across online platforms, reputed troll farm expose …
Mechanism’s first Switch 2 case is as awesome as I hoped it would be
Most companies have slowed down releasing new Switch 2 cases, but one of my favorite accessory makers recently debuted its first, after a few delays. The $49 Basecase from Mechanism is a snap-on shell for the console that taps into the company's modular lineup of mounts. You could already mount the Switch 2 in numerous ways with its $19 Basegrip (to your wall, to its Gaming Pillow, to a monitor arm, etc.). The difference is that this new product protects your console, makes its Joy-Con more comfortable to use, and has some interesting modularity.
The console shell allows for the full range of the Switch 2's kickstand, and access to all of t …
Android is the best and worst thing about Googlebooks
My first week with the new Android-powered laptops has been about as rocky as anyone's, but I've slowly learned to like them, even if love still feels a ways off. Every moment that's impressed me has been thanks to Android, whether I've been accessing a native version of a useful app or quickly checking my phone notifications from the laptop user interface.
But man, sometimes it just sucks.
Phone connectivity is flaky, app casting is awkward, and file-sharing seems to be flat-out broken. And that's just the interaction between a Googlebook and a phone - I have a whole other set of gripes about the limitations of native Android apps on a $ …
No Man’s Sky is coming to the iPhone and iPad
The No Man's Sky universe is about to get a little bit smaller - but in a good way. Hello Games announced that its long-running sci-fi exploration game will be coming to iOS, with versions for both the iPhone and iPad available starting on October 28th.
According to Hello's Sean Murray, the mobile version of the game is essentially the full No Man's Sky experience. "I guess I should say this is not No Man's Sky Lite," he wrote in a blog post. It includes all of the game's many, many updates that have come out since launch - like the gigantic Voyagers expansion from last year - and the only major features missing will be multiplayer and the …
The OnePlus 16 is the company’s most interesting phone in years
Today the OnePlus 16 launched in China, the company's first flagship phone since quitting both the US and European markets this summer. As luck would have it, it also looks like the company's best phone in some time.
Like most OnePlus phones, the 16 is positioned around performance, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset, and up to 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. That's backed up by an enormous 9,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, one of the biggest seen in any Android flagship yet. 100W wired and 50W wireless charging complete the power setup.
On the display front, the phone jumps to a 185Hz OLED panel for the first time. That'll no …
CMF’s first wireless speakers look like musical milk cartons
The CMF Speaker Series are the first portable Bluetooth speakers from the budget-focused brand that Nothing created but is in the process of spinning off into an India-based standalone subsidiary. As with many of CMF's products, like the Headphone Pro that launched a year ago, the new speakers deliver affordability alongside unique designs and bright color options that help them stand out from the competition. While the company doesn't directly cite a grocery store's dairy aisle as the inspiration for its latest hardware, it's hard not to look at these and immediately see electronic milk cartons.
There are two versions of the CMF Speaker Se …
The Fitbit Edge is for folks who don’t want to go totally screenless
The Fitbit Edge may not be Google's best-kept fitness-tracking secret, but as of today, its existence is official.
The tracker sits smack-dab between the recently launched Fitbit Air and the more powerful Google Pixel Watch 5 in the company's current wearable lineup. Basically, if you have smartwatch fatigue but don't want to give up notifications, this is Google's answer to the aging Fitbit Charge 6.
Much of the Edge's specs were previously leaked, but the tracker has a 46 percent larger OLED display compared to the Charge 6, a physical side button, and is a smidge thicker at 11.5mm. It also sports a replaceable battery that gets about a …