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The human world is a mess.

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External Link
Jay Peters
Bridge blocking.

Bridgy Fed, the open social web bridging tool, now lets users subscribe to fediverse domain blocklists to make it easier to mass block accounts. “When you add blocks or blocklists to your account on either side of the bridge, we maintain and sync those within Bridgy Fed,” according to a blog post.

A second US Sphere could come to MarylandA second US Sphere could come to Maryland
Tech
Tech
Andrew Liszewski
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External Link
Jay Peters
Live-action Universal films are coming to Netflix “much sooner than expected.”

Originally, the live-action movies were going to come to Netflix starting in 2027, but What’s on Netflix reports that they’re appearing starting this year, beginning with Megan 2.0 on January 26th. The films still stream on Peacock first before jumping to Netflix.

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Twitter
Jay Peters
More Ball x Pit.

The Regal Update, the first of three free updates in 2026 for the very good Ball x Pit, will be out on January 26th, adding two new characters, eight new balls, and more. Seems like a great excuse to return to the pit.

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Twitter
Jay Peters
Nothing teases something.

Seems like a new logo. I like the dot matrix one better, but what do you think?

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Twitter
Jay Peters
Back to the dojo.

After disbanding the team behind its Dojo supercomputer project last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company is “restarting work” on Dojo3 now that “the AI5 chip design is in good shape.” Tesla is also recruiting people to work on the project.

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Dominic Preston
“High-friction.”

That’s how Google Play’s “chief product explainer” Matthew Forsythe describes the in-development Android sideloading workflow designed to allow “experienced users” to install apps from unverified developers, with multiple warnings to explain the risks.

Matthew Forsythe on X

[X (formerly Twitter)]

I spent a year on Linux and forgot to miss Windows

One year on Linux, two distros, a few tears, four desktop environments, and zero regrets about leaving Windows.

Stevie Bonifield
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External Link
Jess Weatherbed
Scott Belsky says weird things about AI.

Move aside Ben Affleck, Adobe’s former product chief is also musing on how AI will impact human jobs:

“We must cultivate our sources of taste, override the ancestral ‘logic’ that has restrained us since the dawn of humanity, and learn to be jazz partners with thinking technologies.”

Uh, sure, Belsky. How did those NFT predictions turn out?

Asus may have made its last phoneAsus may have made its last phone
News
News
Dominic Preston
Game of Thrones shows its playful side in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

HBO’s new spinoff prequel takes a humorous look at the grimy lives of Westeros’ smallfolk.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
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Youtube
Jess Weatherbed
Ben Affleck says smart things about AI.

In a Joe Rogan interview on Friday, Affleck spoke for several minutes about how he believes generative AI will (or won’t) impact creative industries, saying it’s “going to be a tool, just like visual effects.”

”I don’t think it’s very likely that it’s gonna be able to write anything meaningful, or that it’s going to be making movies from whole cloth, like Tilly Norwood. That’s bullshit.”

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Dominic Preston
Mixed messaging.

OpenAI announced it’s rolling out a new paid tier in the US, ChatGPT Go, just as it confirms that ads are coming “soon” — including to paid Go users. As sales pitches go, it’s not the best we’ve ever heard.

Kobbelfish:

Pay 8 dollars and you’ll be getting ads soon is not the best marketing imo

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

The AI race suddenly looks like Google’s to lose

Three years after being caught off guard by ChatGPT, Gemini appears to have everything it needs to take down OpenAI and everyone else.

David Pierce
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Terrence O'Brien
Despite what you’ve heard the 49ers’ injuries have nothing to do with an electrical substation or EMF.

The Washington Post has an excellent piece (subscription required) debunking this viral theory. If the levels of EMF radiation measured at the 49ers’ practice facility weakened ligaments, we’d all have torn ACLs. When cornered, Peter Cowan, the self-proclaimed expert who popularized this theory, admitted he had no hard evidence and moved the goalposts:

In an interview, Cowan acknowledged he hadn’t seen any research specifically on EMF damage to muscles and tendons; he drew connections from other studies and his own observations as a clinician, he said. He also didn’t know the 49ers started practicing in Santa Clara so long ago. If he had, he would have broadened his research to track the rising number of cell towers in the area. He said he remains “confident” the substation contributed to the injuries.

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Youtube
Terrence O'Brien
Rodecaster Video Core turns its podcast mixers into video production consoles.

Rode snuck an interesting new member of its Rodecaster family onto the CES floor, and few people noticed. The Rodecaster Video Core brings all the features of the Rodecaster Video S to the company’s Rodecaster Pro or Rodecaster Duo interfaces, allowing them to do double duty for audio and video production.

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External Link
Terrence O'Brien
Samsung adds new sizes of Frame TVs, but is backing away from the One Connect Box.

CES saw only a very minor update to the Frame family, with the mainline adding 75-, 85-, and 98-inch models, and the Frame Pro now coming in a smaller 55-inch size. Oddly, only two of the seven mainline Frame models will support the One Connect Box — the 43- and 50-inch.

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Youtube
Terrence O'Brien
Nightshift is YouTube channel about the darker side of history from the Kurzgesagt team.

Rather than science and the modern world, the new channel looks back and tells stories from our past. The first episode is the fascinating tale of Zheng Yi Sao, the Pirate Queen of China. The art style is also quite different, more painterly. You can watch the first episode below.

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Terrence O'Brien
Matt Damon told Joe Rogan that Netflix wants movies to repeatedly explain the plot in dialogue because people are always on their phone.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck went on the Joe Rogan Experience to promote their new film The Rip, and ended up sharing some very depressing details about Netflix’s love of repeated exposition dumps and its approach to filmmaking in this age of constant distraction. As Variety reports:

“The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third,” Damon explained. “You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale. And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.’”

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Terrence O'Brien
Plans for a Las Vegas Atari Hotel have been scrapped.

We’ve been promised an Atari-themed hotel for six years now. The project is moving forward and looking for fans to invest in a Phoenix, Arizona, location. But there won’t be a Vegas outpost. Spokesperson Sara Collins told the Las Vegas Sun plans were “explored” in 2020 and 2021, but nothing came of it.

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External Link
Terrence O'Brien
A congressional candidate in Florida bought nazis.us and redirected it to the DHS site.

Mark Davis, an independent running for the District 16 House seat in Florida, picked up the domain and pointed it to the department, explaining on X that “the GOP went full fascist and the democrat establishment still won’t name it.” He’s hoping to capture some of the growing furor over ICE’s increasingly aggressive tactics after several high-profile shootings.

All You Need Is Kill is a dazzling movie with the soul of a video game

The new adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s sci-fi light novel feels like a tribute to the roguelike genre.

Charles Pulliam-Moore
Our favorite cozy game is backOur favorite cozy game is back
Tech
Tech
David Pierce
TCL’s PlayCube projector is more fun than a Rubik’s Cube

8

Verge Score

An all-in-one Google TV projector with big battery life for entertainment anywhere you go.

Thomas Ricker
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The Verge
Jay Peters
The founder of Camouflaj, one of Meta’s remaining VR studios, was laid off this week.

Ryan Payton confirmed to The Verge that he was impacted by this week’s job cuts affecting Meta’s Reality Labs division.

Aftermath previously reported that Camouflaj studio heads had been let go and that the developer is now just “a handful of employees” working on “the new user experience for upcoming hardware.”

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The Verge
Jay Peters
The new Moto Watch will cost $149.99.

”In the United States, the new moto watch in PANTONE Volcanic Ash will be available for pre-order at motorola.com on January 22 (MSRP: $149.99),” Motorola spokesperson Brendan Hall tells The Verge. “The device will officially go on-sale on January 28.”

The watch was announced during CES. At the time, Motorola didn’t share the price.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

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External Link
Jay Peters
California’s attorney general sent xAI a cease and desist letter over Grok’s nonconsensual AI deepfakes.

“The avalanche of reports detailing this material — at times depicting women and children engaged in sexual activity — is shocking and, as my office has determined, potentially illegal,” Attorney General Rob Bonta says. The state has also opened an investigation into xAI.

Attorney General Bonta Sends Cease and Desist Letter to xAI, Demands It Halt Illegal Actions Immediately

[State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General]

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