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ICE has killed another person in Minneapolis

Footage of agents surrounding and shooting a man is quickly circulating online.

Terrence O'Brien

Today’s Storystream

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Cameron Faulkner
Belkin’s new Switch 2 charging case earns its $100 price.

Belkin’s $100 Charging Case Pro for the Switch 2 looks similar to the $70 version; it’s a thick zip-up case with a 10,000mAh battery, plus pockets for cartridges and an AirTag. But the battery here, cleverly redesigned as a folding stand that magnetically snaps into the case, makes it feel worth the higher cost.

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<em>The built-in battery/stand offers just as much versatility as the Switch 2’s kickstand.</em>
<em>A top-down view of how the Switch 2 looks in the Charging Case Pro. To tilt the console’s screen towards you, just fit a finger into the gap near the top to pull the stand’s bracket.</em>
The section that connects to the Switch 2 articulates, letting you adjust the viewing angle as you please. And, no, the outer USB-C charging port doesn’t support video-out. I tried!
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The built-in battery/stand offers just as much versatility as the Switch 2’s kickstand.
The state attorneys general are as mad as you are

The Democratic state AGs think they’re the only officials standing up to Trump. They are probably right.

Sarah Jeong
This coming-of-age adventure game made me feel a little too seenThis coming-of-age adventure game made me feel a little too seen
Entertainment
The Loch Capsule dishwasher is small, fast, and efficient — it even sanitizes gadgets

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Youtube
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Bears. Beets. Battle royale collaboration.

Soon you’ll be able to play as The Office’s Dwight Schrute and Michael Scott in Fortnite when new skins of the characters debut in the game’s item shop. It’s one of Fortnite’s stranger collaborations, but it makes more sense when you consider how many people are still watching the show.

It’s worse than it looks in Minneapolis

But locals are organizing to keep each other safe from ICE agents.

Scott Meslow
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Jay Peters
TIL Google Forms can stop accepting responses automatically.

According to a post from earlier this month, you can set a form to stop taking responses after receiving a certain number of them or on a certain date and time. Previously, you had to close forms manually. Handy update!

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Jay Peters
Meta and EssilorLuxottica are being sued by Solos over alleged patent infringement.

Patent infringement lawsuits are heating up in the world of smart glasses, with Xreal suing Viture earlier this month and Meta being sued last year over the electromyography tech in the Neural Band used to control the Meta Ray-Ban Display.

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Andrew J. Hawkins
‘Like judging a baseball season by a single inning.’

Every time it gets really cold, the climate change deniers come out of the woodwork with their best “I am very intelligent” grins to sputter some version of “whither global warming?” Fortunately, The Verge’s senior science reporter Justine Calma knew to anticipate these inane inquiries in her story today about the approaching winter storm:

“People say, ‘Oh, well, it’s really cold or we’re getting a lot of snow — how is the world warming?’ Climate change is an increase in the baseline temperatures, but it’s also an increase in extremes from both ways,” says Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior research associate at the nonprofit Climate Central. “It can make more extreme cold outcomes; it can make more extreme warm outcomes … judging climate change by a cold storm is like judging a baseball season by a single inning.”

Why nobody’s stopping Grok
Play

How Elon Musk and xAI are putting a nail in the coffin of content moderation.

Nilay Patel
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Adi Robertson
“I swallowed some of it. I had really been spitting it out near the end.”

The Nation interviewed Graham Granger, the student arrested for consuming part of an exhibit of AI-generated art — although apparently he didn’t eat everything he chewed up.

Do you have any qualms about the fact that AI art is made by scraping other artists?

Yeah, I mean, that’s part of why I spat it out, because AI chews up and spits out art made by other people.

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Justine Calma
Layoffs are on pause at FEMA as the US braces for a massive winter storm.

President Trump has talked about dismantling FEMA as his administration slashes staff from federal agencies. But now, FEMA will “cease offboarding” workers, CNN reports. A major winter storm threatens to wreck power grids and make travel treacherous across much of the US over the weekend and into next week.

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Jay Peters
One of Apple’s major assembly partners has reportedly been breached.

The breach of Luxshare allegedly happened in December, though Cybernews reports that there is “no evidence” that “consumer iCloud accounts or user passwords were accessed.” The ransomware group RansomHub, which announced the breach, also claims that information from Nvidia, Tesla, and others is part of the stolen data.

Casio teased a retro gaming-inspired samplerCasio teased a retro gaming-inspired sampler
News
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Jay Peters
Chrome won’t support macOS 12 starting later this year.

Chrome 151, which Google tentatively plans to launch on July 28th, will be the first to require support for macOS 13 Ventura or later.

“Older versions of Chrome will continue to work, but there will be no further updates released for users on this operating system,” Google says.

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Jay Peters
Elon Musk is weighing how to participate in the midterm elections.

Musk has already donated $10 million to a super PAC supporting Nate Morris, who is running for the seat Mitch McConnell is leaving, and is “focused on” convincing voters who only vote when Trump is on the ballot to turn up for this year’s elections, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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Andrew Webster
That’s one way to donate blood.

The next release from Blumhouse’s game division has an interesting twist: your character’s blood actually powers their weapons. The game is called Crisol: Theater of Idols, and it’s launching pretty soon, hitting PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on February 10th. (While you wait, check out another excellent Blumhouse title: Fear the Spotlight.)

The end of the Sony era in TVsThe end of the Sony era in TVs
Podcasts
Podcasts
David Pierce
Influencers are pushing suspicious peptides. How much are you willing to risk?

The search for the contents of my mystery “GLP-3” vial leads further into the wellness wild west.

Victoria Song
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Andrew J. Hawkins
So much for the Chevy Bolt.

GM is ending production of its most affordable EV after the 2027 model year, replacing it with a gas-powered Buick. The decision came less than a year after the automaker rolled out a revamped version of the Bolt with better charging capabilities. Of course, this won’t be the first time that the automaker killed off the Bolt. But given the inhospitable environment around EVs these days, the Bolt’s days were likely numbered. GM has said its priority is profitable autos like the Buick that previously was built in China.

Tesla finally kills Autopilot in a bid to boost FSD subscriptionsTesla finally kills Autopilot in a bid to boost FSD subscriptions
Transportation
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Andrew Webster
It’s a me, your weekend plans.

What better way to spend Sunday morning than with a fresh Super Mario Galaxy movie trailer. Nintendo is streaming its next Direct showcase for the sequel on January 25th at 9AM ET. Hopefully the talking flower will make an appearance. For a refresher, here’s the most recent look.

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Dominic Preston
iPads Pro and attorneys general.

Some plurals are just more fun than others to say — this commenter gets it.

The Schpongler:

Must feel so good to use the plural “attorneys general” at a scale like this. It’s like “senators elect”, “notaries public”, or “Bigs Mac”.

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