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Steve Ballmer got suspended by the NBA because of a podcast and a jumbotron corruption scandal

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INGLEWOOD, CA - JULY 19: A view of Halo Board inside the Intuit Dome, the Los Angeles Clippers new arena, during a press preview on July 19, 2024 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Last September, Steve Ballmer insisted in an ESPN interview that the Clippers weren't involved in a shady-looking $28 million endorsement deal for his star player, Kawhi Leonard, that involved no actual endorsing. Now, the former Microsoft CEO has been suspended by the NBA for a year, while the league says his team will forfeit five future draft picks and pay a $30 million fine, among other penalties. A year later, an NBA-commissioned 35-page report by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is basically calling him a liar, saying those claims were "inaccurate (at best) with respect to Mr. Ballmer" and "clearly false" when it came to Clippers presi … Read the full story at T...

You can watch the coolant flow inside Ugreen’s liquid-cooled power bank

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Does your power bank have "CryoPulse technology" or a "Cyber Window"? If you disappointingly answered "no" to both, you might want to consider upgrading to Ugreen's new MagFlow Pro Magnetic Power Bank . It's available starting today for $149.99 , which puts it on the really expensive end of power banks with only a 10,000mAh battery, but those fancy-sounding features are part of what Ugreen is claiming to be the world's first liquid-cooling system on a power bank with wireless charging. Inside the MagFlow Pro is a micro-pump that's used to circulate coolant and draw heat away from components including the power bank's Qi2.2-compatible wireless … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/nic93g2

Dungeons & Dragons is getting a ‘Ravenloft’ live-action Netflix series

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Strahd returned earlier this year in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. | Image: Wizards of the Coast A Ravenloft series is currently in development from executive producer Alfonso Cuarón, writer and executive producer John August, and Hasbro Entertainment, Deadline reports. It could bring to life one of Dungeons & Dragons ' most iconic campaign settings, which got an update earlier this year with Ravenloft: The Horrors Within . Netflix's Ravenloft series will reportedly center on the infamous Strahd, according to Deadline : At its heart, the series follows the making of the vampire Darklord Strahd von Zarovich, whose story of power, love, obsession, and undead transformation charts his origins from tragic antihero to one of Dungeons & Dra … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Iay3lRu

Congressman says TikTok backed out of a meeting to avoid child safety questions

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TikTok backed out of a congressional committee's "public roundtable" set for this month over concerns it would be asked about child safety practices, the chair of the committee said . After negotiating "in good faith" to bring TikTok's chief security officer before the House Select Committee on China to answer questions about Chinese government access to Americans' data and the TikTok algorithm, Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) said in a statement Thursday that the company reversed course. "Now, TikTok is refusing to appear citing its own desire to avoid broader scrutiny of its child safety practices," Moolenaar wrote. TikTok did not immediately … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/0xv7wmN

Uber beats Waymo as first to launch robotaxis in London

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Uber beat out Waymo in launching a commercial robotaxi service in London, the city's first. The vehicles use autonomous driving tech developed by Wayve , a UK-based startup, and will initially feature safety drivers behind the wheel. The launch is a milestone for Uber, which has been plotting a UK launch with Wayve for several years . In beating Waymo to the punch, it allows Uber to set the standard for the robotaxi experience for thousands of Londoners. It's also an early test of whether there's appetite for driverless ridehailing beyond the US and China, where most of the world's robotaxis are currently clustered. (There's a smattering in … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/MwxnJms

Google says its new Gemini 3.8 Flash model ‘works harder’ but might cost more

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Google launched Gemini 3.8 Flash , arriving just a few weeks after its predecessor . The company claims the new model "works harder" than Gemini 3.7 Flash by performing more reasoning steps on complex tasks and "calling tools iteratively." It has the same introductory pricing as 3.7 Flash, $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens, but could still end up costing users more. Google warns that "the model might use more tokens to maximize performance, especially at higher effort levels." Developers can keep using Gemini 3.7 Flash if they want to minimize token usage. Gemini 3.8 Flash's launch was followed by some early … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/GUWZeO5

1Password wades into a right-wing mess after funding a Linux project

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David Faugno, CEO at 1Password, at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 11th, 2025. | Photo: Zed Jameson / Bloomberg via Getty Image 1Password faced immediate backlash from customers this week over a $300,000 pledge in support of a Linux distro created by David Heinemeier Hansson, who has regularly published overtly racist blog posts that include comments calling for deportation of ethnic minorities in Europe. The popular password manager is now a " distinguished corporate patron " of Omacom, the nonprofit foundation that oversees a popular Linux distribution known as Omarchy. One viral blog post declared that 1Password "Supports the Ethnic Cleansing of Europe" because of the donation. Others on social media asked for suggestions for alternative password managers so they w … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/hba5zoL