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The future of physical games is not looking great

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Grand Theft Auto VI release won’t offer a disc. | Image: Rockstar Games This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on video games and physical media, follow Jay Peters. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started As a kid, I relished trips to Best Buy, GameStop, and the nearby mall so that I could browse video games. I loved sifting through games and chatting with my friends at the store about upcoming releases. On the lucky days I actually got a new game from the store, I treasured reading through every page of the manual on the drive home. Over the years, I built up a collecti … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/6wGekbr

The grueling, 630-mile road race where the only fuel is sunlight

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The 2018 Solar Car Challenge was the last time participants took their designs out on the open road. | Image: Lehman Marks / Solar Car Challenge On July 19th, dozens of teams of high school students will begin a five-day, 630-mile road race from Fort Worth to Fort Stockton in Texas. But this is not your typical contest. The students design and build the cars themselves, using off-the-shelf parts and 3D printed materials. The winner is the team that accumulates the most driven miles. And the only fuel they can use to power their Frankenstein-looking vehicles comes from that mass of incandescent gas that hangs in our sky: the Sun. This year is the 30th anniversary of the annual Solar Car Challenge , a contest that brings together high school students from around the country with the on … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/fpdhARP

Dave Eggers told OpenAI staff that ChatGPT was ‘silencing an entire generation’

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Dave Eggers attends the "The Turning Point: To Be Destroyed" premiere. | Image: John Lamparski/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival Last year, Sam Altman invited author Dave Eggers to give a talk to around 200 OpenAI staffers. The man has written countless novels , screenplays, pieces of journalism, started McSweeney's , and founded multiple schools and nonprofits that support writers and the arts more broadly. So one might expect he'd roll into the company's offices and offer tips on being relentlessly prolific, or how to excel in multiple fields. Instead, he apparently laced into the company. According to the Financial Times , Eggers told the staff: "The effect of ChatGPT on educators' lives is catastrophic. Whether you intended to do it or not, you've made every teache … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/76pnBYL

Google might not kneecap the Pixel 11a with an old processor

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The Pixel 10a shipped with a last gen processor. | Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge Mystic Leaks suggests that the Pixel 11a will return to featuring a flagship-grade processor with the Tensor G6. Rather than the Tensor G5 found in the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro , the Pixel 10a shipped with the previous generation Tensor G4. That was a huge disappointment since, typically, the Pixel a lineup kept the modern processor, but cut corners in other places to keep costs down. The Tensor G6 is rumored to feature the same PowerVR DXT-48-1536 GPU as the G5, but it should still be an improvement over the Mali-G715 in the Tensor G4. The big upgrade is that the G6 moves on from Samsung's Exynos modems and instead uses a MediaTek M90 modem. Tha … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/ONmiw3B

Taylor Farms pulls iceberg lettuce from the US market after cyclosporiasis outbreak

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Agriculture - Harvested Iceberg lettuce / Santa Maria, California, USA. (Photo by: Tony Hertz /Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Food producer Taylor Farms released a statement on the Cyclospora outbreak Friday, confirming that it's "voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the US market." Reuters reports that, according to a source, Taylor Farms told customers like Yum Brands owner Taco Bell and the food distributor Sysco on Thursday to pull shredded lettuce that had been produced initially as 5-pound bags at a facility in Guanajuato, Mexico, from distribution. Taco Bell said on Thursday that "The affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/CpbUdLs

Shark’s versatile ChillPill cooling system is back to its best price

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You can clip the versatile cooling gadget, wear it, and use it as a desk fan. | Image: Shark Portable fans are one of the easiest ways to stay cool during the summer, and you don’t have to spend much to find a decent one . If you’re looking for something more versatile, though, Shark’s ChillPill Personal Fan and Cooling System combines a rechargeable fan with a dry-touch evaporative mister in a design that can be worn, clipped, or used on a tabletop. Right now, it’s on sale for $99.99 ($30 off) at Amazon , matching its all-time low. If you’re a Costco member, you can get it for the same price with a free clip, crossbody strap, and InstaChill Cooling Plate which you can press against your neck or wrists for quick relief. Shark ChillPill Personal Fan and Cooling System Where to Buy: $129.99 $99.99 at Amazon $129.99 $99.99 at Costco Unlike a standard handheld fan, the two-in-one device is designed so that you can wear i...

TikTok is testing an AI likeness detection tool

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TikTok is starting to test an opt-in tool that scans for AI likenesses and lets creators report them to the company, as spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra . The tool is initially being tested with "some" US creators, TikTok US spokesperson Zachary Kizer tells The Verge . YouTube has been working on a similar tool and recently made it available to all adult users . Creators who are part of TikTok's test and want to use the tool will first have to verify their identity with a company called Jumio . You'll have to do a real-time selfie scan and an ID check, but Kizer says that "TikTok does not retain ID documents, and facial informati … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/qfjG0DK