‘The Boys’ season 4 trailer is bloody and a little bubbly
When we last left The Boys, Homelander’s (Anthony Starr) political dabbling was humming along and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) had a terminal illness. Two years and a new spin-off later, Homelander’s supercharging of a presidential campaign continues to be a dark mirror of the US political climate and Butcher looks to desperately reckon with his diagnosis.
The official trailer sees Butcher considering something very much like the X-Men legacy virus — a biological solution that can kill the series’ supes. There’s plenty of carnage, some teeing up of weighty, consequential moments, someone’s skull apparently spewing bubbles when cleaved with a hatchet, a Butcher standoff with Black Noir, and even a chicken chest-burster.
The next season of...
The teens making friends with AI chatbots
Teens are opening up to AI chatbots as a way to explore friendship. But sometimes, the AI’s advice can go too far.
Komoot is helping me get back on my bike after a long hiatus
Getting into cycling in my late thirties has been humbling.
I’m responsible for my own medical costs, which really makes me consider things differently than when I was a kid tearing through the neighborhood park on a twelve-speed Huffy. I’ve also discovered you can spend infinite money on bike stuff if you have the resources, which I do not.
Most of all, I’ve learned that knowing how to get from point A to point B in a car or on a bus does not mean you know the best way to get there on a bike. For this particular bit of cycling logistics, I’ve found a tremendous — and mercifully free of charge — solution: Komoot.
Komoot helps adventurers plan and follow routes — by bicycle or on foot. There are iOS, Android, and smartwatch apps in...
How to make the most of Apple Notes
Apple Notes is one of those apps you can turn to on a daily basis without ever really making full use of all the different features and functions it’s got to offer. That’s where this particular guide comes in. The idea is to point you to some of the lesser known but very useful tricks that Apple Notes can do.
I’m going to focus on the mobile app, but you’ll find most of these tips apply to the desktop version of Apple Notes on macOS as well.
Link notes together
Maybe you’ve got two notes that are separate but also related — one note for planning a trip, for example, and another listing various sights you want to see. Apple Notes lets you link them both together.
Open one of the notes. At the point you want to insert the link:
- L...
Here are some of our favorite Star Wars Day deals
Peruse these awesome deals on Star Wars stuff, you must, because today is May the Fourth. Fans of Lucasfilm’s iconic franchise have long celebrated this day as a kind of borderline-religious holiday of sorts, one that recognizes an ever-growing franchise that has been adapted for almost every type of media — and product — you can think of.
Since its debut in ‘77, Star Wars lore has been doled out in films, TV series, books and graphic novels, video games, and plenty of other mediums we’re surely oblivious to. It’s also inspired board games, toys, apparel, and enough merch to fill a galaxy far, far away. Many retailers commemorate May 4th by discounting the latter, and we’ve gone deep into the heap so you can see all of the best Star...
The Flextail Tiny Bike Pump is a solid pump half the time
Social media’s algorithms know that I ride a bike almost every day. My quiver includes a city bike, mountain bike, and gravel bike, in addition to one or two e-bikes I’m always in the process of reviewing. I’m also the family mechanic, which makes me responsible for no less than 16 to 18 tires that I must keep inflated. So, you’d better believe I took notice when Instagram served me several ads for the Flextail Tiny Bike Bump.
The mini rechargeable pump works with Presta (the thin one) or Schrader (the old fatty) valves and promises ultra-fast inflation that maxes out at 100psi (about 7 bars) — enough for any bike that doesn’t require a stretchy wardrobe coordinated with your shoes and helmet.
The origins of the pump are suspect, as I...
As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages
The fate of Google’s search business is now in the hands of Judge Amit Mehta, as closing arguments concluded in the landmark trial on Friday.
The Department of Justice and plaintiff states made their last arguments Thursday on Google’s alleged anticompetitive conduct in the general search market, and on Friday focused on its allegedly illegal conduct in search advertising. Google was also under fire (separately) for failing to retain chat messages that the DOJ believes could have been relevant to the case.
The government is trying to show that Google locked up key distribution channels for the general search engine market, so that would-be rivals could not grow into significant threats. It says it did so through contracts with phone...
Microsoft needs some time to ‘refine’ updates for Copilot AI in Windows
Microsoft’s latest Windows Insider blog posts say that when it comes to testing new Copilot features in Windows 11, “We have decided to pause the rollouts of these experiences to further refine them based on user feedback.” For people who already have the feature, “Copilot in Windows will continue to work as expected while we continue to evolve new ideas with Windows Insiders.”
Microsoft is holding an AI event on May 20th which would be a good time to show more of what’s next, and after setting up 2024 as “the year of the AI PC,” with a new Copilot key on Windows keyboards, there’s a lot to live up to.
We’re expecting to see new Surface laptops powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors that run Windows on Arm and compete with...
Google bans advertisers from promoting deepfake porn services
Google has had a longstanding ban on sexually explicit ads — but until now, the company hasn’t banned advertisers from promoting services that people can use to make deepfake porn and other forms of generated nudes. That’s about to change.
Google currently prohibits advertisers from promoting “sexually explicit content,” which Google defines as “text, image, audio, or video of graphic sexual acts intended to arouse.” The new policy now bans the advertisement of services that help users create that type of content as well, whether by altering a person’s image or generating a new one.
The change, which will go into effect on May 30th, prohibits “promoting synthetic content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or...
LG’s quirky briefcase TV is nearly matching its best price to date
As my colleague Chris Welch pointed out in his review of the LG StanbyME Go, there’s something refreshing about a TV that takes a chance on a less familiar concept, especially at a time when beastly OLED panels and art-inspired TVs seem to dominate the landscape. And now, thanks to a $200 discount, you can pick up LG’s suitcase TV at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $996.99.
In terms of design, the StanbyME Go is basically a 27-inch touchscreen TV that’s built directly into a 28-pound, military-grade briefcase you can tote around with you. The panel itself is nothing to write home about — it’s a basic 1080 LCD with an HDMI/eARC port and a peak brightness of 500 nits — but it’s the concept itself that makes it a fun...