Author: News Room

Workers at Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar Games have submitted a request for their union, the IWGB Game Workers Union, to be voluntarily recognized, according to a press release. The request follows Rockstar firing more than 30 staffers last year in a move accused of being “union busting.”According to the release, IWGB members have been “actively” organizing since 2019 and “claim they now represent a significant proportion of the workforce across each of the studio’s sites in Edinburgh, Dundee, Lincoln, Leeds and London.” As the union has grown, “Rockstar has already made improvements to workers’ conditions including unprecedented average…

To this day, we have yet to see a quantum computer conclusively perform a single useful task. Existing machines are simply too small and error-ridden to solve commercially relevant problems. That hasn’t stopped Donald Trump’s science adviser from promising a “quantum computer powerful enough for scientific discovery by 2028” and Trump from issuing a new executive order to speed up the US quantum computing industry in its competition with China, both on June 22nd.Companies drive the hype, too. In June, Microsoft announced a new quantum computing chip named Majorana 2. It claimed the chip was a hardware advancement that accelerates…

I’ve worn a fair few of the best smart rings over the past couple of years, and almost all of them have shared the same problem: they look like smart rings. Chunky, slightly clinical, and weird enough to make people ask “what’s that on your finger?” The new Oura Ring 5 is the first smart ring that actually looks like a piece of jewellery. After a month of wearing it day and night, I’m convinced this is the smart ring’s iPhone moment – the point when a product reshapes what users expect by default. So, should you buy one? Here’s…

Videos purporting to show the iPhone 18 Pro undergoing a drop test were removed from X shortly after they surfaced, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. An account imitating leaker Evleaks was suspended from X after sharing the clips, while the post was removed as well, with X saying it “violated” the platform’s rules.Another leaker, IceUniverse, also shared the clips. In a post on Weibo, IceUniverse showed a screenshot from X indicating the post had been taken down, alongside the machine-translated caption: “Apple has already started blocking the leaked data on Twitter.”The videos line up with Reuters’ reporting, which said the…

Watching Elon Musk fulminate at Bill Savitt during Musk v. Altman — the case in which Musk sued Sam Altman and OpenAI instead of seeing a therapist about his AI failures — was a bit like watching a toddler have a temper tantrum at his nursery school teacher. Savitt’s questions were “designed to trick me,” Musk said. He also told Savitt at one point, “You mostly do unfair questions.”Savitt, who has the approximate demeanor of a handsome Droopy Dog, gently told Musk, “I am trying to put the questions as fairly as I can. I am doing my best.”I’ve seen…

Trying to decide between the MacBook Neo or MacBook Air for your next laptop? It’s not as easy a decision as one may think – though that hasn’t always been the case. It used to be simpler, y’know. For years, if someone asked which Apple laptop to buy, the answer was almost always the same – the MacBook Air. It struck a sweet spot between price, portability, and performance, that very few laptops – Apple’s or otherwise – could match. Then the MacBook Neo arrived, bringing macOS to a lower price point without asking buyers to spend four figures. Far…

Samsung is expected to unveil its next generation of foldables at a Galaxy Unpacked event next month, but now we know what they might look like, courtesy of some leaked images published by Android Headlines. Images shared by the publication include case designs for two new Galaxy Z Fold 8 models and the Galaxy Z Flip 8, each giving a good look at the phones inside the cases too.This could be our closest look so far at Samsung’s new wide-style foldable, following a leak of a purported dummy unit in May, and a fresh photo of an apparent dummy unit…

Introduction One of the best things about Mazda is it always likes to do its own thing. Just look at how it continues to use various powertrains across the range rather than go all-in like many rivals. For the Mazda 6e, though, collaboration was the name of the game. This electric car has been produced in a production partnership with Chinese carmaker Changan. The coupe-style saloon with a hatchback is already known as the Changan Deepal L07/SL03 in other markets. That will surely discount it from any kind of US release, despite Mazda taking the bare bones and making this…

I just fished a watch out of Lake Zurich, and no, that wasn’t an accident. Certina has launched the DS Super PH2000M, rated to a genuinely ridiculous 2000 metres. That’s double the depth rating of anything the brand has made before, and it’s not just a small spec bump either. It’s the next chapter in a story that started back in the 1960s, when Certina’s PH watches (PH stands for hydrostatic pressure) first went chasing depth. The first PH model topped out at 200m. By 1970, the DS-2 Super PH1000M had doubled that. Now it’s doubled again. I got the…

Unionised Xbox workers have demanded protection from an expected mass cull, as Microsoft looks to downsize it’s games console and PC gaming division under new leadership. Recent reports have suggested Microsoft is plotting mass layoffs by the end of this month, in what Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier calls a potential “bloodbath”. During a press conference, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) says Xbox workers “will not be treated as disposable” correctly claiming that: “The money is there, leadership is simply choosing where it goes and who pays.” QA tester Andrew Snell, who works with Microsoft-owned Activision Publishing says: “We’re done paying…

Meta has announced that WhatsApp will no longer require users to register a phone number but, rather, will enable messages to be exchanged through unique usernames instead. The driving factor behind the change is to enable users to keep their number private in personal and group chats, while still being able to use WhatsApp to its fullest extent. “When someone new walks into your life – a classmate, a neighbour, someone you meet at an event – sharing a phone number can feel like a big step,” the company says in a blog post. “That’s because a phone number is…

Tidal shared its new policies regarding AI-generated music today and how the platform plans to “protect artists” and “inform listeners.” Instead of banning it outright, starting on July 15th Tidal will label tracks it has identified as being 100 percent AI-generated with an icon. But starting today those tracks will no longer be monetizable. “Tidal’s priority is ensuring royalties go to original works directly produced, written, and performed by people. We will therefore not knowingly attribute royalties to music we identify as wholly AI-generated,” the company’s announcement reads.The platform didn’t specify what tools it’s using to identify AI-generated music, but…