Timef 05/16/2025

Spotify announced last week that it would roll out public play counts on all podcasts as a way of “helping attract new fans.” But podcasters swiftly responded with criticism of the new feature — mainly, that it would further promote podcasts that already have large audiences while making smaller shows less appealing to new listeners. […]

It’s the best time of the year to pick up all the tents, stoves, sleeping bags, and gear you’ll need for summer fun.

With vibe coding all the rage, OpenAI says Codex can take on more development chores in a safe and explainable way.

The tool, Codex, will be able to handle multiple tasks at the same time, the company said. OpenAI is also in talks to acquire a coding tool called Windsurf for $3 billion.

OpenAI announced on Friday it’s launching a research preview of Codex, the company’s most capable AI coding agent yet. Codex is powered by codex-1, a version of the company’s o3 AI reasoning model optimized for software engineering tasks. OpenAI says codex-1 produces “cleaner” code than o3, adheres more precisely to instructions, and will iteratively run […]

These gift ideas will make your favorite bookworm very happy, from e-readers to cozy accessories.

Creator platform Patreon has to modify its app to comply with Apple’s guidelines after a recent update allowed U.S. users to make purchases via the web. The company says that its own web-based checkout option is now the default for U.S. fans, but it has to update its app so that this checkout option opens in […]

The judge in Canoo’s bankruptcy case has blocked an attempt by a mysterious financier to disrupt the sale of the EV startup’s assets. In a hearing Tuesday, Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon ruled the financier, a UK-based man named Charles Garson, lacked standing to request the sale to Canoo’s own CEO be vacated. While Garson had […]

The funding round arrives as tech companies and utilities are struggling to secure power for data centers.

Discover how to reclaim valuable space on your PC by deleting unnecessary files, using cloud storage and enabling Windows Storage Sense.

In a commencement speech at Temple University, I shared my views on how new college graduates can compete with powerful artificial intelligence.

Epic Games claims that Apple is blocking its Fortnite app from the U.S. and E.U. App Stores. After winning a decisive victory for app developers in a legal battle with Apple, forcing the tech giant to allow external payments in its U.S. App Store without charging commission, Epic Games attempted to resubmit Fortnite to the […]

Veteran Chipotle executive Jack Hartung was appointed a member of Tesla’s board of directors Thursday, according to a Tesla filing with the SEC. Hartung’s addition to the board comes as Tesla quietly works to finish its 1950s-style diner and charging station in Los Angeles.  Hartung brings over two decades of experience as a Chipotle CFO, […]

Different cities use different water treatments, and this can affect how filters work on your water.

"Talk to Me" directors Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou return with fresh horror in "Bring Her Back." Review.

The FDA-cleared LED mask features targeted modes for helping reduce fine lines and blemishes, but if you're consistent, the benefits go far deeper.

As gorgeous as it is, Microsoft’s latest 2-in-1 Windows tablet is held back by baffling pricing decisions.

Wrists cramping? Skip the gaming mouse and snag one of these WIRED-tested ergonomic options instead.

As of May 16, the JBL Go 4 is on sale at Amazon for $39.95. It's normally listed for $49.95, so you're saving 20%.

Plus, your Friday news quiz.

A star of “The Office” comes to our office to answer your most pressing questions about tech.

If you're a TikTok user under 18 and scrolling after 10pm, the app will interrupt your feed with a meditation exercise.

As of May 16, the starlight Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) are on sale at Amazon for $479.99. Normally they're listed for $549, so you're getting 13% off.

"The Last of Us" star Young Mazino appeared on "The Tonight Show" and dropped a big Season 2 spoiler while recapping the show.

"The Daily Show"'s Desi Lydic has made a parody video of Fox News talking about Trump's Qatar plane gift.

Learn how to troubleshoot disappearing emails on iPhone and Android devices. Find out the reasons behind this issue and how to prevent it from happening again.

The cast of "Murderbot," including Alexander Skarsgård, weigh in on how they relate to Murderbot.

As of May 16, the Garmin Lily 2 is on sale at Amazon for $199.99. It's normally listed for $249.99, so you're getting 20% off.

Save 22% on the Eufy X10 Pro Omni robot vacuum at Amazon.

Save 30% on the Nespresso Vertuo Plus.

"The Daily Show" host Jordan Klepper has given a blow-by-blow analysis of one of Donald Trump's most confusing "weaves".

Save 22% on the Amazon Fire TV 4-Series at Amazon.

Sex toy company Dame removes $15 tariff surcharge amid the U.S. and China's temporary trade deal.

The titans of the tech industry say artificial intelligence will soon match the powers of humans’ brains. Are they underestimating us?

A James Webb Space Telescope discovery of clouds forming and rising above Titan's northern lakes suggests the moon might have an Earth-like weather cycle.

"Final Destination: Bloodlines," the sixth movie in the franchise, still offers surprises and bloody horrors.

Give your old car a major upgrade with this PlayAIBox Apple CarPlay and Android Auto Wireless Adapter, now $74.97 through June 1.

Make your binge sessions feel productive with a lifetime subscription to Curiosity Stream, now $149.97 (reg. $399.99) through August 1, no coupon code required.

Introduce little ones to screen time with the gentle, low-stimulation app, Pok Pok, now $49.99 with code SAVE10 until June 1.

Get your own MacBook Air for just $514.99 (reg. $1,299) while supplies last.

Brady Corbet crafts a towering achievement about immigrants, architecture, and Jewish identity with "The Brutalist." Film review.

Apple's new CarPlay Ultra is only available on Aston Martin cars right now, but at least you can check it out on video.

Connections: Sports Edition is a New York Times word game about finding common sports threads between words. How to solve the puzzle.

Answers to each clue for the May 16, 2025 edition of NYT's The Mini crossword puzzle.

Sonny Angel and Casetify return with Wild Haven, a whimsical tech accessory collab with a NYC pop-up and limited-edition collectibles.

Ditch monthly fees and store your files forever with Koofr’s 1TB lifetime cloud storage for $119.97 — secure, private, and easy to use across all devices.

Live stream the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League finals for free from anywhere in the world.

Hints and answers to today's Hurdle all in one place.

Always stay connected with the best portable chargers and power banks from top brands like Anker.

Connections is a New York Times word game that's all about finding the "common threads between words." How to solve the puzzle.

The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.

Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1427 on May 16 as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.

xAI blamed an “unauthorized modification” for a bug in its AI-powered Grok chatbot that caused Grok to repeatedly refer to “white genocide in South Africa” when invoked in certain contexts on X. On Wednesday, Grok began replying to dozens of posts on X with information about white genocide in South Africa, even in response to […]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman laid out a big vision for the future of ChatGPT at an AI event hosted by VC firm Sequoia earlier this month.  When asked by one attendee about how ChatGPT can become more personalized, Altman replied that he eventually wants the model to document and remember everything in a person’s life. […]

On Thursday, Windsurf, a startup that develops popular AI tools for software engineers, announced the launch of its first family of AI software engineering models, or SWE-1 for short. The startup says it trained its new family of AI models — SWE-1, SWE-1-lite, and SWE-1-mini — to be optimized for the “entire software engineering process,” […]

Apple says the warning messages now appearing next to EU App Store listings that use third-party payment systems are not actually new. According to a number of recent reports, Apple added a warning with a red exclamation mark next to apps that it found were not using its own “private and secure payment system.” The […]

The morning after Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter (now X), reporters encountered two men with boxes outside the company’s headquarters. One introduced himself as recently laid-off Twitter engineer “Rahul Ligma.”  His real name is Rahul Sonwalker but the prank went viral. He piled on his character’s notoriety when he went to the Bahamas to […]

The Panasonic MultiShape has been my go-to daily trimmer and shaver for years, and it's at an all-time low price of $147 right now.

The series finale of "Andor" may leave one major plot thread dangling. But showrunner Tony Gilroy has tied it into "Rogue One" perfectly.

Apple's swanky new upgraded version of CarPlay is out now, but not for every car.

TikTok is down for some users in the United States of 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 15.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are investing billions in US AI infrastructure. The deals could help the US in the AI race against China.

A software update was designed to reduce the chances of certain collisions.

Redpoint Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm that is about a quarter of a century old, has raised a $650 million tenth early-stage, according to a regulatory filing. Redpoint’s new fund matches the size of its prior fund, which was raised just under three years ago. In a market where many venture firms are decreasing their […]

Redpoint Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm that is about a quarter of a century old, has raised a $650 million tenth early-stage, according to a regulatory filing. Redpoint’s new fund matches the size of its prior fund, which was raised just under three years ago. In a market where many venture firms are decreasing their […]

The download automatically changed Black NPCs to white, trans NPCs to cis-gendered, and gay NPCs to straight. And it's just the beginning.

Microsoft's Washington layoffs hit coders hardest as the tech giant embraces AI.

A lawyer representing Anthropic admitted to using an erroneous citation created by the company’s Claude AI chatbot in its ongoing legal battle with music publishers, according to a filing made in a Northern California court on Thursday. Claude hallucinated the citation with “an inaccurate title and inaccurate authors,” Anthropic says in the filing, first reported […]

The plaintiffs in the Kadrey v. Meta case submitted a controversial new AI report as evidence of copyright infringement. That's bad news for big AI companies.

Fieldstone Bio recently raised $5 million in seed funding.

Lucid Motors set a company record for deliveries in the first quarter of 2025, shipping 3,109 EVs to customers in North America, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. It appears that a new company car program and sales to rental fleets helped it get there.  According to a footnote in Lucid Motors’ latest regulatory filing, it sold […]

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Startup news this week was fairly routine — in a good way: Aside from a minor kerfuffle between Y Combinator and Google, there was no headline-grabbing drama. […]

The government showed hundreds of internal documents as it sought to prove that the social media company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to neutralize a threat.

Use coupon code BITMAR5 at checkout to get lifetime access to BitMar, a content aggregator, for only A$23 (reg. A$234) — you might never run out of movies to watch ever again.

TikTok is launching in-app guided meditation exercises, the social network announced on Thursday. The company began testing the meditation exercises with select teens earlier this year and is now making the feature available to all users on its app. The idea behind the feature is to help users improve their sleep quality and encourage them […]

Lawmakers' ongoing attempts to ban pornography in the US didn't stop Pornhub from hosting their annual awards show last week. On Uncanny Valley, we discuss the fate of the porn industry.

Scientists were able to create a bespoke treatment for KJ Muldoon’s rare genetic disorder within six months. It could be a blueprint for potentially life-saving, gene-editing Crispr therapies.

Walmart's onn. 50-inch 4K Roku TV is on sale for only $178 as of May 15. That's nearly 50% off its list price.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has confirmed it suffered a breach resulting in customers' personal data being stolen.

As of May 15, get the Google Nest Security Cam for its lowest price yet at Amazon.

The De'Longhi Magnifica Evo automatic espresso machine is on sale for $549.95 at Amazon, down from the MSRP of $799.95. That's a 31% discount.

As of May 15, preorder a digital copy of Elden Ring Nightreign for $31.99 at Newegg.

Google announces new Gemini-powered features for Android, as well as updates to captions, Chromebooks, and Chrome browsing.

Philips is getting into the open-source repair game with a new 3D printing program for repair parts.

The EcoFlow River 2 Max portable power station is on sale at Amazon for $289.99, down from the normal price of $469.

The Japanese flagship headphones come with seven times the processing power, new drivers, and the best noise-canceling we've ever tested.

Chips are a critical component of the AI industry. But new chips don’t hit the market with the same speed as new AI models and products do. Cognichip has a lofty goal of creating a foundational AI model that can help bring new chips to market faster. San Francisco-based Cognichip is working to build a […]

Google announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new AI and accessibility features to Android and Chrome. Most notably, TalkBack, Android’s screen reader, now lets you ask Gemini about what’s in images and what’s on your screen. Last year, Google brought Gemini’s capabilities to TalkBack to give people who are blind or have low vision […]

Silicon Valley’s coveted work visas are under heavy scrutiny from the Trump administration, and immigration lawyers say requests for documentation are increasing.

The new Sony XM6 headphones are here. We put the new Sony noise-cancelling headphones to the test to see if they're worth the $450 price of admission.

On May 15, Sony launched its newest flagship headphones, the wireless WH-1000XM6 noise-cancelling headphones. Find out what's new and how much they cost.

The 16-inch Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro business laptop (32GB RAM, 1TB) is on sale at Amazon for $1,399.99, down from the normal price of $2,049.99. That's a 32% discount.

Anker 525 charging station for 55% off, saving $36

Even with a deal between the U.S. and China, Trump's tariffs are still too costly for the retail giant to absorb.

The new Apple M4 MacBook Air is still on sale for $849 at Amazon, its lowest price ever, but some colors are going out of stock.

At Amazon, shop the 55-inch Roku Smart TV for over $150 off. Save 30% and start streaming in 4K QLED.

The Hisense U8N QLED TV (75 inch) is on sale at Amazon for $939.93, down from the normal price of $1,599. That's a 41% discount.