Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Posted: On Monday, Microsoft reportedly terminated the roles of two software engineers, Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, who protested the company's reported dealings with the Israeli military during Microsoft's Copilot and 50th anniversary event last week. According to an internal message viewed by CNBC, Microsoft wrote that Aboussad could have raised concerns “confidentially with your manager, or with Global Employee Relations. Instead, you chose to intentionally disrupt the speech of Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman.” Last Friday, during the event, Aboussad shouted that Suleyman had “blood on his hands,” interrupting him while he delivered a keynote about new AI products. Later that day, Agrawal interjected during a panel featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates, shouting “shame on all of you … Cut ties with Israel.” Shortly after the incidents, Aboussad sent an email to Microsoft staff and executives claiming the company had silenced certain dissenting employees, according to CNBC. The email reportedly contained a link to a petition from “No Azure for Apartheid,” a group of Microsoft staffers who have made headlines for their protests against the company's work with Israel in the past. Topics Subscribe for the industry's biggest tech news Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch's coverage. TechCrunch's AI experts cover the latest news in the fast-moving field. Every Monday, gets you up to speed on the latest advances in aerospace. Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. © 2025 Yahoo.
Besides thinking about the ancient Roman Empire all the time, men have also been known to fantasize about bravely fending off a bear attack at any given moment. A contraption in Wyoming could make that dream almost real—and give them some practice at it, too. Hungry bears with some serious bedhead have begun emerging from their winter hibernation, making unwelcome encounters with humans more likely. To spread awareness about bear safety, Wyoming's Game and Fish Department's very own “Robobear” has also returned: a fake bear on top of a remote-controlled wheeled platform intended to simulate a charging bear. Its aim is to prove that the day a grizzly comes barreling through the trees, many people won't be as prepared as they are in their fantasies—but practice makes perfect. “It's difficult to know how you will react in a high stress situation. So, planning and practice are critical,” said Maria Davidson, Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) large carnivore program manager, in a statement by the foundation. SCIF is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of wildlife, and is a partner on the Robobear project, along with other groups. As reported by the Cowboy State Daily, individuals participating in the training are divided into groups, and each person is given a canister of fake bear spray. One group at a time, the participants are told to face away from the Robobear. The organizer then sends the Robobear charging toward their backs, and calls out a warning. At the sound of the warning, the participants have to turn and spray the predator. It's harder than it sounds. “Like an idiot, I kept the holster's Velcro-secured retaining strap over the top of my can,” outdoors reporter Mark Heinz, who participated in the training, wrote for Cowboy State Daily. When Mark Aughton, Game and Fish large carnivore biologist and Bear Wise Wyoming coordinator, gave the warning, “I scrambled helplessly at the strap, developing a severe case of butterfingers in the heat of the moment,” he recounted. In fact, the point of the training is for individuals to practice accessing and employing their bear spray as quickly as possible. The defense weapon is only useful if it's accessible, Aughton explained, and as quoted by Cowboy State Daily. After all, digging through your giant camping backpack while a grizzly is charging your way at 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour) is probably not the best course of action. Aughton added that bear spray should be kept readily available in a holster, where one can grab it at any moment—and everyone in a group should have one on them. “Bear spray is an effective deterrent in an aggressive bear encounter,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department bear conflict manager Brian DeBolt said in the SCIF statement. “We hope this effort continues to raise awareness and remind those recreating in bear country to be prepared and stay safe.” bearspublic safety Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. News from the future, delivered to your present. Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox. Outdated lightning safety advice is making the rounds again, prompting experts to speak up about what actually keeps you safe in a storm. There have been 12 reports of bone fractures, lacerations, and even people losing parts of their finger. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved. Mode Follow us Mode Follow us
From Chris and Paul Weitz, the minds behind About A Boy and American Pie, comes a new Apple TV+ sci-fi comedy riff on the future of androids in Murderbot. The show starring Alexander Skarsgård adds another cold and ruthless killer to the actor's resume of heartless roles, but with one hiccup. This Murderbot just doesn't get the appeal of its job: to murder. “All it ends up doing is procrastinating,” Skarsgård told Vanity Fair about the concept based on The Murderbot Diaries from author Martha Wells. “It just doesn't get humans at all,” Skarsgård explained. “It's not a deep hatred, it's just zero amount of curiosity. It's confused by humans and wants to get away from them.” Which, let's be real, is relatable content if you too get hyper-fixated on the eternal search for meaning. And it's not the first time Skarsgård has portrayed an eternally searching but inhuman character. On HBO's True Blood, the actor played the playfully charming and chilling vampire Eric Northman, who he likened to Murderbot for this reason: “They are observing humanity from a similar distance,” Recently, Skarsgård made a cameo reprising the role of Eric on What We Do in the Shadows‘ final season. He's so unserious, and poking fun at his heartthrob vampire past is why we love when he plays against type. He continued to compare the two roles. “Eric used to be human, so in a way he can relate, even though it's been a millennium. But he also finds them incredibly silly and petty and just… insignificant. Murderbot has organic components, so there are human components there. I think it can also understand or feel something. There's something about being an outsider, and observing humanity from a slight distance, and being a bit confused and perplexed by it.” But the similarities end there. “The big difference is, Eric reveled in being a troublemaker and stirred the pot—while Murderbot is the opposite. Murderbot definitely doesn't want to step into the center of things. Murderbot wants to blend into the background and just be left alone to watch its TV shows.” Both are still in the package of Alexander Skarsgård so would it be okay if, you know, we got Murderbot in the streets, vampire in the sheets? Murderbot premieres on Apple TV+ May 16. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. Alexander SkarsgårdMurderbot Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. News from the future, delivered to your present. Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox. Martha Wells' award-winning sci-fi book series will soon be a streaming series, co-created by Chris and Paul Weitz and starring Alexander Skarsgård. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved. Mode Follow us Mode Follow us
The first major frontier of “de-extinction” has just been crossed. Earlier today, the company Colossal Biosciences reported that its scientists have successfully brought back a version of the dire wolf—purportedly the first such resurrection of a previously extinct species. Colossal announced its seismic accomplishment Monday morning, accompanied by a lengthy cover article in Time magazine. Using a combination of gene-editing and surrogate dogs, the company has reportedly bred three sibling dire wolves since last fall, all of which appear to be healthy so far. The feat follows Colossal's genetic engineering of “woolly mice” and should bode well for their larger resurrection project: bringing back the woolly mammoth. Dire wolves (Aenocyon dirus) were canines that emerged during the Late Pleistocene, between 129,000 and 11,700 years ago, before becoming extinct around 9,500 years ago. They lived throughout the Americas and likely evolved to hunt down the especially massive megafauna seen during the Ice Age. One difference from modern canines was their size; on average, they were as big as the largest gray wolves seen today, and with larger and more robust teeth. The general public might be more familiar with them lately thanks to their appearance on the HBO show Game of Thrones, where they were the trusted companions of the Starks. Colossal's dire wolves are named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi (the latter a reference to the show). All were born separately to surrogate large hound mixes, with Romulus and Remus born close together in October, and Khaleesi the youngest in the winter. The wolves are reportedly doing well in a 2,000-acre ecological preserve (its location has been kept hidden to protect the animals) and are being carefully and constantly watched by a staff of veterinarians. “I could not be more proud of the team. This massive milestone is the first of many coming examples demonstrating that our end-to-end de-extinction technology stack works,” said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm in a statement. “Our team took DNA from a 13,000 year old tooth and a 72,000 year old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies. It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.” To be crystal clear, Colossal's scientists didn't create these so-called dire wolves by directly copying DNA over from ancient samples. Instead, after reconstructing and analyzing the wolves' genomes, they made precise edits to the DNA of existing cells taken from a gray wolf. They made 20 edits in total, 15 of which were intended to make genes resemble the variants found in their dire wolf samples. It's these variants, the company says, that make dire wolves truly distinct from wolves alive today. Some of these variants, they say, are thought to influence the wolves' size and facial shape. The nucleus of these reconstructed cells was then transplanted into donor egg cells that had their nucleus scooped out, which gave rise to viable embryos that were implanted into surrogate mothers (large hound mixes). For context, the gray wolf—the closest living relative of the dire wolf—has a genome of about 2.45 billion base pairs (the fundamental building blocks of DNA). Given that dire wolf DNA differs by roughly 0.5% from that of gray wolves, the researchers have barely scratched the surface. This 0.5% disparity amounts to roughly 12 million base pairs that set the dire wolf genome apart from its gray wolf counterpart. Accordingly—and not to minimize the achievement—Colossal remains very far from capturing the genetic differences between the two species. De-Extinction Company Reveals Genetically Engineered ‘Woolly Mouse' That said, Colossal says that its analysis of the dire wolf genome is the most comprehensive to date, and seemingly even resolves long-standing questions about the animals' evolutionary history. Based on its work, they argue that gray wolves are indeed the dire wolves' closest living relative, rather than jackals, as some recent research has suggested. But this feat of resurrection, while certainly impressive, does have its caveats. The researchers avoided making certain changes that would more closely match dire wolf DNA if they believed those changes could potentially harm the health of the pups. Sometimes, they opted to make different but safer genetic changes that still resulted in the phenotype (a trait influenced by a genetic variant, like height) they expected from their analysis. One example of this highlighted by the researchers is the wolves' white coloring. In other words, the genetic makeup of these wolves isn't a one-to-one copy of a dire wolf's—it's the company's interpretation of how to safely create an animal they say is close enough. They've dubbed this approach “functional de-extinction.” “Functional de-extinction uses the safest and most effective approach to bring back the lost phenotypes that make an extinct species unique,” said Beth Shapiro, Colossal's Chief Science Officer, in an emailed statement. “We turn to ancient DNA to learn as much as we can about each species and, whenever possible, to link specific extinct DNA sequence variants to each key trait. In some cases, we learn that variants already present in the surrogate species can be used to engineer that key trait. In those cases, engineering existing variants into the donor genome is an optimal path, as that path provides strong confidence in the outcome with minimal risk to the animal.” Some people might disagree that Colossal's wolves are truly dire wolves, and the team's claims about the dire wolf's ancestry will be certainly studied further by other scientists. Scientific questions aside, there are also moral concerns about whether it's appropriate to try bringing back extinct species in the first place. But the company's accomplishment shouldn't be minimized either. This is a major barrier that has been broken, and the company isn't done. Colossal also announced today that its cloning technology was recently used to birth four red wolves, which are the most critically endangered wolves around today (between 17 and 19 wolves exist in the wild, while 270 more are captive). And it still plans to birth the world's first resurrected woolly mammoth by 2028. The world has definitely changed now, and whatever you want to call them, these wolves likely only mark the beginning of a new era in genetic engineering. clonesconservationde-extinction Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. News from the future, delivered to your present. Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox. A female bladderwrack seaweed plant in the Baltic Sea propagated clones across hundreds of miles. The little rodents' genes were edited to exhibit traits associated with a woolly mammoth genome—including fluffy, dirty-blonde fur. A recent photography competition captures the relentless fight for survival on land, in sea, and air. Thousands of people bore witness to the rare and odorous blooming of Putricia the corpse flower in Sydney, Australia, this week. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted to use gigantic mechanical traps to haul baby fish downstream in tanker trucks. The long-lived, one-eyed wolf 907F died this Christmas after a fight with a rival wolf pack, Yellowstone researchers have confirmed. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved. Mode Follow us Mode Follow us
Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us A Meta exec on Monday denied a rumor that the company trained its new AI models to present well on specific benchmarks while concealing the models' weaknesses. The executive, Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP of generative AI at Meta, said in a post on X that it's “simply not true” that Meta trained its Llama 4 Maverick and Llama 4 Scout models on “test sets.” In AI benchmarks, test sets are collections of data used to evaluate the performance of a model after it's been trained. Training on a test set could misleadingly inflate a model's benchmark scores, making the model appear more capable than it actually is. Over the weekend, an unsubstantiated rumor that Meta artificially boosted its new models' benchmark results began circulating on X and Reddit. The rumor appears to have originated from a post on a Chinese social media site from a user claiming to have resigned from Meta in protest over the company's benchmarking practices. Reports that Maverick and Scout perform poorly on certain tasks fueled the rumor, as did Meta's decision to use an experimental, unreleased version of Maverick to achieve better scores on the benchmark LM Arena. Researchers on X have observed stark differences in the behavior of the publicly downloadable Maverick compared with the model hosted on LM Arena. Al-Dahle acknowledged that some users are seeing “mixed quality” from Maverick and Scout across the different cloud providers hosting the models. “Since we dropped the models as soon as they were ready, we expect it'll take several days for all the public implementations to get dialed in,” Al-Dahle said. “We'll keep working through our bug fixes and onboarding partners.” Topics AI Editor Meta exec denies the company artificially boosted Llama 4's benchmark scores Former teen model co-created app Frich to help Gen Z be more realistic about finances Accounting software startup Pennylane becomes France's latest unicorn Apple pulls Binance, Kraken, other crypto apps from India App Store Was Loom's $975M exit a fair price? As AI porn generators get better, the stakes get higher Google can now read your doctor's bad handwriting © 2025 Yahoo.
You don't need a screwdriver to remove the GeForce RTX 5090D Luna's shroud. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. The GeForce RTX 5090 ranks among the best graphics cards available today. But the GeForce RTX 5090D, a variant exclusive to China, is highly coveted in that market. Galax has expanded its Boomstar series by launching two new custom GeForce RTX 5090D models for gamers in China. Galax has announced the GeForce RTX 5090D Luna and the GeForce RTX 5090D Nox. A noteworthy feature of these two models is the quick-release shroud. Rather than securing the shroud to the graphics card using conventional screws, Galax has implemented a magnetic attachment system, utilizing magnets at several points to ensure the shroud remains securely in place. This is an interesting idea, particularly with regard to maintenance, as it allows for tool-free removal. Galax has a history of utilizing magnets in its graphics cards. The Boomstar series, renowned for its anime-inspired theme, previously featured detachable front and back panels to allow for user customization. The notion of providing detachable components on a graphics card can be traced back several years, with manufacturers such as Sapphire and XFX having offered graphics cards equipped with swappable cooling fans in the past. The most recent iteration from Galax takes things a bit further. The GeForce RTX 5090D Luna and the GeForce RTX 5090D Nox are similar, with the difference being the color. The former features a white theme, while the latter has a black theme. The graphics cards appear to adhere to a triple-slot design with a triple-fan cooling system. Both come equipped with a 14-layer PCB with a color matching the model. The power subdelivery system consists of a 16+6+7-phase design. Galax sells the GeForce RTX 5090D Luna in standard and overclocked variants. The GeForce RTX 5090D Nox's product page wasn't live at the time of writing, but we expect the manufacturer to offer versions similar to the Luna SKU. The standard version flaunts a 2,407 MHz boost clock, the same as the reference specification for the GeForce RTX 5090D. On the contrary, the overclocked version has a 2,452 MHz boost clock, slightly higher than the vanilla version. The GeForce RTX 5090D Luna and the GeForce RTX 5090D Nox are rated for 575W and employ the latest 12V-2x6 power connector, an upgraded version of the 16-pin power connector. The minimum recommended capacity for the power supply is 1,000W. As for display outputs, you receive three DisplayPort 2.1b outputs and one HDMI 2.1b port. Galax has yet to reveal the pricing and availability for the GeForce RTX 5090D Luna and the GeForce RTX 5090D Nox. However, the graphics cards are unlikely to launch outside the Chinese market. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom's Hardware. Although he loves everything that's hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM. AMD RX 9070 vBIOS flash offers up-to 20% performance boost — modders claim OC beats 9070 XT Nvidia engineer breaks and then quickly fixes AMD GPU performance in Linux Asus ProArt PA32UCDM 4K 240 Hz QD-OLED gaming monitor review: Precision, performance and elegance Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.
Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives slashed his price targets for Apple and Tesla over the weekend as President Trump's tariffs threaten to disrupt both businesses. “The tariff economic Armageddon unleashed by Trump is a complete disaster for Apple given its massive China production exposure,” Ives said in a warning note over the weekend. “In our view, no U.S. tech company is more negatively impacted by these tariffs than Apple with 90% of iPhones produced and assembled in China.” Wedbush cut its price target for Apple stock by $75, down to $250 per share. Apple's shares are down this afternoon by 4.3% and trading at $180. Ives also cut his price target for Tesla to $315 from $550, which is still well above Tesla's current share price of $233.94 as of 2:10 p.m. ET. Ives said the affect of tariffs isn't the only reason for the price cut. He also cited CEO Elon Musk's politics, which has created a brand crisis for the automaker. Musk's association with Trump and his tariffs policies are affecting sales in the U.S. and Europe and also threaten Tesla's popularity in China, “further driv[ing] Chinese consumers to buy domestic such as BYD,” said Ives. “Tesla has essentially become a political symbol globally,” he wrote. “It is time for Musk to step up, read the room, and be a leader in this time of uncertainty. Tesla shares were down nearly 10% compared to Friday's closing price, but have rebounded somewhat as of Monday afternoon. Topics Senior Reporter, Transportation Rebecca Bellan covers transportation for TechCrunch. She's interested in all things micromobility, EVs, AVs, smart cities, AI, sustainability and more. Previously, she covered social media for Forbes.com, and her work has appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, i-D (Vice) and more. Rebecca studied journalism and history at Boston University. She has invested in Ethereum. Want to stay young? Peter Diamandis says survive the next 10 years Meta's benchmarks for its new AI models are a bit misleading Microsoft releases AI-generated Quake II demo, but admits ‘limitations' DOGE reportedly planning a hackathon to build ‘mega API' for IRS data Meta releases Llama 4, a new crop of flagship AI models Teen with 4.0 GPA who built the viral Cal AI app was rejected by 15 top universities Mark Cuban backs Skylight, a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky's underlying technology © 2025 Yahoo.
Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Former Tesla executive Drew Baglino has a new startup developing solid-state transformers for the electric grid, Axios reported. The new company, Heron Power, is raising between $30 million to $50 million for a Series A, according to the report, with Capricorn Investment Group pegged to lead the round. Baglino was a longtime employee at Tesla, starting at the company in 2006, two years before Elon Musk took over as CEO. He rose through the ranks, designing the powertrain for the first Model S and leading engineering for Tesla's battery storage products before being named senior vice president of powertrain and energy. Baglino left Tesla last April, the same time the company laid off 10% of its staff. In founding Heron Power, Baglino is tackling a part of the electrical grid that hasn't seen much innovation in over a century. Transformers have been largely unchanged in that time, and having been commoditized, the majority of them are now made overseas. Solid-state transformers are more capable than existing transformers, regulating dips in voltage that might arise from solar panels and wind turbines. They're also a lot more compact, can quickly transition from one source of power to another, and can be actively managed, boosting grid stability. Heron Power isn't the only startup hoping to shake up the transformer market. Singapore-based Amperesand is also in the process of raising a Series A after closing a $12.5 million seed round in early 2024. Like Heron, Amperesand also counts Tesla alumni among its executive ranks. Topics Senior Reporter, Climate Google is allegedly paying some AI staff to do nothing for a year rather than join rivals Microsoft reportedly fires staff whose protest interrupted its Copilot event Analyst says Apple, Tesla have biggest exposure to Trump's tariffs Former Tesla exec Drew Baglino's new startup is rethinking the electrical transformer Want to stay young? Peter Diamandis says survive the next 10 years Meta's benchmarks for its new AI models are a bit misleading DOGE reportedly planning a hackathon to build ‘mega API' for IRS data © 2025 Yahoo.
The stock market went on a rollercoaster ride this morning, shooting upwards after news circulated online that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day pause of his global tariff policy. However, the White House has now called the information “fake news.” After it became apparent that Trump has no intention of backing down from a policy most economists have dubbed totally insane, the market acted accordingly and dropped like a stone. It's unclear exactly where the news originated, although online chatter and multiple news outlets have pointed to it having been boosted by one particular X account. Business Insider writes that the tweet came from an account known as “Walter Bloomberg” which typically posts headlines and information from news outlets. According to BI, that tweet read: “HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA,” in an apparent reference to Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, who recently went on Fox News to discuss Trump's tariff policy. The tweet has since been deleted. Gizmodo reached out to the account via email for comment. However, around the same time, the news was also briefly perpetuated by multiple reputable outlets, including Reuters. An archived version of the Reuters report claims that “White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in an interview that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause on all countries expect China.” Indeed, the Walter Bloomberg account has claimed that he first heard the news from Reuters. When reached for comment by Gizmodo, Reuters said that it had initially heard the news from a television report from CNBC. A spokesperson said, in a statement: “Reuters, drawing from a headline on CNBC, published a story on April 7 saying White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had said that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day tariff pause on all countries except China. The White House denied the report. Reuters has withdrawn the incorrect report and regrets its error.” With the apparent news that Trump might roll back his daft economic policy, the market rose precipitously—shooting up 8.5 percent in 34 minutes, BI writes. However, the White House was quick to shoot down the media reports. Rapid Response 47, which is the Trump administration's social media account on X, quote-tweeted the news, writing: “Wrong. Fake News.” The market promptly plummeted. Later Monday morning, a Bloomberg business reporter came out to disavow any link between the news outlet and the “Walter Bloomberg” social media account: “PSA: Do not rely on Walter Bloomberg X account. He doesn't work for us and is not authorized by Bloomberg.” Barron's writes that the tweet may have been a misunderstanding of Hassett's Monday morning interview with Fox. During that interview, Hassett was asked whether Trump would consider pausing his tariffs and Hassett responded that “the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” whatever that's supposed to mean. “INSANE market action right now,” wrote Joe Weisenthal, who runs Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast. “Market exploded higher on a headline attributed to Kevin Hassett. And now nobody can figure out where it came from and the markets are diving again. An 8% surge and then a 3.5% plunge in a matter of seconds.” Other web-users chimed in to comment on the ridiculousness of the situation. “s&p is now a memecoin,” one X user wrote. “You know The Economy is real when trillions of dollars can move up and down based on a tweet of a made-up quote,” said another user. Another user noted that the account being blamed for the mistake is “verified” by X's standards, meaning the person operating the account pays a monthly subscription fee in exchange for “verification.” Twitter verification used to be reserved largely for professional media organizations and was determined by an internal team. Since Elon Musk took over the platform, anybody can be an expert, as long as they pay Musk's company money. “Twitter letting random users pay $8 a month for a verified badge just led to a $4 trillion market mistake caused by fake news,” someone wrote. Trump's tariff policies have sent the global economy into a tailspin, with critics maintaining that the world is headed for recession. The president has sought to alleviate concerns about evaporating 401ks by coining a new, deeply idiotic term: Panican, as in an American who panics. “The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO,” Trump said, in a post to his website, Truth Social, on Monday. “Don't be Weak! Don't be Stupid! Don't be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!” Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. News from the future, delivered to your present. Please select your desired newsletters and submit your email to upgrade your inbox. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites. ©2025 GIZMODO USA LLC. All rights reserved. Mode Follow us Mode Follow us
Right now my main concern is how to handle continuous deployments without interrupting ongoing games (amongst other WebSocket challenges[2]). I was planning to deploy via Coolify, but am considering other options given that their zero downtime deploys still needs some love[3].How would you approach building a turn-based multiplayer browser game in 2025?[0] https://www.npmjs.com/package/ws[1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/socket.io[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816359[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589794 How would you approach building a turn-based multiplayer browser game in 2025?[0] https://www.npmjs.com/package/ws[1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/socket.io[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816359[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589794 [0] https://www.npmjs.com/package/ws[1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/socket.io[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816359[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589794 [1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/socket.io[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816359[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589794 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816359[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589794 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589794
That's a lot of cores. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Linux 6.15 will bring support for 8,192 cores in the Turbostat CPU monitoring utility, if you happen to have such a system (via Phoronix). The change was driven by an HPE (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise) engineer who faced an issue with their unnamed 1,152-core system since Turbostat wasn't designed to handle more than 1,024 cores/threads. We currently aren't aware of any server CPU configurations that can exceed this limit (in terms of physical cores), so this may be a custom or next-generation solution from Intel or AMD. The utility currently only supports x86 processors, which seemingly rules out an Arm system from causing the issue. Turbostat is a Linux command-line utility provided by the kernel-tools package and is baked into most distributions. It's a monitoring utility that reports clock speeds, idle power-state statistics, temperature, etc., on x86-based processors. This is important information, as we can infer that the 1,152 core system is likely an Intel/AMD solution. Likewise, a while back, Ampere's 384-core servers exposed a maximum core count limitation with the ARM64 Linux kernel, which only supported up to 256 cores. Turbostat had a hardcoded limit (CPU_SUBSET_MAXCPUS) that was set to 1,024, which defines the maximum number of CPUs (cores) it can handle. Yesterday, just before the merge window for Linux 6.15-rc1 closed, the CPU limit was increased to 8,192 along with the addition of a CPU idle debug telemetry tool, and several bug fixes. The HPE engineer didn't specify the details of the hardware powering their system. On the Intel side, it would make sense to look into its latest Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' offerings, where we find the Xeon 6788P (86 cores) with 688 cores or 1376 threads in an 8S configuration or the Xeon 6900E (288 cores), topping out at 576 cores when put in a 2S setup. Similarly, AMD's EPYC 9005 'Turin Dense' can achieve 384 cores in a dual-socket configuration with the EPYC 9965. Since none of these match up to the 1,152-core system, it's plausible to assume HPE is using a custom solution for higher socket counts. There is a possibility that this metric refers to the logical cores (threads) and not the physical cores, which falls well in the ballpark of existing solutions. As far as future products like Diamond Rapids and Venice are concerned, we're still in the dark regarding key specs like core counts. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. Linus Torvalds rages against ‘random turd files' in Linux 6.15-rc1 directories An 'unfortunate incident' hits latest Ubuntu 24.04 point release Nvidia RTX 5090D GPU features a magnetic shroud and fans for easy maintenance Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.
Taiwanese government remains optimistic. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Taiwan's stock market plunged nearly 10% on Monday, its steepest single-day decline ever, following U.S. announcement of a 32% import duty on goods from Taiwan, as well as Trump's intention to apply tariffs on chips. The slide was fueled by investor panic and heavy selling of major high-tech firms, including TSMC and Foxconn, Reuters reports. Losses of TSMC and Foxconn highlight how deeply Taiwan's economy is tied to technology and global exports. The collapse followed a new round of U.S. duties, including a 32% charge on goods from Taiwan. TSMC and Foxconn were hit especially hard. Each saw share prices drop close to the daily 10% limit, triggering automatic halts. Foxconn assembles consumer electronics for Apple (including iPhones, MacBooks, and iPads) as well as AI servers for some of the most significant cloud service providers. With a 32% tariff on goods produced in Taiwan, a 54% tariff on items made in China, Foxconn's profits are at risk. The situation is more complex for TSMC. For now, tariffs are not imposed on semiconductors, but TSMC-made chips are ubiquitous, so if sales of consumer electronics and AI servers drop, TSMC's revenues and profits will decline too. Also, once tariffs on chips come into effect, TSMC, UMC, and other Taiwanese chipmakers will get hurt even more. Taiwan's government responded quickly. A relief fund worth about $2.65 billion was rolled out to help businesses affected by the new trade rules. Taiwan's National Stabilisation Fund, which controls NT$500 billion ($15,164 billion) in assets, said it might step in to calm the market. Temporary restrictions were also placed on short-selling to limit volatility. President Lai Ching-te addressed the situation by pledging stronger economic ties with the U.S. He promised increased imports from America and efforts toward eliminating tariffs altogether. Writing on X, he made clear there would be no countermeasures, emphasizing a joint path to economic growth and stability. Financial experts warned of long-term risks. Analysts described the selling as panic-driven and flagged a potential recession with odds exceeding 50% if conditions worsen. Goldman Sachs lowered Taiwan's rating to 'underweight' in its Asia outlook, pointing to the country's strong reliance on U.S. exports and heightened market sensitivity. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom's Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends. China's rare earth export restrictions threaten global chipmaking supply chains China launches HDMI and DisplayPort alternative — GPMI boasts up to 192 Gbps bandwidth, 480W power delivery Git turns 20 as we celebrate decades of open-source software distribution Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.
Since President Donald Trump mandated that remote and partially remote federal workers all must return to their offices, thousands of employees across the country have been figuring out how to navigate new commutes, seating arrangements, and a lack of supplies as basic as toilet paper and legal pads while still getting their work done. One effect of all this, many federal employees tell WIRED, is that they are traveling long distances to spend all of their time in virtual meetings. “I don't directly work with anyone in the office that I am going into,” one employee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development tells WIRED. “So I show up and sit on [Microsoft] Teams calls.” A Treasury employee says they spend most of their time at the office on video calls as well, “because of people working at other sites … and that's hard when working from a cubicle. I definitely get less done because of the distractions.” At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one employee says that the focus on the return-to-office mandate has meant a lot of chaos for people who actually need to do their jobs in person. “Some teams and groups aren't even on the same campuses because space was so limited. So they're coming to work just to sit on the same virtual meetings as always,” they say. “And all the chaos has made it more difficult for the lab people, who actually need to be on campus. I'd say with everything they get two-to-three hours less of meaningful work out of me each day.” Over the past few months, Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has upended the government. In addition to firing tens of thousands of federal employees, before being forced by judges to rehire some of them, return-to-office mandates have resulted in chaos. Outlets like CNN and Reuters reported on the initial confusion and disarray caused by forcing tens of thousands of employees back to the office all at once, but weeks later, employees say the situation is getting worse. Though Trump and Musk have claimed the mandate would result in huge productivity increases and financial savings, more than 30 federal employees at 17 federal agencies tell WIRED the return-to-office order has resulted in widespread chaos, plummeting productivity, and significantly reduced services to the public. It isn't just traveling to work to sit on Zoom calls—it's that there may be no place to take the call or no working internet to connect to it. WIRED granted employees anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, which some say are affecting their physical and mental health—and nearly all say are resulting in a lower quality of work and worse public services. "The workplace environment is unpleasant, loud, people talk about whatever they want, and the workload is insane with the mass layoffs and hiring freeze," an employee at the Department of Defense (DOD) tells WIRED. "This is a terrible place to work." The employee says they cry almost every day after leaving the office. Multiple government employees claim that there isn't enough space in federal offices, or necessary equipment, to make their return worthwhile. At a DOD building, one employee says, the influx of people now working from the office has made simply accessing the facility a daily struggle for them. “We are on a secure military facility with only a few access points,” the employee tells WIRED. “There are not enough gate guards to open multiple access points so the traffic backs up onto the highway.” At one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office, during the first week of the return-to-office mandate in March, around 40 people were forced to work out of a single room. “I have lots of meetings every day, so I would have to go elsewhere to find some privacy, along with everyone else,” a DHS employee tells WIRED. Now, employees are not assigned office spaces until they arrive at work each day. “Every day, we have to go to one room to get an office assignment,” says the employee. “You don't know the assignment until the day of. If you are not assigned an office, you sit in a training room until that happens. My productivity has drastically decreased.” The offices are also so “gross,” the employee says, that they bring their own cleaning products to work. Weeks after returning to the office, a Social Security Agency (SSA) employee claims there isn't enough furniture for everyone. “If you're stuck on a floor without enough chairs, you're stuck standing for eight hours,” they say. “I'm unfocused, exhausted, and in pain. I'm certainly not at 100 percent.” An employee at the Department of Agriculture (USDA) says he was ordered to return to his office on March 10, despite being hired for a fully remote position in 2022. There isn't enough space for private meetings, so if he wants to talk to one of the employees he supervises, he says, he has no options. “For private staff calls I have to go out to my truck and use my personal phone,” he tells WIRED. “I have requested a government cell, but they tell me I won't get it since I'm back in an office.” Tech issues have plagued the return of many federal employees. The USDA employee claims that the internet connection at his new office is “far worse than it is at home. So much so that I have had trouble using Teams with my staff in recent calls.” “We are getting hammered with RTO tickets,” says another source at the USDA, describing the number of employees making requests for equipment to do their jobs in-office. “We do not have the IT infrastructure to support this massive RTO mandate.” The DOGE-enforced $1 spending limit on federal credit cards, enforced in February, has exacerbated the problem, leading to shortages of basic supplies. “All the money we saved on decommissioning equipment, saving on having contractors run cabling, enterprise hardware savings, will all be gone,” the USDA source says. “This RTO will not only bring work completion down for people now having to commute and people are going to work exactly their eight hours and not any time over. The stoppage of IT issues will bring down a lot of this as well.” At the Internal Revenue Service, which ordered its workers back to the office four weeks ago, the $1 limit caused significant problems for those back in the office. “They have no soap, toilet paper, or paper towels anywhere in the building. Their water machine is broken. Many cannot get on LAN, and the Wi-Fi keeps going down,” one IRS employee tells WIRED. Another SSA employee says that they were told to “ration paper.” “Supplies are limited because no one has purchasing authority,” the Treasury employee tells WIRED. “It's a running joke that we bring our own pens and paper. We have a bit of a stock of pens in my department but can't order more. We are out of notebooks, though there are some partially used legal pads from meetings available.” Employees say the return-to-office mandate has also negatively impacted their productivity. “My whole team had been, probably to a fault, working long hours on quick turnaround projects,” a source at the Army Futures Command, which operates under the DOD, tells WIRED. “We were able to do a lot of this at home after dinner in the evening, because we've all got kids and family obligations. [Return to office] has ended all of that.” Some federal employees say the return-to-office mandates are having a negative impact on their health. One employee at the SSA, who identifies as queer and uses they/he pronouns, is also disabled and suffers from chronic pain and mobility issues. Still, they were left with no option but to make the long journey from their home to the office once the return-to-office mandate was enforced. “With no car, I am walking a mile to the train, and from the station to the office on concrete and metal, limping along, using elevators when I can,” they say, adding, “While I can ask for Reasonable Accommodations, our DEI offices were gutted, so despite being directed to apply through the proper channels, there's no one there to process them.” In the weeks since they've returned to the office, nothing has improved. “I'm not sleeping well, I can't have access to chairs and desks and monitors at proper heights to make me more comfortable,” they say. “I've had to start revisiting my orthopedic doctor to pursue treatments and start physical therapy again.” A USDA employee says that returning to an office has aggravated their long-dormant carpel tunnel symptoms. “I got an old wooden desk that is not intended to be a workplace,” the employee tells WIRED. “As a result of the table being too high for the chair they gave me, my carpel tunnel has been aggravated with numbness and piercing pain in the hand. My carpel tunnel has not been an issue for about 25 years now.” A Treasury employee says that people on her team have had to quit due to stress stemming from the return-to-office mandate and the uncertainty of what's next. “People here love their jobs. We love what we do,” they say. “Getting fired would mean so much more than just losing a paycheck.” Some employees say these fears, combined with the poor working conditions, are impacting their mental health as well. “I'm just going through a depressive episode in part because of the nonstop uncertainty and stress,” says an employee at the DOD. “Even the hardcore military bros in my agency are feeling grim about everything that's happening.” A USDA employee told WIRED that they are now dealing with severe depression due to these mandates and general fear. The threat of a reduction in force, or RIF, remains a constant concern for employees as they return to federal offices. “There is just a lot of very dark humor at the office,” the Treasury employee says. “I think all of us are expecting to get RIFd or fired or something, but we are just waiting. Business as usual while everything is on fire.” In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear How to avoid US-based digital services, and why you might want to The Big Story: Inside Elon Musk's ‘digital coup' ‘Airport theory' will make you miss your flight Special Edition: How to get computers—before computers get you More From WIRED Reviews and Guides © 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. 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As another example, Microsoft Outlook 2003 infamously used CRC32 to "hash" the personal folder (.PST) passwords:
But the triumphant social media post gets a Community Note. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. A Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) social media post boasts of the elimination of tape data storage facilities at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSE). A triumphant Tweet by DOGE says that a million dollars per year will be saved “by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes (70 yr old technology for information storage) to permanent modern digital records.” However, many X users, and a Community Notes addition, highlight that despite its apparent elderliness, tape still remains the best choice in a range of data storage scenarios. The @USGSA IT team just saved $1M per year by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes (70 yr old technology for information storage) to permanent modern digital records.April 4, 2025 Hopefully, no official installed at DOGE or GSA assumed that because magnetic tape has been around for such a long time, it is outdated and, therefore, a prime target for replacement with new and improved storage tech. Recently, we reported that the tech behind tape storage, the Linear Tape-Open (LTO) standard, carries on with a robust development roadmap that continues to deliver higher densities. Tape storage devices are constantly being refreshed with new interfaces, like the new Thunderbolt 5 models announced last month. Media manufacturers also enjoy continued growth driven by trendsetting AI hyperscalers, and companies like Huawei are developing entirely new storage subsystems built around tape storage. A year earlier, we reported on research that claimed tape storage remained cheaper and less polluting than HDDs or SSDs. As with many choices in tech, be it a decision about your display, processor, or GPU, there remains a diverse choice in storage media because one size doesn't fit all. Though we have fingernail-sized micro-SD cards that can store 1TB now and consumer SSDs that can transfer data at over 14 GB/s, older magnetic storage media like HDDs and tape remain on the menu. That's because they still have particular strengths or a sweet spot balance of features. In the case of the 14,000 magnetic tapes that have been consigned to history by the government, Community Notes attached to the DOGE post reference articles about why tape is still popular for backups in organizations of all sizes and will still be around for “decades to come.” In brief, tape storage remains in favor for multiple reasons, but most importantly due to the format's huge capacity, long-term development roadmap that continues to evolve, known durability (30 years estimated), low energy consumption, TCO, and suitability for cold storage. It would be very interesting to know what storage system and media have been selected to replace the GSA's tape system, but we don't have these details to hand. We also wonder whether the DOGE-celebrated $1M per year change away from tape will stick. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. Beef up your Steam Deck storage with this 2TB WD Black SN770M SSD deal - only $177 at Amazon SSD Benchmarks Hierarchy 2025: We've tested over 100 different SSDs over the past few years, and here's how they stack up. Nvidia RTX 5090D GPU features a magnetic shroud and fans for easy maintenance Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.
In the run-up to the Switch 2 launch, part of Nintendo's focus has been on ensuring it can meet the demands of an audience hungry for a new console. And that new system comes with a hefty price—$450—which could go up even more due to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs announced last week. But in an interview a day after Trump's announcement, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser told WIRED the tariffs “weren't factored into the pricing” of the console. The company is “actively assessing” the situation and its impact, he adds. “It creates a challenge,” Bowser says. “It's something we're going to have to address.” Trump's tariffs sent the stock market into free fall; prices on many products are about to go up, and companies in the tech sector will be turned on their heads. On Friday, Nintendo made the unprecedented move of delaying preorders in the US for the hotly anticipated console “in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions.” Part of the company's business strategy, to this point, had been “to diversify the places where we're manufacturing our hardware and our accessories,” Bowser says. The company has already shifted much of its production to Vietnam and Cambodia and away from China. According to Bowser, that diversification allowed Nintendo to move production around as needed during the Covid-19 pandemic. “That also applied to the early stages of tariffs,” he says. “The situation [on April 2] changed that.” Among Trump's new tariffs: 46 percent on Vietnam, 49 percent on Cambodia, and 54 percent on China. An additional price hike on the console would be problematic for Nintendo. The current top Switch model, the OLED, is $350, while a standard edition comes in at $300. The price was oddly missing from the console's big announcement on Wednesday, a fact that hasn't been lost on would-be customers already clamoring for Nintendo to “drop the price.” At the New York event, journalists were discouraged from asking hardware developers about the console's cost. Games have not been spared from high price tags either; Mario Kart World will cost $80. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a tech demo masquerading as a game that explains the ins and outs of the Switch 2, will be an experience people have to pay for. (Notably, this got a huge laugh from the crowd present.) Two former Nintendo public relations managers, Krysta Yang and Kit Ellis, have broken down the criticism around the pricing on their YouTube channel, as well as criticized how news about the price was presented to fans. “Obviously it was intentionally omitted from the Direct for a reason but handled poorly in terms of the information being in all these different places,” Yang said, lambasting the decision to leave consumers to get answers themselves. “It's a little bit degrading almost to the intelligence of the consumer.” In the past, Nintendo products, including the original Switch, have been hard to find due to problems like chip shortages or global pandemics, but the company has taken efforts to “make sure that consumers can find a console when they're ready to buy the console," Bowser says. Part of that includes a new loyalty program that aims to stop scalpers by requiring those who want to purchase the console to have an active Nintendo account. They'll also need to get a Nintendo Switch Online membership for a year and to have clocked at least 50 hours of gameplay. Console sales will be limited to one per person. “We wanted to make sure that we were rewarding loyal players,” Bowser says. “Those that have been playing on [the Switch] for quite some time that we knew would be those upgraders—those that were eager to dive into play. That's why some of the gates, if you will, have been a part of the preorder process.” Other retailers, Bowser says, have their own systems to thwart scalpers. The Switch 2 will soon move into global events, including those that are open to the public, ahead of its June launch. Bowser says that the company hopes to show its audience that “this is the next generation of platform” from Nintendo. The Switch 2 “obviously takes what you know and love so much from the Switch and then adds a lot of powerful features,” he says. If tariffs force Nintendo's hand, the company may find it harder to win over players than ever before. However, it's unlikely Nintendo will face that dilemma alone. In an interview with IGN last Friday, ESA spokesperson Aubrey Quinn said that if people believe only the Switch 2 will be affected, “then we aren't taking it seriously. This is going to have an impact.” The Switch 2 may yet be a bellwether for what's to come. In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear How to avoid US-based digital services, and why you might want to The Big Story: Inside Elon Musk's ‘digital coup' ‘Airport theory' will make you miss your flight Special Edition: How to get computers—before computers get you More From WIRED Reviews and Guides © 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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One of the most exciting features of the Switch 2 is its GameChat, a new social feature that lets up to 12 people share screens, game together, or just talk directly via the console. It puts social features found on platforms like Discord directly onto the console in a way Nintendo's platforms have yet to do. Gaming is more social than most people give it credit for. Pre-internet, gaming with friends was the sort of thing you'd do together on the couch. After moving online, people were finally able to broaden their social circles to anyone who enjoyed their hobby, and not just whoever lived nearby; apps like Twitch and Discord have made this even easier. While typically, gamers chatting are playing together, GameChat does not require you to play the same games or even play a game at all in order to chat. In some ways, the feature almost acts as an advertisement. People can watch their friends play games they themselves don't own, and then, if they're in a Family Group, borrow them via the system's newly announced virtual game cards. “There's layers to GameChat that I think are really exciting,” Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser tells WIRED. The feature will reach its full potential in the hands of players, he added. “One of the things that for us is really important is that we watch and see how people engage in GameChat.” Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, with the Nintendo Switch 2. But online communities in gaming can be notoriously noxious. Any lobby or platform with open communication will, inevitably, become a vector for harassment and inappropriate imagery. Online games and platforms like Roblox, which are popular with young users, have massive problems with predators and pedophiles on the platform. GameChat activates voice chat with the system's C button and allows for video use with a USB-C camera—features that could enable a great deal of abuse if left unchecked. During a roundtable discussion with Nintendo's hardware team in New York City last week, Switch 2's director Takuhiro Dohta and producer Kouichi Kawamoto talked about how they designed the system with safety considerations in mind. The feature is limited to a player's friend list, and parents maintain a lot of control. “Parental controls for the minor who's gonna be using the chat can be set and controlled through the app,” Dohta tells WIRED. That means that only friends a parent has approved will be able to chat with players who are minors. Roblox has installed similar safety features as part of overhauled parental controls. Adult players, however, or players who do not have parental controls turned on, will need to be more proactive. “When it's just two adults, they also need to be friends with each other to be able to do a chat,” Dohta says, pointing to the console's friend list systems. “You won't find yourself in a situation where you'll be placed in a chat with strangers.” Players will be able to import their friend lists from the Switch, though it may take some “fine tuning” to figure out who's up for chatting, he said. “There's bound to be people who like chats, and there's people who don't prefer to chat.” “Ultimately, if something does happen or if someone is chatting with someone you don't want to chat with, there is also a report feature,” Kawamoto added. GameChat will launch with the Switch 2 on June 5 and will be included with Nintendo Switch Online membership. In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear How to avoid US-based digital services, and why you might want to The Big Story: Inside Elon Musk's ‘digital coup' ‘Airport theory' will make you miss your flight Special Edition: How to get computers—before computers get you More From WIRED Reviews and Guides © 2025 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices