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The Verge
DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly
The Department of Justice says that Google must divest the Chrome web browser to restore competition to the online search market, and it left the door open to requiring the company to spin out Android, too.
Filed late Wednesday in DC District Court, the initial proposed final judgement refines the DOJ’s earlier high-level outline of remedies after Judge Amit Mehta found Google maintained an illegal monopoly in search and search text advertising.
The filing includes a broad range of requirements the DOJ hopes the court will impose on Google — from restricting the company from entering certain kinds of agreements to more broadly breaking the company up. The DOJ’s latest proposal doubles down on its request to spin out Google’s Chrome...
Published on 21 November 2024 | 4:56 am
Honda has a plan to build solid-state batteries for EVs
Honda set up a demonstration facility in Japan to show off its plans to mass-produce solid-state batteries at lower costs, which could be crucial to unlocking higher-range, longer-lasting electric vehicles for the future.
Solid-state batteries have been elusive for many companies due to the complexity of scaling up production. The technology swaps out the liquid electrolytes found in current lithium-ion batteries with dry conductive materials, promising higher energy density and longer lifespans. But it will require a whole new production process to be successful.
Several companies are actively pursuing solid-state batteries, including Volkswagen-backed QuantumScape, Nissan, and Factorial, which is testing semi-solid-state batteries that...
Published on 21 November 2024 | 2:30 am
The Hyundai Ioniq 9 is a three-row electric SUV with room to grow
The South Korean automaker unveiled its newest EV ahead of the LA Auto Show.
Published on 21 November 2024 | 1:00 am
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have spelled out their plans for DOGE
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were officially appointed the co-leads of President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) last week, and on Wednesday, the two men spelled out their plans for the advisory group in a long article in The Wall Street Journal.
Musk and Ramaswamy say they will “serve as outside volunteers” making recommendations that allow the Trump administration to “cut the federal government down to size.” Their primary focus is on cutting down federal agencies, which they view as wasteful and “antidemocratic.”
“Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but ‘rules and regulations’ promulgated by unelected bureaucrats,” write the two unelected men who have been tasked with cutting trillions...
Published on 21 November 2024 | 12:55 am
Nvidia says its Blackwell AI chip is ‘full steam’ ahead
Nvidia has become the world’s most valuable company on the back of AI chips, passing Microsoft and Apple along the way, and in today’s Q3 2025 earnings, the company suggested its record AI revenue and profits are only the beginning.
While The Information recently reported that its new flagship Blackwell AI servers might have cooling issues, the company didn’t address that on today’s call — instead, Nvidia assured investors that Blackwell is in “full production,” is “full steam” ahead, and that the company would continue to deliver more of the chips each quarter from here on out.
Nvidia has already shipped 13,000 Blackwell samples to its customers this quarter, said CFO Colette Kress, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang claimed Blackwell’s...
Published on 20 November 2024 | 11:21 pm
Apple fights to keep DOJ antitrust suit from reaching trial
Apple urged a federal judge to dismiss the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against it, saying the government’s complaint includes speculative arguments and the government doesn’t plausibly argue it has monopoly power.
“The court is allowed to use common sense,” countered DOJ counsel Jonathan Lasken at a hearing in New Jersey on Wednesday. “We’re here today based on the idea that it’s not plausible that [Apple] has monopoly power, but instead is at the mercy of supposed global behemoths who are a fraction of its size.”
The government and more than a dozen states sued Apple earlier this year for maintaining an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market, ultimately driving up prices and locking consumers into its ecosystem. It pointed...
Published on 20 November 2024 | 11:09 pm
AI landlord screening tool will stop scoring low-income tenants after discrimination suit
SafeRent, an AI screening tool used by landlords, will no longer use AI-powered “scores” to evaluate whether someone using housing vouchers would make a good tenant. On Wednesday, US District Judge Angel Kelley issued final approval for a roughly $2.3 million settlement to prevent SafeRent from discriminating against tenants based on income and race.
The settlement stems from a 2022 class action lawsuit filed in Massachusetts. The suit alleged that SafeRent’s scoring system disproportionately harmed people using housing vouchers — specifically Black and Hispanic applicants. In addition to violating Massachusetts law, the complaint also accused SafeRent of breaking the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits housing discrimination.
As outlined...
Published on 20 November 2024 | 10:19 pm
NASA wants SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver cargo to the moon
After asking both SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop cargo landers for its Artemis missions, NASA has announced plans to use those landers to deliver heavy equipment to the Moon.
The agency wants Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starship cargo lander to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon “no earlier” than 2032, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering a lunar surface habitat no sooner than 2033. Both launches will support NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
Both companies are developing human landing systems for Artemis missions — SpaceX for Artemis III and Blue Origin for Artemis V. NASA later asked both companies to develop cargo-hauling variants...
Published on 20 November 2024 | 9:54 pm
Reddit has recovered from an outage
Reddit had some issues on Wednesday afternoon, as many users couldn’t get the platform to load reliably. In a statement to The Verge, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt said, “There was a bug in a recent update we made, but a fix is in place and we’re ramping back up.”
Its status page now says the platform is “monitoring the results” of its fix, but that there still may be “degraded performance” on its website or mobile app. At the height of the outage, the site didn’t load at all and simply displayed the error message: “upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: connection failure.”
Yes. We're working on it. https://t.co/8MZVlusmD7
— Reddit, Inc. (@Reddit) November 20, 2024
On Reddit’s mobile app,...
Published on 20 November 2024 | 9:25 pm
Microsoft tries to convince Windows 10 users to buy a new PC with full-screen prompts
Microsoft has been trying to convince Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 for months now, ahead of the end of support date for Windows 10 in October, 2025. Earlier this year, Microsoft started using fullscreen prompts to warn Windows 10 users about the support cutoff, and now it’s using similar prompts to try and tempt people to buy a new Windows 11 PC instead.
Over the weekend some Windows 10 users have noticed these new fullscreen prompts, and Microsoft is using them to suggest you can “do more with a new Windows 11 PC” or “level up to the new Copilot Plus PCs” to get “the ultimate Windows 11 experience.” Like the prompts earlier this year, the read more link goes to a promotional site that includes links to new Windows 11 PCs.
Published on 20 November 2024 | 9:01 pm