Sony is delaying the launch of its FlexStrike fight stick controller for PS5 and PC, which had been set to launch on August 6th, to an unspecified date in the future. The company blames the delayed launch on "unexpected production delays." The original planned launch of the FlexStrike would have lined up with the release date of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a Marvel-themed fighting game developed by Arc System Works that PlayStation is publishing."We wanted to share an update on the launch timing for FlexStrike wireless fight stick," Sony says in an update to a PlayStation blog post about the controller and other accessories. "Due to unex …Read the full story at The Verge.

You can buy four bulbs and a Hue Bridge for just $80. | Image: Philips Hue Although most of Prime Day’s unusually good Philips Hue deals have ended, a few remain, and some, including the black Philips Hue Twilight Sleep and Wake-Up Light, are even cheaper. None, however, have fallen to a new all-time low price like Philips Hue’s Essential starter kit. Right now, you can buy a bundle containing four white and color E26 bulbs and a Hue Bridge for $79.99 ($40 off) at Amazon. Since that’s the same price as the two-bulb Essential starter kit, it’s like getting two bulbs for free.Philips Hue Essential starter kit,Where to Buy: $119.99 $79.99 at Amazon (four-pack) $119.99 at Philips Hue (four-pack)Each of the color-changing bulbs can display millions of colors or tunable white light ranging from a warm 2200K to a cooler 6500K, while producing up to 800 lumens of brightness. The Hue app also offers a preset lighting scenes for everything from movie nights to the holidays, though you can also create your own. Meanwhile, the included Hue Bridge lets you control the lights when you’re away from home, create schedules, connect up to 50 lights throughout your home, and set automations so they can, for instance, turn on automatically when you arrive home. It also allows you to control the lights through all the major smart home platforms, thanks to Matter compatibility.As Philips Hue budget-friendly kits, there are a few premium features they lack that are worth mentioning. Most notably, the bulbs only dim to two percent instead of 0.2 percent. Philips Hue also doesn’t guarantee they’ll match the color accuracy of its flagship bulbs across generations. If you’re simply looking to fill your home with colorful smart lighting at a reasonable price, though, those differences may not matter much to you.

Demis Hassabis, during a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. | Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images Demis Hassabis thinks the world needs an AI watchdog with the power to hit the brakes if frontier models become too dangerous. Writing in a blog post, the Google DeepMind CEO and cofounder said the US should lead the initiative, arguing that the country is the best place to set global standards "given its economic and technical standing." The organization, which could resemble existing regulators like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, would be made up of leading independent experts and representatives from open-source communities and would have the authority to evaluate frontier models before they are released and coordinate an …Read the full story at The Verge.

The cool thing about Linux is that, if another distro has a really cool desktop layout that you like the look of, there's a good chance you can download it on your own PC, too. It's not like, say, Windows versus iOS, where you need third-party apps to emulate what the other OS is using; if a Linux distro has a cool desktop environment you like, just grab it.

When it comes to in-car navigation, reliability is non-negotiable for me. For the last couple of years, I have relied on Android Auto for everything from navigation to music streaming and for taking calls over my car's infotainment system. But recently I decided to give CarPlay a try to add a little excitement to my otherwise usual driving routine. In fact, I tried it for a week to see if I would prefer it over Android Auto.

SpaceXAI's Grok Build AI coding tool was spotted uploading users' entire codebases to Google Cloud before it was reported, and the company turned it off. The Register reports that Cereblab published findings on Monday showing how the Grok Build CLI was packaging and uploading entire code repositories, "including files it was told not to open and secrets deleted from history," significantly more data retention than similar tools like Claude Code.The researchers say that as of Monday, their tests show SpaceXAI's servers returning a "disable_codebase_upload: true" flag, and the codebase upload "no longer fires." Elon Musk responded to the i …Read the full story at The Verge.

A group of 26 former Meta employees is suing the company over claims that it used AI tools to unfairly target workers on leave with layoffs, as reported earlier by Reuters. In the lawsuit, the employees allege Meta determined which workers to dismiss based on performance data collected by a "constellation" of internal AI tools, but failed to exclude those on parental or medical leave from its ranking system:The result was that employees who took protected leaves were disproportionately selected for layoff, based on scoring that not only failed to account for their protected leaves, but in effect penalized the employees for exercising thei …Read the full story at The Verge.

According to posts on Plex's official forums and on Reddit, the self-hosted streaming platform is down right now. Users state that they're unable to stream the TV shows and movies they're hosting locally on the platform.

See Spot carry. | Image: Boston Dynamics Boston Dynamics' robotic quadruped Spot has already found work doing routine factory inspections and patrolling the ruins of Pompeii, but what about deliveries? The company is testing a new conveyor belt accessory that allows Spot to carry packages from a vehicle and autonomously unload them on a customer's doorstep in an effort to reduce a delivery driver's workload.While attempts have already been made to expedite and automate deliveries using wheeled robots or aerial drones, humans are still the most efficient way to navigate obstacles like stairs or cluttered pathways in order to get packages from a truck to a doorstep. A demo video s …Read the full story at The Verge.

Plex services experienced some major issues on Tuesday, with multiple users reporting problems on Plex's forums and on Reddit. Many people use Plex as a way to stream shows and movies they host locally, but users are upset because today's problems were reportedly affecting their ability to do that."Basically all Plex is down unless you can play locally over LAN and even that takes ages and doesn't always work," said one user. Others reported problems with matching content on their servers. For me, the Plex TV website was loading slowly, though while initially writing this story, it started to load more reliably.Plex had confirmed issues, …Read the full story at The Verge.

When first building your smart home, it's easy to fall into the trap that you need as much data as possible. In response, you buy a range of sensors and radars, thinking that as long as your system has enough telemetry, it will finally achieve perfect automation. However, the issue is that by covering our living spaces in high-density sensor arrays, you create a maintenance nightmare of unpredictable cascading software bugs.

Discounts on the Nintendo Switch 2 are rare, but they do happen on occasion. There’s one happening now, actually, on the company’s $499.99 console bundle that includes a digital game (Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, or Pokémon Pokopia). Usually, the bundle saves you $20 or $30, depending on the game you choose, but for $449.99 at Amazon (discount reflected at checkout), Nintendo is effectively giving you a game for free.Nintendo Switch 2 “Choose Your Game” bundleWhere to Buy: $529.99 $449.99 at AmazonIf you’re considering grabbing a Switch 2, I highly recommend doing so now. The biggest motivator (aside from its great selection of new games and near-complete compatibility with original Switch games) is that the console will get a price hike in September, going from $449.99 to $499.99. Also, it’s not clear if it will continue to include a discounted game with purchase at that point. So, you’re getting more value at $449.99 here than ever before.