On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation to create a regulation "sandbox" that would allow artificial intelligence companies to experiment with minimal federal oversight. The SANDBOX Act, if passed by Congress, would allow companies to apply for modifications to or waivers from any "obstructive regulations" to the testing and deployment of products or services that use or contain "in whole or in part" at least one AI system. In return, companies would be required to disclose plans to mitigate consumer safety and financial risks. The waivers would last for two years at a time, up to 10 years, harkening back to the failed morator …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's been a long time coming but Spotify is finally getting lossless audio. Rumors have been circulating about a high-fidelity offering since as early as 2017. In 2021, Spotify claimed it was "coming later this year." And by May of 2024 it was "almost ready." So, when rumors started picking up again in June of this year, they were met with skepticism, especially amid announcements over the launch of features nobody was asking for, like direct messaging.Well, it's here. For real. And there's some good news - Lossless won't be confined to a new higher-priced tier. There's no new Spotify HiFi membership or Music Pro subscription. Instead loss …Read the full story at The Verge.

Setting up a new Windows 11 PC can be exciting, but it's also a bit of a chore. Even though Windows has supported "backups" for a few years at this point, this mostly boils down to backing up some PC settings and Microsoft Store apps, and then you have to rely on paid solutions like OneDrive or an external USB drive to move larger chunks of data over. Plus, you have to install all your apps again, too.

The $59 price is pretty reasonable, at least by Apple standards. The skepticism I had about Apple's rumored crossbody iPhone strap can be put to rest now that it's officially announced as part of yesterday's big iPhone 17 event. I'm suitably impressed. And if we can clear up some of the confusion about why it exists in the first place, then I think more people will be too.Firstly, crossbody straps are supremely useful for those of us who are denied deep pockets and don't want to carry a bag. It gives the person quick access to their phone on a bike, at a festival, in a shop to make payments, or when tapping into public transport. They're for the old and young who fear their phones being dropped or stole …Read the full story at The Verge.

It isn't every day that a brand-new IP shows up in the gaming space, smashes through expectations, and then, forces you to rethink what you thought you knew about open-world games, but Rogue Factor's Hell is Us did just that for me. Hell is Us brings together the best parts of the most incredible open-world games we know, all while giving them its own unique treatment that leaves the player in a place of awe, as it did for me.

Compared to expensive PCs and server hardware, Single-Board Computers are an inexpensive means to tinker with DIY projects. However, most of the popular SBC series, including the all-powerful Raspberry Pi series, aren’t as budget-friendly as they used to be a while ago. Although microcontrollers are an entirely different product than SBCs, there’s a surprising amount of overlap between the projects you can build with them – especially when it comes to circuitry-related ideas.

President Donald Trump has cast his shadow over the latest forecast on US greenhouse gas emissions. Reductions in planet-heating pollution are already expected to slow over the next decade, setting the US and the world back in efforts to stop climate change.Here’s what could have been. Taking previous climate policies into account, research firm Rhodium Group forecast last year that US greenhouse gas emissions would fall by up to 56 percent by 2035. Alas, fortunes have changed. Following “the most abrupt shift in energy and climate policy in recent memory” during the first seven months of the Trump administration, according to a new Rhodium Group report published today, we can expect a significantly slower pace of progress — a 26–35 percent reduction in emissions over the next decade compared to pollution levels in 2005. That falls far short of the action needed to stop global temperatures from risingThat falls far short of the action needed to stop global temperatures from rising, a problem that is already leading to more extreme weather and other climate-related disasters across the US. The gloomier outlook reflects obstacles the Trump administration has created for wind and solar energy in the US on top of sweeping efforts to wipe federal environmental protections off the books. It’s been a whiplash change since 2024. Former President Joe Biden set a goal of slashing US greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent this decade as part of the nation’s commitment to the global Paris climate agreement. The Inflation Reduction Act Biden signed into law in 2022 was projected to get the US most of the way to that goal, with generous tax incentives for carbon pollution-free energy and electric vehicles projected to shrink emissions about 40 percent by 2030. The Environmental Protection Agency under Biden also introduced policies to strengthen limits on pollution from power plants and transportation. Trump has done the opposite. With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump is phasing out tax credits for electric vehicles and solar and wind projects. He’s been particularly combative with wind energy developers, going as far as to order a nearly complete project off the coast of Rhode Island to halt construction over purported national security concerns. The EPA, meanwhile, no longer wants to regulate greenhouse gas emissions at all. In July, it proposed rescinding the landmark 2009 finding that allows the agency to regulate gases under the Clean Air Act because they endanger public health. The EPA says that if they finalize the rule change, which faces legal challenges, it would “repeal all resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines, thereby reinstating consumer choice.” Trump, after receiving tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, tapped a former oil and gas company executive, Chris Wright, to lead the Department of Energy. This week, Wright called efforts to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions — which researchers have found needs to happen by the middle of this century to stop global average temperatures from rising much higher than they already are — a “colossal train wreck” and a “monstrous human impoverishment program.” The US, however, has managed to maintain economic growth while limiting greenhouse gas emissions. US greenhouse gas pollution was 17 percent lower in 2022 than they were in 2005, according to the EPA. Rhodium Group’s emissions forecast includes a range of outcomes based on whether Trump’s proposed policies come to fruition, as well as other economic factors, including oil and gas prices and costs for clean energy technologies. Even without subsidies, renewable energy is still cost competitive with gas, Rhodium Group notes. Wind and solar and related energy storage projects make up a staggering 95 percent of new electricity generation capacity queued up to connect to power grids in the US. With electricity demand suddenly on the rise because of data centers, AI, and electric vehicles, utilities are racing to add as much capacity as they can. In short, renewables aren’t going away in this forecast and will continue to cut down US greenhouse gas emissions.But that’s likely to happen at a slower pace as the Trump administration works to push the scales in favor of more fossil fuels to meet that growing electricity demand. US greenhouse gas emissions have shrunk by an average of 1.1 percent annually since 2005, according to Rhodium Group. In the firm’s most pessimistic scenario, that could fall in half to a pace of just a 0.4 percent reduction each year through 2040.

ErsatzTV is a project that flips the usual media server experience on its head. Instead of navigating through endless menus of shows and movies, it creates linear channels out of your collection. That means you can sit back, flip through your own personal lineup, and watch whatever comes on next, just like the TV experience many of us grew up with. It’s a refreshing change for those who want to enjoy their media without constant decisions.

For many people, a PC might just be a tool to get things done, but for many others, it's one of their most prized possessions. Naturally, then, esthetics play an important role when choosing PC components. There's nothing wrong with wanting good-looking components in your PC, but looks should never be the primary driver in your purchase decision. Once you've ticked off performance, features, and reliability on your list, it's perfectly fine to use esthetics as the final filter.

If you're looking for a monitor that can do it all, then this one from Samsung is going to be a good choice. You get a large 40-inch ultrawide screen, impressive performance numbers, and a wealth of other features. Now, you're probably looking at that $1,200 price and thinking it's a bit on the expensive side and we agree. Which is why this deal from Amazon that knocks $180 off is so important.

Planning a new PC build for myself or a friend seeking assistance has always been equal parts enjoyable and stressful. There's a delicate balance to strike between the performance obtained and the price you pay, and I've invariably noticed builders focusing on components that matter for their use case, blowing the budget, and barely scraping by with basic parts to complete the build. Unfortunately, the first PC is truly a learning experience for everyone, and in my build, there are parts I would not select again, even with a tight budget.

Everyone talks about self-hosted and getting started with Docker. But there's one key aspect of self-hosting that a lot of users miss out on — properly backing up their containers. Let's just say, I discovered that firsthand when the SSD volume on my NAS crashed and brought down my entire smart home with it. Clearly, hoping for the best is not the best strategy. Now, there are, of course, a wide variety of ways to back up Docker containers. But I wanted something tried and tested, simple to configure, and, more importantly, something I wouldn't have to mess around with much once configured. In typical open-source, there's a tool for the job, and I came across Repliqate. Repliqate uses an extremely simple Docker Compose-based approach combined with Docker labels to automate container backups, and it's quickly become my go-to solution to ensure that my Docker containers are effectively backed up. Here's how you can get started with Repliqate.