The Supreme Court will let Mississippi’s social media age verification law take effect while the case is being argued in court. In an unsigned ruling on Thursday, the court declined to block the law after an emergency petition from trade association NetChoice. The order offers no explanation, but in a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the law was “likely unconstitutional” — but that NetChoice hadn’t“sufficiently demonstrated” a risk of harm.The law, HB 1126, requires social media platforms to verify the age of the person creating the account, while blocking users under 18 unless they have permission from a parent. It also states that social media sites must protect underage users from “harmful material” — such as sexual content and material related to self-harm  — as well as restrict data collection. NetChoice, which is backed by tech giants like Meta, Google, Amazon, Reddit, and Discord, argues that age verification laws for general-purpose social media violate the First Amendment. Though the trade association won an injunction to block the law last year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated it in April, allowing the law to go into effect. As Justice Kavanaugh noted, however, numerous district courts have blocked similar laws in other states.“To be clear, NetChoice has, in my view, demonstrated that it is likely to succeed on the merits — namely, that enforcement of the Mississippi law would likely violate its members’ First Amendment rights.”Despite this setback, NetChoice is still confident that it will prevail. “Although we’re disappointed with the Court’s decision, Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence makes clear that NetChoice will ultimately succeed in defending the First Amendment — not just in this case but across all NetChoice’s ID-for-Speech lawsuits,” Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said in a statement. “This is merely an unfortunate procedural delay.”The decision comes as lawmakers across the US — and around the world — push age verification mandates designed to protect children from harmful content on the internet. In June, the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law that requires users to verify their ages before accessing porn sites, paving the way for similar laws to take effect — but specifically for platforms focused on adult content. Meanwhile, the UK has begun to enforce a broader online age-gating requirement that asks users to verify their age with a government ID, a face scan, or by entering credit card information on certain websites.Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said in a statement that age verification laws have “significant impacts on privacy and speech rights of both adult and teen users.” Huddleston notes that today’s decision doesn’t mean the court “will automatically uphold this law as constitutional should it reach it through the full appeals process.”

These days, you hear the phrase "console wars" all too often, usually in a very mild context. The debates about video game consoles have always been a part of discussions within gaming culture. Whether it's about the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, or the Nintendo Switch 2 compared to anything else, this division and competitiveness is a constant thing within gaming. However, the concept of console wars has lost its weight and true meaning among people, especially among the younger generation on social media, who often find themselves clashing over superficial aspects of their favorite platforms. They don't truly understand what it was like to be within something as poignant and massive as the true console wars of the 1990s.

Who could argue with faster components? It's no surprise that fast memory floods the pages of Newegg and the shelves of Micro Center, with eager builders trying to squeeze out every edge when it comes to performance. But you probably don't need to spend up for a speedy kit of memory, and if you believe some old myths about memory speed, you'll end up spending more than you need to.

There are countless options out there to build your own smart speaker, unshackling yourself from the likes of Google and Amazon, but it's hard to beat the hardware these companies use. Those companies can essentially operate as loss leaders; the idea being that they can make a loss on that sale, because most consumers will then spend more money on other products within their respective ecosystem. A self-hosted solution can be cheap, yet it's hard to meet that level of polish. That's where the ReSpeaker XMOS XVF3800 with the XIAO ESP32-S3 from Seeed Studio comes in.

I’ve been experimenting with a dichotomy of second screens for quite a long time at this rate. I've used a second phone-as-monitor, a laptop on the desk next to me, and, naturally, a "typical" secondary vertical monitor, which is the only one that's truly stuck. However, one that did stick was the XIAO 7.5-inch ePaper Panel over the couple of months, driven by a tiny XIAO ESP32-C3 running ESPHome, and it quietly became the most useful “monitor” on my desk.

We're in an age where there's a free alternative for every piece of major paid software that exists. And while that's a good thing, since some of these tools can be quite expensive, not all of them are created equal. With that said, there are alternatives to buying through companies like Microsoft and Adobe at full price, which will get you nearly the same product, and that's what we're looking at here today with this deal from Stack Social.

We review a ton of laptops each year, so it says a lot when we recommend one that everyone should buy. The HP Omnibook Ultra Flip gets pretty much everything right, with its fantastic display, excellent keyboard, unique design, powerful internals, and impressive webcam. In fact, our one major complaint about this laptop was that it was just too expensive, which, thanks to this deal, is no longer a problem.

Linux has a reputation for being difficult to use, especially among those who have only worked with operating systems like Windows or macOS. The truth is, Linux itself is not inherently problematic. In many cases, the core functions are just as simple as those of any other platform. What makes Linux feel challenging is its intolerance for mistakes or misunderstandings. It will often do exactly what you tell it to do, even if that means breaking something in the process. That expectation is part of its philosophy, and while it can be intimidating at first, it also builds skills that last far beyond your first installation.

The Raspberry Pi 5 delivers major upgrades in speed, connectivity, and overall capability, making it an appealing choice for experienced makers. However, more performance does not always mean a better experience for those just starting. For beginners, the Raspberry Pi 4 remains a smarter first step thanks to its lower cost, more straightforward setup, and vast library of beginner-friendly resources. Its maturity and stability help reduce frustration, allowing new users to focus on learning the basics without getting bogged down in hardware complexities. While the Pi 5 is the future of the platform, the Pi 4 still offers a smoother, more accessible introduction to single-board computing. For starters, let's look at the specifications of both SBCs side by side.

While I had believed that mind mapping is unsuitable for lengthier works — ones with many intersecting ideas — the reverse is true. Though it’s seemingly daunting with its crisscrossing lines, scattered blocks, and layered notes, consolidating all the ideas into a single view actually lowered my tendency to forget key information. Now, it’s my go-to method for planning out my first drafts.

As a student, I’ve pulled my fair share of all-nighters cramming for midterms and finals, always fueled by unhealthy amounts of coffee. Would I consider that a perk of student life? Not exactly. But there is one real benefit you should be milking for all its worth — student discounts.

Fortnite players on most platforms are able to hop into matches following a login issue that Epic Games described as preventing users from “getting in reliably.” “We’re seeing players able to log back in now for most platforms, with the exception of PlayStation, and are working restore server health to normal for everyone to log in and matchmake as normal again,” Epic said at 8:02PM ET. “We’ll continue updating you as we bring everything back online.” Epic posted its initial status message about the issue at 6:39PM ET.While the login issue was happening, I wasn’t able to get into the game on my Nintendo Switch 2. When I tried, the game showed a message that says “unable to sign in to your account for online services” and to “please try again later.” I also watched frustrated Twitch streamers who are trying to compete in a scheduled tournament that weren’t able to log in or play games.In other updates, Epic said that the login issue also affected two of its other games, Rocket League and Fall Guys” and that it was investigating login errors for titles using Epic Online Services.Fortnite dealt with an extended downtime last year during the launch of its Greek mythology-themed season. In 2021, the game’s servers went down for a few hours near the end of the year.Update, August 14th: Epic says players on most platforms can log in.