Back when I played games on a BBC Micro, you had to load them by putting them into a cassette player and playing them through an audio input. The idea was that the sounds correlated to the game's data, which would translate over via sound, and it took about 20 minutes to do. Then the gaming scene really picked up, and 20-minute load times became laughable. Then the gaming scene really picked up, and we're back to watching a bar slowly creep up as the game compiles shaders for a good while. Granted, it's only done during first boot, an update tweaks the shaders, or you update your drivers, but it really sends me back.

The second day of protests at Microsoft’s headquarters involved red paint. A Microsoft employee has been arrested as part of protests at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington this week. On Tuesday, a group of current and former Microsoft employees, as well as community members, took over a plaza at Microsoft’s headquarters to protest against the company’s contracts with Israel. The No Azure for Apartheid protest group says at least one Microsoft employee has now been arrested as part of 18 arrests in a second day of protests.Protestors at Microsoft’s headquarters set up a “Liberated Zone” encampment for a second day on Wednesday, and poured red paint over a Microsoft sign on campus. Komo News reports that Redmond Police allege that some protesters also “blocked a pedestrian bridge, and tried to create a barrier using stolen tables and chairs.” While the group of protesters were moved on peacefully on the first day of protests on Tuesday, Redmond Police arrested 18 people at Wednesday’s protests and claim some protestors “became aggressive.”One of the 18 arrested is Anna Hattle, a software engineer in Microsoft’s cloud and AI team. Abdo Mohamed, a No Azure for Apartheid organizer and former tech worker fired by Microsoft, confirmed to The Verge that Hattle and former Microsoft employees Hossam Nasr and Vaniya Agrawal were arrested on Wednesday. “Those arrested include current and former Microsoft workers as well as Seattle community members,” says the No Azure for Apartheid group in a press release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maximillian Alvarez (@maximillian.alvarez)The group has been organizing a series of protests against Microsoft’s cloud contracts with the Israeli government in recent months. A former Microsoft employee disrupted the company’s 50th anniversary event and called Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman a “war profiteer.” Microsoft’s three CEOs were also interrupted by another former Microsoft employee during the same event. The group also disrupted Microsoft’s Build conference earlier this year multiple times, and Microsoft even blocked emails that contain “Palestine” after these employee protests.The latest protests come just days after The Guardian, in partnership with +972 Magazine and Local Call, published an investigation which revealed that the Israeli government is relying on Microsoft’s cloud services to store recordings and data of up to “a million calls an hour” made by Palestinians.“The company announced last week that it is pursuing a thorough and independent review of new allegations first reported earlier this month about the purported use of its Azure platform in Israel,” says an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Komo News. “Microsoft will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.”Update, August 21st: Article updated with additional details on the arrests.

The stealthy and no-frills camera is back. Ricoh is launching its GR IV compact camera in mid-September for $1,499.95, accompanied by a tiny new GF-2 add-on flash for $119.95. As initially announced in May, the GR IV will feature a 26-megapixel APS-C sensor, slightly redesigned 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens, new autofocus and stabilization systems, and 53GB of built-in storage to supplement its microSD card slot.It’s been over six years since the first incarnation of the GR III launched, back in 2019, with just the GR IIIx and HDF variants following since then. The much anticipated sequel camera follows in the footprints of its predecessor with an ultra-compact body and lens combo that’s ideal for street photography and everyday picture-taking. If you’re more familiar with Fujifilm’s wildly popular X100VI than a Ricoh GR, the Ricoh is an even more compact take on a similar formula — one you can fit into a pocket. The GR IV has the same size sensor but with a more modest resolution, a slightly wider lens than an X100, a slower f/2.8 aperture, and no viewfinder (GR cameras rely on the rear screen for composition, or an old-fashioned optical finder you mount on top).That’s all par for the course with previous GR cameras too. Though, one way the GR III set itself apart from Fujifilm was a sub-$1,000 price when it launched in 2019. The new GR IV will sell for $600 more than that — and $350 more than the most recent GR III variant. Many cameras from the likes of Fujifilm, Nikon, Canon, and more have gone up in price this year due to US tariffs. Among the hardcore photo crowd, the Ricoh GR line was known for being the affordable option of fixed focal-length street cameras. They obviously weren’t impulse-buy territory, but they were cheaper than an X100 and much cheaper than any Leica Q. Now, with the GR IV at $1,500 and X100VI running $1,800 (and possibly climbing higher) this style of camera feels like a much pricier affair.

It's safe to say that browsers haven't fundamentally changed in a very long time. They serve as a viewport to the internet, and while they keep evolving to keep up with modern standards, the basic features haven't changed all that much. Take Chrome, Edge, Safari, or many of the other browsers around; much of the evolution has been around tab management, not so much in how you actually use the internet. Perplexity's new browser, however, takes a different approach. Instead of acting like a window to the internet, it takes advantage of AI to work alongside you. I've been using it for a week, and I can totally see how this might fundamentally change browsing.

Sony announced a $50 price increase on all PlayStation 5 “slim” models in the US starting tomorrow, August 21st. The upcoming prices for a PS5 Digital Edition, the standard PS5, and the PS5 Pro are $499.99, $549.99, and $749.99, respectively; however, you can avoid paying the higher prices by picking up a PS5 at Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart today.The disc-based PS5 is already sold out at Amazon, and your options may get even more limited the longer you wait. As of right now, you can get the PS5 Digital Edition for around $449 at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, while the standard PS5 can be had for around $499 at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target. You can also pick up the newer PS5 Pro for around $699 at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target.All three PS5 consoles can play the same library of games, but have slight differences. The PS5 Digital Edition features rearranged port selection and lacks a built-in disc drive, which means it can only play digital games downloaded from the PlayStation Store. (Sony sells an optional external drive you can add after the fact for $79.99 if you’d like to play physical games or Blu-rays.) The standard, disc-based PS5 features the same tech specs, but with an internal disc drive. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (slim)Where to Buy: $449 at Amazon $449 at Walmart $449.99 at Best BuyPlayStation 5 (slim)Where to Buy: $499 at Walmart $499.99 at Best Buy $499.99 at TargetThe PS5 Pro, meanwhile, has a better GPU, faster memory, improved ray tracing, support for Wi-Fi 7, and AI-powered upscaling. It lacks an internal disc drive, but it’s compatible with the external disc drive developed for the original PS5. It also comes with 2TB of internal storage instead of the 1TB SSD found in the non-Pro models, so you have additional space for stowing digital games. The beefed-up system doesn’t have exclusive titles, but select PS5 titles have received updates to look better. PlayStation 5 ProWhere to Buy: $699 at Amazon $699 at Walmart $699.99 at Best BuySony’s price hike comes less than a month after Nintendo introduced a similar $30 increase on the original Nintendo Switch models. Nintendo also recently raised the prices of certain Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, but Sony says “the recommended retail prices for PS5 accessories remain unchanged.” The price adjustments from both companies are attributable to tariffs on international goods, which were first announced in April and have continued to change in response to President Donald Trump’s on-again-of-again policy.

M.2 SSDs are the way to go if you're looking to stock up on high-speed storage. And while the prices will never be as low as they once were a few years ago, we're now seeing some pretty solid discounts, making them easy to pick up for necessary storage upgrades.

Stop me if you've heard this already, but we ran out of public IPv4 addresses years ago. Yet, the internet didn't grind to a halt, and the explosive growth of internet-connected devices didn't slow down. What did happen was a combination of things, including IPv6 for essentially endless IP address space, and Network Address Translation (NAT). which translates public IP addresses on the internet to private IP addresses on your home network, and vice versa.

SSDs and the flash within them have fundamentally changed the way we store our data on consumer devices. HDDs are still used for many workloads, but for any data that we, as users, must interact with, solid state storage is a no-brainer.

PC gaming handhelds are one of the most exciting computing devices to release over the past few years, allowing folks to take all their favorite PC titles anywhere and play them. While the experience is pretty good on the whole, one of the downsides is that most devices on the market right now are pretty expensive.

Fans of the Battlefield series have been through a rough number of years. Games like Battlefield 2042 failed to keep the spark of excitement alive with post-release content and updates to the online multiplayer across all platforms. To say that fans have been starving for a brand-new Battlefield experience would be a big understatement. But luckily for everyone, the arrival of Battlefield 6 on multiple platforms is not that far off. In preparation for it, developers at Battlefield Studios had an open beta where players on every platform could get a taste of what the game would be like before it officially released. Much to the delight of everyone, the open beta revealed a lot of interesting things that are happening for Battlefield 6 that have everyone feeling optimistic about its release.

By now, if you’re trying to run away from adopting AI into your daily workflow and routine, you’re fighting a losing battle. I gave up on doing that a long, long time ago, and I've been testing AI tools left and right, trying to find ones that actually make my life easier.

Google is bringing a bundle of new features to Gemini Live, its AI assistant that you can have real-time conversations with. Next week, Gemini Live will be able to highlight things directly on your screen while sharing your camera, making it easier for the AI assistant to point out a specific item.If you’re trying to find the right tool for a project, for example, you can point your smartphone’s camera at a collection of tools, and Gemini Live will highlight the correct one on your screen. This feature will be available on the newly announced Pixel 10 devices when they launch on August 28th. Google will begin rolling out visual guidance to other Android devices at the same time before expanding to iOS “in the coming weeks.”Google is also launching new integrations that will soon allow Gemini Live to interact with more apps, including Messages, Phone, and Clock. Say you’re in the middle of a conversation with Gemini about directions to your destination, but you realize you’re running late. Google says you’ll be able to interrupt the chatbot with something like: “This route looks good. Now, send a message to Alex that I’m running about 10 minutes late.” From there, Google can draft a text to your friend for you.Lastly, Google is launching an updated audio model for Gemini Live that the company says will “dramatically improve” how the chatbot “uses the key elements of human speech, like intonation, rhythm and pitch.” Soon, Gemini will change its tone based on what you’re speaking about, such as using a calmer voice if you’re asking about a stressful topic. You’ll also be able to change how fast — or slow — Gemini talks, which sounds a bit similar to how users can now tweak the style of ChatGPT’s voice mode. And, if you ask Gemini for a dramatic retelling of a story from the perspective of a particular character or historical figure, the chatbot may adopt an accent for a “rich, engaging narrative.”