PC gaming handhelds have been getting better and better over the past year, and interestingly, it has nothing to do with the release of new hardware. It's been all about Linux, and how software like SteamOS has brought gaming to a wider market, especially as it finds its way to more hardware.

Fidji Simo, chief executive officer of Instacart Inc., during a Bloomberg Studio 1.0 interview in 2022. | Image: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images Instacart’s CEO, Fidji Simo, will start her new role as an OpenAI executive on August 18th, leading at least one-third of the company and reporting directly to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Simo will be “CEO of Applications,” tasked with scaling and growing the tech’s use cases. It’s a brand-new role, first revealed as part of Altman’s reorganization announcement in May. At the time, Altman wrote that he’d still oversee what he called the three pillars of OpenAI — research, compute, and applications — but that he would start to focus more on the research and compute side of things, including safety systems. Simo, on the other hand, will be more focused on product and growth.In a memo to employees, which was also published on OpenAI’s blog, Simo wrote she was most excited for AI-led healthcare breakthroughs. She also wrote extensively about her belief in AI’s ability to help with career and life coaching, creative expression, time-saving, medical second opinions, regaining time, and personalized tutoring.Simo wrote that major technology trends can either expand access to power or “further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few — usually people who already have money, credentials, and connections.” She wrote that the choices the company and AI leaders make now “will shape whether the coming transformation leads to greater empowerment for all, or greater concentration of wealth and power for the few.” Simo first joined OpenAI’s board in March 2024. Her appointment came at the same time as CEO Sam Altman regained his board seat, after an internal investigation of the lead-up to his ouster. OpenAI’s applications department “brings together a group of existing business and operational teams responsible for how our research reaches and benefits the world,” Altman wrote in May, adding that Simo’s role will focus on “enabling our ‘traditional’ company functions to scale as we enter a next phase of growth.”Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Simo as the former CEO of Instacart. Simo will remain as CEO through the company’s earnings in early August and then transition into her role at OpenAI.

It appears that Google will be adding a third back camera to the base Pixel 10 this year, based on what Android Headlines reports are official renders of the rumored phone. The third camera will be a telephoto camera, Android Headlines says, with the other two cameras being a primary sensor and an ultrawide.This isn’t a total surprise, as Android Headlines has previously rumored that the Pixel 10 would be getting that telephoto shooter. However, the phone will reportedly have worse sensors that match the Pixel 9A, which could be a way for Google to create some separation between the Pixel 10 and the Pixel 10 Pro.The renders published by Android Headlines also show four colors for the Pixel 10: obsidian (black), indigo (dark blue), frost (gray-ish blue), and limoncello (a bright, neon yellow).Google is set to launch its next set of Pixel devices, which is also rumored to include a dust-proof Pixel 10 Pro Fold and the Pixel Watch 4, at an event on August 20th.

Steam’s Automation Fest is back, and it’s the perfect time to expand your library with some of the most creative and addictive games in the automation genre. From managing an entire star system to a simple factory floor and everything in between, these are the top five games you need to pick up during the Steam Automation Sale.

Meta says it won’t sign the European Union’s artificial intelligence code of practice agreement, warning that “Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI.” The code published by the EU on July 10th is a voluntary set of guidelines to help companies follow the AI Act’s rules around general-purpose AI before they come into effect in a few weeks.“We have carefully reviewed the European Commission’s Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won’t be signing it,” Meta’s global affairs chief, Joel Kaplan, said via a statement on LinkedIn. “This Code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act.”While the code of practice itself isn’t legally enforced, the EU says that general-purpose AI model providers who sign it will benefit from a “reduced administrative burden and increased legal certainty,” compared to providers that may otherwise be subject to more regulatory scrutiny. OpenAI announced its intention to sign the agreement on July 11th.This comes ahead of AI Act rules coming into force on August 2nd that require general-purpose AI providers to be transparent about training and security risks for their models, and abide by EU and national copyright laws. The EU can fine companies that violate the AI Act up to seven percent of their annual sales.Kaplan says that Meta is concerned that the EU’s landmark AI rulebook will act to throttle frontier model development and deployment in Europe, stunting European companies that comply with the bloc’s regulations. These concerns echo those raised in a letter signed by more than 45 companies and organizations last month, including Airbus, Mercedes-Benz, Philips, and ASML, that urged the EU to postpone the implementation of its landmark AI Act regulation for two years to address uncertainty around compliance.The EU’s efforts to tighten AI regulations stand in contrast to attitudes in the US, where the Trump administration is actively removing such roadblocks. Meta’s refusal to sign the EU’s code isn’t entirely surprising, given that the scorned company has been slapped with billions in fines under the EU’s regulatory landscape, and has aligned itself with the Trump administration’s lax views around tech regulations.

Just like most of you reading this, I used to subscribe to the wisdom that "6 cores are enough for most people". Until 2022, I had only ever used CPUs with up to 6 cores, nothing more. What changed that year was that I got the opportunity to get a fully paid-for PC courtesy of Nvidia and WD, so I got carried away. I let temptation trump logic, and splurged a big portion of the prize money on the Ryzen 7 5700X. An 8-core chip isn't the most powerful thing you can buy, but I sure hoped to see some tangible improvements. However, I was sorely disappointed.

Google is introducing the option to easily switch between personal and work profiles in its Chrome browser on iOS, with data kept separate between the two. The new option is part of Google’s enterprise software package, and doesn’t allow non-enterprise users to switch freely between two Google accounts in the browser.Companies that adopt Chrome Enterprise can let employees sign in to managed Google accounts on iOS and switch freely between their personal and work accounts within Chrome. Like on desktop, users switch by tapping their account icon and then selecting the other profile to browse with.Browsing data including tabs, history, and passwords will be kept separate between the two accounts, and IT admins will be able to access security reports and restrict browsing to certain sites while in the work profile.Android has no direct analog to this feature, but instead supports device-wide work profiles that cover the full suite of Google apps, including Chrome. This is presented as a different version of the Chrome app, and so unlike on iOS, Android users can’t switch to a work profile from within Chrome itself. Chrome users are unable to switch freely between non-enterprise Google accounts on either mobile operating system, despite having the option on desktop versions of the browser.

I’ve been a part of the home lab community long enough to know that relying on a single rig for my experimentation and self-hosting needs is a bad idea. While hosting a NAS inside a virtualized setup can reduce my energy bills and make management easier, a dedicated storage server ensures I won’t lose the massive volumes of data I’ve collected over the years.

After trying out a few different methods to receive alerts from Home Assistant, I finally settled on using a Telegram bot, and it has worked out far better than I expected. I was tired of unreliable mobile push notifications and didn’t want to keep checking the dashboard just to know what was going on in my home. Home Assistant’s Telegram integration proved to be a solid and responsive option that works seamlessly across all my devices.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT sees more than 2.5 billion requests daily, with 330 million from users based in the US, according to data obtained by Axios. The data suggests that ChatGPT users send over 912.5 billion requests to the AI chatbot each year. OpenAI spokesperson Rob Friedlander confirmed to The Verge that the numbers reported by Axios are correct. Although ChatGPT still has a ways to go to catch up to Google’s 5 trillion annual searches, its rapid growth still poses a major threat to the search giant. In the span of just a few months, ChatGPT’s weekly users spiked from 300 million last December to more than 500 million in March.Earlier this month, a report from Reuters suggested that OpenAI is preparing to release an AI-powered web browser in the coming weeks, which will directly compete with Google Chrome. The company took a step toward this milestone with last week’s launch of ChatGPT Agent, a tool that can complete tasks on your computer for you.Update, July 21st: Added confirmation from OpenAI.

Just over 25 years ago, BeOS, a now discontinued operating system, had its final release. In the late 90s, it was considered by some to be viable competition to the likes of Windows and macOS, but it never captured enough market share to do so. It was largely replaced by Linux as the alternative OS to the big duo after the year 2000.

Microsoft is starting to test updates to the Xbox PC app and Xbox consoles that will allow cloud games to follow you across devices. A new play history section of the Xbox PC app and Xbox console home UI will display cloud games as part of the recently played titles list and this will roam across Xbox consoles, PCs, and handhelds.Cloud-playable games are now starting to show inside play history or the library on the Xbox PC app. “This includes all cloud playable titles, even console exclusives spanning from the original Xbox to Xbox Series X|S, whether you own the title or access it through Game Pass,” explains Lily Wang, product manager of Xbox experiences.Your recent games, including cloud ones, will soon follow you across devices — complete with cloud-powered game saves. So if you played an Xbox game on your console that’s not natively available on PC, it will still show up in your recent games list and be playable through Xbox Cloud Gaming on Windows.Cloud-playable games on the Xbox PC app can be found from a new filter in the library section, and a new “play history” section will appear at the end of the “jump back in” list on the home screen of the Xbox PC app. “While the large tiles highlight games you’ve recently played on your current device, the play history tile shows games you’ve played across any Xbox device, making it easy to pick up where you left off,” says Wang.This same play history section will appear on the main Xbox console interface, too — which could mean we’ll eventually see PC games listed here and playable through Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft currently uses the chips from Xbox Series X to power special server blades for Xbox Cloud Gaming, but internal emails in the FTC v. Microsoft case in 2023 revealed that Microsoft has been investigating streaming PC games over the cloud. With Microsoft moving Xbox and PC closer together for its next-gen consoles, I’m expecting to see Xbox Cloud Gaming support PC games and provide better bitrates and resolutions, too.