The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced plans to turn land that previously housed aspects of the Manhattan Project into a 1 GW solar farm. For the uninitiated, the Manhattan Project was a top-secret and successful effort to develop nuclear weapons during the 1940s.
SiriusXM just announced a standalone podcast subscription service called SiriusXM Podcasts+. The platform will be available via Apple Podcasts starting August 5 and will offer a “premium listening experience” for some of the “biggest shows across the SiriusXM Podcast Network.”
Etsy just announced an upcoming loyalty program for buyers called Etsy Insider. This is the first-ever program of its type on the platform and the company begins testing in September. Select customers will receive an invite for the service as it gets closer to launch.
The Washington DC Superior Court has filed a lawsuit against ticket-seller StubHub that accuses the company of hiding all kinds of fees from consumers until the very last moment. The suit calls out the “deceptive practice of charging hidden junk fees” and refers to it as a “classic bait-and-switch scheme.”
Nothing just announced a relatively surprising hardware update for its Phone 2a smartphone. The Phone 2a Plus is a modest upgrade, but still significant, being as how the original 2a was just released back in March.
Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas in order to resolve a lawsuit that accused the company of illegally using facial recognition technology. The suit alleges that Meta used this tech to collect the biometric data of millions of Texans without consent. The agreement marks the largest financial settlement ever paid out to a single state.
Sony’s currently prepping a Mario-like adventure game for PS5 that’s inspired by its cute little Astro Bot mascot character. That title arrives on September 6 and looks like an absolute blast.
We haven't had an update on Netflix’s Bioshock movie in a couple of years, leading some to wonder if it was quietly canned. The good news? The movie’s still coming. The (potential) bad news? The budget has been slashed, according to reporting by Variety.