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Even when it wasn’t failing quietly, Ubuntu was throwing truly useless errors. | Image: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge It's a complete coincidence that I installed Linux around the same time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. A few months ago, I decided to breathe new life into a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that had been collecting dust for a couple of years. Despite its (at the time) high-end Core i7 CPU and 32GB of RAM, Windows was frustratingly slow on it. The fan was constantly at full throttle even when the machine was idle, and it regularly failed to install updates. So in early 2024, I gave up and switched to an M1 MacBook Pro. But I wanted to give my oldest child something to practice typing on. Plus, I'd been trying to find a suitable di … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/report/875077/linux-was-a-mistake

It’s the first weekend of February, which can only mean one thing: The Super Bowl (or “ Benito Bowl ,” if you’re mainly tuning in for the Bad Bunny-led halftime show) is upon us. The game is Sunday, February 8th, at 6:30PM ET on Peacock , NFL Plus , and on live services that include NBC. With that out of the way, I’m here to surface this week’s best deals. There were plenty of good ones, from cheap yet extremely handy two-headed USB-C cables and a $20 sci-fi first-person shooter PC game bundle to steep discounts on big OLED TVs that will impress people at your Super Bowl watch party. If you happen to be in the market for a 65-inch OLED 4K TV (can I come over?), the LG C5 is almost half off its original asking price of $2,699. Whether you buy one through Amazon for $1,397 or from Best Buy at $1399.99, there’s a good chance that you can have it installed by kickoff on Sunday. Amazon currently has fast shipping for this TV, and many Best Buy brick-and-mortar locations are likely to...

The Aura Aspen is a sweet and sentimental gift that’s $199. | Image: Aura Aura’s Aspen digital photo frame is a great Valentine’s Day gift if you want something that’s slick and sentimental, and right now it’s on sale for $199 ($30 off) at Amazon , Best Buy, and Aura’s online storefront . That’s the lowest we’ve seen the frame sell for since the holidays. Aura Aspen Where to Buy: $229 $199 at Amazon $229 $199 at Aura $229.99 $199.99 at Best Buy With its paper-textured, antiglare matte display and adjustable metal stand, the 12-inch Aspen looks remarkably similar to a classic picture frame. It lets you upload and share photos from anywhere. It also has features that help photos feel more personal, like a sharp 1600 x 1200 HD LCD panel that makes images appear lifelike and can display Live Photos, as well as short 30-second video clips. You can even add text captions. There are other reasons we like Aspen, too. The frame adapts to a room’s lighting, and its 4:3 aspect...

An autonomous vehicle drives down a lonely stretch of highway. Suddenly, a massive tornado appears in the distance. What does the driverless vehicle do next? This is just one of the scenarios that Waymo can simulate in the "hyper realistic" virtual world that it has just created with help from Google's DeepMind. Waymo's World Model is built using Genie 3 , Google's new AI world model that can generate virtual interactive spaces with text or images as prompts. But Genie 3 isn't just for creating bad knockoffs of Nintendo games ; it can also build photorealistic and interactive 3D environments "adapted for the rigors of the driving domain," Way … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/transportation/874771/waymo-world-model-simulation-google-deepmind-genie-3

Kamala Harris' social media strategy in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election was filled with Gen Z dog whistles: viral branding based on pop music, memes , camo hats that were a double entendre . It was an effective way to get attention and news coverage, as well as a mountain of user generated content online. But for months, the accounts have been dormant - until today. On X, Harris herself announced the rebranding of @KamalaHQ in a video message. The account is now @headquarters_67, "the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub," as it's described in a post. Harris describes it as "where you can go online to get basically the latest of … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/policy/874410/kamala-harris-kamalahq-headquarters-rebrand-launch

There's been a clear shift over Fallout 's second season. While the show started out as a relatively goofy introduction to the postapocalyptic wasteland , one that nailed the vibes of the games perfectly, season 2 has been intent on making the world even bigger . And nowhere was that more clear than in the season finale, in which a number of story threads and characters raced toward what seemed to be some kind of conclusion. Instead, the show left everyone hanging, with the promise that things will get even bigger going forward. Spoilers to follow for the first two seasons of Fallout . While much of this season could be described as plodding, … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/873816/fallout-season-2-finale-review