Tech – Page 2

Google and Valve will kill “Steam for Chromebooks” experiment in January 2026

chromebooks, ChromeOS, gaming, steam, Tech / 9u50fv / August 8, 2025

Bad news if you’re one of the handful of people using Steam to play games on a Chromebook: Google and Valve are preparing to end support for the still-in-beta ChromeOS version of Steam on January 1, 2026, according to 9to5Google. Steam can still be installed on Chromebooks, but it now comes with a notice announcing the end of support.

“The Steam for Chromebook Beta program will conclude on January 1st, 2026,” reads the notification. “After this date, games installed as part of the Beta will no longer be available to play on your device. We appreciate your participation in and contribution to learnings from the beta program, which will inform the future of Chromebook gaming.”

Steam originally launched on Chromebooks in early 2022 as an alpha that ran on just a handful of newer and higher-specced devices with Intel chips inside. A beta version arrived later that year, with reduced system requirements and support for AMD CPUs and GPUs. Between then and now, neither Google nor Valve had said much about it.

The Steam beta was one component of a “gaming Chromebook” push that Google made in 2022 and 2023. It saw the release of laptops with better hardware and high-refresh-rate screens and optimized versions of GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Google had reportedly been working to add Steam support to ChromeOS since at least 2020.

Google and Valve will kill “Steam for Chromebooks” experiment in January 2026 Read More »

Sonos says it’s forced to raise prices while trying to win back customers

Sonos, tariffs, Tech / Beth Washington / August 7, 2025

During that call, Sonos CFO Saori Casey said that the company expects “tariff expenses will be approximately $5 million in Q4.” In Sonos’ fiscal Q3, it paid $3.5 million in tariffs, Casey said.

Sonos is still recovering from app problems

Since July 2024, when Sonos’ then-CEO Patrick Spence admitted that a software update inadvertently broke many Sonos devices, the company has been trying to prove to customers and investors that its pricey audio devices are still worth buying.

During the earnings call, Conrad said he believes the value of Sonos gadgets “compounds over time, thanks to the kinds of software updates that deliver new experiences.” But a widely reviled app update last year damaged Sonos’ reputation in this area. The update stripped the app of some basic features, such as the ability to edit playlists and song queues, and many Sonos devices, especially older ones, stopped functioning properly.

Meanwhile, Sonos hasn’t released a new product since the Arc Ultra soundbar and Sub 4 subwoofer in October 2024. In March, reports surfaced that Sonos axed its streaming video player. Conrad told investors yesterday that Sonos has a release roadmap going beyond its 2026 fiscal year. Any devices in that roadmap, however, will be challenged to sell customers on their software, long-term reliability, and price.

Customers may cut Sonos some slack, considering the widespread impact that tariffs are expected to have on electronics pricing. In May, the Trump administration axed the de minimis exemption that enabled duty-free imports of goods worth $800 or less, impacting electronics such as PC peripherals and DIY parts. Currently, the US and China have paused tariffs as the countries look to reach an agreement by August 12. At that time, goods imported from China could face tariffs as high as 145 percent, which would significantly impact the prices of most electronics sold in the US.

But Sonos is already struggling to release and sell new products at high prices, so raising them even higher could further harm the company.

“We lost the momentum in 2024. We’re starting to get it back, and we’re going to accelerate our pace from here,” Conrad said.

Sonos says it’s forced to raise prices while trying to win back customers Read More »

Review: Framework Desktop is a mash-up of a regular desktop PC and the Mac Studio

AMD, framework, framework desktop, gaming, NVIDIA, ryzen ai, Tech / DJ Henderson / August 7, 2025

Size matters most for Framework’s first stab at a desktop workstation/gaming PC.

The Framework Desktop. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Framework’s main claim to fame is its commitment to modular, upgradeable, repairable laptops. The jury’s still out on early 2024’s Framework Laptop 16 and mid-2025’s Framework Laptop 12, neither of which has seen a hardware refresh, but so far, the company has released half a dozen iterations of its flagship Framework Laptop 13 in less than five years. If you bought one of the originals right when it first launched, you could go to Framework’s site, buy an all-new motherboard and RAM, and get a substantial upgrade in performance and other capabilities without having to change anything else about your laptop.

Framework’s laptops haven’t been adopted as industry-wide standards, but in many ways, they seem built to reflect the flexibility and modularity that has drawn me to desktop PCs for more than two decades.

That’s what makes the Framework Desktop so weird. Not only is Framework navigating into a product category where its main innovation and claim to fame is totally unnecessary. But it’s actually doing that with a desktop that’s less upgradeable and modular than any given self-built desktop PC.

The Framework Desktop has a lot of interesting design touches, and it’s automatically a better buy than the weird AMD Ryzen AI Max-based mini desktops you can buy from a couple of no-name manufacturers. But aside from being more considerate of PC industry standards, the Framework Desktop asks the same question that any gaming-focused mini PC does: Do you care about having a small machine so much that you would pay more money for less performance, and for a system you can’t upgrade much after you buy it?

Design and assembly

Opening the Framework Desktop’s box. The PC and all its accessories are neatly packed away in all-recyclable carboard and paper. Andrew Cunningham

My DIY Edition Framework Desktop arrived in a cardboard box that was already as small or a bit smaller than my usual desktop PC, a mini ITX build with a dedicated GPU inside a 14.67-liter SSUPD Meshlicious case. It’s not a huge system, especially for something that can fit a GeForce RTX 5090 in it. But three of the 4.5-liter Framework Desktops could fit inside my build’s case with a little space leftover.

The PC itself is buried a couple of layers deep in this box under some side panels and whatever fan you choose (Framework offers RGB and non-RGB options from Cooler Master and Noctua, but any 120 mm fan will fit on the heatsink). Even for the DIY Edition, the bulk of it is already assembled: the motherboard is in the case, a large black heatsink is already perched atop the SoC, and both the power supply and front I/O ports are already hooked up.

The aspiring DIYer mainly needs to install the SSD and the fan to get going. Putting in these components gives you a decent crash course in how the system goes together and comes apart. The primary M.2 SSD slot is under a small metal heat spreader next to the main heatsink—loosen one screw to remove it, and install your SSD of choice. The system’s other side panel can be removed to expose a second M.2 SSD slot and the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, letting you install or replace either.

Lift the small handles on the two top screws and loosen them by hand to remove them, and the case’s top panel slides off. This provides easier access to both the CPU fan header and RGB header, so you can connect the fan after you install it and its plastic shroud on top of the heatsink. That’s pretty much it for assembly, aside from sliding the various panels back in place to close the thing up and reinstalling the top screws (or, if you bought or printed one, adding a handle to the top of the case).

The Framework Desktop includes a beefier version of Framework’s usual screwdriver with a longer bit. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Framework includes a beefier version of its typical screwdriver with the Desktop, including a bit that can be pulled out and reversed to be switched between Phillips and Torx heads. The iFixit-style install instructions are clearly written and include plenty of high-resolution sample images so you can always tell how things are supposedto look.

The front of the system requires some assembly, too, but all of this stuff can be removed and replaced easily without opening up the rest of the system. The front panel, where the system’s customizable tiles can be snapped on and popped off, attaches with magnets and can easily be pried away from the desktop with your fingernails. At the bottom are slots for two of Framework’s USB-C Expansion Cards, the same ones that all the Framework Laptops use.

By default, those ports are limited to 5 Gbps USB transfer speeds in the BIOS, something the system says reduces wireless interference; those with all-wired networking and accessories can presumably enable the full 10 Gbps speeds without downsides. The front ports should support all of the Expansion Cards except for display outputs, which they aren’t wired for. (I also had issues getting the Desktop to boot from a USB port on the front of the system while installing Windows, but your mileage may vary; using one of the rear USB ports solved the issue for me.)

Standards, sometimes

Putting in the M.2 SSD. There’s another SSD slot on the back of the motherboard. Andrew Cunningham

What puts the Framework Desktop above mini PCs from Amazon or the various gaming NUCs that Intel and Asus have released over the years is a commitment to standards.

For reasons we’ll explore later, there was no way to build the system around this specific AMD chip without using soldered-on memory. But the motherboard is a regular mini ITX-sized motherboard. Other ITX boards will fit into Framework’s case, and the Framework Laptop’s motherboard will fit into other systems (as long as they can also fit the fan and heatsink).

The 400 W power supply conforms to the FlexATX standard. The CPU fan is just a regular 120 mm fan, and the mounting holes for system fans on the front can take any 92 mm fan. The two case fan headers on the motherboard are the same ones you’d find on any motherboard you bought for yourself. The front panel ports can’t be used for display outputs, but anything else ought to work.

Few elements of the Framework Desktop are truly proprietary, and if Framework went out of business tomorrow, you’d still have a lot of flexibility for buying and installing replacement parts. The problem is that the soldered-down, non-replaceable, non-upgradeable parts are the CPU, GPU, and RAM. There’s at least a little flexibility with the graphics card if you move the board into a different case—there’s a single PCIe x4 slot on the board that you could put an external GPU into, though many PCIe x16 graphics cards will be bandwidth starved. But left in its original case, it’s an easy-to-work-on, standards-compliant system that will also never be any better or get any faster than it is the day you buy it.

Hope you like plastic

Snapping some tiles into the Framework Desktop’s plastic front panel. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

The interior of the Framework Desktop is built of sturdy metal, thoughtfully molded to give easy access to each of the ports and components on the motherboard. My main beef with the system is the outside.

The front and side panels of the Framework Desktop are all made out of plastic. The clear side panel, if you spring for it, is made of a thick acrylic instead of tempered glass (presumably because Framework has drilled holes in the side of it to improve airflow).

This isn’t the end of the world, but the kinds of premium ITX PC cases that the Desktop is competing with are predominantly made of nicer-looking and nicer-feeling metal rather than plastic. It just feels surprisingly cheap, which was an unpleasant surprise—even the plastic Framework Laptop 12 felt sturdy and high-quality, something I can’t really say of the Desktop’s exterior panels.

I do like the design on the front panel—a grid of 21 small square plastic tiles that users can rearrange however they want. Framework sells tiles with straight and diagonal lines on them, plus individual tiles with different logos or designs printed or embossed on them. If you install a fan in the front of the system, you’ll want to stick to the lined tiles in the top 9 x 9 section of the grid, which will allow air to pass through. The tiles with images on them are solid—putting a couple of them in front of a fan likely won’t hurt your airflow too much, but you won’t want to use too many.

Framework has also published basic templates for both the tiles and the top panel so that those with 3D printers can make their own.

PC testbed notes

We’ve compared the performance of the Framework Desktop to a bunch of other PCs to give you a sense of how it stacks up to full-size desktops. We’ve also compared it to the Ryzen 7 8700G in a Gigabyte B650I Aorus Ultra mini ITX motherboard with 32GB of DDR5-6400 to show the best performance you can expect from a similarly sized socketed desktop system.

Where possible, we’ve also included some numbers from the M4 Pro Mac mini and the M4 Max Mac Studio, two compact desktops in the same general price range as the Framework Desktop.

For our game benchmarks, the dedicated GPU results were gathered using our GPU testbed, which you can read about in our latest dedicated GPU review. The integrated GPUs were obviously tested with the CPUs they’re attached to.

	AMD AM5	Intel LGA 1851	Intel LGA 1700
CPUs	Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series	Core Ultra 200 series	12th, 13th, and 14th-generation Core
Motherboard	ASRock X870E Taichi or MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wifi (provided by AMD)	MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X (provided by Intel)	Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X (provided by Intel)
RAM config	32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo (provided by AMD), running at DDR5-6000	32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo (provided by AMD), running at DDR5-6000	32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo (provided by AMD), running at DDR5-6000

Performance and power

Our Framework-provided review unit was the highest-end option; it has a 16-core Ryzen AI Max+395 processor, 40 graphics cores, and 128GB of RAM. At $1,999 before adding an SSD, a fan, an OS, front tiles, or Expansion Cards, this is the best, priciest configuration Framework offers. The $1,599 configuration uses the same chip with the same performance, but with 64GB of RAM instead.

All 16 of those CPU cores are based on the Zen 5 architecture, with none of the smaller-but-slower Zen 5c cores. But its total TDP is also limited to 120 W in total, which will hold it back a bit compared to socketed 16-core desktop CPUs like the Ryzen 9 9950X, which has a 170 W default TDP for the CPU alone.

In our testing, it seems clear that the CPU throttles when being tasked with intensive multi-core work like our Handbrake test, with temperatures that spike to around 100 degrees Celsius and hang out at around or just under that number for the duration of our test runs. The CPU package uses right around 100 W on average (this will vary based on the tests you’re running and how long you’re running them), compared to the 160 W and 194 W that the 12- and 16-core Ryzen 9 9900X and 9950X can consume at their default power levels.

Those are socketed desktop chips in huge cases being cooled by large AIO watercooling loops, so it’s hardly a fair comparison. The Framework Desktop’s CPU is also quite efficient, using even less power to accomplish our video encoding test than the 9950X in its 105 W Eco Mode. But this is the consequence of prioritizing a small size—a 16-core processor that, under heavy loads, performs more like a 12-core or even an 8-core desktop processor.

The upside is that the Framework Desktop is quieter than most desktops either under load or when idling. By default, the main CPU fan will turn off entirely when the system is under light load, and I often noticed it parking itself when I was just browsing or moving files around.

Based on our gaming tests, the Framework Desktop should be a competent 1080p-to-1440p midrange gaming system. We observed similar performance from the Radeon 8060S integrated GPU when we tested it in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 tablet. For an integrated GPU, it’s head and shoulders over anything you can get in a socketed desktop system, and it easily ran three or four times faster than the Radeon 780M in the 8700G. The soldered RAM is annoying, but the extra speed it enables helps address the memory bandwidth problem that starves most integrated GPUs.

Compared to other desktop GPUs, though, the 8060S is merely fine. It’s usually a little slower than the last-generation Radeon RX 7600 XT, a card that cost $329 when it launched in early 2024—and with a performance hit that’s slightly more pronounced in games with ray-tracing effects on.

The 8060S stacks up OK to older midrange GPUs like the GeForce RTX 3060 and 4060, but it’s soundly beaten by the RTX 5060 or the 16GB version of the Radeon RX 9060 XT, cards currently available for $300-to-$400. (One problem for the 8060S—it’s based on the RDNA3.5 architecture, so it’s missing ray-tracing performance improvements introduced in RDNA4 and the RX 9000 series).

All of that said, the GPU may be more interesting than it looks on paper for people whose workloads need gobs and gobs of graphics memory but who don’t necessarily need that memory to be attached to the blazing-fastest GPU that exists. For people running certain AI or machine learning workloads, the 8060S’s unified memory setup means you can get a GPU with 64GB or 128GB of VRAM for less than the price of a single RTX 5090 (Framework says the GPU can use up to 112GB of RAM on the 128GB Desktop). Framework is advertising that use case pretty extensively, and it offers a guide to setting up large language models to run locally on the system.

That memory would likely be even more useful if it were attached to an Nvidia GPU instead of an AMD model—Nvidia’s hold on the workstation graphics market is at least as tight as its hold on the gaming GPU market, and many apps and tools support Nvidia GPUs and CUDA first/best/only. But it’s still one possible benefit the Framework Desktop might offer, relative to a desktop with a dedicated GPU.

You can’t say it isn’t unique

The Framework Desktop is a bit like a PC tower blended with Apple’s Mac Studio. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

In one way, Framework has done the same thing with the Desktop that it has done with all its laptops: found a niche and built a product to fill it. And with its standard-size components and standard connectors, the Framework Desktop is a clear cut above every Intel gaming NUC or Asus ROG thingamajig that’s ever existed.

I’m always impressed by the creativity, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail that Framework brings to its builds. For the Desktop, this is partially offset by how much I don’t care for most of its cheap plastic-and-acrylic exterior. But it’s still thoughtfully designed on the inside, with as much respect for standards, modularity, and repairability as you can get, once you get past that whole thing where that the major functional components are all irrevocably soldered together.

The Framework Desktop is also quiet, cute, and reasonably powerful. You’re paying some extra money and giving up both CPU and GPU speed to get something small. But you won’t run into games or apps that simply refuse to run for performance-related reasons.

It does feel like a weird product for Framework to build, though. It’s not that I can’t imagine the kind of person a Framework Desktop might be good for—it’s that I think Framework has built its business targeting a PC enthusiast demographic that will mainly be turned off by the desktop’s lack of upgradeability.

The Framework desktop is an interesting option for people who want or need a compact and easy-to-build workstation or gaming PC, or a Windows-or-Linux version of Apple’s Mac Studio. It will fit comfortably under a TV or in a cramped office. It’s too bad that it isn’t easier to upgrade. But for people who would prefer the benefits of a socketed CPU or a swappable graphics card, I’m sure the people at Framework would be the first ones to point you in the direction of a good-old desktop PC.

The good

Solid all-round performance and good power efficiency.
The Radeon 8060S is exceptionally good for an integrated GPU, delivering much better performance than you can get in something like the Ryzen 7 8700G.
Large pool of RAM available to the GPU could be good for machine learning and AI workloads.
Thoughtfully designed interior that’s easy to put together.
Uses standard-shaped motherboard, fan headers, power supply, and connectors, unlike lots of pre-built mini PCs.
Front tiles are fun.

The bad

Power limits keep the 16-core CPU from running as fast as the socketed desktop version.
A $300-to-$400 dedicated GPU will still beat the Radeon RX 8060S.
Cheap-looking exterior plastic panels.

The ugly

Soldered RAM in a desktop system.

Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue.

Review: Framework Desktop is a mash-up of a regular desktop PC and the Mac Studio Read More »

President Trump says Intel’s new CEO “must resign immediately”

Donald Trump, intel, Lip-Bu Tan, Policy, syndication, Tech / Beth Washington / August 7, 2025

Intel and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post. Intel shares dropped 3 percent in pre-market trading in New York.

Tan was appointed as Intel CEO in March after the Silicon Valley company’s board ousted his predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, in December.

Intel is the only US-headquartered company capable of producing advanced semiconductors, though it has so far largely missed out on the current boom for artificial intelligence chips. It has been awarded billions of dollars in US government subsidies and loans to support its chip manufacturing business, which has fallen far behind its rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

However, amid a radical cost-cutting program, Tan warned last month that Intel might be forced to abandon development of its next-generation manufacturing technology if it were unable to secure a “significant external customer.” Such a move would hand a virtual monopoly of leading-edge chipmaking to TSMC.

“Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations,” Cotton wrote in Tuesday’s letter to Intel’s board chair, Frank Yeary. “Mr Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations.”

Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo.

President Trump says Intel’s new CEO “must resign immediately” Read More »

Hulu’s days look numbered, but there’s reason for Disney to keep it around

Disney, Hulu, streaming, Tech / Shannon Garcia / August 7, 2025

“When we gave people an opportunity to have a more seamless experience between Disney+ and Hulu, we saw engagement increasing,” Iger said today. “And we would hope that when we take this next step, which is basically full integration, that that engagement will go up even more.”

The initial integration of Hulu, which previously used a different tech platform than the 12-year-younger Disney+ app, required the reworking of “everything from login tools to advertising platforms, to metadata and personalization systems,” as well as moving over 100,000 individual assets/artwork, The Verge reported in March. At the time, Disney said that it was still working on re-encoding all of Hulu’s video files to work on Disney+ so that there could be one master library.

The updated app coming in 2026 seems to be the culmination of all this work. Iger also pointed to work around the app’s recommendations, including what users see on the Disney+ homepage. Additionally, the app has added more streams, such as one that plays The Simpsons 24/7.

The updated app also follows Disney’s purchase of Comcast’s remaining stake in Hulu. (Disney ended up paying about $9 billion for it, compared to the approximately $14 billion that Comcast wanted.)

During today’s earnings call, Iger said the updated user experience will help the profitability and margins of Disney’s streaming business (which also includes ESPN+) by boosting engagement, reducing subscriber churn, increasing advertising revenue, and driving operational efficiencies.

Hulu still has value

It seems likely that Disney will eventually strive for everyone to subscribe to a beefed-up Disney+ that incorporates stuff that used to be on Hulu. But there’s also value in keeping Hulu around for a while.

According to Disney’s Q3 2025 earnings report [PDF], Hulu has 55.5 million subscribers. That makes Hulu less than half the size of Disney+ (127.8 million subscribers), but it also means that ending Hulu subscriptions would put Disney at risk of losing millions of streaming subscribers. Today, though, it already makes little financial sense to buy standalone subscriptions to Disney+ or Hulu. A subscription starts at $10 per month for each app. A subscription to a Disney+ and Hulu bundle is only $11/month. Of course, Disney could change how it prices its streaming services at any time.

Hulu’s days look numbered, but there’s reason for Disney to keep it around Read More »

RIP to the Macintosh HD hard drive icon, 2000–2025

Apple, macos 26 tahoe, Tech / Beth Washington / August 6, 2025

That version of the icon persisted through the Apple Silicon-era Big Sur redesign and was still with us in the first public beta build for macOS 26 Tahoe that Apple released last week. The new beta also updates the icons for external drives (orange, with a USB-C connector on top), network shares (blue, with a globe on top), and removable disk images (white, with an arrow on top).

All of the system’s disk icons get an update in the latest macOS 26 Tahoe developer beta. Credit: Apple/Andrew Cunningham

Other icons that reused or riffed on the old hard drive icon have also been changed. Disk Utility now looks like a wrench tightening an Apple-branded white bolt, for some reason, and drive icons within Disk Utility also have the new SSD-esque icon. Installer apps use the new icon instead of the old one. Navigate to the /System/Library/CoreServices folder where many of the built-in operating system icons live, and you can see a bunch of others that exchange the old HDD icon for the new SSD.

Apple first offered a Mac with an SSD in 2008, when the original MacBook Air came out. By the time “Retina” Macs began arriving in the early 2010s, SSDs had become the primary boot disk for most of them; laptops tended to be all-SSD, while desktops could be configured with an SSD or a hybrid Fusion Drive that used an SSD as boot media and an HDD for mass storage. Apple stopped shipping spinning hard drives entirely when the last of the Intel iMacs went away.

This doesn’t actually matter much. The old icon didn’t look much like the SSD in your Mac, and the new one doesn’t really look like the SSD in your Mac either. But we didn’t want to let the old icon’s passing go unremarked. So, thanks for the memories, Macintosh HD hard drive icon! Keep on spinning, wherever you are.

RIP to the Macintosh HD hard drive icon, 2000–2025 Read More »

Murena’s Pixel Tablet is helping to wean me off Google

android, Google, Operating Systems, Reviews, Software, Tablets, Tech / 9u50fv / August 6, 2025

There were times when a side-by-side comparison found Google’s results to be more aligned with what I had in mind. However, I quickly appreciated Qwant’s lack of AI-generated responses, Google Maps listings, rows of advertisements, and other distractions ahead of actual results. For example, the top results for a search for “Brooklyn rooftop bars” with the Qwant-based engine were roundups from different blogs and publications. Google’s top results were a map, a few bars’ individual websites, posts from Reddit and Instagram, and only two curated lists (one from a news publication and another from Yelp).

The tablet is weaning me off of Google Search, but I’ll likely download Google Maps soon. Murena’s tablet comes with Magic Earth, the only non-open source app preloaded onto the device. However, without Street Views, speedier response, more detailed public transit information (like the names of stops you have to pass), and easier ways to find points of interest, like restaurants, Magic Earth is not sufficient for replacing Google’s alternative—despite Maps’ low privacy rating.

More privacy, please

Despite the inconveniences of a truly Google-free tablet, using Murena’s Pixel Tablet encouraged me to push for more online privacy. It’s proof that privacy-centric tablets and other gadgets are not only possible, but also worthwhile. With Big Tech often failing to protect users, gadgets that don’t spy on you deserve a bigger spotlight.

One of /e/OS’s best features is its privacy reports, which provide an overview of the apps tracking you.

An example of a privacy report. Credit: Scharon Harding/Murena

The tablet’s privacy menu also has a toggle for hiding your IP address, although Murena notes that you may want to think twice before sending emails, as “your address may end [up getting a] permanent ban from your provider.” Both features give users more control without introducing complexity and place a much greater emphasis on understanding online privacy than what you find among other tablets.

Murena’s Pixel Tablet, while not perfect, proves that a privacy-forward tablet doesn’t have to come with trade-offs. Devices like this make privacy a competitive advantage that other companies should emulate.

Murena’s Pixel Tablet is helping to wean me off Google Read More »

Report: Intel struggles with new 18A process as it cuts workers and cancels projects

intel, intel 14a, intel 18a, Tech / Beth Washington / August 5, 2025

Intel has a lot riding on “18A,” its next-generation manufacturing process for silicon chips that the company claims will help it catch up to the lead that competitors like TSMC have built up over the last few years. With 18A, Intel would return to manufacturing its own processor designs in its own factories, including the upcoming Series 3 Core Ultra chips for laptops (codenamed Panther Lake), after manufacturing parts of all other Core Ultra chips with TSMC. Intel is also offering 18A manufacturing capacity to external chipmakers, a major milestone in former CEO Pat Gelsinger’s plan to make Intel a competitive cutting-edge (and primarily US-based) chip manufacturer for the rest of the industry.

But a Reuters report claims that Intel is struggling to make usable chips on 18A, according to “people who were briefed on the company’s test data since late last year.” As of this summer, these sources say that just 10 percent of the chips being manufactured on 18A are “up to [Intel’s] specifications.”

Intel disputed the numbers cited in the report. “Yields are better than that,” Intel CFO David Zinsner told Reuters, though neither Zinsner nor Intel provided an alternate figure.

Whether Intel is struggling with 18A or not, the story is easy to believe because it fits a decade-long pattern going back to early delays for Intel’s 14 nm process in 2013 and 2014. Intel had finally switched its lineup to the 14 nm process by late 2015, but it was then stuck on that manufacturing process for years (2019–2020 for laptop chips, 2021–2022 for desktop chips).

Through that span, Intel’s PR strategy was familiar: insist that things were ramping up well internally and that bugs were being ironed out, express confidence in the roadmap, give itself a little wiggle room on launch dates of actual products, and continue onward.

In this case, Intel told Reuters that its Panther Lake chips are “fully on track” as of July 30. Intel reaffirmed that it would launch Panther Lake using the 18A manufacturing process in the second half of 2025, with more models coming in 2026. These will be the milestones to watch for—Intel could very well be struggling to ramp up yields on 18A chips, but the struggles could be normal-ish and planned-for ones that don’t delay the company’s plans any more than they already have.

Report: Intel struggles with new 18A process as it cuts workers and cancels projects Read More »

Enough is enough—I dumped Google’s worsening search for Kagi

AI, AI assistant, ai search, degoogle, Features, Google, google search, kagi, kagi search, screwyoogle, search, search engines, SEO, Tech / 9u50fv / August 5, 2025

I like how the search engine is the product instead of me.

“Won’t be needing this anymore!” Credit: Aurich “The King” Lawson

Mandatory AI summaries have come to Google, and they gleefully showcase hallucinations while confidently insisting on their truth. I feel about them the same way I felt about mandatory G+ logins when all I wanted to do was access my damn YouTube account: I hate them. Intensely.

But unlike those mandatory G+ logins—on which Google eventually relented before shutting down the G+ service—our reading of the tea leaves suggests that, this time, the search giant is extremely pleased with how things are going.

Fabricated AI dreck polluting your search? It’s the new normal. Miss your little results page with its 10 little blue links? Too bad. They’re gone now, and you can’t get them back, no matter what ephemeral workarounds or temporarily functional flags or undocumented, could-fail-at-any-time URL tricks you use.

And the galling thing is that Google expects you to be a good consumer and just take it. The subtext of the company’s (probably AI-generated) robo-MBA-speak non-responses to criticism and complaining is clear: “LOL, what are you going to do, use a different search engine? Now, shut up and have some more AI!”

But like the old sailor used to say: “That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.” So I did start using a different search engine—one that doesn’t constantly shower me with half-baked, anti-consumer AI offerings.

Out with Google, in with Kagi.

What the hell is a Kagi?

Kagi was founded in 2018, but its search product has only been publicly available since June 2022. It purports to be an independent search engine that pulls results from around the web (including from its own index) and is aimed at returning search to a user-friendly, user-focused experience. The company’s stated purpose is to deliver useful search results, full stop. The goal is not to blast you with AI garbage or bury you in “Knowledge Graph” summaries hacked together from posts in a 12-year-old Reddit thread between two guys named /u/WeedBoner420 and /u/14HitlerWasRight88.

Kagi’s offerings (it has a web browser, too, though I’ve not used it) are based on a simple idea. There’s an (oversimplified) axiom that if a good or service (like Google search, for example, or good ol’ Facebook) is free for you to use, it’s because you’re the product, not the customer. With Google, you pay with your attention, your behavioral metrics, and the intimate personal details of your wants and hopes and dreams (and the contents of your emails and other electronic communications—Google’s got most of that, too).

With Kagi, you pay for the product using money. That’s it! You give them some money, and you get some service—great service, really, which I’m overall quite happy with and which I’ll get to shortly. You don’t have to look at any ads. You don’t have to look at AI droppings. You don’t have to give perpetual ownership of your mind-palace to a pile of optioned-out tech bros in sleeveless Patagonia vests while you are endlessly subjected to amateur AI Rorschach tests every time you search for “pierogis near me.”

How much money are we talking?

I dunno, about a hundred bucks a year? That’s what I’m spending as an individual for unlimited searches. I’m using Kagi’s “Professional” plan, but there are others, including a free offering so that you can poke around and see if the service is worth your time.

image of kagi billing panel — This is my account’s billing page, showing what I’ve paid for Kagi in the past year. (By the time this article runs, I’ll have renewed my subscription!) Credit: Lee Hutchinson

I’d previously bounced off two trial runs with Kagi in 2023 and 2024 because the idea of paying for search just felt so alien. But that was before Google’s AI enshittification rolled out in full force. Now, sitting in the middle of 2025 with the world burning down around me, a hundred bucks to kick Google to the curb and get better search results feels totally worth it. Your mileage may vary, of course.

The other thing that made me nervous about paying for search was the idea that my money was going to enrich some scumbag VC fund, but fortunately, there’s good news on that front. According to the company’s “About” page, Kagi has not taken any money from venture capitalist firms. Instead, it has been funded by a combination of self-investment by the founder, selling equity to some Kagi users in two rounds, and subscription revenue:

Kagi was bootstrapped from 2018 to 2023 with ~$3M initial funding from the founder. In 2023, Kagi raised $670K from Kagi users in its first external fundraise, followed by $1.88M raised in 2024, again from our users, bringing the number of users-investors to 93… In early 2024, Kagi became a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC).

What about DuckDuckGo? Or Bing? Or Brave?

Sure, those can be perfectly cromulent alternatives to Google, but honestly, I don’t think they go far enough. DuckDuckGo is fine, but it largely utilizes Bing’s index; and while DuckDuckGo exercises considerable control over its search results, the company is tied to the vicissitudes of Microsoft by that index. It’s a bit like sitting in a boat tied to a submarine. Sure, everything’s fine now, but at some point, that sub will do what subs do—and your boat is gonna follow it down.

And as for Bing itself, perhaps I’m nitpicky [Ed. note: He is!], but using Bing feels like interacting with 2000-era MSN’s slightly perkier grandkid. It’s younger and fresher, yes, but it still radiates that same old stanky feeling of taste-free, designed-by-committee artlessness. I’d rather just use Google—which is saying something. At least Google’s search home page remains uncluttered.

Brave Search is another fascinating option I haven’t spent a tremendous amount of time with, largely because Brave’s cryptocurrency ties still feel incredibly low-rent and skeevy. I’m slowly warming up to the Brave Browser as a replacement for Chrome (see the screenshots in this article!), but I’m just not comfortable with Brave yet—and likely won’t be unless the company divorces itself from cryptocurrencies entirely.

More anonymity, if you want it

The feature that convinced me to start paying for Kagi was its Privacy Pass option. Based on a clean-sheet Rust implementation of the Privacy Pass standard (IETF RFCs 9576, 9577, and 9578) by Raphael Robert, this is a technology that uses cryptographic token-based auth to send an “I’m a paying user, please give me results” signal to Kagi, without Kagi knowing which user made the request. (There’s a much longer Kagi blog post with actual technical details for the curious.)

To search using the tool, you install the Privacy Pass extension (linked in the docs above) in your browser, log in to Kagi, and enable the extension. This causes the plugin to request a bundle of tokens from the search service. After that, you can log out and/or use private windows, and those tokens are utilized whenever you do a Kagi search.

image of a kagi search with privacy pass enabled — Privacy pass is enabled, allowing me to explore the delicious mystery of pierogis with some semblance of privacy. Credit: Lee Hutchinson

The obvious flaw here is that Kagi still records source IP addresses along with Privacy Pass searches, potentially de-anonymizing them, but there’s a path around that: Privacy Pass functions with Tor, and Kagi maintains a Tor onion address for searches.

So why do I keep using Privacy Pass without Tor, in spite of the opsec flaw? Maybe it’s the placebo effect in action, but I feel better about putting at least a tiny bit of friction in the way of someone with root attempting to casually browse my search history. Like, I want there to be at least a SQL JOIN or two between my IP address and my searches for “best Mass Effect alien sex choices” or “cleaning tips for Garrus body pillow.” I mean, you know, assuming I were ever to search for such things.

What’s it like to use?

Moving on with embarrassed rapidity, let’s look at Kagi a bit and see how using it feels.

My anecdotal observation is that Kagi doesn’t favor Reddit-based results nearly as much as Google does, but sometimes it still has them near or at the top. And here is where Kagi curb-stomps Google with quality-of-life features: Kagi lets you prioritize or de-prioritize a website’s prominence in your search results. You can even pin that site to the top of the screen or block it completely.

This is a feature I’ve wanted Google to get for about 25 damn years but that the company has consistently refused to properly implement (likely because allowing users to exclude sites from search results notionally reduces engagement and therefore reduces the potential revenue that Google can extract from search). Well, screw you, Google, because Kagi lets me prioritize or exclude sites from my results, and it works great—I’m extraordinarily pleased to never again have to worry about Quora or Pinterest links showing up in my search results.

Further, Kagi lets me adjust these settings both for the current set of search results (if you don’t want Reddit results for this search but you don’t want to drop Reddit altogether) and also globally (for all future searches):

image of kagi search personalization options — Goodbye forever, useless crap sites. Credit: Lee Hutchinson

Another tremendous quality-of-life improvement comes via Kagi’s image search, which does a bunch of stuff that Google should and/or used to do—like giving you direct right-click access to save images without having to fight the search engine with workarounds, plugins, or Tampermonkey-esque userscripts.

The Kagi experience is also vastly more customizable than Google’s (or at least, how Google’s has become). The widgets that appear in your results can be turned off, and the “lenses” through which Kagi sees the web can be adjusted to influence what kinds of things do and do not appear in your results.

If that doesn’t do it for you, how about the ability to inject custom CSS into your search and landing pages? Or to automatically rewrite search result URLs to taste, doing things like redirecting reddit.com to old.reddit.com? Or breaking free of AMP pages and always viewing originals instead?

Image of kagi custom css field — Imagine all the things Ars readers will put here. Credit: Lee Hutchinson

Is that all there is?

Those are really all the features I care about, but there are loads of other Kagi bits to discover—like a Kagi Maps tool (it’s pretty good, though I’m not ready to take it up full time yet) and a Kagi video search tool. There are also tons of classic old-Google-style inline search customizations, including verbatim mode, where instead of trying to infer context about your search terms, Kagi searches for exactly what you put in the box. You can also add custom search operators that do whatever you program them to do, and you get API-based access for doing programmatic things with search.

A quick run-through of a few additional options pages. This is the general customization page. Lee Hutchinson

I haven’t spent any time with Kagi’s Orion browser, but it’s there as an option for folks who want a WebKit-based browser with baked-in support for Privacy Pass and other Kagi functionality. For now, Firefox continues to serve me well, with Brave as a fallback for working with Google Docs and other tools I can’t avoid and that treat non-Chromium browsers like second-class citizens. However, Orion is probably on the horizon for me if things in Mozilla-land continue to sour.

Cool, but is it any good?

Rather than fill space with a ton of comparative screenshots between Kagi and Google or Kagi and Bing, I want to talk about my subjective experience using the product. (You can do all the comparison searches you want—just go and start searching—and your comparisons will be a lot more relevant to your personal use cases than any examples I can dream up!)

My time with Kagi so far has included about seven months of casual opportunistic use, where I’d occasionally throw a query at it to see how it did, and about five months of committed daily use. In the five months of daily usage, I can count on one hand the times I’ve done a supplementary Google search because Kagi didn’t have what I was looking for on the first page of results. I’ve done searches for all the kinds of things I usually look for in a given day—article fact-checking queries, searches for details about the parts of speech, hunts for duck facts (we have some feral Muscovy ducks nesting in our front yard), obscure technical details about Project Apollo, who the hell played Dupont in Equilibrium (Angus Macfadyen, who also played Robert the Bruce in Braveheart), and many, many other queries.

Image of Firefox history window showing kagi searches for july 22 — A typical afternoon of Kagi searches, from my Firefox history window. Credit: Lee Hutchinson

For all of these things, Kagi has responded quickly and correctly. The time to service a query feels more or less like Google’s service times; according to the timer at the top of the page, my Kagi searches complete in between 0.2 and 0.8 seconds. Kagi handles misspellings in search terms with the grace expected of a modern search engine and has had no problem figuring out my typos.

Holistically, taking search customizations into account on top of the actual search performance, my subjective assessment is that Kagi gets me accurate, high-quality results on more or less any given query, and it does so without festooning the results pages with features I find detractive and irrelevant.

I know that’s not a data-driven assessment, and it doesn’t fall back on charts or graphs or figures, but it’s how I feel after using the product every single day for most of 2025 so far. For me, Kagi’s search performance is firmly in the “good enough” category, and that’s what I need.

Kagi and AI

Unfortunately, the thing that’s stopping me from being completely effusive in my praise is that Kagi is exhibiting a disappointing amount of “keeping-up-with-the-Joneses” by rolling out a big ‘ol pile of (optional, so far) AI-enabled search features.

A blog post from founder Vladimir Prelovac talks about the company’s use of AI, and it says all the right things, but at this point, I trust written statements from tech company founders about as far as I can throw their corporate office buildings. (And, dear reader, that ain’t very far).

image of kagi ai features — No thanks. But I would like to exclude AI images from my search results, please. Credit: Lee Hutchinson

The short version is that, like Google, Kagi has some AI features: There’s an AI search results summarizer, an AI page summarizer, and an “ask questions about your results” chatbot-style function where you can interactively interrogate an LLM about your search topic and results. So far, all of these things can be disabled or ignored. I don’t know how good any of the features are because I have disabled or ignored them.

If the existence of AI in a product is a bright red line you won’t cross, you’ll have to turn back now and find another search engine alternative that doesn’t use AI and also doesn’t suck. When/if you do, let me know, because the pickings are slim.

Is Kagi for you?

Kagi might be for you—especially if you’ve recently typed a simple question into Google and gotten back a pile of fabricated gibberish in place of those 10 blue links that used to serve so well. Are you annoyed that Google’s search sucks vastly more now than it did 10 years ago? Are you unhappy with how difficult it is to get Google search to do what you want? Are you fed up? Are you pissed off?

If your answer to those questions is the same full-throated “Hell yes, I am!” that mine was, then perhaps it’s time to try an alternative. And Kagi’s a pretty decent one—if you’re not averse to paying for it.

It’s a fantastic feeling to type in a search query and once again get useful, relevant, non-AI results (that I can customize!). It’s a bit of sanity returning to my Internet experience, and I’m grateful. Until Kagi is bought by a value-destroying vampire VC fund or implodes into its own AI-driven enshittification cycle, I’ll probably keep paying for it.

After that, who knows? Maybe I’ll throw away my computers and live in a cave. At least until the cave’s robot exclusion protocol fails and the Googlebot comes for me.

Lee is the Senior Technology Editor, and oversees story development for the gadget, culture, IT, and video sections of Ars Technica. A long-time member of the Ars OpenForum with an extensive background in enterprise storage and security, he lives in Houston.

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DeepMind reveals Genie 3 “world model” that creates real-time interactive simulations

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Google, google deepmind, Tech / 9u50fv / August 5, 2025

While no one has figured out how to make money from generative artificial intelligence, that hasn’t stopped Google DeepMind from pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with a big pile of inference. The capabilities (and costs) of these models have been on an impressive upward trajectory, a trend exemplified by the reveal of Genie 3. A mere seven months after showing off the Genie 2 “foundational world model,” which was itself a significant improvement over its predecessor, Google now has Genie 3.

With Genie 3, all it takes is a prompt or image to create an interactive world. Since the environment is continuously generated, it can be changed on the fly. You can add or change objects, alter weather conditions, or insert new characters—DeepMind calls these “promptable events.” The ability to create alterable 3D environments could make games more dynamic for players and offer developers new ways to prove out concepts and level designs. However, many in the gaming industry have expressed doubt that such tools would help.

Genie 3: building better worlds.

It’s tempting to think of Genie 3 simply as a way to create games, but DeepMind sees this as a research tool, too. Games play a significant role in the development of artificial intelligence because they provide challenging, interactive environments with measurable progress. That’s why DeepMind previously turned to games like Go and StarCraft to expand the bounds of AI.

World models take that to the next level, generating an interactive world frame by frame. This provides an opportunity to refine how AI models—including so-called “embodied agents”—behave when they encounter real-world situations. One of the primary limitations as companies work toward the goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the scarcity of reliable training data. After piping basically every webpage and video on the planet into AI models, researchers are turning toward synthetic data for many applications. DeepMind believes world models could be a key part of this effort, as they can be used to train AI agents with essentially unlimited interactive worlds.

DeepMind says Genie 3 is an important advancement because it offers much higher visual fidelity than Genie 2, and it’s truly real-time. Using keyboard input, it’s possible to navigate the simulated world in 720p resolution at 24 frames per second. Perhaps even more importantly, Genie 3 can remember the world it creates.

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These are the best streaming services you aren’t watching

culture, Features, streaming, Tech / 9u50fv / August 4, 2025

Discover movies and shows you’ve never seen before.

If you’ve seen The Office enough to know which episode this is, it may be time to stream something new. Credit: NBCUniversal

We all know how to find our favorite shows and blockbuster films on mainstream streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney+. But even as streaming has opened the door to millions of hours of on-demand entertainment, it can still feel like there’s nothing fresh or exciting to watch anymore.

If you agree, it’s time to check out some of the more niche streaming services available, where you can find remarkable content unlikely to be available elsewhere.

This article breaks down the best streaming services you likely aren’t watching. From cinematic masterpieces to guilty pleasures, these services offer refreshing takes on streaming that make online content bingeing feel new again.

Curiosity Stream

Host James Burke pointing to puffs of smoke rising from the ground in the distance — James Burke points to puffs of smoke rising from the ground in Curiosity Stream’s *Connections* reboot. Credit: Curiosity Stream

These days, it feels like facts are getting harder to come by. Curiosity Stream‘s focus on science, history, research, and learning is the perfect antidote to this problem. The streaming service offers documentaries to people who love learning and are looking for a reliable source of educational media with no sensationalism or political agendas.

Curiosity Stream is $5 per month or $40 per year for an ad-free, curated approach to documentary content. Launched in 2015 by Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks, the service offers “more new films and shows every week” and has pledged to produce even more original content.

It has been a while since cable channels like Discovery or The History Channel have been regarded as reputable documentary distributors. You can find swaths of so-called documentaries on other streaming services, especially Amazon Prime Video, but finding a quality documentary on mainstream streaming services often requires sifting through conspiracy theories, myths, and dubious arguments.

Curiosity Stream boasts content from respected names like James Burke, Brian Greene, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Among Curiosity Stream’s most well-known programs are Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places, a News and Documentary Emmy Award winner; David Attenborough’s Light on Earth, a Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival award winner; Secrets of the Solar System, a News & Documentary Emmy Award nominee; and the currently trending Ancient Engineering: Middle East.

Curiosity Stream doesn’t regularly report subscriber numbers, but it said in March 2023 that it had 23 million subscribers. In May, parent company CuriosityStream, which also owns Curiosity University, the Curiosity Channel linear TV channel, and an original programming business, reported its first positive net income ($0.3 million) in its fiscal Q1 2025 earnings.

That positive outcome followed a massive price hike that saw subscription fees double in March 2023. So if you decide to subscribe to Curiosity Stream, keep an eye on pricing.

Mubi

Demi Moore looking into a mirror and wearing a red dress and red lipstick in The Substance. — *The Substance* was a breakout hit for Mubi in 2024. Credit: Mubi/YouTube

Mubi earned street cred in 2024 as the distributor behind the Demi Moore-starring film The Substance. But like Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle, there’s more than meets the eye with this movie-focused streaming service, which has plenty of art-house films.

Mubi costs $15 per month or $120 per year for ad-free films. For $20 per month or $168 per year, subscriptions include a “hand-picked cinema ticket every single week,” according to Mubi, in select cities. Previous tickets have included May December, The Boy and the Heron, and The Taste of Things.

Don’t expect a bounty of box office blockbusters or superhero films on Mubi. Instead, the spotlight is on critically acclaimed award-winning films that are frequently even more obscure than what you’d find on The Criterion Channel streaming service. Save for the occasional breakout hits (like The Substance, Twin Peaks, and Frances Ha), you can expect to find many titles you’ve never heard of before. That makes the service a potential windfall for movie aficionados who feel like they’ve seen it all.

Browsing Mubi’s library is like uncovering a hidden trove of cinema. The service’s UI eases the discovery process by cleanly displaying movies’ critic and user reviews, among other information. Mubi also produces Notebook, a daily publication of thoughtful, passionate editorials about film.

Further differentiating Mubi from other streaming services is its community; people can make lists of content that other users can follow (like “Hysterical in a Floral Dress,” a list of movies featuring females showcasing “intense creative outbursts/hysteria/debauchery”), which helps viewers find content, including shows and films outside of Mubi, that will speak to them.

Mubi claims to have 20 million registered users and was recently valued at $1 billion. The considerable numbers suggest that Mubi may be on its way to being the next A24.

Hoopla

The online and on-demand convenience of streaming services often overshadows libraries as a source of movies and TV shows. Not to be left behind, thousands of branches of the ever-scrappy public library system currently offer on-demand video streaming and online access to eBooks, audiobooks, comic books, and music via Hoopla, which launched in 2013. Streaming from Hoopla is free if you have a library card from a library that supports the service, and it brings simplicity and affordability back to streaming.

You don’t pay for the digital content you borrow via Hoopla, but your library does. Each library that signs a deal with Hoopla (the company says there are about 11,500 branches worldwide) individually sets the number of monthly “borrows” library card holders are entitled to, which can be in the single digits or greater. Additionally, each borrow is limited to a certain number of days, which varies by title and library.

Libraries choose which titles they’d like to offer patrons, and Hoopla is able to distribute content through partnerships with content distributors, such as Paramount. Cat Zappa, VP of digital acquisition at Hoopla Digital, told Ars Technica that Hoopla has “over 2.5 million pieces of content” and “about 75,000 to 80,000 pieces of video” content. The service currently has “over” 10 million users, she said.

Hoopla has a larger library with more types of content available than Kanopy, a free streaming service for libraries that offers classic, independent, and documentary movies. For a free service, Hoopla’s content selection isn’t bad, but it isn’t modern. It’s strongest when it comes to book-related content; its e-book and audiobook catalogue, for example, includes popular titles like Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games prequel, and Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm 2, plus everything from American classics to 21st-century manga titles.

There’s a decent selection of movies based on books, like Jack Reacher, The Godfather series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Crucible, Clueless, and The Rainmaker, to name a few out of the 759 offered to partnering libraries. Perusing Hoopla’s older titles recalls some of the fun of visiting a physical library, giving you access to free media that you might never have tried otherwise.

Many libraries don’t offer Hoopla, though. The service is a notable cost for libraries, which have to pay Hoopla a fee every time something is borrowed. Hoopla gives some of that money to the content distributor and keeps the rest. Due to budget constraints, some libraries are unable to support streaming via Hoopla’s pay-per-use model.

Hoopla acknowledges the budget challenges that libraries face and offers various budgeting tools, Zappa told Ars, adding, “Not every library patron has the ability to… go into the library as frequently as they’d like to engage with content. Digital streaming allows another easy and efficient opportunity to still get patrons engaged with the library but… from where it’s most convenient for them in certain cases.”

Dropout

The Internet brings the world to our fingertips, but I’ve repeatedly used it to rewatch episodes of The Office. If that sounds like you, Dropout could be just what you need to (drop)kick you out of your comedic funk.

Dropout costs $7 per month or $70 per year. It’s what remains of the website CollegeHumor, which launched in 1999. It was acquired by US holding company IAC in 2006 and was shuttered by IAC in 2020. Dropout mostly has long-form, unscripted comedy series. Today, it features 11 currently running shows, plus nine others. Dropout’s biggest successes are a wacky game show called Game Changer and Dimension 20, a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game show that also has live events.

Dropout is for viewers seeking a novel and more communal approach to comedy that doesn’t rely on ads, big corporate sponsorships, or celebrities to make you smile.

IAC first launched Dropout under the CollegeHumor umbrella in 2018 before selling CollegeHumor to then-chief creative officer Sam Reich in 2020. In 2023, Reich abandoned the CollegeHumor name. He said that by then, Dropout’s brand recognition had surpassed that of CollegeHumor.

Dropout has survived with a limited budget and staff by relying on “less expensive, more personality-based stuff,” Reich told Vulture in late 2023. The service is an unlikely success story in a streaming industry dominated by large corporations. IAC reportedly bought CollegeHumor for $26 million and sold it to Reich for no money. In late 2023, Reich told Variety that Dropout was “between seven and 10 times the size that we were when IAC dropped us, from an audience perspective.” At the time, Dropout’s subscriber count was in the “mid-hundreds of thousands,” according to Reich.

Focusing on improvisational laughs, Dropout’s energetic content forgoes the comedic comfort zones of predictable network sitcoms—and even some offbeat scripted originals. A biweekly (or better) release schedule keeps the fun flowing.

In 2023, Reich pointed to the potential for $1 price hikes “every couple of years.” But Dropout also appears to limit revenue goals, further differentiating it from other streaming services. In 2023, Reich told Vulture, “When we talk about growth, I really think there’s such a thing as being unhealthily ambitious. I don’t believe in unfettered capitalism. The question is, ‘How can we do this in such a way that we honor the work of everyone involved, we create work that we’re really proud of, and we continue to appeal to our audience first?'”

Midnight Pulp

Bruce Li doing a leaping kick in Fist of Fury. — Bruce Li in *Fist of Fury*. Credit: Fighting Cinema/YouTube

Mark this one under “guilty pleasures.”

Midnight Pulp isn’t for the faint of heart or people who consider movie watching a serious endeavor. It has a broad selection of outrageous content that often leans on exploitation films with cult followings, low budgets, and excessive, unrealistic, or grotesque imagery.

I first found Midnight Pulp as a free ad-supported streaming (FAST) channel built into my smart TV’s operating system. But it’s also available as a subscription-based on-demand service for $6 per month or $60 per year. I much prefer the random selection that Midnight Pulp’s FAST channel delivers. Unlike on Mubi, where you can peruse a bounty of little-known yet well-regarded titles, there’s a good reason you haven’t heard of much of the stuff on Midnight Pulp.

But as the service’s slogan (Stream Something Strange) and name suggest, Midnight Pulp has an unexpected, surreal way of livening up a quiet evening or dull afternoon. Its bold content often depicts a melodramatic snapshot of a certain aspect of culture from a specific time. Midnight Pulp introduced me to Class of 1984, for example, a movie featuring a young Michael J. Fox enrolled in a wild depiction of the ’80s public school system.

There’s also a robust selection of martial arts movies, including Bruce Li’s Fist of Fury (listed under the US release title Chinese Connection). It’s also where I saw Kung Fu Traveler, a delightful Terminator ripoff that introduced me to one of Keanu Reeves’ real-life pals, Tiger Chen. Midnight Pulp’s FAST channel is where I discovered one of the most striking horror series I’ve seen in years, Bloody Bites, an anthology series with an eerie, intimate, and disturbing tone that evolves with each episode. (Bloody Bites is an original series from horror streaming service ScreamBox.)

Los Angeles-based entertainment company Cineverse (formerly Cinedigm and Access IT Digital Media Inc.) owns Midnight Pulp and claims to have “over 150 million unique monthly users” and over 71,000 movies, shows, and podcasts across its various streaming services, including Midnight Pulp, ScreamBox, RetroCrush, and Fandor.

Many might stick their noses up at Midnight Pulp’s selection, and in many cases, they’d be right to do so. It isn’t always tasteful, but it’s never boring. If you’re feeling daring and open to shocking content worthy of conversation, give Midnight Pulp a try.

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She’s been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

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Amazon is considering shoving ads into Alexa+ conversations

ads, AI, Amazon, amazon alexa, generative ai, Tech / 9u50fv / August 3, 2025

Since 2023, Amazon has been framing Alexa+ as a monumental evolution of Amazon’s voice assistant that will make it more conversational, capable, and, for Amazon, lucrative. Amazon said in a press release on Thursday that it has given early access of the generative AI voice assistant to “millions” of people. The product isn’t publicly available yet, and some advertised features are still unavailable, but Amazon’s CEO is already considering loading the chatbot up with ads.

During an investors call yesterday, as reported by TechCrunch, Andy Jassy noted that Alexa+ started rolling out as early access to some customers in the US and that a broader rollout, including internationally, should happen later this year. An analyst on the call asked Amazon executives about Alexa+’s potential for “increasing engagement” long term.

Per a transcript of the call, Jassy responded by saying, in part, “I think over time, there will be opportunities, you know, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery and also as a lever to drive revenue.”

Like other voice assistants, Alexa has yet to monetize users. Amazon is hoping to finally make money off the service through Alexa+, which is eventually slated to play a bigger role in e-commerce, including by booking restaurant reservations, keeping track of and ordering groceries, and recommending streaming content based on stated interests. But with Alexa reportedly costing Amazon $25 billion across four years, Amazon is eyeing additional routes to profitability.

Echo Show devices already show ads, and Echo speaker users may hear ads when listening to music. Advertisers have shown interest in advertising with Alexa+, but the inclusion of ads in a new offering like Alexa+ could drive people away.

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