Prison Economics: How Fish and Coffee Become Cash
With no money allowed behind bars, goods like coffee and pouches of mackerel from the prison commissary give inmates buying power.
Photo: Henrik Knudsen
The Best Xbox Accessories You Can Buy
From headsets to hard drives, these are the best Xbox accessories.
Brad Bourque
16 Best Gifts for Men, Manly Men, and Menly Man Men
When you need something that's as unnecessarily masculinized as you can get for the Man™ in your life, we have you covered.
Matthew Korfhage
A Tanker Collision Threatens One of the UK’s Most Important Coastlines
An explosive crash between an oil tanker and a cargo ship in the North Sea could have huge consequences for ecologically and commercially crucial marine areas.
The 23 Best Shows on Amazon Prime Right Now
The Wheel of Time, Reacher, and Fallout are just a few of the shows you should be watching on Amazon Prime Video this week.
Matt Kamen
Wildfires Are One of Hurricane Helene’s Lasting Legacies
A number of fires broke out in the Southeastern US last week. Hurricane-downed trees may have helped fuel the flames, experts say.
Kiley Price
End-to-End Encrypted Texts Between androids and iphoness Are Coming
Plus: A nominee to lead CISA emerges, Elon Musk visits the NSA, a renowned crypto cracking firm’s secret (and problematic) cofounder is revealed, and more.
Andy Greenberg
Designer Ray-Ban Metas, An EV to Mock Tesla, and Portable Pizzas—Here’s Your Gear News of the Week
Plus: iRobot unveils its new robo vacs, JBL pimps its most beloved speakers, a bright future for TCL TVs, and more.
Brenda Stolyar
An AI Coding Assistant Refused to Write Code—and Suggested the User Learn to Do It Himself
The old “teach a man to fish” proverb, but for AI chatbots.
Benj Edwards, Ars Technica
Under Trump, AI Scientists Are Told to Remove ‘Ideological Bias’ From Powerful Models
A directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.”
Will Knight
Canadian Devs Are Backing Out of Attending GDC
Amid deteriorating relations between the US and Canada, many Canadian video game developers are opting not to travel to San Francisco for next week’s Game Developers Conference.
Megan Farokhmanesh
RGB LED Could Be the Future for Cheap Screens
With incredible colors, brightness, and contrast, RGB backlighting is the technology that will drive the next 10 years of innovation in televisions and displays.
Ryan Waniata
Meta Tries to Bury a Tell-All Book
Mark Zuckerberg might be in his post-fact-checking-era. But that hasn’t stopped Meta from going after the author of Careless People.
Steven Levy