The Morning After: Is the new Zephyrus G16 any good?
Plus, X’s AI chatbot is so dumb… it won’t know how to finish this joke.
ASUS has updated its 16-inch Zephyrus G16 for 2024 with fresher chips and graphics options all the way up to an RTX 4090. There’s a new OLED display with a 240HZ refresh rate and a full size SD card reader for transferring files. But, as much as ASUS is positioning this as a laptop for media makers as well as gamers, we need to know if its promises match its power. If you’re as curious as I am, you’ll have to read Sam Rutherford’s review to find out for yourself.
— Dan Cooper
The biggest stories you might have missed
Media coalition asks the feds to investigate Google’s removal of California news links
TikTok is trying to clean up its For You recommendations
Amazon says a whopping 140 third-party stores in four countries use its Just Walk Out tech
There’s a TV show coming based on Sega’s classic arcade game Golden Axe
Cheaper Evercade retro consoles will arrive in July
Apple renews For All Mankind and announces a spinoff series set in the Soviet Union
TikTok Notes is basically Instagram for your TikTok account
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, by Sayonara Wild Hearts devs, comes out on May 16
Yars Rising revives a 40-year-old Atari game as a modern metroidvania
Shadow platformer Schim is coming to PC and consoles on July 18
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X’s AI bot is so dumb it can’t tell the difference between a bad game and vandalism
They’re called euphemisms, Elon.
Basketball’s Klay Thompson had a rough time of it at a game, leading X users to suggest he was “throwing bricks.” This is a basketball term meaning he wasn’t throwing well, but if you didn’t know it, don’t worry too much, since neither did Grok, X’s homegrown AI. After reading the messages, it confected a news story suggesting Thompson was vandalizing homes in Sacramento.
Good riddance, WH-XB910N: Sony’s confusing product names are going away
Sony catches up to the 19th century.
Sony’s always been capable of making a great product, but it’s never quite nailed the knack of naming them. For instance, it makes the best pair of wireless headphones on the market today but saddles them with the name WH-1000XM5. Now, however, the company has pledged to simplify its naming scheme, including renaming its headphone range as Wear.
Nintendo emulator Delta hits the iOS App Store, no sideloading required
Apple’s relaxation of rules around what it permits on the App Store has seen the arrival of Delta. It’s a Nintendo emulator (and a successor to GBA4iOS) that runs a plethora of older titles from the company’s older consoles. Given its long-running enmity with game emulators and the ease with which it wiped out Yuzu, it can’t be long before Nintendo’s lawyers turn up with a fat stack of cease and desist letters.