Thomas Ricker

Deputy Editor

Thomas’ first gadget memory was typing 7734 into his father’s inverted, HP-35 scientific calculator. Clearly fated to tech blogging, he would have to wait another 20 years before the rise of the medium. A degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering led Thomas to Silicon Valley just prior to the dot-com boom. In June of 2011, Thomas wrote his 1,362,258th word for Engadget, leaving to help launch The Verge.

Thomas RickerApr 23

Parents of Instagram and Messenger teens can see what they’re asking AI.

The new supervision feature shows the topics that teens have asked Meta AI about over the last week and is available now in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Brazil. It also works on Facebook… as if teens use Facebook. It builds upon previous work to alert parents if their kids repeatedly search for self-harm topics.

<em>Parents can see the topics their teen has been asking Meta AI about in that specific app over the past week.</em>

<em>Parents can tap on a topic to see the different categories within. Categories within Health and Wellbeing, for example, include fitness, physical health, and mental health. </em>

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Parents can see the topics their teen has been asking Meta AI about in that specific app over the past week.

Image: Meta

Thomas RickerApr 23

AI threatens to widen the inequality gap.

A new survey suggests that AI will only help the rich get richer. “The rhetoric out there is that the tools are going to be democratizing. But the reality is that . . . you require a certain degree of education, abstract and quantitative skills, familiarity with computers and coding in order to be using the models,” said MIT professor Daron Acemoglu, who’s also a Nobel laureate in economics. “AI is going to increase inequality between labour and capital. That is almost for sure. I would say it is setting us up for a . . . shitshow.”

Thomas RickerApr 22

AST SpaceMobile goes legit.

After Jeff Bezos lost one of AST’s giant space-based cell towers last weekend, the FCC has stepped up with some good news by approving its commercial license. AST can now operate a constellation of up to 248 satellites in low Earth orbit in order to deliver space-based cellular broadband to everyday smartphones. It was supposed to go live sometime later this year before the Blue Origin debacle.

FCC Grants AST SpaceMobile Commercial Authority to Deliver Direct-to-Device Cellular Broadband from Space

[Businesswire]

Thomas RickerApr 22

Sun sets on Trump crypto alliance.

Once championed by the Trump family after heavily bankrolling their crypto ambitions, Justin Sun is now unhappy with his chosen bedfellows. Suing Trump-linked World Liberty Financial, Sun alleges in a federal lawsuit that his former allies maliciously froze his $75 million investment, denouncing the platform as “World Tyranny.”

Tron's Justin Sun sues Trump-linked World Liberty Financial over frozen assets

[Coindesk]

Ikea and Samsung promise glitch-free Matter integration

Thomas RickerApr 21

Verge Score

DJI’s latest power station is proof that good things come in mini packages

The Power 1000 Mini is the smallest 1kWh power station you can buy.

Thomas RickerApr 20

GoPro’s new Mission cameras are priced beyond most weekend athletes

Thomas RickerApr 20

“Duuude. No. Way.”

Astronauts having very human reactions to witnessing Earthset. “Gone! It’s gone. Oh my god.”

Thomas RickerApr 17

White Lotus, but cheaper.

Google now lets you track price drops of your favorite hotel and receive email alerts if rates drop during your chosen dates:

To get started on desktop, head to Search and look up a specific hotel by name, then tap the new price tracking toggle. On mobile, you’ll find the price tracking option under the Prices tab after you search.