Kia’s lineup of electric vehicles are growing.Image: Kia The Kia EV2, the automaker’s small, affordable electric crossover, has been spotted on the street in camouflage. It’s the first time the model has been seen in the wild, although the EV2 is not currently confirmed for the US. The timing of the sighting is particularly significant given recent news that Tesla may have canned its plans for a $25,000 mass-market “Model 2” vehicle. Elon Musk reportedly mothballed the affordable EV in favor of going all in on the company’s plans for a fully autonomous robotaxi. No official price has been set ..read more

Image: Target Target is scaling back the presence of physical media in its stores. A spokesperson for Target tells IGN that the company is “transitioning the limited assortment of DVDs” it sells in stores to its website. “Moving forward, we’ll offer select DVDs in stores when they are newly released or during key times throughout the year when they are more popular, like for gift giving during the holidays,” Target says. That will make Target’s physical DVD section even smaller and only available during specific times. You’ll still be able to buy “thousands” of DVDs on Target’s website, but I ..read more

Image: Alive Coverage Four nights of unique set lists and long jams presented a much different production challenge than U2’s 40-show residency ..read more

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Apple could soon let developers in the European Union use its tap-to-pay technology. A report from Reuters reveals that EU regulators could sign off on Apple’s proposal to open the payment system next month, putting a two-year-long legal battle to rest. In 2022, the European Commission accused Apple of abusing “its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets.” It claimed Apple prevented third-party payment apps from using the iPhone’s NFC (near-field communication) hardware “to the benefit of its own solution,” Apple Pay. The European Commission announced ..read more

Google’s latest streaming dongle offers a cheap way to add smart features and apps to any TV.Image: Google Almost any TV you can buy these days supports streaming in some form or fashion, but what if you don’t like its user interface or it doesn’t have all of the apps you need? That’s where a streaming device like the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) comes in. We usually recommend jumping for the 4K version if you have the budget for it, but the HD model is only $19.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store. It’s a great opportunity to see whether a Chromecast is a better fit for yo ..read more

Image: Post News Post News, a Twitter alternative that emerged in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover, is shutting down. Noam Bardin, the platform’s founder and former CEO of Waze, writes that Post News “is not growing fast enough to become a real business or a significant platform.” The Andreessen Horowitz-backed platform launched in a closed beta in November 2022, but now it’s set to shutter “within the next few weeks.” It serves as a social platform that also offers users ad-free access to paywalled content from publishers such as Fortune, Business Insider, Wired, The Boston Globe, and others ..read more

Friend or foe? The Jetsons’ Rosey the Robot has long been an inspiration for developing home robots. But should it be?Image: Warner Bros. Television, Hanna-Barbera As a child of the 1980s, my perception of the smart home has been dominated by the idea that one day, we will all have Rosey the Robot-style robots roaming our homes — dusting the mantelpiece, preparing dinner, and unloading the dishwasher. (That last one is a must; we were smart enough to come up with a robot to wash our dishes; can’t we please come up with one that can also unload them?) However, after seeing Boston Dynamics’ lat ..read more

Image: Riley Testut The launch of the Delta emulator on iPhones is a big deal in a lot of ways. But for users, it’s also just really cool. Here’s an excellent piece of software that can emulate the NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, and Nintendo DS so that you can play classic games on a device that’s always in your pocket. Even better: even though there’s no Delta app for the Apple TV (yet), it’s still really easy to use it to play games on your television. This is because Delta supports AirPlay so that you can stream video and sound from your phone to another Apple device, like an Apple TV or co ..read more

Photo by Ashok Kumar / TAS24 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management TikTok has launched a new hub to promote Taylor Swift’s new album where you can earn in-app rewards for completing certain tasks, like following Swift’s account on the platform. The update comes just days after Swift’s music returned to TikTok as the app continues to feud with the singer’s record label, Universal Music Group (UMG). Image: TikTok You can access the hub by searching for The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) and then clicking on the banner that appears at the top of the results. There, TikTok displays a list of ..read more

A recovery vehicle drives past burned structures and cars two months after a devastating wildfire on October 9th, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images New details surfaced this week about cascading failures that led to wildfires ripping through Maui last August. While investigations confirming the cause of the blaze are ongoing, officials are recognizing how unprepared agencies were for the inferno. The wildfires killed at least 101 people and scorched some 2,200 structures — most of them residential. Downed power lines, blocked evacuation routes, and poor communic ..read more