Category: author_name|Mat Smith

The Morning After: How small claims court became Meta’s customer service hotline

Did you know Meta has a customer services department? If you have a problem with Facebook, Instagram and the rest, you might find it hard to get some of that service. Instead, people have been taking Meta to small claims court to get some kind of response to their complaints.…

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The Morning After: Congress’ clean energy bill passes with major focus on nuclear

The Senate has passed a sweeping bill that includes a lot of incentives for nuclear energy. The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act passed in a vote, 88 to 2. The earlier version of the bill also garnered bipartisan support in the House of Representatives…

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Tales of the Shire is a cozy village sim where you can’t run, but you can skip

The march of big-budget Tolkien fantasy has hit gaming yet again. While ignoring Gollum’s misadventures, another game, Tales of the Shire, offers a gentler, low-stakes way to play in the universe of Bagginses, lembas bread, and Gandalf. Set somewhere between the end of The Hobbit, but before it all kicked…

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The Morning After: The biggest announcements from Nintendo Direct

Nintendo sidestepped sharing the spotlight with all the other gaming companies at Summer Game Fest last week, promising its own Direct later in June. And that happened yesterday, teasing a lot of new games with Nintendo favorites. Mario games, yes. Zelda games, yes, and even a new Metroid game, confirmed.…

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Black Myth: Wukong is pretty, intriguing and as challenging as it looks

Black Myth: Wukong is gorgeous. It’s built up a lot of momentum, feeding trailer after gorgeous trailer, and at Summer Game Fest this year, I finally got to play it. Is it just a gorgeous tech demo with a heavy dose of Chinese mythology or your next gaming challenge? A…

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The Morning After: US Surgeon General says social media needs warning labels like cigarettes

The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, says social media should come with warning labels, writing in The New York Times that social media is an “important contributor” to the teen mental health crisis. Last year, he issued an advisory making similar arguments, saying social media posed a “profound risk” to…

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