Author: Trendici
What are you up to this weekend? Anton and I are visiting my brother, aunts, and cousins, so Cup of Jo will be closed next week, returning on Friday, April 10th. (Our other editors will be either traveling as well or working ahead on posts.) Have a good weekend — Chag Sameach and Happy Easter to those who celebrate — and here are a few links from around the web… Eight things I wish I’d known before getting divorced. (Big Salad) Bess Kalb’s passive-aggressive emails with her toddler about Passover. “The food was not at ALL what is guaranteed in my rider:…
American EV maker Lucid will finally come to the UK in 2027 with the Cosmos, a rival to the BMW iX3 and Volvo EX60. The premium SUV will be unveiled later this year ahead of production starting at the company’s recently completed plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Lucid will then follow up in 2028 with the more off-road-and adventure-focused Earth and a bigger, more practical derivative of the Cosmos after that. The Cosmos is the first of Lucid’s new range of ‘mid-size’ models. It is built on an entirely new platform that uses a bespoke 800V architecture, but it is…
There’s no doubt the Gravity is a bloody massive car. It’s 5m long and 2.2m across the mirrors and it weighs 2.7 tonnes in seven-seat Grand Touring spec. But it’s quite deceptive in its size, being shorter than the other two electric luxo-SUVs on sale, the Mercedes EQS SUV and Volvo EX90, and much lower (1658mm compared with 1718mm for the Mercedes and 1744mm for the Volvo). In profile, it’s almost a stub-nosed estate.Yet it’s markedly more spacious inside than those two cars. The driving position feels entirely normal – even quite sporting. The second row is ridiculously commodious, with…
HarperCollins is tapping into AI to bring some of its book franchises to life. Specifically, the publisher is teaming up with Toonstar, an AI animation studio, to turn them into digital shows. The first project will be an adaptation of Lisa Greenwald’s “Friendship List” series, which will also be joined by a graphic novel.You’d be forgiven for being unaware of Toonstar, a studio that received some buzzy early on for simplifying typically complex animation pipelines with AI, but has mostly remained under the radar. Its biggest claim to fame is producing StEvEn and Parker YouTube series, which has amassed 3.38…
Jason Blundell, a former creative lead on Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Black Ops series, has announced that he’s formed a new development studio called Magic Fractal Studios. Blundell announced the studio on a livestream with former Dark Outlaw Games coworker JC Farmer, a little over a week after the previous studio was closed by Sony.Little is known about Magic Fractal beyond its logo and social media accounts. Dark Outlaw Games was similarly mysterious, and closed before it could even announce its first project. All that’s known is what Blundell has shared after the studio was shut down: Dark Outlaw…
Cutthroat capitalism sure does bring out the best in humanity. Take, for example, Elon Musk. He reportedly set a condition for banks, law firms, auditors and advisors who want to work on the SpaceX IPO. They’re required to subscribe to the bastion of nonconsensual deepfakes and occasional Hitler praise known as Grok.Surely the best and brightest banks our nation has to offer would refuse such a pay-to-play demand, right? Well, no. The New York Times reports that some of them have agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars on Grok. Those financial institutions are said to already be integrating…
Image: Google Google is turning video creation into a prompt away from reality. With its latest update to Google Vids, the company is pushing deeper into AI-powered storytelling. The update gives users the ability to direct avatars with simple text, customize their look and behavior, and publish content faster than ever. What once required editing skills, multiple tools — and a fair bit of patience — can now be done in a single workspace with a few well-placed prompts. From AI-generated presenters that can interact with your content to built-in music creation and one-click YouTube publishing, Google Vids is evolving…
Take-Two, the owner of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games, has seemingly laid off the head of its AI division, Luke Dicken, and several staff members working under him. “It’s truly disappointing that I have to share with you that my time with T2 — and that of my team — has come to an end,” Dicken shared in a LinkedIn post spotted by Game Developer.When asked to confirm the layoffs in its AI division, Take-Two declined to comment.Dicken writes that his team was “developing cutting edge technology to support game development” and his post specifically notes that he’s trying…
Let’s face it: your bracket was probably busted a long time ago. The 2026 NCAA basketball tournaments, affectionately known as March Madness, is ending soon. The Final Four for both the men’s and women’s tournaments starts this weekend. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments are available to stream through various apps and services, but navigating the web of broadcasters and TV channels can be confusing. We’ve broken down when all the games are happening, where to watch and the best options for saving some cash doing so.What does the Final Four start?The men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament Final Four begins on…
On their way around the Moon, the Artemis II crew had time to snap some terrific pictures of our blue planet. NASA has begun sharing the images, including the one above, which shows a striking view of Earth through the Orion capsule’s window.Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman overcame the crew’s problems with Microsoft Outlook and the toilet to capture the photos. He took the above pic after the craft completed its translunar injection burn on April 2.Reid Wiseman / NASAMeanwhile, this second photo trades clever composition for a full-on view of our planet. If you look carefully, you can see…