Technology

Halo Infinite is about to get its last major update

Published

2 days ago

November 8, 2025

Halo Infinite is about to get its last major update

On November 18th, Operation: Infinite will be released for Halo Infinite players with a battle pass and lots of new customizations, but according to the team, that’s it for this game’s content updates:

With multiple Halo titles in development, we’ll need our whole team’s combined focus to deliver new experiences with the same passion and care that our community has given us. While we remain committed to supporting Halo Infinite on the road ahead, Operation: Infinite is the last major content update currently planned.

Now, the team writes, “we’ve been floored by the response” to Campaign Evolved, which will be released on both PS5 and Xbox next year.

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Technology

The tale of the Fire Phone, Amazon’s very strange smartphone

Published

3 hours ago

November 9, 2025

Press Room

The tale of the Fire Phone, Amazon’s very strange smartphone

When Jeff Bezos decided Amazon needed to get in the smartphone game, he went all in. And the resulting device, the Fire Phone, wound up more densely packed with big ideas than just about any gadget you’ll find anywhere. There was just one tiny problem: they were mostly bad ideas.

The Fire Phone shipped in 2014 with a feature list a mile long. The screen had a 3D effect! There were, like, 400 cameras! There was a whole home screen filled with something called “delighters!” But the Fire Phone was, above all, a way to buy things on Amazon. That was what Bezos wanted, after all. It’s just not what users wanted.

For this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Fire Phone from beginning to end. (It doesn’t take that long.) David Pierce, Allison Johnson, and Sean O’Kane discuss how the success of the Kindle led to Amazon’s expanded hardware plans, the brewing fight with Apple over app store policies, the ways in which Bezos himself directed the product, and the astonishing speed with which the thing flopped. Only a few months after it launched, the Fire Phone could be had for less than a buck. People still didn’t want it.

Utlimately, the device that was supposed to be the beginning of something big for Amazon turned out to be very small indeed. But that doesn’t make its story any less interesting.

This is the fifth episode of Version History. (We’re more than halfway through season one!) If you want to find the show, there are three good places to go:

Thanks to everyone who has already watched or listened to the show, and has sent feedback! We’re already putting on the next bunch of episodes, and want to hear everything you think we should be doing or not doing or doing differently. What other huge product failures deserve their own episode? You tell us. In the meantime, if you want to know more about the Fire Phone story, here are some links to get you started:

Technology

AI could drive US unemployment to 20%, senators warn as new bill targets job tracking

Published

4 hours ago

November 9, 2025

Press Room

AI could drive US unemployment to 20%, senators warn as new bill targets job tracking

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A new bipartisan push in Washington is shining a spotlight on AI’s impact on jobs. Senators Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act, which would require major companies and federal agencies to report AI-related job impacts to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

The legislation is designed to shed light on how artificial intelligence is affecting the U.S. workforce.

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Key requirements of the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act

The AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act sets out several core obligations:

Covered entities must quarterly disclose job effects tied to AI. This includes layoffs, hires and positions left open because tasks were automated.
The DOL must compile those disclosures and publish a public report, including to Congress.
Non-publicly traded companies may be included under certain thresholds.

TRUMP’S AI PLAN IS A BULWARK AGAINST THE RISING THREAT FROM CHINA

The goal is to create a clear, consistent data source on how AI changes employment.

Why the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act matters

AI is already reshaping the American workforce, and lawmakers from both parties say the country needs a clear view of what that means for jobs.

Sens. Josh Hawley and Mark Warner join forces on a new bipartisan bill to track how AI is changing American jobs. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hawley warned that the trend is accelerating.

“Artificial intelligence is already replacing American workers, and experts project AI could drive unemployment up to 10 to 20% in the next five years,” Hawley said. “The American people need to have an accurate understanding of how AI is affecting our workforce, so we can ensure that AI works for the people, not the other way around.”

Warner agreed, saying good data is key to good policy

“This bipartisan legislation will finally give us a clear picture of AI’s impact on the workforce, what jobs are being eliminated, which workers are being retrained, and where new opportunities are emerging,” he said. “Armed with this information, we can make sure AI drives opportunity instead of leaving workers behind.”

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Their shared goal is simple. The AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act would make AI’s workforce impact visible and accountable. It gives you and policymakers the hard data needed to guide smarter decisions about automation and employment.

Challenges in tracking AI-related job impacts

While the bill sounds promising, several hurdles remain. The biggest challenge is consistency. Each company decides what counts as an AI-related job impact, which could lead to uneven or incomplete reporting.

Smaller businesses might also escape the rules altogether if they fall outside the reporting thresholds. That could leave big gaps in understanding how automation affects local or niche industries.

Data quality is another concern. Even with reporting requirements, the system relies on companies to share accurate information. The Department of Labor will need strong verification to make sure the reports reflect reality.

LIZ PEEK: AI LAYOFFS COULD SPARK A SOCIALIST SURGE IF AMERICA IGNORES THE WARNING SIGNS

And while transparency is valuable, it doesn’t automatically protect jobs. The law can expose the problem, but real progress will depend on what policymakers and employers do with that data.

The AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act would make companies report when automation replaces, adds or reshapes jobs. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

What this means for you

If you work in an industry where AI tools are becoming common, this bill could directly affect you. It would make it easier to see how automation changes jobs across the country. You’ll be able to find out which roles are being replaced and which ones are being created.

This new level of visibility could also pressure employers to be more transparent about layoffs. Companies may start explaining whether job cuts are truly due to AI or part of broader business shifts. That accountability could help workers plan smarter for the future.

With clearer data, policymakers and training programs can step in faster. If large numbers of people in a certain field lose work because of automation, the government could push for retraining or job placement efforts. It may even help workers prepare earlier by learning new digital or technical skills before AI impacts their roles.

SEN SANDERS: AI MUST BENEFIT EVERYONE, NOT JUST A HANDFUL OF BILLIONAIRES

Overall, this bill puts information in the public’s hands so workers can understand what’s happening to their jobs instead of being left in the dark.

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Kurt’s key takeaways

The AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act marks a major step toward tracking how automation changes the American workforce. It doesn’t stop AI from transforming industries, but it gives workers and policymakers the facts they need to respond. Transparency can’t stop every job loss, but it can help guide smarter policies, retraining programs and career planning.

The Department of Labor would publish regular reports showing where AI is creating challenges and new opportunities for workers. (Getty)

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If this new data shows your field is being reshaped by AI, would you start retraining now or wait to see how it plays out? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com

Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Apple helped kill netbooks. Will it bring them back?

Published

22 hours ago

November 8, 2025

Press Room

Apple helped kill netbooks. Will it bring them back?

Rumor has it, Apple is working on a low-cost MacBook. And not “low-cost for a Mac,” but a proper cheap laptop, possibly as low as $599. For a company that traditionally targets the more premium end of the market, this would be something of an about-face.

Of course, Apple takes great pride in its design and aesthetics. So the company isn’t going to simply take the innards of a MacBook Air, slap them in a cheap plastic case, and call it a day. Instead, Apple is supposedly building a smaller laptop, with a lower-resolution screen and an “entirely new design” around an iPhone processor.

That chip could be some version of the A19 found in the current iPhone lineup, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed earlier this year that the company was working on a laptop powered by last year’s A18.

If the idea of a small, low-cost laptop running on an ultralow-power chip feels familiar, well, it should — we used to call them netbooks. Netbooks erupted on the scene at a weird time in the late aughts, when we were transitioning to a web-first computing world.

What set netbooks apart from other laptops was their pursuit of portability, battery life, and rock-bottom prices at almost any cost. The original netbook, the ASUS Eee PC, came in two sizes (7-inch or 10-inch) and ran on Intel’s budget Celeron M processor. But even that slow, low-powered CPU was too demanding for the tiny Eee PC, and so ASUS underclocked it to just 630 MHz. (Yes, back in the halcyon days of 2007, we measured CPU speed in MHz, not GHz.)

Intel saw this emerging trend and built CPUs just for the netbooks called Atom. In many ways, Atom chips were Intel’s answer to the growing might of ARM, and even formed the basis for its tablet and smartphone efforts. It’s essentially the reverse of what Apple did, which took its mobile A-series processor and turned it into a powerful laptop chip. (And, now back again, it seems.)

As we all know now, netbooks were not long for this world. A number of things helped spell their demise. For one, most of them were just never particularly good. And the ones that weren’t awful tended to be a bit pricer. Sure, you could get a 7-inch Eee PC for around $200. But something more capable, like an HP Mini 210 HD, could set you back about $385 in 2010, depending on the configuration. When adjusted for inflation, that’s a hair over $577. As the prices of regular laptops came down, this didn’t seem like a particularly good deal anymore.

But two of the biggest culprits are undoubtedly the emergence of the Chromebook and the iPad. (We’ll save the discussion of the Chromebook for another day.) The iPad was introduced in 2010, and it immediately started eating into the netbook’s market share. By 2012, tablets had overtaken netbooks, and by 2013, netbooks were effectively dead. Sure, some still lingered around, and you had a spiritual successor in the Chromebook, but the iPad helped kill off the netbook in swift and spectacular fashion.

Many of the things that one might have used a netbook for — browsing the web, checking email, shouting into the void of what was then called Twitter — were now being handled better by the iPad. And, when paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, the iPad was actually a decent productivity machine, so long as your expectations were low.

And so, the netbook vanished.

But this new, cheaper MacBook, at least on paper, sounds like it might be borrowing a bit from the netbook blueprint. Some people will just never be able to adjust to the workflow of a tablet and keyboard combo. So Apple might be giving them a proper laptop form factor.

While we don’t know what the screen size will be, we do know it will be smaller than the current 13.6-inch MacBook Air. That could mean 13.3 inches, but perhaps Apple will bring back the 12-inch format or even revisit the 11-inch realm of its smallest Air model. That’s inching into netbook territory.

Pair all that with a mobile-first SoC that will handle everyday tasks and browsing with aplomb, but certainly won’t cut it for heavier tasks like video editing or gaming, and you have something that sounds like the original pitch for a netbook if you ask me. Apple will obviously never call its new affordable MacBook a netbook, but maybe by avoiding the name, it can make them cool again.

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