If you just got a Pixel 9 and you want to do more than potentially break the long held social contract we all shared around photos than soon you’ll be able to put the excellent Arc browser on it!

Now to patiently wait for extension support in the mobile version of Arc. I’ve been using it on my Mac and iPhone for months and cannot wait to put it on my Pixel and Boox Palma too.

Developer Joshua Barretto is doing the seemingly impossible by bringing Super Mario 64 — a 3D game designed for the 64-bit N64 — to the 32-bit GBA.

Simply porting the original game isn’t possible given the GBA’s hardware limitations, so Barretto’s version is being developed from scratch with a custom physics, collision, and 3D camera system that so far looks quite impressive.

Black Myth: Wukong, the Chinese-developed action game that’s smashing Steam records, has sold over 10 million copies across platforms. That’s quite an impressive feat considering the game is barely four days old. It’s only a matter of time before Wukong outsells the year’s current best-selling game, College Football ‘25.

Or, the luxury of logging out:

The idea of “analog privilege” describes how people at the apex of the social order secure manual overrides from ill-fitting, mass-produced AI products and services. Instead of dealing with one-size-fits-all AI systems, they mobilize their economic or social capital to get special personalized treatment. In the register of tailor-made clothes and ordering off menu, analog privilege spares elites from the reductive, deterministic and simplistic downsides of AI systems.

A few folks working on decentralized social stuff just proposed a new symbol for all things fediverse: the asterism, represented here by three asterisks in a triangle. Looks like this: ⁂

I dig it! But I might like one of the Hacker News comments even better: “that’s the sarcasterisk and should replace /s in modern communication.”

Today I learned there’s a really neat Windows app called Twinkle Tray that lets you easily manage the brightness levels of multiple monitors. Useful for the winter nights when you want to adjust brightness levels easily, and the app even integrates neatly into the Windows 11 system tray.

In a letter sent to Governor Gavin Newsom, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says the benefits of SB 1047 “likely outweigh its costs.” However, he still has concerns about government overreach and suggests maintaining a “laser focus” on catastrophic risks.

Meanwhile, OpenAI’s letter to a California senator says the bill could slow progress, and that AI regulation should be left to the federal government.

The food delivery service will now let drivers appeal account deactivations directly in the app, instead of having to fill out a separate online form.

DoorDash is also rolling out a new safeguard to protect drivers from false or inaccurate reports. It will require customers who frequently report deliveries as missing to provide a PIN code to their Dasher when receiving their order.

Microsoft has admitted that its August security update has ruined some dual-boot Linux devices. The security patch wasn’t supposed to hit dual-boot Linux / Windows machines, but Microsoft admits “on some devices, the dual-boot detection did not detect some customized methods of dual-booting.” Workarounds include disabling Secure Boot and deleting Microsoft’s update while the company investigates the issue.

Microsoft has been working on moving Control Panel features to its Settings UI in Windows for more than 10 years, but a new support note has got some speculating the Control Panel might finally be removed soon. “The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app,” says Microsoft. It’s not news that Control Panel is being replaced, but Microsoft still hasn’t answered when that will actually happen.

A decision about drivers in Palmdale, CA, “found that Amazon is a joint employer of its Delivery Service Partner (DSP) drivers.” The Teamsters union that represents them now says it’s “confident” the determination will eventually apply to drivers nationwide, allowing them all to organize and negotiate with Amazon.

Brandy Diaz, Amazon driver:

We wear Amazon uniforms, we drive Amazon vans, and Amazon controls every minute of our day. Amazon can no longer have all the benefits of their own fleet of drivers without the responsibilities that come with it.

But that won’t stop the legendary film composer from getting his own documentary film about his life and career, produced by (and featuring interviews with) Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Ron Howard, and many more.

“Music by John Williams” will premiere at AFI Fest on October 23rd and hit Disney Plus on November 1st.

Courtney Baldwin, a youth organizer and human trafficking survivor, reminded voters at the DNC that Harris helped take down the classified site often used for sex work — and, prosecutors alleged, sex trafficking.

Sex workers who used Backpage to screen clients, however, have said the website’s shutdown has made them less safe.

Will astronauts  Barry ”Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams come home from the ISS on the Starliner, or will they wait to hitch a ride home from SpaceX next year without protective space suits?

We may find out on Saturday:

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and leadership will hold an internal Agency Test Flight Readiness Review on Saturday, Aug. 24, for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. About an hour later, NASA will host a live news conference at 1 p.m. EDT from Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Ryan Salame is due to begin his seven-year prison sentence next month, but now he claims prosecutors reneged on an agreement to drop a campaign finance investigation into his partner, Michelle Bond, in exchange for his guilty plea.

Charges filed today in the SDNY accuse the two of faking a $400k consulting payment from FTX to fund her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022.

New Pixel 9 owners might notice some device setup and transfer changes, as highlighted in this thread by Google’s Paul Dunlop.

Now transfers can be done at any time, you can move over only media Google Photos hasn’t already backed up in original quality, and you can plug in a USB cable to combine its speed with Wi-Fi while moving data.

Meta told TechCrunch it’s not actually testing ads in Threads yet, but it’s getting more underpinnings in place — now including this “Sponsored” badge that might appear next to an advertiser’s (or sponsored creator’s) username. It was spotted by developer Alessandro Paluzzi.

Threads boss Adam Mosseri confirmed in April that ads are coming; last we heard, it might not be till next year.

In a letter seen by The Wall Street Journal, Skydance’s lawyers accuse Paramount of breaking their merger agreement by dragging out the amount of time it can review other bids, and said:

While Skydance is not currently exercising its right to terminate the Transaction Agreement, we reserve the right to do so in the future.

Paramount extended its “go shop” period after receiving a $6 billion bid from media investor Edgar Bronfman Jr.