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Nintendo has smashed its first-quarter earnings estimates for the fiscal year, bolstered by strong games sales and US tariff refunds, though its customers likely won't receive anything from the latter. In its latest financial results, Nintendo reports that operating profits soared to 142.5 billion yen (about $902 million) between April 1st and June 30th, compared to 56.9 billion yen (about $360 million) for the same quarter last year - an increase of 150.5 percent. This spike is partially attributed to a boom in game sales, with Switch 2 software sales increasing by 9.2 percent compared to the previous year, and software for the original Sw … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/YBLoHra

OpenAI has asked a federal judge to toss out Apple's landmark lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing trade secrets, describing the allegations as "meritless." In a motion filed yesterday to dismiss the complaint, OpenAI says that Apple is mischaracterizing both the actions of the AI startup's employees as theft, and "generic" product development information as "trade secrets," adding that Apple made no reasonable efforts to maintain such secrecy. The dismissal request is in response to a lawsuit filed by Apple in July , alleging that former Apple employees that went on to work for OpenAI stole confidential documents to further OpenAI … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/wN5Hjkx

Disney is looking into launching a free streaming option. When asked about Disney's plans for free, ad-supported streaming during an earnings call on Wednesday, Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro confirmed the company is "exploring a free product for consumers." D'Amaro added that a free tier will help drive growth and expand the streaming service's reach "to a customer segment that's more price sensitive." Though D'Amaro said that there's "nothing specific to announce today," he noted that a free tier is "definitely something that we're considering." In July, Business Insider reported that Disney's chief product and technology officer, Adam Smith, b … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/PWipmVU

Disney is introducing fan-created TikTok content to its Disney Plus app in its latest attempt to break into short-form creator videos. The Walt Disney Company announced today that it's partnering with TikTok to bring "an expansive collection of thoughtfully curated Disney-centric fan-created content" to the Verts video feed it launched on Disney Plus earlier this year, providing creators with access to assets from "hundreds" of movies and TV shows. The partnership will be piloted in the US "in the coming months," according to Disney, with plans to launch in other markets later. Videos from TikTok creators who opt-in to the program will be h … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/gsyuNtm

Farewell, Google Assistant art, we hardly knew ye. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google Assistant's days have been numbered ever since Gemini arrived on the scene, and its time is now up. Google has announced that it will be removing access to Assistant on Android phones and tablets, along with paired devices like smartwatches or headphones, from September 4th. The announcement came in an email apparently sent to some users, as reported by 9to5Google and shared in full on Reddit . The Verge has asked Google for confirmation that the email is accurate, and will update this story once we have it. "We will begin removing access to Google Assistant starting on 4 September," Google states in the email, "and expect that this … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/3NfvgZE

The Trump administration's framework for assessing potential cybersecurity risks posed by advanced AI reportedly has no interest in testing open models. Axios reports that not only do the voluntary guidelines outright exclude open models - meaning anyone can download them and inspect their core components - but the framework explicitly says it can't be used to restrict open models after they've been released. The AI testing framework was created after President Trump signed an executive order in June , requesting that AI companies share their frontier models with the federal government prior to release to address cybersecurity concerns. AI c … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/XsjLg2K