All posts tagged: Office

Razer Barracuda V2 Pro Review: A Gaming Headset for the Office

Razer Barracuda V2 Pro Review: A Gaming Headset for the Office

Published by skeptic

I transition between different pieces of audio equipment on any given day. I listen to music with my earbuds, but they always fall out when I talk, so for meetings I tend to go without. If I’m in a loud setting and need to speak in a virtual meeting, I reach for my old, reliable headset for its higher-quality mic, but I often sacrifice call quality in non-gaming environments. And when I’m gaming, I love my light-up kitty-ear headset, but I don’t necessarily want to wear that at a coffee shop or in a professional setting. Which is why the new Razer Barracuda V2 Pro is made for people like me. It’s an elegant, multipurpose headset that does the job, no matter what the job is. Working 9 to 5 Photograph: Louryn Strampe The Barracuda V2 Pro feels more like a good pair of over-ear headphones than a traditional gaming headset. During my testing period, I regularly listened to music with it. It sounds clear and balanced—there’s a bit of quality loss in the lows …

Palantir and London mayor’s office settle lawsuit over UK police contract

Palantir and London mayor’s office settle lawsuit over UK police contract

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON, Oct 14 : US tech firm Palantir and London mayor Sadiq Khan’s office have settled Palantir’s lawsuit over a decision to block a £50 million ($66 million) contract with London police, both parties said on Wednesday. Palantir had agreed a two-year contract with the Metropolitan Police to use its artificial intelligence systems to automate certain tasks and for analysing evidence. But the mayor’s office refused to approve the deal, telling the Met Police it had failed to have an open competition for the contract, with reports also quoting a spokesperson for Khan citing concerns Palantir did not align with “London’s values”. Palantir’s supply of software for the US military and immigration services, plus billionaire co-founder Peter Thiel’s political views, have drawn scrutiny as European governments grow increasingly wary about dependency on US tech platforms. The company was challenging the decision to block the Met contract, but Palantir and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime said in a joint statement that they had resolved the case and “withdrawn their allegations against each other”. MOPAC’s …

An OpenAI Employee Allegedly Used a Chatbot to Help Plant a Recording Device at the Office

An OpenAI Employee Allegedly Used a Chatbot to Help Plant a Recording Device at the Office

Published by skeptic

An engineer at OpenAI allegedly concealed an audio recording device in a piece of toilet paper and attached it behind a monitor inside an executive conference room at one of the company’s San Francisco offices, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday. Abdulrahman Alfozan, who federal prosecutors describe as a 35-year-old Saudi Arabian national and US permanent resident, allegedly spent several weeks querying an unspecified “productivity agent” and an “AI chatbot” to plan his alleged surveillance operation. He used an internal OpenAI tool to ask about meetings scheduled in the targeted conference room. He also appears to have used a chatbot account associated with his spouse to ask various technical questions about setting up a covert audio recording device, according to prosecutors and the court filing. OpenAI’s security team also allegedly found an additional recording device that had not been installed in Alfozan’s bag at the office. Alfozan couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. He made an initial appearance in US district court in San Francisco on Tuesday on one charge of “use of …

Gaza Documentary on IDF Hits 0K at Box Office, Faces Protests

Gaza Documentary on IDF Hits $500K at Box Office, Faces Protests

Published by Daniella Wilson

The weekend’s box office saw a strong sophomore frame for NAZA, the self-distributed documentary examining Israel‘s military operations in Gaza. Filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who were both credited as directors on 2024’s Oscar-winning No Other Land, helmed the new film that expanded to 85 North American locations in 30 cities after debuting the week prior at the IFC Center in New York City. NAZA looks to gross $378,250 domestically for the four-day weekend, averaging $4,450 per screen. This pushes it past the $500,000 mark, as its domestic sum is expected to reach $504,074 by Monday. NAZA premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, where it won the special jury prize after receiving a record-setting ovation that surpassed 20 minutes. NAZA is being released independently in the U.S. with the support of The Guardian and MK2, and the movie is set to add more theaters in the weeks to come. It holds a sterling 100 percent critics approval on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, Jordan Mintzer deemed NAZA a “sober …

Other Mommy tops the box office with .5m, with Social Reckoning at .5m

Other Mommy tops the box office with $27.5m, with Social Reckoning at $5.5m

Published by Daniella Wilson

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in The Jessica Chastain horror Other Mommy topped the North American box office this weekend with a bigger audience than expected, while The Social Reckoning got off to a lackluster start. Other Mommy released by Universal Pictures, earned $27.5 million in its first few days in 3,365 theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday. The movie, about a sinister supernatural creature that terrorizes a young girl who thinks it’s her mother, got dismal reviews from both critics and audiences. It also joins the ranks of Megalopolis and Hereditary with a D+ CinemaScore. But with a production budget of around $19 million, it’s also another win for the horror genre and producer Blumhouse Atomic Monster, which was behind Backrooms and Obsession. Other Mommy opened in 50 international markets as well, boosting its global debut to $45.2 million. Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution, noted that the audience gender divide was evenly …

Other Mommy Box Office Wins Opening Weekend; Social Reckoning Bombs

Other Mommy Box Office Wins Opening Weekend; Social Reckoning Bombs

Published by Daniella Wilson

Other Mommy was in command at the box office in its opening weekend, while The Social Reckoning received a painful status check as Aaron Sorkin‘s follow-up to The Social Network went quiet. Universal Pictures released Other Mommy in 3,200 North American theaters, and the horror title grossed around $27.5 million for the weekend despite overwhelmingly negative responses from critics and audiences alike. Director Rob Savage’s film lands above the studio’s projected $20 million opening for the $19 million-budgeted project, which stars Jessica Chastain as a sinister entity that appears in a young girl’s closet. The movie managed a successful launch in spite of its word of mouth, having earned a woeful D+ CinemaScore from audiences, the lowest grade for a film since Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis in September 2024. Critical response has been similarly dismal, with Other Mommy holding a 19 percent approval rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 46 percent audience score. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Richard Lawson deemed the movie “an attractive but mostly vacuous collection …

Northern Lights spotted over UK skies – where to see Aurora according to Met Office | UK | News

Northern Lights spotted over UK skies – where to see Aurora according to Met Office | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

The Northern Lights are visible in the UK’s skies tonight with only the naked eye. Sightings of the Aurora Borealis phenomenon have been seen across various parts of the country on Saturday, October 10, following a forecast by the Met Office that the startling space colours will be viewable overnight. Reports from social media site Reddit have already poured in from across the UK this evening, with sightings in the North of England, Scotland and even the Midlands for the unusual astrological phenomenon. @astronemma said: “The further north you are the better, but I’ve heard reports from the Midlands. Bigger thing will be the cloud coverage.” Aurora Watch UK also issued a red alert for sightings of the aurora borealis on Saturday night, as more and more confirmed sightings were reported. The Met Office said in its space weather forecast for Saturday: “Two glancing coronal mass ejections followed by a coronal hole high speed stream bring a daily chance of enhancing the auroral oval, with sightings possible across Scotland and similar geomagnetic longitudes where skies …

Anne Hathaway becomes latest in growing number of stars to back Tom Cruise’s box office bomb

Anne Hathaway becomes latest in growing number of stars to back Tom Cruise’s box office bomb

Published by Daniella Wilson

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Anne Hathaway has joined a growing chorus of stars praising Tom Cruise’s divisive new movie, Digger, after it bombed at the box office on its opening weekend. The black comedy, written and directed by Alejandro Iñárritu, stars Cruise as a powerful oil tycoon whose drilling operation sets off a catastrophic environmental disaster. The film has been widely panned by critics — something the distributors themselves have poked fun at in the promotion of the movie — and earned just $8 million at the box office on its opening weekend against a $160 million budget. However, in a social media push reminiscent of Andrea Riseborough’s controversial 2023 Oscars campaign, a number of stars have come out in support of Cruise’s movie. Here are the celebrities attempting to generate a wave of positive word of mouth around a film that has struggled to win over critics and audiences alike. Anne Hathaway Anne …