Month: April 2023

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado )

Parler, the self-described "uncancelable free speech platform," has been sold and shut down while its new owner conducts a "strategic assessment." The platform will be back eventually, new owner Starboard says.

The Parler website is now a simple page containing only today's press release announcing the acquisition, which was completed without financial terms being disclosed. "No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more," the acquisition announcement said, promising a revamp.

"While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities—even extending beyond domestic politics," the press release said. No timing for a return was mentioned.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado )

Parler, the self-described "uncancelable free speech platform," has been sold and shut down while its new owner conducts a "strategic assessment." The platform will be back eventually, new owner Starboard says.

The Parler website is now a simple page containing only today's press release announcing the acquisition, which was completed without financial terms being disclosed. "No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more," the acquisition announcement said, promising a revamp.

"While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities—even extending beyond domestic politics," the press release said. No timing for a return was mentioned.

Enlarge / SwiftKey for iOS is getting Bing Chat support. (credit: Microsoft)

Six short months ago, it seemed like Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard for iPhones and iPads was dead. It seemed that way because Microsoft had said it was dead and went so far as to delist it from the App Store.

The next month, with little explanation, the keyboard was re-listed on the App Store, and Microsoft execs hinted (without getting specific) that there were plans for developing it further. The month after that, SwiftKey got its first boilerplate "bug fixes and performance improvements" update since August 2022.

Yesterday, SwiftKey for iOS got a major feature update—and because we're talking about a Microsoft product in 2023, the update involves Bing's AI-powered chatbot, which (along with other AI features) has quickly made its way into Windows, Edge, Skype, and other apps in the last few months.

Enlarge / SwiftKey for iOS is getting Bing Chat support. (credit: Microsoft)

Six short months ago, it seemed like Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard for iPhones and iPads was dead. It seemed that way because Microsoft had said it was dead and went so far as to delist it from the App Store.

The next month, with little explanation, the keyboard was re-listed on the App Store, and Microsoft execs hinted (without getting specific) that there were plans for developing it further. The month after that, SwiftKey got its first boilerplate "bug fixes and performance improvements" update since August 2022.

Yesterday, SwiftKey for iOS got a major feature update—and because we're talking about a Microsoft product in 2023, the update involves Bing's AI-powered chatbot, which (along with other AI features) has quickly made its way into Windows, Edge, Skype, and other apps in the last few months.

Enlarge / Intel's Core i5-13400. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Fancy expensive processors are fun, but for most people who just want to build a decent middle-of-the-road PC for gaming (and anything else), the best advice is usually to buy a Core i5 or Ryzen 5 for somewhere in the $200–$250 range and pair it with the fastest graphics card you can afford.

Intel's Core i5-13400 (and the graphics-less 13400F) caught our eye when Intel announced it because it was adding a cluster of four E-cores to the Core i5-12400, which was one of Intel's best mid-range desktop CPUs in years. E-cores don't matter much for games, but they can help when you're trying to run background tasks behind your game, and they can also provide a decent boost to heavily multithreaded CPU workloads like video encoding or CPU-based rendering.

This is nominally a review of the Core i5-13400, which is a good CPU and (when considered together with the cost of a motherboard and RAM) one of the better bargains you'll find if you're building a PC right now. The problem is that Intel sells a lot of very similar 12th- and 13th-generation Core i5 chips, and the prices are constantly bouncing around in that $160–$250 band. The one you should usually get depends on what you're doing and which one happens to be the cheapest at the moment you're buying.

Enlarge / A protester wearing a mask holds an anti-fossil fuels banner during the demonstration outside the Bank of England. (credit: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. 

If money makes the world go round, it should be no surprise that fossil fuel still powers the global economy. Ever since world leaders reached the Paris climate agreement in 2015 to limit warming and slash the pollution driving it, environmental groups have chronicled the continued flow of finance from the wealthiest banks to the oil and gas industry.

Climate advocates have been increasing the pressure on banks to change course, and many lenders have responded by adopting policies to reduce the climate pollution generated by their vast portfolios. Some have also pledged to stop financing certain types of fossil fuel extraction altogether, such as coal mining and Arctic drilling. But have those policies made any difference?