TECH NEWS

Discord opens its ad business to smaller brands, Ars Technica reports

Discord is opening its advertising business to companies of any size, as Scharon Harding reported for Ars Technica.

The chat app has launched Discord Ads Manager, a tool for planning, buying and tracking ad campaigns in one place, it said on Tuesday. Select advertisers can use it now. Full self-serve access is due in early 2027.

Until now, most brands needed a direct sales deal with Discord to run ads. The new tool is meant for smaller game studios and marketers.

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Discord is also expanding Video Quests, short ads that users watch in exchange for in-game rewards. The new version is built for phones and asks users to watch for about 15 seconds.

Brands can buy these through Ads Manager. A premium version, Video Quests Reserve, is sold directly for big brand campaigns.

Discord says the changes will let advertisers target users more...

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The Pocket Advance nearly perfects my favorite Nintendo handheld

Although I count the original Game Boy as one of my first tech obsessions, I still consider Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance to be my favorite console of all time thanks to its more comfortable horizontal design (for my big hands) and its expansive catalog of excellent 32-bit and 16-bit

Home Assistant says ‘Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out’

The open-source smart home platform Home Assistant is kicking the cloud to the curb — in name at least. “We are renaming Home Assistant Cloud to Home Assistant Link, because we hate clouds,” founder Paulus Schoutsen told The Verge in an interview ahead of today’s announcement. “Big tech ruined the

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The AI race is becoming a test of strategy, not just software

AI has become remarkably good at making organizations move faster and more efficiently. The harder question is whether companies know where they should be going. As artificial intelligence moves deeper into everyday work, the competitive divide is beginning to shift from access to technology toward the quality of the decisions

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Newsom signs 13 AI bills, including a ban on AI-only firings

In California, an AI system will no longer be able to fire or discipline a worker on its own. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the No Robo Bosses Act on Wednesday, his office said. It was one of 13 AI bills he signed that day. The law, SB 947, bars employers

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The Pocket Advance nearly perfects my favorite Nintendo handheld

Home Assistant says ‘Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out’

The AI race is becoming a test of strategy, not just software

Newsom signs 13 AI bills, including a ban on AI-only firings