🎮 Nintendo unveils the Switch 2

🎮 Nintendo unveils the Switch 2

• Nintendo is launching the Switch 2 on June 5 for $450, featuring a 7.9-inch 1080p IPS LCD display capable of displaying content at 120FPS and supporting HDR for better visual contrast.

• The new console introduces a "C" button that enables GameChat with a built-in microphone, allowing players to talk to friends online and view their game streams, though this feature requires a Switch Online subscription.

• Switch 2 comes with 256GB of storage, supports 4K resolution for compatible games in TV mode, and will launch alongside exclusive titles like Mario Kart World while also offering upgraded versions of popular games like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

🕶️ Meta's $1,000 AR glasses are coming soon

• Meta is reportedly planning to launch advanced Ray-Ban smart glasses, codenamed Hypernova, featuring a built-in screen visible in the right lens, controlled by hand gestures and touch, potentially arriving by year's end.

• The new glasses will support apps, photo viewing, and have an improved camera, while carrying a hefty price tag between $1,000 and $1,400, significantly higher than the current $299 Meta Ray-Ban model.

• Meta's product roadmap includes a future Hypernova 2 version with dual screens expected in 2027, while reserving its most sophisticated AR technology for the separate Orion glasses still under development.

🤖 Wikipedia is struggling with voracious AI bot crawlers

• Wikimedia Foundation reports a 50 percent increase in bandwidth consumption for multimedia downloads from Wikimedia Commons since January 2024, primarily due to AI model training scrapers rather than human users.

• Bot traffic accounts for 65 percent of resource-intensive content downloads but only 35 percent of overall pageviews, as automated crawlers tend to access less popular pages stored in expensive core data centers.

• The surge in AI crawler activity is forcing Wikimedia's site reliability team to block crawlers and absorb increased cloud costs, mirroring a broader trend threatening the open internet's sustainability.

📧 Mozilla is launching Thundermail to compete with Gmail and Microsoft 365

• Mozilla's Thunderbird is developing a new web-based email service called Thundermail, which will function similarly to Gmail but with stronger privacy protections and no data harvesting or ads.

• The new service is part of a broader "Thunderbird Pro" ecosystem that will include additional tools like Thunderbird Send for file sharing, Appointment for scheduling, and Assist for AI features with privacy safeguards.

• Thunderbird Pro will initially be a paid service, but free tiers with limitations may be introduced later, as the organization's donation revenue has grown significantly from $2.8 million in 2021 to over $8.6 million in 2023.

💳 Apple Card drama continues as Visa and Amex try to win Apple’s business

• Visa and American Express are competing to replace Mastercard as the payment network for Apple Card, with Visa reportedly offering Apple a $100 million upfront payment to secure the business.

• Goldman Sachs, currently backing the Apple Card but seeking to exit the partnership after significant financial losses, has prompted Apple to search for both a new issuing bank and potentially a new payment network.

• American Express is uniquely positioning itself to serve as both the issuer and network for Apple Card, while Mastercard is fighting to maintain its current role by exploring integration of its Finicity platform with Apple's ecosystem.