An anonymous reader shared this report from The Wrap
Tesla this weekend introduced a new “Tron: Ares” mode, giving drivers an opportunity to turn their on-screen vehicles into the glowing Light Cycles that have been a big part of the Disney franchise since 1982.
The optional update started rolling out on Friday, as Tron: Ares debuted in theaters. Tesla announced the update on X: “The grid has expanded to your Tesla — Tron: Ares update rolling out now.” The feature is activated in Tesla’s Toybox “infotainment” system, and turns the driver’s vehicle avatar into a red Light Cycle. For drivers who have the “ambient lighting” feature, the mode will also expand the theme throughout the cabin.
There was also a sleek black Tesla Optimus robot at the premier of Tron: Ares
Ironically, the Hollywood Reporter writes that by box office figures, “Tron is in big trouble,” selling fewer tickets than expected (despite the movie’s $180 million pre-marketing budget). While Tron’s audience reviews gave it an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes, its score with critics is just 57%.
The Los Angeles Times says the movie “has glowing style, but its storytelling doesn’t compute.” (Or, as the New York Times puts it, “Who needs logic when you have neon?”)
Long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino writes: German IT news outlet Heise reports [German-language article] that the northern most state Schleswig-Holstein has, after half a year of frantic data migration work, successfully migrated their MS Outlook mail and groupware setups to a FOSS solution using Open-Xchange and Thunderbird.
Stakeholders consider the move a major success and milestone to digital sovereignty and saving costs. This move makes the state a pioneer in Germany. As a next major step Schleswig-Holstein plans to migrate their authorities and administrations desktop PCs to Linux.
It seems to be the end of the road for Apple’s Clips app. The company said on a support page that it has stopped updating the video-editing app, and new users can no longer download it from the App Store. Existing users on iOS and iPadOS will continue to have access for the time being, but the company hasn’t said how long that will last. “If you previously downloaded the Clips app, you can still redownload it from your Apple account in the App Store,” the support page notes.
Clips was introduced in 2017 and offers a host of editing tools geared toward creating videos for social media. But Clips never really caught on, and many of the features it boasts are pretty much standard fare on the social apps now. Apple has recommended that Clips users save their videos to their photo libraries or elsewhere, so if you are one of the few users hanging on, you should probably go ahead and do that before it’s too late.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-is-winding-down-clips-its-forgotten-video-editing-app-210907085.html?src=rss
“California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the ‘California Opt Me Out Act’, which will require web browsers to include an easy, universal way for users to opt out of data collection and sales,” reports the blog 9to5Mac:
[The law] requires browsers to provide a clear, one-click mechanism for Californians to opt out of data sharing across websites. The bill reads: “A business shall not develop or maintain a browser that does not include functionality configurable by a consumer that enables the browser to send an opt-out preference signal to businesses with which the consumer interacts through the browser….”
Californians will need patience, though, as the law doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2027.
Americans in some states — including California, Texas, Colorado, New Jersey and Maryland — “have the option to make those opt-out demands automatic whenever they surf the web,” reports the Washington Post. “But they can only do so if they use small browsers that voluntarily offer that option, such as DuckDuckGo, Firefox and Brave. What’s new in California’s law is that all browsers must give people the same option.”
That means soon in California, just using Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge can command companies not to sell your data or pass it along for ad targeting… It’s an imperfect but potent and simple way to flex privacy rights — and becomes even more powerful with another simple privacy measure in California. Starting on January 1, California residents can fill out an online form once to completely and repeatedly wipe their data from hundreds of data brokers that package your personal information for sale.
But their article also suggests other ways readers can “try a one-click privacy option now.”
“[S]ome national companies respect one-click privacy opt-out requests from everyone… This happens automatically if you use DuckDuckGo and Brave. You need to change a setting with Firefox.”
“Download Privacy Badger: The software from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a consumer privacy advocacy group, works in the background to order websites not to sell information they’re collecting about you.”
“Use Permission Slip from Consumer Reports. Give the app basic information, and it will help you do much of the legwork to tell companies not to sell your information or to delete it, if you have the right to do so.”
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Independent:
Bitcoin and Ethereum both saw record liquidations as investors reacted to fears over a trade war, which saw many crypto investors move their money to stablecoins or safer assets… Bitcoin fell by more than 10 per cent to below $110,000, before recovering to $113,096 on Saturday morning. The value of Ethereum slumped by 11.2 per cent to $3,878. Other cryptocurrencies, including XRP, Doge and Ada, fell around 19 per cent, 27 per cent, and 25 per cent in the last 24 hours, respectively.
LiveMint shares some statistics from Bloomberg:
Citing 24-hour data from Coinglass, the report noted that more than $19 billion has been wiped out in the “largest liquidation event in crypto history”, which impacted more than 1.6 million traders. It added that more than $7 billion of those positions were sold in less than one hour of trading on October 10. According to data on CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency market cap has dived to $3.74 trillion from the record-high $4.30 trillion level, the previous day. Trading volumes as of the market close were recorded at $490.23 billion.
Bitcoin retreated on Friday, as US-China trade tensions reignited, after racing to record highs earlier in the week as persistent rate-cut bets and signs of some cooling in geopolitical tensions helped boost risk. Bitcoin was trading at $105,505.4 on Friday, down 13.15% on the day.
The controversial preservation order requiring OpenAI to indefinitely keep records of its ChatGPT data has been terminated. Federal judge Ona T. Wang filed a new order on October 9 that frees OpenAI of an obligation to “preserve and segregate all output log data that would otherwise be deleted on a going forward basis.”
The case kicked off in late 2023, with the New York Times suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, alleging that the AI giant trained its models with the news outlet’s intellectual property without proper compensation. In May of this year, OpenAI was ordered to retain all of its chat logs so that the NYT could investigate claims of copyright violation. In response, OpenAI appealed the court order, arguing that the preservation order was an “overreach” and risks its users’ privacy.
However, this latest decision means the AI giant no longer has to preserve chat logs as of September 26, except for some. The judge in the case said that any chat logs already saved under the previous order would still be accessible and that OpenAI is required to hold on to any data related to ChatGPT accounts that have been flagged by the NYT. Moving forward, the NYT is allowed to expand the number of flagged users, as it continues to comb through OpenAI’s preserved records.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-no-longer-has-to-preserve-all-of-its-chatgpt-data-with-some-exceptions-192422093.html?src=rss
Battlefield 6 has made an explosive entrance onto the gaming scene, quickly becoming EA’s most-played title on Steam and becoming the #4 most-played game on the platform overall. Battlefield performing this well after such a long dormant period is impressive, but especially when one considers how even Free To Play titles like EA’s own Apex
“Nvidia is investing billions in and selling chips to OpenAI, which is also buying chips from and earning stock in AMD,” writes SFGate. “AMD sells processors to Oracle, which is building data centers with OpenAI — which also gets data center work from CoreWeave. And that company is partially owned by, yes, Nvidia.
“Taken together, it’s a doozy.”
There are other collaborations and rivalries and many other factors at play, but OpenAI is the many-tentacled octopus in the middle, spinning its achievement of ChatGPT into a blitz of speculative investments. “We are in a phase of the build-out where the entire industry’s got to come together and everybody’s going to do super well,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “You’ll see this on chips. You’ll see this on data centers. You’ll see this lower down the supply chain….”
Some worry that the more closely companies intertwine, the more susceptible they are to creating a bubble, or a market not actually supported by real consumer demand. “You don’t have to be a skeptic about AI technology’s promise in general to see this announcement as a troubling signal about how self-referential the entire space has become,” Bespoke Investment Group wrote in a note to clients, per CNBC. “If NVDA has to provide the capital that becomes its revenues in order to maintain growth, the whole ecosystem may be unsustainable…”
Also, even with Nvidia’s investment, AMD’s shares and OpenAI’s repeated fundraises, the ChatGPT-maker doesn’t have the cash to meet all of these vast commitments. And if OpenAI’s soaring projections about demand for AI computing don’t bear out, there will be a lot of committed money — and a large share of the stock market — that would see its foundations topple.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the news.
After remaking every Game Boy model imaginable, Anbernic is ready to take on the next frontier of classic gaming handhelds: the Nintendo DS. In its usual drip-feed fashion, the handheld maker released a teaser video revealing the Anbernic RG DS. The company didn’t offer many details for its Nintendo DS clone, but announced that it would cost less than $100.
That price tag isn’t surprising for anyone who’s been following Anbernic’s recipe of recreating iconic handhelds at an affordable price point. However, it’s still an attractive price point that’s even cheaper than the Nintendo DS’ original MSRP of $149.99. Beyond price, Anbernic hinted at a possible new chip and showed off four colorways, including black/red, teal, white and transparent.
Anbernic
Anbernic hasn’t announced a release date yet, but the company often starts selling its devices shortly after the first reveal video. Once available, the Anbernic RG DS will compete against the more premium Ayn Thor that starts at $250. It’s important to note that Anbernic paused shipments from its Chinese warehouses to US customers in April following the tariff changes, meaning American buyers were limited to Anbernic’s US stock. The previous notice has since been removed, but the Trump administration recently announced another retaliatory tariff on all Chinese goods.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/anbernics-modern-day-nintendo-ds-dupe-is-cheaper-than-the-original-174405199.html?src=rss
“Next time Amazon hypes its Prime Days savings, remember this: The prices during the sale aren’t always better,” writes a Washington Post technology columnist. “I’ve got the receipts to prove it.”
I would have saved, on average, almost nothing during Amazon’s recent fall “Prime Big Deal Days” — and for some big-ticket purchases, I would have actually paid amore. For the sale that took place Oct. 7 and 8, my family went in prepared. We had a shopping list with prices we’d been tracking… A TV stand he’d been watching jumped 38 percent to $379, from $275 on Oct. 2. Same story for a few other big-ticket items on his list — another console went up from $219.99 to $299. Those products weren’t listed as “big deals” on the site, but we certainly didn’t expect their prices to spike during Prime Days.
And in other cases, Amazon marketed discounts that turned out to be the exact price it had charged in recent weeks. One example: an Oral-B electric toothbrush was listed as 39 percent off, but actually the same price as in August… Other consumer advocates have warned one common trick is for Amazon to feature artificially inflated “before” prices to make discounts appear larger than they are. Ahead of Amazon’s 2017 Prime Day, the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog reported that 61 percent of reference prices on Amazon were higher than any price the company had charged for those items in the prior 90 days… I found products listed as Prime Day discounts that cost the same as I’d paid less than a month earlier. For example, a pack of coronavirus tests I bought on Sept. 12 was the same price on Oct. 8, but listed as “39 percent off.” Amazon said I’d gotten a particularly good deal in September, and the Prime Big Deal Days price offers “meaningful savings compared to the typical price customers have paid on Amazon over the last 90 days….”
To actually get a good deal on Amazon, go in with a plan. I use a free website called CamelCamelCamel, which tracks Amazon’s historical prices. You can see what’s really a discount — and set alerts when prices drop to your target.
The reporter checked every non-grocery purchase they’d made on Amazon for six months. Purchasing the same products on Amazon’s “Big Deal Days” would have brought savings of just 0.6%. “And that doesn’t include the $139 annual fee to be a member of Amazon Prime.”
Battlefield 6 is out, if you haven’t heard. Capitalizing on gamer dissatisfaction with recent Call of Duty releases, the new Battlefield title offers a tightly-optimized military shooting experience that many are calling a return to form for the series—even if it is a bit safe and unambitious in some ways. The launch isn’t completely without
“OpenAI is staffing up to expand ChatGPT’s marketing reach and build on-platform marketing tools,” reports Adweek:
A recent job listing shows the company is hiring a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer to develop internal tools for ad platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution. The position is part of a newly formed “ChatGPT Growth team,” and tasked with “building the technical infrastructure behind OpenAI’s paid marketing platform….” This job listing is a rare signal of OpenAI’s plans for an in-house marketing platform within ChatGPT, and part of the AI company’s broader growth plans…
This adds to recent reporting showing that OpenAI is quickly ramping up its advertising ambitions… Alex Heath of Sources reported that OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, was meeting with candidates to “lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT….” OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment…
Critically, this job listing would support building backend infrastructure — APIs, data pipelines, and services — to manage campaigns, measure attribution, and optimize ad spend. This internal infrastructure would give OpenAI the ability to run marketing at scale without relying on external agencies, two industry insiders said, adding that successfully doing so for itself could lay the foundation for a broader product that lets other brands run campaigns through ChatGPT… [Jacob Bourne, an analyst at eMarketer] added that while it may be striking to see a company that began as a nonprofit research lab make this kind of move, it reflects OpenAI’s for-profit pivot and broader push into revenue generation.
“In a new Stratechery interview, Altman admitted Instagram changed his mind about ads,” the site Search Engine Land reported Wednesday, citing these two quotes from the interview:
– “I love Instagram ads, they’ve added value to me, I found stuff I never would’ve found, I bought a bunch of stuff, I actively like Instagram ads. I think there’s many things I respect about Meta, but getting that so right was a surprisingly cool thing for me. Other than that, I viewed ads on the Internet as sort of like a tax.”
– “I believe there probably is some cool ad product we can do that is a net win to the user and a sort of positive to our relationship with the user. I don’t know what it is yet, I’m not like, ‘Here is our ad model’ already.”
Their article also cites a tweet from an ad industry director who says OpenAI’s own revenue projections now show “free-user monetization”…
One of the most affordable EVs in America, the Chevrolet Bolt, has made its long-awaited comeback. After discontinuing the Bolt in 2023, the American automaker has refreshed the popular EV with a 2027 model that has some key upgrades. Chevy said the new Bolt will be available at dealerships in the first quarter of 2026, starting with a comfort trim that goes for at least $29,990. The updated Bolt will get even cheaper in the coming months when Chevy releases an LT base model that starts at $28,995.
That price tag offers an upgraded EV with an estimated range of 255 miles and peak charging speeds of up to 150kW. According to Chevy, the new Bolt can charge 2.5x faster than the previous model, which often saw complaints about charging speed. Now with a new LFP battery, the 2027 Bolt can charge from 10 to 80 percent in 26 minutes and has access to both DC fast charging and Tesla’s Supercharger network thanks to a native NACS port. Along with an 11-inch driver display, the Chevy Bolt is built with an 11.3-inch infotainment display that can handle navigation, music, and entertainment with Google built-in. Notably, the refreshed Bolt doesn’t have Apple CarPlay compatibility, even though previous models did.
Chevrolet
While Chevy revived the Bolt, it returns as a “limited run model.” The carmaker said in a statement that it “moved quickly to retain the nameplate in our portfolio for a little longer, after hearing feedback from ending production,” and added that the “Bolt will be available for a limited time…as one of our highest volume EVs at Chevrolet.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/the-beloved-chevrolet-bolt-is-back-but-only-for-a-limited-run-161552328.html?src=rss
I uploaded a photo on my phone to Microsoft’s “OneDrive” file-hosting app — and there was a surprise waiting under Privacy and Permissions. “OneDrive uses AI to recognize faces in your photos…”
And…
“You can only turn off this setting 3 times a year.”
If I moved the slidebar for that setting to the left (for “No”), it moved back to the right, and said “Something went wrong while updating this setting.” (Apparently it’s not one of those three times of the year.)
The feature is already rolling out to a limited number of users in a preview, a Microsoft publicist confirmed to Slashdot. (For the record, I don’t remember signing up for this face-recognizing “preview”.) But there’s a link at the bottom of the screen for a “Microsoft Privacy Statement” that leads to a Microsoft support page, which says instead that “This feature is coming soon and is yet to be released.” And in the next sentence it’s been saying “Stay tuned for more updates” for almost two years…
A Microsoft publicist agreed to answer Slashdot’s questions…
You may have missed out on Amazon’s two-day Prime Big Deal Days event last event, but don’t go kicking yourself in regret. Amazon pretty much always marks down items, and we keep a constant pulse on the more interesting deals. Additionally, some of last week’s bargains are still lingering, including some great prices on Apple products. It’s
“A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January,” reports the BBC.
“Evidence collected from Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices included an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, justice department officials said.”
Mr Rinderknecht had been living and working in California, and moved to Florida shortly after the fire, according to authorities. The initial blaze Mr Rinderknecht allegedly started on New Year’s Day was called the Lachman fire. Although it was quickly suppressed by firefighters, it continued to smoulder underground in the root structure of dense vegetation, according to investigators, before it flared up again above ground in a windstorm [nearly a week later]… He lit it with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve, according to the indictment.
Two passengers rode with Mr Rinderknecht earlier on New Year’s Eve. One passenger told investigators he remembered the driver had appeared agitated and angry. Officials said they had used his phone data to pinpoint his location when the fire initially started on 1 January, but when they pressed him on details he allegedly lied to investigators, claiming he was near the bottom of the trail… The phone also showed that he repeatedly called 911 just after midnight on New Year’s day, but could not get through because of patchy mobile reception on the trailhead. There was a screen recording of him trying to call emergency services and at one point being connected with a dispatcher. Mr Rinderknecht also asked ChatGPT: “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?”
Investigators said the suspect wanted to “preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire”. “He wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” the indictment said… In July 2024, five months before he allegedly set the fire, Mr Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a “dystopian painting” that included a burning forest and a crowd of people running away from a fire, according to investigators.
The announcement from officials suggests they retrieved data about Rinderknecht’s iPhone. It says after walking up the trailer Rinderknecht “listened to a rap song — to which he had listened repeatedly in previous days — whose music video included things being lit on fire.”
We recently highlighted an all-time low price on LG’s 75-inch C5 OLED TV, which saw a 46% markdown from its MSRP to $1,999.99, and along with several other OLED bargains as part of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days event. While those discounts have expired, we’re still seeing some post-Prime deals that are worth checking out, including a great
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC News: The study by a team from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (also known as Sick Kids) and St. Michael’s Hospital was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It found that children who spent more time on screens before age eight scored lower on standardized tests. Child psychiatry researchers say handing kids digital devices, like iPads, every time they have a tantrum could lead to future issues. One new study links too much screen time to emotional and anger management problems.
The study followed more than 3,000 kids in Ontario over a 15 year span from 2008 to 2023, tracking how much time they spent watching TV or DVDs, playing video games, using the computer or playing on handheld devices like iPads, as reported by their parents. That data was compared to their EQAO standardized test scores, which are used to assess the reading and math skills of kids across Ontario in grades 3 and 6. The findings point to a “significant association,” between screen use and lower test scores, according to Dr. Catherine Birken, a pediatrician and senior scientist at Sick Kids and lead author of the study.
“For each additional hour of screen use, there was approximately a 10 percent lower odds of meeting standards in both reading and mathematics … in Grade 3 and mathematics in Grade 6,” said Dr. Catherine Birken, a pediatrician and senior scientist at Sick Kids and lead author of the study, in an interview with CBC News. The study didn’t differentiate between different types of screen time — for example, whether a child was playing a game on their iPad versus FaceTiming a relative in another city, or watching an educational video. It was also an observational study that relied on parents answering questionnaires about how much time their kids spent in front of screens. The study authors note that this means the research can’t be taken as definitive proof that screen time causes lower grades, just that the two things tend to go hand in hand.
You’ll get access to Windows 10 a little longer by doing this. (Getty Images)
You’ve known it for a while: Microsoft has determined that it’s moving Windows 10 to “end of life” status starting on October 14. That means while Windows 10 PCs will continue to work after that date, they’ll stop getting important security updates by default. That leaves you with three choices if you want to make sure your computer remains secure:
You can choose to upgrade to Windows 11 for free if your computer is compatible.
You can buy a new PC that already has Windows 11 pre-installed (or opt for an alternative, like a Mac or a Chromebook).
Forget about Windows 11 right now and sign up for the Extended Security Updates (ESU), which lets you kick the can down the road for a year.
Since the last one is easy — and can now be done for free in many cases — that’s what we’re focusing on here. We’ll walk you through the steps of keeping Windows 10 on your PC… for now, at least.
How to sign up for Windows 10 Extended Security Updates on your computer
We can question Microsoft’s motives for killing off Windows 10, even though it works perfectly well on most older PCs. But without those periodic security updates, your PC will become increasingly susceptible to malware with each passing week. To that end, enrolling in Extended Security Updates (ESU) will give you another year of using Windows 10 securely.
At one point, Microsoft suggested the 12-month extension would require a $30 fee. While that’s still an option, there’s now a free path for Windows 10 users in the US. Here’s how to make it happen.
Step 1: Make sure your PC is up to date
You can find out if your computer is up-to-date by going into your Settings > System > About, then scroll down to see what version you’re running. If not, you’ll want to make sure you also install all the Windows 10 updates available.
Step 2: Make sure you’re using an administrator account
If you share a computer with multiple people in your household, make sure you’re signed in to the administrator account. Typically, it’s the first account created on the computer. You’ll know it’s the right one when you see “Administrator” under the name. (You can double-check under Settings > Your Info.)
Step 3: Verify if your PC is eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 (or not)
If you see an option to upgrade to Windows 11, just do that. It’s free and it keeps you in the Windows loop. Otherwise, continue following the steps below so you can keep your computer safe with security updates.
Step 4: Enroll in Extended Security Updates
Sign up for ESU by selecting Update & Security from the Settings menu. Click the “Enroll Now” sign-up link, as pictured below. Again, you may see an option to download Windows 11 if your computer meets the requirements (again, definitely do that if you see it).
Find out if you need to update your computer. (Screenshot/Engadget)
If you’re not seeing the “Enroll now” link, you probably need to update and install the latest Windows 10 updates (as noted above).
By enrolling in Extended Security Updates, you’ll have another year before you need to upgrade to Windows 11. (Screenshots/Engadget)
Step 5: Choose your upgrade method
Next up is choosing how you want to enroll, and you have a few options. The easiest way is to back up your PC settings. It’s free, but it takes a little bit of time since you’ll need to back up your data. Again, you’ll need to be using your administrator account to get started.
Back up your PC before you enroll in ESU. (ExplainingComputers via YouTube)
That said, the free option here comes with two catches, at least for users in the US. (European users will get the free option with no strings attached.) The first is that you’ll be linking your Windows login to Microsoft’s cloud-based online service. Most users have likely already done this (if they’re using CoPilot, Office 365, GamePass, OneDrive or one of Microsoft’s other various online services). But if you’ve specifically opted for a local login to Windows, the price you’re paying for this “free” extension is joining the cloud-connected Microsoft universe.
The other potential issue is that the free backup only applies to the first 5 GB of storage. Anything more, and you’ll need to pay up for Microsoft’s OneDrive services. But thankfully, you can turn off anything you don’t want to back up by going to Settings > OneDrive and toggling off options like Documents, Pictures and Videos to get in under the free threshold to start.
Once you’re signed in, a window will pop up that says “Add this device to receive Extended Security Updates.” Click Add Device to enroll it. Click Done.
That’s it, you’re done! (Until next year)
You’ve got 12 more months to figure out an alternative upgrade path to Windows 11. If anything changes next year, we’ll update this story with what your next steps are.
You did it right if you see this window. (Screenshot/Engadget)
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/windows-10-support-ends-october-14-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free-125118616.html?src=rss
Cards Against Humanity (CAH) this week announced its newest stunt: a “Cards Against Humanity Explains the Joke” edition that ditches the game’s rules and adds explanatory notes to each card in the box. This makes the project “informational material” rather than a “game,” and therefore CAH can avoid import tariffs. All profits from the one-off project will be donated to the American Library Association to fight censorship.
While a clever way to stick it to Trump, this week’s news did raise a question I’ve heard from several readers: If CAH is this upset about the whiplash-inducing tariff rates, which are added and then removed with almost no warning, why doesn’t it print the game in the US? I mean, it’s just a box of cards! How hard can it be?
In the board game space, designers have wrestled with this question for years. While many US-based designers would like to work with local manufacturers, in reality, it’s often not possible. Complex board games today may feature cardboard creations like constructible dice towers, custom-shaped and painted wooden markers, multicolored jewel pieces, plastic bits of nearly every possible variety, custom-printed component bags, molded miniatures, cards in multiple sizes, metallic coins, dry-erase boards, fancy box inserts, massive dual-sided playing boards, and long manuals. The only manufacturers capable of doing all this work are generally in China or central Europe (Germany still has good manufacturing, and there are also sites in Poland and the Czech Republic).
