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Jul 26, 2024
A new government program is trying to encourage Internet service providers (ISPs) to offer lower rates for lower income customers by distributing federal funds through states. The only problem is the ISPs don't want to offer the proposed rates.
Ars Technica obtained a letter sent to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo signed by more than 30 broadband industry trade groups like ACA Connects and the Fiber Broadband Association as well as several state based organizations. The letter raises "both a sense of alarm and urgency" about their ability to participate in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The newly formed BEAD program provides over $42 billion in federal funds to "expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure, deployment and adoption programs" in states across the country, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
The money first goes to the NTIA and then it's distributed to states after they obtain approval from the NTIA by presenting a low-cost broadband Internet option. The ISP industries' letter claims a fixed rate of $30 per month for high speed Internet access is "completely unmoored from the economic realities of deploying and operating networks in the highest-cost, hardest-to-reach areas."
The letter urges the NTIA to revise the low-cost service option rate proposed or approved so far. Twenty-six st
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Jul 26, 2024
The Boys may be one season away from ending but it's not done caking your screens with blood and torn muscle tissue. Cast member Jensen Ackles who plays Soldier Boy on The Boys revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con that Amazon will produce a prequel of the superhero show called Vought Rising.
The new prequel will take place in the 1950s during the early days of the evil Vought empire, the mega conglomerate that runs the entire superhero industry in The Boys' universe. The new series will show the early exploits of characters like Soldier Boy and the almost-immortal Nazi supe Stormfront played by Aya Cash. The story will revolve around some kind of "twisted murder mystery about the origins of Vought," according to executive producer Eric Kripke and showrunner and executive producer Paul Grellong.
Vought Rising sounds like a reimagining of Watchmen without the brooding and self-importance. That's not to say Watchmen is bad. Those things and its brutal honesty about the nature of its characters are what makes it great but would it kill Rorschach to make just one curse-laden pop culture reference?
The Boys has become Amazon's Game of Thrones. Even when the main series ends, it won't be the last we hear from it. The same Comic-Con panel also revealed its college themed spinoff Gen V is getting another season, according to GamesRadar . There's also another spinoff in development called The Boys: Mexico
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Jul 26, 2024
Have you ever looked at something in your home like a dining room table or an adjustable height desk and wondered what it would be like to go on a date with it? Also, were you sober at the time? A new dating sim game called Date Everything! will let you see just what it's like to search for true, meaningful love with the things you see almost every day (in the cleanest way possible, of course).
The surreal sounding dating sim game comes from an LA-based studio called Sassy Chap Games founded by a group of voice actors who've worked on games and shows like Critical Role, HiFi-Rush, One Punch Man, Final Fantasy XV, X-Men ‘97 and Genshin Impact. The indie game publisher Team17 will distribute the game for PC on Steam, the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, according to a press release.
The game puts players in the role of a lonely heart who receives a special pair of glasses called a "Dateviator" that transforms items in their home into human date candidates. For instance, the vacuum cleaner turns into a hunky heartthrob named Hoove and the laundry hamper transforms into a fiery redhead named Harper. Date Everything! has 100 possible mates in your home with their own voices, styles and personalities.
You get to know items like the refrigerator or the drawing room piano in their human forms. Depending on how things go, the relationship can end in one of three ways: Love, Friend or Hate. These relationships create a chain of different possible paths in which your choices influence the outcome along a "critical path tying it all together," according to the press release.
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Jul 26, 2024
We haven't had an update on Netflix's Bioshock movie in a couple of years, leading some to wonder if it was quietly canned. The good news? The movie's still coming. The (potential) bad news? The budget has been slashed, according to reporting by Variety.
This comes from producer Roy Lee, who was one of the people behind The Lego Movie. He announced the reduced budget during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con. He didn't put out any numbers, but did say that the movie is currently being "reconfigured" to be a "more personal" film. Director Francis Lawrence is still helming the picture. He has directed four of the five Hunger Games movies, along with I Am Legend and the original Constantine.
The Bioshock film was first announced back in 2022, but since that time Netflix has experienced something of a regime change on the executive level. Dan Lin replaced Scott Stuber as the streamer's film chief and Lin has tightened the purse strings away from stuff like Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon.
"The new regime has lowered the budgets," Lee said at Comic-Con. "So we're doing a much smaller version."
In addition to budget cuts, Lee noted that Netflix has changed its compensation strategy with regard to movies. It's shifting to a more traditional model that relies on bonuses tied to actual viewership numbers.
This could actually be good news. In my opinion,
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Jul 26, 2024
Warner Bros. Discovery followed through on its threat to "take appropriate action" against the NBA for rejecting its broadcasting rights offer. Variety reported on Friday that the media company sued the league in the New York State Supreme Court after the NBA turned down its bid to match Amazon's streaming package that kicks in starting in the 2025-26 season.
The conflict stems from Warner's belief that its current contract gives it the right to match any offer that would replace Warner's TNT as a home for NBA games (and the iconic Inside the NBA) in the upcoming deal. As for the league's stance, The Athletic reported that since the current agreements were signed when streaming was "on the horizon, but not part of the deals," the NBA disagrees with Warner's matching claim.
The lawsuit was expected as soon as the league announced its new broadcasting and streaming package, which also includes Disney (ABC and ESPN) and Comcast (NBC). The NBA reportedly told Warner it rejected its matching offer because it wanted to put all its games on its streaming se
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Jul 26, 2024
Apple's M3 MacBook Air combines Apple's lightest and thinnest laptop design with the impressive horsepower of third-generation Apple silicon. B&H Photo Video has the 2024 laptop on sale for $200 off. Usually $1,299, the variant with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is only $1,099.
The 2024 MacBook Air adds the M3 chip, Apple's silicon with a 3nm process that crams more electronic components into a smaller space compared to its predecessor. Apple's Neural Engine, which will become more crucial with the introduction of Apple Intelligence AI features this fall, is also 15 percent faster in the M3 family than the M2. While the M3 MacBook Air may not provide a dramatic speed boost over the M2 in day-to-day tasks, it has a higher ceiling for intensive work and is more future-proo
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Jul 26, 2024
There's word going around that X just enabled a setting that lets it train Grok on public tweets, as well as any interactions they have with the chatbot. That's not entirely true: a help page instructing users how to opt-out of X using their data to train Grok has been live since at least May. X just never exactly made it crystal clear that it was opting everyone into this, which is a sketchy move. If you don't want a bad chatbot to use your bad tweets for training, it's thankfully easy to switch that off.
You just need to uncheck a box from the Grok data sharing tab in the X settings. If that link doesn't work, you can go to Settings Privacy and Safety Grok. For the time being, the setting isn't accessible through X's m
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Jul 26, 2024
As we've seen in years past, once Amazon's Prime Day ends, many of the deals evaporate. But one week after the sale frenzy (both from Amazon and other retailers) we're still seeing quite a few deals that have either stayed true to their event pricing or have come up with a fresh discount after the fact. Right now, the budget pick in our iPad guide is just $1 more than the low it hit last week. Our favorite pair of
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Jul 26, 2024
The 65-inch LG C3 OLED TV is 48 percent off via Woot, which brings the price down to $1,298. That's a savings of around $1,200 on the well-regarded OLED panel. There's one major caveat. This deal is for today only, or until the stock runs out. To that end, there's a limit of one per customer, but that's probably not a huge deal unless you're in the process of furnishing a mansion or something.
The LG C3 OLED is considered one of the best TVs for gaming, and with good reason. We loved this television's high contrast and the deep blacks on offer. We also praised the low input lag, increased motion response and wide array of appropriate viewing angles. It follows HDR guidelines, works with all the major VRR formats and has four HDMI 2.1 ports that are capable of outputting 4K 120Hz with a gaming console or PC.
It supports all the major HDR standards, including D
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Jul 26, 2024
NASA's Perseverance rover has been collecting samples from Mars since 2021, but one of its most recently collected rocks could help it achieve its goal of finding evidence of ancient life on the planet. Nicknamed Cheyava Falls after the tallest waterfall in the Grand Canyon, the 3.2 feet by 2 feet sample contains "chemical signatures and structures" that could've been formed by ancient microbial life from billions of years ago.
Perseverance collected the rock on July 21 from what was once a Martian river valley carved by flowing water long ago. The sample, which you can see in close up below and from afar at the center of the image above, exhibits large white calcium sulfate veins running along its length. They indicate that water did run through the rock at one point.
More importantly, it contains millimeter-size marks that look like "leopard spots" all over its central reddish band. On our planet, those spots could form on sedimentary terrestrial rocks when there are chemical reactions that turn hematite, one of the minerals responsible for Mars' reddish color, to white. Those reactions can release iron and phosphate, which could've served as an energy source for microbes.
The rover's Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) tool already determined that the black rings around the spots contain iron and phosphate. However, that doesn't automatically mean that the rock truly did serve as a host for ancient microbes.
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Jul 26, 2024
Apple has joined several other tech companies in agreeing to abide by voluntary AI safeguards laid out by the Biden administration. Those who make the pledge have committed to abide by eight guidelines related to safety, security and social responsibility, including flagging societal risks such as biases; testing for vulnerabilities, watermarking AI-generated images and audio; and sharing trust and safety details with the government and other companies.
Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI were among the initial adoptees of the pact, which the White House announced last July. The voluntary agreement, which is not enforceable, will expire after Congress passes laws to regulate AI.
Since the guidelines were announced, Apple unveiled a suite of AI-powered features under the umbrella name of Apple Intelligence. The tools will work across the company's key devices and are set to start rolling out in the coming months. As part of that push, Apple has teamed up with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence. In joining the voluntary code of practice, Apple may be hoping to ward off regulatory scrutiny of its AI tools.
Although President Joe Biden
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Jul 26, 2024
A grand jury in Kansas City has indicted Rim Jong Hyok, a North Korean intelligence operative who allegedly used ransomware to attack health providers' systems in the US, according to AP News. The State Department said Rim is part of a group called Andariel that's controlled by the North Korean intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Rim is not in the US government's custody. The agency is now offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to his location or the location of a foreign operative who "engages in certain malicious cyber activities against US critical infrastructure."
A Kansas medical center alerted the FBI about an attack that blocked personnel's access to patient files and lab test results, as well as prevented them from operating hospital equipment with their computers, was back in 2021. It's a common MO of Rim's Andariel group, which would infiltrate a computer system and infect it with Maui ransomware. The group would then ask their target for payment and would threaten to release sensitive information if they don't pay up. In the Kansas hospital's case, the group demanded a ransom in Bitcoin worth $100,000 within 48 hours. The group allegedly used the money it gets to buy more computers and servers to fund more cyberattacks.
The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of the Treasury issued a joint cybersecurity warning in the midst of Andari
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Jul 26, 2024
I don't expect much from a device as small as a ring. There's no room for a lot of hardware, so it only really needs to do a few things well. A sleep tracker that doesn't get in the way of, well, sleeping, is my holy grail, and smart rings are a tantalizing option. Samsung's Galaxy Ring promises to monitor my slumber and log my daily activity, and do so comfortably and unobtrusively, all for $400. That's $100 more than its closest competitor, the Oura Ring, though the latter charges an additional $6 a month to use its software. Oura has been around for over five years, and in that time, it has developed more sophisticated ways to deliver insights to its customers, while Samsung is just starting. But for a debut effort, the Galaxy Ring has been a surprisingly informative health-tracking device for those with compatible Samsung phones.
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Jul 26, 2024
Apple's well-specked 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of memory and 512GB of storage is on sale for the lowest price we've seen yet at Amazon. You can pick one up for $1,699, a savings of $300 (15 percent) and the lowest price we've seen to date on this particular model. We're also seeing discounts across the board on various 14-inch and
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Jul 26, 2024
Yesterday's Gran Turismo 7 game update 1.49 introduced all-new physics that have added extra realism and generally improved gameplay. However, the change is also causing some bizarre problems in specific situations, making cars bounce violently or just get hurled into the air.
The physics updates are generally positive, adding "more natural cornering physics and acceleration/deceleration stability levels," according to the developer. Similar changes to tire physics and steering allow a more challenging and rewarding driving experience overall.
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— ??????????? (@AIPhard_T0yota) July 25, 2024
However, some bugs appear to have crept in as well, according to gtplanet and posts on Reddit's r/granturismo. High-horsepower vehicles, often with engine swaps and extreme suspension settings, are literally flying, bouncing or intersecting with the ground, according to multiple (hilarious) videos.
The problem appears to happen when cars try to accelerate from low speeds, and mostly affects cars under AI control. It also happens during dynamic "Scapes Movies" scenes designed to show off landscapes from cars operated at slow speeds by AI. It's even been seen in GT Auto's garages.
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Jul 26, 2024
Yesterday's Gran Turismo 7 game update 1.49 introduced all-new physics that have added extra realism and generally improved gameplay. However, the change is also causing some bizarre problems in specific situations, making cars bounce violently or just get hurled into the air.
The physics updates are generally positive, adding "more natural cornering physics and acceleration/deceleration stability levels," according to the developer. Similar changes to tire physics and steering allow a more challenging and rewarding driving experience overall.
???????????????????? pic.twitter.com/1FhwzEnT8h
— ??????????? (@AIPhard_T0yota) July 25, 2024
However, some bugs appear to have crept in as well, according to gtplanet and posts on Reddit's r/granturismo. High-horsepower vehicles, often with engine swaps and extreme suspension settings, are literally flying, bouncing or intersecting with the ground, according to multiple (hilarious) videos.
The problem appears to happen when cars try to accelerate from low speeds, and mostly affects cars under AI control. It also happens during dynamic "Scapes Movies" scenes designed to show off landscapes from cars operated at slow speeds by AI. It's even been seen in GT Auto's garages.
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Jul 26, 2024
OpenAI announced a new AI-powered search engine prototype called SearchGPT. It's described SearchGPT as "a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources." The company plans to test out the product with 10,000 initial users, then roll it into ChatGPT after gathering feedback.
It's a spicy time to launch AI-powered search engines. Last month, Perplexity faced criticism for summarizing stories from Forbes and Wired without adequate attribution or backlinks to the publications. It also ignored robots.txt, a way for websites to tell crawlers that scrape data to back off. Earlier this week, Wired publisher Condé Nast reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity and accused it of plagiarism. Also: see the Reddit drama earlier this week.
SearchGPT categorizes its results with short descriptions and visuals, but according to some early users, just like its chatbot forebears, accuracy is… lacking.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
The best cameras for 2024
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Jul 26, 2024
Fitness trackers are a solid option if you really want to hone in on tracking, well, your fitness. Some of the best fitness trackers also include additional sensors to track things like stress, sleep and other health metrics. Sure, you could opt for the best smartwatch, but if you're not interested in all of the extra features they offer, a fitness tracker might be a better (and more affordable) option. Accurate workout and activity tracking is what fitness trackers do best. They might not look as glamorous as an Apple Watch, but they do a particular job well. We've researched and tested a good selection of the most popular fitness trackers out there to help make your decision a little easier.
What do fitness trackers do best?
The answer seems simple: Fitness trackers are best at monitoring exercise, be it a 10-minute walk around the block or that half marathon you've been diligently training for. Obviously, smartwatches can help you reach your fitness goals too, but there are some areas where fitness bands have proven to be the best buy: focus, design, battery life and price.
When I say "focus," I'm alluding to the fact that fitness trackers are made to track activity well; anything else is extra. They often don't have the bells and whistles that smartwatches do, which could distract from their health tracking abilities. They also tend to have fewer sensors and internal components, which keeps them smaller and lighter. Fitness trackers are also a better option for those who just want a less conspicuous device on their wrists all day.
Battery life tends to be better on fitness trackers, too. While most smartwatches last one to two days on a single charge,
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Jul 26, 2024
The last year has continued to bring whiplash to the camera world, with numerous new models introduced across mirrorless, action and compact lineups. We continue to see improvements in all areas, with greater speed, more accurate autofocus and better video specs.
All those options can be overwhelming, but that's where this guide comes in. Whether you're an aspiring action or wildlife photographer, an extreme sports junkie or a content creator, we'll help you find the perfect camera to match your budget and requirements.
What to consider before choosing a camera
Though smartphones get better for video and photos every year, full cameras are still better in many ways. The larger sensors in mirrorless cameras let more light in, and you have a wide choice of lenses with far superior optics. Where smartphones typically have one f/stop, cameras have many, which gives you better exposure control. You also get natural and not AI-generated bokeh, quicker shooting, a physical shutter, more professional video results and so on.
Sensor size
With that extra quality comes a lot of extra factors to consider, though. The first thing is sensor size. In general, the larger the sensor, the better (and usually more expensive) the camera.
Full frame is available on models like Sony's new ZV-E1, the Canon EOS R6 II and Panasonic S5 II. At a size equivalent to 35mm film (36 x 24mm), it offers the best performance in terms of image quality, low-light capability and depth of field. But it's also the most expensive and finicky. While bokeh looks incredible at f/1.4, the depth of field is so razor thin that your subject's eyebrow might be in focus but not their eye. This can also make video shooting difficult.
The next size category is APS-C (around 23.5 x 15.6mm for most models and 22.2 x 14.8mm for Canon), of
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Jul 25, 2024
The US is in the middle of another hotly contested and seemingly close presidential election. This election is also happening in this new age of widespread access to artificial intelligence and easily disseminated misinformation. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon says his office tracked the source of one key piece of election misinformation back to X's Grok chatbot.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that X's premium chatbot service is passing along erroneous information about the deadlines for states' presidential ballots including Minnesota. When Grok is asked "Which states' presidential ballot deadlines have passed?", Grok claims Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington "have passed their presidential ballots." Grok then sources its information to an X post published on Sunday by user and conservative pundit @EvanAKilgore, which does not include a correction or warning about election misinformation.
In "Fun Mode," Grok repeats the incorrect information and source with the comment, "So if you're planning on running for president in one of these states, you might want to check if there's a write-in option. Or, you know, travel back to before the deadlines passed." Another response to the same question said "These states have already passed their deadlines to get on the presidential ballot, which means they're probably just sitting around, twiddling their thumbs, wondering what to do now that Joe Biden has dropped out. But hey, at least they've got their ballots ready to go, right?"
Grok insinuates that President Joe Biden's name can't be repla
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Jul 25, 2024
San Diego Comic-Con is a popular time to announce any big news for the geekdom, but it's also a popular time for big news to accidentally get revealed early. Today, an attendee took a photo of the booth for comic publisher Dark Horse that may have leaked plans for a remaster of two Soul Reaver games. The image shows a statue of characters Raziel and Kain, and the artwork is accompanied by a sign with branding that reads Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver I and II Remastered. The sign has since been removed from the display.
Dark Horse Comics Vice President of Product Development and Sales Randy Lahrman spoke to GameSpot at the convention about the leak. He said the statue in question would be available in August and that more details would be forthcoming, but he did not comment on the possible game remasters.
The Soul Reaver games were made by Crystal Dynamics. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver initially came out in 1999 for the original PlayStation, and sequel Soul Reaver II came out two years later. Both projects were helmed by director Amy Hennig, who went on to work at Naughty Dog on the Uncharted and Jax and Daxter franchises. Crystal Dynamics may be best known for its work on the reboote
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Jul 25, 2024
The greatest British zombie rom-com in film history will return to theaters for another run to the Winchester in honor of its 20th anniversary. Focus Features announced that Shaun of the Dead starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will get another theatrical run starting on Aug. 29 for US theaters and Sept. 27 for UK theaters.
Shaun of the Dead tells the story of a British slacker named Shaun who gets dumped by his girlfriend Liz, played by Kate Ashfield, on the eve of an undead apocalypse. His best friend Ed, played by Nick Frost, takes him out for a night of drinking just as the zombies start to emerge to help him get over the breakup and remind him "it's not the end of the world."
They wake up to a George Romero-esque world overrun by lifeless, shuffling cannibals and a hangover that makes them blissfully unaware of the carnage surrounding them. The hilarious, continuous shot of Shaun walking from his flat to the corner store and back without once noticing the bloody state of the world around him is worth seeing on the big screen.
For US tickets: https://t.co/Jgw0aZNTys
For UK tickets: https://t.co/MQRs85fJmp pic.twitter.com/8ask97HwvZ
— Focus Features (@FocusFeatures) July 25, 2024
Shaun of the Dead became one of the sleeper hits of 2004 and marked
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Jul 25, 2024
Ride-share companies scored a victory in the California Supreme Court, allowing them to continue classifying gig workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig-economy companies invested around $200 million in the passage of Proposition 22, which voters approved in 2020. The state's highest court rejected a legal challenge from a drivers' group and a labor union, ending their quest to bring full employee benefits to the state's gig workers.
The California Supreme Court ruling affirms the state's definition of drivers and other gig workers as independent contractors. Proposition 22, which received the support of 59 percent of voters in 2020, gives gig workers limited benefits like a baseline income and health insurance for those working at least 15 hours a week. However, it also allows the companies to avoid providing the broad swath of benefits full employees receive.
The Service Employees International Union and a drivers' group sued to challenge the law after it went into effect in early 2021. Their lawsuit got an early boost from lower courts: An Alameda County Superior Court Justice ruled that year that Proposition 22 was "unconstitutional
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Jul 25, 2024
The SAG-AFTRA union today called for a strike against several major video game publishers after failing to reach an accord over AI use. The action will take effect at 12:01 am on July 26.
"We're not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members," SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said."Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live - and work - with, we will be here, ready to negotiate."
SAG-AFTRA performers working in games "deserve and demand the same fundamental protections as performers in film, television, streaming, and music: fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the A.I. use of their faces, voices, and bodies," said the union's National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
The union has been lobbying the video game industry to agree to protections against its members' likenesses and voices being recreated with AI. SAG-AFTRA entered negotiations with the companies for the Interactive Media Agreement in October 2022. Other studios, such as Replica Games, have agreed to the union's contract. The union also secured a similar deal for
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Jul 25, 2024
OpenAI on Thursday announced a new AI-powered search engine prototype called SearchGPT. The move marks the company's entry into a competitive search engine market dominated by Google for decades. On its website, OpenAI described SearchGPT as "a temporary prototype of new AI search features that give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources." The company plans to test out the product with 10,000 initial users and then roll it into ChatGPT after gathering feedback.
The launch of SearchGPT comes amid growing competition in AI-powered search. Google, the world's dominant search engine, recently began integrating AI capabilities into its platform. Other startups like the Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity have also aimed to take on Google and have marketed themselves as "answer engines" that use AI to summarize the internet.
The rise of AI-powered search engines has been controversial. Last month, Perplexity faced criticism for summarizing stories from Forbes and Wi
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Jul 25, 2024
Sonos seriously stepped in it a couple of months back when it released an overhauled first-party mobile app that shipped with a number of missing features. These included core functions like sleep timers and alarms. Many of the company's speakers would not appear as a pairing option and it became extremely difficult to precisely adjust the volume level of a paired speaker.Additionally, music search and playback were both negatively impacted by the change, leading to numerous customer complaints.
Now, the company has apologized for releasing the half-baked app. CEO Patrick Spence whipped up a blog post to address the "significant problems" with the new software.
"There isn't an employee at Sonos who isn't pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority," he wrote.
Spence also wrote that the company had planned to quickly incorporate the missing features and patch up any errors, but these fixes were delayed by a "number of issues" that were unique to the updat
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Jul 25, 2024
Tesla car culture is full of hacks and shortcuts, some more effective than others. One, known as the "wet towel" trick, required the Tesla Charging department — or whatever remains of it — to publicly tell customers to knock it off.
The "wet towel" trick involves wrapping a damp, cool cloth around a Supercharger cable handle as a way to presumably speed up the charging time. The Supercharger has temperature monitors that keep it from overheating as it charges Tesla vehicles. Some Tesla owners believe that cooling down the charging handle will trick the temperature monitor into topping off their vehicles faster.
Here's the problem, at least in Tesla's telling: If the sensor in the charging handle believes that the temperature is lower than it actually is while it's charging, the towel-wrapped charger can create a "risk of overheating or damage" according to the company.
This may sound like the biggest "duh" statement in tech news history but it's taken more than two months for Tesla to warn its customers not to do the "wet towel" trick on their cars, even after it became a well known "hack" on other auto news websites and Reddit forums. The official Tesla Charging account on X posted a warning on Wednesday in response to an article from InsideEVs.com explaining the dangerous car charging trick.
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Jul 25, 2024
I rarely used WhatsApp before moving from the United States to the United Kingdom a couple of years ago, opting for the built-in messaging app on my iPhone or fellow Meta-owned platform Messenger. No one I knew in the US used it, and, in fact, I had to get friends and family members to download it when I moved so we could communicate without being charged — you're welcome, Mark Zuckerberg. Well, that seems to be changing, with the head of Meta announcing WhatsApp has reached 100 million monthly active users across the United States — with about 10 million in Texas alone. WhatsApp has more than two billion users worldwide.
Meta enlisted former Modern Family cast members for an ad in June that highlighted frustrations when some people have an iPhone, and others have an Android. Now, a very targeted PR stunt accompanies the 100 million user milestone, with Meta installing a 200-foot bubble between the Apple and Samsung stores in The Americana Mall in Los Ange
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Jul 25, 2024
AI company Runway reportedly scraped "thousands" of YouTube videos and pirated versions of copyrighted movies without permission. 404 Media obtained alleged internal spreadsheets suggesting the AI video-generating startup trained its Gen-3 model using YouTube content from channels like Disney, Netflix, Pixar and popular media outlets.
An alleged former Runway employee told the publication the company used the spreadsheet to flag lists of videos it wanted in its database. It would then download them without detection using open-source proxy software to cover its tracks. One sheet lists simple keywords like astronaut, fairy and rainbow, with footnotes indicating whether the company had found corresponding high-quality videos to train on. For example, the term "superhero" includes a note reading, "Lots of movie clips." (Indeed.)
Other notes show Runway flagged YouTube channels for Unreal Engine, filmmaker Josh Neuman and a Call of Duty fan page as good sources for "high movement" training videos.
"The channels in that spreadsheet were a company-wide effort to find good quality videos to build the model with," the former employee told 404 Media. "This was then used as input to a massive web crawler which downloaded all the videos from all those channels, using proxies to avoid getting blocked by Google."
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Jul 25, 2024
Blizzard has provided an update that will be music to the ears of many Overwatch 2 fans. The publisher plans to experiment with a range of team compositions beyond the role-locked 5v5 format that the game currently has. That includes a potential revival of six-player teams from the original Overwatch.
"The community has, juuuust once or twice, suggested a test," Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller wrote in a blog post. "Why not put various forms of 6v6 in the game in order to gauge the results? We agree, and based on your feedback, we're exploring how we can test different forms of 6v6 in the game to gauge the results."
Keller is quick to point out that it may take some time before the team runs a 6v6 trial. Overwatch 2 was designed from the ground up for five-player teams, with hero balancing and map designs (and redesigns) taking into account the reduced damage mitigation from having one fewer tank on each side.
There are technical considerations here too, as features such as visual upgrades, more technically demanding hero kits and the ability to see outlines of allies through walls impact Overwatch 2's performance. As such, shifting from 10-player to 12-player lobbies could have a negative impact on performance, particularly on older or less-powerful systems.
"Overwatch is a fast-paced game, and maintaining a game that runs smoothly across all our platforms is important for the player's experience," Keller wrote. "While a limited-time test could arrive sooner, the team is still investigating exactly how long it would take to permanently increase performan
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Jul 25, 2024
The long-anticipated Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been delayed yet again, this time until November 20. It was supposed to come out on September 5. This is just the latest delay in a development cycle that stretches all the way back to 2010. That's 14 years. The longest delay in gaming history is Duke Nukem Forever, at 15 years.
What's taking so long? At first, it was funding issues. Developer GSC Game World nearly shut down, but managed to weather the storm. Next, the makers spent a whole lot of time perfecting various mechanics and features, including a new way to render human teeth.
Real world events intervened to continue the delay. Russia invaded Ukraine and GSC was based in Kyiv. The game was put on hold as the staff relocated to Prague, eventually picking back up on development in 2022. After that, the game was supposed to (finally) release in December of last year.
However, there we
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Jul 25, 2024
There's no way around it: Samsung copied Apple in multiple ways on its Galaxy Buds 3 ($180) and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (
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Jul 25, 2024
Google is making its Gemini AI faster and more efficient across the board. You now have access to 1.5 Flash, its generative AI model designed to be able to generate responses more quickly and efficiently, even if you're not paying for Gemini Advanced. The company says you'll notice improvements in latency, as well as the tool's reasoning and image understanding, on both the web and mobile.
In addition, it's expanding the AI assistant's context window, so that you can have longer conversations with it and ask it more complex questions. In the near future, Google will also give you the ability to upload files to Gemini from Google Drive or from your device. If you give it access to your notes, for instance, it will be able to create a study guide or a practice exam for you. Plus, the assistant will be able to analyze data and make it easier to digest with graphics and charts.
As part of its work to reduce hallucinations, Google is now displaying links to related content if you ask it questions that require factual answers. It will display a "gray chip" at the end of a paragraph in its response that links to websites where you can read more about the topic. Those chips could even lead to your emails, if you've linked Gemini to your Gmail account. The feature is currently limited to select locations for English prompts only.
The company is making Gemini more accessible overall, as well. It has started gradually rolling out Gemini in Google Messages for Android devices in the European Economic Area (EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), the UK and Switzerland. You'll now also be able to chat with Gemini in Frenc
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Jul 25, 2024
There's nothing quite like a summer in Montreal. After several brutal winter months, the city bursts to life and its residents make the very most of the warmer weather. Été (French for "summer") is a relaxing slice-of-life game that deftly captures the essence of Montreal at this time of year, warts and all.
You play as an artist who is spending the summer in La Metropole. The first order of business is to set up an easel in your apartment, which has little else but a mattress in it, no thanks to your somewhat brusk landlord. Once you have learned the basic controls, it's time to explore your new surroundings.
This version of Montreal is effectively your canvas. It's colorless at first, almost as if it's covered in snow. You can fill this world with watercolor, a little at a time. Developer Impossible pulls off a smart trick here as each object you color becomes a stamp that you can use in your paintings — your artist character is literally taking inspiration from the world around them.
I spent several hours ignoring the main missions and exploring the various levels, enjoying myself as I restored color to a market, alleyway, front yard and park. Just like moving into a new city or neighborhood, the more I explored (and colored in) the world around me, the easier it became to navigate. And as with much of life in this city, you do things at your own pace.
While the narrative i
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Jul 25, 2024
We knew it was coming and now it's here. Disney has entered into a partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer an ad-free streaming bundle that includes Disney , Hulu and Max. The combo pack costs $30 per month, which is a savings of $6 per month when you add it all up. A Disney and Hulu bundle costs $20 per month and ad-free Max costs $16 per month, so this is a pretty good deal.
If you want to save even more money and don't mind lengthy ad breaks interrupting prestige dramas that weren't made with advertisements in mind, there's an ad-filled version of this bundle available for $17 per month. You still get access to all of the content from the three streamers. You also get a bunch of ads. This is likely the most budget-friendly way to get your eyeballs on Game of Thrones and Star Wars content.
Speaking of, Disney is the
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Jul 25, 2024
Pretty much every TV is a smart one these days. But perhaps you're still rocking an older model without built-in streaming functions, you don't have an external device with such capabilities or you simply don't like the interface of your smart TV. As such, a dedicated streaming device might be of interest to you. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a decent option and, best of all, it's currently 33 percent off. That brings the price down to just $40, or only $5 more than the record low it was selling for during Prime Day.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is perhaps the most capable of Amazon's streaming devices and it's pretty straightforward to use as well. You just need to plug it into a spare HDMI port on your TV or monitor to get started. As the name suggests, you can use it to stream video in 4K. The stick also has Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG support. Streaming apps such as Netflix, Hulu and, of course, Prime Video are available.
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Jul 25, 2024
Back in March, Warner Bros. Discovery's Max announced that it's extending its exclusive US streaming rights for Studio Ghibli in a new multiyear agreement. As part of that deal, Ghibli agreed to make Hayao Miyazaki's first film in a decade, The Boy and the Heron, available on Max later this year. Now, the streaming service has revealed that the fantasy adventure film will be available to stream on Max starting on September 6. To note, Studio Ghibli first embraced streaming in 2020 when it gave Netflix and Max the rights to all its films, including Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro.
Written and directed by Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron revolves around a boy named Mahito who moves to his family's countryside estate after the death of his mother. It was there where he encounters a gray heron, which marks the beginning of a fantastical adventure with magic, wizards, spirits and anthropomorphic animals. Like all other Miyazaki films, The Boy and the Heron contains philosophical messages weaved into Mahito's journey as he faces the dangers of an unfamiliar world to find his ill stepmother who has disappeared into the forest.
The Boy and the Heron's English dub features some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Christian Bale voices Mahito's father Shoichi, Robert Pattinson
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Jul 25, 2024
MacBooks are great, but if you're like me, then having to hunch over one brings back and neck pain. An iMac is a perfect though costly solution, but right now, it's a bit more affordable (emphasis on a bit). Apple's 2023 iMac with an M3 chip is down from $1,299 to $1,149 — a return to its record-low price. The 12 percent discount applies to the Green, Blue and Silver models with an 8-core CPU and 256GB.
Apple released its latest iMac in late 2023 and garnered an 86 in our review. The big difference between this model and its 2021 predecessor is the M3 chip. The addition gives this latest iMac extreme speed and allows us to do anything from editing photographs to playing games without delays or hiccups.
The 24-inch iMac ha
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Jul 25, 2024
It might be arriving a few months later than expected but Fallout: London is finally here. The expansion-sized mod for Fallout 4 is out now on Steam and GOG. Buying it from the latter (which has a DRM-free policy),means the mod will work with both the Steam and GOG versions of the base game. There are some caveats, though, as the launch version of Fallout: London is incompatible with the recent major Fallout 4 update.
Developer Team Folon is working to remedy that. In the meantime, you can download a pre-patched version of Fallout 4 from GOG now (the game is currently 60 percent off there). GOG and Team Folon have created a one-click installer for the mo
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Jul 25, 2024
Last month, AMD unveiled the Ryzen 9000 series Zen 5 desktop processors including the 16-core 9950 it called "the world's most powerful desktop consumer processor." Those chips were set to be released on July 31st, but AMD SVP Jack Huynh announced on X that they'll be delayed up to two weeks "out of an abundance of caution."
The company found that initial production units didn't meet quality expectations, so it plans to replace them with fresh units. "The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors will now go on sale on August 8th and the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X processors will go on-sale on August 15th," Huynh wrote.
— Jack Huynh (@JackMHuynh) July 24, 2024
There's no issue with the design of the Ryzen 9000 silicon, and specifications will not change for the processors, a spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. Rather, it's related to an issue with product testing that resulted in "a small number of products reaching the market that do not meet our quality st
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Jul 25, 2024
When Reddit said last month it would block unauthorized data scraping from its site, most of us assumed it was to tackle chatbot training. It turns out the site/service/fandom battleground also appears to be blocking search engines other than Brave and Google, the latter of which reportedly inked a deal earlier this year with Reddit worth $60 million annually.
A Reddit spokesperson told Engadget the empty search results are because these engines won't agree to the company's requirements for AI training. The company says it's in discussions with several of them. Bing and DuckDuckGo both appear to be affected.
— Mat Smith
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Jul 25, 2024
Meta's Oversight Board is urging the company to update its rules around sexually explicit deepfakes. The board made the recommendations as part of its decision in two cases involving AI-generated images of public figures.
The cases stem from two user appeals over AI-generated images of public figures, though the board declined to name the individuals. One post, which originated on Instagram, depicted a nude Indian woman. The post was reported to Meta but the report was automatically closed after 48 hours, as was a subsequent user appeal. The company eventually removed the post after attention from the Oversight Board, which nonetheless overturned Meta's original decision to leave the image up.
The second post, which was shared to a Facebook group dedicated to AI art, showed "an AI-generated image of a nude woman with a man groping her breast." Meta automatically removed the post because it had been added to an internal system that can identify images that have been previously reported to the company. The Oversight Board found that Meta was correct to have taken the post down.
In both cases, the Oversight Board said the AI deepfakes violated the company's rules barring "derogatory sexualized photoshop" images. But in its recommendations to Meta, the Oversight Board said the current language used in these rules is outdated and may make it more difficult for users to report AI-made explicit images.
Instead, the board says that it should update its policies to make clear that it prohibits non-consensual explicit images that are AI-made or manipulated. "Much of the non-consensual se
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Jul 25, 2024
There's one clear perk that Android has over iOS and that's variety when it comes to the phones you have to choose from. Apple has made the iPhone is the only game in town for iOS, but with Google's operating system, there are dozens of choices out there from manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus and others. But that also means it can be difficult to decide which device is best for you when it comes time to upgrade, or if you want to switch from iPhone to Android in the new year. If you're looking for a new phone and don't know where to start, we've got you covered with a selection of the best Android phones for every budget.
What to look for in a new Android phone
Performance
When it comes to picking our favorite Android phones, the main things we look for are pretty straightforward: good performance (both compute and AI), a nice display, solid design, sharp cameras, long battery life and a significant commitment to ongoing software support. For performance, not only do we look at benchmarks and other metrics, but we also evaluate phones based on responsiveness. Regardless of whether you're reading, text messaging, scrolling through social media or playing a game, no one wants a gadget that feels sluggish.
Display
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
When it comes to displays, we generally prefer OLED panels that can produce rich, saturated colors with at least 600
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Jul 25, 2024
Back when Max was still known as HBO Max, it released a redesigned app that added SharePlay for Apple devices, but only in the US. Now, the streaming service is rolling out the feature to all its users around the world. SharePlay is now available to all Max users paying for Ad-Free and Ultimate Ad-Free plans, allowing them to hold and join watch parties over FaceTime and iMessage, no matter where they are.
Users can start watching with friends by hitting the "share" button either on the details section of each title or within the FaceTime app. Each session can have as many as 32 participants, but they all have to be Max subscribers. That means people from regions where Max isn't available, such as in Asian countries, won't be able to hop on and watch with their pals in the US or Europe. Warner Bros. is planning to expand Max's reach to South East Asia later this year, but it warns on its website that the timeline could still change.
SharePlay for Max works on iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and Vision Pro headsets. To initiate a watch party on iPhones, iPads and Vision Pros, users have to find the Share icon on the details page of a show or a movie, enter the contacts they want to share with and initiate a FaceTime call. If they choose Messages on their mobile devices, their friends will get a message asking them to join SharePlay. On Apple TV, users will have to open FaceTime first before clicking the SharePlay button and choosing Max from the app list.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/maxs-shareplay-feature-for-ios-is-now-available-to-all-ad-free-subscribers-040624031.html?src=rss
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Jul 24, 2024
The NBA and WNBA have inked deals for where games will be aired and streamed for the next eleven years. The NBA deals run from the 2025-2026 season through the 2035-2036 season. For the WNBA, the agreement covers the 2026 through 2036 seasons.
Pro basketball has been an ESPN mainstay for years and that will continue, with the Disney-owned network remaining the primary media rights owner for both leagues. ESPN will be the exclusive home for the NBA finals for all eleven years of the new deal, as well as five out of the eleven years of the WNBA finals. The games covered by ESPN's deal will be part of the sports network's direct-to-consumer platform and a package of NBA and WNBA games will also be made available to stream on Disney in select international markets.
While the bulk of the games will go to ESPN, basketball is going to have more of a streaming presence thanks to two new partnerships. NBC and Peacock will have access to 100 NBA national games during each regular season. About 50 games will be exclusive to the Peacock streaming platform, including national Monday night games and doubleheaders. The rest of the games go t
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Jul 24, 2024
World of Warcraft (WoW) artists, designers, engineers, producers, quality assurance (QA) testers and other game developers have unionized. The staff of more than 500 workers voted to unionize the Blizzard Entertainment studio with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) creating the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild, according to an X post from the union's official account.
The Blizzard studio is the latest major game studio to form a union during uncertain times of layoffs and studio closures across the gaming industry. Bethesda Game Studios, the studio behind the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises, formed its union with the help of CWA last weekend that includes 241 workers.
"What we've accomplished at World of Warcraft is just the beginning," said Eric Lanham, a test analyst and Wow Gamemakers Guild member, in a statement released by the CWA. "My colleagues and I are embarking on a quest to secure better pay, benefits, and job security through a strong union contract. We know that when workers have a protected voice, it's a win-win for employee standards, the studio, and World of Warcraft fans looking for the best gaming experience."
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Jul 24, 2024
Respawn Entertainment is bringing back the option to buy Apex Legends battle passes with in-game currency. "You've spoken, and we've listened," the company said. The developer drew player outrage and a sweep of review-bombing earlier this month after it announced a new approach to the game's reward system.
The original announcement was convoluted, but the gist of what frustrated the Apex community was that players would no longer be able to use in-game currency to access an upgraded version of the battle pass. People earn Apex Coins by playing, and under the original model, serious fans could easily earn enough over the course of one battle pass to pay for the next season's.
Today, Respawn said it would return the option to pay 950 Apex Coins (about $10) to unlock the Premium battle pass tier. And with 1,300 Apex Coins available at that tier, this segment of the battle pass experience has mostly reverted to the old model. Players will be able to unlock the premium version by completing some "simple in-game challenges" at the start of Season 22, Split 1 on August 6. After that, beginning on September 17 with the season's Split 2, the new/old model will take effect.
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) July 24, 2024
However, other parts of the original announcement are still in place. New battle passes will drop at the start and halfway point of a season. Apex
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Jul 24, 2024
When Reddit said last month that it would block unauthorized data scraping from its site, everyone's (rightful) first reaction was "AI, AI, AI." However, now that the change has taken effect, chatbot makers may not be the only ones being locked out. The widely used forum also appears to be blocking major search engines other than Brave and Google, the latter of which reportedly inked a deal earlier this year with Reddit worth $60 million annually. However, a Reddit spokesperson told Engadget that the empty search results are about Google's rivals not agreeing to the company's requirements for AI training. It says it's it's in discussions with several of them.
404 Media reported on Wednesday (and Engadget confirmed in our queries) that searching for Reddit results from the past week on rival engine Bing (using "site:reddit.com") returns empty results. The publication reported that DuckDuckGo produced seven links without any descriptions, only providing the note, "We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us." The engine now appears to have removed even those, as our test only produced an empty page, reading, "no results found."
When Reddit
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Jul 24, 2024
The race to bring more AI features to search is escalating, with Microsoft moving forward with additional tools for Bing. Today, the company began previews for Bing generative search, where the top result for a user's query will be an original response compiled by AI.
The blog post about Bing generative search showed a few sample results. In addition to the overview statement, Microsoft will provide links to the main sources that the large-language models and small-language models used to create their answer. It will also have a section of related information. For instance, with the sample query "how long do elephants live," the main summary is followed by videos with information about factors that impact elephant longevity. After the generative results, the usual list of search hits will be displayed.
Microsoft
If you're curious and want to try out generative search right away, you may be out of luck. This isn't an opt-in choice yet for Bing users and it is only being applied to "a small percentage of user queries" at this stage. "We are slowly rolling this out and will take our time, garner feedback, test and learn, and work to create a great experience before making this more broadly available," Microsoft said.
Google rolled out a similar tool earl
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Jul 24, 2024
The US Senate unanimously passed a bill on Tuesday designed to hold accountable those who make or share deepfake porn. The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act (DEFIANCE Act) would allow victims to sue those who create, share or possess AI-generated sexual images or videos using their likeness. The issue took root in the public consciousness after the infamous Taylor Swift deepfake that circulated among online lowlifes early this year.
The bill would let victims sue for up to $150,000 in damages. That number grows to $250,000 if it's related to attempted sexual assault, stalking or harassment.
It now moves to the House, where a companion bill awaits. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sponsors the sister bill. If it passes there (which sounds likely, given the unanimous nature of the Senate's vote), it will move to President Biden's desk for final passage.
"There's a shock to seeing images of yourself that someone could think are real," Ocasio-Cortez
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Jul 24, 2024
Police departments across Arizona plan to implement the use of drones as part of its first responders to emergency situations. Scottsdale's police department will be the first in the state to use a special fleet of drones that can be sent to potential crime scenes and emergencies by special detection cameras.
The drone technology will come from a new drone startup called Aerodome and the public safety tech firm Flock Safety, which makes gunshot sensors, analytic software and cameras that can monitor neighborhoods and read license plates. Scottsdale PD's drones will respond to emergencies in real time to provide first responders with a bird's eye view of emergencies as first responders make their way to the area.
The drones can be dispatched by police officers and emergency dispatchers as well as Flock cameras that detect unlawful activity such as stolen vehicles or cars that match descriptions from an AMBER alert. They can even silently follow a suspect while officers handle multiple 911 calls and keep an aerial view of a runaway vehicle without risking the safety of officers and bystanders.
The use of drones by law enforcement has been growing over the years. More than 1,500 police departments use them in some capacity, according to Axios. First responders may see these drones as a useful tool but there are also serious concerns about protecting citizens' Constitutional privacy rights.
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Jul 24, 2024
Apple Maps is expanding beyond its app. Just like with Google Maps, the service is now available on the web, albeit in beta form at the jump.
There are some limitations for now. Availability will vary by region and Maps is only available in English on the web at the outset. As things stand, you can access Apple Maps from Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad. Windows PC users can access the service via Chrome and Edge. Apple says it will expand the web experience to other languages, devices and browsers over time, but for now at least, iPhone users will need to keep using the Maps app.
The web version of Apple Maps includes directions; guides; opening hours, reviews and other helpful information for businesses; and actions such as ordering food. Apple will add other features, including Look Around (i.e.
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Jul 24, 2024
The Nintendo Wii was a bona-fide cultural juggernaut, with over 100 million consoles sold during its lifespan. It was never the biggest console in the world, with a size approximating a paperback book. Modders, however, have managed to shrink the Wii's footprint way down. They made a functional console that's no bigger than a keychain, as reported by Time Extension. As a matter of fact, it actually doubles as a keychain.
The appropriately-named Nintendo Kawaii is a teensy-weensy Wii that lacks some of the bells and whistles of the original, but it works and can run games from that generation. It's also quite fetching, with a CNC'd aluminum metal unibody. There are magnetic pogo pin connectors for power, AV support and controllers. There's also a custom dock that offers support for four Gamecube controllers, which is a must for certain fighting games that rhyme with Shmooper Smash Bros.
A Wii console the size of a keychain!
CNC'd, anodized, laser marked, and passively cooled
Follow the link for more details: https://t.co/MgZT0ZBV6V pic.twitter.com/3trRBqoNiU
— Wesk Mods (@WeskMods) July 21, 2024
The makers of this minuscule wonder say the project began as a challenge to make "
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Jul 24, 2024
Meta has taken down tens of thousands of Instagram accounts from Nigeria as part of a massive crackdown on sextortion scams. The accounts primarily targeted adult men in the United States, but some also targeted minors, Meta said in an update.
The takedowns are part of a larger effort by Meta to combat sextortion scams on its platform in recent months. Earlier this year, the company added a safety feature in Instagram messages to automatically detect nudity and warn users about potential blackmail scams. The company also provides in-app resources and safety tips about such scams.
According to Meta, the recent takedowns included 2,500 accounts that were linked to a group of about 20 people who worked together to carry out sextortion scams. The company also took down thousands of accounts and groups on Facebook that provided tips and other advice, including scripts and fake images, for would-be sextortionists. Those accounts were linked to the Yahoo Boys, a group of "loosely organized cybercriminals operating largely out of Nigeria that specialize in different types of scams," Meta said.
Meta has come under particular scrutiny for not doing enough to protect teens from sextortion on its apps. During a Senate hearing earlier this year, Senator Lindsey Graham
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Jul 24, 2024
When Reddit said last month that it would block unauthorized data scraping from its site, everyone's (rightful) first reaction was "AI, AI, AI." However, now that the change has taken effect, chatbot makers aren't the only ones being locked out. The widely used forum also appears to be blocking all search engines other than Google, which reportedly inked a deal earlier this year with Reddit worth $60 million annually.
404 Media reported on Wednesday (and Engadget confirmed in our queries) that searching for Reddit results from the past week on rival engine Bing (using "site:reddit.com") returns empty results. The publication reported that DuckDuckGo produced seven links without any descriptions, only providing the note, "We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us." The engine now appears to have removed even those, as our test only produced an empty page, reading, "no results found."
When Reddit said last month that it would update its Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt) to block automated data scraping, it's now apparent that it wasn't only meant to thwart AI companies like
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Jul 24, 2024
Last week's CrowdStrike outage plunged a noticeable portion of the world into a sea of blue death screens. The cybersecurity company tried to apologize with an Uber Eats gift card but its roll out had some troubles as well, according to a report from TechCrunch.
CrowdStrike apparently tried to send its "teammates and partners" a $10 Uber Eats gift card on Tuesday. The gift card was an attempt to apologize for the global shutdown that locked up computer systems for banks, hospitals, airlines and more and "the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused," according to TechCrunch's source who received the message.
When some tried to use the gift card on Uber Eats, they only saw a screen telling them that the offer had been rescinded by the issuing party. CrowdStrike told us that Uber flagged it as a fraud because of high usage rates.
CrowdStrike blamed the global system outage on a bug in an update that contained "problematic data." The bug forced machines running on Windows into a boot loop that caused mass delays at airports, delayed scheduled surgeries and other operations at hospitals and disruptions at banks and even the London Stock Exchange.
Correction: July 24, 2024, 4:45PM ET: This story originally claimed that Crowdstrike tried to apologize for its recent outage by sending customers an Uber Eats gift card. The company gave us the following statement: "CrowdStrike did not send gift cards to customers or c
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Jul 24, 2024
Last week's CrowdStrike outage plunged a noticeable portion of the world into a sea of blue death screens. The cybersecurity company tried to apologize with an Uber Eats gift card but its roll out also ended in failure, according to a report from TechCrunch.
CrowdStrike apparently tried to send its millions of clients a $10 Uber Eats gift card on Tuesday. The gift card was an attempt to apologize for the global shutdown that locked up computer systems for banks, hospitals, airlines and more and "the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused," according to TechCrunch's source who received the message.
When some clients tried to use the gift card on Uber Eats, they only saw a screen telling them that the offer had been rescinded by the issuing party. CrowdStrike has yet to comment on this matter so it's not known how many clients received the voucher offer.
CrowdStrike blamed the global system outage on a bug in an update that contained "problematic data." The bug forced machines running on Windows into a boot loop that caused mass delays at airports, delayed scheduled surgeries and other operations at hospitals and disruptions at banks and even the London Stock Exchange.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-uber-eats-card-to-say-sorry-before-pulling-the-offer-172605510.html?src=rss
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Jul 24, 2024
MultiVersus, the platform fighter that pulls from Warner Bros. properties, could be getting a whole bunch of new stages and characters, according to a report by Kotaku. This includes content from the film Barbie and the Mad Max universe, in addition to more Adventure Land stuff and a potential tie-in with the forthcoming Beetlejuice sequel. WB owns a whole bunch of stuff, so this could get interesting.
The reporting is sourced from a fairly reputable dataminer on X, who published receipts in the form of screengrabs and the like. These images include an early version of a potential Barbie Land stage, complete with palm trees and, of course, a bright pink color palette.
— ausil ( laisul ) ?? (@AusilMV) July 23, 2024
There's also a picture that allegedly depicts a stage based on Quidditch, the broom-based sport from Harry Potter that makes absolutely zero sense. Other leaked stages include the wastelands from Mad Max, a background inspired by Powerpuff Girls and one pulled from the cartoon Samurai Jack.
Speaking of those la
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Jul 24, 2024
Amazon Prime Day 2024 might be behind us but the deals keep coming and they don't stop coming. Folks with a Google Pixel or other Android device who are in the market for a set of budget-friendly earbuds may be interested in a discount on the Pixel Buds A-Series (they're compatible with iPhones too, but the integration won't be as deep on iOS products). These earbuds were already decent value at $99, and now they've dropped to an even more attractive price of $69.
We gave the Pixel Buds A-Series a score of 84 in our 2021 review. They don't support wireless charging or have onboard controls, but otherwise we felt that they deliver excellent value for money (even more so now thanks to the current discount).
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Jul 24, 2024
Whether you've just started a remote job or want to try your hand at creating videos, a solid webcam is essential for presentation. Fortunately, our favorite budget webcam is even more affordable right now, thanks to a 20 percent discount. The Anker PowerConf C200 2K Webcam for PC is down to $48 from $60 — a record low.
We named Anker's C200 model our top budget webcam because it offers so many of the same perks as its more expensive competitors. To set it up, you only need to plug it in, either to the computer or your docking station. It offers up to 2K resolution, which gives you an extra boost, but you can lower it to 1080p, 720p or even 360p. It also automatically has a 95-degree lens opening but can shrink to 78 or 65 degrees. Plus, you can get AnkerWork software to edit things like brightness and sharpness.
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Jul 24, 2024
Google just announced a suite of updates to the Play Store in an attempt to make it more fun to use. This is part of a larger move by the company to turn its online marketplace into "an end-to-end experience that's more than a store." You read that right. They want us to hang out on Google Play.
Here's what the company has planned. The update brings AI-generated review summaries that pull from user reviews to develop a consensus. You've likely already encountered this type of thing on Facebook and while using Google search. The company first announced this feature at this year's I/O event.
This AI-adjacent approach will also apply to auto-generated FAQs about each app that are powered by Gemini models. Additionally, there will be AI-generated highlights that offer a quick summarization of a particular app. Google showed off a still image of this for a photo editing app in which the highlights included the number of filters and layouts available, in addition to tools and sharing options. This AI approach will also let users quickly compare apps in similar categories.
Google's also rolling out shared spaces on the Play Store. These aren't communities or mini social networks, like Reddit or something, but rather splash pages for various topics of interest. The company started this project with a pilot involving cricket. The shared space gave users in India the ability to "explore all their cricket content from across various channels in one, convenient spot." This included relevant videos, around 100 curated cricket-related apps and some simple user polls. The next curated space will be about Japanese manga. There has been no wor
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Jul 24, 2024
Anyone with a PlayStation 5 should now have a smoother option for connecting with other gamers. Sony has officially rolled out a system software update, allowing you to create shareable links inviting others to a multiplayer game. The company first announced the feature in early May.
The new PS5 update works by providing you with a link in the app that can be shared with anyone, even if you aren't friends on the Playstation Network. A QR code pops up alongside the link, though Sony warns you might have to update a few of your games for the new feature to work. One of the best things about this tool is the invite isn't immediately time-sensitive, so the link will still drop the recipient into your game 10 or 30 minutes from when its sent as long as you're still playing. If you send the link on Discord, a widget should appear to say if people are still playing or have dropped off.
Alongside the new share method is another update that lets you open Game Help action cards through Voice Command. All you need to do is say "Show Game Help," and it should pop up. However, Voice Command (Preview) is currently available only in English for gamers in the US and UK with PlayStation Network accounts.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-ps5-update-makes-it-easier-to-join-multiplayer-games-123730301.html?src=rss
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Jul 24, 2024
CrowdStrike has blamed faulty testing software for a buggy update that crashed 8.5 million Windows machines around the world, it wrote in an post incident review (PIR). "Due to a bug in the Content Validator, one of the two [updates] passed validation despite containing problematic data," the company said. It promised a series of new measures to avoid a repeat of the problem.
The massive BSOD (blue screen of death) outage impacted multiple companies worldwide including airlines, broadcasters, the London Stock Exchange and many others. The problem forced Windows machines into a boot loop, with technicians requiring local access to machines to recover (Apple and Linux machines weren't affected). Many companies, like Delta Airlines, are still recovering.
To prevent DDoS and other types of attacks, CrowdStrike has a tool called the Falcon Sensor. It ships with content that functions at the kernel level (called Sensor Content) that uses a "Template Type" to define how it defends against threats. If something new comes along, it ships "Rapid Response Content" in the form of "Template Instances."
A Template Type for a new sensor was released on March 5, 2024 and performed as expected. However, on July 19, two new Template Instances were released and one (just 40KB in size) passed validation despite having "problematic data,"
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Jul 24, 2024
Netflix has hired Alain Tascan as its new president of games. Before joining Netflix, Tascan was executive vice president for Epic Games and oversaw first-party development for some of the company's (and gaming's) most successful titles, like Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys.
Since launching its games project in 2021, Netflix has acquired notable indie studios Night School, Boss Fight, Next Games and Spry Fox and has brought many great indie games to mobile — seriously, search the app store, if only for Into The Breach. Netflix recently said it has 80-plus games currently in development. A multiplayer Squid Game project will be part of that, coinciding with the hit show's next season, later this year.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
Prime Video's much-needed overhaul
Adobe's Photoshop can now generate AI images
Fujifilm GFX 100 II: The king of medium-format mirrorless cameras
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Jul 24, 2024
You might have an idea of which smartphone you want to buy next. But there are more options than ever before that are solid — plenty of companies are making stellar handsets nowadays, at similar prices, all with comparable feature sets. That said, the choice isn't always cut-and-dry. If you know you want an iPhone, your decision-making process is a bit easier. If you're an Android person, you have even more options to choose from and more questions to answer before you spend any money. At Engadget, we review phones regularly and have tested dozens over the years; so far for 2024, our top picks remain the same as they were last year, with Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and Google's Pixel 8 handsets sitting at the top of the list. Whether you've had your eye on them, one of Samsung's new Galaxy S24 phones or another device, we're here to help you decide which is the best phone to buy this year.
Android or iOS?
When you're searching for the best smartphone, it becomes clear that each OS has its pros and cons. Apple's tight-knit ecosystem makes it super easy to share data between iPhones, iPads and Macs or seamlessly hand-off phone calls or music from one device to another. At the same time, you're effectively locked in, as services like Apple Messages aren't available on other platforms.
As for Android, there's a much wider range of handsets from companies like Google, Samsung, Sony and more. However, Android phones don't enjoy that same length of software support and often have lower trade-in values. In short, there's no wrong answer. However, you will want to consider how
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Jul 23, 2024
Netflix has landed a notable new leader for its rapidly-expanding gaming endeavors. Variety reported that the streaming company has hired Alain Tascan as its new president of games. Before joining Netflix, Tascan was executive vice president for game development at a little studio you may have heard of called Epic Games. In that role, he oversaw the first-party development for some of the company's hugely successful titles, such as Fortnite, Lego Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys.
The company is also recruiting talent on the creative side. Since launching the games project in 2021, Netflix has acquired notable indie studios Night School, Boss Fight, Next Games and Spry Fox, and has brought a large number of acclaimed indie games to mobile. In its second quarter earnings call, Netflix execs revealed that it has
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Jul 23, 2024
Video games are supposed to provide us an escape from the grinding and anger produced on an average day. Now one of the real world's most contentious aggravations has slithered its way into Fortnite AND Rocket League. The Cybertruck, Tesla's electric vehicle that replaced the pink Hummer as the official car for total jerks, makes its digital debut in both games today.
The Cybertruck add-ons are part of a new "Summer Road Trip'' promotion bundle for Fortnite and Rocket League. Both bundles come with a vehicle that looks like a door stop and special body decals such as "Baja Off-Road," "CyberCamo," "MatteBlack," "Stainless Steel" and "OMG Cybertruck," which recreates the window that Elon Musk broke while trying to prove the strength of the Cybertruck's windows. Did they also include the sticky accelerator?
Psyonix/Tesla
Presumably, the OMG stands
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Jul 23, 2024
Humble Games has reportedly laid off all 36 of its staff, a move that seems to signal the end of the company. Former employees posted about the layoffs on social media. Humble Games is owned by media conglomerate Ziff Davis, which counts IGN, Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz among its gaming portfolio. Humble Games confirmed in a LinkedIn post that there had been a "restructure" at the company, but did not reveal the number of jobs lost.
The layoffs at Humble Bundle are the latest in a sweep across the gaming business. Last year saw a shocking number of cuts across studios of all sizes, and the trend has sadly
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Jul 23, 2024
Microsoft has been taking a lot of hits over its Xbox Game Pass price hike and the overall lackluster offering of games. So to make up for it, they are offering a Call of Duty game for the first time on its virtual buffet. Unfortunately, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, one of the lowest rated games in the series.
Calling the reviews for Modern Warfare III "mixed" would be generous. IGN's Simon Cardy said its single-player campaign was "shallow," "dull" and "the worst Call of Duty single-player campaign I've played." Jump Dash Roll's Derek Johnson wrote that its main campaign is "genuinely not worth playing" and its signature Zombies mode "isn't quite as atrociously terrible as its single-player but that doesn't mean it's anything resembling something fun."
Modern Warfare III won't be the only Call of Duty game available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Xbox Game Pass will provide day one access to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in October. Of course, we don't know how good the game will be but one imagines it'll garner a bit more favor from critics compared to Modern Warfare III.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-call-of-duty-
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Jul 23, 2024
Cybersecurity company Dragos has flagged malware that can attack industrial control systems (ICS), tricking them into malicious behavior like turning off the heat and hot water in the middle of winter. TechCrunch reports that's precisely what the malware, dubbed FrostyGoop, did this January in Lviv, Ukraine, when residents in over 600 apartment buildings lost heat for two days amid freezing temperatures.
Dragos says FrostyGoop is only the ninth known malware designed to target industrial controllers. It's also the first to specifically set its sights on Modbus, a widely deployed communications protocol invented in 1979. Modbus is frequently used in industrial environments like the one in Ukraine that FrostyGoop attacked in January.
Ukraine's Cyber Security Situation Center (CSSC), the nation's government agency tasked with digital safety, shared information about the attack with Dragos after discovering the malware in April of this year, months after the attack. The malici
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Jul 23, 2024
Regulators in the US and Europe have laid out the "shared principles" they plan to adhere to in order to "protect competition and consumers" when it comes to artificial intelligence. "Guided by our respective laws, we will work to ensure effective competition and the fair and honest treatment of consumers and businesses," the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.
"Technological inflection points can introduce new means of competing, catalyzing opportunity, innovation and growth," the agencies said in a joint statement. "Accordingly, we must work to ensure the public reaps the full benefits of these moments."
The regulators pinpointed fair dealing (i.e. making sure major players in the sector avoid exclusionary tactics), interoperability and choice as the three principles for protecting competition in the AI space. They based these factors on their experience working in related markets.
The agencies also laid out some potential risks to competition, such as deals between major players in the market. They said that while arrangements between companies in the sector (whic
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Jul 23, 2024
Lego just announced its first sets inspired by the gaming phenomenon Fortnite. These kits draw from iconic characters and vehicles from both the original game and the brick-based spinoff Lego Fortnite, like an ouroboros of corporate synergy.
The baddest of the bunch looks to be the 954-piece Battle Bus kit, which costs $100. This is a brick-based replica of the iconic hot-air balloon on wheels, complete with a removable roof and characters like Meowscles, Raven and Cuddle Team Leader, among others.
Lego
The 1,414-piece Peely Bone set looks to appeal to collectors more than kids. It
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Jul 23, 2024
So much relies on Wi-Fi — your TV, music, games, smart home devices, possibly even your alarm clock — which makes dead zones productivity killers. One of our favorite ways to remedy weak or spotty coverage is with Google's Nest Wi-Fi Pro 6E and right now, a three pack is down to $285. That's a 29 percent discount and matches the sale price it hit last week for Prime Day. This isn't an all-time low, but it's just $5 more than the record.
We named the Nest Wi-Fi Pro the best for novice users in our guide to mesh Wi-Fi systems and it earned an 87 in our full review. Our reviewer, Daniel Cooper, called Google's 6E system "more approachable than the rest," though he notes that it's can't beat the competition on speed.
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Jul 23, 2024
Meta AI launched in September 2023 using the Llama 2 learning language model. Nearly a year later, Meta has announced a new round of features for its AI assistant and a fresh LLM to support it: Llama 3.1.
These updates include an expansion of who can access Meta AI. Thanks to the addition of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Cameroon, the assistant is now available in 22 countries. It's also accessible in new languages: French, German, Hindi, Hindi-Romanized Script, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. However, some of the new features are location or language-specific for the time being.
Meta is rolling out a beta tool called "Imagine me" throughout the US. It allows for prompts such as "Imagine me surfing" or "Imagine me as a surrealist painting," and the AI assistant will create it using a photo of the individual. Meta is also adding new ways to tinker with an image, such as removing, changing or editing its content. This feature allows for creating an image, such as a duck, with the "Imagine me" tool and then instructing Meta AI to "Change the duck to a cat." Next month there will also be an "Edit with AI" button for further fine-tuning of images. The company is also rolling out the ability to create an image with
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Jul 23, 2024
Meta on Tuesday announced the release of Llama 3.1, the latest version of its large language model that the company claims now rivals competitors from OpenAI and Anthropic. The new model comes just three months after Meta launched Llama 3 by integrating it into Meta AI, a chatbot that now lives in Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and also powers the company's smart glasses. In the interim, OpenAI and Anthropic already released new versions of their own AI models, a sign that Silicon Valley's AI arms race isn't slowing down any time soon.
In a blog post, Meta said that the new mode
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Jul 23, 2024
Meta's AI-powered assistant have been accessible on the Ray-Ban smart glasses for quite some time, but the company will only start rolling it out to its Quest headsets next month. The assistant will still be in experimental mode, however, and it's availability will be limited to users in the US and Canada. Meta has revealed the update alongside its announcements for the Llama 3.1 and the new Meta AI capabilities.
Users who get access to the assistant in August will be able to put its hands-free controls to the test. The company said Meta AI is replacing the current technology used for Voice Commands on Quest, so it will be the one controlling the headset whenever people use voice for navigation and the one answering their questions if they ask for information. They can ask the assistant for restaurant recommendations for an upcoming trip, as an example, or ask it for the weather those days, as well as suggestions on how to dress for it.
They will also be able to use the "Meta AI with Vision" feature, which will let them ask the assistant for information on what they're seeing, while using Passthrough on the Quest. Passthrough lets users see their environment through a video feed while watching or doing something else on their headsets. A user can, for instance, ask the assistant to look at what's inside the fridge and suggest what they can cook, or ask for tips on what kind of top would go with a skirt they're holding up, all while watching a YouTube video.
This article originally
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Jul 23, 2024
General Motors is putting the autonomous Cruise Origin shuttle van on ice. The company said that the embattled Cruise, of which GM is the majority owner, will now focus on making the next-gen Chevy Bolt. The automaker discontinued the previous Bolt last year due to a shift away from an older battery system but did not reveal plans for a new model at the time.
According to a letter that GM CEO Mary Barra sent to shareholders, the indefinite delay of the shuttle van "addresses the regulatory uncertainty we faced with the Origin because of its unique design." Barra added that the per-unit costs of the next-gen Bolt will be much lower, "which will help Cruise optimize its resources."
GM and Cruise were working on the Origin with Honda. The Origin — which does not have a driver's seat, steering wheel or pedals — was supposed to debut in Japan in 2026.
In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's driverless vehicle permits over safety issues. Earlier that month, a pedestrian in San Francisco was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise vehicle and
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Jul 23, 2024
You can's say Fujifilm is boring. It stuck to APS-C sensors instead of going full-frame like everyone else, while releasing cool and weird models like the X100 VI. That strategy has been refreshing in a conservative industry and undeniably successful.
It also went big by introducing its first medium-format camera seven years ago, the GFX50S. After eight models, they've proven to be popular among pro portrait and scenic photographers, a market Fujifilm never really had before. Each has become increasingly more sophisticated, with better image quality, faster shooting speeds and improved video.
Now that the company's flagship $7,500 100-megapixel GFX 100 II, has been out for awhile and had several firmware updates, I was keen to test the new AF speeds and more. So I went to London to try it out alongside two pro photographer friends who are thinking of buying one.
Body
The original GFX 100 is a gigantic camera, weighing over three pounds with the viewfinder. The GFX 100 II is more manageable at 2.27 pounds, the same as Panasonic's full-frame S1. Photographers are still likely to be carrying a heavy bag, though, as medium-format GFX lenses are generally bigger and heavie
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Jul 23, 2024
The new Samsung Galaxy devices drop tomorrow which means today is your last chance to take advantage of pre-order promotions. One of the best deals we've seen comes from Amazon, which is offering a $300 gift card to anyone who pre-orders the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. The bundle is available for $1,900 thanks to a six percent discount on the 512GB model (originally $2,020). You can pick it up in Silver, Navy or Pink.
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Jul 23, 2024
The first reports of instability issues with the 13th-gen Intel desktop CPUs started popping up in late 2022, mere months after the models came out. Those issues persisted, and over time, users reported dealing with unexpected and sudden crashes on PCs equipped with the company's 14th-gen CPUs, as well. Now, Intel has announced that it finally found the reason why its 13th and 14th-gen desktop processors have been causing crashes and giving out on users, and it promises to roll out a fix by next month.
In its announcement, Intel said that based on extensive analysis of the processors that had been returned to the company, it has determined that elevated operating voltage was causing the instability issues. Apparently, it's because a microcode algorithm — microcodes, or machine codes, are sets of hardware-level instructions — has been sending incorrect voltage requests to the processor.
Intel has now promised to release a microcode patch to address the "root cause of exposure to elevated voltages." The patch is still being validated to ensure that it can address all "scenarios of instability reported to Intel," but the company is aiming to roll it out by mid-August.
As wccftech notes, while Intel's CPUs have been causing issues with users for at least a year and a half, a post on X by Sebastian Castellanos in February put the problem in the spotlight. Castel
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Jul 23, 2024
Adobe has widely released a new and potentially contentious feature: text-to-image generation for Photoshop powered by Firefly, first teased in April. As with LLMs like Dall-E and Mid Journey, you can use it to create an image from scratch by typing a description into Photoshop's updated generative AI tool.
I tried it with the text "Dramatic low angle view of a steamship from the 1800s in a storm with large waves and lightning" in multiple styles (anime, watercolor, sketch, realistic) and got decent results. The usual AI art caveats apply though, particularly with weird details if you look closely. But it certainly created useable results and you have the benefit of already being inside Photoshop to fix any errors.
Adobe Firefly AI-generated image
Previously, Photoshop's Generative Fill feature only let you add, extend or remove specific parts of an image. Now, you can create images from scratch, then tweak them later. "This really speeds up time to creation," Adobe's Erin Boyce told Engadget in April. "The idea of getting something from your mind to the canvas has never been easier."
The feature is powered by Firefly Image 3 model, something at the heart of a recent artist backlash against Adobe. Creators were incensed by language in Adobe's recent ToS (terms of service), interpreting it to mean
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Jul 23, 2024
Adobe has widely released a new and potentially contentious feature: text-to-image generation for Photoshop powered by Firefly, first teased in April. As with LLMs like Dall-E and Midjourney, you can use it to create an image from scratch by typing a description into Photoshop's updated generative AI tool.
I tried it with the text "Dramatic low angle view of a steamship from the 1800s in a storm with large waves and lightning" in multiple styles (anime, watercolor, sketch, realistic) and got decent results. The usual AI art caveats apply though, particularly with weird details if you look closely. But it certainly created useable results and you have the benefit of already being inside Photoshop to fix any errors.
Adobe Firefly AI-generated image
Previously, Photoshop's Generative Fill feature only let you add, extend or remove specific parts of an image. Now, you can create images from scratch, then tweak them later. "This really speeds up time to creation," Adobe's Erin Boyce told Engadget in April. "The idea of getting something from your mind to the canvas has never been easier."
The feature is powered by Firefly Image 3 model, something at the heart of a recent artist backlash against Adobe. Creators were incensed by language in Adobe's recent ToS (terms of service), interpreting it to mean t
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Jul 23, 2024
For all its stacked selection of original content, like Fallout, The Boys and Rings of Power, Prime Video has historically pffered a cluttered, confusing and less-than-intuitive layout — especially compared to rivals like Netflix. That changes today as Amazon begins rolling out a new Prime Video UI that, in the company's words, brings "clarity and simplicity back to streaming."
The Prime Video redesign starts with a streamlined navigation bar that should make it easier to find your way around. To the left, the bar includes the general categories Home, Movies, TV Shows, Sports and Live TV. Immediately to the right, the nav bar continues with a dedicated tab for content bundled with your Prime membership, followed by sections for add-on subscriptions like Max, Paramount , Crunchyroll and others. There's a separate section to add new subscriptions — from Amazon's more than 100 options — straight from the bar.
Meanwhile, a new "hero rotator" below the bar drills down to highlight content av
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Jul 23, 2024
Condé Nast, the media giant that owns The New Yorker, Vogue and Wired, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI-powered search startup Perplexity, according to The Information. The letter, sent on Monday, demanded Perplexity stop using content from Condé Nast publications in its AI-generated responses and accused the startup of plagiarism. It comes a month after Forbes took similar action.
Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch has warned "many" media companies could face financial ruin in the time it would take for litigation against generative AI companies to conclude. Lynch has called upon Congress to take "immediate action."
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
EU officials say Meta may be violating consumer laws with paid ‘ad-free' plan
The Engadget guide to the best smartwatches
Apple accused of underreporting suspected CSAM on its platforms
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Jul 23, 2024
iRobot unveiled its most advanced and expensive robot vacuum yet on Tuesday. The (deep breath) Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot AutoWash Dock automatically washes and dries the mopping pad, something you had to do manually on all its previous combo vacs. But at $1,399, many customers will want to wait several generations for the feature to trickle down to models that don't cost nearly the equivalent of a MacBook Pro.
Cleaning robots exist to automate tasks that are a pain for us, and the Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot expands on that. iRobot says the dock, which contains "premium antimicrobial materials," can empty its dirt into an enclosed bag, refill the mopping solution tank and clean itself after each pad wash. You can manually run self-cleaning, and its companion app will remind you when it's time for standard maintenance or a deeper cleaning.
The robot can store dirt and debris for up to 60 days before emptying, and the mopping pad and self-cleaning tank hold up to seven days of water. At least in theory, the Combo 10 Max leaves less work for the user than any other Roomba before it.
iRobot
iRobot says the new Roomba can seamlessly transition from vacuuming carpet to mopping floors, automatically boosting its suction power when it det
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Jul 23, 2024
Folding smartphones have come a long way since the original Samsung Galaxy Fold came out in 2019. They're smaller, more durable and, even if they aren't exactly the most budget-friendly phones, they're more affordable now, too. Whereas you may not have considered a foldable phone as your daily driver five years ago, they're much more viable options today — and you have many more to choose from. If you've been toying with the idea of switching to a folding phone, or you're ready to upgrade the foldable you already have, we at Engadget can help with your decision-making process. We've spent hundreds of hours and many days testing and reviewing the best foldable phones on the market right now — here's everything you need to know before picking one up.
Note: For this guide, we're focusing on devices that are widely available in North America and Europe. That's because while there are even more options for people who live in Asia (especially China), they are often difficult to buy from abroad and may not support your local carriers.
Editor's Note (July 2024): We're in the process of reviewing Samsung's latest foldables, including the Galaxy Z Flip 6. We'll update this list accordingly as our reviews are complete.
How we test foldable smartphones
When evaluating foldables, we consider the same general criteria as we do when we're judging the best smartphones. Devices need to have good battery life (at least a full day's use), bright displays (peaks of at least 1,000 nits), sharp cameras and responsive performance. That said, foldable phones come in different shapes (and sizes); there are varying designs that may appeal to different types of people.
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Jul 23, 2024
The best smartwatches offer a whole host of features like the ability to make and take calls, pay for your groceries, track your health and fitness and connect you to useful apps like Spotify. Some even have built-in GPS so you can untether yourself from your smartphone while working out. But with so many smartwatches to choose from, it can be hard to find the best watch for your needs. There are lots of factors to consider, like durability, long battery life and other specs that we'll go into more detail below. What's important, however, is that you choose the best smartwatch for you. But if you prefer a simpler device, you can check out our buying guide to the best fitness trackers.
Editor's Note (July 2024): We're in the process of testing Samsung's latest Galaxy Watches and we'll update this guide once our reviews are complete.
Table of contents
Best smartwatches
Stylish smartwatches: Fossil and more
Factors to consider before buying a smartwatch
Other smartwatches our experts tested
Best smartwatches
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Jul 22, 2024
Google won't kill third-party cookies in Chrome after all, the company said on Monday. Instead, it will introduce a new experience in the browser that will allow users to make informed choices about their web browsing preferences, Google announced in a blog post. Killing cookies, Google said, would adversely impact online publishers and advertisers. This announcement marks a significant shift from Google's previous plans to phase out third-party cookies by early 2025.
"[We] are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice," wrote Anthony Chavez, vice president of Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative. "Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they'd be able to adjust that choice at any time. We're discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out."
Google will now focus on giving users more control over their browsing data, Chavez wrote. This includes additional privacy controls like IP Protection in Chrome's Incognito mode and ongoing improvements to Privacy Sandbox APIs.
Google's decision provides a reprieve for advertisers and publishers who rely on cookies to target ads and measure performance. Over the past few years, the company's plans to eliminate third-party cookies have been riding on a rollercoaster of delays and regulatory hurdles. Initially, Google aimed to phase out these cookies by the end of 2022, but the dead
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Jul 22, 2024
Condé Nast, the media conglomerate that owns publications such as The New Yorker, Vogue and Wired, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI-powered search startup Perplexity, according to The Information. The letter, which was sent on Monday, demands that Perplexity stop using content from Condé Nast publications in its AI-generated responses and accused the startup of plagiarism.
The move makes Condé Nast the latest in a growing list of publishers taking a stand against the unauthorized use of their content by AI companies, and comes a month after similar action taken by Forbes. Perplexity and Condé Nast did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Engadget.
Perplexity, a San Francisco-based startup, is valued at $3 billion and backed by high-profile investors including the Jeff Bezos family fund and NVIDIA, has recently come under scrutiny for not respecting copyright and ripping off content to feed its AI-generated responses. The controversy surrounding the company extends beyond copyright concerns.
A recent investigation from Wired
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Jul 22, 2024
Wireless food probes are some the best grilling gear for keeping tabs on meat and other items while cooking. You don't have to dodge cords when you're flipping a steak or trying to wrap a brisket. Several companies make these, Traeger-owned Meater being one example, but existing products rely solely on Bluetooth and have ambient temperature sensors that may not be the most accurate. ThermoWorks, the company that's known for its Thermapen instant-read thermometers, has
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Jul 22, 2024
Warner Bros. just announced the acquisition of Player First Games, the developer behind the popular free-to-play platform fighter MultiVersus. This makes a whole lot of sense as the hit Smash Bros-esque brawler pulls its entire roster from WB properties. The game includes characters like Batman, Bugs Bunny, Agent Smith from The Matrix and, of course, both Rick and Morty.
It doesn't look like much will change with regard to the day-to-day workings of Player First Games. Co-founders Tony Huynh and Chris White will still lead the company, though the pair will report to Carlos Barbosa, Vice President and Studio Head of Warner Bros. Games.
Huynh says the team is excited about the acquisition and that it should "be great for MultiVersus overall." There has been no announcement as to what comes next for the fighting game. However, Player First regularly drops new characters into the roster, so this will likely continue. I for one would like to beat up Tom and Jerry as Tony Soprano. Make it happen WB.
MultiVersus is available now on just about every platform out there, including PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Even bette
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Jul 22, 2024
The European Commission really isn't happy about a Meta business model that gives users in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland the generous choice of continuing to use Facebook and Instagram with targeted ads without paying anything, or signing up for a monthly subscription that's said to offer an ad-free experience.
Officials from the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network — a group of national authorities that enforce EU consumer protection laws — have suggested that Meta may be violating consumer legislation with the "pay or consent" approach. The Commission, which is the European Union's executive arm, coordinated the group's action against Meta.
The CPC Network sent Meta a letter laying out numerous ways in which it believes the company may be violating consumer laws. The company has until September 1 to reply and propose solutions to officials' concerns. If CPC officials find that Meta doesn't take appropriate steps to solve the problems, they could take enforcement actions against the company, which may include sanctions.
CPC authorities have suggested that Meta is misleading users by describing its platforms as free to use if they opt not to pay for a subscription, when Meta in fact monetizes their personal data by displaying targeted ads. They further say that Meta is "confusing users" by requiring them to access different areas of the privacy policy and terms of service to see how their data is being used for
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Jul 22, 2024
Apple has been accused of underreporting the prevalence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its platforms. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), a child protection charity in the UK, says that Apple reported just 267 worldwide cases of suspected CSAM to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) last year.
That pales in comparison to the 1.47 million potential cases that Google reported and 30.6 million reports from Meta. Other platforms that reported more potential CSAM cases than Apple in 2023 include TikTok (590,376), X (597,087), Snapchat (713,055), Xbox (1,537) and PlayStation/Sony Interactive Entertainment (3,974). Every US-based tech company is required to pass along any possible CSAM cases detected on their platforms to NCMEC, which directs cases to relevant law enforcement agencies worldwide.
The NSPCC also said Apple was implicated in more CSAM cases (337) in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023 than it reported worldwide in one year. The charity used freedom of information requests to gather that data from police forces.
As The Guardian, which first reported on the NSPCC's claim, points out, Apple services such as iMessage, FaceTime and iCloud all have end-to-end encryption, which stops the company from viewing the contents of what users share on them. However, WhatsApp has E2EE as well, and that service reported nearly 1.4 million cases of suspected CSAM to NCMEC in 202
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Jul 22, 2024
The iRobot Roomba Combo Essential vacuum and mop hybrid robot is on sale for just $200. That's a discount of $75 and one of the best prices we've seen on this particular model. This version just came out back in April, so a sale this significant (outside of Prime Day) comes as something of a surprise.
This is squarely a budget-friendly entry in the company's lineup of robot vacuums, but it's certainly no slouch. As the name suggests, it can handle both vacuuming and mopping duties, which is always nice. The company says this model actually outperforms the popular Roomba 600 Series, with 20 times more suction power.
It boasts a similar smart navigation algorithm as other iRobot vacuums and offers a robust battery life of 120 minutes. That's certainly long enough to both vacuum and mop an entire home, with time left over to chase the cats around. Like most of the company's vacuums, there's an a
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Jul 22, 2024
We called Google's Pixel 8a the best Android phone for less than $500 upon its release in May, and now it's even cheaper than usual. The handset is down to $449 at Amazon, Target,
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Jul 22, 2024
A faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike caused a global outage last Friday, apparently affecting some 8.5 million Windows devices, according to Microsoft itself.
The update triggered a blue screen of death (BSOD), knocking offline systems used by hospitals, airlines, and banks. Only machines running Windows were affected — according to CrowdStrike, the total number of devices affected was "less than one percent of all Windows machines."
The update "was designed to target newly observed, malicious named pipes being used by common C2 frameworks in cyberattacks," according to CrowdStrike. Unfortunately, it included a logic error, crashing the OS. In the blog post on Saturday, Microsoft's VP of enterprise and OS security, David Weston, wrote that the company is working with CrowdStrike to "develop a scalable solution" to fix the faulty update. Microsoft has also called for help from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Unfortunately, not everything is fixed quite yet — just ask Delta flyers over the weekend.
— Mat Smith
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Jul 22, 2024
The CrowdStrike outage that started late on Thursday is still causing havoc as Delta was forced to scrap an additional 1,250 flights yesterday on top of the 3,500 already cancelled, Reuters reported. That has left tens of thousands of Delta fliers stranded waiting for new flights that could take days, forcing many to cancel or postpone trips. The airline has yet to say when it will resume normal operations.
Delta has scratched a third of scheduled flights for a total of 5,000 since Friday, and delayed another 1,700. "In particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian.
CrowdStrike's software update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, causing many to go into a boot loop that could only be recovered by technicians with direct access to machines. The problem turned out to be a faulty sensor designed to detect malicious activity that "triggered a logic error that resulted in an operating system crash," according to CrowdStrike.
Delta was the worst hit of any US airline, and United Airlines was a distant second with about 266 (9 percent) of flights cancelled on Sunday.
At first, United and Delta told stranded travelers that they wouldn't cover bills since the CrowdStrike crash was out of their control. However, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg later
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Jul 22, 2024
It's been a few months since Intuit shut down the popular budgeting app Mint. I was a Mint user for many years; millions of other users like me enjoyed how easily Mint allowed us to track all accounts in one place and monitor credit scores. I also used it regularly to help me track spending, set goals like pay my mortgage down faster and with general money management.
Ahead of Mint's demise, I gave Credit Karma, Intuit's other financial app, a try but found it to be a poor Mint alternative. So I set out to find a true replacement in another budgeting app. The following guide lays out my experience testing some of the most popular Mint replacement apps available today. If you're also on the hunt for a budgeting app to replace Mint, we hope these details can help you decide which of the best budgeting apps out there could meet your needs in this post-Mint world.
Best Mint alternatives in 2024
No pun intended, but wha
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Jul 21, 2024
Somehow in all these years, I've never gotten into visual novels, despite being a person who loves both reading and video games. The idea has always intrigued me in some way, but I've never really felt compelled to actually pick one up. That changed when I first saw the announcement for Echoes of the Emergent a few months ago. Described as "a personal journey through a shattered post-apocalyptic world," all it took was a glimpse of Echoes of the Emergent's gritty aesthetic and melancholic atmosphere to get me to preorder it. And now that I've finally gotten around to playing (reading? experiencing?) it, I'm kind of blown away.
Echoes of the Emergent is a Playdate-exclusive title from RNG Party Games, the same team that made Bloom. It opens with its main character, Ayumi, on a tense scavenging trip to find any food she can in a ruined city. She's alone, afraid and increasingly concerned about her dwindling resources. As the story progresses, it bounces between Ayumi's bleak new reality and flashbacks to a time when things were normal. Her panicked efforts to stay alive, to keep going, are interwoven with memories of her family and friends — some of them happy, some painful. And there's a cat.
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Jul 21, 2024
Engineers from Boeing and NASA have spent much of the last month running ground tests on a Starliner Reaction Control System (RCS) thruster to get a better idea of what went wrong during the active Starliner's flight in early June, and they finally wrapped up this past week. In its latest update, Boeing said the teams were able to replicate the thrust degradation Starliner experienced and are now reviewing all the data. But the date of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams' return is still uncertain — NASA and Boeing said only that they'll be making the trip "in the coming weeks."
In the tests at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, the teams simulated the conditions from Starliner's recent flight, putting the control system thruster "through one of the most stressing launch-to-docking firing sequences with over 1,000 pulses to simulate CFT [Crew Flight Test] conditions," according to Boeing. They also tested undocking and deorbit burn scenarios, which Starliner will experience on its way home. After collecting terabytes of data from those tests, the teams ran additional, more aggressive tests to "see if we could more closely simulate the higher thermal conditions the thrusters experienced in-flight," said Dan Niedermaier, Boeing's engineer for the thruster testing.
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