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 Apple refreshed the AirPods Max today, and the main new addition is an H2 chip that replaces the H1 chip. The H2 chip has previously been used in the AirPods 4 and the AirPods Pro 2 and later, but it's new to the AirPods Max. It brings multiple audio improvements alongside an updated high dynamic range amplifier.
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Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 17.
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Springing forward on daylight saving time did a number on my body, but these wellness devices are making the transition easier.
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From dates to deal tips, here's everything worth knowing about the 2026 Amazon Big Spring Sale.
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The AirPods Max 2 are almost here. Apple announced this morning that the first true update to its over-hear phones are up for pre-order on March 25 and will be shipping in early April. They look identical to the predecessor, with large, colorful earcups and a matching headband. But inside is the H2 chip that Apple first introduced with the AirPods Pro 2, which enables a host of new features. Chief among those is improved noise cancelation — Apple says with the H2 and improved audio algorithms, the AirPods Max 2 are 1.5 times more effective at reducing noise than the old model.
From an audio perspective, there's a new amplifier on board here as well for clearer music and improved spatial audio performance. If you want lossless music, you can get that by using the included USB-C cable.
There are also a host of new features for the AirPods Max 2 enabled by the H2. These include an "Adaptive Audio" mode that balances betwee
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NEW RESOURCES Windy City Times: Lightfoot's ICE Accountability Project builds database of alleged immigration agent misconduct. "The ICE Accountability Project is a public database designed to collect and preserve evidence of ‘increasing […]
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Just months after announcing DLSS 4.5 at CES, NVIDIA has unveiled its next major upscaling technology, DLSS 5. The company is doubling-down on AI for this next iteration, claiming DLSS 5 "infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials" using a real-time neural rendering model when it arrives this fall.
So what does this mean in practice? In an on-stage demo at NVIDIA's GTC 2026 keynote, CEO Jensen Huang showed off the technology with Resident Evil: Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield. DLSS 5 adds a noticeable amount of detail to character's hair and skin tone, but it also appears it's being compared to those games without any DLSS features turned on. It's unclear how much of a difference it makes compared to DLSS 4.5 with path tracing and all of its features turned on.
"DLSS 5 takes a game's color and motion vectors for each frame as input, and uses an AI model to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame," NVIDIA said in a blog post. The company also notes that the technology runs in real time, and it works at up to 4K.
Huang showed off DLSS 5 while running a system with two RTX 5090 GPUs. Eventually, it will be able to run on a single video card (though I'd imagine it would have to be almost as powerful as two 5090s). Huang also paints DLSS 5 as a step towards offering Hollywood-like quality for real-time rendering, without the need for the GPU horsepower required by studios. It sounds a bit like a generative AI video model that can be directly controlled by developers, instead
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NEW RESOURCES University of La Verne: ULV Student Leads Effort to Digitize Campus Times Archives. "Decades of student journalism are being brought back to life at the University of La Verne, where […]
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