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OpenAI seems to make headlines every day and this time it's for a double dose of security concerns. The first issue centers on the Mac app for ChatGPT, while the second hints at broader concerns about how the company is handling its cybersecurity.Earlier this week, engineer and Swift developer Pedro Jose Pereira Vieito dug into the Mac ChatGPT app and found that it was storing user conversations locally in plain text rather than encrypting them. The app is only available from OpenAI's website, and since it's not available on the App Store, it doesn't have to follow Apple's sandboxing requirements. Vieito's work was then covered by The Verge, and after the exploit attracted attention, OpenAI released an update that added encryption to locally stored chats.For the non-developers out there, sandboxing is a security practice that keeps potential vulnerabilities and failures from spreading from one application to others on a machine. And for non-security experts, storing local files in plain text means potentially sensitive data can be easily viewed by other apps or malware.The second issue occurred in 2023 with consequences that have had a ripple effect continuing today. Last spring, a hacker was able to obtain information about OpenAI after illicitly accessing the company's internal messaging systems. The New York Times reported that OpenAI technical program manager Leopold Aschenbrenner raised security concerns with the company's board of directors, arguing that the hack implied internal vulnerabilities that foreign adversaries could take advantage of.Aschenbrenner now says he was fired for disclosing information about OpenAI and for surfacing concerns about the company's security. A representative from OpenAI told The Times that while we share his commitment to building safe A.G.I., we disagree with many of the claims he has since made about our work" and added that his exit was not the result of whistleblowing.App vulnerabilities are something that every tech company has experienced. Breaches by hackers are also depressingly common, as are contentious relationships between whistleblowers and their former employers. However, between how broadly ChatGPT has been adopted into major players' services and how chaotic the company's oversight, practices and public reputation have been, these recent issues are beginning to paint a more worrying picture about whether OpenAI can manage its data.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-hit-by-two-big-security-issues-this-week-214316082.html?src=rss

Making a video game on any platform takes hard work, and even if a game is finished it's still not immune to delays (see: Duke Nukem Forever, L.A. Noire and Diablo III.) A group of Italian programmers had to wait 22 years to finally see the release of their fantasy hack n slasher Kien for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) - a console whose last units went into production in 2009. It's likely the most-delayed game in history, according to a feature inThe Guardian.Kien first started its long development in 2002. A small group of Italian programmers formed AgeOfGames, the first company in the country to start production on a GBA title. Two years later, they had a finished product, but the game never saw store shelves because its publisher deemed it too much of a financial risk to release.In the interim, AgeOfGames switched to making educational games to stay in business,and the life cycle of the GBA came and went. Then the retro gaming boom gave the Italian studio an opportunity: a new publisher that specializes in classic console games, incube8 Games, took interest. Now Kien is available in cartridge form, and playable on original hardware.Retro gaming in general is big business these days and more accessible than ever. There are all kinds of new consoles designed to play hundreds of thousands of different titles from yesteryear. The iPhone finally began allowing apps that emulate all sorts of classic consoles in its online stores earlier this year. There's even been a renaissance of new games using old fashioned graphics. You're never far away from the games and experiences that defined your childhood.Kien is available to purchase from incube8's website for the (only slightly shocking) price of $60.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/possibly-the-most-delayed-video-game-in-history-is-finally-available-on-the-game-boy-advance-205150837.html?src=rss

Earlier this year, Nintendo said it would shut down all Wii U servers, putting an end to multiplayer, co-op and other services. Now, the company has announced that it's ending Wii U repairs as well, effectively giving last rites to the loveable but not very popular console.In May, Nintendo forewarned the end of Wii U repairs. "The period for retaining repair parts as stipulated in the repair service regulations has expired, so as soon as the current stock of parts is depleted, repair services will end," the company wrote in a service notice. The Wii U is now listed as no longer eligible for repair on an end-of-life service page, just as Nintendo previewed.The Wii U launched in late 2012 as a successor to the Wii, but it failed to catch on with consumers, selling just 13.56 million units. It was eventually replaced by the Switch, which has gone on to more than 10 times the sales at 141.3 million units.The defining feature of the Wii U was its Gamepad with a built-in 6.2-inch touchscreen. That allowed you to play either fully handheld or connected to a TV, a new feature at the time. The other key selling point was the first-party games like Splatoon, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario 3D World. At the time, those offered local multiplayer action you couldn't find anywhere else.It was also just a quirky, weird and fun console that "wiggled its way into the hearts of many players, including myself," Engadget's Jessica Conditt wrote back in 2015. Nintendo is set to announce its successor to the Switch before March 2025, but if you're still playing on Wii U, you'd need to take extra good care of it now that repairs will be far more challenging.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-ends-wii-u-repairs-190023430.html?src=rss

The EV market is hotter than ever in the US, but there are only a handful of options for families who need three rows of seats and tons of storage space. There's the Rivian R1S, a beautiful and well-reviewed car, but one that's firmly in luxury territory with a starting price of $75,900. Tesla's Model X is similarly pricey, and its tiny rear row isn't suited for adults (the smaller Model Y's third row option is even worse). That's why Kia's EV9 is such a big deal. It offers even more internal space than the company's massive Telluride, and it starts at a more palatable $54,900 (along with a $1,495 destination charge). It makes sense why car makers were more focused on smaller EVs up until now. Large batteries are expensive, and many people don't really need three rows of seats. But I'm a dad of two kids still using child car seats, and we also need to travel with my two parents on occasion. So the additional room is a must. And even without rear passengers, we often need extra room to lug two kids' worth of gear to local parks (especially if we bring along our wagon stroller). There are, of course, legitimate reasons to be wary of large EVs. Like any massive vehicle, they're more dangerous for pedestrians, especially when coupled with the near-instant torque power of EVs. They're also far worse for the environment than smaller cars, because they require those aforementioned large batteries and all the rare earth material they contain. If I lived in a city with usable public transportation, I'd give up on the EV9 in an instant. But for now I'm stuck traversing Atlanta suburbs, so the EV9 (ideally a pre-owned one in a few years) is our best worst option. A Tesla Cybertruck parked next to the Kia EV9. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget Design Like Kia's EV6, the EV9 (available in Light, Land, Wind and GT-Line configurations) looks striking up close. It doesn't shy away from being a large SUV - its boxiness is a feature, not a bug. And what it lacks in curves, it makes up for with polygonal body panels that look futuristic without being garish like Tesla's Cybertruck. From the front, the EV9 pairs vertical headlights with customizable LEDs. (You have to buy additional lighting patterns separately, though, a truly unfortunate choice by Kia.) Kia didn't stray too far from the original EV9 concept it revealed in 2019, and that's a good thing. There aren't any rear-hinged suicide doors, but I don't miss them. Structurally, standard door frames are safer for passengers, especially during accidents. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget Interior Upon opening the driver side door, you're greeted with an elegant setup: well-cushioned seats with comfortable mesh headrests; Kia's 30-inch "Triple Panorama Display," which features a gauge cluster, HVAC controls and a 12.3-inch infotainment screen; and tons of clean and usable space. It's similar to the EV6's setup, but a bit less cluttered since gear controls are handled by a stalk on the steering wheel, instead of a dial by the cupholders. Even though it features a massive screen, the EV9 also has a combination of physical and capacitive buttons. You can change the temperature, mode and fan speeds with rocker switches on the driver and passenger side (rear passengers also have easily reachable HVAC controls). You can also control heating and cooling using the small display next to the infotainment screen, but I found that a bit awkward while driving. It was sometimes obscured by the steering wheel, and there wasn't much feedback when changing settings on the screen. Kia's infotainment software is zippy and responsive, befitting the EV9's modern displays. Wireless CarPlay and Android Auto support also makes it easy to connect your phone without fiddling for cables. The EV9 has a large wireless charging pad that should fit my iPhone 15 Pro Max just fine, and there's enough room to squeeze in even bigger phones. It was a bit finicky to find the right wireless charging zone, so much so it made me wish Kia had implemented MagSafe or the newer Qi2 standard to keep my phone in place. I'd recommend always having a USB-C cable handy to take advantage of the EV9's fast charging port. I was blown away by the GT-Line EV9's 14-speaker Meridian system, which has just enough low-end oomph (thanks to an open-air subwoofer) for music and precise clarity for voices while listening to podcasts and audiobooks. Meridian says its DSP (digital sound processing) optimizes sound for the EV9's cabin, and it also upmixes audio for 5.1 surround sound (or the equivalent with many more speakers). The EV9 is chock full of ambient lighting at night. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget The company's Intelli-Q Equalization also transforms audio as the EV9's in-cabin noise changes - instead of just raising or lowering the volume, it can emphasize specific frequency ranges to cover something like tire noise. In my testing, the Meridian system sounded great during both noisy highway driving and relaxed local trips. I definitely noticed when the Intelli-Q software kicked in, but it wasn't unbearable like older cars that would just get louder on the highway. (You can also adjust the level of automatic sound equalization, and audio purists can disable it entirely.) The EV9's second row captain's chairs are just as comfortable as the front seats, but they have cushioned headrests instead of flexible mesh. As much as I like the second row, though, my family would likely be better off with the 7-seat arrangement from Light or Wind EV9 models. Those rely on a bench seat instead of two captain's chairs, which my wife prefers when she needs to ride beside my two-year old. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget The EV9's third row seats are comfortable as well, but as in many three-row SUVs, most adults won't have much legroom to work with. I was able to squeeze in my 5-foot 8-inch frame, but I wouldn't call the experience ideal. Anyone riding in the EV9's last row will likely have to bargain with the person in front of them for some leg space. It's also worth noting that the second row is immovable with child seats, since they lock seat belts down. So be sure to have the second row at a comfortable spot for rear passengers before hooking up child seats. Unfortunately, the US version of the EV9 won't have second-row seats that can swivel 180-degrees to face the third row, because they don't meet federal safety standards. That feature, which was a major part of Kia's initial EV9 publicity blitz, will be available in South Korea and other countries. The EV9's trunk space with the third row of seats folded down. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget For cargo, the EV9 sports 20.2 cubic feet behind its third row seats, and a more usable 43.5 cubic feet of storage when the third row is folded flat. If you push down the second row seats as well , you can fit in up to 81.7 cubic feet of gear. There's a front trunk, or frunk, underneath the hood too, but it's not as useful as other EVs. It can hold 3.2 cubic feet in the rear-wheel EV9, and an even more minuscule 1.8 cubic feet in the all-wheel drive models. In both cases, you have just enough room to hold Kia's level 1 charging cable and a few other small items. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget Driving On the road, the EV9 feels like a paradox. Similar to Rivian's R1S, it's a large SUV that's surprisingly quick and nimble for its size. I was able to effortlessly glide through local traffic, launch quickly from stoplights and pass cars on the highway with ease. It wasn't as easy to maneuver as my 2019 Volvo XC90, but I was still impressed since the EV9 is a far boxier car. After visiting my parent's home, a 45-mile highway trip each way, the EV9 dropped from 80 percent charge to 52 percent. The AC was blasting heavily to combat Georgia's heat and humidity, so that range felt about right. Just be aware that an EV's estimated mileage can easily change depending on AC usage, external temperatures and how fast you're driving. My wife, who hasn't spent much time with EVs, noted that she didn't feel like she was actually driving while behind the wheel of the EV9. On well-paved roads, it rides smoothly without much discernible road noise. My wife took a while to adjust to the EV9's touchy brakes - it's easy to slam the vehicle to a halt - but that's something I've noticed on many EVs. You can use the EV9's paddle shifters to adjust regenerative braking, which puts a bit of power back into the battery and doesn't use the car's traditional brake pads. In its most extreme form, the EV9's regenerative braking allows for one-pedal driving, which allows you to completely stop the car simply by lifting your foot off of the accelerator. It's an odd feature to get used if you've only ever driven gas cars, but it's one of those things that EV owners learn to love quickly. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget It would be nice to see Kia offer adaptive suspension on the EV9 eventually, since you can feel the impact of rough roads and large bumps far too easily. For a car that scales up to near $80,000 - like our GT-line review unit - smarter and smoother suspension should at least be an option. Without it, the EV9 doesn't feel nearly as luxurious as the Rivian R1S as driving conditions get worse. I didn't have much trouble parking the EV9 in most lots, but backing out of spaces could sometimes be painful. That was particularly true in locations designed for smaller cars-I'm looking at you, Trader Joe's. It took me six bouts of reversing and precarious turning to make it out of one spot at my local Regal Cinema. Even then, I could only leave in one direction, thanks to a slew of other large cars (including a particularly ugly Cybertruck) sitting around me. Thankfully, the EV9's high-resolution cameras, proximity sensors and 360-degree overhead camera (on the GT Line only) helped me get out of tight spots. But even with those assists, it was still more annoying than the chunky Pacifica hybrid minivan I used to own. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget Charging The Kia EV9 supports 210 kilowatt fast charging, and it's compatible with both 400- and 800-volt chargers. Using the most powerful 800V hardware (which admittedly isn't always easy to find), the EV9 can charge from 10 percent to 80 percent in 24 minutes. Using a local Electrify America charger, which clocked in at 150kW, the EV9 went from 21 percent of battery to 90 percent in 39 minutes. I don't have a Level 2 charger at home, which could completely juice up the EV9 in six to seven hours, but I was able to plug it into a Level 1 charger using a standard 120V outlet overnight. That typically added an additional 10 to 15 percent of charge after eight to 10 hours. This level of charging may not be feasible for the long term, but it's helpful if you don't have the ability to add a Level 2 system at home, or if you're traveling and need to add a bit more juice to reach the next fast charger. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget Pricing and the competition The Kia EV9 starts at $54,900 (not including destination charges) for the "Light" model, which includes rear-wheel drive, 215 horsepower and 230 miles of range. Leasing options start at $487 a month on average, with $2,000 due at signing for a 36-month term. These numbers could also change depending on the offers Kia makes available, as well as what local dealers are willing to charge. The "Light Long Range'' model gets you a bigger battery with 304 miles of range for $59,200 and a slightly weaker 201hp motor. Higher-end trims are nearly twice as fast with 379hp all-wheel drive motors. That includes the $63,900 "Wind" EV9 and the $69,900 "Land" model, both of which have 280 miles of range. At the top end, there's the flagship GT-Line model we reviewed, which starts at $73,900. It has a bit less range (270 miles) than mid-range choices, but it also has just about every feature Kia could throw in, including a 12-inch heads-up display on the windshield, 21-inch alloy wheels and the 14-speaker Meridien sound system. While its price escalates quickly, the EV9 is still a better deal than every other three-row EV on the market. The Rivian R1S starts at $75,900, and it currently leases for $699 a month with at least $8,500 in signing fees. The aging Tesla Model X starts at $77,990. Those cars are also both significantly faster than the EV9, and they offer better ride options like adaptive suspension. Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget Wrap-up After eagerly awaiting the perfect family EV for years - following my time with the Rav4 hybrid, Sienna hybrid and the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid - I'm surprised it's coming from Kia and not a more established brand like Toyota. The EV9 is spacious, more affordable than other EVs and it drives (mostly) like a dream. It charges quickly, and most models have more than enough range to deal with the occasional road trip. Simply put, the Kia EV9 is everything I've been looking for in a three-row family EV.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/kia-ev9-review-everything-i-want-in-a-three-row-family-ev-150048944.html?src=rss

I love an account on X (formerly Twitter) called @LizaMinnelliOutlives (shockingly not run by the icon herself) that lists things like famous deaths or agreements. Well, in a twist, the real Liza Minnelli no longer outlives new words from her deceased mother, Judy Garland. The actress and singer has given ElevenLabs, an AI startup with cloning services, permission to recreate her mother's voice for their new Reader App. Garland joins James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier as deceased stars whose AI voices are in the "Iconic voice collection," thanks to deals with their estates for undisclosed sums.The voices will exist solely on the Reader App and people can use them for things like narrating an e-book. "It's exciting to see our mother's voice available to the countless millions of people who love her," Minnelli, the representative of the Garland Estate, said. "Through the spectacular new technology offered by ElevenLabs, our family believes that this will bring new fans to Mama, and be exciting to those who already cherish the unparalleled legacy that Mama gave and continues to give to the world." A sample of Garland reading The Wizard of Oz appears in ElevenLab's promotional video on YouTube - personally, I find it a little bit eerie, but I can see the appeal.ElevenLabs released its Reader App in late June to allow users to hear any text on their phone, including messages, PDFs and news articles. It's currently only available in English for iOS users in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. However, ElevenLabs has a waitlist for Android users and claims it will launch in the Google Play store in the "coming weeks." The company also says it's working on making the app available in every language its Multilingual model supports (29 as of now) and will, subsequently, launch it globally.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-now-get-ai-judy-garland-or-james-dean-to-read-you-the-news-160023595.html?src=rss

The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) ban on noncompete agreements was supposed to take effect on September 4, but a Texan court has postponed its implementation by siding with the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that seeks to block the rule. Back in April, the FTC banned noncompetes, which have been widely used in the tech industry for years, to drive innovation and protect workers' rights and wages. A lot of companies are unsurprisingly unhappy with the agency's rule - as NPR notes, Dallas tax services firm Ryan LLC sued the FTC hours after its announcement. The US Chamber of Commerce and other groups of American businesses eventually joined the lawsuit."Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said when the rule was announced. They prevent employees from moving to another company or from building businesses of their own in the same industry, so they may be stuck working in a job with lower pay or in an environment they don't like. But the Chamber of Commerce's chief counsel Daryl Joseffer called the ban an attempt by the government to micromanage business decisions in a statement sent to Bloomberg."The FTC's blanket ban on noncompetes is an unlawful power grab that defies the agency's constitutional and statutory authority and sets a dangerous precedent where the government knows better than the markets," Joseffer said. The FTC disagrees and told NPR that its "authority is supported by both statute and precedent."US District Judge Ada Brown, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in her decision that "the text, structure, and history of the FTC Act reveal that the FTC lacks substantive rulemaking authority with respect to unfair methods of competition." Brown also said that the plaintiffs are "likely to succeed" in getting the rule struck down and that it's in the public's best interest to grant the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction. The judge added that the court will make a decision "on the ultimate merits of this action on or before August 30."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/texas-court-blocks-the-ftcs-ban-on-noncompete-agreements-150020601.html?src=rss

Microsoft is set to pay $14.4 million to resolve a case alleging retaliatory and discriminatory practices against California workers who took protected leave, such as family care, parental, disability and pregnancy leave. The Civil Rights Department of California (CRD) launched an investigation into Microsoft in 2020, looking into whether the tech giant violated laws such as California's Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The proposed agreement is subject to court approval.CRD claimed that workers who took protected leave "received lower bonuses and unfavorable performance reviews that, in turn, harmed their eligibility for merit increases, stock awards, and promotions." The California Department also alleged that Microsoft "failed to take sufficient action to prevent discrimination from occurring, altering the career trajectory of women, people with disabilities, and other employees who worked at the company, ultimately leaving them behind."Microsoft's payment will go toward workers impacted from May 2017 until the date of the court's approval. The company must also retain an independent consultant for policy and practice recommendations, ensuring that managers don't use protected leave as a determinant when deciding rewards and promotions - managers and HR will need to undergo specific discrimination training. The independent consultant will also work with Microsoft to confirm that employees have a straightforward method to raise complaints if they feel taking protected leave has influenced their standing in the company. Furthermore, the independent consultant must provide an annual compliance report reflecting Microsoft's following of the agreement."The settlement announced today will provide direct relief to impacted workers and safeguard against future discrimination at the company," Kevin Kirsh, CRD's director, stated. "We applaud Microsoft for coming to the table and agreeing to make the changes necessary to protect workers in California."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-agrees-to-14-million-california-pay-discrimination-settlement-140016567.html?src=rss

I've recently accepted the fact that I am, and always will be, a pen-and-paper kind of gal. When it comes to writing, nothing does it for me quite like the act of scrawling by hand. I'm more creative, less distracted and more emotionally invested in what I'm doing than when I type on a keyboard.But over the last decade or so of writing professionally, I've become disconnected from writing by hand. I spend most of my time hunched over a laptop, and have unwittingly conditioned myself into writing almost exclusively in this way for the sake of efficiency. While that's undoubtedly what works best for the day-to-day demands of news blogging (I mean, how else could we do it?), my shift away from notebooks has killed my will to do any creative writing outside of work. These days, every time I crack open a laptop to write in my off-hours, it feels like a chore.But what also feels like a chore is typing up pages upon pages of handwritten text after dumping all the words in my brain out onto paper. This burden is what first got me looking into digital notepads; since many of them can convert handwritten notes to text files, they're kind of the best of both worlds. For a while, though, none of the available options really spoke to me - the reMarkable 2 and other E Ink tablets are just too big for my taste. Then, Ratta came out with the Supernote Nomad, and I was sold.The Nomad is perfectly compact. With a 7.8-inch screen, it's more like the size of an ereader, meaning I can toss it in a mini-backpack and bring it with me everywhere - and I do. My Nomad arrived in May (I ordered the $329 Crystal version, because I'm a sucker for a transparent shell) and I've been using it just about every day since. I was cautiously optimistic about what actually writing on this thing would be like, but it exceeded all of my expectations.It took only a few minutes to get used to, which mainly came down to me getting over my somewhat irrational fear that the pen - the one that's made for this device - would scratch the display. (It was expensive, okay?) The tablet doesn't come with a writing implement, and I shelled out a little extra for the $89 Heart of Metal pen, a decision I'm super happy with. It's nothing like a stylus, but instead has a sharp, precision tip like a real pen - hence my initial hesitation.The experience of writing on the Nomad is so close to the feeling of actually using a pen and paper. There's texture to it, something you don't get with the smooth experience of writing on an iPad. I write pretty fast, and haven't had many issues so far with lagging. It comes with a bunch of writing templates, including lined paper" with a few different ruling size options, and you can create your own templates or download those made by others. I haven't messed around much yet with custom versions, though, because the built-in offerings have been adequate for free writing, note-taking and organizing my life.I was pleasantly surprised by how well the handwriting recognition tool has been able to convert my chicken scratch to typed text. My handwriting is fine at best, but when I'm working fast, things can get pretty messy. It's not 100 percent accurate - it'll throw in the occasional string of gibberish - but the device mostly gets it right. You can export the converted writing as a .TXT or .DOCX file, and have the Nomad format it for you. This requires some cleaning up, but it's never a huge job.Supernote devices can sync with a number of different cloud storage providers, like Dropbox and Google Drive (though Google is currently not working for me, so that's one point against it), along with the company's own cloud. You can lock individual files and folders behind a passcode, too, which I really appreciate. Nothing haunts me more than the thought of someone reading through my unfinished drafts, some of which aren't destined to ever see the light of day.And I've finally ditched my paper planner - something I never thought would happen. Supernote's built-in monthly calendar and weekly planner have finally given me an alternative that actually works for me. One of the main things that's kept me using paper planners is that I like to doodle as a way to make important events or tasks stand out, and the Supernote Nomad allows me to do this. The only thing I miss is using stickers and pens of different colors, but I'll survive.In the last month or so using the Supernote Nomad, I've probably gotten more writing done (the for me" kind) than I had in the last year. It just doesn't trigger that dreaded you're at work" feeling that my laptop and even other distraction-free writing devices, like the Freewrite Traveler, have. Eventually, I hope to get around to drawing and reading on it as well, but for the moment, all I want to do on this thing is write because I'm having such a great time doing it. And before you ask - yes, I wrote this article on my Nomad.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/im-finding-the-joy-in-writing-again-with-a-little-help-from-the-supernote-nomad-130048878.html?src=rss

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reminding several computer companies that "warranty void if removed" stickers are illegal, as is language discouraging consumers from fixing their own devices. The Commission warned ASRock, Gigabyte and Zotech to get rid of them and remove terms threatening to void warranties if users break the seal, it wrote in a press release spotted by The Verge."Letters to three other companies warn against their use of stickers containing 'warranty void if removed' or similar language that are placed in locations on products that hinder consumers' ability to perform routine maintenance and repairs on their products," the FTC wrote. "These letters were issued to ASRock, Zotac, and Gigabyte, companies that market and sell gaming PCs, graphics chips, motherboards, and other accessories."It wasn't just the stickers, but language in the warranties stating that guarantees would be voided if said seals were broken. The practices "may be standing in the way of consumers' right to repair products they have purchased," according to the release. Commission staff will review the companies' websites after 30 days and failure to correct violations may result in law enforcement action.Right to repair laws have spread across US states, but the FTC is actually referencing decades-old rules. Under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, companies can't place restrictions on repairs unless they provide the parts or services for free or receive a waiver from the FTC.This isn't a new occurrence, as we wrote about a similar warning from the FTC way back in 2018. At that time, the watchdog sent warnings to six companies: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, ASUS, HTC and Hyundai. Such stickers and policies aren't necessarily illegal in other nations though, as iFixit wrote last year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ftc-warns-some-pc-manufacturers-that-theyre-violating-right-to-repair-rules-120009736.html?src=rss

We already told you what to expect, but if you demand more proof, the leakers will oblige. This time, @evleaks on X released copies of product pages (and images) for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6.The main spec changes are for the flip. Previous Galaxy Z Flip models only had 12-megapixel rear cameras, so the Flip 6's purported 50-megapixel wide camera (paired with a 12-megapixel ultrawide) is a huge upgrade. If the leak is accurate, it'll also have a bigger battery.According to the product pages, Samsung didn't give the Galaxy Z Fold 6 many substantial upgrades, but the new model will have a slightly larger front display. Conversely, the folding main display is slightly smaller and the phone is a bit thinner.The leak spoils Samsung's July 10 party a little, but we reckon the company has plenty more to show off, including the official debut of its Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. That's a lot to get through in a single presentation - hopefully, Samsung keeps a tight run-time for my sanity.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedYour next webcam could be a Game Boy CameraThe best early Amazon Prime Day deals for 2024What Meta should change about ThreadsYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Japan's government finally says goodbye to floppy disksYes, it's 2024.Getty imagesJapan's Digital Agency announced on Wednesday it ditched the use of outdated floppy disks to operate its government computer systems. The only system still in place that requires the use of floppy disks is an environmental system that monitors vehicle recycling, according to Reuters. Digital Minister Taro Kono told the news agency in a statement, We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!"Kono's battle against outdated tech in government departments started in 2022. I. The country's love affair with fax machines is well known - Kono has his sights on those next.Continue reading.Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 reviewSuccess at last.While some apps still need extra support to run on Windows on Arm, the Surface Laptop 7 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip have combined to create a nearly ideal platform for everyday productivity. The design is appealing, the battery life is excellent and the display is bright. The price is premium, starting at $1,300, but Microsoft has finally nailed the Arm-powered laptop.Continue reading.Proton launches its own version of Google DocsIt has all the features you'd expect.Proton now has its own version of Google Docs in its own cloud storage service, and like the company's other products, it comes with end-to-end encryption. The company says its flavor of Docs "offers a unique solution in a market where most popular products neglect privacy" and recommends it for use in the healthcare, media, finance, and legal industries. Like Google Docs, Proton Docs has advanced formatting and image embed options. You'll also be able to pull other document formats into Proton for editing, like Word files.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-samsungs-galaxy-z-flip-6-and-fold-6-leak-early-111522211.html?src=rss

July 4 isn't really a boon for tech deals. Seasonal sales can be hit or miss if you have things like headphones, tablets and other tech gear on your shopping list - you're actually better off looking for early Prime Day deals (if you're a Prime member) right now, since Amazon has already kicked off the discounts in preparation for its July Prime Day event. But we scoured the internet to find as many of the worthwhile tech deals you can get for July 4 - many of them overlap with Prime Day deals, but there are some from the likes of Solo Stove, Casetify, ThermoWorks and others that appear to be limited-time, seasonal discounts. Here are the best July 4 tech deals you can get this year. Table of contents

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 will come with a 50-megapixel rear camera for the first time, a bigger battery than any of its predecessors and a bunch of AI features, according to the product pages leaked by Evan Blass on Substack. Also known as @evleaks on X/Twitter and other avenues, Blass is known to have a good track record for leaking accurate information about unreleased devices. This time, evleaks has obtained and released copies of product pages for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 ahead of an Unpacked event happening on July 10, though the details aren't absolutely certain until Samsung itself announces them.Previous Galaxy Z Flip models only had 12-megapixel rear cameras, so the Flip 6's 50-megapixel wide camera (paired with a 12-megapixel ultrawide) is a huge upgrade. Unlike the previous versions that were equipped with 3,700 mAh batteries, the upcoming model will apparently have a 4,000 mAh battery that can power up to 20 hours of internet browsing on WiFi, up to 23 hours of video playback and up to 68 hours of music playback. Meanwhile, the model's display dimensions, for both its main and external displays, are similar to the Z Flip 5.One of the phone's most interesting AI tools, perhaps, is its personal interpreter function that can display translations on both of its screens. That way, if you're relying on the feature to talk to somebody, they can read what you're saying in their language on the external display. It could be an invaluable tool for traveling, if it's at least reasonably accurate. When the phone is folded, the Chat Assist feature will give you a way to text from the front display by giving you a selection of suggested replies. Google's Circle to Search will also be available on the device.Samsung didn't give the Galaxy Z Fold 6 major upgrades and changes, but the new model will come with a slightly larger front display, based on the leaked product pages. Its main display is just slightly smaller and the phone itself is a bit thinner, which make it lighter than previous models, even though its battery capacity remains the same. Like the Flip 6, the upcoming Fold will come with AI-powered features, such as Note Assist that can automatically transcribe recordings and summarize notes for you. It can also display translations from its personal interpreter on both sides of the main screen, and it has Google's Circle to Search function that you can use with the S Pen.The company is expected to announce both devices, as well as new accessories like the Galaxy Ring, Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro at its Unpacked event in a few days.Evan Blass / @evleaks on XThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-galaxy-z-flip-6-and-z-fold-6-product-pages-have-been-leaked-015420863.html?src=rss

Forget your phone cameras and laptop built-ins; your next webcam could be your old Game Boy Camera. The team (sort of) bringing this peripheral into the modern age is Epilogue. The company makes the GB Operator, which lets people play original Game Boy, Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color cartridges on a current PC or a Steam Deck.Today, Epilogue announced that it is working on an update that will make the Game Boy Camera into a webcam, but one that's a fuzzy, lo-fi, 16 kilopixel experience. The magic happens through the Playback emulator app that powers the GB Operator.

Cloudflare has released a new free tool that prevents AI companies' bots from scraping its clients' websites for content to train large language models. The cloud service provider is making this tool available to its entire customer base, including those on free plans. "This feature will automatically be updated over time as we see new fingerprints of offending bots we identify as widely scraping the web for model training," the company said.In a blog post announcing this update, Cloudflare's team also shared some data about how its clients are responding to the boom of bots that scrape content to train generative AI models. According to the company's internal data, 85.2 percent of customers have chosen to block even the AI bots that properly identify themselves from accessing their sites.Cloudflare also identified the most active bots from the past year. The Bytedance-owned Bytespider bot attempted to access 40 percent of websites under Cloudflare's purview, and OpenAI's GPTBot tried on 35 percent. They were half of the top four AI bot crawlers by number of requests on Cloudflare's network, along with Amazonbot and ClaudeBot.It's proving very difficult to fully and consistently block AI bots from accessing content. The arms race to build models faster has led to instances of companies skirting or outright breaking the existing rules around blocking scrapers. Perplexity AI was recently accused of scraping websites without the required permissions. But having a backend company at the scale of Cloudflare getting serious about trying to put the kibosh on this behavior could lead to some results."We fear that some AI companies intent on circumventing rules to access content will persistently adapt to evade bot detection," the company said. "We will continue to keep watch and add more bot blocks to our AI Scrapers and Crawlers rule and evolve our machine learning models to help keep the Internet a place where content creators can thrive and keep full control over which models their content is used to train or run inference on."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cloudflare-is-taking-a-stand-against-ai-website-scrapers-220030471.html?src=rss

Floppy disks may seem like a relic from an ancient time of computers but there are still places and even governments in the world that still use them to run its most basic functions. Japan is no longer one of those countries.Japan's Digital Agency announced on Wednesday it has rid its use of outdated floppy disks to operate its government computer systems. The only system still in place that requires the use of floppy disks is an environmental system that monitors vehicle recycling, according to Reuters.Digital Minister Taro Kono declared in a statement to the news agency, We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!" Presumably, the statement wasn't printed on that annoying dot matrix printer paper with the edges that never tear straight.Kono's agency started his crusade against 90s era computer technology in 2022 shortly after his appointment to the Digital Agency. Around 1,900 of Japan's government procedures used floppy disks and other outdated technology such as fax machines, CDs and MiniDiscs. He famously declared a war on floppy discs [sic]" to his 2.5 million followers on X.Of course, Japan isn't the only country that used to rely on floppy disks long after the rest of the world moved on to more efficient forms of data storage. The US military was still using 8-inch floppy disks to operate its Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), a 1970s computer system that received nuclear launch codes and sent emergency messages to military centers and field sources. The world learned the scary truth about SACCS thanks to CBS's 60 Minutesand reporter Lesley Stahl. The Defense Department finally phased out the system in 2019. Let's hope they also removed the shag carpeting and velvet upholstery.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japans-government-says-goodbye-to-floppy-disks-214449682.html?src=rss

Ever since the open world hacker adventure game Watch Dogs captured the attention of 2012's E3, there were rumors circulating of a movie remake before the game even got a release date. Now more than 10 years later, the film version is finally happening. Ubisoft announced today on X that filming has begun on the Watch Dogs movie with a picture of a clapboard and the caption Lights_Camera_Action.exe."The Watch Dogs movie was first announced in 2016 at Sony's GamesCon press conference, according to IGN. Sony announced that Ubisoft Partners teamed up with New Regency to make a film adaptation of Aiden Pearce's data-hacking adventure in a metropolis overseen by an intrusive server.Since then, drips and hints of the movie's status came and went for years until last month, when Ubisoft posted a press release announcing that production on Watch Dogs would start sometime this summer. The press release also announced that actor Tom Blyth from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sophie Wilde from the sleeper horror hit Talk to Me will star in the Watch Dogs film. The movie is being directed by Mathieu Turi based on a script written by Christie LeBlanc (who wrote the 2021 Netflix sci-fi film Oxygen)with rewrites by Victoria Bata.A few years ago, there was also talk of turning Watch Dogs and Far Cry, another big Ubisoft franchise, into an animated TV series following a run of the Rabbids Invasion cartoons. However, there's been nothing but radio silence from those projects ever since then. Maybe if the Watch Dogs movie becomes a hit, the animated series will follow it into production.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-watch-dogs-movie-has-finally-started-filming-after-10-years-201040830.html?src=rss

It's July, and that means Amazon Prime Day is just around the corner. We're seeing a lot of early Prime Day deals ahead of July 16, and the latest offer coming from within Amazon's umbrella is for the readers out there. Prime members can now lock in three months of a free Kindle Unlimited subscription, an exclusive deal that will save you $36. As the name implies, this program offers unlimited reading of more than 4 million book titles in the KU library, free access to magazines and comics, and free listening to thousands of included audiobooks. The book library has a mix of classics, popular series and new releases across genres. Once your three free months are up, the subscription will renew at the usual rate of $12 per month. As with most Amazon subscriptions, you can cancel at any time. We're not seeing a specific end date for when this offer will end, so interested Prime members should move fast. For voracious readers and listeners, this subscription could be a nice counterpart to the three-month free Audible subscription Amazon put on offer yesterday. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-kindle-unlimited-early-prime-day-deal-gives-you-a-free-three-month-subscription-195856022.html?src=rss

After less than eight months, Amazon has discontinued the business version of its Astro security robot. GeekWire reported on Wednesday that despite being fully committed" to its home robotics division, the company has discontinued the higher-end model that doubled as a security guard for spaces as large as 5,000 square feet.Amazon launched Astro for Business in November 2023, pitching it as a workplace security robot. The $2,350 screen-on-wheels had an HD periscope and a tangled web of subscription types and tiers, including Ring Protect Pro, Astro Security and Virtual Security Guard memberships. Suddenly, only lasting about eight months doesn't sound so surprising.An Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire that it hasn't laid people off because of Astro for Business' demise, and the company plans to divert resources into its home robotics work. The consumer version of Astro, launched in 2021, is still available (invite-only) for $1,600. Panos Panay, the former Microsoft Surface (and much more) guru, joined the company to head up its Devices & Services division last year, which includes consumer robotics work.Although Astro's home version isn't a full-fledged security guard replacement, it can patrol your home and alert you if it sees someone it doesn't recognize or hears breaking glass or alarms. It can also do things of sketchier value, like follow you around with music, deliver messages to other people and set timers -most of which can be duplicated by devices that cost much less.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-pulls-the-plug-on-the-business-version-of-its-astro-robot-193907015.html?src=rss

With the current rebellion against Adobe's subscription model, folks are taking a hard look at Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve Studio. And many like what they see. It's arguably more powerful than Adobe's Premiere Pro, offering better color correction tools along with built-in effects and audio apps. Best of all, it's free (though you can pay $300 to upgrade to the Studio version).To make it more practical for those editing on the go, Blackmagic introduced an iPad version in late 2022 with the Cut (editing) and Color pages, but no effects or audio apps. The idea was to offer creators a way to edit or color-correct on the road, with everything syncing up via Blackmagic Cloud. It was also a good option for those who prefer to work on mobile devices.Earlier this year, Blackmagic introduced the $509 Micro Color Panel that gave users tactile control for color correction, just like the highly paid colorists in Hollywood. Better still, it can be used with Resolve on iPad, so you can click, dial and roll in a precise manner, rather than pawing inaccurately on a touch display.Steve Dent for EngadgetI love control surfaces, so I was eager to test the Micro Color Panel with my iPad Air M2 to see how they work together. At the same time, I wanted to try out Blackmagic's Cloud to share projects on multiple devices.You get two installs with DaVinci Resolve Studio, so I used my desktop key to install it on my iPad Air M2. Blackmagic recommends an iPad with an M1 or later processor, and though it will work with earlier iPads, you may be restricted to HD and features will be limited.Blackmagic provided me with a free trial of its Cloud service so I could transfer projects from my desktop over to the iPad. That normally costs $5 per month per library, which gives you 500GB of storage and unlimited projects that can be shared with up to 10 collaborators.You can easily share timelines, effects, metadata and media. To transfer files, you can either connect a USB-C drive or share full or proxy media (smaller versions of your video clips) on Blackmagic Cloud. That requires a fast connection - both to upload and download - but once that's done, they live locally on your iPad. Any new media files are automatically synced to the Cloud.Steve Dent for EngadgetThe downside of DaVinci Resolve on an iPad is the clumsy touch-based interface, especially for color correction - but that's where the Micro Color Panel comes in. Blackmagic has a rich history of building such controllers for professional use, but the new model is its smallest and cheapest to date.Though diminutive compared to the $859 version, the new Micro Panel still oozes quality. Its black finish can draw some dust but otherwise looks professional. The buttons light up to help you find them in a dark studio, but the labels on the dials don't, so they can be hard to read.The panel comes with its own battery that gives you about 15 hours on a charge. Though you can use USB-C to connect to PCs or Macs, iPads only support Bluetooth, with USB-C reserved for charging.After pairing the Micro Control Panel to your iPad, you need to enable it in DaVinci Resolve's preferences. Then, you can slide your iPad into the slot on the back and you're ready to work.Steve Dent for EngadgetTo be clear, the Micro Control Panel is not designed for editing - it's strictly for color correction. To that end, it mirrors the interface of DaVinci Resolve's Color Page. The main controls are for Lift" (black levels), Gamma" (contrast) and Gain" (overall brightness).Those wheels and dials offer nice levels of resistance and accuracy, compared to the Loupedeck+ and other types of control surfaces I've tried. They're used for things like shadows, highlights and saturation, while the buttons let you view the image full screen, move from clip to clip, add keyframes and more.The tactile experience is a strong selling point of the Micro Control Panel, but there's a catch-22 using it with the iPad. At home, I'd be likely to use it with my PC or Mac for more speed and versatility. When I'm on the road with my iPad, though, I'm not sure I'd take the Micro Control Panel with me, because it's too bulky.Steve Dent for EngadgetSo despite Blackmagic marketing this as an iPad accessory, I'd say it's currently better for desktop DaVinci Resolve Studio users who want more tactile control. It's great for people who only edit on iPad, but I'd imagine that in a Venn diagram of those folks and the ones willing to spend $508 on a color correction panel, there is only a tiny overlap.In sum, Blackmagic's Micro Color Panel is portable, attractive, well-designed, nice to use and reasonably priced. If you spend a lot of time on color correction, you'll find it to be a timesaver once the controls become second nature. It'll also make your editing suite look more professional.Though not yet a great match for the iPad, that could change. Apple recently launched the iPad Pro M4, including a 13-inch model that offers similar performance to many MacBooks. At the same time, Blackmagic Design has promised to bring the iPad version of DaVinci Resolve more on par with the desktop versions. If that happens, many Resolve users may opt to use the iPad version exclusively - which would make the Micro Color Panel more desirable.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ipad-and-blackmagics-micro-color-panel-make-strange-bedfellows-183835929.html?src=rss

Popular virtual tabletop service Roll20 has experienced a serious security breach, according to an email the company sent out to users. The email, written on July 2, warned users that their personal data may have been exposed, including first and last name, email address, last known IP address, and the last four digits" of credit cards. However, the breach didn't expose passwords or full financial information, so that's good.The company discovered unauthorized access" to an administrative account last week. It immediately blocked the impacted account, but this particular account had access to the aforementioned personal information. Roll20 doesn't know if anyone actually used this breach to scoop up data, saying it has no reason to believe that your personal information has been misused" and that it's notifying users out of an abundance of caution."Engadget reached out to the company for more information regarding the timeline and the potential impact. We'll update this post when we hear more. We truly regret that this incident occurred on our watch," Roll20 founder Riley Dutton told Wargamer.It's worth noting that users have been asking the company to implement two-factor authentication (2FA) for years, to no avail. It experienced a similar data breach in 2018 that impacted four million users. It's probably time for Roll20 to bump its charisma stats and approach a 2FA service provider, for the good of the realms.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/virtual-tabletop-gaming-platform-roll20-experienced-a-serious-data-breach-181052179.html?src=rss

Amazon has Engadget's favorite pair of budget running headphones on sale for 33 percent off. The JLab Go Air Sport surprised us with its combination of affordability, sound quality and battery life. The hook-style earphones are only $20 when you click a $10-off coupon. The JLab Go Air Sport adopts the style of workout headphones with flexible hooks that wrap around the outside of your ears. It makes them more comfortable and can help stabilize them during runs, aerobics or other fitness routines with lots of quick or jerky movements. Although you won't get sound quality equivalent to high-end models that cost hundreds of dollars, we found them to sound much better than expected (a pleasant surprise for this price range). They have three EQ modes (Signature, Balanced and Bass Boost), which you can cycle through on the device - no need to mess with an app. The JLab Go Air Sport is IP55-rated for water and dust resistance, so they should be fine if you get caught in the rain. The JLab earphones have a solid eight hours of playtime on the headphones themselves, and the charging adds another 24 hours. However, one of our biggest gripes is that they have a bulky case with a USB-A cable instead of USB-C. But at this price, that's a relatively minor gripe. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-have-already-discounted-our-favorite-jlab-wireless-earbuds-to-only-20-174550539.html?src=rss

It's been a year since Meta pushed out Threads in an attempt to take on the platform now known as X. At the time, Mark Zuckerberg said that he hoped it would turn into a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it."Meta's timing was good. Threads launched at a particularly chaotic moment for Twitter, when many people were seeking out alternatives. Threads saw 30 million sign-ups in its first day and the app has since grown to 175 million monthly users, according to Zuckerberg. (X has 600 million monthly users, according to Elon Musk.)But the earliest iteration of Threads still felt a little bit broken. There was no web version, and a lot of missing features. The company promised interoperability with ActivityPub, the open-source standard that powers Mastodon and other apps in the fediverse, but integration remains minimal.One year later, it's still not really clear what Threads is actually for. Its leader has said that "the goal isn't to replace Twitter" but to create a public square" for Instagram users and a less angry place for conversations."But the service itself still has a number of issues that prevent it from realizing that vision. If Meta really wants to make that happen, here's what it should change.Fix the For You' algorithmIf you follow me on Threads, then you probably already know this is my top complaint. But Meta desperately needs to fix the algorithm that powers Threads' default For You" feed. The algorithmic feed, which is the default view in both the app and website, is painfully slow. It often surfaces days-old posts, even during major, newsworthy moments when many people are posting about the same topic.It's so bad it's become a running meme to post something along the lines of I can't wait to read about this on my For You' feed tomorrow," every time there's a major news event or trending story.The algorithmic feed is also downright bizarre. For a platform that was built off of Instagram, an app that has extremely fine-tuned recommendations and more than a decade of data about the topics I'm interested in, Threads appears to use none of it. Instead, it has a strange preference for intense personal stories from accounts I'm entirely unconnected to.In the last year, I've seen countless multi-part Threads posts from complete strangers detailing childhood abuse, eating disorders, chronic illnesses, domestic violence, pet loss and other unimaginable horrors. These are not posts I'm seeking out by any means, yet Meta's algorithm shoves them to the top of my feed.I've aggressively used Threads' swipe gestures to try to rid my feed of excessive trauma dumping, and it's helped to some extent. But it hasn't improved the number of strange posts I see from completely random individuals. At this moment the top two posts in my feed are from an event planner offering to share wedding tips and a woman describing a phone call from her health insurance company. (Both posts are 12 hours old.) These types of posts have led to blogger Max Read dubbing Threads the gas leak social network" because they make it feel as if everyone is suffering some kind of minor brain damage."Stop avoiding news, politics and anything potentially sensitive"Look, I get why Meta has been cautious when it comes to content moderation on Threads. The company doesn't exactly have a great track record on issues like extremism, health misinformation or genocide-inciting hate speech. It's not surprising they would want to avoid similar headlines about Threads.But if Meta wants Threads to be a public square," it can't preemptively block searches for topics like COVID-19 and vaccines just because they are potentially sensitive." (Instagram head Adam Mosseri claimed this measure was temporary" last October.) If Meta wants Threads to be a public square," it shouldn't automatically throttle political content from users' recommendations; and Threads' leaders shouldn't assume that users don't want to see news.DMs, DMs, DMsA year in, it's painfully clear that a platform like Threads is hamstrung without a proper direct messaging feature. For some reason, Threads' leaders, especially Mosseri, have been adamantly opposed to creating a separate inbox for the app.Instead, users hoping to privately connect with someone on Threads are forced to switch over to Instagram and hope the person they are trying to reach accepts new message requests. There is an in-app way to send a Threads post to an Instagram friend but this depends on you already being connected on Instagram.Exactly why Threads can't have its own messaging feature isn't exactly clear. Mosseri has suggested that it doesn't make sense to build a new inbox for the app, but that ignores the fact that many people use Instagram and Threads very differently. Which brings me to...Decouple Threads from InstagramMeta has said that the reason why it was able to get Threads out the door so quickly was largely thanks to Instagram. Threads was created using a lot of Instagram's code and infrastructure, which also helped the company get tens of millions of people to sign up for the app on day one.But continuing to require an Instagram account to use Threads makes little sense a year on. For one, it shuts out a not-insignificant number of people who may be interested in Threads but don't want to be on Instagram,There's also the fact that the apps, though they share some design elements, are completely different kinds of services. And many people, myself included, use Instagram and Threads very differently.A public square" platform like Threads works best for public-facing accounts where conversations can have maximum visibility. But most people I know use their Instagram accounts for personal updates, like family photos. And while you can have different visibility settings for each app, you shouldn't be forced to link the two accounts. This also means that if you want to use Threads anonymously, you would need to create an entirely new Instagram account to serve as a login for the corresponding Threads account.It seems that Meta is at least considering this. Mosseri said in an interview with Platformer that the company is working on things like Threads-only accounts" and wants the app to become more independent."These aren't the only factors that will determine whether Threads will be, as Zuckerberg has speculated, Meta's next 1 billion-user app. Meta will, eventually, need to make money from the service, which is currently advertising-free. But before Meta's multibillion-dollar ad machine can be pointed at Threads, the company will need to better explain who its newest app is actually for.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-meta-should-change-about-threads-one-year-in-173036784.html?src=rss

If you use Authy, update your app immediately. Twilio, the messaging company that owns the two-factor authentication service, confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday that hackers breached Twilio and acquired mobile phone numbers for 33 million users.Twilio published a statement on its website also confirming the hack. Twilio has detected that threat actors were able to identify data associated with Authy accounts, including phone numbers, due to an unauthenticated endpoint," the statement reads. We have taken action to secure this endpoint and no longer allow unauthenticated requests."The company added that there was no evidence that the hackers accessed Twilio's systems or sensitive data. But updating to the latest version of the iOS and Android apps (on any devices you're running) is critical as they include new security updates.Twilio stressed that Authy accounts weren't compromised. However, the hackers (and anyone they share the data with) could try to use the phone number associated with Authy accounts for phishing and smishing attacks."If you aren't familiar with the term, smishing is the text-message equivalent of phishing. So, if you have an Authy account, be extra cautious about any unexpected texts that appear to come from trusted sources, especially Authy or Twilio.Rachel Tobac, a social engineering expert and CEO of SocialProof Security, illustrated to TechCrunch what that may look like. If attackers are able to enumerate a list of user's phone numbers, then those attackers can pretend to be Authy/Twilio to those users, increasing the believability in a phishing attack to that phone number," Tobac said.We encourage all Authy users to stay diligent and have heightened awareness around the texts they are receiving," Twilio stressed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twilio-hack-leaves-authy-users-exposed-to-text-messaging-scams-165156650.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is nearly upon us, as the festivities officially kick off on July 16. However, there are already plenty of early Prime Day deals making the rounds. Even better? Some of these discounts are among the best Prime Day deals we've seen so far. Case in point? There's a sweeping sale on various Amazon Fire tablets with some record-low prices. The Fire HD 8 has been discounted to just $55, which is 58 percent off and a record-low price. Don't let the low cost fool you. This is a surprisingly decent tablet that's perfect for content consumption. I have one and it's great for streaming episode after episode of 90s Star Trek while sick in bed. The battery lasts around 13 hours per charge and the HD display gets the job done, though it won't be winning any visual fidelity awards. This sale is for the 64GB model, which is twice the storage of the entry-level tablet. Additionally, there's a microSD slot that adds up to 1TB of expandable storage. This isn't an iPad Pro, however, so there are trade-offs. It's underpowered and only offers 2GB of RAM. Like I said before, this tablet is for laying around and watching stuff or playing simple mobile games. It's not for power-intensive creativity-focused apps. You get what you pay for, though the price has certainly been sweetened. For those looking for a slightly higher-end experience, the Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet is also on sale for $75 instead of $140. The kid-friendly version of this model actually made our list of the best tablets. The RAM is slightly increased compared to the Fire 8, at 3GB, though the base storage is 32GB. This one also has a microSD slot that accommodates up to 1TB. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/early-prime-day-deals-include-up-to-58-percent-off-amazon-fire-tablets-154648570.html?src=rss

Investing in a new tablet can be costly but early Prime Day deals are making it a bit more reasonable. Ahead of Amazon Prime Day, the online marketplace has discounted Samsung's Galaxy S9+ tablet by 25 percent, bringing its cost down to an all-time low price of $750 from $1000. This deal is available for the 256GB Beige model, while the Graphite model is down to $800 from $1,000 - still lower than we've previously seen it (let's hear it for the best Prime Day deals). The Samsung Galaxy S9+ tablet is part of a series of great tablets that includes the Galaxy S9 Ultra and Galaxy S9 - the latter of which is our choice for 2024's best Android tablet. The Galaxy S9+ is a slightly larger model (12.4-inch screen, compared to 11-inch), with Vision Booster and a 2800p x 1752p max screen resolution. Plus, it has exceptionally thin bezels and an Armor Aluminum finish. Samsung's Galaxy S9+ is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, providing it with faster processing. The device also offers 12GB of RAM, 10,090mAh battery and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/early-prime-day-deals-bring-the-samsung-galaxy-s9-tablet-down-to-a-record-low-price-142946216.html?src=rss

Later this year, millions of Apple devices will begin running Apple Intelligence, Cupertino's take on generative AI that, among other things, lets people create images from text prompts. But some members of the creative community are unhappy about what they say is the company's lack of transparency around the raw information powering the AI model that makes this possible.I wish Apple would have explained to the public in a more transparent way how they collected their training data," Jon Lam, a video games artist and a creators' rights activist based in Vancouver, told Engadget. I think their announcement could not have come at a worse time."Creatives have historically been some of the most loyal customers of Apple, a company whose founder famously positioned it at the intersection of technology and liberal arts." But photographers, concept artists and sculptors who spoke to Engadget said that they were frustrated about Apple's relative silence around how it gathers data for its AI models.Generative AI is only as good as the data its models are trained on. To that end, most companies have ingested just about anything they could find on the internet, consent or compensation be damned. Nearly 6 billion images used to train multiple AI models also came from LAION-5B, a dataset of images scraped off the internet. In an interview with Forbes, David Holz, the CEO Midjourney, said that the company's models were trained on just a big scrape of the internet" and that there isn't really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they're coming from."Artists, authors and musicians have accused generative AI companies of sucking up their work for free and profiting off of it, leading to more than a dozen lawsuits in 2023 alone. Last month, major music labels including Universal and Sony sued AI music generators Suno and Udio, startups valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, for copyright infringement. Tech companies have - ironically - both defended their actions and also struck licensing deals with content providers, including news publishers.Some creatives thought that Apple might do better. That's why I wanted to give them a slight benefit of the doubt," said Lam. I thought they would approach the ethics conversation differently."Instead, Apple has revealed very little about the source of training data for Apple Intelligence. In a post published on the company's machine learning research blog, the company wrote that, just like other generative AI companies, it grabs public data from the open web using AppleBot, its purpose-made web crawler, something that its executives have also said on stage. Apple's AI and machine learning head John Giannandrea also reportedly said that a large amount of training data was actually created by Apple" but did not go into specifics. And Apple has also reportedly signed deals with Shutterstock and Photobucket to license training images, but hasn't publicly confirmed those relationships. While Apple Intelligence tries to win kudos for a supposedly more privacy-focused approach using on-device processing and bespoke cloud computing, the fundamentals girding its AI model appear little different from competitors.Apple did not respond to specific questions from Engadget.In May, Andrew Leung, a Los Angeles-based artist who has worked on films like Black Panther, The Lion King and Mulan, called generative AI the greatest heist in the history of human intellect" in his testimony before the California State Assembly about the effects of AI on the entertainment industry. I want to point out that when they use the term publicly available' it just doesn't pass muster," Leung said in an interview. It doesn't automatically translate to fair use."It's also problematic for companies like Apple, said Leung, to only offer an option for people to opt out once they've already trained AI models on data that they did not consent to. We never asked to be a part of it." Apple does allow websites to opt out of being scraped by AppleBot forApple Intelligence training data - the company says it respects robots.txt, a text file that any website can host to tell crawlers to stay away - but this would be triage at best. It's not clear when AppleBot began scraping the web or how anyone could have opted out before then. And, technologically, it's an open question how or if requests to remove information from generative models can even be honored.This is a sentiment that even blogs aimed at Apple fanatics are echoing. It's disappointing to see Apple muddy an otherwise compelling set of features (some of which I really want to try) with practices that are no better than the rest of the industry," wrote Federico Viticci, founder and editor-in-chief of Apple enthusiast blog MacStories.Adam Beane, a Los Angeles-based sculptor who created a likeness of Steve Jobs for Esquire in 2011, has used Apple products exclusively for 25 years. But he said that the company's unwillingness to be forthright with the source of Apple Intelligence training data has disillusioned him."I'm increasingly angry with Apple," he told Engadget. "You have to be informed enough and savvy enough to know how to opt out of training Apple's AI, and then you have to trust a corporation to honor your wishes. Plus, all I can see being offered as an option to opt out is further training their AI with your data."Karla Ortiz, a San Francisco-based illustrator, is one of the plaintiffs in a 2023 lawsuit against Stability AI and DeviantArt, the companies behind image generation models Stable Diffusion and DreamUp respectively, and Midjourney. The bottom line is, we know [that] for generative AI to function as is, [it] relies on massive overreach and violations of rights, private and intellectual," she wrote on a viral X thread about Apple Intelligence. This is true for all [generative] AI companies, and as Apple pushes this tech down our throats, it's important to remember they are not an exception."The outrage against Apple is also a part of a larger sense of betrayal among creative professionals against tech companies whose tools they depend on to do their jobs. In April, a Bloomberg report revealed that Adobe, which makes Photoshop and multiple other apps used by artists, designers, and photographers, used questionably-sourced images to train Firefly, its own image-generation model that Adobe claimed was ethically" trained. And earlier this month, the company was forced to update its terms of service to clarify that it wouldn't use the content of its customers to train generative AI models after customer outrage. The entire creative community has been betrayed by every single software company we ever trusted," said Lam. It isn't feasible for him to switch away from Apple products entirely, he's trying to cut back - he's planning to give up his iPhone for a Light Phone III.I think there is a growing feeling that Apple is becoming just like the rest of them," said Beane. A giant corporation that is prioritizing their bottom line over the lives of the people who use their product."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/artists-criticize-apples-lack-of-transparency-around-apple-intelligence-data-131250021.html?src=rss

Google's greenhouse gas emissions spiked by nearly 50 percent in the last five years, due to data centers required to power artificial intelligence, according to the company's 2024 Environmental Report. The report shows the company's progress towards meeting its self-proclaimed objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 - despite this additional challenge.Using AI features (let alone training the models) uses a lot of energy. In 2023, researchers at AI startup Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon University found that generating a single image using artificial intelligence can use as much energy as charging a smartphone.Google has a lot of AI projects on the go. Alongside the likes of Gemini, generative AI tools, it's using the technology to add over 100 languages to its translation services. And there's also the rumored AI chatbots.According to the report, Google said it expects its total greenhouse gas emissions to rise before dropping toward our absolute emissions reduction target," without explaining what would cause this drop.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedMeta is changing its policy for the most-moderated word on its platformsHow Apple redesigned its Photos app around customizationA new Resident Evil game is in the works from the director of Resident Evil 7You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Michigan is getting the nation's first smart highwayThree miles of I-94 will have special sensors and communication equipment.CanvueThe Alphabet-backed startup Cavnue has started constructing the smart highway as part of a new pilot project for smart highways. The new smart road is one long tracking system, designed to inform both Michigan's Department of Transportation (MDOT) and drivers about potential issues ahead, It's hoped that the project will help relieve traffic congestion and even prevent accidents. The pilot program of the highway is located between Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, with future plans to extend the smart highway to 40 miles in six more phases that would connect to both cities.Continue reading.DJI announces a move into e-bike motorsIf the future of drone sale is looking dicey...With a US ban of its hyper-popular drones increasingly likely, DJI has been diversifying into something very different. Enter the Avinox Drive, an e-bike motor system that will go up against dominant players like Bosch and Shimano. The Avinox system, on paper at least, appears to out-spec some popular systems from those rivals, thanks to the lower weight, extra torque and higher-capacity batteries. DJI however won't be making bikes, so let's see how it fares. The system will first appear with a new bike brand called Amflow, which is launching the new PL model weighing in at 19.2kg (42 pounds) - on the low-end for electric mountain bikes (eMTBs).Continue reading.Netflix's newest remake is that Minesweeper game from the '90sFortunately not a gritty 10-part action drama.The latest title to join the Netflix Games roster is a modern remake of Minesweeper, ancient timekiller on 90s Windows PCs. The classic PC puzzle game has been reimagined with an international setting, tasking the player with very literally looking for underwater minesContinue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-googles-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climbed-nearly-50-percent-in-five-years-due-to-ai-111514346.html?src=rss

Proton now has its own version of Google Docs in its Drive cloud storage service, and like the company's other products, it comes with end-to-end encryption. The company says its flavor of Docs "offers a unique solution in a market where most popular products neglect privacy" and recommends it for use in the healthcare, media, finance and legal industries. Proton Docs has advanced formatting and image embed options like Google Docs has and can create, open and edit documents in multiple formats, including Microsoft .docx.It has collaboration tools similar to Google Docs', as well. Users can invite anyone to view and edit their documents, though those without a Proton account will be prompted to create one first. The free tier of Proton Drive includes essential document features so people don't have to pay for the service if they don't want to. Participants will be able to add comments to the document, reply to them and resolve them. And users will see other participants' presence and their cursor placements in real time, so that they know who's working on which part of the document and so that their edits don't clash.Proton didn't say whether the launch of Docs means it's going to roll out analogues of Google's other Workspace apps in the future, but the company did expand its offerings with several different products over the last few years. In addition to Drive cloud storage - and, of course, its email service - the company has a VPN, an encrypted calendar and even a password manager. Docs will make its way to Proton users over the coming days.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/proton-launches-its-own-version-of-google-docs-100044471.html?src=rss

With a US ban of its hyper-popular drones more likely than not, DJI has been diversifying into products that won't be affected by the Countering CCP Drones Act, like backup batteries. Now the company is entering the e-bike arena with the Avinox Drive System that will go up against the likes of Bosch, Bafang, Shimano and SRAM.The Avinox system promises a relatively light 2.52 kg (5.6 pound) weight (5.39 kg including the batteries), while offering up to 105Nm (850W) of peak torque/power and 600Wh or 800Wh battery options. It uses GaN 3x fast charging tech, so the 800Wh battery can be charged from 0 to 75 percent in 1.5 hours. A planetary gearset and polymer gears allow for a balance of size, weight and power output, along with a quiet ride, according to DJI.The system offers four standard riding assist modes, Auto, Eco Trail and Turbo, along with a Boost mode for extra power when required. The Auto mode uses what DJI calls "multi-sensor fusion" to continuously adjust assistance based on riding resistance.Avinox includes a two-inch OLED full-color touchscreen display to control the assist modes and display pertinent information. It allows riders to connect their smartphones to access features like security, data recording, sharing and real-time bike status/location. You can also use the app to access and customize assist levels and parameters.Finally, it comes with dual Wireless Controllers with Bluetooth connectivity for a "clutter-free handlebar setup," the company wrote. The Avinox system appears to out-spec some popular systems from Bosch, Shimano, Brose and others thanks to the lower weight, extra torque and higher-capacity batteries.It'll first appear with a new bike brand called Amflow, which is launching the new PL model weighing in at 19.2kg (42 pounds) - on the low-end for electric mountain bikes (eMTBs). The Amflow PL also includes a four-bar linkage structure and "cutting-edge geometry," a rear shock co-tuned with FOX, and an SRAM rear derailleur.As for the US ban on DJI's drones, the Countering CCP Drones Act has passed through Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. It's now set to be reviewed by the Senate and if approved, would likely be signed into law by President Biden. In a counterpoint article, DJI wrote: "This act damages not just DJI, but also the broad ecosystem of operators, businesses and public safety agencies that rely on their technologies to conduct safe and efficient operations."DJI's Avinox Drive system will be sold only to manufacturers, so no retail price is available. The Amflow eMTB doesn't have an exact price yet, but will be sold for between 7,000 and 12,000 ($7,500 and $12,850) in Europe. It's due to be released in Q4 2024 "through authorized dealers in Germany, the UK and Australia, amongst others," the company said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dji-further-diversifies-from-drones-with-the-avinox-e-bike-drive-system-070043218.html?src=rss

A number of pretty good titles are coming to Microsoft's Game Pass this month for Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, including Engadget staff favorites Neon White and Tchia. Neon White is a first-person shooter and puzzle platformer, wherein you play the part of an assassin taken from Hell to exterminate demons in Heaven in an annual competition. It was one of Engadget's best games for 2022, and we praised it for being smooth and fast-paced, having complex weapons and having almost 100 replayable levels to go through.Meanwhile, Tchia is one of our top game picks for 2023. In the charming action-adventure game, you play the role of Tchia, a young girl who has to find and rescue her kidnapped father. Tchia uses her power of "soul jumping" to take control of animals and inanimate objects in order to solve puzzles, find items, fight enemies and travel to new areas. Both Neon White and Tchia will be available on Game Pass starting on July 11.Before that, on July 3, Journey to the Savage Planet is returning to the Game Pass library. In the game, you play an explorer for a company called Kindred Aerospace, traveling across galaxies and planets and interacting with alien life forms. Meanwhile, a game called Flock published by Annapurna Interactive will be available on the service on July 16, the same day it's released. It's a multiplayer co-op game, where you play shepherd to a flock of flying creatures. But if you want to play something food-related, the cooking game Magical Delicacy will also arrive on the cloud gaming service on the same day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/neon-white-tchia-and-a-bunch-of-other-titles-are-coming-to-game-pass-this-month-045548792.html?src=rss

Google's greenhouse gas emissions spiked by nearly 50 percent in the last five years thanks to energy-guzzling data centers required to power artificial intelligence, according to the company's 2024 Environmental Report released on Tuesday. The report, which Google releases annually, shows the company's progress towards meeting its self-proclaimed objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.Google released 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2023, the report states, which was 48 percent higher than in 2019, and 13 percent higher than a year before. This result is primarily due to increases in data center energy consumption and supply chain emissions," said Google in the report. As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment."Google's report spotlights the environmental impact that the explosion of artificial intelligence has had on the planet. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple and other tech companies plan to pour billions of dollars into AI, but training AI models requires enormous amounts of energy. Using AI features uses significant amounts of energy too. In 2023, researchers at AI startup Hugging Face and Carnegie Mellon University found that generating a single image using artificial intelligence can use as much energy as charging a smartphone. Analysts at Bernstein said that AI would double the rate of US electricity demand growth and total consumption could outstrip current supply in the next two years," the Financial Times reported. Last month, Microsoft, which also pledged to go carbon negative" by the end of this decade, reported that its greenhouse gas emissions had risen nearly 30 percent since 2020 due to the construction of data centers.Google's report said that the company's data centers were using way more water than before to stay cool as a result of expanded AI workloads. Some of those workloads so far have involved Google Search suggesting that people eat rocks and put glue on their pizza to prevent the cheese from falling off, as well as Gemini, the company's AI-powered chatbot, generating images of ethnically diverse Nazis.In 2023, Google's data centers consumed 17 percent more water than the year before. That's 6.1 billion liters, enough to irrigate approximately 41 golf courses annually in the southwestern United States, according to the company's strangely kooky measure.As our business and industry continue to evolve, we expect our total GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions to rise before dropping toward our absolute emissions reduction target," Google's report stated, without explaining what would precipitate the drop. Predicting the future environmental impact of AI is complex and evolving, and our historical trends likely don't fully capture AI's future trajectory. As we deeply integrate AI across our product portfolio, the distinction between AI and other workloads will not be meaningful."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climbed-nearly-50-percent-in-five-years-due-to-ai-002646115.html?src=rss

It's been a hot minute since we've had a brand new Resident Evil game. Then again, it's hard to blame Capcom for that - Resident Evil: Village created such a high bar for future sequels to limbo under or jump over, depending on which hypothetical bar-based sport you're playing in your head.Capcom has finally confirmed that Resident Evil 9 is on the way and they've tapped a veteran director to oversee the tenth zombie adventure shooter. IGN reported that Capcom confirmed the news of the sequel during its Next Summer 2024 stream.Director Koshi Nakanishi will be in charge of the new Resident Evil game. Nakanishi has over a decade of experience directing Resident Evil games including The Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS, Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. "We're making a new Resident Evil," Nakanishi said. "It was really difficult to figure out what to do after 7, but I found it, and to be honest it feels substantial. I can't share any details just yet, but I hope you're excited for the day I can."Capcom has unleashed a deluge of remasters of some of its biggest game classics. During the same stream, Capcom also announced a re-release of the first Dead Rising called Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The emaster of the mall zombie slayer will feature a new voiceover for the game's journalist protagonist Frank West, updated HD graphics and fluffier poodles.Capcom also announced a demo for the Japanese-inspired, strategy action game Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddessand a re-release of Resident Evil: Biohazard for Apple mobile devices and Apple computers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-new-resident-evil-game-is-in-the-works-from-the-director-of-resident-evil-7-235543024.html?src=rss

Texas will be the main battleground for a case about porn websites that is now headed to the Supreme Court. The Free Speech Coalition, a nonprofit group that represents the adult industry, petitioned the top court in April to review a state law that requires websites with explicit material to collect proof of users' ages. SCOTUS today agreed to take on the case challenging a previous ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit as a part of its next term beginning in October.Texas was one of many states over the last year to pass this type of age-verification legislation aimed at porn websites. While supporters of these bills have said they are intended to protect minors from seeing inappropriate content, their critics have called the laws an overreach that could create new privacy risks. In response to the laws, Pornhub ended its operation in those states, a move that attracted public attention to the situation."While purportedly seeking to limit minors' access to online sexual content, the Act imposes significant burdens on adults' access to constitutionally protected expression," the FSC petition says. "Of central relevance here, it requires every user, including adults, to submit personally identifying information to access sensitive, intimate content over a medium - the internet - that poses unique security and privacy concerns."This case is one of the latest First Amendment rights questions to go before the Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the court remanded a case about social media content moderation back to lower courts and passed judgment on how closely social media companies can engage with federal officials about misinformation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/texas-age-verification-law-for-pornography-websites-is-going-to-the-supreme-court-233511418.html?src=rss

The latest title to join the Netflix Games roster is a very modern take on one of the icons of Windows computing. That's right, you can now play Minesweeper through Netflix's app. The classic PC puzzle game has been reimagined with an international setting, tasking the player with very literally looking for underwater mines by overlaying the usual interface of numbers and flags over vibrant pictures of waterways from around the world.For those of us who grew up playing the original game, this take from Netflix is certainly a departure in appearance. Colorful aquatic backgrounds? A journey mode? Buh? However, the Netflix version does have one definite bonus that the trailer calls out at its close: "No in-game ads. No extra fees. No in-app purchases." Trying to find a modern-day Minesweeper game for mobile involves sifting through what feels like countless options that mimic the look of the original, but are either ad-supported or require purchase to go ad-free.Minesweeper is also an interesting retro addition to what has become a wide-ranging collection of titles at Netflix. The company has its own takes on card games Hearts and Solitaire alongside indie darlings like Hades and international mega-hits from the Grand Theft Autoseries. Plus there are some games that tie into Netflix's own programming. The company has definitely cast a wide net with this endeavor.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-has-reimagined-minesweeper-and-its-out-now-220009017.html?src=rss

A three-mile stretch of Interstate 94 in Michigan will be converted into America's first smart highway.Axios reports that the Alphabet-backed startup Cavnue has started constructing the smart highway as part of a new pilot project that could spur other construction projects across the country. Another project, a "Smart Freight Corridor" on State Highway 130 by Austin, Texas, is also being developed.The new smart road is big, long tracking system for Michigan's Department of Transportation (MDOT) and for drivers on the highway. The smart highway is designed to inform both MDOT and drivers about potential issues ahead, such as obstacles in the road, accidents or traffic jams. It's hoped that the project will help relieve traffic congestion, prevent accidents and help authorities provide efficient responses to roadway emergencies.The pilot program of the highway is located between Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan. There are future plans to extend the smart highway to 40 miles in six more phases that would connect to both cities once the pilot program is complete.The smart highway works with a series of poles placed every 200 meters (about 655 feet) along the road that hold sensor pods, compute pods and communication equipment. There are also cameras along the highway that monitor every stretch of roadway and take images that are analyzed by AI and machine learning algorithms to identify hazardous driving conditions. Alerts are sent to MDOT and drivers connected to the roadway.Cavnue says its technology can connect with "any vehicle that has connectivity features." A spokesperson said "Most modern cars with built-in navigation features fit into this category - a vintage old-timer would not."America has some catching up to do when it comes to building and implementing smart highways. Great Britain, for instance, started working on its first internet-connected road in 2014.Update, July 2, 7:20PM: This article was updated with additional information from a Cavnue spokesperson, and also to clarify that one additional project, rather than two, is currently under way in Texas.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/michigan-is-building-the-nations-first-smart-highway-213004576.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is later this month, and the retailer has been promoting the big sale with additional discounts with early Prime Day deals. Right now, members of Amazon Prime can snag three months of an Audible Premium Plus subscription for free. This deal runs through July 31. After the three-month deal, subscriptions will automatically renew at the usual price of $15 per month. But as with any Audible subscription, you can cancel at any time. So if you're an avid audiobook listener and have been waiting for a good deal, or if you're mildly curious about the service and want a longer time to test whether it's right for you, now's a good time to hop aboard. At this tier, Audible grants subscribers one title from its catalog every month. With this membership, you get unlimited listening access to the Plus catalog of originals, audiobooks and podcasts in addition to your one title per month. Audible also runs members-only sales and discounts that you can take advantage of as well. While the platform is best known for audiobooks, it also hosts original productions of radio plays and audio-only stories. Notable names such as Neil Gaiman and The Walking Dead's creative team have collaborated on Audible Originals. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-members-can-get-audible-free-for-three-months-ahead-of-prime-day-204245766.html?src=rss

Meta is changing a long-running policy regarding the Arabic word shaheed," which has been described as the most-moderated word on the company's apps. The company said in an update to the Oversight Board that use of the word alone would no longer result in a post's removal.The Oversight Board had criticized the company for a blanket ban" on the word, which is often translated as martyr," though, as the board noted, it can have multiple meanings. Meta's previous policy, however, didn't take that linguistic complexity" into account, which resulted in a disproportionate number of takedowns over a commonly used word. Shaheed, the board said earlier this year, accounts for more content removals under the Community Standards than any other single word or phrase," across the company's apps.In its latest update, Meta said that it had tested a new approach to moderating the word following a recommendation from the board. Initial results from our assessment indicate that continuing to remove content when Shaheed" is paired with otherwise violating content - or when the three signals of violence outlined by the Board are present - captures the most potentially harmful content without disproportionality impacting voice," the company wrote.The change should have a significant impact on Meta's Arabic-speaking users, who, according to the board, have been unfairly censored as a result of the policy. The Oversight Board welcomes Meta's announcement today that it will implement the Board's recommendations and introduce significant changes to an unfair policy that led to the censoring of millions of people across its platforms," the board said in a statement. The policy changes on how to moderate the Arabic word shaheed' should have a swift impact on when content is removed, with a more nuanced approach ending a blanket ban on a term that Meta has acknowledged is one the most over-enforced on its platforms."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-changing-its-policy-for-the-most-moderated-word-on-its-platforms-185016272.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is right around the corner, officially starting on July 16, but early deals are already starting to trickle in. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy A35 smartphone is currently available for $350, which is a discount of $50 and a record-low price for the mid-level handset. The A35 just became available in the US back in April, so the discount comes as a nice surprise. This is a capable smartphone with a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display that boasts a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz, just like its cousin the Galaxy A55. This phone also includes the company's Vision Booster software, which adjusts the screen's tone according to ambient lighting conditions, and Samsung's Knox Vault privacy technology. We put the Galaxy A35 on our list of the best midrange smartphones for a number of key reasons. We loved the screen, calling it one of the best displays available for the price, and the versatile camera system. We also enjoyed the 5,000mAh battery, which easily allows for all-day use. This battery supports 25W fast charging. As for power, the Exynos 1380 processor won't break any speed records and the 6GB of RAM is on the lower side. The same goes for the 128GB of onboard storage, though Samsung has added a microSD card for expansion. Despite these specs, the Galaxy A35 performs admirably with most tasks. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-early-prime-day-deal-brings-the-samsung-galaxy-a35-phone-to-a-record-low-price-174556637.html?src=rss

Bose surprised everyone when it debuted its clip-on Ultra Open Earbuds early this year. The premise was part fashion and part function, leaving your ears open to ambient sounds while you listen to tunes or podcasts. That model is $299 though, a price that's prohibitive for anyone looking to give the unique wear style a try. Enter JLab, the budget audio company with a solid track record for sound quality and features for under $100, and its new model: the Flex Open Earbuds. At just $50, it's much easier to take a gamble on the clip-on design, especially if you don't want make these your all-day buds. The Flex Open Earbuds offer the same basic premise as the Bose model. They clip onto the back of your ear while situating a speaker just outside of your ear canal. This leaves your ears open to outside noise you actually want to hear while also keeping your ears unplugged and comfy. JLab promises that the Flex Open Earbuds are suitable for calls, and multipoint Bluetooth allows you to switch devices with ease. Google Fast Pair is available on Android devices, so you can connect as soon as you take the buds out of the case. Where the Flex Open Earbuds actually surpass the Ultra Open Earbuds is durability and battery life. The $50 JLab version is IP55 rated where the Bose model is IPX4. The Flex Open Earbuds will also last over seven hours on a charge, according to the company, which is at least two hours more than I got on the Ultra Open Earbuds during my tests. In terms of audio, JLab employs 12mms drivers that it says are tuned to satisfy both bass lovers and listeners who love crisp, clear treble. The JLab app also provides a Bass Boost feature that leverages an algorithm for "astonishing" performance and "a truly immersive audio experience." I wouldn't expect sound quality on the level of Bose here, but JLab's reputation is solid enough that these will probably get the job done audio-wise. Plus, I mean, you're saving $250 in the process. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jlabs-flex-open-earbuds-are-a-50-version-of-the-bose-ultra-open-173339211.html?src=rss

Sonos speakers and soundbars are up to 25 percent off as part of a sitewide sale on refurbished products. This includes the well-reviewed Beam Gen 2, which found a place on our list of the best soundbars. You can scoop up a refurbished Beam for $300, which is a discount of $100 or 25 percent. We picked it as the best choice for consumers looking for a mid-range soundbar that provides pro-level features without breaking the bank. That's even more true now with today's sale. The Beam Gen 2 boasts solid sound quality, Dolby Atmos support and a compact form factor that won't call attention to itself. As with most Sonos products, the Beam Gen 2 can team up with other models to create a robust home sound system. It's also incredibly easy to set up and use. There are no upward-firing speakers here, but Sonos has addressed this limitation by tweaking the audio timing and frequency. On the downside, it only features a single HDMI port, so you won't be able to directly connect a gaming console to the soundbar. If Dolby Atmos doesn't matter to you, the original Sonos Beam is available for $191 instead of $319. The company's subwoofer, the Sub Gen 3, is available for $480 instead of $640 and the entry-level Ray soundbar is $164 instead of $220. These are all refurbished b-stock items but ship with the company's standard warranty. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonos-has-discounted-refurbished-speakers-and-soundbars-by-up-to-25-percent-164042803.html?src=rss

China's leading EV manufacturer, BYD, is catching up with Tesla in sales, according to sales figures published by Reuters. The company posted a 21 percent increase in electric vehicle sales throughout the second quarter. This totals 426,039 EVs from April to June, which is just 12,000 fewer vehicles than Tesla's estimated deliveries for the same time period. This places BYD in a good position to become the world's leading vendor.Tesla just reported a five percent drop in deliveries for the most recent quarter, which is the first time the company has ever experienced two straight quarters of decline. It produced 410,831 units and delivered 443,956 EVs in Q2. Production decreased by over 20,000 units compared to quarter one. Analysts like Barclays predicted an even steeper drop, so this is (sort of) good news for the company.There are a lot of factors playing into Tesla's decline, but the biggest one is likely the fact that it seems to have abandoned budget-friendly models in favor of robotaxis and dystopian stainless steel beasts. BYD's cars are fantastically cheap, with the recently-released Seagull starting at just $10,000. Of course, the company doesn't have much of a presence in the US yet and tariffs on imported Chinese vehicles hope to keep it that way. The EU has taken a similar approach to curb the influx of inexpensive Chinese EVs.BYD is part of China's industrial strategy to topple US carmakers, though there's one sure-fire way to stem the tide. Automakers should manufacture cheaper electric vehicles. BYD is becoming a global phenomenon because it makes budget-friendly EVs that aren't pieces of junk. Some manufacturers have taken note. Look at the Nissan Leaf, for instance, or the Hyundai Kona. One company that seems to have ignored the memo entirely? Tesla.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chinas-byd-is-catching-up-with-tesla-in-sales-153900131.html?src=rss

If you've been looking to improve your home's security but don't want to spend a fortune, Amazon Prime Day presents an excellent time to shop for some new gear. An early Prime Day deal discounts this Blink Outdoor bundle by 63 percent. For $120 - down from $320 - you can get a Blink Video Doorbell and three Outdoor 4 smart security cameras with Sync Module 2. Like most Prime Day deals, this one is exclusive to Prime members in the lead-up to the big day. The Blink bundle allows you to monitor your home, whether you're far away or right inside. You can use Video Doorbell to answer the door, get alerts when there's motion and speak to visitors. It uses infrared night vision and 1080p HD live view to give you insight during the day or night. The device requires two double AA batteries (included in the bundle) and should last for about two years. Then there are Blink's fourth-generation Outdoor Cameras, one of our picks for best smart home gadgets. The lens offers a 143-degree field of vision, 1080p HD video, two-way audio and Alexa integration. It also has better low-light vision and catches movement faster than its predecessors. If you don't need three cameras and want to save some money, there's another option for you. This early Prime Day deal bundle includes a Blink Video Doorbell and just one Outdoor 4 smart security camera with Sync Module 2. The pair is also 63 percent off, with the deal dropping their price to $60 from $160. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-prime-members-can-get-this-blink-outdoor-bundle-with-a-video-doorbell-for-63-percent-off-in-an-early-prime-day-deal-134858607.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day 2024 is nearly here, but there are already a bunch of solid early Prime Day deals available on tech products in the lead-up. Bose items are among the deals: you can grab this quality set of active noise cancelling (ANC) wireless earbuds for $100 off. The Bose QuietComfort II buds typically retail for $279, but it's available in two colorways for $179. That marks an all-time-low price for these earbuds. Admittedly, this isn't the latest set of ANC earbuds in Bose's lineup. The most recent model, Bose QuietComfort Ultra, is among our picks for the best wireless earbuds. However, a set of those costs $299. The QuietComfort II buds offer similar features at what's currently a significantly lower price in this early Prime Day deal, though it's an older model. At the time of Engadget's review in September 2022, senior reporter Billy Steele declared that the QuietComfort II was the top choice for anyone seeking earbuds with top-of-the-line noise blocking (our current recommendation for the best ANC earbuds is the QuietComfort Ultra, as it happens). The QuietComfort II's ANC capabilities are better than on the original model, while Bose made improvements to the audio quality and ambient sound mode. The buds personalize ANC and audio performance for your ears too. On the downside, six hours of battery life is a little on the low side (even by 2022 standards). The lack of useful, increasingly common features such as multipoint pairing and wireless charging proved disappointing too. Still, if you're looking for a set of earbuds that do a strong job of blocking out background noise without breaking the bank, the Bose QuietComfort II is by and large a terrific option. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/early-prime-day-deals-discount-the-bose-quietcomfort-ii-earbuds-to-a-record-low-price-on-amazon-141044394.html?src=rss

There's good news for anyone shopping early Prime Day deals. The 13-inch iPad Air with the M2 chip is available for a record-low price ahead of Amazon Prime Day. Our choice for 2024's best overall iPad is down to $749 from $799 for the 128GB model. The sale is running on the Blue, Purple and Starlight models, but the Space Gray option is only $769. Apple released its 13-inch iPad Air with the M2 chip earlier this year and we're big fans. We gave it a 91 in our review thanks to its great mix of features for the money. For starters, it's the first 13-inch iPad that you don't have to shell out Pro money to get. It offers a 60Hz LCD display, a USB-C port and that M2 chip. The chip means it will likely be compatible with upcoming Apple updates and features for quite some time. Other changes include the front camera existing in landscape and compatibility with a new Apple Pencil Pro. If you're in the market for something a bit cheaper then check out the 11-inch iPad Air with an M2 chip. It has almost the same features as its larger counterpart (the brightness rating is slightly lower) but is available for $559, down from $599 - a seven percent discount. Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-early-prime-day-deal-on-the-13-inch-ipad-air-m2-is-down-to-a-record-low-price-133619864.html?src=rss

Tesla has announced its second quarter figures, with the company producing 410,831 and delivering 443,956 EVs in Q2. Production decreased by a little over 20,000 units compared to quarter one, but deliveries increased by nearly 15 percent. However, its distribution numbers are 4.8 percent lower than the same period in 2023. Tesla notes it "deployed 9.4 GWh of energy storage products in Q2, the highest quarterly deployment yet."The car manufacturer's first quarter of 2024 was the first time since 2020 that the company reported a year-over-year sales drop. The car manufacturer blamed the decrease partly on "the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin." A group of people called "Volcano Group" claimed responsibility for cutting the power to Tesla's factory outside Berlin. The plant is Tesla's only one in Europe and had to close for a week while power was restored.Notably, on April 1 Tesla increased the price of every Model Y in the US by $1,000, but we'll have to wait until July 23 to see if it impacted the company's Q2 financial results. Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that a lower-cost EV should arrive in the second half of 2025, but that its production might lower sales growth this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teslas-year-over-year-deliveries-decreased-for-the-second-quarter-in-a-row-144057024.html?src=rss

The European Commission designated Apple as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act for its iOS and iPadOS platforms, as well as its App Store and its Safari browser. VisionOS is nowhere in that list, but Apple is getting ahead of the commission this time and has announced that apps for the headset distributed on the App Store in the EU can offer alternative payment options. As 9to5Mac notes, Apple made the announcement just before the Vision Pro is released in the region - the headset will be available in France and Germany starting on July 12.For developers to be able to offer alternative payment methods outside of the App Store, visionOS version 1.2 is required. Developers can already offer alternative payment solutions on Apple's other platforms in the EU, and in those cases, users are redirected to a third-party provider or a website to pay for their purchase or subscription. Chances are, that's also how it's going to work for the headset.A few days ago, European Union officials said Apple breached DMA rules because there was nothing in its updated terms that allows developers to tell users how much less they could pay if they choose to use the alternative payment options they offer. Authorities started investigating Apple over its potential violation of the DMA's anti-steering rules back in March. The results they released were merely preliminary findings, but if Apple is found guilty, the company may have to pay a fine worth up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue, or tens of billions of dollars.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-says-vision-pro-will-allow-alternate-payment-methods-in-the-eu-143038469.html?src=rss

Capcom's announcement trailer for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will give you a glimpse of the game's improved graphics for the PS5, the Xbox Series X/S and Windows computers. It also reveals that the digital version of the remastered game will be released on September 19 for all platforms.The company first gave Dead Rising an HD remaster back in 2016 for the PS4 and the Xbox One as part of the game's 10th anniversary, but this version gives the world and its characters more textures and more realistic looking features. Frank West definitely looks more human with more natural-looking expressions in the Deluxe Remaster, while Madonna the poodle looks a lot more fluffy and dog-like. Capcom says this version is a "full graphical overhaul of the first game." It used its own video game engine called RE Engine to rework the title's graphics, including its environments and backgrounds.The remaster is fully voiced, but West sounds noticeably different in the trailer compared to the older versions. In a text conversation with @FrankByDaylight on X/Twitter, original voice actor TJ Rotolo said he's not reprising his role in the remake because Capcom didn't invite him back for the project. If that's not a deal breaker, then you can enjoy the game's other quality-of-life improvements, including the addition of auto-save, revamped controls and a better UI.While the digital release is scheduled for September 19, Capcom will also start selling a physical version sometime in November.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dead-risings-deluxe-remaster-boasts-fluffier-poodles-130035391.html?src=rss

I went to a museum recently that had a range of iPods and early generation iPhones on display - it was horrifying. Now, Apple is responsible for my shock, thanks to the new items added its vintage and obsolete products list on July 1. The tech giant has put the first generation HomePod on its list of vintage products. Apple typically labels a product as "vintage" if its been out of distribution for at least five years - however, Apple only discontinued the HomePod three years ago. These products can still get repaired, as long as parts are available.Apple first announced the HomePod in June 2017 and released it the following February for $349. The device offered an A8 chip, high-quality audio and compatibility with Apple's ecosystem, such as AirPlay.The first-gen HomePod isn't the only notable item added to the vintage list. Apple has declared its original AirPods as a vintage commodity. AirPods first came on the scene in December 2016 for $159 and has since evolved into multiple generations and a Pro model. After seven years, Apple will label both the first-gen HomePod and AirPods as obsolete, meaning the company discontinues all hardware service for them.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-now-considers-its-first-homepod-to-be-vintage-133039168.html?src=rss

Ever since Apple's MacBooks switched to the company's homegrown M-series chips, Windows users have wondered when a similar revolution would happen to their machines. To Microsoft's credit, it hasn't been for a lack of trying. Way back in 2012, the company released the Surface RT with an Arm-based processor, which is the same architecture used in Apple's silicon. Unfortunately, a tiny app library, sluggish performance and limited software compatibility made using one full-time kind of frustrating. Then in 2017, Microsoft renewed its efforts with Windows on Snapdragon. This led to systems like the Surface Pro X, which sported gorgeous hardware that was once again marred by lackluster processing power and spotty software support. But as the old adage goes: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And after more than a decade of starts and stumbles, Microsoft has done it. By combining the powerful Oryon cores in Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips with its new Prism emulator, Microsoft has turned the Surface Laptop 7 (and its sibling, the Surface Pro 11) into a nearly ideal productivity machine. Design and display: Premium from top to bottom While the Surface Laptop 7 (or 7th Edition as Microsoft likes to call it) features fancy new silicon inside, not much has changed on the outside. But I'm not complaining. It has a sleek all-aluminum chassis with clean, minimalist lines, but doesn't look like a MacBook. Microsoft has also made a few small tweaks like the addition of rounded corners on its display, a new haptic touchpad (similar to what's on the Surface Laptop Studio 2) and a dedicated key for Copilot (more on that later). Like before, the Surface Laptop 7 is available in two sizes. The smaller one features a slightly larger 13.8-inch display than before (up from 13.5) while the bigger model has stayed pat at 15 inches. There are also two USB 4 Type-C slots, one USB-A 3.1 jack, a microSD card reader and Microsoft's magnetic Surface Connect port. So nothing unusual, but more than enough connectivity to handle most situations. And with the 13-inch model weighing just under three pounds (2.96 lb) and the 15-inch option coming in at 3.6 pounds, both versions won't add much extra heft to your bag. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget As for the display itself, the 15-inch PixelSense LCD display on our Surface Laptop 7 review unit is top-notch. On top of its 120Hz refresh rate, it's been color-calibrated to deliver accurate hues while also offering great brightness (over 600 nits on a full white screen) and 10-point touch support. It's even covered by Gorilla Glass 5 to prevent scratches and abrasion. I just wish there was the option to upgrade to an OLED panel like you can on the Surface Pro 11. Performance and compatibility: New heights for Windows on Arm The most impressive thing about the Surface Laptop 7 is just how normal it feels. It's super responsive, has instant wake times and just generally feels extremely speedy. But the best part is that you often can't even tell the difference between running native Arm software or when the laptop is using Microsoft's Prism emulator in the background to seamlessly translate apps originally designed for x86 chips. It's really that smooth. In benchmarks, the Snapdragon X Elite chip delivers on Qualcomm's lofty performance claims. For example, in Geekbench 6, the Surface Laptop 7 posted multicore scores of 14,400, which is higher than a similarly equipped Dell XPS 14 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip (11,920). In fact, the X Elite in the Surface even managed to top the Core Ultra 9 CPU inside an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16, which maxed out at 12,798. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget However, it's important to note that the performance of the X Elite chip is based on how much juice it gets. On the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7, Microsoft allocates up to 30 watts to the processor. But on the smaller 13-inch model, it caps out at 20 watts, so while it should still be pretty fast, you will get better performance on the larger option. And though the Surface Laptop 7 isn't fanless like a MacBook Air, even under load the notebook rarely got above a whisper quiet. Finally, while most tools and apps just kind of work regardless of what architecture they were designed for, with Windows PCs still relatively early in the transition (at least this go around) to Arm-based systems, there are a handful of major apps that need a bit more time. Some of the big ones are Adobe products like Illustrator and InDesign, which won't be available on Copilot+ PCs until sometime in July, while updated versions of After Effects and Premier Pro might not arrive until closer to the end of 2024. A quick word on gaming Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Microsoft has never said that the Surface Laptop 7 is a gaming machine. But given numbers from the ESA (Electronics Software Association) showing that 65 percent of Americans play some form of video game on a weekly basis, the laptop's fragging abilities are probably worth a mention. Unfortunately, while the Snapdragon X Elite chip boasts decent benchmarks, a lot of titles that might otherwise be good fits for the Laptop 7 simply don't run. A number of these are competitive games like Fortnite and League of Legends, which feature anti-cheat protocols that haven't been updated to work on Arm-based chips. It's doubly frustrating because in the case of LoL, the game installs normally and doesn't display any warnings aside from Riot's Vanguard system asking you to reboot your system before launching the game. But no matter how many times you do, the game never boots up. That said, it's not a completely lost cause. I've found that casual 2D titles like Into the Breach and Vampire Survivor run smoothly, so you still have some options. And if you want to play more demanding titles, there's always streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now, which by nature aren't affected by architecture or OS limitations. Copilot+ AI features: More of a bonus than true essentials One of the big selling points for this new breed of Copilot+ PCs was supposed to be Microsoft's built-in AI features. But in reality, they're more like occasionally useful bonuses. The tool with the most potential is Recall, which takes screenshots of your desktop so that AI can help you find things later. Unfortunately, due to concerns about its security, the feature will initially only be available to Windows Insiders before it's officially released sometime in the future. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Meanwhile, other Copilot+ AI tools feel rather limited in scope. The Image Creator button in the Photos app lets you generate pictures based on word prompts and it largely delivers. But results still aren't as detailed or realistic as what you get from more powerful cloud-based services like Midjourney. But hey, it's free. To make things more confusing, in Paint, there's another button also labeled Image Creator, but it's actually an entirely different feature with a limited number of uses and results that aren't quite as good as the similarly named option in Photos. Ultimately, the most useful AI features are Live Captions and the Restyle Image tool in Photos. The former uses AI to creatively edit or transform existing shots, allowing you to change the style of a picture into something that looks like anime or an impressionistic painting, while the letter provides real-time translation for videos, podcasts and more. And even though Microsoft's captions could be a touch more accurate, it's generally good enough for you to get the gist of whatever you're watching or listening to. Battery life: More than all-day longevity In case you don't feel like using's Microsoft's included power adapter, the Surface Laptop 7's USB4 ports also support charging. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Even though emulating apps meant for x86 processors might use a little more juice, the Surface Laptop 7 has more than enough battery life to go around. Though our usual rundown test hasn't been updated for Arm-based chips yet, when I streamed a 1080p video over Wi-Fi, the device lasted 17 hours and 38 minutes, which is several hours more than I typically get from some similarly equipped Intel and AMD-powered rivals. And in general use, it often felt like the Laptop 7 fared even better, frequently finishing a day with around 50 percent charge. Another advantage of the Snapdragon X chips is that there's almost zero battery drain when the system is asleep, which I attribute to Qualcomm's experience in making efficient smartphone processors. I noticed that the Surface Laptop 7 would lose just one or two percent of battery overnight, which gives you the confidence to leave it unplugged for days at a time. For charging, you can either use the magnetic Surface Connect port with the included power brick. But another bonus is that the Surface Laptop 7 also supports charging via USB-C, so if you want to travel light and use a universal adapter to keep this and a bunch of other gadgets topped up, you totally can. Wrap-up Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget While the road here was beset with bumps and potholes, the Surface Laptop 7 has arrived ready to compete. And it isn't just a great rival to the MacBook Air, it's paving a new road ahead for Windows PCs. It's fast, quiet, has excellent battery life and plays nicely with most of your apps. Sure, a few major programs still need additional support and you may run into issues when trying to play games or installing niche software. And when you spec it up, it can get a bit pricey too. The 15-inch model starts at $1,300, but our review unit with a Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD goes for $2,100. Still, for general productivity, the Surface Laptop 7 and its Snapdragon X Elite chip are a revelation and a revolutionary step forward for Windows as we know it. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-surface-laptop-7-review-success-at-last-120056125.html?src=rss

My relationship with my iPhone's Photos app is complicated. It's both my trove of memories and my secret pile of shame. I have thousands of pictures from trips, outings and gatherings with loved ones, but thousands more of myself, food and random internet stuff (tweets, Reddit posts and crossword puzzle hints). Throw in private pictures of things like my tax documents or IDs and the Photos app probably holds all the most important and sensitive things in my life. I spend hours on it each day. I'd be lost without the 73,600 photos and 2,607 videos I've stored in it (and the 600GB in my Google Photos of course, I only switched to iOS two years ago).So when Apple announced a redesign was coming in iOS 18 (and iPadOS 18), I was skeptical and worried. Change? I hate it. My fingers already know exactly where the buttons are; having to relearn everything would suck. How else would I quickly find the screenshots I need?The good news is, the iOS 18 redesign for the Photos app might make things easier to pull up. Better yet, it could allow people to use their albums in ways that best meet their needs - perhaps those of you who are more utilitarian and less vain about it could benefit too.I got a closer look at the upcoming changes at WWDC last month. But last week I got a deeper dive when I spoke with Della Huff, Billy Sorrentino and Jon McCormack from Apple's Photos, design and software teams to learn more about why and how the app was redesigned.How will the redesigned Photos app look in iOS 18?At first glance, your Photos might not look too different. As shown off at WWDC 2024, all your pictures will still be the first thing you see. Peer just slightly beyond the surface, though, and the changes are obvious. Gone are the tabs below your images that say Library," For You," Albums" and Search." And instead of your grid taking up basically the entire page, it now ends about two thirds of the way, with rows of albums showing up below.I have to say that I was initially annoyed with this change, but once I heard my entire library is just a swipe down away, I was massively relieved. Well, mostly, anyway. The bar at the bottom that lets you jump between annual, monthly, daily and all views will now show years, months and all. That's fine by me, since I rarely use the daily option.A new filter button at the bottom left lets you choose what to focus on or cut out of the grid, like screenshots, favorites, portraits, videos and edited images. Swiping sideways will show various collections, either generated by your phone or created by yourself.AppleThe idea is to reduce doomscrolling through the grid," Huff said, referencing an idea McCormack had mentioned before. With over three trillion photos and videos taken each year, Apple users probably don't want to sit around weeding through blurry shots or screenshots. Helping them get to what they want more quickly is one of the main focuses of the redesign.But like I said, too much change sucks. Sorrentino said, It was critical from the very beginning of this design process that we didn't lose any key features that people love today." So far, it does look like the stuff I use most frequently is either still there or even easier to reach. And though I find it unnecessary that each collection will autoplay as a memory in the redesign, at least it will look nice and won't take up extra space.When you swipe to the right of the grid, you'll see the new Photos Carousel, highlighting what Apple thinks is your best content. This uses on-device intelligence" that has been in the app and evolving for 15 years and considers data like the people in the shots and the location they were taken in to create mini movies of your outings and activities.Don't confuse this with Apple Intelligence, though. This is simply algorithms. In fact, McCormack called it an intuition." For example, he said iPhone knew who my partner was long before I told iPhone who my partner was." The team is building on the same system that's been identifying faces and generating Memories here, and in iOS 18 it will start surfacing photo sets featuring groups of people and pets like you and your parents, your partner and your pet or you and your partner. There will also be new collections like "recently edited" and "a smart receipts album that you can put right at the top with pinned collections," Huff said.She pointed out that in the redesigned Photos app "there's a number of new dimensions and types of content that we're surfacing, like receipts and documents, handwriting, QR codes and more." These can lead to more efficient and relevant search results to help drill down into your library.How do Apple Intelligence features in the new Photos app work?Apple Intelligence will bring a few new tools to the Photos app, like Cleanup to erase distractions in the background and text prompts to create narrative Memories with storylines. It'll also enable a natural language search" that'll let you find a picture by describing what's in them so you won't have to try to remember where or when the event happened, or worse, doomscroll. It should be as easy as typing flaming praying mantis with a group of people in shock" instead of searching through the hundreds of pictures you took in Las Vegas. These will require you to have at least an iPhone 15 Pro, though.During my time with Huff, Sorrentino and McCormack, I learned that Cleanup works on all images in your Photos app, so you could use it in screenshots or downloaded pictures, too. McCormack explained that when you use Cleanup on an image taken in Portrait mode, "we will clean up the original image and then reapply the depth of field effect."Apple uses "three different AI models" to remove background distractions, McCormack said. The first will "understand the clutter so that when you click on something, we know what to make go away." The other two are an "in-filling model" to replace the hole, as well as one that will understand "the segmentation boundaries of the subject." The latter will prevent Cleanup from leaving divots in your subject's head or accidentally giving them an unflattering haircut.What can you customize and why does it matter?Because the new Photos app features collections so heavily, the fact that you can create and pin them where you want makes your favorite images easy to get to. Basically, the entire area below the grid is your playground. You can organize the structure of the app itself," Sorrentino said. You can turn on or off any section of the app," or reorganize it.My favorite person is myself, so I'm probably going to put my best selfies in a collection and have it be the one I see first after swiping on the grid. But as part of the collections below the grid, I'm going to have the crochet patterns I've taken screenshots of as one I pin high up, as well as important information i frequently refer to like my airline loyalty account numbers.The beauty of customization in general is how each person can tailor an interface to their individual needs. Maybe you prefer to use Photos a bit more like Pinterest, where you screenshot the car models you're considering buying and put them in an album. Or perhaps you're tracking your meals by taking pictures of your food daily to help plan a menu. Or you're cataloging your outfit, your garden, your stamp collection, or your growing child. You'll be able to create a collection of the photos you want and pin them.I haven't spent time with the new Photos app yet, so though I'm excited at the promise of what customizability can bring, I'm also reserving judgment. I also enjoy doomscrolling my gallery while I look back at my weekend, since it visually represents my train of thought through the days. Sometimes, I use screenshots to remind myself to do something later in the evening when I'm inevitably staring at pictures of my friend's cute baby again. So the idea of letting Apple filter out what it thinks might be insignificant isn't something that appeals to my control-freak self. Luckily, it seems I can still view all images in my library.I'd also like to see how the Cleanup tool performs, as well as whether the "natural language search" will perform well compared to Google's recently announced Ask Photos tool. And though I don't create or watch many Memories, I'd be curious about what a video derived from a prompt like "all my outfits from athleisure to formal" would look like.iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 are currently available to developers as a closed beta, and a public beta is expected later this summer. The full release of the new software is likely to drop in the fall, which is when most people will probably receive the redesigned Photos app when they update their iPhones. Still a few months to go before your fingers have to relearn where everything is, then.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-apple-redesigned-its-photos-app-around-customization-120038901.html?src=rss