Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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

Skullcandy has revealed a trio of earbud models it says were designed with the "most active and adventurous consumers" in mind. The Active Collection lineup ranges from $60 to $100 and were engineered to deliver reliable performance in any conditions, according to Skullcandy. The Push Play Active, Push ANC Active and Sesh ANC Active all have a few common features. They all support multipoint pairing and rapid charging - a 10-minute charge will allow two hours of playback time. A Sidetone feature is said to counteract occlusion and make it easier to hear our own voice. Meanwhile, the adjustable stay-aware mode lets you tweak things so that it's easier for you to remain alert and hear what's going on around you. Skullcandy The $60 Push Play Active buds have over-the-ear hooks and an IP55 rating for sweat and water resistance. Skullcandy claims that a smart mic will reduce background noise for "crystal clear" calls. The Push Play Active earbuds have several equalizer presets and you'll be able to set up your own custom five-band EQ as well. They offer up to 34 hours of battery life, according to Skullcandy, with the earbuds running for up to 10 hours on a single charge and the charging case adding an extra 24 hours of use. The other two models have some shared features as well. Push ANC Active and Sesh ANC Active are IP67 rated, meaning they're sweatproof and waterproof. Both models use a four-mic array for adjustable active noise cancellation (ANC). The earbuds are compatible with the Skullcandy app, which will allow you to customize the onboard controls and equalizer levels. There's a personal sound feature too - you'll be able to take a real-time audio test to create a profile for optimized sound levels. Skullcandy The Push ANC Active earbuds are the most expensive option of the three at $100. Skullcandy claims you'll get up to 37 hours of use with ANC on (seven hours from the earbuds and 30 extra from the charging case) and as much as 58 hours of use with ANC off. The brand says you'll be able to use the earbuds for up to 12 hours before having to return them to the charging case. In addition, the case supports wireless charging. It's worth noting that while the Push ANC Active option has an over-the-ear hook, there's a more traditional true wireless design for the Sesh ANC Active. Skullcandy says these earbuds have a "fit grip" to keep them in your ears. They have a promised battery life of up to 28 hours with ANC on (seven hours in the earbuds, 21 in the charging case) and up to 48 hours with ANC off (12 hours and 36 hours, respectively). The Sech ANC Active earbuds will run you $90. Skullcandy Skullcandy has earned a reputation for offering solid products at relatively budget-friendly prices, so these are options worth considering if you're on the lookout for a set of earbuds to use while you're working out. All three models will be available on Skullcandy's website starting on June 25. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/skullcandy-expands-its-earbud-lineup-with-three-sport-models-all-under-100-120021846.html?src=rss

Two state laws from Texas and Florida, that could upend the way social media companies handle content moderation are still up in the air. The Supreme Court sent the challenges back to lower courts, which vacates previous rulings. In a 9 - 0 decision in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the Supreme Court said that earlier rulings in lower courts had not properly evaluated the laws' impact on the First Amendment. Never heard of NetChoice? It's an industry group representing Meta, Google, X and other large tech companies. So it's incredibly well-funded. NetChoice argued that the laws were unconstitutional.The Texas law, passed in 2021, allows users to sue large social media companies over alleged censorship" of their political views. The Supreme Court suspended the law in 2022 following a legal challenge. The Florida measure, also passed in 2021, attempted to impose fines on social media companies for banning politicians - that's also on hold.Justice Elena Kagan said that lower court rulings in both cases concentrated" on the issue of whether a state law can regulate the content-moderation practices used in Facebook's News Feed (or near equivalents)." However, she writes, they did not address the full range of activities the laws cover, and measure the constitutional against the unconstitutional applications." It seems the lower courts need to do their homework.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedThe Kindle Scribe Essentials bundle is nearly $200 off at AmazonSega's new Crazy Taxi reboot will be an open-world MMOThe best gaming handheldsThe Sims 4's Lovestruck expansion lets you dive into a steamy polyamory sandboxYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Midjourney is creating Trump images when asked for 'the president of the United States'It banned the creation of Trump and Biden images around the election.MidjourneyMidjourney, a popular AI-powered image generator, is creating images of Donald Trump and Joe Biden despite saying that it would block users from doing so ahead of the upcoming US presidential election. Engadget managed to get the tool to create images of Trump multiple times. The only time Midjourney refused to create an image of Trump or Biden was when it was asked to do so explicitly. The Midjourney community voted to prevent using Donald Trump' and Joe Biden' during election season," the service said in that instance. Midjourney did not respond to a request for comment from Engadget.Continue reading.You can request the removal of AI-generated content using your likeness on YouTubeThe video owner will have 48 hours to respond.Talking of AI-generated fakes, YouTube quietly added a new policy last month that lets you request the removal of AI-generated content that features your likeness. YouTube says several factors will determine whether it considers a removal, including whether the content is altered or synthetic (and whether it's disclosed as such), easily identifiable as the person in question or realistic.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-supreme-court-rejects-rulings-on-social-media-moderation-111527524.html?src=rss

While many streamers have a global subscriber base, some have stuck to North America. Tubi, the Fox Corporation's free ad-supported streaming service, is no longer in that second camp with the streamer announcing it will launch in the United Kingdom.Tubi will arrive with over 20,000 TV episodes and movies on-demand, from the likes of Disney and Sony Pictures Entertainment, along with Tubi Originals. "We are launching with one of the largest and most diverse content libraries in the UK, designed to indulge viewers in everything from blockbusters to original stories to hidden gems," Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi, stated in the company's announcement. "Most importantly, we're committed to listening to what resonates with UK fans, and bringing them more and more of what they love." Tubi will offer UK users Hollywood films, British classics, Bollywoods, Nollywoods and Arthouse Cinema - to name a few.The streamer claims to have nearly 80 million monthly active users and clearly hopes to grow that number significantly with a UK audience. It will be available on iOS and Android smartphones, major connected TV platforms and the web.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tubi-is-coming-to-the-uk-103019398.html?src=rss

The NFC Forum, the non-profit org made up of big tech companies promoting the NFC standard, envisions a future wherein one tap is all you need for multiple actions at once. With a single tap, for instance, you could pay for your purchase, get points on your rewards account and receive a digital receipt on your phone. The organization released a document that can give you an overview of what the NFC multi-purpose tap capability is and how it can potentially be used.It explains that the multi-purpose tap "leverages the capability of NFC devices to allow both reading and writing of data across a connection." That enables several actions, which typically requires multiple stages, to be accomplished at one time. If you're buying alcohol, tapping to pay for it would also verify your identity and your age. You could also get a product's sustainability information, including ways its packaging can be recycled, on your phone the moment you pay for it.For public transit, the technology could ensure you're getting charged the correct fare, taxes and concessions every time. If the ride you're taking requires a ticket that you'll need to show a conductor, operators will be able to automatically issue you an e-ticket when you pay with the new multi-purpose tap experience.As The Verge notes, the capability does raise some privacy concerns, seeing as it automates everything, including identity verification. In addition, it will allow companies to trigger targeted marketing communications that you'll then get straight on your smartphone. Multi-purpose tap is still in its very early stages at the moment, though, and the NFC Forum is seeking contributions as it looks at market use cases for the technolog. The organization - which includes Apple, Google and Huawei, among other tech companies and manufacturers - still has to conduct tests to make sure the NFC technology is working as intended, as well, and to define standards to "enable mass market delivery."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nfc-forum-wants-to-bundle-age-verification-and-payment-receipts-in-tap-to-pay-043046883.html?src=rss

Midjourney, a popular AI-powered image generator, is creating images of Donald Trump and Joe Biden despite saying that it would block users from doing so ahead of the upcoming US presidential election.When Engadget prompted the service to create an image of the president of the United States," Midjourney generated four images in various styles of former president Donald Trump.MidjourneyWhen asked to create an image of the next president of the United States," the tool generated four images of Trump as well.MidjourneyWhen Engadget prompted Midjourney to create an image of the current president of the United States," the service generated three images of Trump and one image of former president Barack Obama.MidjourneyThe only time Midjourney refused to create an image of Trump or Biden was when it was asked to do so explicitly. The Midjourney community voted to prevent using Donald Trump' and Joe Biden' during election season," the service said in that instance. Other users on X were able to get Midjourney to generate Trump's images too.The tests show that Midjourney's guardrails to prevent users from generating images of Trump and Biden ahead of the upcoming US presidential election aren't enough - in fact, it's really easy for people to get around them. Other chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini and Meta AI did not create images of Trump or Biden despite multiple prompts.Midjourney did not respond to a request for comment from Engadget.Midjourney was one the first AI-powered image generators to explicitly ban users from generating images of Trump and Biden. I know it's fun to make Trump pictures - I make Trump pictures," the company's CEO, David Holz, told users in a chat session on Discord, earlier this year. However, probably better to just not - better to pull out a little bit during this election. We'll see." A month later, Holz reportedly told users that it was time to put some foots down on election-related stuff for a bit" and admitted that this moderation stuff is kind of hard." The company's existing content rules prohibit the creation of misleading public figures" and events portrayals" with the potential to mislead."Last year, Midjourney was used to create a fake image of Pope Benedict wearing a puffy white Balenciaga jacket that went viral. It was also used to create fake images of Trump being arrested ahead of his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court last year for his involvement in a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Shortly afterwards, the company halted free trials of the service and, instead, required people to pay at least $10 a month to use it.Last month, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit organization that aims to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech online, found that Midjourney's guardrails against generating misleading images of popular politicians including Trump and Biden failed 40% of its tests. The CCDH was able to use Midjourney to create an image of president Biden being arrested and Trump appearing next to a body double. The CCDH was also able to bypass Midjourney's guardrails by using descriptions of each candidate's physical appearance rather than their names to generate misleading images.Midjourney is far too easy to manipulate in practice - in some cases it's completely evaded just by adding punctuation to slip through the net," wrote CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed in a statement at the time. Bad actors who want to subvert elections and sow division, confusion and chaos will have a field day, to the detriment of everyone who relies on healthy, functioning democracies.Earlier this year, a coalition of 20 tech companies including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon, Adobe and X signed an agreement to help prevent deepfakes in elections taking place in 2024 around the world by preventing their services from generating images and other media that would influence voters. Midjourney was absent from that list.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/midjourney-is-creating-donald-trump-pictures-when-asked-for-images-of-the-president-of-the-united-states-212427937.html?src=rss

YouTube quietly added a new policy last month that lets you request the removal of AI-generated content featuring your likeness. The new privacy violation policy, first spotted by TechCrunch's Sarah Perez, allows you to flag videos that used AI to alter or create synthetic content that looks or sounds like you."YouTube says several factors will determine whether it considers a removal, including whether the content is altered or synthetic (and whether it's disclosed as such), easily identifiable as the person in question or realistic.The company will also weigh whether it could be considered a parody or satire. Another factor is whether it includes a public figure (or other well-known individual) engaging in a sensitive behavior," like crime, violence or endorsing a product or political candidate. TechCrunch notes the paramount importance of the latter during this pivotal election year.The new policy falls under YouTube's privacy violations, not misleading content. The company now requires first-party claims in most cases. The most notable exceptions are when the individual is a minor, doesn't have access to a computer or is deceased.YouTube will give the alleged violator 48 hours to act on the complaint. If it's removed during that window, it's case closed. If not, YouTube will review it.The documentation clarifies that removal means fully removing it (and removing the individual's name and personal info from the title, description and tags, if applicable). Blurring out faces is another option. It also explains that making the clip private isn't allowed since that would let the poster easily make it public again.YouTube didn't make noise about the change, but it did hint at it earlier this year when it laid out its policies for AI-generated video. At the time, it promised, In parallel, as we previously announced, we're continuing to work towards an updated privacy process for people to request the removal of AI-generated or other synthetic or altered content that simulates an identifiable individual, including their face or voice."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-youtube-policy-lets-you-request-the-removal-of-ai-generated-content-that-uses-your-likeness-211522438.html?src=rss

Alternate video game endings are always fun to see. If a talented modder remakes an alternate ending previously scrapped by the game's developer, it's even better. Someone did just that, putting together an alternate ending for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt using footage that was originally discarded by CD Projekt Red.YouTuber xLetalis shared a video detailing the restorations that modder Glassfish added to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt after the end of the game's original storyline. (Note that some spoilers for the game follow!) The game ends with Geralt being pulled out of his fight with Eredin by Yennefer, his potential partner and sorceress. However, the remade cutscene shows Geralt waking up in a tent and receiving care from two doctors making a bet on his survival rate. From there, he leaves the hospital and talks to Yennefer, whose dialogue varies depending on whether he's romancing her or another sorceress, Triss. Regardless of who Geralt was dating in the original game, you can ask where Ciri is or who won the war.The extended ending continues with more deleted content, including Geralt attending Crach's funeral, him meeting the Lodge of Sorceresses, and Yennefer betraying the Lodge to save Ciri. xLetalis speculated towards the end of the video that CD Projekt Red changed their minds about including Yennefer's betrayal in the final game for creative reasons such as prioritizing matching the player's motivations with the beat of the story, as they have no insider or PR connections within the company to confirm it.The restoration of the deleted content by Glassfish was made possible by CD Projekt Red releasing the REDkit modding tool for the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Huntin May. The company announced the modding tool last year to allow PC players to breathe new life into the game in any way they wish. REDkit was previously released for The Witcher 2, but as far as we know it wasn't used to insert previously-scrapped scenes into the game as we're seeing now. As for the origin of the deleted content, Glassfish pulled it from content that was cut from the main game but is still in the game's files.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/modder-remakes-scrapped-alternate-ending-for-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-201010523.html?src=rss

The new Lovestruck expansion pack for The Sims 4 gives the decade-old sequel a shot of life by turning it into a full-fledged dating sim - including non-monogamous WooHoo-ing for the first time. In addition to polyamory, the $40 DLC adds an in-game dating app, an encounter-planning system, turn-ons and turn-offs and a swanky singles club where Leisure Suit Larry (apologies for the dated reference) would feel right at home.The expansion pack takes your Sim to Ciudad Enamorada, a gorgeous city in love and the perfect place for all of your romantic encounters." It includes three neighborhoods for all the dangerous (if you're into that) liaisons your Sim's gibberish-speaking heart can handle.Your Sim can meet, flirt, spark romance or even rent a room at Beso Rapido" for a quickie WooHoo. They're no longer boxed into monogamy, letting you set up dates with as many partners as your Sim wants.EAThe Cupid's Corner app (in the game, not on your phone) lets your Sim snap selfies, create a profile and set preferences for compatible partners. Potential connections will appear in the app's Matches tab, where you can tap a heart to save and spark a chat.The date planner lets you craft a night to remember with customizable date types, venues, group invites (ha-cha-cha), activities and goals. When you meet your match for the date, you can test the chemistry by playing games, chatting over a picnic, sharing food or cuddling (or something like that) in bed. Most importantly, EA added new options for kisses, sultry dances and three new WooHoo spots... because variety is the spice of life.The expansion adds four romance types that will vary depending on the partners: wholesome, steamy, strained and unpredictable. Your Sim can level up their romance skills as they mingle and unlock spicy new interactions.EAThe Sims' representation has evolved significantly since the base game's inception. EA added gender customization in 2016, followed by Pride-themed content three years later. The ability to change your Sim's sexual orientation finally arrived two years ago, not long after EA incorporated a pronoun customization option.The Lovestruck expansion for The Sims 4 costs $40 and launches on July 25. Those who pre-order the DLC will get digital bonuses like a Cry Me a River Eyeliner (it wouldn't be dating without a few broken hearts), Herbert Heart Plushie and, everyone's favorite, the Basic Breakup Double Bed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sims-4s-lovestruck-expansion-lets-you-dive-into-a-steamy-polyamory-sandbox-193545470.html?src=rss

Meta is updating its Made with AI" labels after widespread complaints from photographers that the company was mistakenly flagging non-AI-generated content. In an update, the company said that it will change the wording to AI info" because the current labels weren't always aligned with people's expectations and didn't always provide enough context."The company introduced the Made with AI" labels earlier this year after criticism from the Oversight Board about its manipulated media" policy. Meta said that, like many of its peers, it would rely on industry standard" signals to determine when generative AI had been used to create an image. However, it wasn't long before photographers began noticing that Facebook and Instagram were applying the badge on images that hadn't actually been created with AI. According to tests conducted by PetaPixel, photos edited with Adobe's generative fill tool in Photoshop would trigger the label even if the edit was only to a tiny speck."While Meta didn't name Photoshop, the company said in its update that some content that included minor modifications using AI, such as retouching tools, included industry standard indicators" that triggered the Made with AI" badge. While we work with companies across the industry to improve the process so our labeling approach better matches our intent, we're updating the Made with AI' label to AI info' across our apps, which people can click for more information."Somewhat confusingly, the new AI info" labels won't actually have any details about what AI-enabled tools may have been used for the image in question. A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the contextual menu that appears when users tap on the badge will remain the same. That menu has a generic description of generative AI and notes that Meta may add the notice when people share content that has AI signals our systems can read."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-changes-its-labels-for-ai-generated-images-after-complaints-from-photographers-191533416.html?src=rss

Google is investing in a Taiwanese solar company with plans to build a 1 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of sustainable energy in the region. The company is placing a stake in New Green Power (NGP), part of BlackRock's investment portfolio, for the project. The move could help Google and Taiwan move closer to their climate goals while stabilizing green energy production in one of the most crucial semiconductor hubs of our new AI-infused world.Google already has a significant presence in Taiwan, including a data center. According to Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of data center energy, fossil fuels currently generate nearly 85 percent of Taiwan's power grid. To help overcome these obstacles, companies can play a pivotal role in finding new strategies to grow the supply of available renewable energy sources and promoting emerging technologies that enable the full decarbonization of regional electricity systems," she wrote.Google expects to use up to 300 megawatts of solar capacity to power its data centers in Taiwan. In addition, Peterson Corio says the company may offer a portion of this clean energy capacity to [its] semiconductor suppliers and manufacturers in the region." She said that would help its partners meet their green energy goals and reduce indirect (Scope 3) emissions from Google's supply chain partners.A significant share of our Scope 3 footprint can be traced back to the electricity grids that power our suppliers and users, which is why broad decarbonization - and partnerships like this - continue to be core to our net-zero goal," Peterson Corio wrote.Regulators haven't yet approved the deal. Google hasn't said how much it's investing in NGP.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-invests-in-taiwanese-solar-company-to-boost-green-energy-171231205.html?src=rss

Sega's upcoming Crazy Taxi reboot is going to be an open-world massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game, according to a developer interview on YouTube. The interview includes both quotes from Sega's team and some brief instances of game footage.Series producer Kenji Kanno confirmed that the reboot will be playable by many people at once, though the company is still testing the game mechanics. The goal, according to a translation by Automaton, is to maintain the feel of the original franchise entries while incorporating MMO elements. To that end, the footage shows multiple yellow taxis racing one another with police cars in pursuit. Oddly, the police cars are convertibles.It also looks like the map will be inspired by California, which makes sense given the previous entries, and will include theme park-like" elements. The reboot has previously been described as a AAA title, so Sega is putting a whole bunch of resources behind it. Based on one job recruitment page, the game is being developed in Unreal Engine.The idea of an open-world Crazy Taxi makes perfect sense, as it already was basically a precursor to GTA and the like. The MMO aspect, however, could be annoying or it could be amazing. We won't know until it comes out.This reboot is just one of Sega's upcoming visits to the nostalgia well. The company recently announced that it's breaking out many dusty IPs to work on modern versions. These include Crazy Taxi, of course, but also Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi and Streets of Rage. It's worth noting that the company continues to ignore what the people really want, a modern take on the horrifying talking fish nightmare simulator Seaman.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/segas-new-crazy-taxi-reboot-will-be-an-open-world-mmo-155456136.html?src=rss

Two state laws that could upend the way social media companies handle content moderation are still in limbo after a Supreme Court ruling sent the challenges back to lower courts, vacating previous rulings. In a 9 - 0 decision in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the Supreme Court said that earlier rulings in lower courts had not properly evaluated the laws' impact on the First Amendment.The cases stem from two state laws, from Texas and Florida, which tried to impose restrictions on social media companies' ability to moderate content. The Texas law, passed in 2021, allows users to sue large social media companies over alleged censorship" of their political views. The Supreme Court suspended the law in 2022 following a legal challenge. Meanwhile, the Florida measure, also passed in 2021, attempted to impose fines on social media companies for banning politicians. That law has also been on hold pending legal challenges.Both laws were challenged by NetChoice, an industry group that represents Meta, Google, X and other large tech companies. NetChoice argued that the laws were unconstitutional and would essentially prevent large platforms from performing any kind of content moderation. The Biden Administration also opposed both laws. In a statement, NetChoice called the decision a victory for First Amendment rights online."In a decision authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the court said that lower court rulings in both cases concentrated" on the issue of whether a state law can regulate the content-moderation practices used in Facebook's News Feed (or near equivalents)." But, she writes, they did not address the full range of activities the laws cover, and measure the constitutional against the unconstitutional applications."Essentially, the usually-divided court agreed that the First Amendment implications of the laws could have broad impacts on parts of these sites unaffected by algorithmic sorting or content moderation (like direct messages, for instance) as well as on speech in general. Analysis of those externalities, Kagan wrote, simply never occurred in the lower court proceedings. The decision to remand means that analysis should take place, and the case may come back before SCOTUS in the future.In sum, there is much work to do below on both these cases ... But that work must be done consistent with the First Amendment, which does not go on leave when social media are involved," Kagan wrote.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/supreme-court-remands-social-media-moderation-cases-over-first-amendment-issues-154001257.html?src=rss

Between price increases and Netflix cutting people off their neighbor's sister's dog sitter's account, affording streaming accounts has become a lot harder. So, we're thrilled that Paramount+ with Showtime annual subscriptions are still available for half off. The yearly cost is $60, down from $120 - as long as you pay the entire sum up front. Paramount+, formerly CBS All Access, is a great streamer for Star Trek and sports fans - among a few others. It offers originals like Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, while being a hub for watching soccer. The streamer has aired NWSL soccer matches and the UEFA Champions League and Europa League. Showtime is home to a huge range of television shows that cater to just about every taste. The streamer offers its customers massive hits like Yellowjackets, Billions and Dexter. Paramount+ with Showtime is available for half off until July 14. If you opt for the deal, remember to set a calendar reminder for a year from now or you're going to get a frustrating bill when it doubles. 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/theres-still-time-to-get-half-off-one-year-of-paramount-with-showtime-145514463.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day is still a couple weeks away, but the company is already running discounts on some of its biggest items. The latest deal comes on the Kindle Scribe Essentials Bundle, which includes a 64GB Kindle Scribe, Premium Pen and a leather folio cover. The trio is available for $324, down from $520 - a 37 percent discount. The Kindle Scribe is one of our picks for best E Ink tablets for 2024, garnering a solid 85 in our launch review. Unlike other Kindles, the Scribe is meant for taking notes or marking up documents. It offers a 10.2" 300 ppi Paperwhite display that's glare-free and front-lit, allowing you to use it just about anywhere. Plus, it works with titles in the Kindle Store, PDFs, Microsoft Word and more. The Premium Pen functions without any setup and it attaches directly to the Kindle Scribe's side. A shortcut button makes it easy to execute commands like highlight and erase. Then there's the leather folio cover, which protects the Kindle Scribe, closes magnetically and folds into a stand. It's worth noting that this deal doesn't include Pen replacement tips. 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/the-kindle-scribe-essentials-bundle-is-nearly-200-off-at-amazon-135908123.html?src=rss

In late June, the European Union shared its preliminary findings that Apple had violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA) - the bloc's first regulatory action since the law took effect in March. Now, it's Meta's turn, with the EU announcing Facebook and Instagram's owner has also breached the DMA. The European Commission first opened investigations into Apple, Meta and Google's parent company, Alphabet, shortly after the DMA became law.The Commission's preliminary findings on Meta focus on concerns about Meta's "consent or pay" model. Meta currently gives users the choice to have free access to its apps and consent to data sharing or pay to prohibit its collection. The Commission's statement argues that Meta "Does not allow users to opt for a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the 'personalised ads' based service," Furthermore, Meta doesn't "allow users to exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of their personal data."Echoing past statements, the Commission called for Meta to create an "equivalent alternative" that requires no fee payment. The EU's regulatory body has until late March 2025 - one year after opening its investigation - to make a final decision. If Meta is found guilty of violating the DMA, it could owe a fine equal to ten percent of its annual global revenue.Meta has yet to concede any wrongdoing. "Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and complies with the DMA. We look forward to further constructive dialogue with the European Commission to bring this investigation to a close," Meta said in a statement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-could-get-slapped-with-a-massive-fine-for-violating-the-eus-digital-markets-act-120053616.html?src=rss

Welcome to the first day of July. Summer is here in earnest, but let me keep you, briefly, indoors with tales of finalized rules for crypto in the US, and how Lego is making bricks from stardust.A new rule finalized by the US Treasury Department will ensure that people that dipped their toes into crypto (and crypto trading) are paying the proper amount on their sales. The new rule will require cryptocurrency platforms like exchanges and payment processors to report their users' transactions to the IRS. Brokers will have to start reporting sales proceeds on digital assets in 2026 for all transactions accomplished in 2025, which means crypto traders are still on their own for now.The rule will make easier for people to declare their earnings because their brokers will now have to provide them with a 1099 form. The form has a threshold of $10,000 to report on transactions involving stablecoin, which are cryptocurrencies that track fiat money like the US dollar.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedChina is plowing $11 billion into a solar, wind and coal energy projectSamsung's Unpacked 2024 event: What to expectAmazon Prime Day 2024: The best early Prime Day dealsYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!NASA and Boeing say Starliner astronauts are not stranded'Engineers are set to investigate Starliner's thruster issues.Officials insisted in a press conference Friday afternoon that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are not stranded" on the International Space Station. We're not in a rush to come home," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Boeing's Starliner has been docked with the ISS since June 6 for what was meant to be a 10-day flight test. However, during approach, the craft experienced problems with five of its thrusters, and a known helium leak appeared to worsen.It was initially stated that Starliner could only stay docked at the ISS for a maximum of 45 days due to limitations with its batteries, but Stich said during the conference that these batteries are being recharged by the space station, so this can be extended.Continue reading.The AI prison of the future is just an Outer Limits episodeCognify would mentally incarcerate prisoners.The US has a higher incarceration rate per 100,000 people in its population than any other NATO country. Hashem Al-Ghaili, a molecular biologist and science communicator, claims he's got the solution. In an interview with Wired, he outlined how a virtual prison could work. Instead of locking prisoners up for long periods of time, prisoners would be subjected to artificial memories in a virtual environment. The system creates customized AI-generated content that's converted to visual information and delivered to the prisoner's brain as well as the parts of their DNA and RNA linked to memory formation to establish a long term memory pattern. There are a lot of wrinkles and road bumps, but the biggest may be that such technology just doesn't exist.Continue reading.Lego made bricks from meteorite dustWill it make for a decent building material?LegoLego has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to make Lego pieces from actual meteorite dust. They are on display at several Lego store locations until September 20, although it all isn't just for giggles, or Lego kit upsell. It's a proof of concept to show how astronauts could use moondust to build lunar structures.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-us-treasury-finalizes-tax-rules-for-crypto-111534062.html?src=rss

Extreme E, the premium off-road EV racing series, is pivoting to hydrogen. The series announced this week that it's rebranding to Extreme H, and unveiled a hydrogen-powered race car it's calling the Pioneer 25 to usher in the transition. The first season is slated to begin in April 2025 in Saudi Arabia, before heading to the UK, Germany, Italy and wrapping up in the US.

The Detroit Police Department has to adopt new rules curbing its reliance on facial recognition technology after the city reached a settlement this week with Robert Williams, a Black man who was wrongfully arrested in 2020 due to a false face match. It's not an all-out ban on the technology, though, and the court's jurisdiction to enforce the agreement only extends four years. Under the new restrictions, which the ACLU is calling the strongest such policies for law enforcement in the country, police cannot make arrests based solely on facial recognition results or conduct a lineup based only on facial recognition leads.Williams was arrested after facial recognition technology flagged his expired driver's license photo as a possible match for the identity of an alleged shoplifter, which police then used to construct a photo lineup. He was arrested at his home, in front of his family, which he says completely upended my life." Detroit PD is known to have made at least two other wrongful arrests based on the results of facial recognition technology (FRT), and in both cases, the victims were Black, the ACLU noted in its announcement of the settlement. Studies have shown that facial recognition is more likely to misidentify people of color.The new rules stipulate that [a]n FRT lead, combined with a lineup identification, may never be a sufficient basis for seeking an arrest warrant," according to a summary of the agreement. There must also be further independent and reliable evidence linking a suspect to a crime." Police in Detroit will have to undergo training on the technology that addresses the racial bias in its accuracy rates, and all cases going back to 2017 in which facial recognition was used to obtain an arrest warrant will be audited.In an op-ed for TIME published today, Williams wrote that the agreement means, essentially, that DPD can no longer substitute facial recognition for basic investigative police work."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/detroit-police-can-no-longer-use-facial-recognition-results-as-the-sole-basis-for-arrests-204454537.html?src=rss

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, which acquired the movie rental service Redbox in 2022, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Deadline reports. The company recently disclosed net losses of $636.6 million for 2023 in a SEC filing, and Deadline reported just a few days ago that it had suspended medical benefits and missed payroll, leaving employees without their paychecks for a week already. In a message to employees on Saturday, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment said it had applied for a debtor-in-possession loan in an attempt to remedy the situation.Upon court approval, we expect payroll to be funded early in the week and funding for this upcoming week's payroll to also be secured," the message said, per Deadline. We also expect to have the funds to reinstate medical benefits back to May 14, 2024 and going forward." The $375 million deal to acquire Redbox brought with it a ton of debt, and according to The Verge, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment owes money to a slew of retailers, studios, and streaming platforms - including Walmart, Universal and Sony - as well as other creditors.Its total debts come to about $970 million. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment also owns the streaming service Crackle and a few other film and TV brands, in addition to selling the long-running self-help books it's best known for.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-owner-of-redbox-has-filed-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-172124081.html?src=rss

NASA and Boeing plan to spend the next few weeks conducting tests on the ground in order to better understand issues with the Starliner spacecraft's thrusters before giving its crew the go-ahead to fly back to Earth. But, officials insisted in a press conference Friday afternoon, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are not stranded" on the International Space Station. We're not in a rush to come home," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.Starliner has been docked with the ISS since June 6 for what was meant to be a 10-day flight test all in all. During its approach of the orbiting lab, however, the craft experienced problems with five of its thrusters, and a known helium leak appeared to worsen. NASA and Boeing have been working together to evaluate the issues ever since. On Friday, representatives for the two said they aren't yet setting a date for the return flight, and will instead wait until the ground tests have been completed and all analyses run. The first thruster tests, which will be conducted at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, are expected to begin as soon as Tuesday.It was initially stated that Starliner could only stay docked at the ISS for a maximum of 45 days due to limitations with its batteries, but Stich said during the conference that these batteries are being recharged by the space station, so this can be extended. I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space," Stich said. Our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time."Starliner is performing well while docked, and the craft could still be used as a lifeboat to bring the astronauts home if necessary in the case of an emergency, the officials said. Mark Nappi, VP and program manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, reiterated Stich's comments, saying, We're not stuck on the ISS, the crew is not in any danger, and there's no increased risk when we decide to bring Suni and Butch back to Earth."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-and-boeing-say-starliner-astronauts-are-not-stranded-but-will-be-on-the-iss-for-a-few-more-weeks-154407704.html?src=rss

While people who own and sell cryptocurrency have always had to pay taxes on their earnings, a new rule finalized by the US Treasury Department can ensure that they're paying the proper amount on their sales. The new rule will require cryptocurrency platforms like exchanges and payment processors to report their users' transactions to the Internal Revenue Service. According to The Wall Street Journal, authorities are hoping that the measure can deter tax evasion, seeing as the IRS would know exactly how much a taxpayer owes.At the same time, the rule will make it much easier for people for declare their earnings because their brokers will now have to provide them with a 1099 form. The IRS released a draft form of 1099-DA (Digital Asset Proceeds From Broker Transaction) made especially to track crypto transactions last year and will make the final version available soon. To note, the rule sets a threshold of $10,000 to report on transactions involving stablecoin, which are cryptocurrencies that track fiat money like the US dollar."[I]nvestors in digital assets and the IRS will have better access to the documentation they need to easily file and review tax returns," Aviva Aron-Dine, the Treasury's acting assistant secretary for tax policy, said in a statement. By implementing the law's reporting requirements, these final regulations will help taxpayers more easily pay taxes owed under current law, while reducing tax evasion by wealthy investors."The new rule will only apply to platforms that take possession of digital assets, such as Coinbase or Binance. It doesn't cover decentralized ones, which will have to comply with a separate rule that's expected to be finalized later this year. Brokers will have to start reporting sales proceeds on digital assets in 2026 for all transactions accomplished in 2025, which means crypto traders are still on their own for 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-treasury-finalizes-crypto-rules-to-prevent-tax-evasion-143051676.html?src=rss

Amazon Web Services has started an investigation to determine whether Perplexity AI is breaking its rules, according to Wired. To, be precise, the company's cloud division is reportedly looking into allegations that the service is using a crawler, which is hosted on its servers, that ignores the Robots Exclusion Protocol. This protocol is a web standard, wherein developers put a robots.txt file on a domain containing instructions on whether bots can or can't access a particular page. Complying with those instructions is voluntary, but crawlers from reputable companies have generally been respecting them since web developers started implementing the standard in the '90s.In an earlier piece, Wired reported that it discovered a virtual machine that was bypassing its website's robots.txt instructions. That machine was hosted on an Amazon Web Services server using the IP address 44.221.181.252 that's "certainly operated by Perplexity." It reportedly visited other Conde Nast properties hundreds of times over the past three months to scrape their content, as well. The Guardian, Forbes and The New York Times had also detected it visiting their publications multiple times, Wired said. To confirm whether Perplexity truly was scraping its content, Wired entered headlines or short descriptions of its articles into the company's chatbot. The tool then responded with results that closely paraphrased its articles "with minimal attribution."A recent Reuters report claimed that Perplexity isn't the only AI company that's bypassing robots.txt files to gather content used to train large language models. However, it seems like Wired only provided Amazon with information on Perplexity AI's crawler. "AWS's terms of service prohibit abusive and illegal activities and our customers are responsible for complying with those terms," Amazon Web Services told us in a statement. "We routinely receive reports of alleged abuse from a variety of sources and engage our customers to understand those reports." The spokesperson also added that the company's cloud division told Wired it was investigating information the publication provided as it does all reports of potential violations.Perplexity spokesperson Sara Platnick told Wired that the company has already responded to Amazon's inquiries and denied that its crawlers are bypassing the Robots Exclusion Protocol. "Our PerplexityBot - which runs on AWS - respects robots.txt, and we confirmed that Perplexity-controlled services are not crawling in any way that violates AWS Terms of Service," she said. Platnick told us that Amazon looked into Wired's media inquiry only as part of a standard protocol for investigating reports of abuse of its resources. The company has apparently not heard from Amazon about any type of investigation before Wired contacted the company. Platnick admitted to Wired, however, that PerplexityBot will ignore robots.text when a user includes a specific URL in their chatbot inquiry.Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, also previously denied that his company is "ignoring the Robot Exclusions Protocol and then lying about it." Srinivas did admit toFast Company that Perplexity uses third-party web crawlers on top of its own, and that the bot Wired identified was one of them.Update, June 28, 2024, 2:20PM ET: We have updated this post to add Perplexity's statement to Engadget.Update, June 28, 2024, 8:27PM ET: We have updated this post to a statement from Amazon Web Services.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-investigating-perplexity-ai-after-accusations-it-scrapes-websites-without-consent-133003374.html?src=rss

According to the Prison Policy Institute, the US has a higher incarceration rate per 100,000 people in its population than any other NATO country and it's even higher than the next five member states combined (the UK, Portugal, Canada, France and Belgium).So what's the solution? Hashem Al-Ghaili, a molecular biologist and science communicator from Yemen, claims he's got it in an interview with Wired: build a virtual prison instead. He's not talking about stapling a bunch of Meta Quest 3's to prisoners' heads for years at a time, but it's also not far off from that concept.Al-Ghaili is proposing a new neurological prison system that he calls Cognify. He posted a proposal video of the virtual justice system on his Instagram and YouTube channel and it looks downright horrifying.Here's how Cognify works in a theoretical nutshell - Instead of locking prisoners up for long periods of time, prisoners would be subjected to artificial memories in a virtual environment. The system creates customized AI-generated content that's converted to visual information and delivered to the prisoner's brain as well as the parts of their DNA and RNA linked to memory formation to establish a long term memory pattern.Currently, such technology does not exist and Cognify is only a proposal. However, Al-Ghaili claims that experiments conducted on animals prove this process could work on humans at some point in the future. For instance, a study published in March in the scientific journal Nature in March that used mice as its test subjects found that memories are possibly formed by broken and repaired strands of DNA.Of course, there are ethical implications and effects that would need to be addressed if such a system were to become a reality. Al-Ghaili says Cognify could happen within a decade from now but only if we could overcome the ethical restrictions that limit testing such technology."If that doesn't send a shiver up your spine, then check your wrist for a pulse. Horror anthology fans like me will remember an episode from the 1990s reboot of The Outer Limits on Showtime called The Sentence" in which a scientist played by David Hyde Pierce invents a very similar virtual prison system that simulates an entire life sentence within a matter of minutes. He, of course, subjects himself to his own invention that makes him believe he committed a murder and served an entire lifetime in prison. He wakes up only to start denouncing the very system he championed just a few minutes earlier.You can watch the whole thing on YouTube for free. Someone should send it to this guy.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ai-prison-of-the-future-is-just-an-outer-limits-episode-200937257.html?src=rss

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has drafted a series of letters to nine major telecom companies, including AT&T and Comcast, to ask if they're actually doing anything about AI political robocalls. AI-generated voices are getting pretty good at mimicking humans and we've already seen this technology in action, when an audio deepfake urged voters to skip the New Hampshire Democratic primary.We know that AI technologies will make it cheap and easy to flood our networks with deepfakes used to mislead and betray trust. It is especially chilling to see AI voice cloning used to impersonate candidates during elections. As AI tools become more accessible to bad actors and scammers, we need to do everything we can to keep this junk off our networks," wrote Rosenworcel.It's worth noting that all AI robocalls were banned back in February, political or not, but the big telecom companies have yet to announce any enforcement plans. The mandate, however, does give State Attorneys General the ability to prosecute those involved in the robocalls.Rosenworcel has also been trying to force political campaigns to disclose whether or not they used AI in TV or radio ads, as reported by US News & World Report. The proposed plan, however, has faced opposition from the Republican chair of the Federal Election Commission. Chairman Sean Cooksey wrote in a letter to Rosenworcel that the plan would overwrite the authority of the FEC to enforce federal campaign law, prompting a legal challenge.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fcc-chair-asks-telecoms-companies-to-prove-theyre-actually-trying-to-stop-political-ai-robocalls-184227549.html?src=rss

There are plenty of Lego sets that feature astronauts, but now there are Lego bricks made out of the stuff that astronauts find out there in the void. The Danish brickmaker has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to make Lego pieces from actual meteorite dust. Pretty cool, right? They are on display at several Lego store locations until September 20, including the big 5th Avenue branch in Manhattan.This project isn't just for giggles, though it is pretty fun. It's a proof of concept to show how astronauts could use moondust to build lunar structures. Consider the sheer amount of energy and money required to haul up building materials from Earth to the Moon. It would be a game changer to, instead, build everything from pre-existing lunar materials.There's a layer of rock and mineral deposits at the surface of the Moon, which is called lunar regolith. It's long been thought that regolith of some kind would be required to build our first off-world colonies. It's readily available and there are several prospective methods to transform it into building materials. After all, humans have been making structures out of dirt, soil and sand for thousands of years.LegoHowever, there isn't too much lunar regolith here on Earth for folks to experiment with. ESA scientists made their own regolith by grinding up a really old meteorite. The dust from this meteorite was turned into a mixture that was used to 3D print the Lego pieces. Voila. Moon bricks. They click together just like regular Lego bricks, though they only come in one color (space gray obviously.)Lego"Nobody has built a structure on the Moon, so it was great to have the flexibility to try out all kinds of designs and building techniques with our space bricks. It was both fun and useful in scientifically understanding the boundaries of these techniques," said ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley.Humanity is actually getting closer than ever before to our first real lunar base. NASA has teamed up with the Italian Space Agency and the Thales Alenia Space Corporation to build the first permanent human outpost on the Moon, though it won't happen until at least the 2030s. Recent designs for lunar habitats have ranged from something resembling a mobile home to full-fledged inflatable villages.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lego-made-bricks-out-of-meteorite-dust-and-theyre-on-display-at-select-stores-161440194.html?src=rss

It's safe to say Apple and the European Commission aren't exactly bosom buddies. The two sides have been at loggerheads over Apple's compliance - or alleged lack thereof - with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law designed to rein in the power of major tech companies.Apple said last week it would delay the rollout of certain features in the European Union, including Apple Intelligence AI tools, over concerns "that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security." As it turns out, the EU is not exactly happy about that decision.The call to push back the rollout of Apple Intelligence in the EU is a "stunning, open declaration that they know 100 percent that this is another way of disabling competition where they have a stronghold already," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at a Forum Europa event, according to Euractiv. Vestager added that the short version of the DMA" means companies have to be open for competition to keep operating in the region.Not to leap to the defense of Apple here, but these comments are sure to raise an eyebrow or two, especially after Vestager also said she "was personally quite relieved that I would not get an AI-updated service on my iPhone." Apple does intend to bring Apple Intelligence to Europe more broadly, but it's taking a cautious approach with the tech in that region due to "regulatory uncertainties" and ensuring it won't have to compromise on user safety.As it stands, the European Commission is carrying out multiple investigations into the company over possible violations of the DMA. This week, it accused Apple of violating the law's anti-steering provisions by blocking app developers from freely informing users about alternate payment options outside of the company's ecosystem. If it's found guilty, Apple could be on the hook for a fine of up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue. Based on its 2023 sales, that could be a penalty of up to $38 billion. The percentage of the fine can double for repeated violations.Earlier this year, before the DMA came into force, the European Commission fined Apple 1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) over a violation of previous anti-steering rules. According to the Commission, Apple prevented rival music streaming apps from telling users that they could pay less for subscriptions if they sign up outside of iOS apps. Apple has challenged the fine.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eu-competition-chief-jabs-at-apple-from-both-sides-over-ai-delay-140022585.html?src=rss

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a brand-new game from the creators of Life is Strange. It's been described as a spiritual successor to that series and was previously scheduled to arrive in late 2024. However, publisher Don't Nod has opted to delay Lost Records: Bloom & Rage and release it in early 2025 instead.In fact, the delay is in large part due to a new Life is Strange game from another studio. Life is Strange: Double Exposure marks the return of the original game's protagonist Max Caulfield. The sequel, from Square Enix and developer Deck Nine Games, is set to hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in October, with a Switch release planned for later.Don't Nod says it wanted to give Lost Records: Bloom & Rage some breathing space to succeed following "an in-depth assessment of recent trends and developments in the industry." But a quote from CEO Oskar Guilbert makes the reasoning more explicit. "We know that many of our fans are eagerly awaiting this game, just as they are the recently announced next installment of Life is Strange," Guilbert said in a statement. "Let's give both titles the space they need to be enjoyed by our players within the large community we have built."While this update might be disappointing for those who were looking forward to Lost Records, it's a smart call. It gives fans plenty of time to experience both games without too much overlap.In the meantime, Don't Nod reckons that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, a surprisingly emotional action RPG from earlier this year that I enjoyed quite a bit, will boost its bottom line, especially in the long term. It also released the thoughtful climbing puzzle game Jusant late last year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/life-is-strange-spiritual-successor-delayed-to-avoid-life-is-strange-sequel-124553471.html?src=rss

An attack on Microsoft by Russian hackers had further implications than initially reported. The tech giant is notifying additional individuals that emails between them and Microsoft were accessed, Bloomberg reports. A group known as Midnight Blizzard or Nobelium orchestrated this attack, along with the 2020 SolarWinds hack. The US government has previously linked Midnight Blizzard to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.Microsoft previously informed some individuals that their emails were viewed, but the company is now sharing specifics. "This week we are continuing notifications to customers who corresponded with Microsoft corporate email accounts that were exfiltrated by the Midnight Blizzard threat actor, and we are providing the customers the email correspondence that was accessed by this actor," a Microsoft spokesperson stated. "This is increased detail for customers who have already been notified and also includes new notifications." Microsoft is making customers aware via email, which initially led to concerns that the notification was a phishing scam.Microsoft first disclosed the hack in January, stating that a password spray attack gained the group access to "a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts" in late 2023. Employees with compromised emails included members of the senior leadership, cybersecurity and legal teams.At the time, Microsoft said vulnerabilities in its systems were not to blame for the attack but that it would be improving security. However, the US government has brought the heat against Microsoft, with a March report from the Cyber Safety Review Board finding the company's "security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul." In April, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an order requiring federal agencies to analyze hacked emails and secure Microsoft cloud accounts, among other measures. CISA notified all impacted agencies and required them to provide regular updates on the steps taken to thwart this "grave and unacceptable risk."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-reveals-further-emails-compromised-by-russian-hack-130014275.html?src=rss

A Chinese state-owned power company is splashing out 80 billion yuan ($11 billion) on an energy base that will generate electricity from solar, wind and coal sources. China Three Gorges Renewables Group, a subsidiary of the country's largest hydropower company, plans to build a plant with a 16-gigawatt capacity and a five-gigawatt storage facility, Bloomberg reports.This is part of China's aim to build 455 gigawatts worth of renewable energy projects in the desert by 2030. This plant is being constructed in Inner Mongolia, which will get 135 gigawatts of the total planned output.The China Three Gorges Corporation is looking to diversify its energy sources as building large hydro dams is becoming less feasible. According to Three Gorges, wind and solar generation from the plant will depend on grid accessibility. The coal plant is set to start operations in three years.It's somewhat disappointing that the new plant will have a coal power element, though it's not fully surprising given the way China has bristled at renewable energy commitments during climate summit talks with other countries. As Bloomberg notes, China has been struggling to put all of its clean energy into the power grid. It often relies on coal when renewable sources like solar and wind aren't available.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/china-is-plowing-11-billion-into-a-solar-wind-and-coal-energy-project-120007712.html?src=rss

Older Assassin's Creed titles are about to get modern reimaginings, mostly likely with better graphics and other improvements for newer consoles and more powerful PCs. Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, has revealed in an interview on the company's website that Assassin's Creed remakes are in the works when he was asked what's next for the franchise. The remakes will allow the company to revisit and modernize older worlds it has created, he explained, telling the interviewer that "there are worlds in some of [its] older Assassin's Creed games that are still extremely rich."Guillemot also said that Ubisoft's goal is to have Assassin's Creed games come out more regularly, "but not for it to be the same experience every year." The upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe that's set during the witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire is "going to be a very different game from Assassin's Creed Shadows," he said. Shadows is set in Japan at the end of the Sengoku era and features real events and historical figures from that period, including feudal lord Oda Nobunaga. It will be available worldwide on November 15.While Guillemot didn't say which titles Ubisoft is remaking, Kotaku previously reported that it's working on a new version of Black Flag. The action-adventure game, which focuses on 18th century pirates, was released back in 2013 and was one of the most beloved entries in the franchise. Ubisoft is also expected to launch a new platform called "Animus hub" that players can use to launch and play games from the franchise on the same day Shadows drops. Animus hub, formerly known as Infinity, could be potentially be a store, as well, and if that's true, then it makes sense for Ubisoft to work on more AC releases that it can sell through the hub.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisoft-ceo-says-assassins-creed-remakes-are-in-the-works-035852195.html?src=rss

This is your periodic reminder that AI-powered chatbots still make up things and lie with all the confidence of a GPS system telling you that the shortest way home is to drive through the lake.My reminder comes courtesy of Nieman Lab, which ran an experiment to see if ChatGPT would provide correct links to articles from news publications it pays millions of dollars to. It turns out that ChatGPT does not. Instead, it confidently makes up entire URLs, a phenomenon that the AI industry calls hallucinating," a term that seems more apt for a real person high on their own bullshit.Nieman Lab's Andrew Deck asked the service to provide links to high-profile, exclusive stories published by 10 publishers that OpenAI has struck deals worth millions of dollars with. These included the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Times (UK), Le Monde, El Pais, The Atlantic, The Verge, Vox, and Politico. In response, ChatGPT spat back made-up URLs that led to 404 error pages because they simply did not exist. In other words, the system was working exactly as designed: by predicting the most likely version of a story's URL instead of actually citing the correct one. Nieman Lab did a similar experiment with a single publication - Business Insider - earlier this month and got the same result.An OpenAI spokesperson told Nieman Lab that the company was still building an experience that blends conversational capabilities with their latest news content, ensuring proper attribution and linking to source material - an enhanced experience still in development and not yet available in ChatGPT." But they declined to explain the fake URLs.We don't know when this new experience will be available or how reliable it will be. Despite this, news publishers continue to feed years of journalism into OpenAI's gaping maw in exchange for cold, hard cash because the journalism industry has consistently sucked at figuring out how to make money without selling its soul to tech companies. Meanwhile, AI companies are chowing down on content published by anyone who hasn't signed these Faustian bargains and using it to train their models anyway. Mustafa Suleiman, Microsoft's AI head, recently called anything published on the internet freeware" that is fair game for training AI models. Microsoft was valued at $3.36 trillion at the time I wrote this.There's a lesson here: If ChatGPT is making up URLs, it's also making up facts. That's how generative AI works - at its core, the technology is a fancier version of autocomplete, simply guessing the next plausible word in a sequence. It doesn't understand" what you say, even though it acts like it does. Recently, I tried getting our leading chatbots to help me solve the New York Times Spelling Bee and watched them crash and burn.

One of the most difficult parts of joining a new social platform is finding relevant accounts to follow. That has proved especially challenging for people who quit X to try out one of the many Twitter-like services that have cropped up in the last couple of years. Now, Bluesky has an interesting solution to this dilemma. The service introduced starter packs," which aim to address that initial discovery problem by allow existing users to build lists of accounts and custom feeds oriented around specific interests or themes.In a blog post, the company described the feature as a way to bring friends directly into your slice of Bluesky." Users can curate up to 50 accounts and three custom feeds into a starter pack." That list can then be shared broadly on Bluesky or sent to new users via a QR code. Other users can then opt to follow an entire pack" all at once, or scroll through to manually add the accounts and feeds they want to follow.BlueskyThough Bluesky seems to be positioning the feature as a tool for new users, it's also useful for anyone who feels like their feed is getting a little stale or has been curious about one of the many subcultures that have emerged on the platform. I've been on Bluesky for well over a year and I've already found some interesting starter packs, including Bluesky for Journalists (for people interested in news content) and Starter Cats (for accounts that post cat photos).Starter packs also highlight another one of Bluesky's more interesting features: custom feeds. The open-source service allows users to create their own algorithmic feeds that others can subscribe to and follow, a bit like a list on X. Custom feeds were introduced last year and have also been an important discovery tool. But scrolling a massive list of custom feeds can be overwhelming. Pairing these feeds with curated lists of users, though, is a much easier way to find ones related to topics you're actually interested in.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-starter-packs-help-new-users-find-their-way-234322177.html?src=rss

Apple is finally loosening some restrictions on third-party repairs. The tech giant said in its latest white paper, Longevity, by Design, that it will extend software support to third-party replacement batteries and displays installed into iPhones later this year. This means that it won't deactivate True Tone and battery health data for iPhone users who receive those third-party repairs.In case you don't know what True Tone is, it's a feature that adjusts the iPhone display's white balance to match your environment. Currently, Apple disables that feature if the iOS detects that you installed a third-party replacement screen. You won't suffer that loss anymore as the company will allow consumers to activate True Tone with third-party parts to the best performance that can be provided" later this year. However, it pointed out that True Tone may not display accurate colors or perform well because third-party displays don't always gel with Apple's hardware, so you can choose to disable it if the screen doesn't work the way you expect it to.As for third-party replacement batteries, Apple will show their health metrics but it will notify users that it isn't able to verify them. The company says that an internal analysis that found that second-hand batteries with manipulated metrics are sometimes sold as new, and the iPhone's metrics will mark the maximum capacity at 100 percent even though the battery's current state won't reflect that.Apple has a long history of antagonizing third-party repairers of iPhones, but it's slowly opening up to them. In 2022, it made the iPhone 14 easier to repair upon release but its restrictions on third-party replacement displays made it difficult for third-party vendors to fix the broken original screens. In April, it announced that iPhones will be repairable with genuine used parts starting this fall with the iPhone 15 and newer models.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/iphone-users-wont-lose-true-tone-other-features-after-third-party-repairs-232926095.html?src=rss

There's a war brewing in Hollywood and we're not talking about how AI will inevitably kill us all by plagiarizing The Joker's chaos plans from The Dark Knight. We're talking about the popcorn bucket war.The latest shot came from Dune director Denis Villeneuve in a red carpet interview in which he called the Wolverine & Deadpool popcorn bucket horrific" and called the Dune buckets unmatchable."Villeneuve did an impromptu interview with eTalkCTV where a reporter asked him about the feud that's been brewing between him and Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds over their respective popcorn receptacles. The reporter showed Villeneuve a picture of the Deadpool & Wolverine bucket featuring the yellow Wolverine's head and his gaping maw full of some of Orville Redenbacher's finest. Villeneuve said he doesn't have anything against the bucket but he thinks they are just riding the coattails he unfurled when the Dune sandworm popcorn bucket blew up the Internet.

Valve has added a new chart to its roster of publicly-available data: a list of the 100 top-played titles on the Steam Deck. The information can be sorted by the past week, month, or year, and will be updated daily.These charts can play a big part in game discovery on the platform, so it's worth noting that making the list isn't only about the sheer number of players. Lawrence Yang from Valve told The Verge more about the process. "The metric we're using to determine top-played is a combination of unique users and interest," Yang said. "Hades 2 has only been out for a month, but so many Steam Deck players have it as one of their top played games for the entire year, that it was lifted in the rankings."At the chart's launch, Elden Ring unsurprisingly holds the top spot after the recent Shadow of the Erdtree release (and subsequent patch). Indie fave Stardew Valley is currently in second and hot deck-builder Balatro is in third. Both Hades 2 and Hades have made the top ten. There are some surprising entries too, such as Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX in fifth place and Fallout 4 in sixth. If you want to add anything on the Steam Deck chart to your library, now's the chance to load up your to-be-played queue for cheap with the ongoing Steam Summer Sale.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valve-reveals-the-most-played-games-on-steam-deck-222004418.html?src=rss

Sometimes as we navigate our way through the daily doom scroll that is our current news cycle, it's nice to go back and remember how things used to be. Those times sucked too but a distraction is still a distraction. One of my favorite ways to look at the past was by going through old clips of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central's website.Paramount went on a content teardown this week and pulled old clips and episodes of its signature satire shows from the Comedy Central website, as well as content from cable channels like TV Land, CMT and the Paramount Network, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Those sites now contain a notice that tells views the clips are unavailable there, but that they can "sign up for Paramount+ to watch many seasons of Comedy Central shows."It's a bizarre move because most of those old episodes aren't available on its Paramount+ streaming service. Essentially, there's no longer a free, legal means to consume the archive of these shows. It wouldn't be so insulting if you also couldn't watch all of Carlos Mencia's comedy specials on the platform.If you're itching to watch some of Comedy Central's older shows, some are available on the streaming service and you can still purchase some episodes of The Colbert Report on AppleTV or the iTunes store. If you're also like me and you still use DVDs, you can buy used copies of The Best of the Colbert Report and The Daily Show's Indecision 2004 coverage of the presidential election from online retailers. Paramount can't take away physical media... yet. But it seems likely some portion of these shows - as well as the entire MTVNews archive - are now effectively lost to time for no good reason.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paramounts-strategy-of-purposeful-digital-rot-doesnt-even-make-sense-204613382.html?src=rss

It's that time of year again. The Steam Summer Sale is officially live, offering deep discounts on thousands of games and even the Steam Deck. The sale goes until July 11, so you have a bit of time to browse and fill up that wishlist.The venerable Steam Deck is on sale, with some caveats. The deals only apply to the LCD model, and not the newer OLED version. Also, the 256GB LCD is not on sale. That leaves the 64GB at $300 instead of $350 and the 512GB model at $382 instead of $450. Incidentally, that puts the 64GB model at the same price as the Nintendo Switch. I love the Switch, but it sure can't run Elden Ring.Speaking of Elden Ring, it's on sale for $42. The good news? That's a 30 percent discount. The bad news? There's no sale for the recently-released (and brutally difficult) expansion DLC Shadow of the Erdtree. That'll have to wait for next year.That's not the only AAA title available at a discount. Cyberpunk 2077 is half off, at $30, and Baldur's Gate 3 is $48, which is 20 percent off. It's rare to find a discount on Baldur's Gate 3 at all, so this might be just the time to finally try out 2023's Game of the Year winner. Hogwart's Legacy is just $24, the indie smash Palworld is $23 and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is more than 50 percent off, at $32.There are also plenty of indie darlings available for cheap. The iconic Stardew Valley is $9 and the retro shooter Cuphead is $14. The fantastic Dave the Diver is also $14, which is a discount of 30 percent. Hades is $10, but the sequel remains full price. Even the recently-released smash hit Balatro, which is a sort of roguelike sequel to poker, is on sale, though only with a ten percent cut.The Steam Summer Sale includes some really deep discounts on popular games. We are talking impulse buy territory here. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is only $4 and the renowned platformer Celeste is just $2. Borderlands 2 is $3, Castle Crashers is $1.50 and Batman: Arkham Knight is $2. As usual, The Witcher 3 is heavily discounted at $4.If you are like me, you'll use this sale to snatch up anything that's been hanging out in your wishlist for a while, where it will then go into a digital unplayed pile until the end of time. To that end, a researcher recently used SteamIDFinder's database to calculate that unplayed Steam games account for $19 billion dollars. Let's get it to at least $20 billion by July 11.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-steam-summer-sale-is-here-to-empty-your-bank-accounts-184158057.html?src=rss

Soon you'll have another means of playing Game Pass titles without breaking the bank for an Xbox Series X|S console. Microsoft and Amazon are teaming up to bring Xbox Gaming to select Amazon Fire TV devices in July. According to Microsoft, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in over 25 countries will be able to access the Xbox app with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K..Once the new functionality goes live you can sign in to your Microsoft account, connect a compatible Bluetooth controller and start playing hundreds of games, including Fallout 76, Fallout 4, Starfield and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. Current-gen Xbox and PlayStation controllers will both work.Xbox Gaming will come to Amazon Fire TV two years after Microsoft released the Xbox app on Samsung smart TVs. The new integration with Amazon products also comes as Microsoft appears to be losing faith in its console business. The company's hardware refresh fell well short of its prior roadmap, and one of its biggest console-pushing series, Call of Duty, will have its next title appear on Game Pass at launch.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xbox-gaming-coming-to-select-amazon-fire-tv-devices-in-july-182541532.html?src=rss

The Center for Investigative Reporting, the nation's oldest nonprofit newsroom that produces Mother Jones and Reveal sued OpenAI and Microsoft in federal court on Thursday for allegedly using its content to train AI models without consent or compensation. This is the latest in a long line of lawsuits filed by publishers and creators accusing generative AI companies of violating copyright.OpenAI and Microsoft started vacuuming up our stories to make their product more powerful, but they never asked for permission or offered compensation, unlike other organizations that license our material," said Monika Bauerlein, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, in a statement. This free rider behavior is not only unfair, it is a violation of copyright. The work of journalists, at CIR and everywhere, is valuable, and OpenAI and Microsoft know it." Bauerlein said that OpenAI and Microsoft treat the work of nonprofit and independent publishers as free raw material for their products," and added that such moves by generative AI companies hurt the public's access to truthful information in a disappearing news landscape."OpenAI and Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment by Engadget.The CIR's lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan's federal court, accuses OpenAI and Microsoft, which owns nearly half of the company, of violating the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act multiple times.News organizations find themselves at an inflection point with generative AI. While the CIR is joining publishers like The New York Times, New York Daily News, The Intercept, AlterNet and Chicago Tribune in suing OpenAI, others publishers have chosen to strike licensing deals with the company. These deals will allow OpenAI to train its models on archives and ongoing content published by these publishers and cite information from them in responses offered by ChatGPT.On the same day as the CIR sued OpenAI, for instance, TIME magazine announced a deal with the company that would grant it access to 101 years of archives. Last month, OpenAI signed a $250 million multi-year deal with News Corp, the owner of The Wall Street Journal, to train its models on more than a dozen brands owned by the publisher. The Financial Times, Axel Springer (the owner of Politico and Business Insider), The Associated Press and Dotdash Meredith have also signed deals with OpenAI.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-nations-oldest-nonprofit-newsroom-is-suing-openai-and-microsoft-174748454.html?src=rss

Samsung has an Unpacked event scheduled for July 10, with plenty of hardware announcements expected. A reliable leaker, however, already has images of many of the big hitters, including the Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch Ultra, Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. It's like Christmas for Samsung fans!First, a caveat. These are leaked images obtained by Evan Blass and published on his Substack and X account. Blass has a very good track record with this kind of thing, but of course, nothing will be certain until Samsung itself confirms it. (Disclosure, Blass was a contributor and editor for Engadget from 2005 until 2008.)Evan BlassThere are glorious images of the forthcoming Galaxy Watch Ultra. The squarish smartwatch looks to feature a gray exterior with orange accents. It also boasts a durable-looking band that recalls the one originally introduced alongside the Apple Watch Ultra. The watch also seems to have eschewed the typical spring pin connector and replaced it with a new system that, once again, recalls Apple's connector.Evan BlassThe Galaxy Watch 7 comes in a new olive green colorway, though the design looks almost identical to the Watch 6. There's the same spring pin band connector and alternative gold and silver colorways. That green exterior sure does pop though.Evan BlassImages of the Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro were also leaked, though there's some confusion here. While Blass did publish images of two different pairs of earbuds, there's no branding so it's impossible to tell which is which. In any event, both of these are stemmed earbuds, with one featuring an open design just like Apple's entry-level AirPods. It's likely, though unconfirmed, that the open design represents the standard Buds 3. That leaves the one with the silicone eartips as the Buds 3 Pro.Samsung hasn't revealed any of the specs for the above items, though an additional leak suggests the Watch 7 will be available in a 40-millimeter size, with an unnamed three-nanometer chip powering the whole thing. It'll also allegedly feature a new BioActive Sensor for health metrics and, of course, plenty of AI bells and whistles.Additionally, the upcoming event should reveal new foldables and the long-awaited Galaxy Ring fitness device. Samsung will livestream Unpacked on its YouTube channel, main website and Newsroom site at 9AM ET on July 10.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/images-of-unannounced-samsung-watches-and-earbuds-appear-to-have-leaked-171013394.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime Day 2024 will be here next month, but the company has already pushed out its latest batch of free(ish) games that Prime members can snag right now (there are also a number of regular early Prime Day deals live today, too). In the run up to Prime Day on July 16 and 17, Prime members can grab 15 PC games at no extra cost, and there are actually some pretty groovy titles in the mix.On July 11, you can scoop up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lordsfor the Amazon Games App. This sequel to one of the most beloved RPGs of all time is set five years after the events of the original game. It tells the tale of a Jedi Knight who was exiled from the Jedi Order, which the Sith has almost entirely eliminated by this point. You're tasked with finding the remaining Jedi to help you take on those on the dark side of The Force.On the same day, you'll be able to claim Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge at no extra cost for the Epic Games Store. This arcade beat 'em up, a throwback to classics like Turtles in Time, is a blast, especially if you can persuade a few friends to pick it up and play co-op with you.Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX (also available July 11 for the Epic Games Store) is a solid modern remake of the 1986 Master System original. I've heard good things about Card Shark (June 27, Epic Games Store) and Hitman Absolution (July 3, GOG) as well, but I've yet to check those out.Let's jam through the rest of the latest Prime Gaming freebies, including details on where and when they'll be available:Available now

SpaceX just won a $843 million contract to, basically, crash the International Space Station (ISS) into the sea. It's part of a NASA program to safely deorbit the ISS within the next ten years.The ISS has been continuously operating since 1998 and, like all things, has been aging. The space station is due to end its orbital tenure in or around 2030. However, NASA doesn't want the whole thing just careening into Earth's atmosphere, throwing dangerous junk everywhere like season two of Breaking Bad. The agency wants a nice and controlled re-entry. That's where SpaceX comes in.

YouTube has recently launched a bunch of new features for Premium subscribers, including a quick way to skip the more boring parts of a video. When users double tap on a video, it will now skip ahead to what YouTube has marked as the more interesting portions of it based on a combination of AI and viewership data. The capability is now live in the US for Android users, though it's rolling out to iOS users in the coming weeks, as well. On Android, Premium subscribers can now also watch Shorts while checking their emails, browsing social media or doing things on other apps in general with the new picture-in-picture capability.Paying users will get access to the video hosting website's latest experimental features, as well. One of YouTube's newest test features is smart downloads for Shorts, which automatically saves the service's short-form videos on users' devices that they could then watch offline. In addition, Android users now have access to a conversational AI experience that can answer their questions and suggest related content without having to stop watching whatever's playing on their screens. It's only limited to users in the US at the moment, however, and only for English videos that display an "Ask" button. Finally, Premium subscribers can access YouTube's redesigned watch page for the web that apparently makes it easier to find related content.YouTube Premium removes ads from videos and gives subscribers access to offline viewing, Music Premium and other perks. In February, the Google-owned video sharing platform reported that it hit 100 million subscribers for both Premium and Music offerings, but it's been trying to get more people to pay for its services. Aside from introducing new perks, it's also waging a war against ad blockers and recently started preventing ad-blocking apps on mobile from accessing its videos.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-premiums-new-features-include-picture-in-picture-for-youtube-shorts-150029102.html?src=rss

Time has joined a growing number of publications to sign a licensing deal with OpenAI. The ChatGPT creator will legally be able to train its large language models on 101 years worth of the storied publication's journalism, as Axios first reported.OpenAI will also have access to real-time content from Time, with the apparent aim of answering user queries about breaking news. In return, OpenAI will cite Time and link back to source material on the publication's website.Perhaps Time will get a monetary kickback too, like other publishers that have shuffled over to OpenAI with a ragged cap in hand and an eye on one a new revenue source for struggling media companies. The Atlantic, Vox Media, Wall Street Journal publisher News Corp, the Financial Times, People magazine publisher Dotdash Meredith and the AP have also been enticed by some snake oil bank deposits from OpenAI.Time says the agreement builds on its "commitment to expanding global access to accurate and trusted information." It dropped its website paywall last year for the same reason.The magazine, which is now published on a biweekly basis after being hit hard by the impact of the internet on print advertising, says it will have access to OpenAI's tech to "develop new products for its audiences." Time will also "provide vital feedback and share practical applications to refine and enhance the delivery of journalism in ChatGPT and other OpenAI products and shape the future of news experiences."Some notable publishers have so far refused to bend the knee to OpenAI. The New York Times, theChicago Tribune, New York Daily News and others have sued the company and its partner Microsoft for copyright infringement, alleging that they trained AI chatbots on those publications' work without permission.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/time-strikes-a-deal-to-funnel-101-years-of-journalism-into-openais-gaping-maw-144058426.html?src=rss