BMW’s new iDrive turns the whole windshield into a heads-up display

2025-01-07 17:15:00 +0000

Image: BMW

iDrive uses 3D graphics and augmented reality to keep your eyes on the road.

At CES this week, BMW announced a new iDrive operating system with an eye-catching centerpiece: a 3D heads-up display (HUD) that stretches from pillar to pillar along the windshield.

Included in this futuristic setup is a new steering wheel with haptic buttons and a new augmented reality system that layers navigation directions and driver assistance with road information. And perhaps the most noticeable change: BMW eliminated the traditional gauge cluster in the dash in favor of a customizable digital version projected onto the windshield.

“We’ve taken on a new perspective in designing the UX,” Christian Bauer, the head of digital and UX at BMW, told a group of journalists at a preview event held near BMW’s massive Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant in November last year. “Pushing the display closer to the street will help drivers make quicker decisions, which will make it easier to keep your eyes on the road.”

BMW eliminated the traditional gauge cluster in the dash

The new system will appear in the upcoming-but-yet-unnamed X-class SUV that BMW is building on the all-electric Neue Klasse platform. That SUV will make its debut at the end of 2025, according to BMW.

BMW, like many automakers, is following in Tesla’s minimalistic footsteps by cutting down on screens and dials inside the vehicle. While BMW isn’t the first to eliminate the dash cluster and instead project it onto the windshield, it is an interesting move for a company with the tagline “Ultimate Driving Machine,” and its drivers have historically preferred classic dials and gauges in the dash.

BMW isn’t really worried about any backlash, chief technology officer Frank Weber told me — even though there were some members of the company’s board who were a bit concerned when first presented with the idea.

Weber said the new set up is no longer like having a video screen in your car, but rather an added layer of augmented reality that keeps driver and car more connected to the road. “You are connected to the car, and the car is connected to the road. It’s exactly where you would expect the information to be,” he added.

Your dashboard on the windshield

This isn’t the first time that BMW has teased the new heads-up display called BMW Panoramic iDrive. The company showed off a version of it at CES 2023 in the iVision Dee concept, and it’s all part of the new platform called BMW Operating System X.

The new heads-up display runs along the narrow black strip at the bottom of the windshield that stretches between A-pillars. The display is three-dimensional and includes speed, adaptive driving assistance information, stoplight and road sign information, navigation information, and state of charge. It’s customizable, too, allowing drivers to set up the information they want to have in their eyeline while on the road.

Unlike other HUDs, where you have to be at the right angle to see the information displayed, BMW says the new display will be visible to both the driver and passenger.

BMW also integrated navigation and ADAS features in the HUD so that the path you’re following turns green when using onboard navigation with driver assist. “If you think about higher levels of automated driving,” Bauer said, “then ADAS and navigation naturally come together.” He also noted that many of the features of the new HUD came about thanks to customer feedback. BMW already offers some hands-off autonomous driving features on marked highways.

Though the windshield is the display surface, it is not a specialty windshield and won’t cost extra to replace if it gets a rock chip, BMW said. A special film on the windshield helps make the 3D images appear crisp and clear. And the black print that the HUD is projected onto is the standard black print on all other vehicles.

Customizable infotainment screen

In addition to creating a full-windshield HUD, BMW also introduced a new rhombus-shaped center infotainment screen that offers a more customizable interface. Users can drag and drop “pixels,” or apps that they use frequently, into a couple of main boxes on the home screen so they are more readily available. According to BMW, the company does have plans to offer a BMW app store for the new UX, which could include paid apps for things like special lighting packages, similar to Hyundai’s plans for the upcoming Ioniq 9.

BMW says it’s using edge AI to “learn” from the customer as they drive and offer relevant features based on behavior. For example, if you frequently take a winding road home from work, put the vehicle into Sport mode, and cue up your music app, those options will regularly pop into the center screen for easy access. And if you frequently listen to meditation apps or podcasts while charging your EV, those apps will pop into the center stack whenever you’re plugged in.

BMW says it’s also using large language models to help make the vehicle smarter about what drivers want. BMW’s natural voice recognition system has been a class leader for some time, but now the company is leveraging LLMs to make navigation a bit easier. For example, you can ask the system to take you to a charging station close to a grocery store, using natural language, rather than having to use specific keywords.

In addition to updating its OS, BMW has also reimagined the steering wheel in the upcoming Neue Klasse. The new version has quite a few more buttons covered in a single piece of plastic, much like a medical device. Each button lights up when the system is available and offers haptic feedback when pushed.

BMW let us experience an approximation of the HUD and use some of the haptic buttons on a VR rig in November, ahead of the CES announcement. While it was impossible to get an impression of the imagery’s real-world clarity on the windshield, the haptic buttons were easy enough to navigate without being able to see them. The buttons feel similar to those in the 2024 Mercedes Benz S-Class and are all within easy reach.

BMW says that the new iDrive, UX, and interior setup will start to appear in its vehicles at the end of 2025.

A Dutch project publicizes the names of half a million suspected Nazi collaborators

@NPR News

2025-01-07 17:14:53 +0000

The names of some 425,000 suspected Dutch collaborators went online 80 years after the Holocaust ended, making them accessible to historians and descendants as the country grapples with its past.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 17:08:14 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

blitzcitydiy ("Liz [BlitzCityDIY]") wrote:

Documenting the @adafruit newxie displays and got four working with a raspberry pi and python

Attachments:

Four vertical 135x240 SPI displays connected to a raspberry pi. The four displays are counting up to 9999 with one digit shown on each display

Nanoleaf is jumping into beauty tech with a $150 face mask

@The Verge

2025-01-07 17:00:00 +0000

The mask costs $150, and features multiple colors for addressing different skincare concerns. | Image: Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf is best known for its colorful smart home lighting. But at CES 2025, it’s expanding into new territory: beauty tech. Specifically, a $149.99 LED face mask.

The Nanoleaf LED Light Therapy Face Mask is made of medical-grade materials and has received FDA Class II device certification. (This doesn’t mean the FDA has given Nanoleaf’s mask a stamp of approval; it just means this is a moderate-risk device that meets FDA safety standards.) It has seven different modes for specific concerns, based on color. Those include white, red, blue, purple, yellow, cyan, and green.

Image: Nanoleaf

The mask is an FDA Class II device.

This isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. These types of at-home masks are massively popular among skincare enthusiasts to address a range of issues like acne, fine lines, and uneven skin tone, as well as boost collagen production. LED light therapy is also a treatment offered by dermatologists and estheticians.

That said, you should keep in mind there’s a definite difference between the light therapy you get at the dermatologist and at-home gadgets like this. The ones used by medical professionals are usually stronger. Plus, while red, blue, and near-infrared light therapy has been cleared by the FDA, other colors haven’t. In this case, the Nanoleaf mask’s Class II certification is more of a sign that the company has put in the effort to ensure a degree of safety.

In any case, when you think about it, it makes sense that Nanoleaf might be interested in this market. After all, what’s an LED Light therapy mask but a smart bulb by another name?

The LED Light Therapy Face Mask is available now for preorders.

You only need to charge this E Ink digital poster once a year

@The Verge

2025-01-07 17:00:00 +0000

PocketBook, E Ink, and Sharp collaborated to create the low-power InkPoster digital display. | Image: PocketBook

E Ink has collaborated with PocketBook and Sharp to create a new low-power digital poster that displays images and artwork on a vivid color electronic paper screen. The InkPoster pairs E Ink’s Spectra 6 screen technology with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, allowing artwork to be regularly changed and uploaded. And thanks to a large battery, it only needs to be charged about once a year.

The InkPoster will be available in three sizes. The smallest model has a 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 1200 x 1600 and a 14,000mAh battery, while the largest option measures 31.5 inches with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, giving it a slightly lower PPI in exchange for a bigger 20,000mAh battery. There’s also an in-between 28.5-inch, 2160 x 3060 version with a 20,000mAh battery that incorporates Sharp’s IGZO technology for faster screen refreshes. Pricing is expected to be around $599 for the 13.3-inch InkPoster, $1,700 for the 31.5-inch, and $2,400 for the 28.5-inch.

Image: PocketBook

E Ink’s Spectra 6 e-paper uses six different ink colors to produce vivid images.

The InkPoster will have access to “thousands of curated artworks” from “iconic masterpieces to contemporary works” when connected to an accompanying app, according to PocketBook. But the company hasn’t shared specific details about where art is being sourced or what themes or artists will be available.

You’re also able to turn the InkPoster into a digital photo frame by uploading your own images. Unlike similar products from Canvia, the now-defunct Electric Objects, or even Samsung’s The Frame TV, the InkPoster doesn’t have any screen lighting that could potentially keep you up at night if hung in a bedroom and only uses power when the displayed image is being changed.

The InkPoster is one of the first consumer products to use E Ink’s Spectra 6 display technology. E-readers like the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft and the Kobo Libra Colour use E Ink’s Kaleido 3 technology, which offers fast screen refreshes but a limited palette of 4,096 colors. The Remarkable Paper Pro tablet uses a slower E Ink Gallery 3 screen, which can display over 50,000 colors using red, blue, yellow, and white ink particles.

E Ink hasn’t revealed exactly how many different colors Spectra 6 can reproduce, but it relies on a six-color ink system adding green and black that pushes the gamut volume closer to 60,000. Because it can take several seconds to refresh the entire screen, Spectra 6 is better suited to devices like static digital displays like the InkPoster, instead of e-readers.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:59:19 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

vees@epistolary.org ("Rob Carlson") wrote:

Daughter: "I have to do an act of citizenship for school and I don't know what to do!"

Me: "You are already coming with me to tonight's township meeting. Citizenship doesn't get more real than showing up at local government."

GE Cync’s new smart switches look better and work with Matter

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:57:46 +0000

The new Cync keypad dimmer looks very 1980s sci-fi control panel, and I’m here for it. | Image: GE

GE unveiled several new smart home products at CES on Monday, including new Matter-compatible Cync smart switches, non-Matter Cync lighting, and upscale smart shades. All of this will be rolling out over the next few months, starting with the new smart switches in March.

GE’s new Cync switches — the Smart Keypad Dimmer ($44.99) and Smart Paddle Dimmer ($25.99) — won’t use the usual quirky Cync design. The keypad dimmer, pictured at the top of this story, is more utilitarian, with programmable buttons for scenes or group control and up-and-down buttons for dimming at the bottom. The paddle dimmer looks, well, like a paddle switch with a dimming slider on the side. Here’s a picture of that one:

Image: GE

The GE paddle dimmer will fit right in with non-smart paddle switches.

As both of the new dimmers have Matter support, you can expect them to work with any major smart home platform.

GE says “the entire family has been enhanced” so that when you install a Cync switch on a three-way circuit, you don’t have to replace the dumb switch on the other end to keep smart control. That means you can turn the circuit off with the dumb switch, but still use voice commands or scheduled automation with Cync smart bulbs that the switch controls.

The company also announced café lights and outdoor strip lights for its “Cync Dynamic Effects” category of lights that offer 16 million colors, tunable white light, music syncing, and addressable LEDs. The company says the café lights will have reinforced eye holes for hanging and come in 24-foot ($39.99) and 48-foot ($69.99) versions starting in March. The strip lights are coming in April and measure 16 feet ($79.99) or 32 feet ($129.99). They’ll lack Matter support and will only work with Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

Finally, GE is releasing smart shades as part of its Proseo line. They require professional installation and are controllable through the Savant app. The company says they’ll feature “modern architectural aesthetics, performance fabrics and unmatched control interface options to complement any luxury space.” They’re designed to hide wires and screws and to cover large areas like full-wall windows and floor-to-ceiling corner windows. These are custom jobs, “and priced as such,” according to Savant.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:56:40 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

jeffjarvis ("Jeff Jarvis") wrote:

Gulf of America with his magic Sharpie... The windmills are driving the whales crazy....
You idiots elected this idiot. This is what you asked for. This is what you did to the rest of us.

The OG Diablo Is Coming To Game Pass

@Kotaku

2025-01-07 16:30:00 +0000

Another Activision-owned title arrives on Game Pass soon. This time it’s Blizzard’s classic and iconic Diablo. The action RPG iscoming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC next week alongside a few other games making the leap to the standard tier.

OnePlus 13 review: finally, a flagship that can hang

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:30:00 +0000

After several attempts, OnePlus made a great high-end phone.

Read the full story at The Verge.

2 bodies found in JetBlue plane's landing gear compartment at a Florida airport

@NPR News

2025-01-07 16:22:06 +0000

The bodies were located in the wheel well area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. It's the second time over the past month that a body has been found in the wheel well of an airplane.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:19:01 +0000

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

What if I don't want art produced by coupling AI and advertising?

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/07/tcl-rhymes-with-hell/

Attachments:

Smiling AI-generated girl (remote)

New rules will ban medical debt from your credit report

@NPR News

2025-01-07 16:17:08 +0000

The move, which comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, represents a challenge to the new administration.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:14:19 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

bicmay@med-mastodon.com ("Bích-Mây Nguyễn :verified:") wrote:

"Vaccination rates for school-aged children have declined in Minnesota and across the nation as more families seek to exempt their kids from required vaccinations...Without a critical mass of immunized kids, children at schools and child care operations can be more vulnerable from diseases, including measles and chickenpox, that are preventable."

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/06/more-minnesota-kids-exempted-from-required-vaccinations-whats-happening

#PublicHealth #vaccinations #immunizations #measles #pertussis #PublicSafety #schools #PrimaryCare #minnesota

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:13:57 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

CindyWeinstein@zirk.us ("Cindy Weinstein") wrote:

"Christian nationalists rationalize their will to dominance on false claims that they are the "true" Americans and the rest of us — liberal Christians, non-believers, non-Christians — are interlopers. That's why fake history is central to their project." @AmandaMarcotte doing the fact-checking (that #Zuckerberg has decided not to)

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/07/why-mike-johnsons-fake-jefferson-prayer-matters/

#ChristianNationalism
#MAGA

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:10:42 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

vees@epistolary.org ("Rob Carlson") wrote:

Developer tries to strong-arm WMATA into paying for deferred maintenance on their private roads because busses drive over them.

WMATA says "bet" and removes eight convenient bus stops from their development that currently serve 150 residents a day and have been around for 50 years.

https://wmata.com/about/news/Metro-discontinues-eight-P12-bus-stops-after-cease-and-desist-demand-from-property-owner.cfm

#PublicTransit #WMATA

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:08:46 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

w3c@w3c.social ("World Wide Web Consortium") wrote:

The W3C AC elected @hadleybeeman, @marcosc, @csarven and Xiaocheng Hu to fill four seats on the @tag. They join continuing TAG: @torgo, Matthew Atkinson, Dapeng (Max) Liu, @nitot, Martin Thomson and @jyasskin. Many thanks to the departing participants: @rhiaro, @peter, (who in addition held the role of TAG co-chair for many years), @hober and @leaverou
https://www.w3.org/news/2024/w3c-advisory-committee-elects-technical-architecture-group/

Attachments:

TAG logo (remote)

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:08:08 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

KC8JC@mastodon.radio ("KC8JC 📻") wrote:

Wrote up a few thoughts about getting on the air for ye olde blogge.

#hamradio #blog

https://www.kc8jc.com/2025/01/07/step-8-get-on-the-air/

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 16:05:30 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

CindyWeinstein@zirk.us ("Cindy Weinstein") wrote:

"One has to peel back so many layers of time to remember that a good percentage of corporate America announced at the time that it would stop backing members of Congress who had supported the effort by refusing to vote to certify the results of the election, a boast that required cutting off support to the bulk of congressional Republicans. Yes, if you don’t remember, that actually happened." -- Josh Marshall

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/four-years-later

#MAGA

Meta’s fact-checking changes are just what Trump’s FCC head asked for

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:03:37 +0000

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

I have to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his new policy chief Joel Kaplan on their timing. It’s not hugely surprising that, as the pair announced early today, Meta is giving up on professional third-party fact-checking. The operator of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads has been backing off moderation recently, and fact-checking has always been contentious. But it’s probably smart to do it two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office — and nominates a Federal Communications Commission head who’s threatened the company over it.

Trump’s FCC chairman pick (and current FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is a self-identified free speech defender with a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, as part of a flurry of lightly menacing missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter to Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attacking the companies’ fact-checking programs.

The letter was primarily focused on NewsGuard, a conservative bête noire that Meta doesn’t actually work with. But it also demanded information about “the use of any media monitor or fact checking service,” and it left no doubt about Carr’s position on them. “You participated in a...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Instead of fertility, this femtech wearable zeroes in on perimenopause

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:00:00 +0000

Peri is expected to launch in June 2025. | Image: Peri, identifyHer

When it comes to reproductive health tech, wearable makers tend to focus on one of two things: period tracking and fertility windows. But at CES 2025, health startup identifyHer wants to shake up that narrative with Peri, a wearable designed to help people track and manage perimenopause symptoms.

Perimenopause refers to the transitional period before menopause when the ovaries gradually stop working. Hormones like estrogen and progesterone begin to decrease, which, in turn, can lead to mood changes, irregular periods, hot flashes, and night sweats. Perimenopause symptoms can vary widely from person to person and last four to eight years on average — though it can be as short as a few months or as long as a decade.

Peri’s press release notes that the device will provide “objective data on perimenopausal symptoms, lifestyle, and sleep, as well as actionable insights and encouragement to better understand the changes their bodies are undergoing.” In official pictures, the device itself appears to be pill-shaped and adheres to a person’s torso as opposed to their wrist or finger, like most other health trackers.

“We will keep the specific sensors confidential until we open pre-orders,” says Peri cofounder Heidi Davis, though Davis acknowledges that none of the sensors in the device are new or proprietary. “Our breakthrough lies in the digital fingerprints we have identified through three years of R&D, collecting sensor data from women experiencing perimenopause.”

Davis says those “fingerprints” were then used to develop algorithms that provide continuous data on hot flashes, night sweats, and anxiety in perimenopausal women. One surprising finding, Davis says, is that body temperature isn’t a reliable indicator of hot flashes. Extra effort was also put in to ensure the algorithms weren’t swayed by things like exercise or warm weather, which could affect heart rate, sweating, or increase body temperature.

Image: Peri, identifyHer

Peri cofounder Heidi Davis says the torso is a more accurate place to detect hot flashes and night sweats.

Davis says identifyHer also intentionally decided to forgo a limb-based tracker.

“During the early stages of development, we tested our sensors on the limbs but found that we could not identify the digital fingerprints for some of the typical symptoms of perimenopause,” Davis explains, noting that the torso delivers the most accurate readings and is where hot flashes and night sweats are strongest.

As promising as this all sounds, none of Peri’s tech is proven just yet. We’ll have to see how Peri fares when it launches, which is expected to be in mid-2025. That said, its mission to bring further clarity to women’s reproductive health — a historically understudied area — is one wearable makers and researchers alike have widely pursued in recent years. Oura, for instance, has conducted its own study on pregnancy prediction, while Apple also launched its own long-term, large-scale Women’s Health Study using the Apple Watch. It’s just finally nice to see some traction on a less-studied stage of reproductive health.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X9 drops the TrackPoint

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:00:00 +0000

No nub here. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto

Lenovo has unveiled two new ThinkPads: the X9 14 and X9 15, both Aura Editions equipped with Intel Core Ultra processors and slim designs. But what they don’t offer might be the most interesting thing about them: namely, Lenovo’s signature red TrackPoint. Instead, they use a haptic trackpad without the ThinkPad’s usual discrete button for a distinctly MacBook vibe.

No doubt, it’s a ThinkPad, through and through. It’s tested to MIL-SPEC 810H durability standards. It offers a Thunderbolt 4 port on each side of the machine, making it easier to arrange docks and displays to your liking. And the design allows access to the SSD and battery to facilitate repairs and replacements.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto

Thunderbolt and HDMI on one side...

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto

...another Thunderbolt and a 3.5mm jack on the other.

Both the 14-inch and 15-inch versions come with OLED panels in touch and non-touch variations. All versions come with an HDMI 2.1 port and 3.5mm audio jack and can be configured with up to 32GB of DDR5x RAM and 2TB of storage. As Copilot Plus PCs, they’re ready for Microsoft’s AI as well as Lenovo’s “Aura Edition” features including focus mode-like Smart Modes to filter out distractions or optimize privacy.

Still, the missing TrackPoint is probably the ThinkPad X9’s most notable feature (or anti-feature?). In a time when hardware has shifted toward a kind of sameness, the TrackPoint stood out as a quirky carryover from a time when you could try to reinvent something — namely, the mouse. The trackpad won out long ago, but Lenovo kept the TrackPoint around for its loyal fans. Now, it might just be checkmate for the TrackPoint.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto

Kinda MacBook-y, but still a ThinkPad.

The ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition will start at $1,399 and the 15 Aura Edition will start at $1,549; both go on sale in February.

Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i gets bigger displays

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:00:00 +0000

Those are 14-inch OLED displays now. | Image: Lenovo

Lenovo is updating its Yoga device lineup to 10th-generation versions, including a new lightweight Yoga Slim 9i, a fresh Yoga Book 9i dual-screen laptop with larger displays, and a Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition convertible notebook.

The first is the Yoga Slim 9i, now powered by NPU-packing Intel Core Ultra chips that earn it Windows 11 Copilot Plus PC designation. The laptop also has Lenovo’s AI Core system, which does some AI stuff like dynamically adjusting settings in creative apps to help improve battery life (up to 17 hours on a 75Wh battery, according to the company).

Image: Lenovo

The Yoga Slim 9i has the “world’s first camera-under-display technology in a laptop,” according to Lenovo.

The Slim 9i has a 98 percent screen-to-body ratio and features a no-notch webcam for an attractive, bezel-free design. The Slim carries a 14-inch PureSight Pro OLED with a 4K resolution at 120Hz, two Thunderbolt 4 ports (one per side), a quartet of Dolby Atmos-capable speakers, and Wi-Fi 7 in a 2.26-pound package.

Image: Lenovo

The many modes of Yoga Book 9i.

Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i also gets 14-inch screens, which catch it up in size to the Asus ZenBook Duo. The Yoga Book screens have a 2.8K resolution (2880 x 1800) at 120Hz per display, and they’re also brighter now at 750 nits versus 400 nits on the previous model.

Intel is also updating the Yoga Book with the latest Arrow Lake 255H processor. You can max out the Yoga Book with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of internal storage. Three Thunderbolt 4 ports, four speakers, and Wi-Fi 7 are also on board. It also has a bigger battery and an improved folio case / stand design.

Lenovo promises a healthy slathering of AI-powered applications in the Yoga Book, including its own Smart Note note-taking app, a book synopsis-generating eReader app called Smart Reader, and a hand gesture feature called Air Gestures to move windows and scroll.

Image: Lenovo

The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 in cosmic blue with included Yoga Pen.

The shiny-finished Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, meanwhile, gets a new, brighter 14-inch OLED display with a peak brightness of 1,100 nits. There’s also a new Yoga Slim 7i (Aura Edition) and new 16- and 14-inch 2-in-1 7i models that now feature Intel processors.

The Yoga Slim 9i starts at $1,849, while the 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition starts at $1,599. Both will ship starting in February. Meanwhile, the Yoga Book 9i dual-screen will set you back at least $1,999 and will ship beginning in May. Lenovo offers a free two-month Adobe Creative Cloud membership if you buy select 2025 Yoga models.

Lenovo Legion Go S official: $499 buys the first authorized third-party SteamOS handheld

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:00:00 +0000

The Lenovo Legion Go S, with SteamOS. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Lenovo is trying an experiment. In May, it will officially become the very first company outside of Valve to ship a handheld gaming PC with the Steam Deck’s wonderfully pick-up-and-play SteamOS instead of Microsoft Windows. And at $499, it’ll be a true Steam Deck rival, joining it as one of the lower-priced PC handhelds you can buy.

That handheld will be the 1.6-pound Lenovo Legion Go S, a new and improved version of the company’s eight-inch handheld that ditches the Nintendo Switch-like detachable gamepads and kickstand for a lighter and more traditional design, with a sculpted grip that felt supremely comfortable in my hands.

It’ll also be one of the few handhelds on the market to offer a 120Hz variable refresh rate screen — a highly desirable feature that lets low-power handheld gameplay feel smooth, even if it’s not generating lots of frames. That screen will be lower in resolution at 1920 x 1200, too, and feature a hopefully power-sipping new AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip. (It’s a Lenovo-exclusive chip, by the way.)

In other words, it might address every major complaint I had in my Legion Go review, while additionally adding fun configurable RGB lighting around the joysticks, a slightly larger 55Wh battery, a pair of levers to reduce the throw of the triggers, and a less obtrusive touchpad, too, while retaining the dual USB 4 ports.

But Lenovo isn’t going all in on SteamOS. Not only will it hedge its bets by shipping a Windows version of the Legion Go S as well but it’ll also ship with Windows this month — four months ahead of the SteamOS models. The Windows model is white:

It’s not like the SteamOS model is ready now anyhow. Valve codesigners Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais tell me they’ve only been working with Lenovo for a couple of months, and the integration isn’t quite done. The new touchpad, gyroscope, and both RGB lighting and TDP configuration options are among the things on their to-do list.

But the Windows version shipping in January will cost $729.99, with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. In May, the true experiment will begin when gamers can pick between a $499.99 SteamOS version with 16GB / 512GB, a $599.99 Windows version with 16GB / 1TB, or the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED at $399 and $549, respectively.

And it does sound like there will be one important reason to pick the Steam Deck over the Legion Go S and vice versa, because AMD’s Z2 Go is a different chip. While the Z2 Go announced yesterday sheds cores and GPU generations to be slightly more akin to the Steam Deck’s semi-custom Aerith and / or Sephiroth parts, we noted that it targets higher power levels, and Legion Go product manager Alex Zhu confirms to me that the Legion Go S is aimed at 20-watt performance, 30-watt, maybe even 40-watt configurable performance, which will likely offer higher performance (and lower battery life) than the 15-watt-and-below Steam Deck’s chip.

Zhu says Lenovo is targeting between two and 2.5 hours of battery life in demanding heavy games — which lines up with the basic math of dividing a 55 watt-hour battery by 20 watts, assuming the rest of the system doesn’t eat up a lot more. Versions with AMD’s existing Z1 Extreme chip will also be available in some markets. All Legion Go S can fit full-length M.2 2280 solid state drives.

BTW, Valve isn’t keeping key Steam Deck features like precompiled shaders to itself, or anything else, for that matter. Yang and Griffais say it will be one SteamOS, and the Legion Go S and any future SteamOS devices will get the same updates as the Deck, minus hardware-specific tweaks.

Valve tells me Lenovo is currently its only partner for a SteamOS device — there are no other third-party SteamOS devices currently in the works. But Griffais hints that Valve is close to publicly releasing a new beta of its SteamOS that just might possibly start working on other handhelds as well. (Valve previously confirmed to us that it was building toward some level of support for the Asus ROG Ally in SteamOS as well.)

And it’s vaguely possible that SteamOS beta could arrive before the SteamOS Legion Go S — Valve says it’s slated to ship sometime after March.

But the real dream is to pull a PC handheld out of a box and have it just work, the way a Nintendo Switch works, not to shoehorn an operating system on it afterward, no matter how good the result. That’s why Lenovo is working with Valve: Zhu agrees that SteamOS has the best out-of-box experience. But, he says, Windows offers a whole ecosystem of gaming and productivity that the company believes its customers still want.

Zhu agrees that SteamOS is an experiment for Lenovo and says it’ll look at the feedback and momentum before making its next move. Speaking of what’s next, Lenovo is also building a larger Legion Go 2 with detachable controllers and an 8.8-inch OLED screen, and it brought prototypes of that unit to CES:

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The new Legion Go 2 prototype, with a smaller kickstand and more sculpted grips.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Zhu tells me Lenovo doesn’t have “any specific plans” to put SteamOS on the larger Legion Go, just Windows — but perhaps it depends on what customers buy in May.

Meanwhile, Valve is still looking ahead to a future version of its own Steam Deck, saying that partnering with companies like Lenovo hasn’t reduced the desire to build its own. But AMD’s Z2 isn’t the “leap” that Valve’s been waiting for, Griffais tells The Verge. There won’t be a Z2 Steam Deck.

Lenovo’s rollable laptop is a concept no more — launching this year for $3,500

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:00:00 +0000

Look at this beautiful tall boy.

I can confidently say Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 stole the show for me at CES. I knew it the second I hit a button on the keyboard and saw the concept-turned-real laptop extend its rollable OLED display upward — motors whirring motors and a dumb smile forming on my face.

Compared to the many new laptops, desktops, gadgets, and handhelds Lenovo is announcing at CES, the ThinkBook may be completely ridiculous in a lot of ways — and it’ll start at a whopping $3,499 when it launches sometime in Q1 2025. But damn it, I love its quirkiness and the fact that you can soon buy something so utterly unique for mundane tasks like working on extra-tall spreadsheets.

@verge

This is the new rollable laptop, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. It's been a prototype for a while, but it's about ready to be rolled out in early 2025. #lenovo #laptop #ces #tech #techtok

♬ original sound - The Verge

The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 has a flexible OLED display with small motors built into its hinge to unfurl the screen and roll it back down. It starts out looking like a fairly unassuming 14-inch productivity laptop, albeit with a slightly square-ish aspect ratio and a resolution of 2000 x 1600. But hitting a dedicated key or raising your hand to the webcam activates the motors and makes the display climb to a tall 16.7 inches, with an extended resolution of 2000 x 2350. It took roughly 10 seconds for the ThinkBook’s screen to extend or contract, and while its motors aren’t egregiously loud, they’re noisy enough to draw attention in a quiet environment. That, and the fact that your laptop just freakin’ grew out of nowhere.

The extra screen real estate in 16.7-inch mode is enough to fit two 16 x 9 windows stacked on top of each other. Going back to 14-inch mode tucks the bottom portion of the screen into the laptop chassis, where it hides below the keyboard deck and displays black pixels to not waste power. Reps from Lenovo, including Samuel Shang of Lenovo research, who worked on the ThinkBook’s development team, said the nested location of the screen and small size of the motors in the hinge allowed for ample battery capacity — which seems to track since the laptop’s 66Wh battery is pretty typical for a laptop of this size. Shang and Lenovo product marketing’s Drupad Kandhi said the ThinkBook was thoroughly tested and rated for at least 30,000 closings and openings of its lid hinge and 20,000 rolls both up and down.

Watching the screen go up and down just didn’t get old in our short time testing it. By default, the ThinkBook plays a bright and colorful abstract animation of a flexible material coiling or unrolling while the screen rolls down or up. It’s a cute graphic that’s reminiscent of rolling homemade dough through a pasta machine, but you can thankfully turn it off and watch the display grow or shrink with your current window or app onscreen. I suspect part of the animation’s purpose is to distract from the little curls visible in the display, which are more obvious when it’s moving and there’s something darker onscreen like The Verge’s homepage.

The flexible OLED in the ThinkBook Plus is one of Samsung Display’s IT foldable panels. Like the creases in folding phones, the ThinkBook’s screen has plenty of smaller creases along its lower half that you don’t really notice when using it — but look closely or stare at the screen from steeper angles, and they’re clear as day. You can see them in some of my photos, but I must concede that my bounced flash really illuminates the creases and makes them look more pronounced than they are with the naked eye.

What should we nickname this? Overbite mode? Plank mode? “This is fine” mode?

I went into this demo expecting anxious company reps wanting me to treat their precious creation like a fragile heirloom and feared that just looking at this thing the wrong way would break it. But much to the contrary, they seemed surprisingly confident in letting me tinker with it. I jammed the ThinkBook into a backpack just like I would any laptop I’m commuting with, and I also closed the lid while the display was still extended — putting it in a ridiculous-looking overbite position — and all was fine.

As for the ThinkBook’s conventional laptop stuff, it’s a fairly table stakes thin and light productivity machine — but not one with a bounty of ports. It can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 processor, 1TB SSD, and 32GB of DDR5x dual-channel RAM. It’s got just two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack, so be prepared to live the dongle life if you need USB-A or a card reader.

There are no ports on the right — just a power button I can already guess may annoy me.

The left side has the minimal ports of just two Thunderbolt 4 and a 3.5mm jack.

One thing you may not need on your hub is an HDMI-out, as Lenovo told us the ThinkBook is not really designed to be used with external monitors. That’s because Lenovo had to program its extra screen real estate as a second monitor in Windows since Microsoft doesn’t have baked-in support for a setup like this. Even in our short demo, it didn’t take long to see some concerning and potentially deal-breaking software stuff. For example, you can’t snap windows and apps to the bottom portion of the extended screen. Instead, you have to open Lenovo’s built-in software and pin it to that window down there. This could be streamlined if Microsoft adds support for rollable displays in a future Windows update, but I wouldn’t bank on that happening soon.

While I’m super excited to see the ThinkBook Plus actually become a real thing people can buy, I fear the software and OS limitations may hold back its fun potential and make it too fussy. I’m very curious to test it over the long term to see what living the rollable life is like.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Lenovo brings Windows on Arm to mini desktop PCs

@The Verge

2025-01-07 16:00:00 +0000

Image: Lenovo

Qualcomm teased it was about to enter the mini desktop PC space yesterday, and now Lenovo is announcing two mini PCs that cater to consumers and businesses. Both the ThinkCentre neo 50q and IdeaCentre Mini x will include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series chips, enabling Copilot Plus PC features in a desktop form factor.

The IdeaCentre Mini x is a 1-liter mini PC that’s designed for creatives who want a desktop that’s quiet and capable of productivity tasks. It comes with a built-in power supply and an easy-to-open case so you can swap components. It’s not a fan-less mini PC, though, as it has two fans inside to keep things cool.

Image: Lenovo

Lenovo’s IdeaCentre Mini x has Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X series chips inside.

At the front, there’s a single USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port and a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, alongside a headphone jack and a power button. At the rear, Lenovo has equipped its IdeaCentre Mini x PC with two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a single USB-A 2.0 port, a USB-C 4 port, a HDMI 2.1 port, a DisplayPort 1.4 connection, and an ethernet port.

The IdeaCentre Mini x can be configured with either a base Snapdragon X chip or the Snapdragon X Plus, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage. Lenovo is using the latest Wi-Fi 7 connectivity inside the IdeaCentre Mini x, too.

Image: Lenovo

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre neo 50q is designed for small and medium businesses.

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre neo 50q is designed for small and medium businesses, and it has a similar set of specs. The ThinkCentre neo 50q will also be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chip or the X Plus, with up to 16GB of RAM instead of the 32GB found on the IdeaCentre Mini x. At the front of the ThinkCentre mini PC, there is a single USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a single USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a headphone jack and power button. At the rear, there are two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two USB-A 2.0 ports, a HDMI 2.1 port, a DisplayPort 1.4 connection, and an ethernet port. Lenovo has also equipped the ThinkCentre neo 50q with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, instead of the Wi-Fi 7 support available on the IdeaCentre Mini x.

While the IdeaCentre Mini x looks like the better option both in terms of optional specs and design, it will also be priced lower than the ThinkCentre mini PC. The IdeaCentre Mini x will be available starting in April, with an expected starting price of $659.99. Lenovo’s ThinkCentre neo 50q QC will be available slightly earlier in February, with a starting price expected at $849.

In a workforce transformed by war, Ukrainian women are now working in coal mines

@NPR News

2025-01-07 15:58:25 +0000

War has changed Ukraine's workforce, especially in heavy industry and mining. With men conscripted to fight the war against Russia, women have started working in traditionally male jobs.

Discovery Plus is raising its prices

@The Verge

2025-01-07 15:53:14 +0000

Photo Illustration by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Discovery Plus is going up in price, with its ad-supported plan going from $4.99 to $5.99 per month, and its ad-free plan increasing from $8.99 to $9.99 per month. The price hike will go into effect immediately for new subscribers, while existing subscribers will see the change during their next billing cycle or after February 7th.

Discovery Plus raised the price of its ad-free plan for the first time in October 2023. Following the launch of Max, Discovery Plus remained a standalone subscription despite most of its content appearing in Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streaming service. Discovery Plus has a mix of shows — ranging from ultra binge-worthy to ultra cringe-worthy — from channels like HGTV, TLC, the Discovery Channel, Investigation Discovery, Magnolia Network, and others.

Streaming service price hikes have become frustratingly common over the past few years, with Max, Paramount Plus, and Peacock all raising their prices in 2024, while Amazon Prime Video introduced ads. Max and Disney Plus are also following Netflix’s initiative to crack down on password sharing.

5 Things We Noticed In The Last Of Us’ New Season Two Trailer

@Kotaku

2025-01-07 15:43:33 +0000

If you missed it last night, Sony and HBO announced that The Last of Us’ second season will premiere on Max in April at CES 2025. The seven-episode season will cover only part of The Last of Us Part II’s story, as HBO plans to split the events of the 2020 sequel across multiple seasons. Based on this trailer, it seems…

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 15:36:49 +0000

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

We're going to talk about feminist/progressive/humanist parenting on Saturday!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/07/less-than-a-week-until-classes-start-againand-an-upcoming-podcast/

https://www.youtube.com/live/2dWBEo3l5y8

Nvidia's Best New GeForce RTX 50-Series Graphics Card Costs $2,000 And Is An Absolute Power Hog

@Kotaku

2025-01-07 15:30:00 +0000

Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards have been officially revealed and they are beastly. The RTX 5090 will cost $2,000 and require a recommended power supply of 1kW, or roughly the equivalent of running a belt sander non-stop. The latest line of GPUs comes as Nvidia rushes to fill demand in the current…

Getty Images and Shutterstock are merging into one stock photo powerhouse

@The Verge

2025-01-07 15:12:35 +0000

Image: The Verge

Getty Images and Shutterstock are joining forces in a merger valued at around $3.7 billion, the companies announced on Tuesday. The merger will allow the companies to expand their stock photo libraries as they face increasing competition from AI-powered image creation tools.

Getty Images CEO Craig Peters will remain the head of the combined companies when the merger closes, while a reworked board of directors will consist of members from both Getty Images and Shutterstock, including Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy. In the press release, Peters said the merger will bolster the companies by “enhancing our content offerings, expanding event coverage, and delivering new technologies to better serve our customers.”

Shutterstock will remain a separate website following the merger, Getty Images spokesperson Anne Flanagan confirmed to The Verge.

The merger comes amid the rise of text-to-image AI tools from companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. In 2023, Getty Images responded to the trend by launching an image generator trained on its vast library of licensed photos. It rolled out a similar tool on iStock, which Getty also owns, and partnered with online image editor Picsart to create a “responsible, commercially-safe” AI image generator.

Meanwhile, Shutterstock struck an AI training deal with OpenAI, and has agreements with Meta, Google, and Amazon, according to Reuters.

The decision to combine two stock photo powerhouses may also spur antitrust scrutiny, but it’s unclear how a more merger-friendly Trump administration will respond.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, French fiery far-right leader, dies at 96

@NPR News

2025-01-07 15:10:37 +0000

Le Pen was convicted numerous times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence. But the nativist ideas that propelled his popularity remain ascendant in today's France and beyond.

PlayStation 5 Is Getting A New Set Of Killer-Looking, All-Black Accessories

@Kotaku

2025-01-07 15:05:00 +0000

The PlayStation 5 lineup of consoles and accessories continues to expand. Just a couple of months after the 30th Anniversary set was released, Sony has revealed another lineup of color variants, this time in all-black. The new PlayStation Portal looks especially slick.

Ultrahuman thinks its 18-karat gold smart ring is worth $1,900

@The Verge

2025-01-07 15:00:00 +0000

Ultrahuman’s Rare smart ring in dune starts at £1500, roughly $1,900. | Image: Ultrahuman

CES 2025 is officially underway, and the adrenaline of a day of running around Las Vegas is fading fast. Yet I cannot fall asleep. Probably because I’ve been replaying the same three product teaser videos over and over and over. One opens with the familiar frenetic strains of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons violin concerto, panning to a CGI desert, where grains of sand blow in undulating wisps. The words “Rare by Ultrahuman” emerge on a stark black background. Then, from the depths of a CGI dune, emerges a smart ring.

The other two videos are carbon copies, except in one, the desert is a golden pink. In the other, a wintry silver.

I have watched this video so many times.

I check the press release. The rings range from £1500 to £1800. I immediately pull up Google. That’s roughly $1,900 to $2,200. I rack my brain. The most expensive smart ring I can remember is Oura’s collaboration with Gucci, which I described in my writeup as an eye-watering $950. I double-check that my tired brain hasn’t goofed the conversion. It hasn’t. My eye twitches.

Rare, the Ultrahuman press release says, is meant to be a luxury smart ring. It will come in three colors: desert rose, dune, and desert snow. Or, you know, rose gold, gold, and silver. They are apparently thusly named because the collection “captures the essence of nature’s most captivating phenomena. From the intricate fluid elegance of wind-sculpted dunes, each piece embodies the harmonious blend of beauty and resilience found in these arid landscapes.”

The desert rose and dune rings are made of 18-karat gold “sourced from London Bullion Market Association.” These will cost $1,900. Meanwhile, the desert snow ring is “meticulously crafted from pt950 platinum, a metal of exceptional purity and prestige.” It will cost $2,200. While I think of how that’s around my monthly mortgage payment, I read more purple prose about the symbolism of harmony between nature and technology, the wind’s gentle caress of a dune, and the rarity of snow blanketing the desert.

I squint at the press renders of these rings. They look like ordinary smart rings.

Spec-wise, Rare is the same as the Ultrahuman Ring Air. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is a great smart ring and came this close to beating the Oura Ring in my smart ring battle royale last year. That ring costs $350 — a standard, reasonable price for a smart ring. The Rare series is roughly five to six times that price. According to Ultrahuman, this is the price of the artisanal craftsmanship and complex engineering — and a lifetime membership to UltrahumanX, the smart ring maker’s extended warranty subscription. You also get access to all of Ultrahuman’s PowerPlugs, features that you buy a la carte on Ultrahuman’s platform such as period tracking, vitamin D tracking, and smart alarms. That includes any future PowerPlugs. Is that worth $1,900 to $2,200?

I go back to my inbox and reread the FAQ Ultrahuman sent me for the billionth time. Under the question, “Is there demand for this” and “who is the target buyer?” there’s an impassioned plea. People have been using the Ultrahuman Ring Air — which I vehemently maintain is a great smart ring — for engagements and gifts for loved ones. Rare, the FAQ says, is a natural evolution toward jewelry becoming smart like everything else. The ideal buyer? “Rare speaks to those who seek exclusivity and purpose in the choices they make.”

The more I read, the more this feels like a fever-dream pitch from Jony Ive, because it’s the same doomed approach Apple took for its Watch Edition.

I don’t know what time is anymore, but I look at the Oura Ring 4 in brushed silver on my finger. Then I look at the desert snow ring render on my laptop screen. My eyes dart back and forth several times. Hm. Hmm.

Image: Ultrahuman

I’m trying to understand. There are no gems or crystals. This is $1,900.

At some point, I don’t know when, I realize I have become The Verge’s very own Gollum. I am sleep-deprived, dark circles forming under my eyes. My reflection in the hotel mirror as I grab some water scares me. But I can think of nothing else. We must see our precious $2,000 smart rings in person. Yes. We wants it. We must seek it on the show floor because Rare will only launch in London and Paris at “select premium retail locations” to start. Yes, we must see this, we must feel it on our finger if only to answer the one burning question: what would make a $2,000 smart ring worth it?

Keychron is putting Hall effect switches into more keyboards

@The Verge

2025-01-07 15:00:00 +0000

The Keychron Q6 HE (pictured) now supports Hall effect switches. | Image: Keychron

Mechanical keyboard specialist Keychron is adding fancy analog Hall effect switches to more of its lineup. Two of the models announced at CES today are launching immediately: the $169 Lemokey P1 HE QMK, and the $229 Keychron Q6 HE QMK, with three additional keyboards set to be released later this year.

Hall effect switches are notable for providing more customization features and a faster press than traditional mechanical switches, making them a popular choice for gamers. They use magnetic induction sensing on the PCB that detects how far down a key has been pushed — allowing you to decide the exact actuation point or even set different functions that activate depending on how hard you press.

The Lemokey P1 HE QMK is a 75 percent layout keyboard with 2.4GHz Bluetooth and a 1,000Hz polling rate. It can be used wired or wirelessly and is compatible exclusively with Gateron Double-Rail magnetic switches. The Keychron Q6 HE also launching today is a full-sized mechanical keyboard with similar features and switch restrictions. Both models are available in either black or white and feature PBT double-shot keycaps.

Image: Keychron

Here’s a look at the updated Lemokey P1 HE QMK.

Keychron released its first Hall effect keyboard last year, and rival keyboard makers like Corsair and SteelSeries have also adopted the feature after Wooting popularized the use of Hall effect switches. Meanwhile, other brands like Epomaker and Ducky are trending toward induction-based switches that provide similar analog features and use less power. Other Keychron models like the K4, K8, and Lomokey L5 will also be available with Hall effect switches sometime in Q1 2025.

It’s 2025 and the Nintendo Wii is getting a new Guitar Hero controller

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:59:38 +0000

Hyperkin says the Hyper Strummer features a similar design to older hardware but uses improved internal components. | Image: Hyperkin

Hyperkin opened preorders for a new guitar-shaped controller on New Year’s Day, but it isn’t compatible with Harmonix’s Fortnite Festival music game that debuted on the Switch in late 2023. In fact, the Hyper Strummer isn’t compatible with the Switch at all. It only works with the 18-year-old Nintendo Wii, and the older Guitar Hero and Rock Band rhythm game titles released for that console.

The $76.99 Hyper Strummer could have potentially been a cheaper alternative to Fortnite Festival-compatible guitar controllers like PDP’s $129.99 Riffmaster. But it only works with a Wiimote slotted into the back, and is not compatible with modern gaming hardware like the Xbox Series X / S or the PlayStation 5.

Its design also appears identical to the Guitar Hero controller Hyperkin released in 2009 during the Wii era, which led to accusations on X that the company was repackaging and selling old stock as a new product.

We wanted to address the following concerns on the recently announced Hyper Strummer. pic.twitter.com/3tyKvZSief

— Hyperkin (@Hyperkin) January 2, 2025

Hyperkin responded to the accusations with a statement shared on X explaining why the Hyper Strummer looks so similar to older hardware. “While it is correct that this is the same shell mold of a previous Hyperkin release from 2009, that is all it is. We used the mold to make brand new shells, fitted with new 2024 internal components. This is not old stock, nor is it old guitars that have been sitting in a warehouse.”

The company says the modernized Hyper Strummer was “developed to meet the demand for an accessible and budget-friendly solution, perfect for retro gamers who want to enter the guitar scene in 2025 at an affordable price.” Instead of risking buying used hardware online that potentially turns out to be non-functional, devoted Guitar Hero fans who have refused to upgrade their Nintendo Wiis now have another option.

Call Of Duty Keeps Getting More Expensive To Make Even Though It's Selling Fewer Copies

@Kotaku

2025-01-07 14:50:00 +0000

Call of Duty is the best-selling game almost every year, but even that might not be enough to keep up with its ever-ballooning blockbuster budgets. New court filings reveal that 2020's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War cost $700 million to make over the life of the game, despite selling 10 million fewer copies than the…

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 14:36:26 +0000

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Attack ChatGPT!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/07/overthrow-the-technocrats/

Attachments:

Bob the Angry Flower wants to go on the offensive against AI (remote)

Sony is giving the PS5’s accessories an all-black makeover

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:22:08 +0000

Image: Sony

You can finally make your PS5 gaming set up all black everything. Sony has announced that it will soon release the rest of the PS5 suite of accessories in the midnight black colorway.

Sony’s offering the Dual Sense Edge Controller, the Pulse wireless headphones and earbuds, and the PlayStation Portal in sleek and sexy midnight black to match the PS5 cover and Dual Sense controller it released back in 2021.

Though the announcement wasn’t specifically apart of the CES celebrations, it did neatly coincide with the news that Sony’s giving Helldivers the Sonic and Mario treatment. The company also announced that its Horizon Zero Dawn adaptation is no longer a TV show produced by Netflix but a full-fledged movie that’ll cover Aloy’s exploits in the first game, and that the second season of The Last of Us is coming to HBO in April.

PlayStation’s website has the details on pricing for the electronics with pre-orders starting on January 16th.

If you’d rather wait, the accessories will hit retailers on February 20th.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 14:10:07 +0000

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

garbados@friend.camp ("crows call me breadlady") wrote:

hey! i just published `html-alchemist`, an HTML templating library that can replace JSX. and it's tiny! 859 bytes, minified, before compression.

it's based on clojure's reagent library, which wraps react. html-alchemist is intended to pair with webcomponents, for a very sleek stack

check it out!

https://www.npmjs.com/package/html-alchemist

Razer’s prototype gaming chair blasts you with hot or cold air

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:00:00 +0000

Image: Razer

It’s becoming a tradition for Razer to show off some pretty wild prototypes at CES, but the concept gaming chair with integrated heating and cooling it just unveiled actually sounds downright practical. Project Arielle is a mesh gaming chair that features a bladeless fan system that’s designed to keep you at a comfortable temperature regardless of what environment you’re in.

We briefly tried it here at CES 2025 and it’s cool! Or warm, depending on the mode you set it to. When my colleague Sean Hollister tried it, he found it didn’t just warm or cool his butt, but gently and quietly blew a substantial amount of climate-controlled air onto his upper back from small holes along the chair’s top edge.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

A more comfortable way to freeze your butt off.

Building on the $1,049 Razer Fujin Pro mesh gaming chair that you can currently buy, Project Arielle has three adjustable fan speeds that can reduce the perceived temperature by 2 to 5 degrees Celsius (around 3.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit) in “dry environments,” according to Razer. That sounds pretty useful if you live in a hot climate or if your gaming PC kicks out enough heat to turn your room into a sweatbox.

Image: Razer

Here’s a rendering that shows how the hot or cool air is dispersed from the chair.

For chillier environments, the chair has a built-in PTC heating system (the same kind found in most vehicles and heated car seats) that can spit out warm air at 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). The fans and that temperatures are adjusted using touch panel controls located next to the seat pad. And given this is a Razer product, there’s obviously RGB lighting throughout the chair. By default, it’s set to Razer’s trademark green when it’s off, and we saw the edge glow red when warm, blue when cool, and purple or orange when cooling or warming.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Icons on the touch-controlled panel and the built-in RGB lighting indicate whether the chair is set to blast warm or cold air.

One downside: you can’t spin 360 degrees in this chair without wrapping a cord around yourself, as it does need to be plugged in. But even the prototype already has a cable that’ll safely disconnect if you accidentally give it a yank.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The breakaway cable will disconnect if it’s pulled, kinda like the early Xbox controllers.

Given Project Arielle is only a concept chair, this unfortunately isn’t something you can actually buy just yet. Razer has showcased a lot of quirky gaming gadget concepts at CES over the years, including chair cushions that shake your ass with haptic feedback.

While some do eventually get released as fully realized products — such as the Razer Edge gaming tablet born from “Project Fiona” and the Zephyr RGB face mask that got the company into trouble with the Federal Trade Commission over N95 compliance claims — others, like the Project Sophia modular desk computer and Project Valerie triple-screen laptop, have never been rolled out.

Audio-Technica’s latest earbuds have marathon battery life and a useful trick

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:00:00 +0000

Image: Audio-Technica

Audio-Technica’s wireless earbuds don’t always receive the same amount of buzz that larger brands get, but they’re consistently good performers that deliver on all the most important criteria. Here at CES 2025, the company is introducing the new ATH-CKS50TW2. These buds feature Audio-Technica’s usual tuning and sound quality, but there are two main selling points for this latest model.

First, battery life seems almost endless. Audio-Technica says the ATH-CKS50TW2 can deliver a total of 65 hours of playback with noise cancellation off: 25 hours from the fully charged earbuds, plus another 40 hours from the charging case. With ANC enabled, those numbers shift to a still very impressive 15 hours from the buds and 25 hours from the case.

The other helpful new feature should prevent battery drain even if you put the earbuds in your pocket without their case. Audio-Technica says its “Magnetic Switch” technology lets the earbuds join together with magnets. Whenever this happens, they automatically power off, so you won’t have to worry about them playing music in your pocket and eating through battery for no reason.

As for the rest of the hardware, the earbuds feature 9-millimeter “high-definition” drivers, hybrid ear tips that combine hard and soft silicone, wireless charging, and IP68 dust and water resistance. Audio-Technica has priced the ATH-CKS50TW2 at $149, and the company says you can order its newest earbuds starting today.

Razer Project Ava: would you pay an AI to help you get good at games?

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:00:00 +0000

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Gaming hardware manufacturer Razer is introducing what might be its most controversial “project” yet — an “AI gaming copilot” designed to help you get better at video games. With your permission, it takes thousands of pictures of your screen, then tells you how to play a game, optimally in real time, as you continue to play.

“By analyzing millions of simulations within seconds, I’ll always have an answer to your toughest gaming challenges,” a Razer marketing video claims.

For example, watching a prerecorded video of a punishing Black Myth: Wukong boss fight, Razer’s AI assistant had all sorts of tips:

“Get ready to dodge when his blade spins or glows with an orange tinge.”
“Keep a close eye on his health. Once you shave off 10 to 20 percent get your dodge fingers ready.”
“He’s going to vanish...”
“If he grabs you, you will feel it!”

I felt weird about this almost immediately. While it could be more convenient than looking up a guide, it doesn’t credit or compensate the creators of the guides that Razer ingests in order to train its AI. It would be pretty disruptive if Ava spent time telling me that Verge sister site Polygoncrafted that guide, after all!

And yet, Ava did sound pretty disruptive regardless, seemingly interrupting the game’s audio to tell the player what to do. I suppose you might only summon Ava when you need help, but it still feels like a bit of a weird fit for Razer, a company that’s long associated itself with elite gamers. (There’s also a long conversation about how “female” AI can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, but at least Razer global marketing director David Ng tells us it’ll offer other voices in the future.)

Next, we saw an actual live demo of Ava helping someone play League of Legends, acting as an AI chatbot that could help you figure out what to do and which spells and items to equip based on enhanced situational awareness of the game, API calls, guides, and even potentially historical data about the outcomes of matches played by esports teams.

Ava knows where the enemy’s champions are because it’s taking pictures of the mini-map, and it knows what you might want to use to counter them — though its answers were delayed by multiple seconds in the prototype we saw, which ran on a pair of local Nvidia RTX 4090 laptop GPUs using Meta’s Llama 3.2 LLM instead of in the cloud.

Following the match, Ava attempts to continue to act as a coach, creating replays, pointers, and feedback for you about your performance.

It’s clear that there’s a lot of work that would need to be done to make this useful, particularly if Razer wants to fulfill some of its other dreams. (It imagines Ava could help you auto-configure your computer, act as an autonomous gaming companion, and serve as a raid leader if no one wants to spend their time organizing the group.)

But unlike many of Razer’s concepts, which it never guarantees to turn into products, it seems the company is already invested in Ava and is thinking about an Ava service as a new business opportunity. It’s not waiting for feedback on the idea before it rolls out a beta, and Ng tells us it’s building out a whole team of AI developers to work on such ideas, with a planned bigger announcement at GDC in March.

The company says it’s got a patent-pending algorithm on the way it figures out how to suggest gaming tips and is working on some sort of “proprietary AI hardware” to help it run. It’s thinking about how it can beat the competition with the cloud service — because yes, there is competition for AI gaming apps that coach you to play League of Legends. I just heard about another one yesterday.

Severance season 2 somehow gets even weirder, wilder, and darker

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:00:00 +0000

Image: Apple

I’m not going to spoil anything because the new season of Severance doesn’t premiere for 10 days. But I want to be clear — the first season of the sci-fi thriller wasn’t a fluke. The Apple TV Plus series burst onto the scene in 2022 with a story about tech workers who were forced to live in purgatory thanks to an experimental procedure that split their brains in two: one who lived a normal life outside of the office, and another who could never leave. It was tense and strange and downright horrifying — and also benefited from largely being a surprise. But even without that, season 2 hits just as hard as the original, pushing further into the dark, weird edges of the Severance universe, while expanding it in fascinating new ways.

Spoilers for the first season of Severance to follow.

As a little refresher, Severance is centered on a tech giant called Lumon Industries, which developed the mind-splitting procedure so that employees can work on sensitive projects in its basement with no concerns about that information getting out of the building. The severance procedure is dictated spatially: as soon as a severed employee gets in the elevator and heads downstairs, they, in essence,...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Razer’s RGB dock turns gaming handhelds and phones into TV consoles

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:00:00 +0000

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Razer has announced some new handheld gaming goodies, including remote PC streaming capabilities for the Kishi Ultra mobile controller and a folding multiplatform RGB dock for the Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and more.

Razer says its Handheld Dock Chroma is a “6-in-1” docking station that transforms phones, tablets, or handheld gaming devices “into powerful gaming consoles” with 100W power passthrough support for charging. It’s priced at $79.99 and will be available on January 30th, with preorders starting on January 7th.

The Handheld Dock Chroma is a similar concept to the official docking stations provided by Valve or Nintendo, allowing users to hook handheld devices up to external displays with expanded connections to complement big-screen gaming setups. The Handheld Dock Chroma uses a USB-C cable to connect supported devices, including Android phones and tablets, iPads and iPhones with USB-C ports, Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and Razer’s own Edge Android gaming handheld.

Image: Razer

Here are the port options in the rear, plus the USB-C cable to connect to your device. Devices like the Nintendo Switch, with the port on the base, will have to go upside down.

Image: Razer

When folded closed, the Handheld Dock Chroma just looks like a funky streaming box.

The cable is located on the rear of the docking station, alongside a USB-C power port, an HDMI output to connect to a TV or gaming monitor, a gigabit ethernet port, and three USB-A ports to connect things like controllers or keyboards. Given the cable placement, certain handhelds like the Switch that have their ports on the underside will need to be positioned upside down in the dock.

The dock itself is constructed from aluminum and folds down into a box shape to make it easier to transport without damaging it. And given this is a Razer product, there’s naturally a Chroma-enabled RGB bar located at the front, which users can customize with various lighting effects.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

There’s plenty of ports to hook up things like mice, keyboards, and controllers — providing they use a USB-A connection.

Razer is also introducing a PC Remote Play feature for the Kishi Ultra mobile controller, among other controllers, allowing users to stream games directly from PCs to smartphones and tablets. The feature also makes use of the Kishi Ultra’s Sensa HD support, which converts audio output into haptic feedback on supported Android devices (but sadly isn’t available for iOS). PC Remote Play allows games to be streamed at full resolution without compromising “visual quality or game speed,” according to Razer, and can be accessed via the Razer Nexus app on iOS or Android.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Razer’s new PC Remote Play feature provides PC-to-Phone streaming capabilities similar to the Steam Link mobile app.

Razer tells us the PC Remote Play feature is built on top of the popular Moonlight streaming client, and is particularly proud of how it can automatically run your game at your phone’s native resolution and refresh rate.

Withings is making a cardiologist checkup part of its health subscription

@The Verge

2025-01-07 14:00:00 +0000

The BPM Vision is another way to track your heart health — and there’s a new way to make sense of the data, too. | Image: Withings

If you’re a Withings device owner and a Withings Plus subscriber, there’s a new feature coming to your health tracking system. It’s a telemedicine service called Cardio Check-Up, designed to make it easy to check in on your heart health with a professional.

Any Withings device that collects electrocardiogram data (which is most of them at this point) can be used in Cardio Check-Up. The Withings Plus subscription, which costs $99.95 per year, will now include four checkups annually, though they’re not live appointments — a cardiologist will instead review your data and deliver you a heart health report. It works through a provider called Heartbeat Health, which has been working with Withings on EKG features for the last few years.

Cardio Check-Up gives Withings an answer to one of the most pressing challenges facing any health wearable, which is how to help users make sense of this mountain of complex data they’re suddenly collecting. Companies like Oura and Whoop are working on ways to collate your data into actual, actionable feedback, so you can know what’s going on and how to do better without needing a medical degree of your own.

Withings is doing lots of that automated...

Read the full story at The Verge.

They were going to be doctors. Instead, they had to dodge bombs and flee war

@NPR News

2025-01-07 13:56:36 +0000

Jackery’s Solar Roof announced alongside a fast car charger and new solar generator

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:30:00 +0000

A house fitted with Jackery’s Solar Roof using curved terra-cotta red panels, and a HomePower ES battery backup system installed outside. | Image: Jackery

Jackery is expanding its lineup of energy products for home use and outdoor adventures at CES 2025 with the launch of its new Solar Roof tiles, a mid-sized solar generator, and a high-powered charger for vans, pickups, and RVs that can keep its giant portable batteries at the ready.

Most interesting is the Solar Roof built around curved tiles available in obsidian or terra-cotta red — the latter mimicking clay-tiled roofs even better than the flat terra-cotta solar panels we’ve seen in Europe. Jackery claims an “Industry-leading cell conversion efficiency of over 25 percent” for its panels that can withstand hail impact, high winds, and temperatures from minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, all backed up by a 30-year warranty.

Image: Jackery

Jackery’s modular solar roof tiles.

Jackery’s Solar Roof is designed to work with the company’s most powerful energy storage solutions including Jackery’s existing 5000 Plus flagship solar generator and the massively scalable HomePower Energy System (ES) launching later this year. Announced a few months back, the HomePower ES system requires professional installation and can produce up to 11.4kW of power and handle both 120V and 240V loads. The system features LFP batteries with a max storage capacity that reaches a whopping 123.2kWh — enough power and stored energy to keep every electrical device in an average home running for more than four days during a blackout.

Image: Jackery

Jackery’s Explorer 3000 v2 solar generator.

The new Explorer 3000 v2 solar generator slots in just below Jackery’s 5000 Plus model, and is designed to keep critical devices like the fridge running for several hours during a blackout and serve as a portable battery that can be recharged from the sun when heading off the grid for work or recreation. It features 3kWh of LFP storage and a sustained output of 3600W. Impressively, Jackery claims an instantaneous 0ms UPS cutover time.

Jackery says it can be recharged in about 11 hours from a pair of 200W solar panels or 2.5 hours when connected to an AC wall jack. It’ll take nearly 36 hours to charge from a 12V car socket, or, better yet, plug it into Jackery’s new DC-DC car charger also being announced at CES 2025.

Image: Jackery

Jackery’s DC-to-DC car charger.

Jackery joins Bluetti, EcoFlow, DJI, and others with its first alternator charger. After the DC-DC car charger is installed in your vehicle with a cable snaked up to your car’s battery, you'll be rewarded with up to 600W of charging for your big-ass Jackery battery, which is about five times faster charging than you’d get from a standard 12V car socket.

Unfortunately, Jackery’s announcements are lacking in detail like pricing or availability, despite our asking.

Netgear’s new Wi-Fi 7 Orbi mesh system is a solid bump with plenty of ports

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:30:00 +0000

The Netgear Orbi 870 three-pack in black. | Image: Netgear

Netgear just announced the Orbi 870, a new Wi-Fi 7 mesh system that joins its now-three-tier lineup of Wi-Fi 7 mesh routers. It’s pricey like the others, but at $1,299.99 for a three-pack, it’s a full thousand dollars cheaper than the next kit up, the quad-band Orbi 970.

Netgear says a three-pack of Orbi 870s can cover up to 9,000 square feet with Wi-Fi, though, as with all routers, that number depends heavily on both physical and wireless interference in your home as well as where you put the routers. The Orbi 870 supports 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. You can connect to two of those bands simultaneously using Multi-Link Operation (MLO) with a Wi-Fi 7 device, which could mean faster downloads, less latency, and a more stable connection.

The Orbi 870 also supports 320MHz channel bandwidth, which will have the most obvious benefits if you like watching download progress bars as much as I do (probably an unhealthy amount). But again, you’ll need Wi-Fi 7 on your phone or laptop to take advantage of it.

Finally, Netgear outfitted the primary gateway with a 10Gbps ethernet WAN port, while both it and its satellites have four 2.5Gbps ethernet LAN ports. That’s a bump from the two 2.5Gbps on the cheaper Orbi 770’s satellites or two 2.5Gbps and one 10Gbps port on those of the Orbi 970. All of the Wi-Fi 7 Orbis support wired backhaul and “enhanced” wireless backhaul, meaning they talk to each other using MLO, ideally offering more stability and throughput.

Wi-Fi 7 is still pretty new, so unless you’ve upgraded a lot of your devices recently, it’s hard to justify picking up spendy kits like the Orbi 870 — you need Wi-Fi 7 devices to use Wi-Fi 7 features. Still, they’re backward-compatible with older Wi-Fi standards and futureproof for years to come. And owners could benefit indirectly since the routers will communicate among themselves with all the stability, responsiveness, and throughput gains of Wi-Fi 7.

The Orbi 870 is available now in both black and white. If you don’t want to shell out $1,299.99 for a three-pack, two are available for $999.99. Netgear doesn’t sell the gateway router by itself but will happily sell you an add-on satellite for $549.99.

Jimmy Carter's funeral services begin in DC. And, photos from the major winter storm

@NPR News

2025-01-07 13:12:36 +0000

Former President Jimmy Carter's funeral services begin in Washington, D.C., today, and NPR will have special coverage of the events. And, photos from the winter storm plowing through parts of the U.S.

Segway at CES: a powerful pair of e-bikes, a 50mph scooter, and a robot mower

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:10:23 +0000

Segway’s Xafari and Xyber e-bikes. | Image: Segway

For CES this year, Segway ditched the goofy self-balancing pods and paintball-shooting go-karts and got back to basics.

The Ninebot-owned brand, once known for its pioneering self-balancing scooters, is reintroducing a pair of e-bikes (both first announced last year) with additional information on pricing and ordering. And it’s also rolling out its next-generation lineup of kick scooters, with more powerful drivetrains and rugged, all-terrain features. And because it’s CES, it’s also giving us new details about the robot mower it introduced last year.

The e-bikes Segway announced last year, the powerful Xyber and the more approachable Xafari, are scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2025. Presales for both start on January 7th, with open sales kicking off on February 3rd.

The Xyber is the more imposing of the two, with a motorcycle-like design that skirts the limits of what can be defined as an e-bike. With a starting price of $2,999.99, the Xyber looks like it packs a wallop — because it does. A rear-mounted 750W torquey direct-drive motor helps propel riders from zero to 20mph in just 2.7 seconds.

It still has pedals and caps out at 20mph, which may leave some riders feeling short-changed. After all, the Xyber looks like it’s meant to go as fast as some of Segway’s unruly e-scooters (we’ll get to those in a second), but alas, the e-bike classification in the US is what it is. Segway says there is an off-road mode that “goes beyond Class 3” — which means speeds faster than 28mph — but only in areas where it’s legally allowed.

A rear-mounted 750W torquey direct-drive motor helps propel riders from zero to 20mph in just 2.7 seconds

The Xyber can go up to 112 miles between charging in its 2,880Wh dual-battery configuration and 56 miles for the single-battery with 1,440Wh — though those ranges are likely only good for the lowest power setting. Still, that’s a staggering range for any modern e-bike and a good sign that Segway is trying to give its customers what they want.

But despite its futuristic, moto-inspired aesthetic and cast aluminum, double-cradle frame, there are actual pedals and 12 — yes, 12 — different levels of pedal assist, as well as three ride modes (Eco, Sport, and Race) of throttle-only operation. There’s 110mm of suspension in the front and 100mm in the rear. A 1,330-lumen headlight comes equipped with smart light features. And the 2.4-inch TFT display shows real-time information like speed and battery charge as well as navigation.

While the Xyber is designed to compete with popular high-powered mini-bikes from Juiced and Super73, the Xafari is for customers with more traditional tastes. With a low-step frame and wide tires for maximum comfort, the Xafari is for “long rides and endless exploration,” Segway says.

Starting at $2,399.99, the Segway Xafari rocks a 750W motor with 80nm of torque and a 936Wh removable battery for up to 88 miles of range (in the lowest power setting). Front and rear suspension, as well as big 26 x 3.0-inch all-terrain tires, will help maximize comfort for anyone looking for a less bumpy ride.

Both bikes sport Segway’s Intelligent Ride System, which includes automated features like headlights, bike locking, and adaptive pedal assist. The AirLock system, in particular, is pretty innovative. Using the app, owners only need to throw down their kickstand and walk away from the bike. After they get 10 meters, the AirLock system locks the handlebars and rear motor and sets an alarm automatically, without any need to fumble with a bike lock.

“This is the stack of technologies that we’ve integrated into these bikes to allow the bicycles to act more like the automobiles that we’re used to driving,” said Nick Howe, who heads Segway’s business division.

But as much as Segway wants to become a known brand for e-bikes, its true DNA is scooters. The company is releasing its third-generation kick scooters this year, ranging from entry-level to high-performance super-scooters.

Segway is replacing its popular GT1 and GT1 with the all-new GT3 Pro and GT3 scooters with a spec list not for the fainthearted. The GT3 Pro — which is the only vehicle announced today not to have a price attached — leads the pack with acceleration of zero to 30mph in just 3.9 seconds in Ultra Boost Mode, a stinging top speed of 49.7mph (!!), and a range of up to 86 miles on a single charge thanks to its dual 3,500-watt motors (with a total max output of 7,000W) and 2,160Wh battery.

The GT3 is also great for hill climbing

The GT3 is also great for hill climbing, with the ability to tackle slopes up to 38 degrees. It also features a very advanced suspension system with coil-sprung, hydraulically damped shocks in the front and rear. And everything is customizable to your exact riding specifications, which ensures maximum comfort.

Segway is also highlighting something it calls “SegRide,” which is the company’s ride enhancement system. That includes the geometry of the scooter, things like stem angle, trailing distance, ergonomics, and the angle and curvature of the handlebars.

Segway is also releasing its F and E series e-scooters for commuters as well as its Max G3, which the company describes as the luxury sedan in its lineup of scooters.

And lastly, Segway is upgrading its lineup of robot lawn mowers with the Navimow X3, which will go on sale in spring 2025. The new robots are designed to cover a lot more ground than the previous generation: 2.5 acres versus just a quarter-acre for the company’s i Series of robot mowers.

The X3 also combines mowing and trimming for a more well-rounded piece of equipment. It can climb slopes of up to 27 degrees, has IP6-rated waterproofing, and improved AI capabilities that can recognize pets and other wildlife. It can also integrate with your smart home, so you can activate it using Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

Segway didn’t reveal any pricing details, so we’ll have to wait to find out how it compares to the i Series ($999) and H series ($1,899) mowers.

Tiny fish on ketamine may show how drug eases depression

@NPR News

2025-01-07 13:00:00 +0000

In zebrafish, ketamine causes changes a brain circuit involved in "giving up." That may help explain how the drug helps people with depression.

Goodyear’s smart tires can sense rain and ice for improved emergency braking

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:00:00 +0000

Image: Goodyear

Under new rules announced last year, all cars sold in the US will need to come with automatic emergency braking by 2029. But automakers are asking for a delay, saying the technology isn’t good enough, especially in adverse conditions.

Here’s Goodyear to the rescue. The tire company teamed up with TNO, an independent research organization based in the Netherlands, to produce a tire embedded with sensors that can detect slick, dangerous road conditions and can also work with a vehicle’s advanced driver-assist system. The new technology is being rolled out at CES in Las Vegas this week.

The idea is to trigger the vehicle’s automatic emergency braking (AEB) system earlier when an obstacle in the road is detected and when road conditions are dangerous. With a safer braking distance, a vehicle is less likely to collide with another stopped vehicle or other object in the road, Goodyear says.

Road conditions can determine how likely a vehicle is to successfully brake before the collision. Typical AEB systems are tuned for high-friction surfaces like dry asphalt. But with Goodyear’s smart tire technology, named SightLine, the company says it can successfully prevent collisions even in low-friction environments like rain, snow, or ice. The new system can even work at speeds of up to 50mph (80km/h), Goodyear says.

“The AEB can be assertive way earlier,” said Werner Happenhofer, vice president of tire intelligence and e-mobility solutions at Goodyear. “They say, oh well, wait a minute, my maximum deceleration potential is probably just half a G because of the lower friction potential. Hence the system would react way earlier if it spots a situation where a crash is imminent.”

Goodyear first announced SightLine in 2021 as a suite of “smart tire” technologies enabling tires to measure their own air pressure, sense the amount of friction between the rubber and the road surface, and detect when the rubber is becoming too worn. Now, the company says it plans on pitching its SightLine-equipped tires and software to automakers as an added safety system for AEB.

“The AEB can be assertive way earlier”

“We follow the automotive embedded software standards,” Happenhofer said, “so we can integrate very easily with any of the OEMs and Tier 1 systems.”

The new technology has arrived at an opportune moment. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized a new rule requiring all vehicles sold in the US to have AEB by 2029. Around 90 percent of light-duty vehicles on the road today come standard with AEB. But regulators are requiring automakers to adopt a more robust version of the technology that can stop vehicles traveling at higher speeds and detect vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians even at night.

The auto industry, though, has asked for a delay in the implementation of the rule, arguing that complying with the new rule would be “practically impossible with available technology.” But Goodyear says the technology will exist, and it aims to let its automotive partners know about it.

“The technology is available and it’s just an extension of some of the other work we’ve been doing for a few years now,” said Chris Helsel, Goodyear’s vice president for global innovation and the company’s chief technology officer. “Success out of this is [the automakers] reach out [to us] and say, ‘Oh, hey, let’s see how you can help us meet that regulation. We didn’t really think that the tire could help us to do that.’”

When it will be available is still TBD. Goodyear spokesperson Caitlyn Duran said today’s announcement is about a technology demonstration “showcasing the potential benefits of such an integration, and not an in-market product.”

The Shokz OpenFit 2 is an almost perfect update to the originals

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:00:00 +0000

The Shokz OpenFit 2 are $179.95 and available today in black and beige. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

I wanted to love Shokz’s OpenFit 2, the company’s latest open-ear wireless earbuds debuting here at CES 2025. While Shokz made several improvements to the overall design and function, the sound can still be a tad hollow.

I tried the OpenFit Air a few months back, and they ticked off almost everything I was looking for in a pair of open-ear running buds. While not perfect, bass was decent. Volume could also be quite challenging in certain environments — again, something understandable for open-ear design. The problem was the ear hook design didn’t fit well if I wore my eyeglasses. (That, and the touch controls were finicky to use.)

Shokz sent me a pair of the $179.95 OpenFit 2 ahead of CES. Based on the updates, I was very hopeful. For starters, Shokz added an extra speaker to each bud for a total of two: one dedicated to bass, the other for mids and highs. It’s an approach that worked fantastically well with the OpenRun Pro 2 bone conduction headphones that include an air conduction speaker to improve the bass. (My colleague David Pierce and I are diehard OpenRun Pro 2 converts.) Volume has been slightly improved. The ear hook design has also been tweaked so the curved portion over the top of the ear is thinner. Physical buttons were added to each bud for simpler controls. Battery life also improved to 11 hours, up from the seven hours on the original OpenFit and the OpenFit Air’s six hours. There are also four EQ presets!

And in my testing, I immediately noticed many of these improvements. It’s still not ideal, but the thinner ear hook is easier to use with my glasses on days when I don’t want to wear contact lenses. Loud highways and super noisy environments were still challenging but outperformed the OpenFit Air. While getting these hands-on pics, the bustle of the Vegas Strip didn’t drown out my music or prevent me from hearing my colleague Antonio G. Di Benedetto’s photo cues. I got about 10–11 hours on a single charge. When I wanted to pause or skip tracks, the physical buttons were easier to use (though my butterfingers still occasionally struggled, especially when wearing press-on nails.)

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The physical buttons help a lot when trying to skip, pause, or play tracks.

Unfortunately, I also couldn’t help but notice the sound quality. While better than the Air, it wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped. On “Unfair” by Stray Kids, what should be rumbly baritone vocals sound muddy. Vocals, in general, can sometimes sound distant even with the vocal EQ. At higher volumes, bass-heavy songs occasionally sounded distorted. My issues were most apparent when I was running outdoors. However, if you’re listening to a podcast or in a relatively quiet room at a lower volume, it’s much less noticeable.

All of this is somewhat expected from open-ear buds. It’s more that the effect of having dedicated speakers for bass versus treble and mids wasn’t as impressive as the OpenRun Pro 2. When I first tried the latter, my jaw dropped and I said, “Oh.” With these, it’s more of an appreciative nod. This might be because the OpenFit 2 are traditional headphones using air conduction. The OpenRun Pro 2 use air conduction for bass and bone conduction for treble and mids.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Sound quality is an notable improvement over the OpenFit Air, but I find myself preferring the OpenRun Pro 2.

Whether the sound quality is a deal-breaker depends on how you intend to use these buds. I mostly use open-ear buds for running and found myself wanting to reach for the OpenRun Pro 2 instead. But while puttering around the house or strength training, the lack of a wraparound neckband makes these infinitely more comfortable, especially for exercises like chest presses or leaning back in my chair.

The OpenFit 2 are available starting today for $179.95 in black and beige.

This all-electric robo-bus has swappable batteries and can fit 30 passengers

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:00:00 +0000

Image: May Mobility

May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle operator that mainly focuses on long-term transportation contracts, is expanding its fleet of vehicles to include an electric mini-bus that can carry up to 30 passengers.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company struck a deal with Tecnobus to acquire several of the Italian company’s mini-buses. With enough capacity for 30 people, as well as wheelchair accessibility, May Mobility hopes to expand it self-driving mobility service to new customers and new markets, including urban transit, corporate campuses, airports, planned communities, and more.

May Mobility currently operates a fleet of autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans retrofitted with the company’s autonomous hardware and software. The company operates ride-share services in geofenced, easily mapped business districts, college campuses, and closed residential communities, such as Sun City, a retirement community outside of Phoenix. May Mobility also has a partnership with Lyft to deploy autonomous vehicles on its ridehail platform.

The new minibuses can carry far more passengers than the company’s current crop of vehicles, while still being restricted to speeds of up to 45 mph. They will be targeted at markets in the US, as well as Canada and Europe, where May Mobility hopes to eventually expand. And the batteries powering the electric motor are fully swappable, meaning more uptime and less time spent charging.

May Mobility aims to have them road-ready in the first half of 2026. Of course, autonomous driving operations are in a state of flux right now. Some robotaxi companies are growing, albeit slowly, while others are out of time and money.

May Mobility has set itself apart by focusing on transportation contracts with businesses and governments, rather than try to be the Uber for autonomous vehicles. And while some robotaxis have clashed with cities, May Mobility is incentivized to address municipal concerns or risk having its contract terminated.

Narwal’s latest mopping robovac keeps corners clean

@The Verge

2025-01-07 13:00:00 +0000

Image: Narwal

Narwal, the company behind our favorite mopping robot, just announced a new flagship robovac called the Flow that’s capable of cleaning closer to walls and corners. The Flow comes with a track-driven mop pad that extends to reach the edge of walls, while also using dual water tanks to keep the mop clean and remove dirty water.

It sounds similar to the extending, self-cleaning roller mop we saw on Ecovacs’ Deebot X8 Omni Pro robovac. The Flow comes with an anti-tangle side brush that extends to reach corners and a brush cover that sits closer to the ground and automatically increases suction up to 20,000Pa on surfaces like carpet.

The Narwal Flow has dual RGB cameras with an AI chip that helps it detect and avoid more than 200 different types of objects. It can also automatically adjust its height to move over barriers up to 40mm (about 1.6 inches) high. The included docking station offers eight different functions, allowing it to empty the robovac’s dust bin, wash and dry the mop, and refill its water tank.

Narwal also announced a trio of other robovacs, including a Freo Z10 robovac with mopping pads that revolve 180 times per minute, an all-in-one Narwal S30 mopping robovac with self-cleaning features, and a more affordable Freo Pro robovac-mop hybrid.

The Narwal Flow will launch in June 2025, but the company hasn’t said how much it will cost. The Freo Z10 and Freo Pro will arrive in the spring, while the Narwal S30 will launch in the second quarter of 2025.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:56:03 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net ("Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:") wrote:

Jean-Marie Le Pen has died at age 96. I would lie if I say that makes me feel sad. I do hope he died peacefully, because every human being deserves decency. Even Jean-Marie Le Pen.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:55:58 +0000

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

jeff@newsie.social ("Jeff (of the internet)") wrote:

That last little bit.... sheesh.

Meta is ending its fact-checking program in favor of a 'community notes' system similar to X.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468

Zuckerberg announced a series of major changes to the company's moderation policies and practices, saying that the election felt like a "cultural tipping point."

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:55:50 +0000

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Today in History: Francis Jean Poulenc (composer) born in Paris, 1899

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:55:07 +0000

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Today in History: First transatlantic telephone call, 1927

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:54:51 +0000

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

On Nikola Tesla’s death in the New Yorker Hotel, 1943

In New Yorker’s halls,
A bright mind dims with the night,
Dreams of power soar.

Zuckerberg, inspired by Musk, abandons fact checking for Community Notes

@The Verge

2025-01-07 12:45:09 +0000

Meta says it’s seen the shift to Community Notes ‘work on X.’ | Image: The Verge

Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are ditching third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes program inspired by X, according to an announcement penned by Meta’s new Trump-friendly policy chief Joe Kaplan. Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas.

“We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see.” Meta said. “We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing – and one that’s less prone to bias.”

The Community Notes feature will first be rolled out in the US “over the next couple of months” according to Meta, and will display an unobtrusive label indicating that there is additional information available on a post in place of full-screen warnings that users have to click through. Like the X feature, Meta says its own Community Notes will “require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings.”

The moderation changes aim to address complaints that Meta censors “too much harmless content” on its platforms, and is slow to respond to users who have their accounts restricted. Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams responsible for its content policies and content reviews content out of California to Texas and other US locations, instead of wholesale moving its California headquarters like Elon Musk did with SpaceX and X.

Meta says it’s also scrapping a number of current restrictions around topics like immigration and gender identity, and will start phasing political content back into users' feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads “with a more personalized approach.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)

Meta will still utilize automated moderation systems, but says these will now largely focus on tackling more severe policy violations like terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud, and scams. Less severe policy violations will now need to be detected and reported by community members before Meta takes any action against them. Most of Meta’s systems for automatically predicting which posts may violate Meta’s policies and demoting such content are also being scrapped.

“These changes are an attempt to return to the commitment to free expression that Mark Zuckerberg set out in his Georgetown speech,” Meta said. “That means being vigilant about the impact our policies and systems are having on people’s ability to make their voices heard, and having the humility to change our approach when we know we’re getting things wrong.”

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:05:21 +0000

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

This is *so* good:

https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2024/not-every-user-owns-an-iphone/

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 12:04:57 +0000

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):

orangeacme@fosstodon.org ("Leon Brocard") wrote:

I've finally caught up on the wonderful 2024 Web Performance Calendar entries. Here are my top four:
@screenspan - How does Web Performance sound https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2024/how-does-web-performance-sound/
@boostmarks - Your website is a restaurant https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2024/your-website-is-a-restaurant/
Alex Hamer - Not every user owns an iPhone https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2024/not-every-user-owns-an-iphone/
Patrick Meenan - Getting Real (small) With Compression Dictionaries https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2024/getting-real-small-with-compression-dictionaries/
#webperf

What America's top economists are saying about AI and inequality

@NPR News

2025-01-07 12:00:00 +0000

Planet Money attended the annual meeting of American economists — and the most popular topic this year was artificial intelligence.

Google is building its own ‘world modeling’ AI team for games and robot training

@The Verge

2025-01-07 11:39:12 +0000

Image: The Verge

Google DeepMind is assembling a new team of artificial intelligence researchers to develop “world models” that can simulate physical environments. The initiative will be led by Tim Brooks, a former co-lead for OpenAI’s Sora project who joined DeepMind in October to work on Google’s video generation and world simulators.

World models are a relatively new development within AI that could serve a variety of purposes, such as creating real-time interactive media environments for video games and movies, and realistic training scenarios for robots and other AI systems. It’s also part of Google’s push to achieve an artificial general intelligence system, or AGI, before its competitors.

“DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world,” Brooks announced in an X post on Monday. Brooks included two open job listings for research engineers and scientists who will help to advance AI “world models” capable of simulating real-world scenarios by solving problems around training “at massive scale,” curating training data, and studying how they can be integrated with multimodal language models.

DeepMind has ambitious plans to make massive generative models that simulate the world. I'm hiring for a new team with this mission. Come build with us!https://t.co/pqvALtAvLs https://t.co/vtwgeXl9Dl

— Tim Brooks (@_tim_brooks) January 6, 2025

“We believe scaling pretraining on video and multimodal data is on the critical path to artificial general intelligence,” DeepMind said in the job descriptions. “World models will power numerous domains, such as visual reasoning and simulation, planning for embodied agents, and real-time interactive entertainment.”

The race to be the first to declare AGI is heating up, so Google’s focus here isn’t surprising. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that the company has cracked how to achieve the tech industry’s long-sought benchmark, and that autonomous AI agents may start to meaningfully join workforces this year.

There are several competitors who already have a head start over DeepMind’s world modeling project, including Nvidia’s Cosmos platform for advancing physical AI, autonomous vehicle, and robot development; and the World Labs startup created by “the godmother of AI,” Fei-Fei Li.

Introducing Genie 2 - our most capable large-scale foundation world model, which can generate a diverse array of consistent worlds, playable for up to a minute. We believe Genie 2 could unlock the next wave of capabilities for embodied agents . pic.twitter.com/AfL3EbOMeB

— Jack Parker-Holder (@jparkerholder) December 4, 2024

The new DeepMind team will work alongside existing Google AI projects including its flagship Gemini AI models, Veo video generator, and Genie — Google’s prior world model for simulating playable 3D environments in real-time.

What People Get Wrong About Christian Women Who Voted for Trump

@Mother Jones

2025-01-07 11:00:00 +0000

You probably saw the cartoon that went viral before the election: A long line of women enter the voting booth wearing handmaiden-esque robes and bonnets, only to emerge in slinky black dresses and take-no-bullshit pantsuits. Or the ads in which white women accompany their obviously GOP husbands to vote, blinking each other a silent signal […]

“Ironic”: Major Oil Ports Threatened by Projected Sea Level Rise

@Mother Jones

2025-01-07 11:00:00 +0000

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Rising sea levels driven by the climate crisis will overwhelm many of the world’s biggest oil ports, analysis indicates. Scientists said the threat was ironic as fossil fuel burning causes global heating. They said reducing emissions by moving to renewable energy […]

McDonald's says it is revising some of its diversity practices

@NPR News

2025-01-07 10:00:01 +0000

McDonald's says it is changing some of its inclusion standards, becoming the latest large company to announce it is rolling back some of its diversity practices.

How to quickly find something you lost: 10 clever and practical techniques

@NPR News

2025-01-07 10:00:00 +0000

NPR readers share their best methods for finding missing objects — from tiny screws to lost wallets. One favorite tip? Use a good flashlight.

Jimmy Carter's funeral services begin in Washington, D.C., today

@NPR News

2025-01-07 10:00:00 +0000

The next stop in former President Jimmy Carter's six days of funeral services is Washington, D.C., where he will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol through Thursday morning.

Biden creates 2 new national monuments, setting a conservation record

@NPR News

2025-01-07 10:00:00 +0000

The White House says President Biden has now protected a total of 674 million acres of lands and waters — a record for any administration. This includes two new national monuments in California.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 09:55:41 +0000

jwz wrote:

Attachments:

6b93c7d10e3a3d40.png

Strong earthquake kills dozens in region of Tibet near Mount Everest

@NPR News

2025-01-07 09:51:36 +0000

A strong earthquake killed dozens of people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region of western China and across the border in Nepal.

TRUDEAU RESIGNING

@NPR News

2025-01-07 09:18:27 +0000

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he is stepping down ahead of this year's general election.He had faced mounting pressure to resign — from both allies and opponents.

Orthodox Christmas takes on special meaning in Lebanon this year

@NPR News

2025-01-07 09:17:43 +0000

Many Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas in January, not December. In Lebanon, Christians say the holiday is extra poignant for them this year.

Philips Hue is getting an AI-powered lighting assistant

@The Verge

2025-01-07 08:30:00 +0000

The Philips Hue app already offers a lot of customizable lighting effects, but soon you’ll be able to created personalized ones with the help of AI. | Image: Signify

Philips Hue users will soon be able to create their own AI-powered lighting scenes, the company announced on Tuesday.

Philips Hue’s new generative AI lighting assistant lets users create personalized lighting scenes based on occasion, mood, or style. They can do so by typing commands like “Give me a scene for a garden party” into the Hue app and also by using their voice. The assistant will then either recommend scenes from the existing Philips Hue gallery or create a new one entirely. In addition to creating scenes, the AI assistant can also be used to adjust the settings of existing lights, including brightness levels and color.

Image: Philips Hue

The assistant will recommend scenes based on prompts.

The news comes after Hueblog reported that Philips Hue was working on a generative AI feature in October. According to Hueblog, the “AI Playground” lets users create lighting scenes based on typed text like “Create a scene for a children’s birthday party,” but there was no mention of voice commands.

Philips Hue isn’t the first to offer an AI-powered lighting assistant. Govee’s AI Lighting Bot generates similar dynamic lighting effects and also responds to voice prompts. Meanwhile, Nanoleaf’s “Magic Scenes” feature creates similar scenes, too, but only responds to typed short phrases like “tropical paradise.”

Philips Hue says the AI assistant will be compatible with all of its lights. The company hasn’t divulged details about its exact availability, but stated it’ll start rolling out in the first quarter of 2025.

The AI-powered lighting assistant isn’t the only piece of news Philips Hue announced on Tuesday. The Philips Hue Sync TV app now supports LG TVs, while the color-changing Philips Hue Datura ceiling light is now available in the US starting at $299.99. The frameless ceiling panel offers a pair of individually controllable lights and customizable color effects.

Philips Hue also announced new smart home security features, including smoke alarm sound detection and the ability to stream live camera feeds to Amazon Alexa and the Google Nest Hub. Users can also now check out live camera views or schedule system settings straight from their devices.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 07:50:12 +0000

Reblogged by jakedel@mamot.fr ("S. Delafond"):

rhertzog@hachyderm.io ("Raphaël Hertzog") wrote:

@sindarina With @freexian 's LTS/ELTS offer, we aim to provide security support for up to 10 years, alas it's a challenge that cannot always be met for all packages... in particular for packages that were a bit left aside during their time in unstable/testing (for example when a maintainer disappears).

To avoid releasing Debian with outdated software versions, and ensure all the packages used by corporate users are in their best shape and can be supported for as long as possible, we believe that pro-active monitoring of unstable is required. Freexian is going to propose something in this direction in 2025.

Recent case where we helped to avoid this: https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts/2024/12/msg00004.html

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 07:41:36 +0000

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

From child prodigy to village idiot: the ChatGPT biography.

U.K. leader Starmer slams 'lies and misinformation' after attacks from Elon Musk

@NPR News

2025-01-07 06:49:51 +0000

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday condemned "lies and misinformation" that he said are undermining U.K. democracy, in response to a barrage of attacks on his government from Elon Musk.

Minneapolis agrees to overhaul police training and policies following Floyd murder

@NPR News

2025-01-07 06:20:16 +0000

The Minneapolis City Council on Monday approved an agreement with the federal government to overhaul the city's police training and use-of-force policies in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Nvidia is bringing a native GeForce Now app to Steam Deck

@The Verge

2025-01-07 04:54:24 +0000

Photo by The Verge

Nvidia plans to release a native GeForce Now app for Steam Deck “later this year,” according to a blog post. It’s already relatively straightforward to get Nvidia’s cloud gaming service set up on Steam Deck thanks to a special script from Nvidia, but a native app should be easier to install and will support up to 4K resolution and 60 fps with HDR when connected to a TV.

Nvidia also plans to bring GeForce Now to some major VR headsets later this month, including the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3 and 3S, and Pico “virtual- and mixed-reality devices.” When GeForce Now version 2.0.70 is available, people using those headsets will be able to access an “extensive library of games” they can stream by visiting play.geforcenow.com in their browser.

The company also says that two major titles from Microsoft will be available on GeForce Now when they come out this year: Avowed, which launches February 18th, and DOOM: The Dark Ages, which is set to be available sometime this year.

Rudy Giuliani is held in contempt of court in $148 million defamation case

@NPR News

2025-01-07 04:48:53 +0000

Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court for failing to properly respond to requests for information as he turned over assets to satisfy a defamation ruling granted to two Georgia poll workers.

@Mastodon Feed

2025-01-07 04:44:11 +0000

jwz wrote:

Definitely did not have "finding an actual bug in Perl's regular expression matcher" on my 2025 bingo card, but it is certainly not going to be the weirdest thing I experience this year.

Nvidia’s AI NPCs are no longer chatbots — they’re your new PUBG teammate

@The Verge

2025-01-07 04:32:22 +0000

Nvidia has spent the last two years showing off its digital “ACE” characters that can have in-game conversations with you using generative AI. But at CES 2025, the company is taking the ACE characters a step further by showing how they can be “autonomous game characters” — including, sometime this year, a teammate to help you get a chicken dinner in PUBG.

Nvidia says that ACE characters can use AI to “perceive, plan, and act like human players,” per a blog post. “Powered by generative AI, ACE will enable living, dynamic game worlds with companions that comprehend and support player goals, and enemies that adapt dynamically to player tactics.” The characters are powered by “small language models (SLMs)” that are “capable of planning at human-like frequencies required for realistic decision making” as well as “multi-modal SLMs for vision and audio that allow AI characters to hear audio cues and perceive their environment.”

As for how that will work in PUBG, you’ll be able to team up with the “PUBG Ally,” which Nvidia and PUBG publisher Krafton are calling the “world’s first Co-Playable Character (CPC).” The Ally will be able to “communicate using game-specific lingo, provide real-time strategic recommendations, find and share loot, drive vehicles, and fight other human players using the game’s extensive arsenal of weapons,” Nvidia says.

Basically, it sounds like an AI teammate you can talk with natural language who’s supposed to be as capable as a human. And a video shows the Ally indeed helping a player find specific loot, bringing over a vehicle, and attempting to flank opposing players. But the video is heavily edited and isn’t live, so I’m skeptical that the Ally will work as well as is being shown here.

AI characters built with ACE are coming to other games, too. Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile PC Version will get a “a local inference AI Teammate feature” in March 2025, while Naraka: Bladepoint on PC will get the feature “later in 2025,” according to Nvidia’s blog post. “AI Teammates powered by NVIDIA ACE can join your party, battling alongside you, finding you specific items that you need, swapping gear, offering suggestions on skills to unlock, and making plays that’ll help you achieve victory.”

Krafton’s upcoming life simulation game called inZOI will also get CPCs called “Smart Zoi.” And Nvidia says that ACE characters can be bosses, too, and they’ll be used for boss encounters in Wemade Next’s MIR5.

Asus’ latest ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet uses AMD’s new integrated graphics

@The Verge

2025-01-07 04:30:00 +0000

The 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13.

Asus has a new version of its Surface Pro-like gaming tablet for CES, and it’s making some sizable changes both inside and out. The Asus ROG Flow Z13 for 2025 is once again a slightly chunky, almost-half-inch-thick, 13-inch tablet with a built-in kickstand, magnetic keyboard cover, a bunch of ports, and a clear window on its rear with RGB lighting to show off its innards.

That fun glass window is now larger, with a direct view of the motherboard, but the biggest change for the ROG Flow Z13 is its switch to integrated graphics. That may seem like a step backward for a gaming-focused tablet since gamers covet dedicated GPUs, but Asus is outfitting it with AMD’s powerful new “Strix Halo” processor. The ROG Flow Z13 can be configured with the Ryzen AI Max 390 for $1,999.99 or the Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 for $2,199.99. The top-end model with the Max Plus 395 has 16 CPU cores and 40 graphics cores, while the base-model Ryzen AI Max Plus 390 (curse these names) has 12 CPU cores and 32 graphics cores. The Z13 utilizes a redesigned stainless steel vapor chamber for cooling these graphics-heavy chips, which are capable of 120W TDP.

All that power in the Z13 is responsible for driving a 13-inch, 2560 x 1600 touchscreen display with a speedy 180Hz refresh rate (up from 165Hz on the last-gen model), which you don’t often find in laptops and tablets of this size. For ports, it’s got two USB 4, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI 2.1, a microSD card slot capable of UHS-II speeds, and a 3.5mm combination headphone / mic jack. It’s also got a 5-megapixel front-facing webcam and 13-megapixel rear-facing camera — so you can flash your RGB as you awkwardly take tablet photos in public. It also has Wi-Fi 7.

The Z13 supports USB-C Power Delivery for charging, but that won’t be powerful enough to allow its full performance under load. Instead, it comes with a 200W power adapter that uses Asus’ proprietary and reversible slim power jack — like on its recent laptops.

Other quality-of-life improvements for the Z13 include a new detachable keyboard with larger keycaps and a more generously sized touchpad. And on its right side, beside the power button and volume rocker, is a new “ScreenXpert” button that summons a Command-Center-like widget that includes multiple-display window management controls, quick access to operating modes like Turbo mode or Silent mode, and other settings like muting your mic. It’s primarily there to help control things while in tablet mode since the keyboard contains shortcuts for most of these functions.

I got a quick glimpse of the new ROG Flow Z13 at a preview event, and Asus sent me a preproduction model right before CES to get a little bit of hands-on time. It’s what I’m writing this post on right now, and boy do I appreciate the updates to this keyboard cover. The 1.7mm key travel and bigger touchpad go a long way toward getting work done. While the Ryzen 395 chip has the potential to be power-hungry, the battery life on the Z13 shows some promise. Asus is only claiming 10 hours of battery life, and I did manage to get through a full eight-plus-hour workday of Chrome tabs, streaming music (though the speakers seem kind of bad at first listen), and writing across multiple virtual desktops the day before flying to CES — with pretty much no issues.

I definitely prefer a proper laptop to a tablet with a kickstand and keyboard cover, but being able to remove the keyboard deck for a little more flexibility and comfort when it’s time to fire up a game is pretty slick. I tried out a little Helldivers 2 on the Flow Z13, and it performed quite well, especially for a tablet. Set to the Z13’s native 2.5K resolution, in-game render scale on Ultra Quality, and texture details on medium, I saw 60fps or just slightly under, and it looked really nice. If I bumped it down from Ultra Quality to Quality scaling, it jumped up to an even smoother 80fps. This was, of course, while the tablet was plugged in and its fans were blasting on Turbo mode. Diving in again while unplugged dropped the Ultra Quality render scale performance down to the 45 to 50fps range since playing on battery limits you to Performance mode instead of Turbo.

This is preproduction hardware, but so far, it’s pretty impressive for integrated graphics. AMD’s new chip might have something special here for thin and light devices, but since it lacks Thunderbolt 5, that means the Flow Z13 can’t use the full GPU bandwidth of Asus’ new XG Mobile eGPU. (Previous models could use the older XG Mobile via its proprietary connector.) But of course, that would make this somewhat portable PC gaming solution a little less portable, and the new XG Mobile costs about as much as the Flow Z13 itself.

But does a gaming tablet make much sense in 2025 when portable PC gaming is being so adequately served by the Steam Deck and a bunch of other dedicated handhelds? We’ll have to see how a production model of the ROG Flow Z13 fares when it launches sometime in February.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The ROG Strix Scar 16 and 18 come with a lid that lights up and more RGB

@The Verge

2025-01-07 04:30:00 +0000

Plenty of lights to go around. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Following a teaser last month, Asus’ latest ROG Strix Scar gaming laptops have arrived and they’re leaning all the way into the gamer aesthetic. The 2025 Scar 16 and 18 come with RGB lights all the way around the bottom of the chassis as well as a user-programmable LED dot-matrix display on the lid, as seen on other ROG devices like Asus’ gaming phones.

Beneath the flashy exterior, the Scar 16 and 18 can be maxed out with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU. It can also be configured with up to 64GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and a 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. The ROG Nebula HDR display comprises a 16:10 2.5K Mini LED panel with a peak brightness of 1,200 nits and a 240Hz refresh rate. There are two Thunderbolt 5 ports included, and the design allows for easy access to the bottom panel for component upgrades.

The Strix Scar 16 and 18 have all the cooling tech you’d expect from a gaming laptop of this caliber, including an end-to-end vapor chamber and sandwiched heatsink. Combined with the Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal treatment on the GPU and CPU, Asus claims that it can keep fan noise levels to a library-like 45dB, even during extended gaming sessions.

On top of all that, the ROG Strix Scar comes with the aforementioned light show. Asus calls it AniMe Vision, and you can customize it to display personalized animations and sync it with any other AniMe Vision devices you own. Download some prebaked artwork or cook up your own using Asus’ pixel editor — the choice is yours.

The ROG Strix Scar starts at $2,599; Asus says its new gaming laptops will begin shipping in February.

Asus just announced the world’s first Thunderbolt 5 eGPU

@The Verge

2025-01-07 04:30:00 +0000

The 2025 Asus XG Mobile, now with standard Thunderbolt 5 instead of a proprietary connector. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

This smoky black translucent box isn’t a gaming PC — instead, it might be the most powerful single-cable portable docking station ever conceived. When you plug your laptop or handheld into the just-announced 2025 Asus XG Mobile, it promises to add the power of Nvidia’s top-flight GeForce RTX 5090 mobile chip, and up to 140 watts of electricity, and two monitors, and a USB and SD-card-reading hub, and 5Gbps ethernet simultaneously.

That’s because it’s the world’s first* Thunderbolt 5 external graphics card and one of the first Thunderbolt 5 docks, using the new 80 gigabit per second bidirectional link to do more things with a single cable than we’ve ever seen before.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The 2025 XG Mobile’s ports — and a standard AC power connector, because the power supply lives inside.

And if you’re keeping score, I’m pretty sure it’s also the first standards-based portable eGPU with an Nvidia graphics chip. While Asus’ last-gen XG Mobile also boasted up to an Nvidia 4090, you could only tap into that power with a proprietary port found only on a few Asus devices. (Its USB4 and Oculink rivals have mostly featured the AMD Radeon 7600M XT.)

None of that makes it the most powerful eGPU out there, as I currently have no performance figures from Asus, and you can definitely go further with bigger docks that can fit desktop graphics cards rather than mobile GPUs. But Asus rep Anthony Spence tells me that the Thunderbolt 5 link does give you up to 64Gbps of bandwidth for its Nvidia graphics — more than USB4 and tied with Oculink — and I’m wowed that Asus managed to fit all this and a 350W power supply (no external brick!) into a sub-2.2-pound package with a fold-out kickstand.

Asus says it’s even 25 percent lighter and 18 percent smaller than the previous proprietary model. It’s got HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 for video output and a pair of 10Gbps USB-A ports, in case you’re wondering.

Image: Asus

Note that it comes with a little vertical stand, too.

When it arrives later in Q1, it won’t come cheap. Spence says the top-tier XG Mobile with an RTX 5090 laptop chip will cost $2199.99 — meaning you could almost certainly cobble together a more powerful (but stationary) solution yourself. That said, Asus does plan to sell a lower-end $1,199.99 version with Nvidia’s mobile RTX 5070 Ti. Again, you’re paying for compact power here rather than maximum bang for the buck.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Yes, that Asus ROG logo is light-up, programmable RGB using the company’s Aura Sync. You can also make out the top-mounted SD card receptacle.

While it should work with any Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 laptop or handheld, including Asus’ own ROG Ally X, you’ll likely want the still-rare Thunderbolt 5 to get the full GPU bandwidth here. Finding a Thunderbolt 5 computer that doesn’t already have a powerful discrete GPU might be tough, but perhaps some of 2025’s thin-and-light laptops will seize this opportunity to double as potent travel desktops.

*We are aware of one possible Thunderbolt 5 eGPU enclosure, to house a desktop graphics card, but that WinStar has barely even been detailed yet.

Nvidia announces $3,000 personal AI supercomputer called Digits

@The Verge

2025-01-07 04:11:07 +0000

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holding the Project Digits computer on stage at Nvidia’s CES 2025 press conference. | Image: Nvidia

If you were looking for your own personal AI supercomputer, Nvidia has you covered.

The chipmaker announced at CES it’s launching a personal AI supercomputer called Project Digits in May. The heart of Project Digits is the new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which packs enough processing power to run sophisticated AI models while being compact enough to fit on a desk and run from a standard power outlet (this kind of processing power used to require much larger, more power-hungry systems). This desktop-sized system can handle AI models with up to 200 billion parameters, and has a starting price of $3,000. The product itself looks a lot like a Mac Mini.

“AI will be mainstream in every application for every industry. With Project Digits, the Grace Blackwell Superchip comes to millions of developers,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a press release. “Placing an AI supercomputer on the desks of every data scientist, AI researcher and student empowers them to engage and shape the age of AI.”

Image: Nvidia

Project Digits looks like a mini PC.

Each Project Digits system comes equipped with 128GB of unified, coherent memory (by comparison, a good laptop might...

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