jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
strongly agree, missed opportunities
“… the U.S. had the chance to shape a new system with its leadership. I think Trump may be the final nail in the coffin for any American-led effort to bring rising powers into a fairer and more equitable rules-based order. The dangers are profound for a weaker United States in a more Balkanized, multipolar system in which it is merely one of many players grubbing for influence.”
jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:
biting, and I am afraid true as well
T-Mobile is once again being sued over its 2021 data breach
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Washington state is suing T-Mobile for allegedly failing to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities that enabled a hacker to expose the personal data of 79 million people nationwide. The consumer protection lawsuit filed by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday stems from a cyberattack that began in March 2021 and went unnoticed until T-Mobile disclosed the breach in August.
The filing asserts that T-Mobile failed to address certain security vulnerabilities that the company was aware of “for years,” and did not properly notify more than two million Washington residents who were impacted by the breach. The lawsuit accuses T-Mobile of downplaying the severity of the breach, which exposed the personal information of current, former, and prospective customers — including their names, phone numbers, physical addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license / ID numbers.
The notifications that T-Mobile issued about the data breach violated the Consumer Protections Act by omitting key information that made it difficult for people to assess if they were at risk of identity theft or fraud, according to the filing. The lawsuit also says that T-Mobile “did not meet industry standards for cybersecurity” for years prior to the hack, and used “obvious passwords” to protect accounts that could access consumer information.
“This significant data breach was entirely avoidable,” Ferguson said in a statement. “T-Mobile had years to fix key vulnerabilities in its cybersecurity systems — and it failed.”
This isn’t the first time that Washington state has taken action against T-Mobile, with Ferguson having successfully persuaded the company to make clear the limitations of its “no-contract” wireless service plan back in 2013.
Ferguson’s latest lawsuit is seeking compensation for customers impacted by the 2021 breach and a court order that would force T-Mobile to bring its cybersecurity practices in line with industry standards, alongside improving transparency and communication around future data breaches. This follows T-Mobile paying $350 million in 2022 to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from the 2021 hack, and a further $15.75 million fine last year over an FCC investigation into its repeated cybersecurity incidents.
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang hints at ‘plans’ for its own desktop CPU
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holding the Project Digits computer on stage at CES 2025. | Photo by Artur Widak / Anadolu via Getty Images
It’s long been rumored that Nvidia is planning to break into the consumer CPU market in 2025, and we may have already had our first look at its new processor.
On Monday at CES, the company unveiled Project Digits, a $3,000 personal AI supercomputer powered by a new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip. Reuters reports that yesterday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hinted to investors and analysts that there are bigger plans for the Arm-based CPU within that chip, co-developed with MediaTek.
“You know, obviously we have plans,” Huang said during an investor presentation, referring to the new 20-core desktop CPU, but that he would “wait to tell you” what they are.
Co-developer MediaTek has its own ambitions though, and Huang suggested that it may also bring the CPU to market, independent of Nvidia. “Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win,” Huang said.
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Image: Nvidia
Nvidia’s Project Digits AI computer, featuring a new 20-core Arm CPU.
Project Digits itself isn’t a mass-market product, costing $3,000 and running on a custom Linux system designed specifically for AI developers. But Nvidia’s consumer CPU ambitions have been rumored since October 2023, when Reuters reported that the company, alongside rival AMD, was working on Arm-based chips to launch in 2025.
Qualcomm has currently cornered the market on Arm-based CPUs for Windows PCs, boosted by last year’s launch of the Snapdragon X Elite processors. Those chips provided the sort of performance and power efficiency previously only available with Apple’s MacBooks, and put real pressure on Intel and AMD’s x86 systems.
2024 was the year that Windows on Arm finally achieved its potential, and with increased competition from Nvidia and others, 2025 could mark a turning point in the battle between x86 and Arm.
Bezos' Blue Origin is nearing liftoff on the 1st flight of its newest, biggest rocket
New Glenn, developed by the private space firm founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is on the pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and could launch on its maiden flight as early as Friday.
A looming 'demographic cliff': Fewer college students and ultimately fewer graduates
The long-predicted downturn in the number of 18-year-olds is almost here. And it isn't just a problem for higher education. It's a looming crisis for the economy.
As winter storms strike, airlines scramble to de-ice planes and keep them flying
A pair of powerful major winter storms is disrupting the U.S. air travel system this week. That leaves airlines no choice but to de-ice their planes before takeoff to keep them in the air.
'Don't be boring!' How to cope with the social pressure to drink during Dry January
What do you say to people when they ask you why you aren't drinking? How do you get your friends to hang out in places other than bars? We tackle the social conundrums of sober socializing.
Winter illnesses return with a vengeance
The annual winter respiratory virus season is in full force. The number of people catching the flu is skyrocketing, while COVID-19, RSV and other respiratory viral illnesses are also rising.
A wage hike for home health care workers in Nevada is proving game-changing
After Nevada gave home health care workers a huge raise, from about $11 to $16 an hour, turnover in the industry fell sharply. Now, caregivers are preparing to lobby for another wage hike.
What to know about the wildfires spreading through Southern California
Three wildfires are currently impacting Los Angeles and Ventura counties, prompting thousands of people to evacuate, schools to close and power lines to be shut off.
RadicalGraffiti@todon.eu ("Radical Graffiti") wrote:
"Live, Laugh, Luigi"
Seen in Chicago, Illinois
Attachments:
andreu@andreubotella.com ("Andreu Botella :verified_enby:") wrote:
I just got a job offer from an AI and crypto company who's building a Chromium browser whose tagline is "The First Browser Built for Web3 & Crypto".
Let me put this plainly:
Fuck off.
First international commercial flight since Assad's ouster lands in Syria
The Qatar Airways flight landed at Damascus International Airport. Many passengers were Syrian nationals coming come for the first time in more than a decade.
Hey, remember when the panopticon was going to be good actually?
It is perhaps not sporting to be poking fun at moldering techno-optimism from 1996, from WiReD no less, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I suspect that Brin's article curdled as many brains as Barlow's asinine "declaration" did.
The Internet was a mistake....
https://jwz.org/b/ykf5
Attachments:
dansinker@omfg.town ("Dan Sinker") wrote:
Hope the LA Times is being sure to print the fire’s point of view too.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
annaleen@wandering.shop ("Annalee Newitz 🍜") wrote:
You may not remember this poll I did back in November, but you voted for me to tell the tale of an obscure futurist with good ideas. At last, the article you voted for is outside the paywall! It's my latest for New Scientist, about low-key civil engineering legend John "Bud" Wilbur. In 1952, he predicted that we could avert nuclear war with good infrastructure. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26435192-400-the-forgotten-civil-engineer-with-a-vision-we-could-all-learn-from/
Attachments:
- This is a headline for the story from New Scientist magazine. It reads: "The forgotten civil engineer with a vision we could all learn from. John "Bud" Benson Wilbur isn't often remembered today, but his ideas about what the distant-future world of 1977 would look like are inspirational, says Annalee Newitz." Below the text is a black-and-white photo of Wilbur, when he was a young man. He is a white man with slicked-back pale hair, sitting on a stool and looking at a large computing machine that he invented. Called a simultaneous calculator, it is a wall-mounted apparatus resembling a set of long, low bookshelves filled with tilting metal plates on pulley systems. According to the MIT Museum, "The calculator has 13,000 parts, including more than 600 feet of steel tape and nearly 1,000 ballbearing pulleys." (remote)
- This a text card, with black-on-white text. It reads: You have probably never heard of John “Bud” Benson Wilbur, but he is a low-key civil engineering legend. In the mid-20th century, he was chair of the civil and sanitary engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He built some major bridges in Massachusetts and helped prototype the first wind power systems in Vermont. But I first encountered his work in a silly-but-serious essay from 1952 ... he claimed he and his colleagues had invented a crystal ball for seeing the future. (By Annalee Newitz, in New Scientist magazine) (remote)
grantbrookesnz@mastodon.nz ("Grant Brookes") wrote:
https://theshovel.com.au/2020/05/28/mark-zuckerberg-dead-at-36-says-social-media-fact-check/
Attachments:
Las Vegas police release ChatGPT logs from the suspect in the Cybertruck explosion
Image: LMVPD
Nearly a week after a New Year’s Day explosion in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, local law enforcement released more information about their investigation, including what they know so far about the role of generative AI in the incident.
They confirmed that the suspect, an active duty soldier in the US Army named Matthew Livelsberger, had a “possible manifesto” saved on his phone, in addition to an email to a podcaster and other letters. They also showed video evidence of him preparing for the explosion by pouring fuel onto the truck while stopped before driving to the hotel. He’d also kept a log of supposed surveillance, although the officials said he did not have a criminal record and was not being surveilled or investigated.
The Las Vegas Metro Police also released several slides showing questions he’d posed to ChatGPT several days before the explosion, asking about explosives, how to detonate them, and how to detonate them with a gunshot, as well as information about where to buy guns, explosive material, and fireworks legally along his route.
Asked about the queries, OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said:
We are saddened by this incident and committed to seeing AI tools used responsibly. Our models are designed to refuse harmful instructions and minimize harmful content. In this case, ChatGPT responded with information already publicly available on the internet and provided warnings against harmful or illegal activities. We’re working with law enforcement to support their investigation.
The officials say they are still examining possible sources for the explosion, described as a deflagration that traveled rather slowly as opposed to a high explosives detonation that would’ve moved faster and caused more damage. While investigators say they haven’t ruled out other possibilities like an electrical short yet, an explanation that matches some of the queries and the available evidence is that the muzzle flash of a gunshot ignited fuel vapor/fireworks fuses inside the truck, which then caused a larger explosion of fireworks and other explosive materials.
Trying the queries in ChatGPT today still works, however, the information he requested doesn’t appear to be restricted and could be obtained by most search methods. Still, the suspect’s use of a generative AI tool and the investigators’ ability to track those requests and present them as evidence take questions about AI chatbot guardrails, safety, and privacy out of the hypothetical realm and into our reality.
Microsoft is combining ‘the best of Xbox and Windows together’ for handhelds
Image: The Verge
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has been dropping hints about an Xbox handheld for months, but what about Windows handheld gaming PCs? Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s VP of “Next Generation,” tells The Verge that we should expect to see the Windows handheld gaming experience change within this calendar year.
Ronald was a roundtable panelist this evening at an AMD and Lenovo event titled “The Future of Gaming Handhelds,” which was mostly a coming-out party for Lenovo’s new Legion Go S. But he did hint on stage that Microsoft plans to bring the Xbox experience to Windows PCs, rather than the other way around — and expanded on that considerably after we caught up with him later.
“We’ve been really innovating for a long time in the console space, and as we partner across the industry it’s really about how do we bring those innovations that we’ve incubated and developed in the console space and bring them to PC and bring them to the handheld gaming space,” said Ronald.
After we caught up with him after the event, he confirmed that Microsoft is looking at combining Xbox and Windows experiences together — and that we should see changes this very year, rather than needing to wait for an Xbox handheld that might still be years away.
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Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Microsoft’s Jason Ronald speaks at the Lenovo/AMD event, flanked by Valve SteamOS designer Pierre-Loup Griffais (left) and AMD chief gaming architect Frank Azor (middle right).
“I would say it’s bringing the best of Xbox and Windows together, because we have spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked to the console,” says Ronald. “What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how do we bring those experiences for both players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.”
Right now, Windows sucks on handhelds, to put it rather bluntly, to the point that a community-created fork of Valve’s SteamOS experience can be a far better way to pick up and play games. Ronald is clearly aware of the issues. “We’re focused on really simplifying that and making it much more like a console experience. Our goal is to put the player and their library at the center of the experience and not all the [Windows] work that you have to do today.”
Microsoft has done compact modes for Xbox apps on Windows that are focused on improving the handheld experience, but it’s a lot like putting lipstick on a pig instead of addressing the core experience. “I think we’ll have a lot more to share later this year,” teases Ronald. “I think it’s going to be a journey and I think you’ll see a lot of investments over time that you’re starting to see already, but we’ll have a lot more to share later this year.”
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Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
Microsoft has made several Xbox apps more handheld-friendly over the past year.
How Microsoft goes about this merging of Xbox and Windows will be key, but it doesn’t sound like the company is suddenly going to port a custom Xbox operating system to Windows. It sounds more like Microsoft wants to make Windows all up better at gaming with an Xbox experience on top so the pesky desktop, notifications, and legacy of Windows is hidden away.
“I think, at the end of the day, our goal is to make Windows great for gaming on any device,” says Ronald. “The reality is the Xbox operating system is built on top of Windows. So there’s a lot of infrastructure that we built in the console space that we can bring to the PC space and really deliver that premium gaming experience on any device.”
Specifically, Microsoft has to tackle a lot of the very basics of making Windows more friendly to controllers and getting that Xbox experience to really drive things instead of the taskbar, Start menu, and other elements. “There’s just certain things in Windows that were not designed for if you don’t have a keyboard and mouse, like thumbstick support or joypads and stuff like that,” Ronald admits.
“There’s fundamental interaction models that we’re working on to make sure that regardless of the operating system details it feels very natively like a gaming-centric device and a gaming-centric experience.”
Ronald says the goal is to put an Xbox experience at the center — “not the Windows desktop that you have today.”
violetblue ("Violet Blue") wrote:
"For those of us observing this spectacle in a sort-of state of self-aware, displaced horror reserved for those moments when life and sci-fi dystopia cross shadows, it has never been more clear that Facebook's ideas about organizing society are wholly broken." Me, 2014: https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-unethical-untrustworthy-and-now-downright-harmful/
eloquence@social.coop ("Erik Moeller") wrote:
The Meta developments make it even clearer why so many of us are wary of #bluesky, while welcoming the migration off X in principle.
It's very much born from the same Silicon Valley soup as Facebook and Twitter, with some decentralization cosplay masking that they are absolutely in charge of who can speak and who can't.
Early test cases include Jesse Singal (see https://glaad.org/gap/jesse-singal/ - still not banned on Bluesky), Vagina Museum (forced "adult content" labeling), and probably more.
Bald eagle dies of bird flu. Once again, this season's writers are a bit on the nose.
https://jwz.org/b/ykf3
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Photos: Thousands in Los Angeles evacuate as wind-fueled Palisades Fire quickly worsens
More than 30,000 people in Los Angeles County have been ordered to evacuate as the Palisades Fire blazed through the Pacific Palisades community, fueled by intense Santa Ana winds.
Sam Altman’s sister files sexual abuse lawsuit against him — his family says it’s ‘utterly untrue’
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
Ann Altman has filed a lawsuit against her brother, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, alleging that he sexually abused her throughout childhood over a period of nearlya decade.
The rest of the Altman family immediately pushed back on the lawsuit, saying the allegations are “utterly untrue” and stem from “mental health challenges” that Ann has faced for years.
“Annie has made deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims about our family, and especially Sam,” writes Sam, his mother, and his two brothers, in a statement that Sam released on X.
Ann’s lawsuit alleges that Sam abused her from 1997 through 2006, beginning when Ann was three and Sam was 12 and continuing until Sam was a legal adult. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Missouri, says that Ann suffered “severe emotional distress” and has been unable to live a “normal life” as a result of Sam’s alleged abuse.
An attorney for Ann described the Altman family’s statement as an attempt to “divert attention away from the harm that they caused.” The attorney, Ryan J. Mahoney, said that sexual abuse can cause “mental health outcomes such as, persistent PTSD, depression, and anxiety.” He also said of Ann specifically that there is “no evidence that her own mental health has contributed to her allegations.”
The Altman family’s statement alleges that Ann has made conspiratorial claims over the years about various family members while demanding money from them. The family members say they have offered financial support and asked her to receive medical help but that she “refuses conventional treatment.”
“This situation causes immense pain to our entire family,” the family statement says. The family says they have “chosen not to respond publicly” when Ann has made similar claims in the past, but that they “feel we have no choice but to address this” now that she has filed a lawsuit.
My sister has filed a lawsuit against me. Here is a statement from my mom, brothers, and me: pic.twitter.com/Nve0yokTSX
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 7, 2025
Delta’s giving its in-flight screens a major 4K HDR upgrade
Image: Delta
Delta Air Lines announced plans to install new 4K HDR QLED screens in its commercial airplanes, so passengers can experience ultra high-definition entertainment at ultra-high altitudes.
The news came as part of Delta’s CES keynote at the Sphere in Las Vegas, where it also planned to celebrate its centennial with a musical performance by Lenny Kravitz. The airline announced a raft of new features for air travelers, including new partnerships with YouTube and Uber as well as a new AI-powered chatbot for customer service.
But the decision to add 4K screens to its airplanes is one that’s sure to tickle the fancy of any air traveler who’s ever balked at the middling quality of the current crop of seat-back displays.
The news came as part of Delta’s CES keynote at the Sphere in Las Vegas
Delta says it’s working with Thales Avionics, an in-flight technology company that is also helping to install high-definition screens in Emirates’ Airbus A350-900s. But don’t go looking for the new screens just yet: Delta says it won’t start delivering the upgrades in aircraft until 2026.
Who actually gets access to the screens, though, will answer the question of whether Delta sees this as technology for all passengers or just the ones in first class. A spokesperson for Delta did not immediately respond to questions about access.
Delta has also been testing out Bluetooth connectivity for its in-flight entertainment for several years and has even started quietly rolling it out to some planes, as discovered by a TikTok user. Now, the airline says it plans to offer Bluetooth “in all cabins so travelers can pair their personal wireless devices” — though it didn’t offer any specifics beyond that.
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Delta’s in-flight entertainment will also feature “an advanced recommendation engine” tailored to each passenger’s unique taste. Again, we’re lacking details about what’s powering this engine and how it will know your particular taste. But in late 2025, we’re getting improved “connectivity” through a partnership with Wi-Fi provider Hughes, which replaced Intelsat in 2023. Delta says this will allow for “multi-network connectivity” for more “reliable” and “stable” in-flight internet.
That surely will help when streaming YouTube, which SkyMiles members will be able to do ad-free, thanks to the platform’s new partnership with Delta. And a new “Do Not Disturb” mode for their seat-back screen will ensure passengers can sleep without disturbance.
Delta is revamping its app to include an AI-powered “Concierge” chatbot as well as a “multi-modal” feature that will include Uber and, eventually, air taxis from Joby.
The Concierge feature will use the traveler’s location and arrival and departure information to suggest more efficient routes and will notify users about upcoming passport expirations or visa requirements. And “in the years to come,” Delta says the feature will be able to make more specific recommendations around packing and weather planning.
Delta is also offering SkyMiles customers the ability to link their Uber account to earn miles and other perks. These include:
SkyMiles Members can earn 1 mile per dollar spent on UberX rides to and from airports, 2 miles per dollar on premium rides and 3 miles per dollar on Uber Reserve rides. Plus, 1 mile per dollar spent on eligible restaurant and grocery orders.
And lastly, Delta says it’s working with Airbus to design more fuel-efficient airplanes. Delta has said its goal is for sustainable aviation fuel to make up at least 95 percent of its fuel consumption by 2050. But achieving net-zero emissions will be a tall task for an airline and will require rethinking every part of the business.
Now, Delta says it will work with Airbus to scale the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which is mostly biofuels made from plant or animal material. And the two companies will collaborate on hydrogen-powered flight projects as well as new designs, like more fuel-efficient wings or new formations to drive “wake energy retrieval,” Delta says.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
meg@fediscience.org ("Megan ⚘") wrote:
I am so pleased to see Deerlady on KEXP today. I have posted about the music of Mali Obomsawin and Magdalena Abrego before. Their album Greatest Hits was one of my favorites of 2024. For those who may not know, their new band name comes from the episode of the same name from the series Reservation Dogs where the song "There There" was first featured. Mali is from Odanak First Nation.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
timnitGebru@dair-community.social ("Timnit Gebru (she/her)") wrote:
We're hoping to organize a hopeful virtual event to get us to think our possible technological futures, and have a creative workshop. Maybe in the spring. Stay tuned. In the mean time, read our Possible Futures Series. If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see from the event, comment below.
▶️ Nobody Owns Our Techno-Future: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/technofuture/
▶️ A Bus Model For Global, Human-Centered Education: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/education/
▶️ An Internet for Our Elders: https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/elders/
(continued)
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:
Zuck: we call our interoperable ecosystem the #Metaverse now
#Fediverse: oh hey twinsies
Zuck: we launched a text based app connected to #ActivityPub
#Mastodon: yay we do that
Zuck: we believe in openness now
Openness.org: neato! This is completely out of character but we're convinced
Zuck: we copy platforms so that eventually, they die under the pressure of our competition because this has been our entire business model for a decade
Guy who invented the at sign: fascinating
Google’s new Pixel 4A update is going to lower battery life for some owners
A fresh Google Pixel 4A from our 2020 review. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Google has announced that it is shipping an unexpected update to Pixel 4A phones this week. According to Ars Technica, the company emailed Pixel 4A owners to tell them the update will address battery performance stability but that their batteries may not last as long after it’s applied.
Google repeats that in a new help page titled “Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program,” where it writes that it had noticed issues with “some” Pixel 4A phones.
From January 8, 2025, Pixel 4a devices will receive an automatic software update to Android 13. After the software update is downloaded, your device will restart automatically to apply the update. For some devices (“Impacted Devices”), the update includes new battery management features to improve the stability of your battery’s performance, so the battery may last for shorter periods between charges. Users of Impacted Devices may also notice other changes, like reduced charging performance or changes to how the battery-level indicator on your phone shows your battery capacity.
We want our customers to have the best possible experience with their products, so users of these Impacted Devices are eligible for an appeasement from Google.
Not all Pixel 4a devices are impacted by the reduction in battery capacity and charging performance, therefore if your device is not impacted the battery will perform the same as before, and you will not be eligible for an appeasement.
Besides having less runtime, the update could mean “reduced charging performance” or change how the phone shows battery capacity. Google hasn’t been specific about what’s behind the issue, but the circumstances are similar to Apple’s iPhone “batterygate” mess in 2017. Apple said its software slowed down iPhones with aging batteries to prevent accidental shutdowns, but it didn’t inform customers about why their devices had reduced performance and ended up with hundreds of millions in court settlement payments.
In this case, Google is also offering owners with affected 4A devices their choice of compensation: They can opt for a free battery swap, a $50 payday, or a $100 credit toward a new Pixel phone from its online store. 4A owners can enter their IMEI number on this page to find out if theirs is affected.
Google didn’t immediately respond to our questions about why the 4A, which hasn’t been updated since late 2023, needs this attention now.
Parasite@kolektiva.social ("Auntie Oedipus 🏳️⚧️🌱🏴") wrote:
Here’s a summary of events of Germany in early 1933 for no reason whatsoever:
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Here are some of the horrible things that you can now say on Instagram and Facebook
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Meta overhauled its approach to US moderation on Tuesday, ditching fact-checking, announcing a plan to move its trust and safety teams, and perhaps most impactfully, updating its Hateful Conduct policy. As reported by Wired, a lot of text has been updated, added, or removed, but here are some of the changes that jumped out at us.
These two sections outlining speech (written or visual) are new additions:
We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like “weird.”
We do allow content arguing for gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs. We also allow the same content based on sexual orientation, when the content is based on religious beliefs.
Another section that specifically banned making dehumanizing references to transgender or non-binary people as “it” or referring to women “as household objects or property or objects in general” has been removed entirely.
The opening statement about what the policies are “designed to allow room for” that previously listed only health or positive support groups has changed too (new additions marked in bold):
People sometimes use sex- or gender-exclusive language when discussing access to spaces often limited by sex or gender, such as access to bathrooms, specific schools, specific military, law enforcement, or teaching roles, and health or support groups. Other times, they call for exclusion or use insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality. Finally, sometimes people curse at a gender in the context of a romantic break-up. Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech.
The section that specifically banned targeting people or groups “with claims that they have or spread the novel coronavirus” has also been removed.
A link to this 2017 blog post about the “hard questions” Meta faces dealing with hate speech has been removed, and some references to hate speech are now changed to “hateful conduct.”
The policy still says that content about denying access to spaces and social services “on the basis of their protected characteristics” is not allowed, but there’s also a new exception (the added text is in bold):
...except for sex or gender-based exclusion from spaces commonly limited by sex or gender, such as restrooms, sports and sports leagues, health and support groups, and specific schools
Even before these changes, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD reported last year that Meta often failed to remove posts violating its hate speech policies. Now, even those guardrails that had been established to protect people from internet harassment are disappearing.
“Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing narratives. With these changes, Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression. Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement responding to the changes.
A note from Meta’s new policy chief Joel Kaplan said, “We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate. It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms.” Wiredalso reports that the changes “blindsided” organizations that have been partnering with Meta on its now-discarded moderation efforts, with one unnamed editor at a fact-checking organization saying the effect of the decision “is going to eventually drain us out.”
Wild weather spreads across the U.S.
In Washington, D.C., the federal government is closed – as are most of the schools in the area. That's because the first major snow storm in about three years barreled in Sunday night. Meanwhile, the Southern U.S. is preparing for another storm that could paralyze parts of Texas, Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. And Southern California is preparing for "life threatening, destructive gusts" driving wildfires. That's a lot of wild weather...so what's going on?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at considerthis@npr.org
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
glencoe@jorts.horse ("St Woke of Pronouns") wrote:
aggggh
Meta is leaving its users to wade through hate and disinformation
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Image
Experts warn that Meta’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking program could allow disinformation and hate to fester online and permeate the real world.
The company announced today that it’s phasing out a program launched in 2016 where it partners with independent fact-checkers around the world to identify and review misinformation across its social media platforms. Meta is replacing the program with a crowdsourced approach to content moderation similar to X’s Community Notes.
Meta is essentially shifting responsibility to users to weed out lies on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, raising fears that it’ll be easier to spread misleading information about climate change, clean energy, public health risks, and communities often targeted with violence.
“It’s going to hurt Meta’s users first”
“It’s going to hurt Meta’s users first because the program worked well at reducing the virality of hoax content and conspiracy theories,” says Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter.
“A lot of people think Community Notes-style moderation doesn’t work at all and it’s merely window dressing so that platforms can say they’re...
Trump Escaped Consequences. Now He’s Running From the Truth.
Donald Trump has won. He is set to be inaugurated on January 20, and he has convinced many Americans not only that his attempt four years ago to carry out a self-coup is not disqualifying, but that mentioning it now is kind of gauche. Everyone feels they know what happened on January 6. It was […]
Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):
rysiek@mstdn.social ("Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦") wrote:
Mark Zuckerberg, Recipient of World's First Rat Penis Transplant, Announces Meta Will Stop Fact Checking
https://thehardtimes.net/culture/mark-zuckerberg-recipient-of-worlds-first-rat-penis-transplant-announces-meta-will-stop-fact-checking/
LG’s StanbyME sequel adds a carrying strap to the portable TV
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The original StanByMe portable TV and the Inspector Gadget-like briefcase follow-up were surprisingly popular, so of course, we’re getting a new one to kick off 2025. I like to imagine LG literally toting the StanbyME 2 to CES by the carrying straps you can affix to it, as the rep did in this video below.
The 27-inch 1440p touchscreen on the StanbyME 2 should offer a sharper picture than the original’s 1080p. It also lasts longer with a four-hour battery life, up from three and a half, but LG has not revealed pricing or availability details.
You can still mount the TV to a floor stand that holds and charges it, but LG is unashamedly emphasizing its portability with the carrying strap, which you can also use to hang from a wall like a picture frame on a sturdy enough hook. It’s also compatible with a folio cover that protects the display during transport and doubles as a tabletop stand, and you can magnetically attach the remote to the top of the TV. It has two USB-C ports that you can use for charging and peripherals like webcams, plus a traditional HDMI input.
These upgrades feel relatively minor, but if you aspire to be a modern-day Radio Raheem with a TV on your shoulder — and, presumably, the matching pill-shaped StanbyME XT7 Bluetooth speaker under your arm — the StanbyME 2 might be the television for you.
Man who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas used ChatGPT in planning, police say
The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday.
This sun-tracking security camera keeps watch in 4K
Baseus’ new outdoor security camera boosts video quality to 4K. | Image: Baseus
Baseus has announced a new version of its solar-powered security camera at CES 2025 that improves video quality from 2K to 4K and extends battery life from 180 to 210 days. But like the previous version, the new Baseus Security S2 camera can potentially run indefinitely using a battery-charging solar panel on top that tilts left and right throughout the day to maximize its exposure to the sun.
The company hasn’t announced when the Baseus Security S2 will be available or what it will cost, but the older S1 model currently sells for $129.99 through retailers like Amazon.
Without the need for connecting it to power, Baseus says the S2 camera can be installed in about five minutes and in places where running a power line could be difficult or expensive. The only installation limitations are finding a place with enough sun exposure if you’re hoping to completely avoid charging the camera yourself and a spot that’s in range of your Wi-Fi network.
The S2 camera doesn’t come with any subscription fees as everything captured by its 4K camera (with a 145-degree field of view and night vision capabilities) is stored locally on the device. Its capacity can be expanded with a microSD card up to 256GB in size, but as with many battery-powered security cameras, the S2 doesn’t support 24/7 continuous recording.
Baseus’ camera only records events detected by its passive infrared and radar-based motion sensors. Nothing is uploaded or stored in the cloud, but recordings are remotely accessible through a mobile app. The S2 also features AI-powered object detection with the ability to differentiate people, pets, and vehicles and provide notifications based on what it spotted. Through the app, you can also define activity zones for specific areas you want the camera to focus on, and it includes both Amazon Alexa and Google home compatibility.
Baseus’ overachieving power bank hotspot delivers charging and mobile Wi-Fi
Baseus’ new 20,000mAh power bank also provides a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 10 devices. | Image: Baseus
Baseus announced a new power bank at CES 2025 that does double duty as a portable charger and a mobile hotspot. The EnerGeek MiFi Power Bank is expected to be available sometime in April 2025 for $89.99 and will be compatible with 4G networks in over 100 countries including the US, Canada, and Japan.
Up to 10 devices can be wirelessly connected to the power bank over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Download speeds are expected to be up to 50Mbps, but that will vary depending on the network it’s connected to and signal strength. Pricing for the mobile data hasn’t been announced, but the company says it will offer “flexible network plans with no monthly fees or usage restrictions” that can be customized through a mobile app.
The EnerGeek MiFi Power Bank also includes two USB-C ports, a single USB-A port on top, and a short integrated USB-C charging cable that doubles as a carrying strap. It has a 20,000mAh battery inside but its power output maxes out at 67W, so larger devices, like some laptops, will need to fly solo to get enough power to charge. A display subtly integrated into the side of the power bank provides details on its remaining charge, power output, and wireless connectivity.
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Image: Baseus
Baseus also announced another 20,000mAh power bank with two integrated USB-C cables but no hotspot capabilities.
Baseus also debuted a more traditional 20,000mAh power bank today featuring two integrated USB-C charging cables, one of which fully retracts.
It also offers USB-C and USB-A ports for connecting your own cables, up to 100W of power delivery for a single device, and a small screen displaying current power output and the power bank’s remaining charge level. It’s expected to be available sometime in April 2025 priced at $99.99.
If you’re constantly losing cables, this could be your ideal charger
Baseus’ new wall charger includes two retractable USB-C cables and an additional USB-C port. | Image: Baseus
Baseus is following Anker’s lead and debuting new charging accessories at CES 2025 that could help ensure you’re never hunting for missing charging cables. The company is expanding its Enercore line with a new $69.99 wall charger, expected as soon as April 2025, featuring a pair of built-in USB-C cables that fully retract and stay out of the way when not in use.
The retractable cables on the Baseus Enercore CJ11 are each a little over 32 inches long and work alongside an additional USB-C port so you can also use cables with different connectors. The charger can deliver up to 67W of power with one device connected, allowing you to charge a power-hungry device like a laptop. With two or three of its ports in use, the total power output drops to 65W.
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Image: Baseus
Baseus’ new car charger has two retractable USB-C cables attached to a pivoting head.
Baseus also announced a new car charger with more functionality than the one Anker released last November. The Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 Max also features two built-in retractable USB-C cables that are just over 31 inches in length, plus an additional USB-C and USB-A port on its base.
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Image: Baseus
The charger’s retractable USB-C cables work alongside a pair of USB-C ports on its base.
It connects to a vehicle’s auxiliary power outlet and delivers a total of 240W of power across all four ports and up to a maximum of 105W to a single port. It’s expected to be available in April 2025 priced at $44.99.
The maker of the electric USPS truck is also building garbage robots and EV firefighters
Oshkosh’s all-electric firefighting vehicle for airports. | Image: Oshkosh
Oshkosh, the 108-year-old American company that makes military vehicles and other specialty equipment, has big plans for your neighborhood.
The company appeared at CES in Las Vegas for the first time to announce a raft of new commercial electric vehicles, including plug-in fire engines and garbage trucks as well as AI-powered technology that it says will make these vehicles safer and more convenient.
You may know Oshkosh, which has a lot of credibility as a defense contractor, from its contract with the United States Postal Service to build the first all-electric postal truck. Last year, The Washington Post reported that the project was mired in delays, with only 93 trucks delivered to the USPS as of November.
But despite these delays, Oshkosh thinks it’s well positioned to help build these next-generation specialty vehicles and says it plans to eventually deliver 165,000 vehicles to USPS, up to 70 percent of which will be electric. The company also announced plans to build a variety of electric and autonomous vehicles for airports, including a robot cargo handler and EVs for construction sites.
But the “neighborhood” EVs, as Oshkosh calls them, stand the chance to be the most visible and impactful — if the company can get them built.
The first vehicle to be announced today is the McNeilus Volterra ZFL, an all-electric front-loader garbage truck with an AI-powered detection system for refuse bins. The sensors detect the location of the garbage cans and communicate with the truck to ensure it’s positioned accurately. Then a robotic arm is deployed to snag the bin and lift it for trash disposal. Oshkosh is also rolling out a new AI-powered, vision-based contamination system to identify and remove items that don’t belong in the waste or recycling streams.
Speaking of robots, Oshkosh has introduced HARR-E, an autonomous electric refuse collection robot that purports to offer on-demand trash and recycling pickup via a smartphone app or virtual home assistant like Amazon Alexa.
The robot “makes trash removal as easy as ordering an Uber or a Lyft right from your home,” said Jay Iyengar, Oshkosh’s chief technology officer. HARR-E deploys from a central refuse collection area within the neighborhood and navigates to the resident’s home autonomously for collection before returning to the base to unload and recharge.
“Trash removal as easy as ordering an Uber or a Lyft right from your home”
For firefighters, Oshkosh is introducing a new Collision Avoidance Mitigation System, or CAMS, that aims to tell emergency workers when it’s safe to get out of their vehicles. According to Iyengar, “CAMS uses an advanced camera and radar sensor suite with AI to accurately detect the trajectory, the speed and proximity of ongoing vehicles relative to a parked emergency vehicle. CAMS can provide up to two to three seconds of advanced notice of an impending collision, giving an extra layer of safety during roadside operations.”
It’s an ambitious suite of technologies. Oshkosh says it’s up to the task. But political headwinds, including President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to eliminate billions of dollars in EV incentives, could make success more difficult.
Despite this, Oshkosh executives tried to project a sunny outlook. “The reviews on the first vehicle are fantastic,” Oshkosh CEO John Pfeifer said of the new USPS delivery truck. “It’s been written up in a lot of publications about the postal carrier’s responses to the first vehicles. But it’s going exceptionally well.”
dnalounge@sfba.social ("DNA Lounge") wrote:
Me, last night, to @hubba_hubba_revue while watching them shoot video of the show and upload it -- "Why are you still only posting these videos to Instagram? Why don't you post them to Mastodon too?"
"Because we have like no followers on Mastodon."
"Well maybe that's because you never post videos there!"
Anyway, give them a follow, try to break them out of their doom loop.
Wild weather brings snow to the South and Santa Ana winds to the West
As the South prepped for snow and more cold starting Wednesday, residents in Southern California faced off with hurricane-strength winds.
linear@nya.social ("linear cannon") wrote:
here is your semi-irregular reminder that the bulk of material making up "microplastics" comes from car tires wearing themselves down on roads, and changing your personal purchasing, consumption and/or recycling habits will have no appreciable effect on your or anyone else's exposure to microplastics.
fixing the microplastics issue requires getting rid of cars, or finding a replacement for tires that does not wear down (which tire companies will not do because then they can't sell you new tires over and over)
Since Greenland is in the news again, let's check in on Camp Century.
A top-secret US military project and the toxic waste it conceals, thought to have been buried forever beneath the Greenland icecap, are likely to be uncovered by rising temperatures...
https://jwz.org/b/ykf1
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Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
anildash@threads.net ("Anil Dash") wrote:
The key thing to understand about Meta without guard rails is that, when they allowed their platform to exist without any content controls in Myanmar under an extremist leader, it was used to directly enable a genocide. Zuckerberg knows this, knows the threat, and has never acknowledged or apologized. He is going in eyes wide open to this level of threat. https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-east-asia-and-the-pacific/myanmar/report-myanmar/
Amazon Is Doing A Really Big 4K Blu-Ray Sale
If you have been wanting to build your physical movie collection or just want to watch some new movies for cheap, you should stop what you’re doing and check out Amazon’s fantastic 4K UHD Blu-ray sale featuring old and new movies.
What to know about Trump and his keen interest in Greenland
President-elect Donald Trump has said multiple times that the U.S. should buy Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. The sparsely populated island is geopolitically important and mineral-rich.
'Life threatening' windstorm triggers wildfire in Southern California
Southern California hasn't seen significant rainfall since last April, and a pileup of dry fuel in combination with the winds has the region on edge. A mandatory evacuation order was issued for the Palisades.
MartinEscardo@mathstodon.xyz ("Martin Escardo") wrote:
The world was much better, or at least less worse, when the internet didn't exist. I lived to witness this.
New Sony Tech Will Put You Inside The World Of The Last Of Us
Sony has debuted some wild-looking, Star-Trek-holodeck-like technology that, if it works as advertised, will let people step into the world of The Last of Us and get up close and personal with the franchise’s grotesque spore zombies. This new tech will even let you uh...smell them.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
FediGarden@social.growyourown.services ("Fedi.Garden 🌱") wrote:
After Meta's rather disturbing actions today, would you like to move to a Fediverse server that defederates Meta and Threads?
Fedi.Garden is a directory of well-run servers that have all blocked Threads:
All of them are compatible with the requirements listed at https://fedi.garden/about-this-site
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
emma@orbital.horse ("Emma Loves ☕️") wrote:
Hey @swf, why are Facebook and Automattic still allowed to be members? Both of them are run by fascists.
The Original Severance Pilot Script Would've Changed The Entire Show
If Severance hasn’t already twisted your mind into a mangled maze of confusion and Lumon propaganda, then the recent revelations about its original script will. On the debut episode of The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott, the hosts reveal that our introduction to the Severance world was once much…
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
aral@mastodon.ar.al ("Aral Balkan") wrote:
Folks, do you think if Threads/Meta/Mark Zuckerberg were really that bad, John Mastodon himself would partner with them? Do you think they’d even be allowed in the Social Web Foundation?
No, surely you’re mistaken.
Otherwise, what does that say about John Mastodon and the Social Web Foundation?
https://socialwebfoundation.org
#SocialWebFoundation #Threads #Meta #Mastodon #partners #JohnMastodon #MarkZuckerberg
markwoll@universeodon.com ("Mark Wollschlager") wrote:
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Blue Ghost Lunar Lander scheduled to launch on January 15th
Image: Firefly Aerospace
A lander hasn’t successfully reached the surface of the Moon’s cratered Mare Crisium region since the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed there to collect samples in August 1976. But SpaceX is prepping a launch that’ll send not one, but two landers there on Wednesday January 15th, Firefly Aerospace has announced.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch at approximately 1:11 AM EST, and will not only have Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lander on board, but also the Resilience lander from the Japanese robotic spacecraft firm iSpace. It will take 45 days for the craft to journey to the Moon before it spends another 14 days carrying out surface operations. There’s no word on whether we’ll be able to watch it take off.
The Firefly lander will carry 10 NASA payloads to the surface. They’re designed to measure various particulate compositions, thermal properties, and electromagnetic activity of both the Moon and the Earth. It’ll collect data for various applications, from improving landing and takeoff procedures to learning about the Moon’s resources and its history.
The so-called LEXI payload is particularly interesting — it’s an x-ray machine that can read the Earth’s magnetic field. NASA will use the data to see how our magnetosphere interacts with solar winds, which could ultimately help accurately detect and track solar weather patterns that cause power outages on Earth and interfere with satellite and GPS systems.
This would be NASA’s second attempt to deploy such technology. It first launched the device, then known as STORM, into space in 2012. That one didn’t land on the moon, however, and wasn’t able to get the full picture that LEXI’s wide-angle sensors will be able to capture.
Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
404mediaco ("404 Media") wrote:
Hundreds of police license plate cameras are misconfigured to stream unencrypted to the open internet.
A privacy researcher took these streams and turned them into a real-time database that tracks car movements & information, highlighting how invasive this tech is
DNA Lounge Update, Wherein we have a story from the bar mitzvah
https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2025/01/07.html
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Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:
My precious boy.
📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Ilford HP5+ @ 1600
🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7
🐱 Jiji
⚗️ Spieker Film Lab#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #BlackAndWhite #MonochromePhotography #35mm #CatsOfMastodon
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Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
freebliss@post.lurk.org ("Simon Repp") wrote:
After 6 months and about 333 commits I proudly present:
Faircamp 1.0 – A static site generator for audio producers
https://simonrepp.com/faircamp/To recap the highlights of the past months and learn what's new in the final 1.0 release, check out the blog post: https://simonrepp.com/posts/faircamp-1.0/
Development of version 1.0 was made possible through the amazing support, funding and expertise of the @NGIZero programme and coalition, led by the @nlnet foundation and financed by the European Commission's @EC_NGI initiative – thank you so much for giving me and everyone benefitting from a better Faircamp this incredible opportunity!
Also, many thanks to all faircampers, contributors, testers, translators, bloggers, podcasters and encouraging voices for supporting this journey - for the final 1.0 release specifically to @branpos for release candidate testing, @n00q for bugreporting/testing, @limebar for the external artist page feature inspiration and @Vac for their diligent translation work.
Along with this release I've published multiple new documentation resources - from an official Linux/macOS/Windows tutorial to a 1.0 migration guide, from an overhauled reference manual to a beginner's guide to publishing faircamp (or any!) static sites - check out the website and recent posts in the #faircamp hashtag to discover them!
That's all!
Attachments:
- Faircamp website header, stating in bold, large typography: "A static generator for audio producers". Below that the text says "Point Faircamp to a folder hierarchy containing your audio files. Within minutes, Faircamp builds a complete website presenting your work. The resulting site requires no database, no programming, no maintenance, and is compatible with virtually every webhost on this planet." Notably there are some now items that previously did not appear on the website: 1) "Latest release: 1.0", 2) "Migration to 1.0 (Video)", 3) In the topmost header there are now buttons saying "Download", "Resources" and "Tutorial". (remote)
The best budget robot vacuums
Illustration: The Verge
You don’t have to spend a fortune to have a robot clean your floors. Here’s our pick of the most cost-effective bots you can buy right now.
Florida judge blocks release of special counsel report on Trump cases
Florida federal judge Aileen Cannon ordered the Justice Department not to share Jack Smith's final report until a federal appeals court resolves the legal fight.
Codinghorror puts his money where his mouth is:
"Stay Gold, America" We've already completed the eight $1 million donations listed above to help those most immediately in need. Within the next five years, half of our family wealth will support longer...
https://jwz.org/b/ykfx
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LG made a slim 32-inch 6K monitor with Thunderbolt 5
Image: LG
LG has revealed a new UltraFine monitor at CES, and it features a thin display mounted on an equally slim base. It’s also the first 6K monitor to support Thunderbolt 5, as spotted earlier by MacRumors.
That means it should have a data throughput of up to 80Gbps (or up to 120Gbps if it supports Intel’s Bandwidth Boost mode). It also has a “Nano IPS Black” panel that LG says “delivers exceptional color accuracy and a high contrast,” with 99.5 percent Adobe RGB and 98 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage.
Many details about the display are still missing, as there’s no word on its refresh rate or availability. The 32-inch 6K Dell UltraSharp monitor, which also uses an IPS Black display from LG, might give us an idea about price, as it costs $2,479.99. The Verge reached out to LG with a request for more information but didn’t immediately hear back.
More devices have added support for Thunderbolt 5 in recent months, with the first Thunderbolt 5 cables and docks arriving last year. Apple’s newest MacBook Pro models and the Mac Mini support Thunderbolt 5 as well.
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:
Now at the "is Visual Studio just still loading Chromium? Or have I taken the entire machine down?" phase of some debugging
RCA’s new camo TVs will blend in perfectly with forest decor
RCA has announced a new lineup of IP55-rated outdoor TVs with bezels finished with camo patterns. | Image: RCA
RCA has announced a new line of bright QLED TVs designed to be installed and blend into outdoor settings with bezels finished in a “spirit of wilderness” and Mossy Oak camouflage design. They’re dust- and water-resistant and will work in temperatures ranging from -22 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
The company hasn’t announced when its new outdoor TV lineup will be available. When they are, the TVs will be offered in four sizes: a $3,999 43-inch model; a $4,999 55-inch model; a $5,999 65-inch model; and the largest, a 75-inch model for $7,999.
Why does RCA’s 43-inch quantum-dot TV cost almost four grand when similarly sized alternatives can be found for less than $300? The TV in your living room almost certainly doesn’t come with an IP55 rating. The RCA TVs are built with a scratch-resistant aluminum case that can withstand dust and moisture ingress. You won’t want to leave them out in a downpour, but they can survive being sprayed with a hose or pummeled with wind-blown rain.
Other features include up to 2,000 nits of brightness, which helps keep the TVs viewable in bright sunlight, Dolby Atmos support, and Google TV to provide access to various streaming apps.
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:
Back in the day on Twitter, there was (and maybe still is, dunno) an account called "scotusblog" that posted summaries of current US Supreme Court decisions. I think it was a small law firm. Their replies were completely full of angry and indignant complaints, threats, and insults from people who assumed
- that they were the Court itself and;
- that tweeting at the Court would get them to change their decisions.
I understand now a little bit what that must have been like.
jef ("Jef Poskanzer :batman:") wrote:
Don Jr. decided to visit Greenland because he saw that it is completely covered with white powder
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jef ("Jef Poskanzer :batman:") wrote:
SF journalists should all be writing stories about NYC's congestion pricing and how after years of drivers whining about it, on literally the first weekday it was in effect the nearly unanimous reaction from those same drivers was 'Huh, this is actually nice. Really really nice.'
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FediPact@cyberpunk.lol ("fedipact.online") wrote:
meta's really goin mask-off with the whole fascism thing now it seems
Move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US content review to Texas. This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content.
Attachments:
- zuck threads: It's time to get back to our roots around free expression and giving people voice on our platforms. Here's what we're going to do: Replace fact-checkers with Community Notes, starting in the US. Simplify our content policies and remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are out of touch with mainstream discourse. Change how we enforce our policies to remove the vast majority of censorship mistakes by focusing our filters on tackling illegal and high-severity violations and requiring higher confidence for our filters to take action. Bring back civic content. We're getting feedback that people want to see this content again, so we'll phase it back into Facebook, Instagram and Threads while working to keep the communities friendly and positive. 5/ Move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US content review to Texas. This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content. Work with President Trump to push back against foreign governments going after American companies to censor more. The US has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world and the best way to defend against the trend of government overreach on censorship is with the support of the US government. It'll take time to get this all right and these are complex systems so they'll never be perfect. But this is an important step forward and I'm looking forward to this next chapter! (remote)
codinghorror@infosec.exchange ("Jeff Atwood") wrote:
Stay Gold, America https://blog.codinghorror.com/stay-gold-america/
Republicans on North Carolina Supreme Court Block Certification of Democratic Justice’s Victory
The Republican majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state election board from certifying the victory of one of the court’s own members—Democratic Justice Allison Riggs. In doing so, the state’s highest court laid the groundwork for potentially overturning the election and handing the seat to Riggs’ GOP challenger. Riggs […]
Savant’s new ‘Smart Budget’ system lets you control your home’s electrical load
Savant Smart Budget lets you add more capacity than your breaker box can technically support. | Image: Savant
At CES this week, Savant Systems announced Savant Smart Budget, a feature of its Smart Power system of modular relays and equipment that integrates with your existing circuit breaker box.
If you’re already at the limits of your breaker box’s capacity, Smart Budget lets you get around that with automated control of individual circuits. That way, you can add more high-draw connections, like appliances or EV chargers, than your electrical box can supply at once. For instance, you could set it so that power only goes to your EV overnight after you’re done using your oven. That sort of control can also be useful if you’re using a house battery or running on solar power.
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Image: Savant
Savant’s Smart Budget software.
Savant says its system, which starts at $1,500 and requires installation by a licensed electrician, is more affordable than the alternative of working with your electric utility provider to upgrade to higher amperage service, which “could cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.”
Those parts fit into “most major electrical panels” that “standardize on 1” breaker spacing,” company CMO J.C. Murphy tells The Verge, including panels from Schneider, Eaton, GE, ABB, Siemens, and others.
The Smart Budget kit will include two 30-amp single-pole circuit breakers, which Savant calls “Power Modules,” along with a double-pole 60-amp one and a current tracker for circuits you only want to monitor, according to Murphy. It also includes a Savant “Director” hub and sensors. The company sells additional Power Modules that cost $120 for dual 20-amp or single-pole 30-amp versions and $240 for a 60-amp double-pole module.
Valve will officially let you install SteamOS on other handhelds as soon as this April
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
SteamOS was always supposed to be bigger than Valve’s own Steam Deck, and 2025 is the year it finally expands. Not only will Lenovo ship the first third-party SteamOS handheld this May, Valve has now revealed it will let you install a working copy of SteamOS on other handhelds even sooner than that.
Pierre-Loup Griffais, one of the lead designers on the Steam Deck and SteamOS, tells me a beta for other handhelds “is slated to ship after March sometime,” and that you might discover the OS just starts working properly after that happens!
Griffais and his co-designer Lawrence Yang would not confirm which handhelds might just start working, though there are some obvious candidates: the company confirmed to us in August that it had been adding support for the Asus ROG Ally’s controls.
Also, quite a few PC gamers have also discovered that Bazzite, a fork of Valve’s Steam Deck experience that I loved testing on an Ally X and vastly preferred to Windows, also works wonderfully on the Lenovo Legion Go. There still aren’t that many handhelds out there at the end of the day, and I would think Valve would take advantage of work the Linux gaming community has already done on both.
Speaking of Bazzite, Valve seems to be flattered! “We have nothing against it,” says Yang. “It’s a great community project that delivers a lot of value to people that want a similar experience on devices right now,” says Griffais, adding later “In a lot of ways Bazzite is a good way to kind of get the latest and greatest of what we’ve been working on, and test it.”
But he says Bazzite isn’t yet in a state where a hardware manufacturer could preload it on a handheld, nor would Valve allow that. While users can freely download and install the SteamOS image onto their own devices, companies aren’t allowed to sell it or modify it, and must partner with Valve first.
There are some non-selfish reasons for that. Among other things, Griffais explains that the Lenovo Legion Go S will run the same SteamOS image as the Steam Deck itself, taking advantage of the same software updates and the same precached shaders that let games load and run more smoothly, just with added hardware compatibility tweaks. Valve wants to make sure SteamOS is a single platform, not a fragmented one.
“In general, we just want to make sure we have a good pathway to work together on things like firmware updates and you can get to things like the boot manager and the BIOS and things like that in a semi-standardized fashion, right?” says Griffais, regarding what Valve needs to see in a partnership that would officially ship SteamOS on other devices.
Valve isn’t currently partnered with any other companies beyond Lenovo to do that collaboration — Yang tells me the company is not working with GPD on official SteamOS support, despite that manufacturer’s claim.
Valve’s also not promising that whichever Windows handheld you have will necessarily run SteamOS perfectly — in a new blog post, Valve only confirms that a beta will ship before Lenovo’s Legion Go S, that it “should improve the experience on other devices,” and that users “can download and test this themselves.”
As far as other form factors, like possible SteamOS living room boxes, Valve says you might have a good experience trying that. And partnerships are a possibility there too: “if someone wants to bring that to the market and preload SteamOS on it, we’d be happy to talk to them.”
Valve wouldn’t tell me anything about the rumors that it’s developing its own Steam Controller 2, VR headset with wands, and possibly its own living room box, but did tell me that we “might expect more Steam Input compatible controllers in the future.”
Reolink’s new cameras can record 24/7 without a power outlet or internet connection
From left to right: a pair of Reolink’s new Altas cameras, the Home Hub, and Reolink’s solar panels. | Image: Reolink
Reolink’s new Altas series of consumer-oriented surveillance cameras can continuously record video to a local SD card 24 hours a day for up to seven days off of battery — or almost two years when recording based on motion.
The company’s cameras can also be connected to Reolink’s new Home Hub to store video footage in a central location on your home network — not in the cloud — so no subscription fees are required. Reolink cameras connected to the Home Hub will also continue to record footage, even when the internet goes down.
The endurance of Reolink’s Altas cameras can be attributed to their very large (for a camera) 20,000mAh battery paired with a new ultra-low power chipset. It’s also believable based on my own experience with Reolink’s Argus 4 Pro camera (review coming). Runtime for Reolink’s Altas cameras can even be extended indefinitely when connected to Reolink’s 6W or 12W compact solar chargers.
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Image: Reolink
The new Altas series includes an updated version of the Altas PT Ultra that goes by the same name but includes a more power-efficient chipset that supports 24/7 recording.
The Altas series consists of three cameras capable of 24/7 continuous recording: the Altas Go PT with a 360-degree blindspot-free view and 4G connectivity, the bullet-style 2K Altas with Wi-Fi connectivity, and — confusingly — a new version of the 4K Altas PT Ultra that already launched in September, only now with a more power-friendly chipset.
Each camera is fitted with a mic and speaker for two-way audio and a 1/1.8-inch image sensor that can record color footage even at night thanks to a large F1.0 aperture. The cams also capture a 10-second prerecording of events to make sure you don’t miss anything when operating in longer-lasting motion-triggered modes. Video can be recorded locally to an SD card up to 512GB or sent to one of Reolink’s hub solutions.
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Image: Reolink
A Reolink Altas paired with a Reolink solar charger.
The new Reolink Home Hub is billed as a beginner-friendly solution (compared to the Home Hub Pro) for homeowners to manage video footage, create security routines, and receive detailed security reports. It supports up to eight of Reolink’s Wi-Fi cameras with up to 1TB (two 512GB SD cards) of locally encrypted storage for recordings — it ships with a single 64GB SD card. The Home Hub also supports RTSP and NAS storage and is compatible with Home Assistant, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. The hub connects to your Wi-Fi router and communicates with Reolink’s cameras over 868MHz in Europe and 915MHz in the US.
The Altas cameras with 24/7 continuous recording are set to launch in Q3 for unknown prices, while the Home Hub is available now for $99.
NASA hedges its bets on costly Mars rock mission
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Honda Zero is ready to blast off with all-new sedan and SUV EVs
The Honda 0 Saloon and Honda 0 SUV. | Image: Honda
The vehicles will be underpinned by a new in-house-developed operating system named after Honda’s iconic Asimo robot.
At CES in Las Vegas today, Honda showed off its promised new battery-electric Honda Zero prototypes. The first is an SUV based on its Space-Hub concept, called the Honda 0 SUV. The second is a sedan based on its Saloon concept, called the Honda 0 Saloon.
Honda says the two new EVs will go into production sometime in 2026. And as if that weren’t enough, the new vehicles will be the first to feature the automaker’s new in-house-developed Asimo operating system.
Zero looks
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Concepts and prototypes are hard to judge because they are typically more design-focused than what consumers will eventually see at their local dealers.
That being said, the Honda 0 SUV looks a bit like an ’80s-era dustbuster got together with a Volvo EX30, while the Honda 0 Saloon looks somewhat akin to an anteater. But in person, both look much better than I expected.
The SUV, in particular, appears much closer to a final production version and offers a unique rear cargo opening that includes two fold-down tables on either side. The Honda 0 Saloon is much swoopier, while still appearing similar to the Saloon concept that Honda showed off in 2024. Still, Honda toned it down, replacing the gull wing-style doors on the concept with more normal ones. A set of retro-style headlights blink open and look similar to Lamborghini Countach designs of the ’80s.
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There’s something noticeably nostalgic about the design. When the doors of the Saloon are open, the yoke-style steering wheel rotates so that the driver can slide into the low-slung seat without getting snagged. And when the doors are closed, the yoke rotates back down. That’s possible because the Zero platform is drive-by-wire. (In the SUV, the yoke remains stationary.)
Both interiors still look highly prototyped, with a dash-sized screen stretching from pillar to pillar. It’s reminiscent of the forthcoming Afeela EV from Honda’s joint venture with Sony. (The Afeela also got a proper rollout this week.)
The Honda 0 SUV looks a bit like an ’80s-era dustbuster got together with a Volvo EX30
The exterior designs also have an element of the luxury automaker Lagonda, a brand owned by Aston Martin that has dipped in and out of existence over the years. One of the more polarizing designs that Aston brought to the market, the Aston Martin Lagonda Shooting Brake, looks very similar to the designs that Honda showed off at the show.
The Honda 0 SUV will be the first to go into production for the North American market in 2026 that Honda said it will build at its factory in Ohio. And it will likely drive similarly to the Honda Zero prototype CR-V that I drove in Japan in October.
The new operating system
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Honda says Honda Zero embodies three principles: “thin, light, and wise.” At CES, Honda executives said they were focused on showing off the “wise” principle.
That includes a new, in-house-developed operating system called Asimo OS, named after the company’s Asimo humanoid robot from the early 2000s that was designed for “people’s daily lives.”
Honda retired Asimo in 2018 to focus on “more practical” applications. But the company retained a lot of information from the more than 33.26 million steps the robot took over its lifetime about some of the stumbling blocks and safety issues a fully autonomous robot would have to overcome. When Honda unveiled Asimo in 2000, it was widely heralded as both a beloved friend (which once played soccer with President Barack Obama and could autonomously recognize a human wave as well as moving objects) and a symbol of Japanese technological advancement.
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As an icon of robotics, Honda decided to name its new operating system after Asimo. The new OS will allow for things like “ultra-personal optimization” of the digital experience as well as automated driving. Honda also said it plans to integrate the management of its electronic control units (ECUs) for the vehicle for better control of functions like suspension, braking, and handling.
Honda’s Zero vehicles will be equipped with Level 3 automated driving, which allows the driver to take their hands, feet, and attention off the road ahead, depending on the conditions. Currently, Honda only offers this feature on its Honda Legend sedan equipped with the company’s Sensing Elite tech, which is only available to lease in Japan.
Honda says Honda Zero embodies three principles: “thin, light, and wise”
Honda says that it will leverage its relationship with Helm.AI (a company that Honda invested more than $30 million in in 2022) as well as its own AI development to learn from “smaller amounts of data” so that its automated driving system can rapidly expand the range of conditions in which it can be used.
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Honda said it wants to offer Level 3 autonomy in heavy traffic situations and expand the offerings from there via over-the-air updates. All Zero vehicles will have the option for this technology at an “affordable” price.
Honda did not give further details about pricing but did say that the system will allow occupants to watch videos or remotely join a meeting in the car when the Level 3 system is engaged.
All Honda Zero vehicles will come with this new OS and be updatable over the air. The system will also “learn” from and adapt to each “user.” Because, in the era of software-defined vehicles, there are no longer drivers and passengers, but users to “enhance the joy of driving.”
A new partner for Honda’s system-on-a-chip
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Honda also announced a new partnership with Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas to create a system-on-a-chip to cut down on the number of ECUs and handle more processing demand.
Most vehicles today have multiple ECUs handling different systems. Each one has to communicate to the other in milliseconds, which requires a lot of compute power. The more ECUs in a vehicle, the more wiring, the more code, and the more lag, so Honda is partnering with Renesas to create a single ECU for future Zero vehicles.
Honda says that its ECU will handle everything from ADAS to powertrain and comfort features as well as AI — and that this will require a chip that can handle all of that processing demand at once.
Honda’s move to bring this development more in-house is part of a wider trend of automakers moving away from off-the-shelf, plug-and-play-style options for their software needs. Instead, they’re developing bespoke ECUs, chips, and other components to handle the increasing demands of the software-defined vehicle, especially in light of AI adoption and autonomous driving systems.
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Zuckerberg says he’s moving Meta moderators to Texas because California seems too ‘biased’
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
As part of Meta’s sweeping changes to content moderation announced today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the company will also be moving its content moderation teams from California to Texas to “help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content,” he wrote on Threads.
“We’re going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas,” Zuckerberg says in a video about the changes. “As we work to promote free expression, I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there’s less concern about the bias of our teams.”
Meta’s decision to move its content moderation teams to Texas follows Elon Musk bringing X and SpaceX to the state, though Musk’s move was driven in part by his opposition to a California law that’s intended to support LGBTQ+ students. (Employees who work for Meta in Texas will be subject to bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors along with one of the country’s most stringent abortion bans.)
Meta’s other moderation changes include ditching its independent fact-checking program in the US in favor of an X-inspired Community Notes feature, removing restrictions on topics like immigration and gender, and bringing back civic content to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
The company’s blog post about the updates was written by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new Trump-friendly policy chief.
pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:
Andreesen, Musk, and Kurzweil are all lying to us, over and over again. And don't get me started on Sam Altman.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/07/when-will-we-wise-up-to-they-ai-hype-machine/
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After a quieter year for bigger releases in 2024 (though there was still plenty of great stuff overall), 2025 has the potential to blow the lid off things with a ton of blockbusters ranging from the unexpectedly delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows to the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI (which could also still get…
Tesla’s remote parking feature under investigation after over a dozen crashes
Image: Getty
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla’s “Actual Smart Summon” remote parking feature after several crash incidents were reported.
NHTSA says it has received reports of 16 incidents involving Tesla’s smart summon feature in 2016-2025 Model S and X vehicles as well as 2017-2025 Model 3s and 2020-2025 Model Ys. The administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is probing an estimated 2.6 million vehicles with the parking feature.
Tesla re-launched its remote parking Smart Summon as Actually Smart Summon (or ASS, get it?) last fall, after upgrading it to account for the company’s decision to remove radar and ultrasonic sensors in favor of a camera-only approach. Tesla owners control the vehicle by pushing a button in the Tesla smartphone app. The vehicle then uses cameras to navigate across a parking lot without anyone behind the wheel. Releasing the button on the app stops the vehicle’s movements.
Investigation an estimated 2.6 million vehicles with the parking feature
But since the feature was reintroduced under the new moniker, a number of videos of alleged crash incidents have been uploaded on YouTube and other social media platforms. Tesla vehicles are seen scraping up against other vehicles, colliding with parking signs, or running into walls. In fairness, there are also a number of videos showing the remote summon feature working flawlessly, even in crowded parking lots.
But NHTSA is concerned with the incidents that didn’t turn out well. There have not been any injuries reported, but the agency is looking into “multiple crash allegations, involving both Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon, where the user had too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement.”
No ASS-related crashes have been reported through NHTSA’s standing general order that requires companies to report incidents involving automated or autonomous features.
Of course, the crash-reporting rule, and all of NHTSA’s safety investigations into Tesla, are headed into an uncertain future with Donald Trump set to retake the White House. Trump’s top donor and advisor is Elon Musk, who stands to benefit if the incoming administration decides to ignore or shut down all its various investigations into his companies.
Former Annapurna leads take charge of Take-Two’s discarded indie games
Annapurna Interactive is known for its quality of indie titles including the cat adventure game Stray. | Image: Annapurna Interactive
The games published under Private Division, Take-Two Interactive’s former indie label, are under new management. Bloomberg reports that the former employees of Annapurna Interactive have formed a new, as-yet-unnamed company that will take over Private Division’s games portfolio.
Last year, Take-Two sold off the indie label to a then unnamed buyer that Bloomberg reports is Haveli Investments, a private equity firm based in Texas. Also last year, the staff at Annapurna Interactive, the games arm of the Annapurna Pictures media company, resigned en masse sparking questions about the fate of its own portfolio of games. The resignations came after negotiations to spin off Annapurna Interactive into its own independent company apparently broke down. Annapurna’s former employees have come together with Haveli Investments to form a new company and Bloomberg reports that Private Division’s existing employees will face layoffs but the details are currently unclear.
The new company will oversee Private Division’s existing and in-development titles including the Lord of the Rings-meets-Animal Crossing game Tales of the Shire, due out in March, and Pokémon developer Game Freak’s forthcoming game codenamed Project Bloom.
Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
My friends at the Data Transfer Initiative have been building tools to help people migrate away from various large social networks for some time now, if that's of interest to you on this day of all days.
This cat tree is also an air purifier
LG’s AeroCatTower is designed to keep your kitty cozy and your air clean. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
What if your cat tower could weigh your furry friend, monitor its health, and help keep their pesky dander spores out of your air? That’s the idea behind LG’s new AeroCatTower, an air purifier with a cat-friendly dome-shaped seat on top for your feline to curl up in.
The company showcased the gadget at its CES 2025 booth this week, complete with some rather creepy-looking fake cats.
The tower also features a heater to keep your kitty cozy, and the second platform can be used to help senior cats get up to the platform or for a second pet. The air purifier can adjust to a lower flow when there’s a feline on board — so as not to disturb — then ramp up when they leave to help clear the air.
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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
The seat has a scale and can monitor a cat’s health.
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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
The ThinQ app records weight and sleep time.
A built-in scale will keep track of their weight using the LG ThinQ app, and you can also see how long your friend has been sleeping... so you can seriously sleep-shame them. Lazy sods.
As with virtually everything being shown at LG’s booth at CES this year, there is no pricing or release date.
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Apple’s AirTags are matching their best price to date
Apple’s handy location trackers are a no-brainer if you’re an iPhone user. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
If you’re the type of person who always forgets where they parked or put their car keys, it’s probably a good idea to invest in a location tracker like Apple’s AirTag. They can help you quickly locate just about anything, and they’re currently matching their lowest price to date. Right now, you can buy a four-pack at Amazon and Best Buy for just $69.99 ($29 off), which amounts to $17.50 apiece.
If you’re an iPhone owner looking for a Bluetooth tracker, Apple’s AirTags remain our top pick. That’s largely because the ultra wideband (UWB) trackers can tap into Apple’s extensive Find My network, which allows for ultra-precise tracking. Apple also offers several software perks that make it easier to recover lost items, including the ability to share the trackers with up to five people. Thanks to iOS 18.2, you’ll also soon be able to temporarily share the location of lost AirTags with more than 15 airlines — including United, which just recently rolled out support for the feature.
In terms of hardware, Apple’s AirTags offer user-replaceable batteries that last about a year, so you don’t need to keep buying a new tracker every time one dies. They’re also relatively durable, with an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance, allowing them to withstand a wide range of conditions.
Read our Apple AirTag review.
Three more deals worth a look
- Woot is selling the original Google Pixel Buds Pro for an all-time low of $109.99 ($90 off) until 9:59PM PT on January 7th. The comfortable wireless earbuds continue to offer great noise cancellation and sound, even if they’re not as powerful or as light as the second-gen model. They’re a particularly great option for Pixel phone owners, as they offer head-tracking spatial audio, native controls, and several exclusive features. Read our review.
- Anker’s MagGo Wireless Charging Station (Foldable 3-in- 1)is available at Amazon for Prime members in select colors for $71.99 ($23 off), its best price to date. The macaron-like foldable pad uses a rubber strap to connect three wireless pucks, including a Qi2-certified 15W charger you can use to quickly juice a MagSafe-compatible smartphone. It also comes with a 5W Apple-certified Apple Watch charger and a 5W Qi puck (with a USB-C power input port), so you can charge a pair of AirPods.
- Best Buy is selling the N-Edition of the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard with a joystick for $69.99 ($30 off), which matches the bundle’s all-time low. As the name suggests, the NES-inspired mechanical keyboard comes with a joystick, along with a pair of programmable “Super Buttons.” The keyboard also offers clicky, hot-swappable switches and support for USB-C, Bluetooth, and even 2.4GHz wireless via a dongle.
iFixit shrinks its most popular tech repair toolkit to half the size
Image: iFixit
iFixit has announced the Pro Tech Go Toolkit, a compact take on the popular Pro Tech kit. The Pro Tech Go is about half the size and weight but squeezes in iFixit’s most important tools for repairing everything from phones and laptops to game consoles.
The heart of the kit is a 32-bit screwdriver set, ranging from run-of-the-mill Phillips and flathead bits to specialized parts like the Pentalobe P2 and P5 security bits needed for accessing the innards of Apple hardware. They’re joined by a range of opening tools, including six picks, two pairs of tweezers, and a couple of spudgers.
Like the Pro Tech kit, the Pro Tech Go comes wrapped in a toughened fabric roll, only smaller at 160 x 100 x 52mm for added portability. Despite this, it still fits in a couple of spare tool slots, so you can add two of your own staples in case they’re not already included.
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Image: iFixit
Just a casual day out with an old Canon and iFixit’s Pro Tech Go Toolkit in case of trouble.
“We designed this for people who fix in the real world,” says iFixit’s lead product engineer Brett Hartt. “It’s light, it’s compact, and it’s got what you need when repairs come calling — even if you’re not at your workbench.”
It may be about half the size, but the Pro Tech Go isn’t quite half the price: $49.95 compared to the original kit’s $74.95. It’s available now from iFixit’s online store, Amazon, and Best Buy.
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The Zenbook A14 is Asus’ MacBook Air
Asus is the latest to set its sights on Apple’s bread-and-butter laptop. | Image: Asus
Asus’ new featherweight laptop is aiming to be the latest Windows rival to the Apple MacBook Air. The Asus Zenbook A14 is a new thin and light productivity machine announced at CES 2025 sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor for a claimed battery life of up to 32 hours and a weight of just 2.18 pounds — just over half a pound lighter than the current M3 MacBook Air. The A14’s ultralight magnesium alloy chassis is decked out in Asus’ “Ceraluminum” ceramic coating to keep its weight down and give the laptop a matte, stone-like finish.
Asus is undercutting Apple’s M3 Air in price as well as weight. The Zenbook A14 with a new base-model eight-core Snapdragon X will start at $1,099.99 in gray when it launches in mid-January with 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and a 14-inch OLED display capable of 1920 x 1200 resolution running at 60Hz with 600 nits of peak brightness. Later in March, Asus will launch an even cheaper $899.99 model in beige that’s a little heavier at 2.4 pounds, with a slightly higher-end eight-core Snapdragon X Plus chip but only 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage — exclusively sold at Best Buy.
The A14 has a 70Wh battery, compared to the smaller 52.6Wh cell in the MacBook Air. And it offers a decent selection of ports, with two USB 4 Type-C for charging / data, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, a 3.5mm combo headphone / mic jack, and a full-size HDMI 2.1 port. The A14 can connect to up to three external monitors with its lid open, compared to the M3 MacBook Air’s two monitors while its lid is closed (though, keep in mind, one of those monitors will have to provide power to the Zenbook over USB-C).
It all sounds pretty compelling on paper, but while Windows on Arm proved its competence in 2024 through Snapdragon X’s balance of performance and battery life, there can still be compatibility headaches in some unsupported apps and games. And frankly, while our benchmarks of Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite processors were competitive in some ways with Apple’s M3 MacBook Air, I’m skeptical a new lower-end version can really hang against it — let alone an anticipated M4 model.
I had a very brief moment to get my hands on the Zenbook A14 at an early preview event in December, and I can attest to how surprisingly light Asus’ new laptop is. You can pick it up from a corner with just two or three fingers with ease, but it doesn’t feel flimsy or cheap. The matte finish and sad beige aesthetic may not be to everyone’s liking, and I wager most people might think a MacBook Air’s exposed aluminum feels fancier, but Asus put some of its build quality where it counts. For example, the A14’s hinge can be opened with just one finger, while far too many Windows laptops out there require both hands to pry open their lids.
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Yes, I’ll have three fingers of laptop, with a little bit of pepper and some cheese.
There have been plenty of claimed “MacBook killers” and past Windows laptops aiming for Apple’s crown as the go-to pick for the average user, but few stack up as the complete packages like those offered by Apple. Maybe pairing a Snapdragon X’s excellent battery life with some nice extras like OLED screens and solid build at affordable-ish prices might bring something special to the table — though we’ll have to see about performance.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
This smart ring is rolling out an AI chatbot trained on medical journals
The Evie Ring first debuted at last year’s CES. Since then, it’s launched a second ring and is now introducing an AI chatbot. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
AI is the big buzzword in health tech at CES 2025. Everywhere you look, there are AI algorithms, AI health recommendations, and AI chatbots. The thing is, AI’s got a reputation for making things up — and when it comes to health, the stakes for accuracy and privacy are high.
That’s why smart ring maker Movano wants to make one thing abundantly clear about its new chatbot, EvieAI: this one has been post-trained exclusively on peer-reviewed medical journals.
EvieAI was designed to be a more accurate alternative to something like ChatGPT. The difference is, unlike ChatGPT and other similar generative AI assistants, EvieAI theoretically won’t be pulling from vast repositories of public data where health and wellness misinformation runs rife. According to Movano CEO John Mastrototaro, it’s been trained on and will be constrained to over 100,000 medical journals written by medical professionals.
All the data the LLM has access to comes from accredited sources that have been referred to by a medical advisory board, Mastrototaro says. That includes FDA-approved journals, practices, and procedures. EvieAI is a bounded LLM, which means it will only speak to data from the “post-training” phase after it’s been initially created. In this case, that means medical data. The data is then cross-referenced with organizations like the Mayo Clinic, Harvard, and UCLA. The LLM does this by referencing this outside data before answering and making sure there isn’t a conflict.
The result, according to Movano, is 99 percent accuracy, though we weren’t able to test EvieAI for ourselves before CES. The company says this is possible because anytime you query EvieAI, the LLM is tracking to see if the information given in the conversation is consistent and accurate compared to the data it’s been trained on.
Achieving that level of accuracy is a tall order and a bold claim. Most chatbots don’t make reliably accurate statements, and some specifically steer clear of health and medicine precisely because the stakes are so high. When I ask about AI’s tendency to hallucinate, however, I’m firmly told that Movano isn’t afraid for EvieAI to tell users it doesn’t have an answer.
“If you ask it ‘What do you think about the election?’, it’s not going to respond,” says Mastrototaro. “It’s not going to tell you because it doesn’t have any information about that.”
“I think that it’s okay to say no if you don’t know the answer to something,” he adds. “And I think sometimes, with the other tools out there, they’re gonna answer one way or another, whether it’s right or wrong. We’re just only gonna give an answer if it’s right.”
EvieAI is meant to be a conversational resource that gives clear and concise answers to health and wellness questions, with an emphasis on women’s health (much like the company’s Evie Ring).
Even so, health, wellness, and medicine are an ever-shifting landscape. Even peer-reviewed studies can present contradictory findings. Doctors don’t always agree on emerging science. By and large, health tech has also steered clear of anything that could be considered diagnostic or medical advice — something that would require FDA oversight.
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Image: Movano
Here’s what a conversation with EvieAI is meant to look like.
To that end, Mastrototaro says the LLM is updated monthly with new approved documents such as medical journals and articles detailing breakthroughs. He also emphasizes that EvieAI is steering clear of anything diagnostic. The AI will not get into treatment but act more as a guide that asks clarifying questions to steer you in the right direction. For example, if you suspect that you might have diabetes, it may ask clarifying questions about whether you have experienced low vision or weight gain as well as inquire about your diet. But if you tell it you’ve chopped your finger off, or express that you’re experiencing suicidal ideation, it’ll direct you to the ER or to the number to call an appropriate hotline. The hope is that EvieAI can help people better research and prepare for a doctor’s visit in a way that’s more natural and supportive than, say, falling down a WebMD rabbit hole.
As for privacy, Movano says EvieAI will follow industry-standard encryption standards in storage and transmission and that any chats can’t be traced back to individuals. Mastrototaro also says conversation data will be periodically deleted and won’t be used for targeted ads, either.
It can be easy to roll one’s eyes at promises of privacy and accuracy in health tech. Movano has thus far shown a dogged dedication to adhering to medical industry best practices and standards. It recently gained FDA clearance for its EvieMED ring, an enterprise version of its ring aimed at remote patient monitoring and clinical trials. Movano also recently relaunched the consumer version of its Evie Ring to better address initial feedback from customers, like improved sleep and heart rate accuracy.
In the future, Movano hopes to eventually further incorporate individual health data collected by its smart rings. But for now, a beta version will roll out starting on January 8th to existing Evie Ring users within the Evie app at no extra cost.
Technics’ new flagship earbuds have ‘Magnetic Fluid’ drivers
Photo: Panasonic
The Panasonic-owned audio brand Technics makes some of the best wireless earbuds that most people have probably never heard of. For example, we found that the sound quality and active noise cancellation of the company’s stylish EAH-AZ80 earbuds equal that of the high-end options from bigger brands like Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser — if not better in some respects.
Now, Technics has launched a new pair of earbuds at CES 2025 in a bid to further that reputation. The Technics EAH-AZ100, which we should start seeing available for purchase today for $299.99, are the first wireless earbuds with the company’s proprietary fluid magnetic drivers. That’s not just a buzzword: according to Technics, there’s actual oil-like fluid with magnetic particles sitting between the 10mm driver and voice coil to keep distortion at bay.
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Image: Panasonic
Technics swears there’s liquid in here somewhere.
We’ll have to take its word on that until we try them out for ourselves, but the brand says it tested the result with sound engineers, presumably with no complaints. Technics says they have a frequency response floor of 3Hz, which is a calming ultra-low binaural frequency that produces a bass result most people would have trouble hearing, but you may feel the low-rumbling vibration affect your body as you’re listening. For comparison’s sake, most headphones and earbuds (including the Sony WF-1000XM5 and other flagships) target the typical human frequency range of between 20Hz and 20,000Hz. In short, it sounds like we’re in for a wide but well-balanced sound with warm bass. The earbuds also support Dolby Atmos spatial audio head tracking tech.
The Technics EAH-AZ100 have three microphones in each bud to enable features like Voice Focus AI, which detects and amplifies your voice on calls while filtering out traffic noise, wind, and other external sounds. It uses similar tricks for active noise cancellation but goes a step further by detecting your ear shape for personalized tweaks. The result should be impressive if it’s anything like the AZ80’s top-notch noise cancellation. Whether the new transparency mode sounds any better than the older pair’s unnatural reproduction is still a question mark, though.
You’ll get lots of modern connectivity conveniences in the AZ100, too, such as three-device Bluetooth multipoint that trounces the two-device limit of most competitors. The device also supports Google Fast Pair for seamless switching between supported Android devices, Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast for easy multidevice audio pairing and sharing, and the low-latency LC3 audio codec.
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Photo: Panasonic
The EAH-AZ100 certainly aren’t starved for style.
The earbuds come in a wireless charging case that adds 28 hours of battery to the advertised 10-hour runtime during AAC playback or up to seven hours with LDAC, which Technics says you can achieve while noise cancellation is on. They also have the same IPX4 water resistance as the AZ80 (although, like the older pair, the case still has no such rating).
All of these qualities sound about right for a $300 pair of flagship earbuds in 2025, and in some cases, the AZ100 seem to be pushing the bar a bit. They certainly have the on-paper credentials, and we already thought the AZ80 were justifiable at that price. (They now start at $199.99.) If the AZ100 are building on that foundation with a meaningfully transformed soundstage, then the incumbent rivals occupying this tier of wireless earbuds should be listening.
US Cyber Trust Mark launches as the Energy Star of smart home security
Image: The Verge / Adobe Stock
Consumers shopping for new smart home devices will soon be able to look for the an official stamp of trust from the US government: the US Cyber Trust Mark.
Similar to how an Energy Star label on home appliances denotes a certain level of energy efficiency, the Cyber Trust Mark is meant to be a way for consumers to quickly understand that a connected device meets certain standards to secure it from cybersecurity threats. The standards cover things like whether a device issues software updates, how it securely moves data to the cloud, and how other devices are able to gain access to the product.
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Image: Federal Communications Commission
Companies can voluntarily apply to use the logo by having their products tested by an accredited lab recognized by the Federal Communications Commission, showing that they meet the standards for the label. The label could be applied to Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including smart appliances, home security cameras, fitness trackers, and baby monitors.
Now that the label is launched, companies are able to submit their products to be tested. Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, predicts that products with the Cyber Trust Mark will be on the shelves by the end of the year.
“We know Americans are afraid,” Neuberger said on a press briefing call. “Consumers don’t have the confidence that they can connect a device at home and know that their private pictures and communications will be secure. So this program takes on that problem in a bipartisan and voluntary way.”
In addition to giving consumers a sense of security, the government hopes the labels will incentivize companies to raise the bar. The White House included statements from Amazon and Best Buy executives in its announcement of the launch. Amazon vice president Steve Downer says that “consumers will value seeing the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark both on product packaging and while shopping online,” and Best Buy’s head of enterprise privacy and data protection Michael Dolan says it’s “a positive step forward for consumers.”
The launch is a long time coming after initially being announced in 2023. FCC commissioners unanimously voted to approve the labeling program in March, opening a public comment period. Recently, the FCC conditionally approved 11 companies to be Cybersecurity Label Administrators, which will help review applications for the label. Neuberger and FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel are slated to discuss the program at the Consumer Electronics Show on Thursday.
“Americans buying home alarm systems and baby monitors need to know hackers can’t disable the alarm system remotely or hack in to watch their babies asleep,” Neuberger says. “Companies need to have an incentive to bake security into products, and the US government wants to give American consumers that confidence, and we welcome this voluntary mechanism to assure consumers and companies that products are cyber safe.”