Believe it or not, scientists have been using virtual reality setups to study brain activity in lab mice for years. In the past, this has been done by surrounding the mice with flat displays — a tactic that has obvious limitations for simulating a realistic environment. Now, in an attempt to create a more immersive experience, a team at Northwestern University actually developed tiny VR goggles … [Read more...]
Apple may release M3 MacBook Air in March and refine its iPad lineup with new iPad Pro and iPad Air
Apple is planning some big hardware drops for early 2024, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman predicts the company will release the next generation of iPad Pro and iPad Air in March — each of which is expected to come in two sizes — and the new M3 MacBook Airs. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro will likely be much later to the M3 party; Gurman writes that Apple won’t … [Read more...]
Apple’s third-generation AirPods are back on sale for $140
Apple’s third-generation AirPods are back down to their record-low Black Friday price. The discount on Amazon shaves $30 off the AirPods’ normal price of $170, making them just $140 right now. Given that this is the lowest we’ve seen these AirPods go for, they’re likely to sell out. Amazon is also running a deal on Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro, or the latest version of the Pro earbuds, … [Read more...]
Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories are allowed back on X
Alex Jones is back on X five years after then-Twitter made the decision to permanently ban him and his show, Infowars, for violating the site’s policy on “abusive behavior.” Elon Musk — who last year said he wouldn’t unban Jones because of the conspiracy theorist’s insistence on calling the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax — created a poll on X over the weekend asking users to vote on whether Jones … [Read more...]
Offworld 'company towns' are the wrong way to settle the solar system
Company Towns — wherein a single firm provides most or all necessary services, from housing and employment to commerce and amenities to a given community — have dotted America since before the Civil War. As we near the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, they're making a comeback with a new generation of ultra-wealthy elites gobbling up land and looking to build towns in their own … [Read more...]
Apple confirms it has blocked iMessage exploit
It was never going to last. Ever since it was launched this week, the Beeper Mini app, which let Android users get iMessage text support, was expected to be in trouble as soon as it caught Apple's attention. And catch Apple's attention it has. Yesterday, the entire Beeper platform appeared to be on the fritz, resulting in speculation that the iPhone maker had been shutting down the iMessage … [Read more...]
Amazon asks court to dismiss FTC lawsuit that accuses it of ‘monopolistic practices’
Amazon filed a motion on Friday in the Western Washington district court asking a judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust lawsuit against it. The FTC along with 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon in September, alleging the company uses monopolistic practices that are unfair to both its competitors and consumers. Amazon is now arguing that the FTC did not provide … [Read more...]
Controversial AI image platform Civitai has been dropped by its cloud computing provider
OctoML says it has ended its business relationship with Civitai days after an investigation by 404 Media revealed the text-to-image platform was being used to generate images that “could be categorized as child pornography.” Civitai previously relied on OctoML’s OctoAI for image generation. While OctoML initially indicated it would continue working with Civitai and introduced new measures to curb … [Read more...]
Beeper Mini team says a fix is ‘coming soon’ and promises to extend users’ free trials
The Beeper Mini team has apparently been working around the clock to resolve the outage affecting the new “iMessage on Android” app, and says a fix is “very close.” And once the fix rolls out, users’ seven-day free trials will be reset so they can start over fresh. Beeper Mini was released earlier this week, and seemed an especially promising entrant due to its unique approach to bridging the … [Read more...]
Fortnite Festival tries to bring back the heyday of music gaming
Between Fortnite’s propensity for big-name concerts and Epic’s purchase of Harmonix two years ago, the inclusion of some kind of music-making feature in the game was inevitable. What Epic is releasing today is actually far grander: an entirely new mode called Fortnite Festival, a social space where players can team up to perform their favorite songs or jam together on new mixes.There are two … [Read more...]
The Morning After: Battle of the chatbots, part two
Good morning. Do you want this customized PS5? You'll have to work the sunset years of your career at Sony then. That is, apparently, the only way. I'm also taking bets on which chatbot will be the chatbot we all depend on. It's like Yahoo (our parent company) or Google or Facebook. Who's going to get there first? This week's YouTube-coated cry for help features two of the biggest chatbot … [Read more...]
The EU has reached a historic regulatory agreement over AI development
Following a marathon 72-hour debate, European Union legislators Friday have reached a historic deal on its expansive AI safety development bill, the broadest-ranging and far-reaching of its kind to date, reports The Washington Post. Details of the deal itself were not immediately available.The proposed regulations would dictate the ways in which future machine learning models could be developed … [Read more...]
Beeper Mini’s iMessage integration is on the fritz
Beeper Mini, the chat app that reverse-engineered Apple’s iMessage for Android, is having problems. 9to5Google reported Friday the entire Beeper platform is seemingly broken right now, leading to the obvious speculation that Apple has stomped on the bootleg iMessage workaround. Beeper posted on X that it’s “investigating reports that sending/receiving is not working in Beeper Mini.”Engadget … [Read more...]
CRISPR-based gene editing therapy approved by the FDA for the first time
In a landmark decision, the FDA greenlit two new drugs for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 and older, one of which —Vertex’s drug Casgevy — is the first approved use of genome editing technology CRISPR in the US. Bluebird Bio’s Lyfgenia also is a cell-based gene therapy, however, it uses a different gene modification technique to deliver tweaked stem cells to the patient.Both … [Read more...]
Alan Wake 2 to dispatch a new game plus mode on December 11
Alan Wake 2 won big at last night’s The Game Awards and the developer wasted no time to capitalize on that momentum. Remedy just announced that the game is getting free DLC next week, December 11, in the form of a New Game Plus mode. This has been a long-requested feature for fans of the title. Well, if by long-requested you mean within the past two months.Alan Wake 2: The Final Draft will include … [Read more...]
The FTC is reportedly looking into Microsoft’s $13 billion OpenAI investment
OpenAI’s recent drama hasn’t only caught UK regulators’ attention. Bloomberg reported Friday that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into Microsoft’s investment in the Sam Altman-led company and whether it violates US antitrust laws. FTC Chair Lina Khan wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this year that “the expanding adoption of AI risks further locking in the market dominance of … [Read more...]
Threads countdown hints at EU launch on December 14
After much speculation and waiting, Threads is finally launching in Europe. Meta’s social media app will likely release in the EU on December 14, just in time to post photos of holiday dinners or whatever. There’s no official announcement by Zuck and the gang, but there is a countdown timer on Instagram appearing for EU users. These users will find a ticket within the app that advertises the … [Read more...]
Microsoft is hiring dozens of ZeniMax QA contractors as unionized employees
Game studios and publishers have collectively laid off an estimated 9,000-plus workers this year. Microsoft (which itself has laid off workers from Xbox teams in 2023) is bucking the trend to a certain extent by hiring dozens of ZeniMax quality assurance contractors as unionized employees.The company agreed at the beginning of this year to formally recognize a union representing around 300 QA … [Read more...]
Sonos home theater gear is up to 25 percent off, plus the rest of the best tech deals this week
Depending on what you buy and where you shop, many online purchases should arrive before December 25th, so if you're still working through your gift list, it might not be too late. Even if you're just looking for deals in general, there are plenty out there. Despite the fact that the official "shopping holidays" have ended, retailers and brands are still discounting many gadgets and devices at … [Read more...]
Here's everything that was announced during The Game Awards
The Game Awards is over and done with, leaving an empty theater in Los Angeles and plenty of happy game developers placing pointy statuettes on their mantels. To that end, Larian Studios and its massively successful RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 was the big winner of the night, taking home the prize for game of the year, player’s choice, best multiplayer game and more.Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 was also on fire, … [Read more...]
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