Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: In Melania and the Robot, the New York Times reports on First Lady Melania Trump’s inaugural Fostering the Future Together Coalition Summit, which brought together international leaders, First Spouses from around the world, tech leaders, educators, and nonprofits to collaborate on practical solutions that expand access to educational tools while strengthening protections for children in digital environments (Day 2 WH summary). The Times begins:

“On Wednesday, Mrs. Trump appeared at the White House alongside Figure 3, a humanoid, A.I.-powered robot whose uses, according to the company that makes it, include fetching towels, carrying groceries and serving champagne. But Mrs. Trump joins tech executives and some researchers in envisioning a world beyond robot butlery. She is interested in how these robots could cut it as educators. Both clad in shades of white, the first lady and the visiting robot walked into a gathering of first spouses from around the world, a group that included Sara Netanyahu of Israel, Olena Zelenska of Ukraine, and Brigitte Macron of France. The dulcet tones from a (presumably human) military orchestra played as the first lady and her guest entered the event. Both lady and robot extolled the virtues of further integrating robots into the educational and social lives of children. In the history of modern first-lady initiatives, which have included building a national book festival (Laura Bush), reshuffling the food pyramid (Michelle Obama) and advocating for free community college (Jill Biden), Mrs. Trump’s involvement of a humanoid robot in education policy was a first.”

“Figure 3 delivered brief remarks and delivered salutations in several languages. With its sleek black-and-white appearance, Figure 3 would fit right in with the first lady’s branding aesthetic, which includes a self-titled coffee table book and movie, not least because the name “MELANIA” was emblazoned on the side of its glossy plastic head. After Figure 3 teetered gingerly away, Mrs. Trump looked around the room and told them that the future looked a lot like what they had just witnessed. ‘The future of A.I. is personified,’ she told her audience. ‘It will be formed in the shape of humans. Very soon artificial intelligence will move from our mobile phones to humanoids that deliver utility.’ She invited her guests to envision a future in which a robot philosopher educated children.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thirty years after the alleged 1996 “ET of Varginha” encounter, debate continues to rage over the events that happened in Brazil’s self-styled UFO capital. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the Guardian: The skies over this far-flung coffee-growing hub went charcoal black, the heavens opened and one of Brazil’s greatest mysteries was born. “It really was something unique,” recalls Marco Antonio Reis, a zoo director, who was at his ranch outside Varginha one stormy day in January 1996 when, he says, an otherworldly creature came to town. Reis and other locals claim the unusually ferocious downpour heralded a series of disturbing and seemingly paranormal events. At least six of the zoo’s animals, including a spider monkey, a tapir and a raccoon, died mysteriously after a horned interloper with bulging red eyes was spotted in the vicinity by a woman who had gone out for a smoke. When a vet examined their corpses, “they were all black inside,” Reis claims.

On a nearby wasteland, three young women spotted a peculiar and malodorous being with a heart-shaped face and three lumps on its head cowering beside a wall. “I’ve seen the devil,” one of those witnesses would later tell her mum. Soon afterwards, an unexplained infection was rumored to have killed a strapping police intelligence officer who was said to have grappled with the oleaginous unidentified being. Three decades later, Reis says he is convinced Varginha received a non-human visit. His only doubt was from where it came.

“We don’t know if it was extraterrestrial or intraterrestrial,” the 71-year-old says as he climbs a staircase to the veranda where the smoker claims to have seen what, in reference to Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film, became known as the “ET of Varginha”. A 2ft statue of a two-toed alien now marks the spot. “It’s possible it was an intraterrestrial, from inside the Earth They don’t just come from space,” Reis says. “It might have come from the depths of the Earth, too. We don’t even know what it’s like at the bottom of the sea, do we?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages (source paywalled; alternative source), adding an 8% fee starting in April as it struggles with rising fuel costs and ongoing financial pressure. The surcharge will not apply to letter mail and is currently expected to remain in place until January 2027. The Wall Street Journal reports: Other parcel carriers, including FedEx and United Parcel Service, have imposed fuel surcharges, as well as a basket of other surcharges and fees, for years. Both FedEx and UPS have dramatically raised their fuel surcharges in recent weeks as the price of oil has increased amid the turmoil in the Middle East. […] The post office has been trying to increase the volume of packages it delivers. It previously differentiated itself from commercial carriers by saying that it doesn’t apply residential, Saturday delivery or fuel or remote-delivery surcharges.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Because some people are still out there having fun (crazy to think about), this is a video of Youtuber Handy Geng making a giant sword (inspired by Ichigo’s Soul-Cutter sword from manga Bleach), then attaching it to the business end of an excavator. Well, provided the business end is the excavator’s arm, MY business end is the rear *wink* The swordcavator lacks the speed to do any real slashing damage, but it’s still plenty capable of piercing (like my roommate’s voice) and crushing (like the weight of life). *runs AI feel-good check on post, AI terminates its own session* Sometimes they be like that though.

New submitter haroldbasset writes: Canada’s Immigration Department rejected an applicant because the duties of her current job did not match the Canadian work experience she had claimed, but the Department’s AI assistant had invented that work experience. She has been working in Canada as a health scientist — she has a Ph.D. in the immunology of aging — but the AI genius instead described her as “wiring and assembling control circuits, building control and robot panels, programming and troubleshooting.” “It’s believed to be the first time that the department explicitly referred to the use of generative AI to support application processing in immigration refusals,” reports the Toronto Star. “The disclaimer also noted that all generated content was verified by an officer and that generative AI was not used to make or recommend a decision.”

The applicant’s lawyer was shocked “how any human being could make this decision.” “Somehow, it hallucinated my client’s job description,” he said. “I would love to see what the officer saw. Something seriously went wrong here.”

The applicant’s refusal came just as Canada’s Immigration Department released its first AI strategy, which frames artificial intelligence as a way to improve efficiency, service delivery, and program integrity. The department says it has long used digital tools like analytics and automation to flag fraud risks and triage applications, and is now also experimenting with generative AI for tasks such as research, summarizing, and analysis. In this case, however, the department insisted the decision was made by a human officer and that generative AI was not involved in the final decision.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

If money was on sale 20% off, you’d buy a ton of it, right? Well, this Roblox gift card is “worth” $100 in Robux, the online currency used on the gaming platform Roblox, but it’s on sale for $80 during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. If you’re reading this, chances are good that at some point in the next day/week/month, your child is going to hassle you for Robux anyway, so you might as well pay 20% less. (Your purchase also comes with a free “virtual item,” but your child doesn’t care about that.)

Roblox Digital Gift Code for 10,000 Robux [Redeem Worldwide – Includes Exclusive Virtual Item] [Online Game Code]

$80.00
at Amazon

$100.00
Save $20.00

$80.00
at Amazon

$100.00
Save $20.00

Speaking of children, parents, listen up: If you keep a bunch of these cards around, you’ll never have to scramble for a last minute present again, whether for your kid’s Easter basket or the birthday party you forgot about until the invite reminder showed up on your phone. The chances are very good that any kid who gets a Roblox gift card is going to like it better than all the stupid educational toys they were given, making your kid the hero of the day.

Amazon doesn’t put these cards on sale often, and not usually at such a deep discount. Here’s a chart to show you how relatively rare an occurrence it is:

Credit: Amazon

The point is, don’t wait. It will hurt 20% less next time your kid asks you to give them real money to spend on virtual items in a game they will probably tire of within a week. I love Roblox.

Today marks the start of the 2026 baseball season and in what has sort of become an annual tradition, T-Mobile is once again offering a free subscription to MLB.TV.

In order to take advantage of the deal, T-Mobile customers simply need to log into the T Life app, navigate to the Benefits tab and then hit Redeem after clicking the banner for a free season of MLB.TV. From there, you just need to download the latest version of the MLB app to your mobile device and sign in or create an account. That said, this is a time-limited offer, so if you want the ability to stream regular season baseball for free, you’ll need claim the deal prior to March 31 at 4:59 AM ET. For anyone on a different carrier, this may be enough time to switch providers and still get in on the savings.

Unfortunately, MLB.TV is subject to blackouts and market restrictions, so depending on where you live and where your favorite team is playing that day, you may not be able to catch every game. Sadly, this includes tonight’s 8:05 PM ET matchup between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, which is streaming exclusively on Netflix. Even so, with a one-year subscription to MLB.TV currently going for $150, this is one of the best perks available from any of the big cellular carriers.

In addition to full season of games, an MLB.TV subscription also includes access to a collection of baseball documentaries, game streams from previous years, World Series films, highlights, news and more. And with over 1.25 million customers having redeemed last year’s offer, this is potentially one of T-Mobile’s biggest offers of the year, with the company claiming to have delivered more than $1 billion in savings since it first started running the promotion 10 years ago in 2016.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/psa-t-mobile-customers-have-a-week-to-sign-up-for-a-free-year-of-mlbtv-211306444.html?src=rss

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Flagship Apple Watches tend to start at $399, but the price only goes up from there. If you want a larger size, that’s a slight bump in cost; if you want cellular connectivity, that’s an even larger hit. But the titanium Apple Watch—the “premium” material, if you will—is the most expensive upgrade outside of the Ultra line. These models typically start at $699, but cost $749 for the larger size, and a whopping $799 if you want the stainless steel band. Right now, you can get a titanium Apple Watch for as low as $449 during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale—so long as you’re okay with using last generation’s watch.

Apple Watch Series 10 (Titanium)

$449.00
at Amazon

$749.00
Save $300.00

$449.00
at Amazon

$749.00
Save $300.00

Here’s the deal: Amazon currently has the titanium versions of the Apple Watch Series 10 on discount for the Big Spring Sale. You can get the Natural or Slate models with rubber sport bands for $449, or if you want the stainless steel band, you can get the watch in gold for $499. That’s a pretty great price, considering the watch once retailed for $799.

Now, this is the Series 10. The Series 11 is Apple’s newest flagship watch. If you ask me, however, that isn’t a big deal. The Series 10 is still the best Apple Watch for most people, since it has most of the Series 11’s features, while often being available at a discount. They both have large displays that can reach 2,000 nits of brightness; they both have heart rate and sleep tracking with alerts for each; they both support Emergency SOS, and are water resistant up to 50m; they both have the same S10 chip, and support the same gestures; and both have Precision Finding, so you can use your iPhone if you misplace it.

Really, the key advantages of the Series 11 are few, but noteworthy: The battery life is better, up to 24 hours instead of 18 hours; you get 38 hours in Low Power Mode versus 36 hours; and while both watches support fast charging (0-80% in 30 minutes), the Series 11 can get eight hours of battery life in 15 minutes of charge time. The Series 11 also supports 5G, if you opt for the cellular plan. That’s largely it, however. Other than that, the Series 10 is virtually the same watch. Amazon does have the Series 11 discounted at this time, starting at $649. You just need to ask yourself whether those extra features are worth $200.

Drone startup BRINC announced Tuesday a significant upgrade for its law enforcement drones. BRINC’s newest model, Guardian, will have Starlink connectivity on every unit—a first for commercially available drones.

This new model, which will enter production later this year, has a flight time of over an hour and can reach a top speed of over 60 miles per hour. BRINC calls it the “first drone that can pursue vehicles.”

Additionally, Guardian can carry numerous payloads from its charging “nest,” including a floatation device, a defibrillator, epipens, the overdose-reversal drug Narcan, and more. The nest can also robotically swap batteries in about a minute, the company claims.

Read full article

Comments

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

There are all kinds of earbuds to choose from out there—especially if you aren’t dedicated to one specific ecosystem. If you’re an Android user, however, and especially if you’re a Pixel user, you might find that Google’s Pixel Buds Pro are among your best options. Right now, the latest model, the Pixel Buds Pro 2, have a solid 26% discount for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale—bringing the price from $229 down to $169.

Google Pixel Buds Pro 2

$169.00
at Amazon

$229.00
Save $60.00

$169.00
at Amazon

$229.00
Save $60.00

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 have a number of features you’d expect from earbuds sporting the “Pro” moniker. There’s Adaptive Audio, which adjusts the volume based on your environment (if your surroundings get too loud, the volume turns up so you can hear); Loud Noise Protection, which dampens loud noises to protect your hearing; and Active Noise Cancellation. These Pixel Buds Pro are also the first to include a Tensor chip built in, Google’s in-house chip. The earbuds use the Tensor A1 chip to power Active Noise Cancellation, which Google says cancels “twice the noise” as the first generation Pixel Buds Pro.

As this is a Google product, and it’s 2026, Pixel Buds Pro 2 also have AI features you can use—powered by Gemini, of course. You can use the buds to talk to Gemini Live without picking up your smartphone, answer calls by nodding your head, or have Gemini field your incoming messages, including summarizing long texts (though we know how AI summaries can be).

Google says that Pixel Buds Pro 2 have 12 hours of listening time when Active Noise Cancellation is disabled, and up to 48 hours with the charging case. With Active Noise Cancellation turned on, you get eight hours of listening time, and 30 hours with the charging case. You can pop the earbuds in the case for five minutes to get 1.5 hours of listening time (with noise cancellation off).

In their review, PCMag found the Pixel Buds Pro 2 “excellent,” with “strong sound quality and solid noise cancellation in a comfortable design.” In their view, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 were definitely best for Pixel users, though all Android users can access the Pixel Buds app for additional customizations. (Sorry, iPhone users.) If you have an Android phone, especially a Pixel, these earbuds are definitely worth a consideration—particularly with the price cut. It’s not the lowest Amazon has had the buds for, but it is the lowest price since January.

Apple reportedly has full access to customize Google’s Gemini model, allowing it to distill smaller on-device AI models for Siri and other features that can run locally without an internet connection. MacRumors reports: The Information explains that Apple can ask the main Gemini model to perform a series of tasks that provide high-quality results, with a rundown of the reasoning process. Apple can feed the answers and reasoning information that it gets from Gemini to train smaller, cheaper models. With this process, the smaller models are able to learn the internal computations used by Gemini, producing efficient models that have Gemini-like performance but require less computing power.

Apple is also able to edit Gemini as needed to make sure that it responds to queries in a way that Apple wants, but Apple has been running into some issues because Gemini has been tuned for chatbot and coding applications, which doesn’t always meet Apple’s needs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Are you still dusting off your electronics with disposable cans of compressed air? Get with the times, man. All the cool people are using rechargeable air dusters like this one. I love mine so much, and I think you will too—and it’s on sale for 27% off during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale.

WOLFBOX MF70 Compressed Air Duster-110000 RPM Electric Air Duster with Extended Runtime, 3-Speed Rechargeable Air Blower for Keyboard, Computer, Camera, Car, Home, 5 Nozzles

$43.99
at Amazon

$59.99
Save $16.00

$43.99
at Amazon

$59.99
Save $16.00

Seriously, you really need this thing, even if you don’t think you do. For a one-time purchase, you can have endless compressed air, and blow the dust off anything you want to for the foreseeable future. It’s so much better than compressed air cans: It doesn’t get cold in your hand, it’s makes a satisfying high-pitched whining noise, and it never runs out of propellant. You just recharge it and you’re good to go blow. It doesn’t create the waste of spent compressed air cans either.

I got mine for Christmas, and I was skeptical at first. It’s small enough to fit in your hand, so how could it have the blowing power of a can of compressed air? A couple pulls on the trigger prove it’s better than compressed air. The motor’s top speed is 110,000 rpm, more than enough power to blast the gunk out of electronics, all the little crevices in your car, air filters, and anything else that needs dusting.

I use mine so often that I have started giving them out as gifts. It’s the perfect for any practical person—the kind of tool you wouldn’t think of buying for yourself, but that you’ll use all the time.

HBO released a teaser trailer and premiere date for its take on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The show will premiere on the HBO Max streaming network this December 25. It’s a rare case where a big-ticket project is coming out earlier than anticipated instead of later; the series wasn’t expected to arrive until 2027. 

HBO has already proved its bona fides with lush adaptations of fantastical stories several times over, and this trailer looks like more of the same. The team behind the camera includes notable names who have worked on series such as Succession, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us and Killing Eve. Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, who alienated many fans after outing herself as transphobic, is also one of the show’s executive producers.

Engadget’s Jess Conditt has already written eloquently on the struggle of when and how to engage with the Harry Potter franchise while rejecting Rowling’s worldview, although the author’s involvement at the top level may make this adaptation a harder sell to the disillusioned community than, say, the Hogwarts Legacy video game where Rowling was barely involved and the studios took a more proactive approach toward presenting many types of diversity, including gender expression. If you’re hyped for this particular show, seems you’ll have a shorter time to wait for it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/hbo-maxs-harry-potter-series-premieres-this-christmas-202818238.html?src=rss