Android has been creeping into cars for more than a decade, first with the phone-based Android Auto and later with built-in Android Automotive OS. Even when Android is running on cars, it has not been allowed outside of the infotainment box. That could begin changing soon with Google’s new plans for software-defined vehicles (SDVs), but don’t expect most carmakers to step on the gas right away.
Car companies are notoriously protective of the software running on their vehicles, which has become a core part of the experience as cars have shifted to “computers on wheels.” Part of that is a matter of safety, but the data collected by automotive software is also highly valuable. As a result of everyone going their own way, vehicles have different software stacks that can include incompatible components from myriad suppliers. Google says it can fix this “fragmentation” mess with a more powerful version of Android Automotive OS (AAOS) designed for SDVs.
For better or worse, cars are increasingly reliant on software for new features—for example, remote climate controls or using smart keys on your phone. Google’s car efforts didn’t start there, but they’ve definitely trended in that direction. Early on, the company’s in-car play was Android Auto, which could run on a phone or be projected from a phone to supported car displays. Google eventually dropped the phone-based Auto to focus on the projected Android Auto experience and Android Automotive OS, which runs Android locally on the vehicle. That’s where Google’s latest initiative is focused.
Version
149.0 of the Firefox web browser has been released. Notable
features in this release include a new split-view feature for viewing
two web pages side-by-side, a built-in
VPN for browser traffic only, and more.
Following last week’s big GNOME 50 release, the GNOME Foundation today formally announced the creation of the GNOME Fellowship program…
One benefit of most of Apple’s hardware and software is that it’s relatively privacy-focused and light on advertising, compared to something like modern Windows or the Roku operating system. But ads have still crept into various apps and services over time, and Apple confirmed today that its Maps app would begin showing ads to users in the US and Canada starting “this summer.”
Businesses that want to show ads in Apple Maps will be able to claim their physical location and upload photos, and then pay to have their business displayed at the top of search results “based on relevance” and also in a “Suggested Places” section of the app. Apple displays similar relevance-based advertisements when users search for apps in the App Store.
Apple says that users’ personal data will still stay on-device and won’t be collected by Apple or shared with third parties. The company also says that ads viewed or opened in Maps won’t be tied to your Apple account or used to track your physical location.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A new hacking group has been rampaging the Internet in a persistent campaign that spreads a self-propagating and never-before-seen backdoor — and curiously a data wiper that targets Iranian machines. The group, tracked under the name TeamPCP, first gained visibility in December, when researchers from security firm Flare observed it unleashing a worm that targeted cloud-hosted platforms that weren’t properly secured. The objective was to build a distributed proxy and scanning infrastructure and then use it to compromise servers for exfiltrating data, deploying ransomware, conducting extortion, and mining cryptocurrency. The group is notable for its skill in large-scale automation and integration of well-known attack techniques.
More recently, TeamPCP has waged a relentless campaign that uses continuously evolving malware to bring ever more systems under its control. Late last week, it compromised virtually all versions of the widely used Trivy vulnerability scanner in a supply-chain attack after gaining privileged access to the GitHub account of Aqua Security, the Trivy creator. Over the weekend, researchers said they observed TeamPCP spreading potent malware that was also worm-enabled, meaning it had the potential to spread to new machines automatically, with no interaction required of victims behind the keyboard. […]
As the weekend progressed, CanisterWorm [as Aikido has named the malware] was updated to add an additional payload: a wiper that targets machines exclusively in Iran. When the updated worm infects machines, it checks if the machine is in the Iranian timezone or is configured for use in that country. When either condition was met, the malware no longer activated the credential stealer and instead triggered a novel wiper that TeamPCP developers named Kamikaze. Eriksen said in an email that there’s no indication yet that the worm caused actual damage to Iranian machines, but that there was “clear potential for large-scale impact if it achieves active spread.” It’s unclear what the motive is for TeamPCP. Aikido researcher Charlie Eriksen wrote: “While there may be an ideological component, it could just as easily be a deliberate attempt to draw attention to the group. Historically, TeamPCP has appeared to be financially motivated, but there are signs that visibility is becoming a goal in itself. By going after security tools and open-source projects, including Checkmarx as of today, they are sending a clear and deliberate signal.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
In its 15th season, unlikely phenomenon Call the Midwife hasn’t slowed down: Season 16 is already confirmed, as are a feature film and a WWII-era prequel series. Plenty of babies still need to be born, it would seem.
Initially set in 1957, with the current plots entering the 1970s, the show takes place in and around Poplar, London, one of the city’s most desperately poor districts. As the National Health Service is born, secular trained midwives team up with the nuns of Nonnatus House, a nursing convent that had been in the business of providing medical care to the area’s poor for decades. Though occasionally veering into schmaltz, the show’s melodrama is generally well-earned, often dealing frankly with issues of women’s health that other shows are still too timid to broach. If you’ve already plowed through all the available episodes, here are 10 more series with similar themes.
Starting, like Call the Midwife, in the, mid-1950s, this series follows the women (mostly) who worked at the Bletchley Park estate during World War II. The workforce was charged operating cryptographic machinery and translating documents—essential code-breaking work that was largely forgotten by history, buried under heavy classification. This show isn’t exactly about those events, though, instead focusing on a group of four women who reunite several years later to use their skills to hunt a serial killer. It’s a juicy way to connect with the real story of women who served the war effort with a juicy plot, and the verisimilitude is legit—the show draws contrasts between the women’s lives during wartime and their more domestic expectations once it was all over. Stream The Bletchley Circle on Peacock and Prime Video.
An update of a venerable British franchise based on a series of autobiographical novels from writer James Herriot, All Creatures takes us back to the rural Yorkshire Dales of the 1930s and ’40s (as the series progresses into World War II and beyond), with a Scottish vet (Nicholas Ralph) moving to the small farming town of Darrowby to take up a job as a veterinary assistant. Animals are in jeopardy on a weekly basis, but the big-hearted show only rarely goes for the gut punch—favoring instead lots of baby cows and cameos from local pampered Pekinese Tricki Woo. Anna Madeley’s housekeeper Audrey Hall and Rachel Shenton’s farmer Helen keep the often-struggling practice together. It’s not quite the human drama of Call the Midwife, though it does deal with some real challenges of the era. Stream All Creatures Great and Small on Prime Video and PBS.
Stepping back a few years into World War II proper, the subject here is another less-well-remembered bit of history: The Women’s Land Army, and the “Land Girls” who signed up to learn about farming and agriculture in order to replace male farmworkers who’d gone off to fight. Here, four very different women, with very different reasons for signing up, arrive at the farm on the Hoxley estate in order to serve their country, but also to figure out what they want out of life. Like the best shows of its kind, Land Girls also deals with issues contemporary to women of the era, as in the very first episode when the women are confronted by segregation among the American soldiers with whom they come into contact. Stream Land Girls on PBS or buy it from Prime Video.
In 1950s and ’60s Cambridgeshire, Robson Green plays overworked, cynical WWII-veteran police detective Geordie Keating, while James Norton, Tom Brittney, and Rishi Nair (in succession) play well-meaning but occasionally straying local priests who help solve the inevitable string of murders. While generally adhering to the cozy mystery-of-the-week format, the show occasionally dives into heavy relationship drama as well as some real-world drama, often involving Al Weaver’s curate Leonard Finch, who struggles with the clerical and legal ramifications of being gay. Stream Grantchester on Netflix and PBS.
It’s not late 20th century London, but rather contemporary Northern California, but we still get some of Call the Midwife‘s life-affirming charm alongside modern midwifery. Virgin River stars Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel, a nurse practitioner and midwife who finds unexpected complications when she moves to the title Northern California town on a one-year contract. That was seven romantic seasons ago, s you have years’ worth of high-end comfort viewing to enjoy. Stream Virgin River on Netflix.
Whatever the genre, there’s a recurring theme across many of these shows, and it as to do with women leaving familiar settings and taking on roles and responsibilities in field that are either altogether new, or new to women. Set in 1928, this Spanish import finds four women from different backgrounds seeking employment at a telecommunications company in Madrid. Ángeles is an experienced switchboard operator with kids to feed, Carlota is a society gal looking to get out from under her controlling family, Marga’s looking for an adventure, and Lidia has been forced into a criminal enterprise. The show blends empowering history with enough telenovela-style twists to propel it through five seasons. Stream Cable Girls on Netflix.
One of Prime’s first and buzziest original series, this comedy-drama from Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) follows Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a New York housewife of the late 1950s who discovers a talent for stand-up comedy. Inspired by the real-life careers of comedians like Totie Fields and Joan Rivers, the show is both warm and funny, with great performances and dialogue; it also achieves something rare in being a show about comedy that’s actually funny. A New York housewife striking out to become a stand up might not pair up exactly with London midwifery, but Maisel and Midwife share the exhilarating feeling of women broadening their own horizons in the middle of the last century. Stream The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video.
Perhaps inspired by Call the Midwife itself, The Crimson Field goes back a bit further into the 20th century: specifically, a fictional World War I field hospital on the French coast. Oona Chaplin star as Kitty Trevelyan, a somewhat surly (sassy, even) new nurse, joined by several other mostly-upper-class women who are entirely new to both the realities of war, and to being told what to do. It’s a particularly glossy period drama, for better and for worse (a WWI medical drama could have done with a bit more grit), but it’s a very watchable window into history, with some fabulous performances. Stream The Crimson Field on Prime Video and Tubi.
With a rather brilliant cast and impeccable period style, The Hour charts the rise of a (fictional) BBC current affairs program, led by women and premiering in the middle of the 1956 Suez Crisis—a challenge in itself, as the government isn’t particularly keen to have its missteps reported on (luckily, such censorship could never happen today). Producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) chooses war correspondent Lix Storm (the great Anna Chancellor) as foreign correspondent alongside less-accomplished anchor, Hector Madden (Dominic West), while scrappy reporter Freddie Lyon (Ben Whislaw) is desperate to get onboard. There are spies, murder, and plenty of then-current affairs spread across the show’s two seasons. Stream The Hour on Tubi.
Particularly in its early seasons, Call the Midwife highlighted the challenges of practicing medicine in the poorest areas of London in a time before medical standards were what they are today. London Hospital could almost serve as prequel, set among the nurses and in the Receiving Room of the real-life Royal London Hospital during the early years of the 20th century. Each episode is based, however loosely, on real-life cases taken from nurses’ logs and diaries, and the episodes present each incident with the pacing of a modern medical drama, eschewing period-show gloss. Broken up into three groups of episodes set in 1906, 1907, and 1909, we’re faced with the challenges of early anesthesia, a world before antibiotics, and innovations in X-ray technology without a full understanding of the dangers of radiation. Rent London Hospital from Apple TV+.
Google has announced a trio of new AI-powered features for its Google TV platform, after showing off smarter Gemini integration at CES back in January.
Google TV can now provide “richer visual help” when you ask it a question. Request the current sports scores, for example, and Gemini will bring up not only a live updating scorecard, but also where you can watch the game. If you’re looking for a recipe, it’ll pair its results with a video tutorial where possible.
If you’d rather learn something new than binge away at your latest Netflix fix, Google TV can also now do visual “deep dives” on topics that interest you. If there’s an economic trend, scientific phenomenon or technological innovation that’s on your mind, Gemini will create a “custom, interactive walkthrough” on the subject in question, allowing you to ask follow-up questions afterwards.
The idea is that the feature lets you turn “passive viewing into meaningful screen time.” It would appear that even your TV is now telling you off for watching too much TV.
When you ask about a topic, you can either click “Dive deeper” to learn more, or navigate to the Gemini tab at the top of your home screen and select the “Learn” option.
The last new addition is Gemini-powered sports briefs, which function in the same way as the news briefs Google introduced last year, but strictly for sports. Designed as an alternative to checking your phone, you can ask your AI-assisted TV for “timely, narrated overviews” of the latest goings-on in any league you might follow. Already, the feature supports the NBA, NCAA basketball, NHL, MLS and NWSL, and it will live in the Gemini tab.
Deep dives and sports briefs are initially limited to those with Gemini-enabled devices in the US, with Google promising wider device support later in the spring. Richer visual help is rolling out today in the US and Canada, and Google has also announced that its various Gemini Google TV features are coming to more countries in 2026, starting with Australia, New Zealand and the UK in the coming months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/three-new-gemini-features-come-to-google-tv-175724155.html?src=rss
Apple Maps will soon have ads, Apple confirmed in a blog post announcing the company’s new Apple Business platform. Reports that Apple planned to expand its ad business outside of the App Store and Apple News broke as recently as yesterday, but the company has been rumored to be exploring putting ads in its navigation app as far back as 2022.
Ads in Maps, as the new advertising program is called, will allow businesses to create ads that can appear “when users search in Maps,” at the top of search results and “at the top of a new Suggested Places experience in Maps, which will display recommendations based on what’s trending nearby, the user’s recent searches, and more,” Apple says. The program will be open to Apple Business customers in the US and Canada starting this summer. Any advertisers using the existing Apple Ads experience will also be able to book space in Apple Maps.
Like the other ads Apple offers to businesses in the App Store and Apple News, ads in maps will be clearly marked and are designed to maintain users’ privacy. What ads users interact with and their current location is not associated with their Apple Account, and personal data stays on user’s devices and isn’t shared with third-parties or collected by Apple.
Apple’s slow expansion into advertising most directly benefits its over $100 billion “Services” business, which covers obvious things like Apple TV and Apple Music, but also includes the fees it takes from in-app purchases made through the App Store and the money it makes selling advertising. At least so far, Apple’s ads are easy to ignore, and based on the samples provided as part of its announcement, that’ll stay true in Apple Maps.
Ads in Maps are bundled in Apple’s larger Apple Business program, an enterprise offering that’s designed to appeal to multiple different sizes of business. Apple Business includes things like mobile device management (for distributing apps and managing user accounts), the ability to set up a business email, calendar and web domain through Apple and the aforementioned Ads in Maps.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-confirms-ads-are-coming-to-apple-maps-175613751.html?src=rss
This report has proven to be contentious for a few reasons, not the least of which
Arm announced their first silicon product in history with today’s AGI CPU. The Arm AGI CPU complements their existing IP offerings into a production-ready silicon product for AI data centers…
Apple TV’s long-running sci-fi show For All Mankind has just been renewed for a sixth and final season, ahead of this week’s season five premiere. This seems more like the natural endpoint of the story instead of a cancellation, according to remarks made by some of the creators.
“Getting to explore the For All Mankind universe over six seasons has been an amazing privilege, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to finish the story the way we’ve always hoped,” co-creators and showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi said. “We’re incredibly proud of what this series has become, and grateful to Apple TV and Sony Pictures Television for helping us see it through to its final chapter.”
The plan for the show has always been to bring it up to the modern day and it looks like the creators will get to do just that. Season five takes place in the 2010s, which gives season six plenty of time to catch up to the 2020s.
For the uninitiated, For All Mankind is an alt-history series that started in the 1960s with Russia beating America to the moon. The show absolutely loves time jumps, with each season covering a decade or two.
That initial discrepancy with our reality has ballooned into all kinds of butterfly effect-type stuff. For instance, humanity quickly moved beyond the moon to occupy Mars. Al Gore also got to be president in that timeline.
Despite the numerous time jumps, several of the show’s original cast members are still on board. Joel Kinnaman’s character, astronaut Ed Baldwin, is quite literally in his 80s at this point. The actor must be getting tired of all of those fake wrinkles.
Apple TV has unveiled first-look photos for “Star City,” the upcoming “For All Mankind” spinoff series that explores the same story from Russia’s point of view.
The series will debut with two episodes May 29 on Apple TV, running through July 10.https://t.co/QFE7hDgBRw pic.twitter.com/t6fXW8h6c6
— Variety (@Variety) February 26, 2026
In any event, season five of For All Mankind premieres on March 27. The mainline show is coming to a close, but there’s still a spin-off to look forward to. Star City premieres on May 29. This looks to be a take on the events of the original show from the perspective of Russia.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/for-all-mankind-is-returning-for-a-sixth-and-final-season-173859683.html?src=rss
Elon Musk must defend himself against a lawsuit alleging that he unlawfully seized too much power as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a judge ruled Monday.
According to the plaintiffs, Musk needed Senate confirmation before directing DOGE on drastic actions like eliminating agencies, mass firings, and steep budget cuts. Allegedly going far beyond the authority granted in President Donald Trump’s most expansive DOGE executive orders, Musk took every inch of power granted and then increasingly used it to overreach unlike any presidential advisor who came before, the suit says.
In her opinion partly denying a motion to dismiss, US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan did not buy the US government’s defense that Musk held no office formally established by law—and therefore did not need Senate confirmation and cannot be alleged to have exceeded his authority under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
iOS and iPadOS 26.4 are here, with a surprising number of new features for a point release. Chief among them is a new AI playlist generator, similar to one Spotify launched in 2024.
Playlist Playground is Apple’s branding for the song list generator. It works as you’d expect: Type a prompt, and it spits out tracks that match it. As MacRumors noted, your prompts can relate to mood, feelings, activities and more.
Also new in iOS 26.4, an ambient music widget puts background sounds on your home screen. Like the corresponding Control Center tool, it brings up (Apple-curated) sounds for sleep, chill, productivity or well-being. Yet another music feature is Bandsintown integration: upcoming concert dates in your area will appear in the Apple Music app.
Unicode’s latest emoji characters arrive in the update, too. This includes “Hairy Creature,” also known as Bigfoot. Another fun one is fight cloud. (Think old-timey cartoons beating each other up inside a puff of vapor.) Also onboard are a trombone, a treasure chest, a distorted face, an apple core, an orca, ballet dancers and a landslide.
The update also has fixes for some of iOS 26’s nagging bugs. In Apple’s latest attempt to stem the tide of complaints about Liquid Glass, there’s a new “Reduce Bright Effects” setting. There’s also a fix for a keyboard bug that caused errors when typing rapidly.
Although we aren’t seeing it on our devices just yet, macOS Tahoe 26.4 should be arriving today as well. The update brings back the option to use Safari’s compact tab bar. (You’ll find this in iPadOS 26.4 as well.) Mac users can also customize their maximum charge level — anywhere from 80 to 100 percent. Meanwhile, watchOS 26.4 finally lets you start a workout with one tap.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/ios-264-is-here-with-playlist-playground-and-new-emoji-171343120.html?src=rss
The live music discovery platform Bandsintown’s partnership with Apple goes way back, but iOS 26.4 brings the deepest integration between the two companies to date. Concert listings from Bandsintown will now appear in Apple Music, allowing you to find out when either a band you already love, or one you’re discovering for the first time, is next playing live.
Artists who use Bandsintown to advertise their tour dates can promote upcoming shows in a number of ways through Apple’s app. A new Concerts tab will live within Search, allowing subscribers to search for shows by their genre, location and date, while participating artists can also connect their Bandsintown dashboard to their Apple Music artist page. By doing this, their tour dates will automatically appear in an “Upcoming Concerts” section within 48 hours of connecting the two services.
Apple Music users can tap listed events to see more details about a show and will be able to buy tickets through direct links to sellers. If you follow artists, you can also set up push notifications for their announced shows.
Bandsintown’s platform is already built into a number of other Apple apps and services, with the likes of Shazam, Apple Maps, Photos and Spotlight Search all able to pull through live event data. The new Apple Music features will be available on devices running iOS 26.4 when it leaves beta.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/bandsintown-integration-for-concerts-is-coming-to-apple-music-170034229.html?src=rss
Ultrahuman finally has a smart ring back on the U.S. market, and it’s the Ring Pro, the new model with the feature-packed charging case. Pre-orders are now open, with early bird prices starting at $349. The regular price will be $479 for the ring plus case.
The ring will begin shipping May 15. The company is using a tiered model for early bird pricing, where the price bumps up after a certain number of rings are sold. Here’s the schedule:
$349 — first 1,000 orders ($130 off)
$389 — next 2,000 orders ($90 off)
$429 — next 3,000 orders ($50 off)
$449 — until pre-orders close.
Ultrahuman’s smart rings have been off the U.S. market since October 2025, due to legal action by Oura. As I detailed here, Oura sued several other smart ring makers over patent infringement and won a judgment by the U.S. International Trade Commission. As a result, most other smart ring companies had to leave the U.S. market or reach a deal with Oura. Ultrahuman found a third option—continuing to develop a ring they already had in the works, betting that the ITC would rule its design is different enough that it does not infringe Oura’s patent.
That bet seems to have paid off. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has officially signed off on the new design, allowing it to be sold here. Ultrahuman’s older designs, like the Ring Air I reviewed last year, are still banned.
I wrote more about the Ring Pro here. It’s got a faster processor with “on-chip machine learning,” a 15-day battery life, and the ability to hold 250 days of data if you’re unable to sync your ring for extended periods. The physical shape is similar to the Ring Air (no sensor bumps, but there is a flattened area at the bottom of the interior), and it has break points for easier removal of the ring in an emergency.
The cleverest feature of the Ring Pro is its charging case, which can store data, flash the firmware, and deliver haptic alerts. It also has a speaker for alarms and for sounding when you use the “find my case” feature. The charger can charge wirelessly.
Ultrahuman has since announced that you’ll have the option to buy the ring packaged with the charging case for $479, or with just a “mini charger” (presumably similar to the Ring Air’s charger) for $399. The case will be available separately for $100.
Epic Games is cutting more than 1,000 jobs as usage of its flagship title, Fortnite, falls. “The layoffs aren’t related to AI,” CEO Tim Sweeney noted. Reuters reports: The cuts, along with more than $500 million in savings from lower contracting and marketing spending and unfilled roles would put the company in “a more stable place,” Sweeney said in a note to employees. […]
“We’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic,” Sweeney said, adding “market conditions today are the most extreme” since the early days of the company founded in 1991.
The move marks Epic’s second major round of layoffs in three years. In September 2023, the company cut about 830 jobs, or roughly 16% of its workforce. It was not immediately clear what percentage of staff would be impacted by Tuesday’s announcement.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The ultimate goal is to devise a fully wireless, durable communication device that functions deep within a nuclear plant, the team said.
