The rumors were right: Google parent Alphabet has agreed to buy cyber security start-up Wiz for $32 billion, the biggest acquisition in the search group’s history. From the report: Alphabet held talks over a $23 billion acquisition of Wiz last year, although the negotiations collapsed after some of the cyber security company’s directors and investors became worried about antitrust hurdles.

The deal, which will rank as the biggest deal of the year so far, was announced on Tuesday morning. It will probably still face scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission under President Donald Trump, whose new chair Andrew Ferguson has maintained guidelines giving the agency the ability to block large deals used by his predecessor Lina Khan.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Disney+ has sophomore seasons of two significant series coming in April. The second installment of Lucasfilm’s Emmy-nominated thriller Andor—the prequel to Rogue One and set five years prior—tells the origin story of Rebel spy Cassian Andor and the formation of the Rebel Alliance. Diego Luna reprises his role from the film and the first season of the series. A three-episode premiere is set for 6 p.m. PT on April 22, with additional episodes dropping weekly on Tuesdays until mid-May.

Also on the April schedule is season two of Doctor Who. Ncuti Gatwa stars as the Doctor, who is on a quest to get Belinda Chandra (played by Varadu Sethu) back to Earth. Millie Gibson stars as Ruby Sunday, with a guest appearance from Alan Cumming. After the premiere on Saturday, April 12, new episodes will be released weekly.

Other content premiering in April includes season two of Light & Magic (April 18), a three-part docuseries about Lucasfilm’s visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, and Disney+ Original documentary film Pets (April 11) from director Bryce Dallas Howard.

Disney+ will also be wrapping up weekly episodes of Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again (Tuesdays through April 15) and releasing the final two installments of the six-part NatGeo docuseries David Blaine Do Not Attempt (April 7), which premiered last month.

Here’s everything coming to Disney+ in April.

Disney Plus series with new episodes weekly in April 2025

• Andor (Season 2)—Disney+ Original, new episodes on Tuesdays beginning April 22

• Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again—new episodes on Tuesdays through April 15

• Doctor Who (Season 2)—new episodes on Saturdays beginning April 12

Disney+ will also be streaming SC+, a SportsCenter show exclusive to the platform, every weekday at 6 a.m. PT and on weekend mornings. Each stream will be available for 24 hours.

Movies and complete series/seasons coming to Disney Plus in April 2025

Arriving April 1

• Lost Treasures of Rome (S2, 6 episodes)

• National Parks: USA (S1, 5 episodes)

• RoboGobo (S1, 24 episodes)

Arriving April 3

• Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America (S1, 3 episodes)

Arriving April 7

• David Blaine Do Not Attempt

• Not Just a Goof

Arriving April 9

• Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends (S3, 4 episodes)

Arriving April 11

• The Abyss 4K

• Pets

Arriving April 12

• Titanic: The Digital Resurrection

• To Catch a Smuggler (S8, 8 episodes)

Arriving April 16

• Big City Greens (S4, 7 episodes)

• SuperKitties (S2, 3 episodes)

Arriving April 18

• Light & Magic (Season 2)

Arriving April 21

• Secret of the Penguins (S1, 3 episodes)

Arriving April 22

• ABC News Live Special: Last Lands (S1, 4 episodes)

• Sea Lions of the Galapagos

• Guardians of the Galapagos

Arriving April 25

• Megastructures: Real Madrid Super Stadium

Arriving April 30

• Chibi Tiny Tales: Shorts (S5, 7 episodes)

• Mickey Mouse Funhouse (S3, 5 episodes)

Hulu + ESPN content coming to Disney+ in April 2025

As in previous months, Disney+ subscribers will also have access to select content from Hulu and ESPN in March, including live streams of PGA Tour and NWSL events, the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, and select NHL games. Here are a few of the other titles coming to Disney+:

• Clipped

• Tell Me Lies

• Interior Chinatown

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

• White Collar

• Reasonable Doubt

• Prey

• Crazy Hearts

• Say Anything

• The Night House

• College Gameday

• Pardon the Interruption

• The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny

• Vince’s Places

• P.K.’s Places

• E60 Once Upon a Time in Anaheim

• No Easy Victories: The 1994 New York Rangers

Because percussion makes everything better (besides a headache), this is a video of musician Joe Porter (previously) performing the iconic guitar lick from Weezer’s ‘Buddy Holly’ on 31 unusual instruments. “In a row?” IN A ROW. It was a fun watch. Personally, I’m only master of one instrument: my voice. I try to think of it as the sort of rumbling bass God might sing with, but it’s been likened to a dog farting on a pleather sofa.

The study supports a new take on a controversial hypothesis from the 1950s.

It’s no surprise that companies continue to experiment with new AI features. Artificial intelligence has been the center of emerging tech for nearly three years now, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But whether you love generative AI or you find it useless, I think we can all agree that using AI to write Instagram comments is pretty stupid.

And yet, Meta appears to be testing exactly that. As reported by SocialMediaToday, some Instagram accounts are now seeing a new icon to the left of the text field after choosing to leave a comment on a post. When you tap this icon (a pencil with a star), you pull up a new Meta AI menu, which presents a series of comment choices, presumably based on whatever content you happen to be looking at. In one example, the bot offers three choices: “Cute living room setup,” “Love the cozy atmosphere,” or “Great photo shoot location.” Could there be anything lazier than this?

I’ll admit: This news took me a bit off guard. I know Meta is comfortable shoving its AI experiments down our throats—often with no way to turn them off. But even as it becomes more difficult to avoid AI-generated content on Meta’s platforms, I didn’t think the company would offload the “effort” of having to write comments to the bots.

I can’t imagine many (or perhaps any) Instagram users are so busy or exhausted that they’d rather scroll through an AI’s idea of what to say rather than say something themselves. The human-generated comments on Instagram pages are already low-effort as it is; not to mention, there are too many comments from bots on social media platforms. Do we really want more bots in the comments, only this time sent to us by real people?

We need to stop letting AI make the decisions

This is just an experiment, and likely a limited one at that. For what it’s worth, I do not have the option on my Instagram account, so I guess I’m forced to think up my own comments for now. (Or at least open another app to ask a different AI to generate a comment for me.) But this experiment speaks to the current state of AI in tech: offering solutions to problems that don’t exist. Writing comments isn’t hard, and yet, someone at Meta thought there was a usefulness—a market—for AI-generated comments. They probably want more training data for their AI machine, which tracks, considering companies are running out of internet for models to learn from. But that doesn’t mean we should be okay with outsourcing all human tasks to AI.

That’s what bugs me most: ceding so many of our cognitive tasks and decisions to the machines. If you’re on Instagram, you’re already letting the algorithm choose the content you see. Please don’t hand over even more decisions to the machines, as low-effort as those decisions may be. If you do see the experiment on your end, I encourage you not to use it; both for your own sake, as well as depriving Meta of any more training data generated by its user base for free.

The Trump White House is ready to divvy up public lands for private profits.

Plus, is there still hope for the Last Starfighter sequel?

The crowdfunding campaign for Mangione’s legal defense has raised over $730,000.

Save $600 on this powerful vacuum and sophisticated self-emptying and refilling mopping robot during Amazon’s limited-time 43% off sale.

Social media apps aren’t exactly known for their privacy and security features, but TikTok users are getting a little bit of help with a built-in tool to monitor their account security and keep their information safe. The new Security Checkup dashboard shows you where your TikTok security is lacking with step-by-step guidance to update your settings.

How to use TikTok’s Security Checkup

To get to your security dashboard on TikTok, go to your profile and tap Settings and privacy > Security and permissions. Security Checkup will show you which settings have been completed and which need attention, with guidance on how to update each:

• Adding an email and/or phone number for account recovery

• Enabling two-step verification

• Creating a passkey with device-based authentication like Face ID or Touch Unlock

• Checking which devices are logged into your account (and removing any that are unauthorized or aren’t in use)

TikTok will also flag “unusual account behavior” and log it in your Security Checkup for you to review.

TikTok isn’t the only social media platform with this kind of security feature. Meta, for example, has a Security Checkup on Instagram that guides users through improving their password strength, enabling two-factor authentication, and adding account recovery information. You can find this in your profile settings (tap the three vertical lines) and go to Accounts Center > Password and Security > Security Checkup to select the account you want to evaluate.

Google has a similar dashboard that shows you where you are signed in with your Google account, apps and services you’ve connected, recent security activity, sign-in and recovery settings, and recommendations for improving your account security.

Samsung has dropped the price of their top-of-the-line Android tablet by $180 and they’re offering up to $800 of stackable trade-in credit too.

Airport security will probably always be somewhat of a hassle, but one friction point you can potentially minimize is utilizing a digital ID in place of a physical one—and if you’re an Android user, your passport added to Google Wallet’s ID pass is officially accepted by TSA.

It’s certainly convenient to not have to carry or keep track of your physical passport when you travel, and a digital passport in ID pass can get you through security screening if you don’t have a REAL ID after the requirements take effect on May 7. That said, your digital passport doesn’t completely replace your physical document, which you’ll still need when traveling internationally and in situations where you have to present identification outside of TSA.

Here’s how to digitize your passport and other forms of identification for the next time you fly.

How to add your passport to Google Wallet

To add your passport to ID pass, open Google Wallet on your Android device and tap the + icon. Tap ID > ID pass, then hit the Get Started button. The app will guide you through a series of instructions to scan your passport and your face, which will take several minutes to complete and approve.

You can also add a state-issued ID (like your driver’s license) to Google Wallet using this same process—just select ID > Driver’s license or state ID instead of ID pass.

How to use other digital IDs for travel

At the time of writing, Apple Wallet and Samsung Wallet do not support passports, and ID pass for Google Wallet is the only digital passport accepted at TSA for domestic travel. However, your driver’s license or identification card stored in Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, Samsung Wallet, or a state-specific mobile app can also get you through security screening if issued by one of the following states:

• Arizona

• California

• Colorado

• Georgia

• Hawaii

• Iowa

• Louisiana

• Maryland

• New Mexico

• New York

• Ohio

• Puerto Rico

• Utah

• Virginia

• West Virginia

To add an ID to Apple Wallet, tap the + icon in the app and hit Driver’s License or State ID. Select your eligible state, and follow the prompts. For Samsung Wallet, click the + icon, tap Digital IDs > Driver’s License/State ID, and follow the instructions to scan your ID and face and authenticate with your fingerprint or a PIN. Note that some of the states listed (like New York and Utah) require you to use a state-specific app for digital IDs instead of your device’s digital wallet.

Even if you have a digital ID, don’t count on being able to use it at every airport. Check TSA’s digital ID map before you leave home to make sure any airport you are traveling through accepts eligible digital IDs.

(On the flip side, TSA PreCheck members traveling on Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Alaska Airlines out of a select number of airports can clear security solely on facial recognition—no physical or digital documents required.)

About 252 million years ago, volcanic eruptions triggered the End-Permian Mass Extinction, also known as the Great Dying. About 96 percent of marine species were wiped out—but were things just as grim on land?

Scientists have debated whether this event caused nearly as much terrestrial destruction. Now, researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGPAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences suggest that terrestrial ecosystems did not suffer nearly as much as the oceans.

Led by paleontologist Feng Liu, the NIGPAS team found evidence for refugiums, oases where life thrived despite the devastation. Not only did these refugiums give life a chance to survive the mass extinction event, which lasted 200,000 years, but they are now thought to have been crucial to rebuilding ecosystems in much less time than was previously assumed.

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Pro-level noise cancellation, amazing battery life, deep bass, and supreme comfort make these among the best $249 headphones anywhere.

Optical illusions are great fun, and they fool virtually everyone. But have you ever wondered if you could train yourself to unsee these illusions? Our latest research suggests that you can.

Optical illusions tell a lot about how people see things. For example, look at the picture below.

The Ebbinghaus illusion.
Credit:
Hermann Ebbinghaus

The two orange circles are identical, but the one on the right looks bigger. Why? We use context to figure out what we are seeing. Something surrounded by smaller things is often quite big. Our visual system takes context into account, so it judges the orange circle on the right as bigger than the one on the left.

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Google parent Alphabet has agreed to buy cyber security start-up Wiz for $32 billion, the biggest acquisition in the search group’s history, according to Financial Times, which cites sources. From the report: Alphabet held talks over a $23 billion acquisition of Wiz last year, although the negotiations collapsed after some of the cyber security company’s directors and investors became worried about antitrust hurdles.

The deal, which will rank as the biggest deal of the year so far, will be announced on Tuesday morning, a person said. It will probably still face scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission under President Donald Trump, whose new chair Andrew Ferguson has maintained guidelines giving the agency the ability to block large deals used by his predecessor Lina Khan.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There’s a new Google AI model in town, and it can generate or edit images as easily as it can create text—as part of its chatbot conversation. The results aren’t perfect, but it’s quite possible everyone in the near future will be able to manipulate images this way.

Last Wednesday, Google expanded access to Gemini 2.0 Flash’s native image generation capabilities, making the experimental feature available to anyone using Google AI Studio. Previously limited to testers since December, the multimodal technology integrates both native text and image processing capabilities into one AI model.

The new model, titled “Gemini 2.0 Flash (Image Generation) Experimental,” flew somewhat under the radar last week, but it has been garnering more attention over the past few days due to its ability to remove watermarks from images, albeit with artifacts and a reduction in image quality.

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A massive $900 limit on trade-in credit, or $300 off without trade, are the latest incentives to make the Galaxy S25 Ultra your favorite smartphone ever.