You don’t need to do much digging online to find complaints about the iPhone keyboard: From typos and spelling mistakes to lag and missed keystrokes, there are multiple issues being reported by users, across multiple versions of iOS. While the root causes of these problems tend to vary, there are some broad fixes you can try that should go some way to giving you an iPhone keyboard experience you can rely on—besides waiting for the next bug-squashing iOS update from Apple.

Reset the keyboard dictionary on your iPhone

Resetting the keyboard on iOS.
Credit: Lifehacker

Over time, the iOS keyboard tries to build up smarter autocorrect suggestions for you, but these aren’t always helpful: The further away these suggestions get from the defaults, the worse they can get, which risks turning your sentences into gibberish. To clean the slate and go back to the beginning, open up Settings, then tap General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Keyboard Dictionary. Type in your handset’s unlock code, then choose Reset Dictionary.

Add custom words and shortcuts to your iPhone’s dictionary

This may seem to contradict the previous tip, but by explicitly teaching your iPhone the words it often gets wrong, you can reduce the likelihood of those frustrating moments where iOS suddenly replaces the word you were typing with something else (e.g. “he’ll yeah” or “what the duck”). From Settings, tap General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Tap on the + (plus) button in the top right corner, then enter your word or phrase—you can add a shortcut for it too to help you type it more quickly, but it’s optional. Tap Save to confirm.

Adjust other iPhone keyboard settings

If a keyboard setting isn’t helping, turn it off.
Credit: Lifehacker

There are more keyboard settings that are worth taking a look at under General > Keyboard in iOS Settings. You can turn Auto-Correction off completely, for example, and disable Slide to Type if your fingers have a tendency to slip across the keyboard. There are additional tweaks you can make through the Accessibility menu in Settings: Under Touch > Touch Accommodations, you can change the sensitivity of double-taps and press-and-holds, among other settings, which may help improve typing accuracy.

Change your iPhone’s keyboard layout

There’s not a lot you can do with the iPhone keyboard layout to improve your typing experience and eliminate bugs, but there is a one-handed mode you can try in order to minimize glitches and ensure your keypresses match up with what’s on screen. To switch to the one-handed layout, tap and hold on the globe icon in the lower left corner of the keyboard, then tap one of the icons at the bottom of the pop-up menu: You can move the keyboard to the left, or the right, or put it back to normal.

Switch to a different keyboard on the iPhone

You’ve got several options for iOS keyboards.
Credit: Lifehacker

If you’re still struggling with the vagaries of the keyboard on iOS, you can always opt to install a third-party alternative: We’ve covered a bunch here, including Gboard and SwiftKey, and they typically offer more customization options than the Apple default. Once you’ve installed an alternative keyboard or two, you can manage them from iOS Settings by choosing General > Keyboard > Keyboards. To actually switch between keyboards when typing, press and hold on the globe icon (lower left).

Or avoid a keyboard altogether

There are also some more extreme measures you can take that maybe haven’t crossed your mind. The first is to use a Bluetooth keyboard (via Bluetooth in Settings), which will give you a more convenient (if less portable) way of typing text into your iPhone. The second is to ensure dictation is enabled in General > Keyboard in Settings, then tap the mic icon in the lower right corner of the keyboard, and speak out your text. You can handle emojis, line breaks, text editing, and more, using your voice.

Last month, Jason Grad issued a late-night warning to the 20 employees at his tech startup. “You’ve likely seen Clawdbot trending on X/LinkedIn. While cool, it is currently unvetted and high-risk for our environment,” he wrote in a Slack message with a red siren emoji. “Please keep Clawdbot off all company hardware and away from work-linked accounts.”

Grad isn’t the only tech executive who has raised concerns to staff about the experimental agentic AI tool, which was briefly known as MoltBot and is now named OpenClaw. A Meta executive says he recently told his team to keep OpenClaw off their regular work laptops or risk losing their jobs. The executive told reporters he believes the software is unpredictable and could lead to a privacy breach if used in otherwise secure environments. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly.

Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw’s solo founder, launched it as a free, open source tool last November. But its popularity surged last month as other coders contributed features and began sharing their experiences using it on social media. Last week, Steinberger joined ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which says it will keep OpenClaw open source and support it through a foundation.

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The 75-inch LG evo AI Mini LED 4K Smart TV (75QNED85AUA) is down to $896.99 from $1,396.99 on Amazon, which is the lowest price it has hit so far, according to price trackers. It lands in the middle of LG’s QNED range, sitting above the QNED82A and below the QNED92A. In practical terms, that means you’re getting a big 75-inch screen with Mini LED backlighting and local dimming, plus LG’s latest α8 AI Processor Gen2 handling the picture.

LG 75-Inch Class QNED evo AI QNED85A Series Mini LED 4K Smart TV

$896.99
at Amazon

$1,396.99
Save $500.00

$896.99
at Amazon

$1,396.99
Save $500.00

There are four HDMI ports, and all of them can do 4K at 120Hz, so it pairs well with a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. It supports common HDR formats like HDR10 and HLG, and it has Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and eARC if you want to hook up a soundbar. LG’s 2025 version of webOS runs the interface, and the company says it will provide software updates for five years through its Re:New program.

In day-to-day use, this TV does a lot right. Regular HD channels and cable broadcasts look solid once you tweak the basic settings. Colors in standard viewing modes look natural instead of overly saturated. Older or lower-resolution content, like DVDs or heavily compressed streams, looks cleaner than you might expect on a screen this large. Motion is handled well for most shows and sports. Slow camera pans in movies look smooth, without that distracting stutter.

For gaming, having four HDMI ports that all support 4K at 120Hz is convenient, especially if you have more than one console. Plus, variable refresh rate (VRR) helps cut down on screen tearing during fast gameplay. Where it falls short is in contrast and brightness. Because it is edge-lit, the black levels are not especially deep, and you can sometimes see a faint glow around bright objects on dark backgrounds. HDR movies do not have the same pop you’d get from a brighter or more advanced panel. And fast, dark action scenes may show a bit of blur. It can also struggle in a very sunny room, where glare becomes noticeable. Still, at under $900 for 75 inches, this is a lot of screen for the money.

A decision to ban Telegram on home soil may have backfired on the Kremlin. Last week, Russia went on a blocking spree, banning a number of Western apps in an effort to push domestic users towards Max, an unencrypted state-owned app. One of the restricted apps was WhatsApp (which was also blocked) rival Telegram, a move that drew rare internal criticism from soldiers and pro-war bloggers, with the army being heavily reliant on the cloud-based messaging service for communications.

As reported by Bloomberg, pro-Russian military channels are now complaining that the sudden Telegram blackout — coupled with Elon Musk cutting Russia’s access to Starlink earlier this month — is now actively harming frontline operations. As well as being the messaging app of choice for millions of Russian civilians, soldiers also use Telegram to liaise directly on the battlefield. The government said last week that it was banning Telegram for violating national law, and that the decision was for the “protection of Russian citizens.”

Bloomberg was told by senior European diplomats that the double blow of Telegram’s sudden unavailability and SpaceX moving to block Russia’s use of “unauthorized” Starlink terminals in Ukraine earlier this month has had a significant impact on Russian comms. Starlink’s satellite coverage is particularly important for coordinating the Russian military’s drone strikes, the frequency of which has seemingly been disrupted in recent weeks, giving Ukrainian forces an advantage.

Whether these developments will have a longer term effect on the tide of the conflict remains to be seen, but a Ukrainian drone operator who calls himself Giovanni has told the BBC that the Russian army has lost “their ability to control the field” in the wake of the Starlink outage. “I think they lost 50% of their capacity for offence,” he said. “That’s what the numbers show. Fewer assaults, fewer enemy drones, fewer everything.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/russias-recent-blocking-of-telegram-is-reportedly-disrupting-its-military-operations-in-ukraine-135250159.html?src=rss

We love hearing about the latest findings coming out of an Eötvös Loránd University (ELU) research group focused on gifted word learner (GWL) dogs—if only for the pictures of adorable doggoes playing with their toys. Just last month, we learned that such dogs can learn the labels for new toys just by overhearing their owners talking about those toys. The group is back with yet another new paper, published in the journal Animal Cognition, presenting evidence that GWL dogs have a preference for novel toys and like to share them with their owners. That social interaction seems to be the key to the unique cognitive abilities of these rare dogs.

As previously reported, ELU co-author Claudia Fugazza has been studying canine behavior and cognition for several years as part of the Genius Dog Challenge. For instance, the group’s 2022 study discovered that dogs store key sensory features about their toys—notably what they look like and how they smell—and recall those features when searching for the named toy. Prior studies had suggested that dogs typically rely on vision, or a combination of sight and smell, to locate target objects. GWL dogs can also identify objects based on verbal labels.

Last fall, Fugazza’s group discovered that certain dogs can not only memorize the names of objects like their favorite toys, but also extend those labels to entirely new objects with a similar function, regardless of whether or not they are similar in appearance. It’s a cognitively advanced ability known as “label extension,” and for animals to acquire it usually involves years of intensive training in captivity. But the dogs in this new study developed the ability to classify their toys by function with no formal training, merely by playing naturally with their owners. It’s akin to a person calling a hammer and a rock by the same name, or a child understanding that “cup” can describe a mug, a glass, or a tumbler because they serve the same function.

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The OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are down to $129.99 on Amazon, from their usual $179.99. That is their lowest price so far, according to price trackers. PCMag gave them an “excellent” rating, largely because they deliver strong sound and active noise cancellation without pushing into premium pricing. At this price, they sit in the crowded midrange category, but they offer a feature set that competes with more expensive earbuds.

OnePlus Buds Pro 3 Wireless ANC Earbuds (Midnight Opus)

$129.99
at Amazon

$179.99
Save $50.00

$129.99
at Amazon

$179.99
Save $50.00

These IP55-rated earbuds use a dual-driver setup, with 11mm and 6mm drivers working together to produce a wide 10Hz–40kHz range. In practice, that means deep bass that feels full but not bloated, and highs that stay clear instead of sounding harsh.

The Buds Pro 3 support Bluetooth 5.4, multipoint connectivity, and codecs like AAC, SBC, and LHDC 5.0 for compatible devices. If you own a recent OnePlus phone, you can access high-res audio and most settings directly through the Bluetooth menu. On other Android or iOS devices, the HeyMelody app unlocks nearly everything, including five EQ presets, a six-band custom EQ, and features like a fit test and Golden Sound tuning (which adjusts the audio profile to match the unique shape of your ear canal).

As for its ANC performance, it holds up well for the price. It cuts down low engine rumble on planes and buses and reduces background chatter in busy cafes. That said, its transparency mode (while serviceable) sounds slightly artificial, notes this PCMag review.

Battery life is solid but not class-leading. With noise cancellation on, you get up to six hours per charge, plus another 19 hours from the case. Turn ANC off and that jumps to about 10 hours, with 33 more from the case. It charges via USB-C and also supports wireless charging.

At $129.99, these are not flawless, but they cover the essentials well. You get strong sound and noise cancellation, and a long list of features that are often reserved for pricier models.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Post: In 2024, the Ethiopian government banned the import of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and slashed tariffs on their electric equivalents. It was a policy driven less by the country’s climate ambitions and more by fiscal pressures. For years, subsidizing gasoline for consumers has been a major drag on Ethiopia’s budget, costing the state billions of dollars over the past decade. The country defaulted on its sovereign bonds in 2023 after rising interest rates drove up the costs of servicing its debts, and it received a $3.4 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund the following year.

In the two years since the ban on internal combustion engine vehicles, EV adoption has grown from less than 1% to nearly 6% of all of the vehicles on the road in the country — according to the government’s own figures — some way above the global average of 4%. “The Ethiopia story is fascinating,” said Colin McKerracher, head of clean transport at BloombergNEF. “What you’re seeing in places that don’t make a lot of vehicles of any type, they’re saying: ‘Well, look, if I’m going to import the cars anyway, then I’d rather import less oil. We may as well import the one that cleans up local air quality and is cheaper to buy.'”

For decades, Ethiopia’s high import tariffs on vehicles put new car ownership out of the reach of most of the country’s population. Per capita gross domestic product is only about $1,000, and even by the standards of low-income countries, it has among the lowest car ownership rates. At 13 vehicles per 1,000 people, it’s a fraction of the African average of 73. With few cars manufactured in the country, the vast majority are imported, and most are bought used. The government’s import policy has upended the market. In parallel, tariffs for EVs were dropped to 15% for completed cars, 5% for parts and semi-assembled vehicles, and zero for “fully knocked down” — vehicles shipped in parts and assembled locally. That has made new EVs cost-competitive with old gasoline cars.

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Claire Danes is grieving mother and author Aggie Wiggs; struggling with her next book, she decides to focus it on her neighbor—which is obviously a good idea, even more so because he was accused of murdering his first wife. What could go wrong? Matthew Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, the maybe-murderer neighbor, who gets caught up in the mix when Abbie’s story becomes about way more than just one death. You can stream The Beast in Me on Netflix, and then check out some of these other shows about deadly secrets, vicious lies, and phenomenally bad decisions.

The Girlfriend (2025 – )

In a similar “am I just being paranoid?” vein, The Girlfriend stars Robin Wright as Laura Sanderson, a wealthy art gallery owner in London. Her son (Laurie Davidson) brings home a new, working-class girlfriend, Cherry Laine (Olivia Cooke) who immediately strikes Laura as not-our-kind. But is there more to it? Can someone with the name “Cherry Laine” truly be trusted? There’s definitely something off, and we’re kept guessing as to whether or not this is the story of a dangerous con artist or an overbearing mom—or maybe a little of each. It was released as a miniseries, but there’s some interest in continuing the story, so TBD on a second season. Stream The Girlfriend on Prime Video.

The Girlfriend (2025 – )

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

Surface (2022 – )

There’s a theme in these shows about the extent to which women can trust their own instincts—this one cuts to the heart of that in the story of Sophie Ellis (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who survives an (apparent) attempt at death by suicide to find that she’s lost huge chunks of memory. She settles back into life with her husband, but learns that she’d been having an affair. And that her husband might have been embezzling money, among other things, though it all turns on how much she can trust the men in her life and her own fragmented memories, questions which lead her to take on an entirely new identity and sort it all out. Stream Surface on Apple TV+.

Surface (2022 – )

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Fool Me Once (2024)

Based on a Harlan Coben novel, Fool Me Once is a bit more on the political-thriller end of whatever spectrum we’re on here, but the vibes aren’t dissimilar: Michelle Keegan plays Maya Stern, a former special ops pilot dealing with the murder of her husband—whom she then catches playing with their daughter on a nanny cam. The resulting mystery ties into the earlier death of her sister, and leads to a web of conspiracy involving her husband’s family and a shady pharmaceutical company. Stream Fool Me Once on Netflix.

Fool Me Once (2024)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Disclaimer (2024)

Created, written, and directed by four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón, Disclaimer has as impressive a pedigree as you could hope for on streaming TV. Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline (both, incidentally, Oscar winners) star alongside Sacha Baron Cohen and Leila George. Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, an award-winning journalist who receives a mysterious manuscript—a novel in which she, herself, appears to be the main character, and which reveals secrets of her past that she thought were long buried. Stream Disclaimer on Apple TV+.

Disclaimer (2024)

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Sharp Objects (2018)

Author on the hunt for a new story that leads her into danger and treachery? Check. In this adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel, Amy Adams stars as Camille Preaker, a troubled reporter with substance abuse issues who’s only recently been released from a psychiatric hospital. I’m not sure what step of recovery involves returning to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri in order to investigate the murder of one girl and the apparently related disappearance of another—all under the watchful, critical eye of her socialite mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson). Stream Sharp Objects on HBO Max.

Sharp Objects (2018)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

His & Hers (2026)

The first of at least three Alice Feeney thrillers getting streaming series adaptations, His & Hers is a glossy and appropriately twisty mystery starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal. Thompson plays Annie Andrews, a has-been news reporter who decides to get back on the horse when she learns of a murder in her Georgia hometown. Bernthal is the local detective on the case and—surprise!—he’s also her ex. Can she trust him? Things are definitely going to get personal. Stream His & Hers on Netflix.

His & Hers (2026)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Down Cemetery Road (2025 – )

The genre here isn’t quite the same as that of The Beast in Me—this one’s more of a detective story with some spy stuff thrown in. Where there’s overlap, though, is in its protagonist: a woman who dives into a mystery without understanding quite how deep and dark and personal things are going to get. Ruth Wilson plays Sarah Trafford, a married art restorer who nobody takes very seriously (including her husband), even after she becomes invested in the fate of a young girl whose family is killed in an (allegedly) accidental gas explosion down the street. Emma Thompson co-stars as hard-living, hard-drinking private investigator Zoë Boehm, who gets involved, rather against her will. The orphaned girl disappears into the system, and no one really seems to care until Sarah hires Zoë and her husband to look into it. Both women soon find they are in way over their heads, as the missing girl points to a much broader conspiracy. Stream Down Cemetery Road on Apple TV+.

Down Cemetery Road (2025 – )

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Behind Her Eyes (2021)

Any psychological thriller worth your time is going to swing for the fences—big twists are the essential ingredients in all of these shows. And then there’s Behind Her Eyes, which builds to a climax so cuckoo bananas that you’ll either applaud its audacity or cackle at its outrageousness. Louise (Simona Brown) is a single mother who starts an affair with her boss—and his wife. And then gets involved with his former mistress following a mysterious death. It all turns on the increasingly complicated set of relationships before it gets really wild. Stream Behind Her Eyes on Netflix.

Behind Her Eyes (2021)

at Netflix

at Netflix

The Undoing (2020)

David E. Kelley brought us this twisty psychodrama (adapted from the Jean Hanff Korelitz bestseller You Should Have Known) starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser, a Manhattan psychologist married to oncologist Jonathan (Hugh Grant). She keeps running into a woman named Elena whose increasingly strange behavior disturbs Grace, more so when the woman is murdered. Things get really alarming, though, when she tries to contact Jonathan, who’s disappeared, leading her into a web of secrets in lies that are entirely too close to home. Stream The Undoing on HBO Max.

The Undoing (2020)

Smother (2021 – 2023)

Smart and addictive, Smother starts with a body on a beach and then flashes back to a 50th birthday party for Val (Dervla Kirwan) hosted by her husband, Denis. That celebration takes a turn when Denis announces, in front of their kids and assorted guests, that he and Val are getting a divorce and that she’s going to live with her rather much younger boyfriend, who Denis tacitly threatens. Naturally, it’s Denis whose body we saw earlier, and, while there a lot of people with motives, Val is determined to get to the bottom of it. Stream Smother on Peacock.

Smother (2021 – 2023)

at Peacock

at Peacock

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (2026 – )

A bit of counter-programming here, perhaps, in that we’re traveling back to the Jazz Age for an explicitly Agatha Christie-style detective story. And yet! Mia McKenna-Bruce’s Bundle Brent has a lot in common with the modern-era women in the rest of these shows: She’s smart, curious, and surrounded by men (mostly) looking to gaslight the hell out of her. Bundle lives with her mother (Helena Bonham-Carter) in a decaying manor house that they rent out to pay the bills. A party hosted by a steel magnate ends with one of the guests dead—a friend who’d been hinting all night that he planned to propose to Bundle but, according to the police and pretty much everyone else, he died by suicide. Nothing to do but move on. She doesn’t, of course, and manages to convince Christie mainstay Superintendent Battle (Martin Freeman) that there might be more to it, especially when things start to tie back to the death of her father years earlier. Stream Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials on Netflix.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (2026 – )

at Netflix

at Netflix

The Last Thing He Told Me (2023 – )

Jennifer Garner stars as Hannah Hall, a successful woodturner (which, I’ve learned, is a thing) trying to forge a bond with her stepdaughter—in order to help solve the mystery of her missing husband. The standalone first season ranked as Apple’s most watched limited series ever, so we’re getting a second based on another bestseller from Laura Dave. Stream The Last Thing He Told Me on Apple TV+.

The Last Thing He Told Me

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Meta is reportedly gearing up to enter another segment of the wearables market. According to The Information, the company is planning to release its first smartwatch sometime this year. Meta has revived its smartwatch initiative internally called “Malibu 2,” The Information says, which will come with Meta AI and health tracking.

The same publication reported back in 2021 that Meta was working on a smartwatch powered by an open-source version of Android. Over the next year, more details of its possible features emerged, including reports that it had a detachable camera and that Meta was developing a model with up to three cameras. But in 2022, the company was believed to have put the project on hold to focus on other wearable devices.

The Information says the decision to pause its smartwatch project was made as part of a broader cut in spending in the Reality Labs division. If you’ll recall, Meta laid off more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs in January, because the division was hemorrhaging money. Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call after the layoffs started that when it comes to Reality Labs, the company was focusing most of its investment “towards glasses and wearables going forward.”

At the moment, Meta’s wearable products are comprised of virtual reality headsets and smartglasses. They include the Meta Ray-Bans, which are a hit in the US. Meta reportedly has four augmented reality and mixed-reality glasses in development, but it’ll take some time until we see them. Based on previous reports, it pushed back the unveiling of its next mixed reality headset model codenamed “Phoenix” to early 2027.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-reportedly-plans-to-release-a-smartwatch-this-year-121247838.html?src=rss

India’s digital payment platforms process trillions of dollars a year through UPI, the government-built real-time payments rail that handles more than 90% of all payment transactions in the country, but one of their largest net revenue line items is not a payment product at all: it’s a cheap plastic speaker that sits on a shopkeeper’s counter and reads out incoming payments aloud.

The roughly 23 million soundboxes deployed across India earn about $220 million a year in rental fees, more than every explicitly UPI-linked revenue line in the ecosystem combined, according to estimates from Bernstein. Each device costs $7-12 to manufacture and earns its platform $7-10 a year in rent. A story adds: PhonePe processes about 48% of all UPI transactions in India. Its net payment processing revenue in H1 FY26 was about $83 million. Its device revenue was about $34 million. Running nearly half of India’s real-time payment infrastructure earns PhonePe only 2.4 times what it makes from renting speakers to shopkeepers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Tech companies are conflating traditional artificial intelligence with generative AI when claiming the energy-hungry technology could help avert climate breakdown, according to a report. Most claims that AI can help avert climate breakdown refer to machine learning and not the energy-hungry chatbots and image generation tools driving the sector’s explosive growth of gas-guzzling datacenters, the analysis of 154 statements found.

The research, commissioned by nonprofits including Beyond Fossil Fuels and Climate Action Against Disinformation, did not find a single example where popular tools such as Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot were leading to a “material, verifiable, and substantial” reduction in planet-heating emissions. Ketan Joshi, an energy analyst and author of the report, said the industry’s tactics were “diversionary” and relied on tried and tested methods that amount to “greenwashing.”

He likened it to fossil fuel companies advertising their modest investments in solar panels and overstating the potential of carbon capture. “These technologies only avoid a minuscule fraction of emissions relative to the massive emissions of their core business,” said Joshi. “Big tech took that approach and upgraded and expanded it.” […] Joshi said the discourse around AI’s climate benefits needed to be “brought back to reality.” “The false coupling of a big problem and a small solution serves as a distraction from the very preventable harms being done through unrestricted datacenter expansion,” he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to Lara Trump, Donald Trump has prepared but not yet delivered a speech about extraterrestrial life, though the White House says such a speech would be “news to me.” White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt continued: “I’ll have to check in with our speech writing team. Uh, and that would be of great interest to me personally, and I’m sure all of you in this room and apparently former President Obama, too.” The Hill reports: Lara Trump, speaking on the Pod Force One podcast, said the president has played coy when she and her husband Eric have asked about the existence of UFO’s and aliens. “We’ve kind of asked my father-in-law about this… we all want to know about the UFOs… and he played a little coy with us,” Lara Trump said. “I’ve heard kind of around, I think my father-in-law has actually said it, that there is some speech that he has, that I guess at the right time, I don’t know when the right time is, he’s going to break out and talk about and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life.”

Obama has clarified in recent days that he has seen no evidence that aliens are real, after comments he made on a podcast with Brian Tyler Cohen seeming to confirm his knowledge of extraterrestrial life went viral. “They’re real but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said on the podcast. “And they’re not being kept in… what is it? Area 51. There’s no underground facility unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

Later, in a post on Instagram, Obama clarified that he was trying to answer in the light-hearted spirit of a speed round of questions and that, “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there.” “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The first shot has been fired in the legal war over the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of its “endangerment finding,” which had been the foundation for federal climate regulations. Environmental and health groups filed a lawsuit on Wednesday morning in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the E.P.A.’s move to eliminate limits on greenhouse gases from vehicles, and potentially other sources, was illegal. The suit was triggered by last week’s decision by the E.P.A. to kill one of its key scientific conclusions, the endangerment finding, which says that greenhouse gases harm public health. The finding had formed the basis for climate regulations in the United States.

The lawsuit claims that the agency is rehashing arguments that the Supreme Court already considered, and rejected, in a landmark 2007 case, Massachusetts v. E.P.A. The issue is likely to end up back before the Supreme Court, which is now far more conservative. In the 2007 case, the justices ruled that the E.P.A. was required to issue a scientific determination as to whether greenhouse gases were a threat to public health under the 1970 Clean Air Act and to regulate them if they were. As a result, two years later, in 2009, the E.P.A. issued the endangerment finding, allowing the government to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change. “With this action, E.P.A. flips its mission on its head,” said Hana Vizcarra, a senior lawyer at the nonprofit Earthjustice, which is representing six groups in the lawsuit. “It abandons its core mandate to protect human health and the environment to boost polluting industries and attempts to rewrite the law in order to do so.”

[…] Also on Wednesday, two other nonprofit law firms filed their own lawsuit against the E.P.A. over the endangerment finding, on behalf of 18 youth plaintiffs. That suit, by Our Children’s Trust and Public Justice, argues that the E.P.A.’s move was unconstitutional. Separate legal challenges to E.P.A. rules are generally consolidated into one case at the D.C. Circuit Court, which is where disputes involving the Clean Air Act are required to be heard. But the sheer number of groups involved could make the legal battle lengthy and complicated to manage. A three-judge panel at the Circuit Court is expected to pore over several rounds of legal briefs before oral arguments begin. Those may not take place until next year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Uber plans to invest $100 million in EV charging infrastructure to support current and future robotaxi fleets in cities like Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Dallas, “eventually partner[ing] with multiple robotaxi companies on actual robotaxi deployment — WeRide, Waabi, Lucid, Nuro, May Mobility, Momenta, and Waymo of course,” reports CleanTechnica. From the report: “Cities can only unlock the full promise of autonomy and electrification if the right charging infrastructure is built for scale. That infrastructure needs to work for today’s drivers and the fleets of the future,” said Uber’s global head of mobility, Pradeep Parameswaran. In addition to building some infrastructure itself, the company is making “utilization guarantee agreements” with EVgo for various major US cities as well as Electra, Hubber, and Ionity in Europe.

On Uber’s latest shareholder call, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the company would make “targeted growth-oriented investments aligned with the 6 strategic areas of focus.” That includes self-driving vehicles/robotaxis. “With the benefit of learning from multiple AV deployments around the world, we’re more convinced than ever that AVs will unlock a multitrillion-dollar opportunity for Uber. AVs amplify the fundamental strengths of our platform, global scale, deep demand density, sophisticated marketplace technology, and decades of on-the-ground experience matching riders, drivers, and vehicles, all in real time,” Khosrowshahi added.

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Google’s Pixel 10a is essentially a flatter version of last year’s Pixel 9a, keeping the same Tensor G4 chip, camera hardware, RAM, storage, and $500 price while dropping features like Pixelsnap Qi2 charging and advanced Gemini AI capabilities found in higher-end models. Gizmodo reports: We use words like “candy bar” or “slab” to describe our full-screen smartphones, but Google has designed what is likely the slabbiest phone of the modern era. During an hour-long hands-on with Google’s all-new Google Pixel 10a, I slid the phone across a desk and felt oddly satisfied that it could glide as neatly as a figure skater without any hint of a camera bump hindering its path. It’s the first thing I need to bring up regarding the Pixel 10a, because there’s no other discernible difference between this phone and the previous-gen Pixel 9a.

And that seems to be the point. The Pixel 10a starts at $500, exactly how much the Pixel 9a cost at launch. In a Q&A with journalists, Google told Gizmodo that the company wanted to offer the same price point as before. That apparently required Google to stick with the same Tensor G4 chip as last year. You still have the same storage options of 128GB or 256GB and the minimum of 8GB of RAM. Think of the Pixel 10a as a Pixel 9a with a reduced camera bump. If you’re one of the heretics who uses a phone without a case, that fact alone may be enough to pay attention. Otherwise, you’ll be scrounging to find any real difference between the Pixel 10a and one of last year’s best mid-range phones.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Meta is preparing to spend $65 million this year to boost state politicians who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry, beginning this week in Texas and Illinois, according to company representatives. The sum is the biggest election investment by Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The company was previously cautious about campaign engagements, making small donations out of a corporate political action committee and contributing to presidential inaugurations. It also let executives like Sheryl Sandberg, who was chief operating officer, support candidates in their personal capacities.

Now Meta is betting bigger on politics, driven by concerns over the regulatory threat to the artificial intelligence industry as it aims to beat back legislation in states that it fears could inhibit A.I. development, company representatives said. To do that, Meta is quietly starting two new super PACs, according to federal filings surfaced by The New York Times. One group, Forge the Future Project, is backing Republicans. Another, Making Our Tomorrow, is backing Democrats. The new PACs join two others already started by Meta, one of which is focused on California while the other is an umbrella organization that finances the company’s spending in other states. In total, the four super PACs have an initial budget of $65 million, according to federal and state filings. Meta’s spending is set to start this week in Illinois and Texas, where the company generally favors backing Democratic and Republican incumbents or engaging in open races rather than deposing existing officials, company representatives said in interviews.

[…] Last year, Meta’s public policy vice president, Brian Rice, said the company would start spending in politics because of “inconsistent regulations that threaten homegrown innovation and investments in A.I.” The company started its first two super PACs, American Technology Excellence Project and Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across California. Meta put $45 million into American Technology Excellence Project in September. That money is expected, in turn, to flow to Forge the Future Project, Making Our Tomorrow and potentially to other entities. […] In California, which has some of the country’s most onerous campaign-finance disclosures, Meta in August put $20 million into Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across California, which shortens to META California. State laws require the sponsoring company to be disclosed in the name of the entity. In December, Meta put $5 million into another California committee called California Leads, which is focused on promoting moderate business policy and not A.I., according to state records.

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Mark Zuckerberg took the stand Wednesday in a high-profile jury trial over social media addiction. In an appearance that was described by NBC News as “combative,” the Facebook founder reportedly said that Meta’s goal was to make Instagram “useful” not increase the time users are spending in the app. 

On the stand, Zuckerberg was questioned about a company document that said improving engagement was among “company goals,” according to CNBC. But Zuckerberg claimed that the company had “made the conscious decision to move away from those goals, focusing instead on utility,” according to The Associated Press. “If something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them,” he said. 

The trial stems from a lawsuit brought by a California woman identified as “KGM” in court documents. The now 20-year-old alleges that she was harmed as a child by addictive features in Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok. TikTok and Snap opted to settle before the case went to trial. 

Zuckerberg was also asked about previous public statements, including his remarks on Joe Rogan’s podcast last year that he can’t be fired by Meta’s board because he controls a majority of the voting power. According to The New York Times, Zuckerberg accused the plaintiffs’ lawyer of “mischaracterizing” his past comments more than a dozen times.  

Zuckerberg’s appearance in court also apparently prompted the judge to warn people in the courtroom not to record the proceedings using AI glasses. As CNBC notes, members of Zuckerberg’s entourage were spotted wearing Meta’s smart glasses as the CEO was escorted into the courthouse. It’s unclear if anyone was actually using the glasses in court, but legal affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff reported that the judge was particularly concerned about the possibility of jurors being recorded or subjected to facial recognition. (Meta’s smart glasses do not currently have native facial recognition abilities, but recent reports suggest the company is considering adding such features.)

The Los Angeles trial has been closely watched not just because it marked a rare in-court appearance for Zuckerberg. It’s among the first of several cases where Meta will face allegations that its platforms have harmed children. In this case and in a separate proceeding in New Mexico, Meta’s lawyers have cast doubt on the idea that social media should be considered a real addiction. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri previously testified in the same Los Angeles trial that Instagram isn’t “clinically addictive.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-testifies-in-social-media-addiction-trial-that-meta-just-wants-instagram-to-be-useful-234332316.html?src=rss

Mark Zuckerberg is testifying in a landmark Los Angeles trial examining whether Meta and other social media firms can be held liable for designing platforms that allegedly addict and harm children. NBC News reports: It’s the first of a consolidated group of cases — from more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including over 350 families and over 250 school districts — scheduled to be argued before a jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Plaintiffs accuse the owners of Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snap of knowingly designing addictive products harmful to young users’ mental health. Historically, social media platforms have been largely shielded by Section 230, a provision added to the Communications Act of 1934, that says internet companies are not liable for content users post. TikTok and Snap reached settlements with the first plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman identified in court as K.G.M., ahead of the trial. The companies remain defendants in a series of similar lawsuits expected to go to trial this year.

[…] Matt Bergman, founding attorney of Social Media Victims Law Center — which is representing about 750 plaintiffs in the California proceeding and about 500 in the federal proceeding — called Wednesday’s testimony “more than a legal milestone — it is a moment that families across this country have been waiting for.” “For the first time, a Meta CEO will have to sit before a jury, under oath, and explain why the company released a product its own safety teams warned were addictive and harmful to children,” Bergman said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the moment “carries profound weight” for parents “who have spent years fighting to be heard.” “They deserve the truth about what company executives knew,” he said. “And they deserve accountability from the people who chose growth and engagement over the safety of their children.”

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Last year Dyson introduced the PencilVac, which it immediately declared the “world’s slimmest vacuum cleaner.” Presumably, then, the title of world’s slimmest wet floor cleaner goes to the newly unveiled PencilWash.

Promising a “lighter, slimmer and smaller solution to wet cleaning without compromising on hygiene,” the PencilWash is designed to let you clean everywhere you need to with minimal hassle. Like the vacuum cleaner with which it shares the first part of its name, the handle measures just 1.5 inches in diameter from top to bottom, and the whole thing weighs little more than 2kg.

The ultra-thin design allows the cleaner to lie almost completely flat, allowing you to get into tight corners or under low furniture, where more traditionally bulky devices might struggle. Its slender proportions also make it easier to store if your home is on the smaller side.

Dyson says the PencilWash only applies fresh water to floors, and after swiftly eliminating spills and stains it should dry up pretty quickly. Its high-density microfiber roller is designed to tackle both wet and dry debris in one pass, and because it doesn’t have a traditional filter, you won’t have to worry about trapped dirt or lingering smells.

Above the power buttons there’s a screen displaying remaining battery level, and the handle can be slotted into a charging dock when not in use.

The Dyson PencilVac will cost $349, with a release date yet to be announced.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/dyson-announces-the-pencilwash-wet-floor-cleaner-230152299.html?src=rss