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At the start of December, Samsung announced its first triple-folding phone, which opens not just once, but twice, unfurling into a massive 10-inch display. It’s not the first triple-folding phone to hit the market, but since Huawei is technically banned from operating in the U.S., it’s the first planned to officially arrive Stateside. Now the phone, called the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, finally has an official release date. But it also has an official price, and it’s eye-watering.

Folding phones have historically been pretty expensive, but with a retail price of $2,900, the Galaxy Z TriFold is nearly $1,000 more expensive that the company’s current folding flagship, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. Granted, being able to fold it out to a 10-inch display is kind of like stuffing a laptop in your pocket, but then, you can get an actual laptop (a really good one!) for less than half the cost.

If the idea of laying down more than three grand after tax isn’t deterring you, the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold goes on sale on Jan. 30, and can be bought either online or in-person at one of Samsung’s Experience Stores, with seven locations across California, Minnesota, New York, and Texas. If you happen to have a physical store near you, it might be worth checking in on their stock—Samsung won’t be taking preorders for this phone, and despite the high price, it sold out within minutes during its South Korean launch.

While Samsung does sell a 1TB model overseas, the base model will be all U.S. customers can buy at launch. This version of the TriFold comes in black and offers 512GB of storage. It’s decked out with a high resolution 2,160 x 1,584 inner display, a 2520 x 1,080 outer display, the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, 16GB of RAM, and a powerful 200MP main camera (although the other lenses aren’t as powerful as those found on non-folding phones). And yes, the screens are both AMOLED with a 120Hz refresh rate.

The novelty might be worth it for some, and I suppose if you buy the TriFold instead of a phone and a tablet separately, that could help justify the price. Still, you can get a non-folding Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for $1,050 right now, add an iPad Pro for $899, and still save $1,000 over the cost of this new gadget.

If you’re on the fence, the aforementioned Samsung Experience stores do offer demos of the TriFold so you can try before you buy, although the sparse selection of locations means that won’t be an option for many.

More affordable folding phones than the Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold

Pretty much every folding phone on the market right now is expensive, but if you must have a folding phone but you can’t justify the cost of a triple-folding model, there are other, cheaper options available.

The most obvious alternative is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is still pricey at its $2,000 retail price, though you can pay less if you can score a deal or special promotion. It’ll net you most of the same specs as the TriFold, although the inner screen maxes out at 8-inches instead of 10-inches. It’s still not a bad deal, since those extra two inches would come at $450 a pop. Currently, I’ve managed to track down an Amazon deal selling them for $1,600, although supply is limited.

If you’re stuck paying full price, you might instead prefer the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which starts at $1,800. That’ll also give you an 8-inch inner screen, although Google’s Tensor chips have a history of not being quite as strong as the Snapdragon chips that come with the Galaxy series, and the main camera is a far cry below the 200MP one found on both the Z Fold 7 and the TriFold.

There are also flip phones, although these aren’t really a replacement for folding phones. Instead of opening horizontally for a larger screen, they open vertically to reveal a standard phone-sized screen. In that way, they’re better for portability than they are for extra features, but they are a lot cheaper—the most recent Motorola Razr is currently on sale for $400 (MSRP $700), while the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is on sale for $900 (MSRP $1,100).

Finally, you might consider waiting for the rumored iPhone Fold, which is expected to come out later this year. Initial rumors put the price somewhere between $2,100 to $2,500, and while price definitely includes the Apple Tax, it’s still much cheaper than the TriFold.

Amazon is closing all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores in a shift to focus on its online same-day delivery service and new big-box retail stores. From a report: The e-commerce giant said Tuesday that some of its shuttered Amazon-branded brick-and-mortar stores would be converted into Whole Foods Market locations. Amazon said its branded stores failed to deliver the right economic model and distinctive customer experience necessary for large-scale expansion.

Amazon’s same-day delivery service for groceries is currently available in more than 5,000 U.S. cities and towns. The company said it plans to expand the service to more communities in 2026 but didn’t specify where. Amazon said it planned to open over 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After more than two months of contract disputes, NBCUniversal’s lineup of channels are still not being carried by Fubo, which is a bummer for anyone hoping to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics. Once again, NBC will be the primary place to watch the Winter Games, but Fubo subscribers will need to find alternate viewing methods if they want to watch events like figure skating, ice hockey, luge or skiing this year. The Olympics will also be broadcast on the USA Network and CNBC, and those channels are similarly blacked out on Fubo.

While the two media companies continue their negotiations, subscribers have had no choice but to sign up for other services — or at least test drive the ones that offer free trials — so if you’re a Fubo subscriber and you want to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics, here are some answers to your biggest questions, including which NBC channels are missing from the Fubo lineup, where to watch them, and when to tune in for Olympics coverage. 

Which channels are broadcasting the Olympics?

Olympics coverage will be broadcast daily on NBC, USA, and CNBC. NBC will be the main hub for all U.S. coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, showing daily live coverage of many popular events and a primetime broadcast each night spotlighting the top moments from competition.

How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics without Fubo

The Olympics officially run from Feb. 6-22 and and you’ll also be able to stream every single event live on Peacock. If you want to tune in to daily coverage on NBC, USA, and CNBC, you can also find those on platforms like DirecTV and Hulu + Live TV.

Which channels are no longer available on Fubo?

The following is a list of channels owned or licensed by NBC that are not currently available on Fubo, including NBC, USA, and CNBC:

Local Channels:

• NBC Local Affiliates

• Telemundo Local/National

Regional Sports Channels:

• NBC Sports 4K

• NBC Sports Bay Area

• NBC Sports Bay Area Plus

• NBC Sports Boston

• NBC Sports California

• NBC Sports California Plus

• NBC Sports California Plus 3

• NBC Sports Philadelphia

• NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus

National Channels:

• American Crimes

• Bravo

• Bravo Vault

• Caso Cerrado

• CNBC

• CNBC World

• Cozi

• Dateline 24/7

• E! Entertainment Television

• E! Keeping Up

• Golf Channel

• GolfPass

• LX Home

• Million Dollar Listing Vault

• MS NOW (formerly MSNBC)

• NBC NOW

• NBC Sports NOW

• NBC Universo

• True CRMZ

• New England Cable News

• Noticias Telemundo Ahora

• Oxygen True Crime

• Oxygen True Crime Archives

• Real Housewives Vault

• SNL Vault

• Syfy

• Telemundo Accion

• Telemundo al Dia

• The Golf Channel

• Today All Day

• Universal Movies

• USA Network

Why are these NBC-owned channels currently unavailable?

Per Fubo, NBC channels were pulled from the platform because of a disagreement over their long-standing content distribution agreement that has yet to be resolved.

When will the missing channels return?

Negotiations between the companies are ongoing, and after more than two months, there is still no projected return date.

What are the best alternatives to watch the Olympics?

Peacock is the most comprehensive place to see every Olympic event, and you can even find discounts and deals on subscriptions now. Every channel necessary to watch the Olympics is available on DirecTV, and Hulu + Live TV, too. Here are some of your choices if you’re looking for another way to watch the 2026 Winter Games.

Watch NBC on Peacock

Get a deal on Peacock with Walmart+

Try DirecTV free for 5 days, and get $30 off your first three months

Try Hulu + Live TV for free

Other services to watch NBC

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-get-nbc-without-fubo-ahead-of-the-2026-winter-olympics-163805696.html?src=rss

Pinterest is planning on laying off up to 15 percent of its workforce, according to a report by CNBC. The company has been posting stellar earnings reports these past few quarters, so why punish employees? You already know the answer. It’s AI.

The company said it’s “reallocating resources” to AI projects and prioritizing “AI-powered products and capabilities.” It’s also cutting down on office space, presumably because AI algorithms don’t require cubicles and the occasional low-grade snack.

Pinterest noted in a recent security filing that it expects these cuts to the workforce will be complete by the end of the third quarter in September. The company had 4,500 global employees as of April, so the layoffs should impact up to 675 people.

It will also be reshaping its sales and marketing strategies, likely to highlight new AI initiatives. To that end, Pinterest introduced an AI-powered shopping tool a few months back.

“Our investments in AI and product innovation are paying off,” Pinterest CEO Bill Ready said in November. “We’ve become a leader in visual search and have effectively turned our platform into an AI-powered shopping assistant for 600 million customers.”

Unfortunately, becoming a “leader in visual search” has created some headaches for end users. The platform has become overridden with AI-generated slop, leading the company to introduce a dial to reduce the prevalence of artificial content.

Pinterest is just the latest company to downsize in favor of AI. A consulting firm found that AI was the stated blame for around 55,000 layoffs in the US last year. 

This leads some to question the veracity of this reasoning, as some entities could be engaging in something called AI-washing. This is when companies exaggerate the use of AI and blame it for standard cost-cutting layoffs, leading investors to think “ooh, shiny.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/pinterest-is-conducting-a-massive-round-of-layoffs-to-prioritize-ai-powered-products-and-capabilities-163440004.html?src=rss

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Home security setups tend to get expensive fast, especially when you’re trying to cover more than just the front door. That’s what makes this current deal on the Eufy Security SoloCam S220 4-Camera Pack worth considering. It’s currently down to $179.99 on Amazon—a sharp drop from its usual $399.99, and its lowest price ever, according to price-trackers. At roughly $45 per camera, you’re getting full perimeter coverage for less than the cost of a single premium camera from some competitors, making this a solid value for anyone trying to keep an eye on multiple entry points.

Eufy Security S220 SoloCam Solar Security Camera (4-Pack)

$179.99
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $220.00

$179.99
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $220.00

These are wire-free units powered by built-in solar panels, which means you don’t need to mess with wires or outlets. That said, if your mounting spots don’t get much sun, you might still need to charge them manually from time to time. Once they’re running, video is recorded at 2K resolution, which is sharp enough during the day, and holds up well at night with infrared. Motion alerts use onboard AI detection that can tell people from pets. You can also draw up to two activity zones per camera, which helps cut down on useless notifications. There’s two-way audio, so you can speak to someone at your door or driveway, and support for Alexa and Google Assistant, though Apple HomeKit isn’t supported.

These cameras each include 8 GB of onboard storage, which might last a week or two depending on how much activity they pick up. But if you want facial recognition or need longer backups, you’ll need to pick up the HomeBase 3 separately. Also worth noting: This system only works on 2.4GHz wifi, so if your router is overloaded or your signal strength varies, expect some hiccups. Still, for less than half the original price, this bundle checks most of the boxes for basic outdoor security without monthly fees or complicated installation.

With the launch of its all-new, all-electric EX60, Volvo has put lessons learned from the EX30 and EX90 to use. The EX60 is built on Volvo’s new SPA3 platform, made only for battery-electric vehicles. It boasts up to 400 miles (643 km) of range, with fast-charging capabilities Volvo says add 173 miles (278 km) in 10 minutes. Mega casting reduces the number of parts of the rear floor from 100-plus to one piece crafted of aluminum alloy, reducing complexities and weld points.

Inside the cabin, however, the real achievement is Volvo’s new multi-adaptive safety belt. Volvo has a history with the modern three-point safety belt, which was perfected by in-house engineer Nils Bohlin in 1959 before the patent was shared with the world. Today at the Volvo Cars Safety Center lab, at least one brand-new Volvo is crashed every day in the name of science. The goal: to test not just how well its vehicles are protecting passengers but what the next frontier is in safety technology.

Senior Safety Technical Leader Mikael Ljung Aust is a driving behavior specialist with 20 years under his belt at Volvo. He says it’s easy to optimize testing toward one person or one test point and come up with a good result. However, both from the behavioral perspective and from physics, people are different. What’s not different, he points out, is how people drive.

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OpenAI launched a dedicated team in October called OpenAI for Science, led by vice president Kevin Weil, that aims to make scientists more productive — but Weil admitted in an interview with MIT Technology Review that the LLM cannot yet produce novel discoveries and says that’s not currently the mission.

UC Berkeley statistician Nikita Zhivotovskiy, who has used LLMs since the first ChatGPT, told the publication: “So far, they seem to mainly combine existing results, sometimes incorrectly, rather than produce genuinely new approaches.”

“I don’t think models are there yet,” Weil admitted. “Maybe they’ll get there. I’m optimistic that they will.” The models excel at surfacing forgotten solutions and finding connections across fields, but Weil says the bar for accelerating science doesn’t require “Einstein-level reimagining of an entire field.”

GPT-5 has read substantially every paper written in the last 30 years, he says, and can bring together analogies from unrelated disciplines. That accumulation of existing knowledge — helping scientists avoid struggling on problems already solved — is itself an acceleration.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When Apple stops supporting older iPhones and iPads with the latest version of iOS or iPadOS, it usually isn’t the end of the line—Apple keeps releasing new security-only patches for those devices for another year or two, keeping them usable while their hardware is still reasonably capable.

Once those updates dry up, it’s rare for Apple to revisit those older operating systems, but the company does sometimes make exceptions. That was the case yesterday, when the company released a batch of updates for long-retired iOS and iPadOS versions that otherwise hadn’t seen a new patch in months or years. Those updates include iOS 12.5.8, available for devices as old as 2013’s iPhone 5S and 2014’s iPhone 6; iOS 15.8.6, available for devices like the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, and iPad Air 2; and iOS 16.7.13, available for devices like the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

Both iOS 15 and iOS 16 were last patched in mid-2025, but iOS 12’s last patch was released in January of 2023.

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Gen. Michael Guetlein, the senior officer in charge of the US military’s planned Golden Dome missile defense shield, has laid out an audacious schedule for deploying a network of space-based sensors and interceptors by the end of President Donald Trump’s term in the White House.

The three-year timeline is aggressive, with little margin for error in the event of budget or technological setbacks. The shield is designed to defend the US homeland against a range of long-range weapons, including Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), cruise missiles, and newer threats like hypersonic weapons and drones.

“By the summer of ’28, we will be able to defend the entire nation against ballistic missiles, as well as other generation aerial threats, and we will continue to grow that architecture through 2035,” Guetlein said Friday in a presentation to representatives from the US defense industry.

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The European Commission has started proceedings to ensure Google complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in certain ways. Specifically, the European Union’s executive arm has told Google to grant third-party AI services the same level of access to Android that Gemini has. “The aim is to ensure that third-party providers have an equal opportunity to innovate and compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape on smart mobile devices,” the Commission said in a statement. 

The company will also have to hand over “anonymized ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search” to rival search engines. The Commission says this will help competing companies to optimize their services and offer more viable alternatives to Google Search. 

“Today’s proceedings under the Digital Markets Act will provide guidance to Google to ensure that third-party online search engines and AI providers enjoy the same access to search data and Android operating system as Google’s own services, like Google Search or Gemini,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. “Our goal is to keep the AI market open, unlock competition on the merits and promote innovation, to the benefit of consumers and businesses.”

The Commission plans to wrap up these proceedings in the next six months, effectively handing Google a deadline to make all of this happen. If the company doesn’t do so to the Commission’s satisfaction, it may face a formal investigation and penalties down the line. The Commission can impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s global annual revenue for a DMA violation.

Google was already in hot water with the EU for allegedly favoring its own services — such as travel, finance and shopping — over those from rivals and stopping Google Play app developers from easily directing consumers to alternative, cheaper ways to pay for digital goods and services. The bloc charged Google with DMA violations related to those issues last March. 

In November, the EU opened an investigation into Google’s alleged demotion of commercial content on news websites in search results. The following month, it commenced a probe into Google’s AI practices, including whether the company used online publishers’ material for AI Overviews and AI Mode without “appropriate compensation” or offering the ability to opt out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-eu-tells-google-to-give-external-ai-assistants-the-same-access-to-android-as-gemini-has-154157081.html?src=rss

Every time Apple’s AirPods 4 with active noise cancelation go on sale I have the same thought: maybe I made a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I love my regular AirPods 4, but the noise canceling aspect makes their sister pair very enticing.

Take now, for instance, when the AirPods 4 with ANC are on sale for $119, down from $179. The 34 percent discount brings them to only $4 more than the standard AirPods 4 current sale price and below their usual $129. While we’ve seen the ANC model as low as $99, the $119 price tag is the best deal we’ve seen so far this year. 

Apple released its fourth-generation AirPods in late 2024 and they’re still our pick for best budget AirPods on the market. We gave the ANC model an 86 in our review thanks to their effective noise canceling, better sound quality and features like adaptive audio. Overall, at $60 off, they’re a great option to pick up. 

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/airpods-4-with-anc-drop-to-119-153239093.html?src=rss

With the monumental winter storm recently covering most of the nation, now seems a good time to look at some cold and winter weather myths and misinformation. You might be freezing, but there’s no excuse for being freezing and ignorant.

Myth: A blizzard is a heavy snowstorm

Technically, for a storm to be a blizzard, it must have these things: wind speeds of over 35 mph and low visibility (under 1/4 mile) for at least three hours. So you could have blizzard from blowing snow, even if no snow is falling, and you could get a ton of accumulation without it technically ever being a blizzard. (Whether it’s a snowstorm or a blizzard likely won’t matter to you if you’re trapped in it, however.)

Myth: It can be too cold to snow

There’s some nuance to this one. Extremely cold air contains very little moisture, but it has to be very cold. According to Matt Peroutka, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, “Once the air temperature at ground level drops below about -10 degrees Fahrenheit, (-20 degrees Celsius), snowfall becomes unlikely in most places.”

But there could still be something like snow. “There actually is no such thing as too low a temperature for some sort of ice crystal to form and for such crystals to settle out and land on the surface,” explains Fred W. Decker of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, in an interview with Scientific American. “Such a deposit of ice needles is not usually considered ‘snow,’ however; in the Arctic, for instance, we might refer instead to an ice fog.”

Myth: You lose most of your body heat through your head

I dug deeply into this myth here, but the bottom line is, not wearing a hat accounts for around seven to 10 percent of bodily heat loss because your head accounts for about seven to 10 percent of your body. On the other hand, how cold you feel is subjective, and not wearing a hat in cold weather will probably make you feel colder, even if you’re not actually losing most of your body heat. Bottom line: Wear a hat to feel warm in cold weather, or don’t wear a hat to prove you’re not losing too much heat.

Myth: Alcohol keeps you warm in cold weather

In an emergency situation, drinking brandy from the cask around a rescue St. Bernard’s neck is a bad idea. Alcohol makes you feel warm by dilating blood vessels, but it actually lowers your body temperature by drawing heat away from your core, which increases your risk of hypothermia. But, much like “losing heat through your head” myth, drinking alcohol often makes people feel warmer, so if you’re safe on your porch and you want a hot toddy, it will seem to “warm you up.” Speaking of…

Myth: Drinking hot liquids warms you faster than drinking cold liquids

It’s probably impossible to drink enough of a hot liquid to raise the temperature of your body’s core. On the other hand (and for the third entry in a row) it might make you feel warmer to drink something warm, and often that’s what you really want, even if it isn’t literally making you warmer. So if you’re safe on your porch and you want a hot tea to feel cozy, go for it.

Traditional winter signs that don’t actually predict anything

There might be a lot we can learn from folk traditions, but man, they get a lot of things wrong too. The following are some folklore sayings about winter that seem dubious:

• Thick corn husks, onion skins, and apple skins means a cold winter: The thickness of the outside of vegetables reflect the condition under which they were grown; they don’t predict the future.

• Squirrels with very bushy tails means a cold winter: Like the vegetables, the thickness of a squirrel’s tail is generally determined by how healthy and fed it was leading up to winter. More nuts in summer means beefier squirrels.

• You can predict winter severity by looking at a caterpillar tail: They say the wider the rusty brown sections on a wooly caterpillar, the milder the coming winter will be. The more black there is, the more severe the winter. The problem is, you’d have to look at a lot of caterpillars to even check if this is true, because some would have wider brown stripes and some wouldn’t. According to University of Massachusetts entomology Mike Peters in the Farmer’s Almanac, “There’s evidence that the number of brown hairs has to do with the age of the caterpillar—in other words, how late it got going in the spring. The [band] does say something about a heavy winter or an early spring. The only thing is … it’s telling you about the previous year.”

Weird myth: This winter storm was manmade and designed to freeze a gigantic sea serpent

The weirder corners of the internet are spreading the theory that the Biblical beast Leviathan has awakened, and the winter storm was created by us to freeze it in its tracks. Their evidence is satellite photos which seem to show a gigantic serpent shape in the Atlantic Ocean. As much as I’d welcome a Biblical sea monster rising from the ocean to seek retribution—all hail Leviathan!—it’s unlikely to exist. I’m 99.9% certain (still have some hope) these were natural geological formations seen on Google Earth being mistaken for a sea monster as a result of pareidolia, the human tendency to see patterns in random data. Also: We can’t control winter storms any more than we can control hurricanes, even if we were about to be eaten by a sea monster.

Pinterest said on Tuesday it would trim its workforce by less than 15% and reduce office space, as the social media company looks to reallocate resources to AI-focused roles and initiatives. From a report: The announcement comes as the company competes with TikTok and Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram for digital advertising budgets, as these platforms continue to draw marketers with their extensive user base.

Pinterest had 5,205 full-time employees as of September 2025. The latest job cut would translate to less than 780 positions. Top executives at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting said while jobs would disappear, new ones would spring up, with two telling Reuters that AI would be used as an excuse by companies which were planning layoffs anyway. Last week, design software maker Autodesk also announced a 7% job cut to redirect investments to its cloud platform and AI efforts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—The annual 24 hour race that kicks off the American racing season took place this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway. Each year, the crowd gets bigger and bigger, drawn in large part by the hybrid prototypes that contest the GTP class for overall victory. After Formula 1, these are some of the most complex, sophisticated race cars ever to turn a wheel—and it doesn’t hurt that they look extremely cool too. But yet again, endurance racing wants to offer more than just entertainment.

A large number of automotive technologies or safety features that we mostly take for granted today made their way into road cars from the race track. Seatbelts, rear view mirrors, turbocharged engines, aerodynamics, direct-injection engines, dual-clutch gearboxes, and more owe their existence to competition. Although, truth be told, direct examples of racing technology transfer in the mid-21st century seem less common than the intangible benefits gained when a bunch of motorsports-trained engineers have lunch every day with their road car colleagues.

That is starting to change, though, but now the domain is in simulation. Vast amounts of data are generated during the course of a race—each of the 11 GTP cars that raced at Daytona collects 1,600 different channels of data from onboard sensors, with nearly as many on the GTD machines that are based on road-going cars like Porsche’s 911 or Chevrolet’s Corvette. With 60 cars running for 24 hours—and that’s just the first race of the year—that’s a heck of a lot of high-quality data being generated, and now IMSA wants to leverage that to help automotive and technology companies develop better simulation tools, with the creation of IMSA Labs.

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Big changes have come to social media platform TikTok. On Jan. 22, TikTok’s operations were passed from Chinese company ByteDance to TikTok USDS Joint Venture, a new entity backed by Larry Ellison’s Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake, and United Arab Emirates-based investment firm MGX.

Days later, on Jan. 23, TikTok introduced new Terms of Service for users. So far, the transition has not been smooth. Users immediately raised privacy concerns over the new TOS, taking to X with posts like this:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Changes to TikTok’s privacy policy

While TikTok’s new terms sound draconian, they aren’t vastly different from TikTok’s old TOS (which were draconian). The main change covers AI. The company added a new section to its TOS saying it will collect information from “AI interactions, including prompts, questions, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the responses they generate,” so don’t think the conversation you have will stay between you and the chatbot.

TikTok also says it will collect “precise location data,” unless users opt out. This will let the service collect user’s exact coordinates instead of a general city or region, that the company will use to serve “customized ads and other sponsored content.”

Another tweak: TikTok now promises it will act in accordance with “applicable law, such as for permitted purposes under the California Consumer Privacy Act,” instead of the more general “applicable state privacy laws” in the old terms.

Other than that, the terms remain largely the same as they were before. TikTok says it collects data that is user-provided, inferred, or contextual, that includes location data, age, email, phone numbers, chat messages, metadata on anything you upload, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual life or sexual orientation, immigration status, and more. Then it uses that data to advertise to you, to “infer additional information about you,” train its algorithm, and basically anything else it’s legally allowed to use it for.

Opting out of TikTok’s data collection

Credit: Stephen Johnson

If you’d prefer that TikTok collect less of your personal data, you can go to the settings and privacy page in the app and opt out of “Targeted ads outside of TikTok,” “Using Off-TikTok activity for ad targeting,” turn off location tracking, stop contact syncing, and make other changes. You can also go to your phone’s Settings page, select TikTok, and change its permissions to track your location. Here’s a deeper dive into how and why to change TikTok’s privacy settings.

Accusations of TikTok censorship

Along with promising to delete the app over data-collection worries, many TikTokers are alleging that the platform is censoring or throttling posts based on politics, particularly videos related to the shooting of Alex Pretti. On the #TikTokCensorship hashtag on X, users report that the Democratic Party’s TikTok videos have gone from millions of views to zero views and that the platform is censoring videos about Jeffrey Epstein as well as other subjects.

It’s too early to tell whether these reports are a result in changes in TikTok’s algorithm or the result of a technical glitch. TikTok released a statement blaming videos with zero views and other performance issues on a “cascading system failure” caused by a power outage:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

TikTok’s new management vowed last month to retrain the platform’s recommendation algorithm “on US user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation.” What being free of “outside manipulation” looks like in a practical sense has yet to be seen.

For close to a century, geoscientists have pondered a mystery: Where did Earth’s lighter elements go? Compared to amounts in the Sun and in some meteorites, Earth has less hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, as well as noble gases like helium—in some cases, more than 99 percent less.

Some of the disparity is explained by losses to the solar system as our planet formed. But researchers have long suspected that something else was going on too.

Recently, a team of scientists reported a possible explanation—that the elements are hiding deep in the solid inner core of Earth. At its super-high pressure—360 gigapascals, 3.6 million times atmospheric pressure—the iron there behaves strangely, becoming an electride: a little-known form of the metal that can suck up lighter elements.

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