Apple has launched its next-generation AirTag for $29 and brought a slew of new features along with it. But, first, it’s important to get this out of the way: The new AirTag still doesn’t have a keyring hole, so you’ll still need a case or secure pocket.

Once you get over that, the new Apple AirTag does offer some nice improvements. For starters, it’s now powered by Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same one used in the iPhone 17 lineup and for the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It also uses Precision Finding to reach items up to 50 percent further away than the previous AirTag model. This feature will now work with any Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2 or a later iteration of either. 

The new AirTag is also 50 percent louder than before and has what Apple calls a “distinctive new chime.” It still uses the Find My network to bounce off other Bluetooth users and locate the AirTag. 

Apple

Launched in 2021, Apple’s AirTag has long stood as our favorite Bluetooth tracker for iPhones. It’s convenience within the Find My app is a big help and almost makes up for the fact that it doesn’t have a key ring — almost. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apples-new-airtag-still-doesnt-have-a-keyring-hole-150540254.html?src=rss

The ninth mainline Resident Evil is trying to split the difference between the series’ action-heavy entries and the stress-inducing hide-and-seek episodes. During a four-hour playthrough of some early parts of Resident Evil Requiem, I spent time with both of the two main characters, Grace and series mainstay Leon. They offer distinctly different playstyles, talents, strengths, and weaknesses. While it isn’t an entirely new premise for the survival horror series (in the original, playing as Chris Redfield offered more challenge than playing as Jill Valentine) it’s never been this pronounced. 

I started playing as Leon, entering a medical facility he seemed to have been invited to. With a cavernous main hall, it feels like yet another iconic Resident Evil hub, immediately reminding me of Raccoon City’s Police Precinct and even the original’s cavernous manor. Wings to explore? Check. Suspiciously quiet and empty central area that will almost definitely get overrun by zombies at some point? Probably.

Both Grace and Leon’s parts can be played in either third- or first-person perspective, though Leon’s segments seem better suited to the third-person view, since there’s just a lot more shooting. Grace’s segments were tense and demanded my full attention, more akin to Resident Evil 7. During this early part of the game, there is a lot of hiding, plenty of ammo conservation and a lot more learning from dumb mistakes. The parts of the game I played with Leon reminded me more of Resident Evil 4 (or 5 or 6 – but let’s gloss over those).

Once you take control of him, Leon is immediately attacked and has to fend off roughly 15 infected doctors, nurses and patients. It’s a significant tone shift from Grace skulking around the facility, hiding behind plants and sometimes just hoping for the best. 

Capcom

Leon, fortunately, arrives with several weapons, including a new melee option, a hatchet. Using this, he can make targeted attacks to lop off limbs and aim at the head to deliver more damage. At least on these basic zombies, I found relentless slashing more effective than more targeted efforts – I’m sure future enemies will demand more… nuanced approaches. A later enemy must be decapitated to kill it. 

After a set number of swings, you will need to retreat and sharpen the blade, which adds to the jeopardy while not disrupting the chaos. The hatchet can even be used to parry attacks – if you get the timing down. 

Leon even gets to wield a chainsaw during this initial encounter, but only after claiming it from one particularly industrious zombie that seemed to find it inside a hospital. It was crucial to both disarm this zombie and grab the chainsaw before another corpse could take a turn on it. However, just because the chainsaw gets dropped doesn’t mean it’s turned off. I suffered significant damage when I repeatedly rushed into the spinning power tool. 

The zombies in Requiem are also a little more nuanced compared to previous games – if a zombie can have nuance. While nearly all of the zombies will attack you on sight, they can be distracted or delayed based on the person they were before they turned. For example, the chef zombie (a hardy, bigger zombie than the ones you’ve come across until that point) will only chase you around his kitchen. Step out into the corridor and he’ll leave you alone. Elsewhere, a zombie (attached to an IV, cute) has his eyes bandaged and will react aggressively to any noise. I used this to my advantage, hurling an empty bottle at another zombie who stood nearby. The IV zombie killed him immediately. Another time, a senior exec who’s been turned is firing an employee of his… by killing them, moaning “You’re fired” as he does so. This little vignette gave me enough time to dim the lights and hide when he left his office. 

In Requiem, players are expected to exploit individual zombie behaviors to outmaneuver them. It’s also a welcome dose of humor to the survival horror series, reminding me a little of the camp moments in Dead Rising, another zombie-centric Capcom series. 

Leon doesn’t have to strategize quite as much, arriving with a particularly powerful handgun, the Requiem, that he eventually passes over to Grace. This is capable of stopping pretty much (but not all) enemies you come across, although it initially comes with only a single bullet, so you really have to make it count. 

During a set-piece battle against a towering, swollen former patient, I got to test Requiem’s action-horror controls under pressure. Leon finds a shotgun and has to flank (and outrun) his “hungry” attacker. The environment in the rafters of the building is designed so it’s easy to figure out where you need to go and how to stop the giant zombie from cornering you. Ammo, at least during this fight, was scattered around, which was a relief after struggling to find bullets during Grace’s segment.

Despite the lack of traditional weapons, Grace eventually finds a blood injector (and its companion blood analysis system). These turn into Requiem’s crafting system. Powered by literal buckets and puddles of blood (you have to draw up infected blood from certain parts of the environment and enemies), samples can be combined with scraps, herbs and more to create high-powered first-aid shots, injectable explosive blood, ammunition and a lot of other things. Analysing different blood types (and solving some light puzzles) adds further crafting options. 

Capcom

During the preview, the infected blood injector was exclusively for Grace’s use. It’ll be intriguing if only one character gets to benefit from the crafting system, although Capcom teased customizable weapons for Leon, which might better suit his playstyle. Grace might also be handicapped by the typewriter save system popularized in the first few RE games. This could mean you’ll only be able to save if you have an ink ribbon on you, a very stressful part of inventory management early on in the series — she really can’t catch a break. However, it appears to be adjustable in difficulty settings. 

According to Capcom’s Resident Evil showcase last week, infected blood will apparently play a strong role in Requiem, touching on both Leon’s past (he’s apparently suffering from a mystery ailment) and the circumstances surrounding the death of Grace’s mother. And it wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game with mystery, buckets of blood, and a pulpy villain. Capcom has primed another fascinating villain with Requiem’s Dr. Gideon, a former Umbrella virologist who was seemingly written for an actor to go full camp baddie – if the doctor’s hooded snakeskin trenchcoat wasn’t a giveaway. 

Resident Evil Requiem will be released on February 27, 2026 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/resident-evil-requiem-preview-150000849.html?src=rss

The UK is losing more jobs than it is creating because of AI and is being hit harder than rival large economies, new research suggests. From a report: British companies reported that AI had resulted in net job losses over the past 12 months, down 8% — the highest rate among other leading economies including the US, Japan, Germany and Australia, according to a study by the investment bank Morgan Stanley. The research surveyed companies using AI for at least a year across five industries: consumer staples and retail, real estate, transport, healthcare equipment and cars.

It found that British businesses reported an average 11.5% increase in productivity aided by AI. US businesses reported similar gains, but created more jobs than they cut. It suggests UK workers are being hit particularly hard by the rise of AI, as higher costs and taxes also weigh on the job market. Unemployment is at a four-year high, as rises in the minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions squeeze hiring.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The EU has launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s xAI following a public outcry over how its Grok chatbot spread sexualized images of women and children.

The billionaire entrepreneur has come under scrutiny from regulators around the world this month after people began using Grok to generate deepfakes of people without consent. The images were posted on the X social network as well as the separate Grok app, both of which are run by xAI.

The probe, announced on Monday under the EU’s Digital Services Act, will assess if xAI tried to mitigate the risks of deploying Grok’s tools on X and the proliferation of content that “may amount to child sexual abuse material.”

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The video game industry is experiencing something that most consumer-facing businesses would consider remarkable: organized online campaigns from players are actually forcing studios to cancel projects or publicly walk back any association with AI-generated content.

Running With Scissors, the publisher behind the Postal shooter franchise, recently scrapped a title after players accused its trailer of containing AI-generated graphics. Goonswarm Games, the developer behind the canceled project, subsequently shut down entirely and cited six years of lost work alongside what it described as a flood of threats and accusations.

Sandfall Interactive’s “Obscur: Expedition 33” had its Indie Game Awards Game of the Year honor rescinded after the developer said it had considered AI-generated images, even though the final release contained none. Larian Studios, the developer behind Baldur’s Gate 3, faced immediate backlash after CEO Swen Vincke mentioned in an interview that the company was using generative AI to “explore ideas” for an upcoming release. Vincke later clarified on X that artists use AI only for reference images the way they would use “art books or Google,” and Larian executives eventually stated on Reddit that AI would play no role in final artwork.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Duolingo, no matter how you feel about it, accomplishes one thing: It makes practicing a skill every day easy. The application focuses on language, but it also offers math, music, and even chess lessons if you dig around a bit. There are many other subjects worth learning, though, and many ways you can use gamification to learn new skills and generally improve your life. Here are five I found:

Learn geography with Globo

Credit: Justin Pot

I love traveling and learning about the world, but I’ll admit there are some regions I don’t know well. Globo is an iOS and Android app that quizzes you on flags, capitals, and more, all while teaching you trivia along the way. There are courses for all the continents, if you want to focus on a specific region, or you can take the combined global course and work your way through the whole planet.

I’ve been playing with this for about a week and enjoying it for the most part. I like the way questions I answered wrong show up in future quizzes. It does feel like I’m going to run out of content fairly quickly, which is disappointing, but given that the application is free with no in-app subscriptions, I think it’s worth checking out.

Learn art history with Learn Art

Credit: Normand Martin

Learn Art is a free iPhone and iPad application by developer Normand Martin. With it, you’ll find a slideshow of classic art from European history. To learn the history of the piece, tap the screen. You can also take an interactive quiz on art history.

I’m going to be honest: Art history is very much not my subject. In playing with this for a couple days, though, I find myself able to identify more artists than I did before, and if nothing else, it’s nice to have access to high resolution scans of so many classic works of art right on my iPad. If you’re at all curious about art history, I’d say give it a spin. The app is free but there is an in-game currency you can earn either by answering questions correctly or spending money. In my testing this wasn’t too much of a burden.

Learn instruments with Yousician

Credit: Justin Pot

I’ve been meaning to get back into playing guitar for a while, so I’ve been testing various apps. Yousician seems like a great starting point, assuming in-person instruction isn’t an option. This application uses the microphone on your device so you can use a real instrument to learn actual songs. The guitar version, which I tried for a few days, combines video instruction with Guitar-Hero style practice sessions. There’s even a backing track during the early lessons, which might help anyone who’d prefer to play along to an actual song. This makes the early stages of learning an instrument, which can be a drag, feel fun.

There are also courses for piano, ukulele, bass, and singing. If you want to get a feel for it, there is a limited free version, but you might need to tap the “X” on the prompt to enter your credit card number if you don’t want to pay. Plans start at $7.49 per month.

Learn typing with TypingClub

Credit: Justin Pot

Wish your typing was faster, or more accurate? The free website TypingClub is perfect for this. It offers touch typing lessons starting from the very basics with tests to work your way up. Lessons unlock as you go. If the early lessons are too easy for you, you can always take a test to earn a higher placement.

Memorize anything with Anki’s flash cards

Credit: Justin Pot

I didn’t grow up in the U.S., meaning I didn’t learn the state capitols and locations as a kid. At one point I was tired of not knowing where anything is, so I downloaded Anki. This is an open source application for every platform that makes it easy to learn using flash cards. The system is all about self accountability: You report how easily you were able to come up with the right answer. The system is set up to keep exposing you to the things you find hard. You can design your own decks, if you want, or you can use any of the thousands of decks offered on the website. I, having mastered U.S. states, am moving on to learning the Mexican ones. I’m sure there’s something you’re interested in memorizing, too.

Europe is probing Elon Musk’s X for failing to take action to prevent the spread of AI-generated sexually explicit images including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), regulators said in a press release. The European Commission’s investigation could result in “further enforcement steps” against X, not long after it levied a $140 million fine against the platform.

“Sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation. With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA [Digital Services Act], or whether it treated rights of European citizens — including those of women and children — as collateral damage of its service,” said the Commission’s executive VP, Henna Virkkunen in a statement.

The EU said that it will assess whether X took measures to reduce risks around the dissemination of illegal content when it deployed Grok onto the platform. Those risks include manipulated sexually explicit images including content that may amount to CSAM. “These risks seem to have materialized, exposing citizens in the EU to serious harm,” the Commission stated.

On top of the new inquiry, the EC is also expanding its 2023 investigation of X over its recommendation algorithm and tools used to prevent the spread of illicit content.

The investigation is coming at a delicate time for Europe, which is already in the Trump administration’s crosshairs over its scrutiny of American tech companies. And the EU would also be going up against Musk, who is the owner and has the biggest megaphone on X. After X was hit with a 120 million euro ($140 million fine) for breaching Europe’s Digital Services Act, Musk called the EU “the fourth Reich” and said in a post on X that it should be “abolished.”

In response to the inquiry, X reiterated previous comments it has made about Grok. “We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity and unwanted sexual content,” a spokesperson told The New York Times.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-eu-is-investigating-grok-and-x-over-potentially-illegal-deepfakes-134506678.html?src=rss

This week, young people are looking at the recent past through rose-colored glasses, living their best lives by filming harmless classroom pranks, and, hopefully, protecting their futures by not swallowing too many chia seeds or roasting themselves with heating pads.

What does 2016 nostalgia mean?

A few weeks ago, I posted about the online trend of millennial optimism which was focused on the years around 2010, but things have gone further: Young people are nostalgic specifically for 2016. This probably sounds bizarre to you. 2016 saw the deaths of Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, and Prince, and levels of political and social upheaval many of us had never experienced, leading many to regard 2016 as the worst year ever (little did we know).

So why are younger people nostalgic for it? First, because if you were a young person, the edges of societal breakdown weren’t really on your radar. 2016 was the year of Pokemon Go, Snapchat, and the bottle-flipping trend. You were watching this awesome new show called Stranger Things and hanging out with your friends, on an internet that didn’t feel like an algorithm-driven hellscape. Nostalgia is a personal thing; if you’re a young adult in 2026, 2016 is your childhood, and things went so far south afterwards with the pandemic and the continued erosion of “normal” civic life that 2016 would understandably feel like the last normal year. Coming of age during a collapse is not a picnic, and I don’t begrudge anyone a little nostalgia; look at the world we left them. But don’t take my word for it. Check out some of the 2.2 million nostalgia videos on TikTok’s #2016 to draw your own conclusions.

Viral videos of the week: absurdist classroom pranks

I don’t think there’s a name for the kind of viral videos I’m featuring this week, so I’m calling them “absurdist classroom pranks.” They’re videos where kids/teens in a school do something absurd but harmless, while trying to keep themselves from cracking up. These documents of good-hearted acts of stealth rebellion are both hilarious and youth-affirming. Like this Instagram reel from @avamonpere with five million views of a couple dudes meticulously arranging a charcuterie board in the middle of a lecture:

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Or the ongoing series “bringing random items to school,” in which Instagram’s @eli6666k and his boys do just what the title says: pull the weirdest things they can from their backpacks, while trying to keep from laughing. I wasn’t even able to do it while watching. Here’s a couple:

View this post on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

But check out the source. The series is ongoing so there’s more to come.

Dangers from the internet

In part 4,034 of my 36,321 part series, we have a trio of things that people online are doing that no one should actually do in real life, ever.

• The fire challenge: A Chicago-area mom offers a warning on behalf of her badly burned daughter: Do not participate in a “a viral social media trend” called “The Fire Challenge”; that is, covering your hands with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer and setting them on fire. This is a tragic story, but like most media reports of injuries from online challenges, I can’t actually find any evidence of any videos like this on social media, so People calling it a “viral social media trend” seems inaccurate. Maybe those videos are out there, but they’re hardly viral or a trend. There’s a “tiktokfirechallenge” hashtag, with 34 videos, none of which depict anything dangerous. While #firechallenge contains some videos warning against the fire challenge, but none that show it actually happening.

• Do not eat too many chia seeds: Chia seeds are a whole thing with young people. They make “chia water,” mix ’em up with apples and make “pudding,” and make super gross AI videos about the supposed health benefits of just raw-dogging a handful of seeds. That last one is a problem. Chia seeds are a good source of fiber, but according to nutritionists, you shouldn’t eat them without soaking them in liquid first. They absorb fluids, and eating raw seeds could result in intestinal blockage and choking.

• Toasted skin syndrome: This one unlocked a phobia I never knew I had: If you routinely use a heating pad on its highest setting, you can literally slow roast your own flesh. It’s called toasted skin syndrome or “erythema ab igne” in medical parlance, and it’s caused by long-term exposure to personal heat sources like heating pads, electric blankets, space heaters, or even a laptop on your thighs. TikTok user @teezubal raised awareness by posting a video of her friend’s alarmingly mottled back flesh that has been viewed over 50 million times in a week. Her friend insists, “it’s fine, I promise” but it’s not fine. Milder cases can take months to resolve, and if you keep it up, the discolored flesh can supposedly stay like that forever. The solution: If you use a heating pad, keep it set to “low.”

It’s that time of year where a great pair of headphones double as earmuffs and a current sale will ensure you get a great quality — and good looking — option. One of our favorite wireless headphones for 2026 is available for 35 percent off. 

Amazon is offering the first-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra Bluetooth Headphones for $279, down from $429. Since coming out last April, they’ve become our choice for best noise-canceling wireless headphones. Notably, the sale is only available in the headphone’s nice limited edition Deep Plum model. 

We gave the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones an 86 in our review, thanks, in part, to their incredible active-noise cancellation (ANC) — an industry-lead Bose has held for years. They also offers improved audio, producing a warmer and clearer sound than other Bose headphones. Plus, they live up to their name, remaining comfortable even after hours and hours thanks to cushioning inside the headband and earpads. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-bose-quietcomfort-ultra-headphones-are-35-percent-off-130020033.html?src=rss

A good home theater setup goes beyond just having the right TV (although that certainly does help a lot). Getting the right sound for your space, the right lighting and making sure your streaming gear is up to date are all things that can go a long way to making your setup feel premium.

And don’t think that just because you’re not hosting movie night every weekend that a good home theater setup is a waste. Whether your family is full of cinephiles, you love playing video games with your kids or you plan on hosting friends to watch Super Bowl 2026, the right home theater equipment can make your experience much better. We test a ton of that technology here at Engadget; if you’re looking to make some changes to your setup, we’ve collected some of our favorite home theater gear here to make your shopping list a bit easier to compile.

Best home theater gear

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/the-best-gear-to-upgrade-your-home-theater-setup-130000755.html?src=rss

The 2026 tax filing season—for 2025 returns—begins on Jan. 26, which means scammers are ramping up efforts to steal taxpayers’ information and money. These are a few of the tax-related schemes to watch out for this year.

‘Tax resolution’ scams

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is alerting consumers to a phone scam currently circulating in which callers claim to be from the “Tax Resolution Oversight Department,” “Tax Mediation and Resolution Agency,” or some similar official-sounding (but fake) government organization. They will claim that you owe back taxes and say they will help you apply for an “IRS liability reduction program” (also fake).

The scammers’ aim here is to collect your Social Security number (SSN) and possibly an upfront payment for their services. They will likely pressure you and create a sense of urgency with lines like “this may be our only attempt to reach you.” Don’t fall for it. If you do actually owe back taxes, the IRS will send you a notice via mail, and you’ll have options to settle that debt directly with the agency.

Tax-related phishing scams

A common type of tax scam is the fraudulent text or email that appears to be from the IRS but is actually a phishing campaign. The FTC’s most recent alert reminds consumers that any message that asks you to verify your identity in order to receive your refund is a scam. You may get a text or email “from” the IRS or your state tax authority notifying you that they’ve processed your refund, and all you have to do is provide some information via the link provided in order to claim it.

As with any phishing scam, doing so hands your information directly to bad actors. Neither the IRS nor your state tax office will contact you via text, email, or social media message, and you should never click links in unsolicited communication.

IRS impersonation scams

Next, there’s the general category of IRS impersonation scams. Both of the above could be included here, but there’s also the fake IRS letter that—with great urgency—demands sensitive personal information or payment for taxes owed. Sometimes, these letters request said payment via gift card, which is always a red flag. Letters may also say something about an unclaimed refund and request photos of your identification.

Scammers have also been known to call people about their tax bill or refund while claiming to represent the IRS or another agency that provides government benefits. They may also claim that your information is being used in some type of crime. If a caller threatens you or demands payment, hang up immediately.

Tax prep scams

If you’re hiring a tax professional to help you with your return, you should vet them before handing over your information. At best, a tax preparer may lack the proper credentials and experience—at worst, they may falsify your return or pocket your refund. A “ghost” tax professional will scam you by not signing your return after they’ve prepared it.

You are legally responsible for your taxes, so do your due diligence and review your return carefully before signing your own name. Don’t pay for services in cash, and always get a receipt.

Tax identity theft scams

This scam typically involves a scammer filing a tax return using your name and SSN and pocketing the refund—and you may not realize that you’re a victim until after you’ve filed your real return and received a notice from the IRS about the duplicate. To prevent this, set up an identity protection PIN with the IRS. This six-digit number changes every calendar year, and no one can file a return under your SSN or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) without it. Note that the IRS will never ask for your IP PIN, so any communication requesting it is (also) a scam.

IRS support scams

Finally, scammers may contact you and offer paid services for something you can do for free. For example, you can easily create an IRS account online and do not need to pay someone to do it for you or hand over your personal information to a third party in the process. Anyone who offers unsolicited help to set up your account, negotiate your tax debt, or otherwise manage your return or refund (especially for a fee) is a scammer.

How to protect yourself from tax scams

As we’ve mentioned, stay vigilant to common scam tactics, such as unsolicited communication, a sense of urgency, and a demand for money or information. The IRS has specific ways of contacting taxpayers, and you should know how to verify that mailed notices and other forms of communication are real. You can always call the IRS directly to confirm if what you’re being told is legitimate. Don’t click links in texts, emails, or social media messages—instead, go directly to the IRS.gov website and access your account there.

When it comes to your return, if you’re not taking the DIY route, choose a qualified tax professional, and request an IP PIN to protect your SSN against fraudulent filing. Consider filing early and electronically, which will also get your refund processed sooner.

Friday 72-year-old Richard Stallman made a two-hour-and-20-minutes appearance at the Georgia Institute of Technology, talking about everything from AI and connected cars to smartphones, age verfication laws, and his favorite Linux distro. But early on, Stallman also told the audience how “I despise DRM…I don’t want any copy of anything with DRM. Whatever it is, I never want it so badly that I would bow down to DRM.” (So he doesn’t use Spotify or Netflix…)

This led to an interesting moment when someone asked him later if we have an ethical obligation to avoid piracy.. First Stallman swapped in his preferred phrase, “forbidden sharing”…

“I won’t use the word piracy to refer to sharing. Sharing is good and it should be lawful. Those laws are wrong. Copyright as it is now is an injustice.”

Stallman said “I don’t hesitate to share copies of anything,” but added that “I don’t have copies of non-free software, because I’m disgusted by it.” After a pause, he added this. “Just because there is a law to to give some people unjust power, that doesn’t mean breaking that law becomes wrong….

“Dividing people by forbidding them to help each other is nasty.”

And later Stallman was asked how he watches movies, if he’s opposed to DRM-heavy sites like Netflix, and the DRM in Blu-ray discs? “The only way I can see a movie is if I get a file — you know, like an MP4 file or MKV file. And I would get that, I suppose, by copying from somebody else.”

“Sharing is good. Stopping people from sharing is evil.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Crew members traveling to the lunar surface on NASA’s Artemis missions should be gearing up for a grind. They will wear heavier spacesuits than those worn by the Apollo astronauts, and NASA will ask them to do more than the first Moonwalkers did more than 50 years ago.

The Moonwalking experience will amount to an “extreme physical event” for crews selected for the Artemis program’s first lunar landings, a former NASA astronaut told a panel of researchers, physicians, and engineers convened by the National Academies.

Kate Rubins, who retired from the space agency last year, presented the committee with her views on the health risks for astronauts on lunar missions. She outlined the concerns NASA officials often talk about: radiation exposure, muscle and bone atrophy, reduced cardiovascular and immune function, and other adverse medical effects of spaceflight.

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Earlier this month, the media site Press Gazette reported that now Google “is increasingly prioritising AI summaries, X posts and Youtube videos” on its “Discover” feed (which appears on the leftmost homescreen page of many Android phones and the Google app’s homepage).

“The changes could be devastating for publishers who rely heavily on Discover for referral traffic. And it looks set to accelerate a global trend of declining traffic to publishers from both Google search and Discover.”

Xavi Beumala from website analytics platform Marfeel warned in a research update: “Google Discover is no longer a publisher-first surface. It’s becoming an AI platform with YouTube and X absorbing real estate that once went to newsrooms…” [They warn later that “This is not a marginal UI experiment. It is a reallocation of feed real estate away from links and toward inline Youtube plays and generated summaries.”] Google says it prioritises “helpful, reliable, people-first content”. Unlike Google News, there is no requirement that Google Discover showcases bona fide publisher websites.

In recent months fake news stories published by fraudulent website publishers have been promoted on Google Discover, reaping tens of millions of clicks. Google said it was working on a “fix” for this issue…

Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok content may also start flowing into the Discover feed in future. When Google announced the addition of posts from X, Instagram and Youtube Shorts in September, it said there would be “more platforms to come”.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

California-based Karman Industries “says it has developed a cooling system that uses SpaceX rocket engine technology to rein in the environmental impact of data centers,” reports the Los Angeles Times, “chilling them with less space, less power and no water.”

Karman has developed a cooling system similar to the heat pumps in the average home, except its pumps use liquid carbon dioxide as refrigerant, which is circulated using rocket engine technology rather than fans. The company’s efficient pumps can reduce the space required for data center cooling equipment by 80%.

Over the years, data centers have used fans and air conditioning to blow cold air on the chips. Bigger facilities pass cold liquid through tubes near the chips to absorb the heat. This hot liquid is sent outside to a cooling yard, where sprawling networks of pipes use as much water as a city of 50,000 people to remove the heat. A 50 megawatt data center also uses enough electricity to power a mid-sized city… Cooling systems account for up to 40% of a data center’s power consumption and an average midsized data center consumes more than 35,000 gallons of water per day…

U.S. data centers will consume about 8% of all electricity in the country by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency… The cooling systems are projected to use up to 33 billion gallons of water by 2028 per year… To serve this seemingly insatiable market, Karman has developed a rotating compressor that spins at 30,000 revolutions per minute — nearly 10 times faster than traditional compressors — to move heat…

About a third of Karman’s 23-person team came from SpaceX or Rocket Lab, and they co-opted technologies from aerospace engineering and electric vehicles to design the mechanics for the high-speed motors. The system uses a special type of carbon dioxide under high pressure to transfer heat from the data center to the outside air. Depending on the conditions, it can do the same amount of cooling using less than half the energy. Karman’s heat pump can either reject heat to air, or route it into extra cooling, or even power generation.
The company “recently raised $20 million,” according to the article, “and expects to start building its first compressors in Long Beach later this year….”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brax Technologies just announced “a privacy-focused alternative to locked-down tablets” called open_slate that can double as a consumer tablet and a Linux-capable workstation on ARM.

Earlier Brax Technologies built the privacy-focused smartphone BraX3, which co-founder Plamen Todorov says proved “a privacy-focused mobile device could be designed, crowdfunded, manufactured, and delivered outside the traditional Big Tech ecosystem.”

Just as importantly, BraX3 showed us the value of building with the community. The feedback we received — what worked, what didn’t, and what people wanted next — played a major role in shaping our direction going forward. Today, we’re ready to share the next step in that journey…

They’re promising their “2-in-1″ open_slate tablet will be built with these guiding principles:

Modularity beyond repairability”. (“In addition to a user-replaceable battery, it supports an M.2 expansion slot, allowing users to customize storage and configurations to better fit their needs.”)
Hardware-level privacy and control, with physical switches allowing users to disable key components like wireless radios, sensors, microphones, and cameras.
Multi-OS compatibility, supporting “multiple” Android-based operating systems as well as native Linux distributions. (“We’re working with partners and the community to ensure proper, long-term OS support rather than one-off ports.”)
Longevity by design — a tablet that’s “supported over time”
Brax has already created an open thread with preliminary design specs. “The planned retail price is 599$ for the base version and 799$ for the Pro version,” they write. “We will be offering open_slate (both versions) at a discount during our pre-order campaign, starting as low as 399$ for the base version and 529$ for the Pro version for limited quantities only which may sell out in a day or two from launching pre-orders…

“Pre-orders will open in February, via IndieGoGo. Make sure to subscribe for notifications if you don’t want to miss the launch date.”

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader walterbyrd for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

KDE’s “Plasma Login Manager” is apparently dropping support for FreeBSD, the Unix-like operating system, reports the blog It’s FOSS. They cite a recently-accepted merge request from a KDE engineer to drop the code supporting FreeBSD, since the login manager relies on systemd/logind:

systemd and logind look like hard dependencies of the login manager, which means the software is built to work exclusively with these components and cannot function without them… logind is a component of systemd that is responsible for user session management…
This doesn’t mean that KDE has abandoned the operating system altogether. FreeBSD users can still run the KDE Plasma desktop environment and continue using SDDM, the current login manager that works just fine on such systems.

The article argues FreeBSD users “won’t really care much for missing out on this as they have plenty of login manager options available.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.