Intel has quietly stopped maintaining its open-source user-space driver stack for Gaudi accelerators. Phoronix reports: It turns out earlier this year Intel archived the SynapseAI Core open-source code and is no longer maintained by Intel. The open-source Synapse AI Core GitHub repository was archived in February and README updated with: “This project will no longer be maintained by Intel. Intel has ceased development and contributions including, but not limited to, maintenance, bug fixes, new releases, or updates, to this project. Intel no longer accepts patches to this project. If you have an ongoing need to use this project, are interested in independently developing it, or would like to maintain patches for the open source software community, please create your own fork of this project.”

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This is a video of the Great Ball Contraption (GBC) of Japan Brickfest 2025, constructed using 49 different ball-moving LEGO modules from eight master LEGO builders. The machine spans a very respectable 31 meters (102 feet). Damn, that is a lot of ball moving! Me? When I’m uncomfortable at the dinner table and need to move my own I do it like a gentleman: awkwardly squirming in my chair until somebody asks if I pooped myself and I regret not just using a salad fork.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The last vehicle will roll off the assembly line at Volkswagen’s plant in Dresden, Germany, on Tuesday, marking the first time in the automaker’s 88-year history that it has closed a plant in its home country. Volkswagen warned of potential production cuts last year, as it faced shaky demand in Europe and China, its biggest market, as well as higher tariffs that have crimped sales in the United States.

After 24 years of vehicle production, the Dresden plant will be converted into a research hub focused on technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and chip design. Volkswagen will team up with the government of the state of Saxony and the Dresden University of Technology on the project at the plant, known as the Transparent Factory because of its glass walls. “We did not take the decision to end vehicle production at the Transparent Factory after more than 20 years lightly,” Thomas Schafer, chief executive of the Volkswagen brand, said in a statement. “From an economic perspective, however, it was absolutely necessary.”

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Remodeling your house can be an exciting experience. It can also be an expensive one, which is why a lot of homeowners opt to go the DIY route. But any DIY remodel can also be daunting, even if you’re relatively comfortable with home maintenance and repair tasks.

Whether you’re contemplating a DIY remodel for the cost savings or because it’s a fun challenge, there are a lot of online tools that can make the planning and execution of your project a lot easier. The 10 apps below can help you find inspiration, identify furniture and other items that will support your vision, and even show you how to tackle the entire project, step-by-step.

Best apps for DIY inspiration

Every home remodel starts with a need for change: you’re bored with your current look or you feel a sense of dissatisfaction with the flow or functionality of your house. But that feeling that something isn’t quite right doesn’t mean you immediately know what you want. These apps can help you get inspired:

• Houzz. One of the most popular interior design tools out there, and for good reason: With the Houzz app, you can see nearly infinite examples of interior design that you can leverage for inspiration. You can search by paint color, design aesthetic, or other details to see what other folks have done so you can steal their ideas and make them your own.

• LIKEtoKNOW.it. Instagram can be a treasure trove of design ideas, but folks don’t always think to tag every stick of furniture or lamp in the photo for your shopping convenience. This app takes screenshots of Insta posts or other sources and searches for the product, serving up links to stores where you can buy it.

• RoomStyler. This website offers a 3D plan creator and a moodboard tool, but it’s best used for inspiration. You can easily browse through designs created by people all over the world, and connect with other people who are also planning remodels so you can trade ideas and tips.

• Morpholio Board (iOS) / MoodBoard Maker (Android). If you’re the sort who likes to make a mood board when tackling a visual project like a home remodel, these tools are perfect. Collect product images, color swatches, and other visuals from just about any online source with the flick of a finger.

Best apps for DIY planning

Once you have a project in mind, it’s time to make it more concrete. These apps can help you plan out your project:

• CubiCasa. If you want to know whether your dream furniture will fit in a space, or you need to calculate how much flooring or cabinetry you’ll need for a kitchen remodel, CubiCasa makes creating an accurate floor plan of your house a snap. Just scan your rooms with your phone, and in a day or so you’ll get a clean floor plan with dimensions that you can use for planning.

• Pantone Connect (iOS / Android). It’s not free, but the myPANTONE app leverages the color-matching power of the Pantone folks to help you come up with pleasing, professionally-blessed color schemes for your home. It can even match a color in a photo and deliver a color palette for you.

• Paint My Room (iOS / Android). If you want to take a bit more of a DIY approach to choosing paint colors, this nifty app lets you apply a color to the walls of your room so you can see what it will look like before committing.

• HomeByMe. This is an incredibly useful app that lets you create 2D floorplans that you can easily convert into 3D floorplans. Then you can populate those floor plans with real, actual products to see what it will all look like.

• HomeZada. HomeZada is a platform that makes it easy to manage all aspects of running your home, from maintenance schedules to budgets. But it can be used more narrowly to manage a renovation or remodeling project, tracking materials, costs, and timelines in one handy place. If the sprawl of a remodel intimidates you (or you’re just the type to forget how much tile needs to be ordered the moment you’re standing in the store), this app can help keep everything managed.

The best step-by-step app for DIY projects

Finally, it’s time to get the thing done. But how?

• wikiHow (iOS / Android). If you’re not sure you have the skills and experience needed to tackle your DIY project, this classic online resource can show you how to do just about any task, complete with photos and videos to guide you. Using the app is a lot more streamlined and organized than sifting through 1,000 YouTube videos.

The New York Times is getting in on the year-end roundup bandwagon. The publication’s new Year in Games wraps up stats about which of its daily puzzles and brain-teasers readers played over the course of 2025. People can get their own personalized reports, or just look over the community stats for the Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee and Strands games. The Year in Games reviews are available on the iOS and Android apps for The New York Times, as well as on a dedicated mobile web page.

Annual analysis of all your activities has become a common feature for lots of services. Reports like Spotify Wrapped or the other many entertainment-related ones are usually a fun time, with splashy graphics and high shareability. Uber feels like an odder match.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nyt-games-has-a-year-in-review-thing-now-too-203000878.html?src=rss

Senators launched a probe Tuesday demanding that tech companies explain exactly how they plan to prevent data center projects from increasing electricity bills in communities where prices are already skyrocketing.

In letters to seven AI firms, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) cited a study estimating that “electricity prices have increased by as much as 267 percent in the past five years” in “areas located near significant data center activity.”

Prices increase, senators noted, when utility companies build out extra infrastructure to meet data centers’ energy demands—which can amount to one customer suddenly consuming as much power as an entire city. They also increase when demand for local power outweighs supply. In some cases, residents are blindsided by higher bills, not even realizing a data center project was approved, because tech companies seem intent on dodging backlash and frequently do not allow terms of deals to be publicly disclosed.

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Behold: Ken Paxton will now demonstrate that broken clocks are indeed right twice a day. The Texas Attorney General is notorious for, well, a very long list of reasons. But in this case, he at least appears to be doing consumers a solid: He sued five television companies for using ad-targeting spyware on their TVs.

Texas sued Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL for allegedly recording what viewers watch without their consent. The predatory technology, Automated Content Recognition (ACR), identifies the content being played on a device by matching short content fingerprints to a database.

ACR is essentially a Shazam for video. Except in this case, its sole purpose is to target your viewing habits to help line advertisers’ pockets. “This software can capture screenshots of a user’s television display every 500 milliseconds, monitor viewing activity in real time and transmit that information back to the company without the user’s knowledge or consent,” Paxton’s press release says.

An LG Ad Solutions website boasts how ACR helps advertisers “target by content viewership, including show, network, app, service or genre.” Since it works with anything running on the device, it can identify purchases and subscriptions, track gamers’ habits and pinpoint users by region, city or zip code.

There should be a setting on your TV to turn it off. But, as Texas’ lawsuit against LG notes, TV software often “deceptively guides consumers to activate ACR and buries any explanation of what that means in dense legal jargon that few will read or understand.”

Paxton’s press release emphasized Hisense and TCL’s home base of China. “These Chinese ties pose serious concerns about consumer data harvesting and are exacerbated by China’s National Security Law, which gives its government the capability to get its hands on US consumer data,” the statement reads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/texas-sues-five-tv-manufacturers-over-predatory-ad-targeting-spyware-201500248.html?src=rss

The new chief of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service told officers this week that they must become as fluent in programming languages like Python as they are in foreign languages like Russian as the spy agency adapts to what she described as a space between peace and war. Blaise Metreweli, MI6’s first female chief and previously the service’s director general of technology and innovation, said in her first public speech that mastery of technology is now required across the organization.

She warned that advanced technologies including AI, biotechnology and quantum computing are revolutionizing both economies and the reality of conflict. Metreweli focused particularly on threats from Russia, saying the country is testing the UK in the grey zone through cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, drones near sensitive sites and propaganda operations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Whether you’re looking for a more immersive sound experience (and clearer dialogue) to elevate movie nights and TV shows, or to upgrade your music listening experience, Samsung is widely known for its highly rated soundbars that combine a sleek aesthetic with a space-saving design that avoids the clutter of a full home theater system. Right now, a new Samsung Q990F soundbar is more than 50% off at $967.99 (originally $1,997.99) on Woot, making this an especially good time to invest. 

Samsung Q990F 11.1.4ch Q Series Soundbar

CA$967.99
at Woot

CA$1,997.99
Save CA$1,030.00

CA$967.99
at Woot

CA$1,997.99
Save CA$1,030.00

PCMag gives this soundbar glowing reviews and an Editors’ Choice Award, calling it the “best-sounding soundbar you can buy.” The Q990F is a premium four-piece surround system with a soundbar, a subwoofer, and a pair of rear satellite speakers. Compared to its predecessor, the HW-Q990D, this model has 23 drivers, seamless compatibility with other Samsung products, and multiple wired and wireless connections. While it’s slightly larger than other soundbars on the market, its performance justifies the extra size.

Its sound, described by PCMag as “deep lows and crisp, detailed highs,” delivers stunning sound, as do the multitude of drivers and frequency range. It delivers the closest performance to a surround-sound home theater system, but is much more convenient, compact, and affordable at this steep discount. 

Along with an HDMI cable and a power cable to connect to each speaker, it also comes with a small, no-frills remote that’s intuitive to use. Bluetooth 5.3 and wifi connectivity allow it to work with Google Cast and Apple AirPlay 2, allowing for multi-room audio, and it also supports direct streaming via Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect. The companion app has adjustable EQ controls, and while it only lets you tweak bass and treble, you can fully control the volume level of each channel to further fine-tune. 

If you’re looking for a soundbar-based surround sound system that provides the most immersive listening experience with as few components as possible, the Samsung Q990F soundbar stands in a class of its own and is well worth the splurge at a $1,030 discount. Just note that Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship. 

Google’s at it again, once more insisting that AI is something people need or want more of in their lives. The latest move comes from YouTube Gaming, which announced an open beta for a project called Playables Builder. This allows select YouTube Creators to use a “prototype web app built using Gemini 3” to make bite-sized games, no coding required. 

YouTube was testing the addition of small-scale games to its desktop and mobile platforms back in 2023, then added multiplayer capability to Playables last year. Since AI is appearing all over Google-owned services, today’s news probably shouldn’t be a surprise.   

The premise sounds similar to the Disco and GenTabs projects that Google Labs recently announced. They offer an AI layer to web browsing: provide a natural language input, get an interactive widget that does what you asked for. Despite my skeptical attitude toward AI, I can see those tools having some practical applications for search, where the goal is to aggregate whatever data you’re looking for into a manageable, easy-to-read interface. 

But a game is not simple. A good game takes what might be a simple idea and, with finesse and iteration and skill, transforms it into a genuinely fun experience. It’s a cute parlor trick that AI assistants can help people to make stuff without technical knowledge, but there’s a reason professional game devs work hard to amass all their know-how. Playables Builder is a peak example of misunderstanding what artificial intelligence is best at. Just because a chatbot can make a game doesn’t mean anyone will enjoy playing it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/youtube-is-letting-creators-make-playable-games-with-a-gemini-3-tool-195500318.html?src=rss

If you’re looking for something to watch during a holiday break from work or school, you can’t go wrong with anime, and right now you can sign-up for a year of Crunchyroll for as low as $65. Holiday discounts running through December 29 bring the anime streaming service’s year-long Fan subscription from $80 down to $67 and its Mega Fan subscription from $120 down to $100. That’s either $13 or $20 off access to one of the largest libraries of anime series and movies out there.

While both the Fan and Mega Fan plans are ad-free, you do get some different benefits depending on which you decide to pay for. Fan subscribers get full access to Crunchyroll’s library, new episodes “shortly after they air in Japan” and five percent off select purchases in the Crunchyroll Store. Mega Fan subscribers get all those benefits, plus the ability to stream on four devices at the same time, download HD quality episodes and movies to view offline, play games from the Crunchyroll Game Vault and receive 10 percent off select products in the Crunchyroll Store.

Notably missing from either subscription is access to Crunchyroll’s new Manga service, but unless you’re specifically looking for reading material, you’ll get plenty of entertainment out of Crunchyroll’s video library. Outside of Netflix, which produces and licenses its own growing collection of anime, Crunchyroll is the de facto place to watch Japanese animation in the US. You’ll find long-running series like One Piece and newer hits like Spy X Family, alongside hundreds of more niche series.

Crunchyroll has its issues, of course. Since the streaming service was acquired by Sony, it’s been particularly interested in using generative AI to subtitle shows, which has already produced poor results. It’s hard to beat Crunchyroll’s library, though, and for as little as $65, you’ll get more than your money’s worth.

Check out our coverage of the best streaming 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/entertainment/streaming/crunchyroll-annual-subscriptions-are-on-sale-for-the-holidays-194345327.html?src=rss

Netflix has inked a deal with iHeartMedia to begin showing video podcasts, so the content will never, ever run out. The partnership covers new episodes from more than 15 popular podcasts, including The Breakfast Club, Dear Chelsea, My Favorite Murder and others. Customers will have access to video podcast episodes in early 2026. 

In addition to new footage, the partnership includes a select library of archival episodes from each show. It’s worth noting that YouTube already platforms video versions of many popular podcasts, including stuff like The Breakfast Club.

This follows a similar deal from earlier this year in which Netflix announced plans to stream video podcast episodes from Spotify. That partnership covers stuff like The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Zach Lowe Show, among others.

Many people use podcasts for background noise and soon Netflix will be a major player in that market, such as it is. Disney+ also recently started prioritizing those “barely paying attention” eyeballs, as it inked its own deal to air The Rich Eisen Show on weekdays.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-will-soon-start-airing-video-podcasts-like-the-breakfast-club-193112093.html?src=rss

The weight of AI server racks has reached a point where legacy data centers cannot accommodate them even with significant retrofitting efforts, The Verge reports. Chris Brown, chief technical officer at Uptime Institute, said most retrofitting attempts would require “bulldozing the building and starting over from scratch.”

AI racks are projected to reach 5,000 pounds compared to the 400 to 600 pounds that racks weighed three decades ago. The dramatic increase stems from hundreds to 1,000 GPUs packed densely into each rack alongside memory chips and liquid cooling systems that can add substantial weight. AI workloads now consume up to 350 kilowatts per rack, 35 times the 10 kilowatts that traditional computer chip workloads averaged a decade ago. Legacy data centers with raised floors typically max out at around 1,250 pounds per square foot for static loads.

Chris McLean, president of Critical Facility Group, said that rack heights have grown from 6 feet to 9 feet over nearly two decades, creating problems with doorframes and freight elevators in older buildings.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back in September during Meta Connect, the company previewed a new ability for its smart glasses lineup called Conversation Focus. The feature, which is able to amplify the voices of people around you, is now starting to roll out in the company’s latest batch of software updates.

When enabled, the feature is meant to make it easier to hear the people you’re speaking with in a crowded or otherwise noisy environment. “You’ll hear the amplified voice sound slightly brighter, which will help you distinguish the conversation from ambient background noise,” Meta explains. It can be enabled either via voice commands (“hey Meta, start Conversation Focus”) or by adding it as a dedicated “tap-and-hold” shortcut. 

Meta is also adding a new multimodal AI feature for Spotify. With the update, users can ask their glasses to play music on Spotify that corresponds with what they’re looking at by saying “hey Meta, play a song to match this view.” Spotify will then start a playlist “based on your unique taste, customized for that specific moment.” For example, looking at holiday decor might trigger a similarly-themed playlist, though it’s not clear how Meta and Spotify may translate more abstract concepts into themed playlists. 

Both updates are starting to roll out now to Meta Ray-Ban glasses (both Gen 1 and Gen 2 models), as well as the Oakley Meta HSTN frames. The update will arrive first to those enrolled in Meta’s early access program, and will be available “gradually” to everyone else.

Meta’s newest mode of smart glasses, the Oakley Meta Vanguard shades, are also getting some new features in the latest software update. Meta is adding the option to trigger specific commands with a single word, rather than having to say “hey Meta.” For example, saying “photo” will be enough to snap a picture and saying “video” will start a new recording. The company says the optional feature is meant to help athletes “save some breath” while on a run or bike ride. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-is-rolling-out-conversation-focus-and-ai-powered-spotify-features-to-its-smart-glasses-192133928.html?src=rss

Apple doesn’t like to talk about its upcoming products before it’s ready, but sometimes the company’s software does the talking for it. So far this week we’ve had a couple of software-related leaks that have outed products Apple is currently testing—one a pre-release build of iOS 26, and the other some leaked files from a kernel debug kit (both via MacRumors).

Most of the new devices referenced in these leaks are straightforward updates to products that already exist: a new Apple TV, a HomePod mini 2, new AirTags and AirPods, an M4 iPad Air, a 12th-generation iPad to replace the current A16 version, next-generation iPhones (including the 17e, 18, and the rumored foldable model), a new Studio Display model, some new smart home products we’ve already heard about elsewhere, and M5 updates for the MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and the other MacBook Pros. There’s also yet another reference to the lower-cost MacBook that Apple is apparently planning to replace the M1 MacBook Air it still sells via Walmart for $599.

For power users, though, the most interesting revelation might be that Apple is working on a higher-end Apple Silicon iMac powered by an M5 Max chip. The kernel debug kit references an iMac with the internal identifier J833c, based on a platform identified as H17C—and H17C is apparently based on the M5 Max, rather than a lower-end M5 chip. (For those who don’t have Apple’s branding memorized, “Max” is associated with Apple’s second-fastest chips; the M5 Max would be faster than the M5 or M5 Pro, but slower than the rumored M5 Ultra.)

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U.S. officials excoriated the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return, in a social media post on Tuesday. From a report: The pronouncement appeared to signal a rockier period for U.S.-E.U. trade relations, as the two governments work to finalize a trade framework they announced this year. The United States has been pushing Europe to open up its tech sector to American firms. But U.S. officials have complained that the European Union has not walked back broader regulation of company business practices while also proceeding with investigations of major American tech firms like Google, X, Amazon and Meta.

In a social media post, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which has carried out the negotiations, said that the European Union and some member states had “persisted in a continuing course of discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives” against American companies.

The United States had raised concerns with the European Union about these issues for years “without meaningful engagement,” all while allowing European companies to operate freely in the United States, it said. If the European Union continues these policies, the United States would “have no choice but to begin using every tool at its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures,” the U.S.T.R. said. It named fees and restrictions on service companies among the possibilities, and said it would use the same approach against other countries that echoed Europe’s strategy.

The post singled out potential European service providers that could be targeted by name, listing Accenture, DHL, Mistral, SAP, Siemens and Spotify, among others.

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mprindle writes: The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users’ data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.

The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office also highlighted “serious concerns” about the two Chinese companies being required to follow China’s National Security Law, which could give the Chinese government access to U.S. consumers’ data.

According to complaints filed this Monday in Texas state courts, the TV makers can allegedly use ACR technology to capture screenshots of television displays every 500 milliseconds, monitor the users’ viewing activity in real time, and send this information back to the companies’ servers without the users’ knowledge or consent.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As I write this, I’m coming off a lunch break that lasted a little too long because I couldn’t stop watching YouTube Shorts on my TV. And if Instagram Reels are your own vertical video poison—and you own an Amazon Fire TV device—you can now do the same. Starting today, you can download the new Instagram for TV app to watch Reels on your big screen via a dedicated interface that should be way more natural than simply casting the mobile app from your phone.

Currently exclusive to Amazon devices, the Instagram for TV app supports up to five accounts and comes with full functionality for searching for Reels and profiles, as well as liking Reels and browsing comments or reactions (although text posts and photo posts are not included). Unlike on the standard mobile feed, Amazon says “Reels are organized into channels tuned to your interests,” which you can see from a horizontal home screen.

These channels are somewhat similar to the YouTube Shorts interface that’s baked into the standard YouTube TV app, showing you a small selection of shorts you can choose from based on a thumbnail. Examples include “For you” and “Popular with Friends,” but you’re also still able to swipe past any Reel to your heart’s content, and let the algorithm take you for a ride. A post from Meta also says channels could include Reels tailored to a specific topics that match your interests, like “sports highlights” or “hidden travel gems,” although the company hasn’t provided any screenshots or videos showing this off quite yet.

According to Meta, the new app is currently “an early test.” It’s starting with U.S.-based Amazon devices, and the company says it will “expand to more devices and countries” as it learns more (Amazon also says it’s the “first” company to get the app, implying others will get their own versions in the future).

What devices support Instagram for TV?

Currently, the Instagram for TV app is available in the Amazon Appstore for the following devices:

• Fire TV Stick HD

• Fire TV Stick 4K Plus

• Fire TV Stick 4K Max (1st and 2nd Gen)

• Fire TV 2-Series

• Fire TV 4-Series

• Fire TV Omni QLED Series

In addition to adding channels to the Reels experience, Meta says that future updates may also add ways to use your phone as a remote, share feeds with friends, and explore “a more intuitive way to channel surf.”

Instagram for TV leaves TikTok as the last major short form video platform without a dedicated TV app, although The Information reported earlier this Summer that TikTok is looking to catch up soon.

How to watch Instagram Reels on any smart TV or streaming device

While official Instagram for TV support is currently limited to Amazon devices, that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck if you don’t have a Fire TV stick or display. To watch Instagram Reels on your TV without using the Instagram for TV app, open Instagram Reels on your phone and start browsing. Next, pull up your phone’s quick settings menu by swiping down from the top-right corner.

On iOS, search for the screen mirroring button (which looks like two overlapping screens), and on Android, search for a button that says something like “Cast” (it will vary depending on your device). Tap it to see any compatible wireless screen mirroring devices nearby, which will let you view the mobile Instagram app on a TV screen, and even send audio over with it. It’s not foolproof—my LG OLED TV works with iOS Screen Mirroring but not Pixel casting—but it’s worth a shot.