At a site in Kenya, archaeologists recently unearthed layer upon layer of stone stools from deposits that span 300,000 years, and include a period of intense environmental upheaval. The oldest tools at the site date back to 2.75 million years ago. According to a recent study, the finds suggest that for hundreds of millennia, ancient hominins relied on the same stone tool technology as an anchor while the world changed around them.

Oldowan choppers dated to 1.7 million years ago, from Melka Kunture, Ethiopia.
Credit:
By Didier Descouens – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11291046

“An extraordinary story of cultural continuity”

George Washington University archaeologist David Braun and his colleagues recently unearthed stone tools from a 2.75 million-year-old layer of Kenyan sediment at a site called Nomorotukunan. They’re classic examples of a type of tools archaeologists call Oldowan: the earliest types of sharp-edged stone tools made by hominins. The tools unearthed at Nomorotukunan are some of the oldest Olduwan tools ever found; only three other Oldowan sites in Africa date back any farther than 2.6 million years ago.

These hand-sized chunks of river rock, with flakes chipped off one or two sides to make sharp edges, were cutting-edge technology (not sorry) from 2.9 million years ago until about 1.7 million years ago. In technical terms, that’s what’s called a long flipping time, enough to span several hominin species and more than one genus. The last hominins to use Oldowan tools looked very different, and probably lived and behaved very differently, from the first; over this huge span of time, the stone tool technology itself changed less than the beings using it.

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There are times when I feel like my AirPods are pure magic. It’s always impressive how they automatically shift from my Mac to my iPhone when I get a call, or how I don’t need to reconnect them to my iPad when I want to start watching a show. But when it comes to automatically swapping my audio over to Bluetooth speakers, they can get pretty jarring.

Often, speakers and audio outputs will take over audio from my AirPods when I’m wearing them. This happens every time I get in my car while wearing a single AirPod, usually while listening to music or podcasts (I would not recommend driving while using both AirPods). As soon as I turn on my car, bam, the media starts blaring through my car speakers, whether I want it to or not. Until recently, there was no remedy for this (other than manually pausing and then resuming playback from the AirPods themselves).

It seems like I wasn’t the only person annoyed be this, though. In iOS 26, Apple has introduced a dedicated setting that stops speakers from taking over your audio when you’re wearing your AirPods, or any other wireless headsets.

Here’s how to try it. On your iPhone running iOS 26 and above, go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Continuity and then enable the new “Keep Audio with Headphones” setting.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Don’t worry. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use your car speakers or other audio outputs. Your device will still connect to your car speakers when they’re available, and you can switch to them manually using the Control Center.

As for the rest of your car, in iOS 26, Apple is also starting to play nice with AirPods and CarPlay, adding official support for AirPods in CarPlay systems. So, if you’re accessing content through CayPlay, you can continue using your AirPods to listen to music, or answer calls.

The best part? This won’t take away your AirPods’ auto-switching feature, as that’s powered by Handoff. If you want your AirPods to never automatically switch between any device, you can disable the Handoff feature from the AirPlay & Continuity menu.

The Crescent Park neighborhood of Palo Alto, California, has some of the best real estate in the country, with a charming hodgepodge of homes ranging in style from Tudor revival to modern farmhouse and contemporary Mediterranean. It also has a gigantic compound that is home to Mark Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan, and their daughters Maxima, August, and Aurelia. Their land has expanded to include 11 previously separate properties, five of which are connected by at least one property line.

The Zuckerberg compound’s expansion first became a concern for Crescent Park neighbors as early as 2016, due to fears that his purchases were driving up the market. Then, about five years later, neighbors noticed that a school appeared to be operating out of the Zuckerberg compound. This would be illegal under the area’s residential zoning code without a permit. They began a crusade to shut it down that did not end until summer 2025.

WIRED obtained 1,665 pages of documents about the neighborhood dispute—including 311 records, legal filings, construction plans, and emails—through a public record request filed to the Palo Alto Department of Planning and Development Services. (Mentions of “Zuckerberg” or “the Zuckerbergs” appear to have been redacted. However, neighbors and separate public records confirm that the property in question belongs to the family. The names of the neighbors who were in touch with the city were also redacted.)

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Ahead of its 21st anniversary, World of Warcraft is dealing with some controversy around its latest update. Developer Blizzard has confirmed that WoW is introducing a new “Hearthsteel” housing-related virtual currency with its upcoming Midnight expansion, and users are worried that it could become a microtransaction trap on a game that already costs $15 a month to play. 

In its post, Blizzard said the aim of the new currency is to allow players to purchase “multiple items at once” while offering “financial protections” for the parties involved. “You may want a full set of chairs to place around a dining table, multiple place settings for your invited guest [or]… many candles,” the company wrote. “Using an in-game currency can help make the process of obtaining many of these types of inexpensive items more efficient.”

Blizzard clarified that players will be able to buy Hearthsteel with their Battle.net balance and in-game gold via WoW tokens. It will also keep the catalog of Hearthsteel items small relative to what you can earn through gameplay. “Housing items tied to core fantasies of a player’s race or class, or that already exist in Azeroth, won’t be sold in the shop,” the blog post states. “Thematically important decor that players know and love will also not appear in the shop.”

The Hearthsteel currency was first uncovered by dataminers, and now that Blizzard has confirmed it, players are concerned. “It’s not even about the currency,” said one WoW Reddit user. “It’s about a large, dedicated portion of the player base crying out for years that we don’t want the game to head this direction and here it is.”

It’s hard to look at the new currency and not think of Microsoft’s recent edict to its Xbox division. Last month, the software giant reportedly implemented an “across-the-board goal” of 30 percent profit margins for its gaming division, which it internally called “accountability margins.” That’s a huge amount above Xbox’s own average in the last six years of between 10 and 20 percent.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-confirms-its-adding-a-virtual-currency-for-world-of-warcraft-133007304.html?src=rss

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing it of ignoring state and federal safety laws. In his announcement on X, Paxton said the children have been “repeatedly exposed to sexually explicit content, exploitation and grooming” on the online game platform, because it chose to prioritize “pixel pedophiles and corporate profit” over the safety of children. “Thank you,” Schlep posted in the comments of his announcement. Schlep was a popular Roblox user who was known for staging sting operations à la To Catch a Predator on the platform, which had led to multiple arrests. He was controversially banned from Roblox in August, because he violated the company’s new rule that prohibits “vigilante behavior.”

“We share Attorney General Paxton’s commitment to keeping kids and teens safe online,” the company said in a statement. “We are disappointed that, rather than working collaboratively with Roblox on this industry-wide challenge and seeking real solutions, the AG has chosen to file a lawsuit based on misrepresentations and sensationalized claims.”

Roblox has implemented several measures meant to protect children over the past few years. It blocked any user under 13 from being able to play, search or discover any unrated experiences on the platform, and it restricted DMs for that segment of users, as well. It also added an age estimation feature that requires a video selfie for a user to be able to prove that they’re 13 or older. The company intends to roll it out to everyone by the end of this year.

Texas isn’t the only state suing Roblox and accusing it of failing to protect children from predators, though: Kentucky and Louisiana had previously filed their own lawsuits against the company. Louisiana argued that the platform contains user-created experiences with troubling themes, such as “Escape to Epstein Island” and “Diddy Party,” despite the majority of its users being under 16. It also pointed out that it was possible to initiate voice chats within Roblox’s experiences, even between users who weren’t friends, until November 2024. In one instance, a man who was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials was discovered to have used voice altering software to pretend to be a young girl in order to exploit children on the platform.

“Roblox must do more to protect kids from sick and twisted freaks hiding behind a screen,” Paxton wrote. “Any corporation that enables child abuse will face the full and unrelenting force of the law.” To note, the Texas AG also previously sued TikTok, alleging that it has insufficient parental controls, as well as Meta and Character.AI for potentially misusing data collected from underage users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/texas-ag-ken-paxton-sues-roblox-over-alleged-child-safety-lapses-131500288.html?src=rss

Over the past couple years, I’ve tested around 60 different power banks for Engadget. In that time, battery manufacturers have given their products features with varying degrees of usefulness, ranging from smart (straps and built-in cables) to handy (displays and wireless charging pads) to really not necessary (Bluetooth connectivity, specialized recharging bases).

Anker’s Laptop Power Bank (25K, 165W) manages to combine all the cleverest new features into one sleek-looking charging brick — and it costs less than some other banks in its class. There’s a built-in display that not only lets you know how much charge the bank has left, it also tells you how many watts are flowing through each port to your devices. Pressing the button on the side cycles through the battery’s current temperature and the overall health of the bank, including how many charge cycles it’s gone through. All of those bits of info should help prolong and gauge the bank’s longevity.

Big capacity in a tidy package

The 25,000 mAh capacity puts it well within the TSA’s 100Wh capacity limit and I have taken this battery on two flights in my carry-on with no issue. The capacity is enough to fill my tester smartphones (an iPhone 15 and a Galaxy S23 Ultra) around four times each. Separately, it pushed my aging 16-inch MacBook Pro from 10 percent to 78 percent. That translates to around nine additional hours of use for my typical workload (Wi-Fi, VPN, too many Chrome tabs and other basic productivity apps).

My only gripe with the design is that the very shiny screen has become slightly dull with use. It doesn’t look bad, just not as mint-fresh as when it was unboxed. That’s to be expected, and I’ll take the luxe finish over some ruggedized enclosure any day.

Amy Skorheim for Engadget

Sure, forget your cables at home

Possibly the power bank’s most useful features are the two built-in USB-C cables, and one even loops around to create a handy carry strap. It feels robust and well-anchored enough that I don’t fear lugging it around like that. The other cable retracts into the unit and extends up to two feet when needed. The end stays neatly tucked into a well in the body and stays magnetically in place. The cords not only look tidy, their inclusion means you’ll never find yourself in the ironic position of having a dead device and a full battery pack, but no way to connect the two.

Both cables serve in-out functions so you can easily plug them into any USB-C power adapter for a refill. There are also two additional USB (one Type-A and one Type-C) ports, so if you’ve got a specialized cable, such as Lightning, smartwatch or microUSB connector, you’ll be able to charge those devices too.

Admirable speeds

The 165-watt rating, as with any power bank, doesn’t mean you’ll get that power out of a single port. The rating is a combined, almost theoretical total, achieved with all four ports engaged. The three USB-C outlets are rated at a max of 100W, but to get to that speed, you’ll need a device capable of taking it — my biggest energy hog is my laptop and it maxed out at around 90 watts using the power bank. But for all but the most extreme cases, that’s plenty fast.

My tester iPhone 15 went from near-dead to 70 percent refilled in around 40 minutes. The Galaxy S23 Ultra powered up from five to 100 percent in under an hour, and my 16-inch MacBook got a 68 percent refill in just over 50 minutes. That’s not the fastest performance I’ve tested, but it’s better than most other banks and plenty quick enough to get you back in action in a decent amount of time.

Amy Skorheim for Engadget

Wrap-up

It’s gratifying when, after years of testing one type of product, you get one that is, more or less, an ideal example of the category. This is the battery I grab when I’m heading to get some work done at the coffee shop. I’ve taken it with me on road trips and on flights, and it hasn’t let me down once. The fact that you don’t need to remember to grab a cable takes away an extra bit of stress, and the accurate display means you know just about how much more you can squeeze out of the bank’s rather sizable depths.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/anker-laptop-power-bank-review-all-my-favorite-battery-features-together-at-last-130036854.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirms it suffered a cybersecurity incident after a suspected foreign hacker breached its network, potentially exposing sensitive data. In a statement shared with BleepingComputer, CBO spokesperson Caitlin Emma confirmed the “security incident” and said the agency acted quickly to contain it. “The Congressional Budget Office has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems going forward,” Emma told BleepingComputer.

“The incident is being investigated and work for the Congress continues. Like other government agencies and private sector entities, CBO occasionally faces threats to its network and continually monitors to address those threats.” The Washington Post first reported the breach, stating that officials discovered the hack in recent days and are now concerned that emails and exchanges between congressional offices and the CBO’s analysts may have been exposed. While officials have reported told lawmakers they believe the intrusion was detected early, some congressional office have allegedly halted emails with the CBO out of security concerns.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Studies have shown that a decluttered workspace can decrease stress and increase focus—and that stress at work can actually result in more clutter. It’s important to clean up your environment so the place you work is comfortable, calm, and sanitary. If you want to get more done, you need to be working in a tidy, welcoming space. Borrow the 5S method to get it done most efficiently. 

What is the 5S method of workspace cleaning?

The 5S method, like Kanban and Kaizen, comes from Japan, where organizational processes developed in factories and were so useful that their use expanded well beyond Toyota and other manufacturers. The method refers to the five s-words it relies on: seiri, seiton, seisō, seiketsu, and shitsuke, but if you don’t speak Japanese, don’t worry. They’ve been translated into five s-words in English, too:

• Sort

• Set in order

• Shine

• Standardize

• Sustain

Occasionally, there’s a sixth “s,” safety, and that makes sense when you consider the uses of the system within factory settings, but it’s not quite as relevant if you’re putting in your time in a cubicle. The technique has a variety of applications outside of factories and is especially useful in healthcare settings, construction sites, and classrooms. For you, however, it may just be all about your desk, and that’s fine. The 5S system is adaptable. 

How to make 5S work for you

The five pillars of the technique provide a framework for organizing and cleaning in a way that minimizes waste and increases productivity. Instead of thinking of the five steps in order as a one-and-done operation, consider them a cycle you’re always repeating. When you’re done with the fifth (or, in some cases, sixth) one, you go back to the first. You should start with sorting for the most part, but at any given time, you can employ one of them and start moving through the cycle. Here’s what to do: 

1. Sort: Get rid of anything that isn’t necessary in the workspace. If it’s not needed for what you’re doing, put it away. Utilize drawers, storage bins, or under-desk organizers to keep the things that you don’t immediately need out of your sight. When possible, keep the storage bins opaque so you aren’t distracted by the contents. I prefer simple, easy-to-install organizers, like this clip-on drawer system that hides unwanted items under your desk. All you need is something that will obscure what you’re not using when you’re not using it. The sorting period is also when you should clear out clutter anything you don’t use regularly. (If this is unfamiliar territory for you or you just need some ideas, I compiled my 17 favorite decluttering methods here.)

2. Shine: With the space tidied up and freed of anything unnecessary, it’s time to clean. This can be as easy as running a disinfectant wipe over your surfaces or brushing crumbs into the trash, but cleaning for sanitary reasons is different from decluttering, so don’t skip it. Check out this list of gadgets to clean your desk thoroughly—but make sure you have space in those storage bins for them.

3. Set in order: Now, look back at the storage bins. During the sorting period, you can just throw everything that isn’t necessary into those, but when you’re setting in order, you need to make them more efficient. Designate bins for different categories, like office supplies, reference materials, specific job tools, etc. Make sure the things you need most often are in a convenient location, like the under-desk drawer, and things you need less often are still available but more removed. It helps to use labels here for maximum efficiency. 

4. Standardize: This step is a little different from the first three, which are all about organizing and cleaning. Standardizing is about creating a protocol to keep everything organized and clean, plus integrating it into your actual workflow. You already started when you began labeling storage containers, but now it’s time to get serious about implementing these changes consistently, and making the most of what you did in the first three steps. The easiest way to do this is building time into your schedule for regular 5S maintenance and desk cleaning. It should be part of your regular to-do list. For instance, if you’re using the 1-3-5 method of to-do list creation, 5S maintenance can be one of your five smaller tasks for the day. Make sure to carve out time for it at least once a week, ideally by putting time on your calendar when you’re timeboxing. When going through the 5S cycle going forward, you can always make changes to your standardization if you’re not cleaning enough, if things are piling up, or if your technique is otherwise not working, so don’t just skip the fourth step on your next time through. 

5. Sustain: This step is all about keeping with it. Commit to following the standardization protocol you set in the fourth step and working through all of the s-words regularly and in order. The more you do it, the more of a habit it will become and the more efficient your workspace will be.

Again, sometimes this framework is expanded to include the sixth “s,” safety. A clean, organized environment isn’t just efficient and good for your focus; it’s safer, too. When you’re working through the five steps above, look for anything that could be a hazard, like tangled cords under your desk, items stacked too haphazardly on your shelves, or liquids too close to your electronics.

Keep in mind that when sorting, your goals are not only to make more space available to work, but to decrease distracting items and reduce the amount of time you spend looking for what you need when you need it. When you shine, you want to reduce waste and keep the area safe, but also keep it pleasant to work in, which is an important element of productivity. Setting in order is all about making your work easier by making things available to you when you need them and finding them where you expect them to be, which wastes less time. Standardizing and sustaining will help you make sure the procedure is followed and is working for you, so eventually, you’ll even spend less time thinking about all of this stuff, and more time focusing on your work.

Helping companies pay ransoms to digital extortionists is kind of a weird business.

On the one hand, you “negotiate” with cybercriminals and in so doing may drive down the costs of recovering from a particular ransomware incident. On the other hand, you’re helping criminals get paid, funding their operations and making further attacks more likely.

And there’s always a temptation built in to this kind of work. Seeing lucrative sums being whisked away through cryptocurrency exchanges and “mixing services”… Realizing from up close just how vulnerable companies are… Learning that modern ransomware can operate as a service where you essentially “rent” the code from its developers in return for a cut of the profits…

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Rockstar Games has announced Grand Theft Auto VI ‘s launch is being delayed once again to November 19, 2026. That’s roughly a year from now. It was previously delayed from its 2025 launch window to May 26, 2026. And now again.

If you have the feeling it’s been a while since the last GTA game, you’d be right. GTA V was originally released in 2013 and has been re-released multiple times since then. In fact, it’s a rare game that’s spanned PS3, PS4 and PS5.

Rockstar is likely self-assured that the game will do fine. Grand Theft Auto Online, a multiplayer mode for GTA V that can also be downloaded as a standalone game, remains a hit.

“We continue to supply content to GTA Online, and in fact we’ve had terrific results there. And GTA+ continues to grow its membership. In fact, it’s had 20 percent growth year-over-year. And GTA V has sold more than 220 million units,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in an interview with The Game Business.

— Mat Smith

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The news you might have missed

• How I learned to love the flawed PlayStation Portal as a new dad

• Black Friday 2025: The best early tech deals so far

• Our favorite advent calendars for 2025 (I’ve already got a Taskmaster one)—Mat  

Apple may release its first low-cost MacBook in early 2026

The budget-friendly system is in early production.

Apple may debut a low-cost Mac laptop in the first half of 2026. According to a Bloomberg report, it’s in early production, and Apple is testing the devices internally. The idea may be to create a rival to cheap Chromebooks and Windows PCs, nudging folks into that money-spinning ecosystem. The company is said to be making the system with casual users, students and businesses in mind. (I’d guess many of those users are paying more for MacBooks with power they’ll never really tap into.)

The report suggests it’ll have a “lower-end LCD display,” and it’s expected to run on an A-series iPhone processor that would still, apparently, deliver better performance than the M1.

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Why DJI drones might be banned in the US

Everything you need to know about the Chinese company’s future in America.

DJI drones still face a potential US ban, due to national security concerns. It’s a combination of the company’s Chinese origins and laws compelling cooperation with state intelligence services. It’s also a very visible, notable drone maker — and flying robots understandably make folks nervous. After losing a recent lawsuit and an appeal, DJI is nearing a key December 23, 2025, deadline under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which could trigger an automatic ban. A recent FCC vote and pending legislation could also block sales and even theoretically prevent people from using already-purchased drones by cutting off radio access.

DJI might have to hope a ban will create enough customer outcry to stimulate a political response in its favor.

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Driving Honda’s lighter, faster and more fun next-gen hybrid prototype

New hybrids are coming soon from Honda.

Engadget

Honda revealed its new hybrid car tech, and it’s lighter, faster and… actually fun. That’s accomplished by massive weight savings and a surprising S+ Shift mode, which simulates an eight-speed transmission for manual driving fans. We got a first look at the platform that will transform the next-gen Civic and Prelude, officially, hopefully marking the end of the slow, droning hybrid car.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-gta-6-is-delayed-until-november-2026-121525547.html?src=rss

Since March of this year, it’s been possible to generate images directly within ChatGPT. Following a period where it briefly wasn’t available to free users, you now don’t even pay for one of OpenAI’s subscriptions to use the tool. And while making images inside of ChatGPT is easy, there are some nuances worth explaining. For example, did you know you can ask ChatGPT to edit photos you’ve taken? It’s more powerful than you might think. Here’s everything you need to know about generating AI images with ChatGPT.  

How to create images with ChatGPT using text prompts 

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

To begin generating images in ChatGPT, start typing in the prompt bar what you want to see. There’s no need to overthink things; as long as you have some version of “generate an image” followed by a description of your idea, ChatGPT will do the rest.  

Depending on the complexity of your prompt, it may take up to two minutes for ChatGPT to complete your image request. Sometimes the process can take longer if OpenAI’s servers are experiencing greater traffic than usual. 

How to create images with ChatGPT using existing photos

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

In addition to generating images from text prompts, ChatGPT can modify existing photos or images you upload. This is my preferred way of making images with ChatGPT; I don’t need to describe the composition, I can use an existing one to guide the chatbot. To use a photo as a starting point for a new generation, follow these steps:    

1. Tap the “+“ icon, located to the left of the prompt bar.  

2. Select Add photos & files. 

3. Select the image you want ChatGPT to edit.  

4. If uploading an image from your phone, you’ll need to grant ChatGPT access to your camera roll.   

5. Write a prompt describing the changes you want.   

Keep in mind any photos you upload to OpenAI’s servers may be used by the company to train future models. You can opt out of allowing your data to be used for training by following these steps: 

1. Open the sidebar menu. On mobile, tap the two lines on the top left of the interface. On desktop, click on the OpenAI logo.

2. Tap your name to access account settings. 

3. Tap Data controls.

4. Toggle off Improve the model for everyone. 

How to edit the images ChatGPT generates

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

If you’re unhappy with ChatGPT’s output, you have two options. You can either prompt it to create an entirely new image, or edit parts of the picture it just generated. As before, you can simply write what changes you want to see in the prompt bar. OpenAI also gives users a few different shortcuts to accomplish the same task.

To generate an entirely new image:  

1. On mobile, tap the two arrows icon below the image ChatGPT created.  

2. Select Try again, Add details or More concise. 

3. Alternatively, tap the image ChatGPT created and select Edit. 

4. Describe what you want ChatGPT to add, remove or replace through the prompt bar. 

To edit part of an existing image generation: 

1. Tap the image ChatGPT created. 

2. Tap Select. On desktop, instead click on the paintbrush icon on the top right. 

3. Use your finger to mask the section of the image you want ChatGPT to tweak. The slider on the left allows you to adjust the size of the masking brush.     

4. Describe what you want ChatGPT to add, remove or replace through the prompt bar. 

Like all AI systems, ChatGPT is non-deterministic, meaning even if you prompt it in the same way multiple times, it won’t generate the exact same response each time.   

Tips to create better images with ChatGPT

The best advice I can offer is to be specific when prompting ChatGPT. The more detail you can provide when describing what you want from it, the better the results. And remember: ChatGPT can hallucinate — as you may have noticed from one of the example pictures I included above. In the image of the tortoiseshell cat, not only is the tortie not sitting on the window sill as instructed, it’s sitting on a table that doesn’t make much sense. So, most of all, be patient. Prompting an AI model is not exact science, and it can take a few tries before it creates the result you want.  

FAQs

How do you access ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is available on the web, desktop and mobile. To access it on your computer, open your preferred browser and navigate to chatgpt.com. OpenAI also offers dedicated Mac and Windows apps you can download from the company’s website. On iOS and Android, you’ll need to download the ChatGPT app from either the App Store or Google Play before you can start using the chatbot.   

Since ChatGPT runs on OpenAI’s servers, as long as you can access the chatbot, you’ll be able to use it to create images no matter the age of your phone or computer. 

Can ChatGPT generate images for free? 

Yes, ChatGPT can generate images for free, as long as you have an OpenAI account. However, there is a daily rate cap and GPT-5 will take longer to make an image. Following March 27, 2025, OpenAI briefly limited free users to three image generations per day. The company has since relaxed that restriction, though it doesn’t list a specific limit on its website. In my experience, you’ll be able to generate about six to seven images every 24 hours.    

OpenAI’s $20-per-month Plus plan offers “expanded and faster image creation,” while its $200-per-month Pro tier includes unlimited image generation as a perk.   

Can ChatGPT recreate an existing photo? 

No. For copyright reasons, ChatGPT can’t replicate photos or exact real world events. For example, when I asked it to recreate the photo of Zinedine Zidane’s iconic 2006 World Cup headbutt, ChatGPT refused.  

“I can make an artistic reinterpretation inspired by the emotion or energy of that moment — for example, a stylized painting showing the tension and intensity of competition, without depicting real individuals,” it told me.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/how-to-generate-ai-images-using-chatgpt-120000560.html?src=rss

The Scandinavian furniture giant has unveiled 21 new ultra-affordable Matter-over-Thread smart home devices across three launch segments: lighting, sensors, and control. With prices starting at just a few dollars, Ikea is pushing hard to replace its old Zigbee lineup and become a serious player in the Matter ecosystem. Forbes reports: Back to the 21 new devices specifically and they are all native Matter ones though, so you don’t actually need Ikea’s hub to get involved, as Matter controllers from other brands will be able to sync them up to your existing smart home platform as well; provided that Matter controller also doubles up as a Thread border router. The good news is that many existing devices you may already have in your house – think Apple HomePod mini, Google Nest Hub Max, most of the recent Amazon Echo range, SmartThings hubs and even some Eero routers – all do.

This being Ikea, there are some quirky names involved… the new lineup starts with the Kajplats smart bulb range, with eleven bulbs in total, covering everything from compact spotlights to large decorative globes. They come in a mix of shapes, brightness levels, and finishes, with options for full-color control or just tunable white light. Ikea says each model now offers a wider intensity range and smoother dimming compared to the outgoing Tradfri lineup.

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There’s a reason the story of Frankenstein endures. Its examination of mankind’s hubris and inhumane scientific progress has only become more relevant since Mary Shelley’s time. The pursuit of “innovation at all costs” has led to new monsters, born from people who failed (or refused) to consider the consequences of their actions. So it’s no wonder that Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix adaptation feels so much like a modern day tech bro. He is practically their template.

Squint a bit, and you can see Frankenstein’s recklessness in Mark Zuckerberg ignoring Facebook’s role in promoting the genocide in Myanmar, with Elon Musk lying about Tesla’s real self-driving capabilities (potentially leading to several crashes), or Sam Altman’s OpenAI building a hallucinating AI search engine trained on stolen content. Screw the consequences, they just want to shout “it’s alive!” as their products go viral (and as their investors lap up the engagement).

Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a remix of the major elements of the novel — there’s the doomed love story, the mad scientist driven by his ego and the sympathetic monster who demonstrates far more humanity than his creator — refashioned in the director’s opulent style. But it’s also clear from the film’s explosive opening, where an Arctic ship encounters Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) being chased by a seemingly unkillable Creature (Jacob Elordi), that del Toro isn’t shying away from his campier horror roots. Arms are torn off, gallons of blood are spilled. This Frankenstein contains multitudes.

Why did Victor Frankenstein go through hell to reanimate the dead? Because he could. In the novel and this film, the whole ordeal was always about bragging rights and demonstrating his greatness as a scientist. He didn’t consider what he owed to the new life form, or the cruelty of bringing a being into the world with no companion. It didn’t matter who he hurt. Sound familiar?

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  What truly makes del Toro’s Frankenstein work is his understanding of the characters. As Victor Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac embodies the punk rock charm of a rebel scientist who thinks he alone can invent a way to reanimate life. But he also lives with the memory of an abusive father who likely killed his beloved mother. Elizabeth fascinates and intrigues Victor, but she’s also disgusted by his apathy for the natural world. It’s not hard to see why she feels immediate sympathy for the Creature, who is portrayed by Jacob Elordi as a sort of child-like super human. He’s an immediate disappointment to Frankenstein, who can’t help but repeat the cycle of abuse he experienced with his father.

Looking back at his career, it’s as if del Toro has been trying to adapt Shelley’s novel through all of his films. You can see elements of the story in his debut feature Cronos, which centers on a device that makes people immortal (but also curses them with a thirst for blood). The tragic father and son relationship between Frankenstein and the Creature is mapped directly onto the evil vampires in Blade 2. The Gothic romance between Frankenstein and his sister-in-law Elizabeth (who also has eyes for the Creature) echoes Crimson Peak. And the desire for a seemingly “evil” being to fit into normal human life is front and center in del Toro’s Hellboy films.

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In an interview with NPR, del Toro mentioned that, as a child, seeing the monster appear for the first time in the 1931 Frankenstein film was “an epiphany.” It was an experience that helped him understand his own faith, and seemingly his entire view of life and art. His Frankenstein is the work of someone who has been living with the story for decades. It comes to life with lavish sets, his love of voluptuous colors (there’s a scene of a red scarf floating in the air that haunts me) and his fascination with the macabre.

There’s a lesson in Frankenstein for today’s tech elite, but given their current obsession with AI despite its potentially massive societal and environmental impacts, I have little hope they’ll learn anything from it. But when Guillermo del Toro was asked about using generative AI by NPR, he spoke as someone who truly understood Shelley’s novel. “I’d rather die,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/guillermo-del-toro-delivers-a-frankenstein-for-the-tech-bro-era-080000058.html?src=rss

In a recent article published in the New York Times, author Casey Michael Henry argues that today’s tech industry keeps borrowing dystopian sci-fi aesthetics and ideas — often the parts that were meant as warnings — and repackages them as exciting products without recognizing that they were originally cautionary tales to avoid. “The tech industry is delivering on some of the futuristic notions of late-20th-century science fiction,” writes Henry. “Yet it seems, at times, bizarrely unaware that many of those notions were meant to be dystopian or satirical — dismal visions of where our worst and dumbest habits could lead us.” Here’s an excerpt from the report: You worry that someone in today’s tech world might watch “Gattaca” — a film that features a eugenicist future in which people with ordinary DNA are relegated to menial jobs — and see it as an inspirational launching point for a collaboration between 23andMe and a charter school. The material on Sora, for instance, can feel oddly similar to the jokes about crass entertainment embedded in dystopian films and postmodern novels. In the movie “Idiocracy,” America loved a show called “Ow! My Balls!” in which a man is hit in the testicles in increasingly florid ways. “Robocop” imagined a show about a goggle-eyed pervert with an inane catchphrase. “The Running Man” had a game show in which contestants desperately collected dollar bills and climbed a rope to escape ravenous dogs. That Sora could be prompted to imagine a game show in which Michel Foucault chokeslams Ronald Reagan, or Prince battles an anaconda, doesn’t feel new; it feels like a gag from a 1990s writer or a film about social decay.

The echoes aren’t all accidental. Modern design has been influenced by our old techno-dystopias — particularly the cyberpunk variety, with its neon-noir gloss and “high tech, low life” allure. From William Gibson novels to films like “The Matrix,” the culture has taken in countless ruined cityscapes, all-controlling megacorporations, high-tech body modifications, V.R.-induced illnesses, deceptive A.I. paramours, mechanical assassins and leather-clad hacker antiheroes, navigating a dissociative cyberspace with savvily repurposed junk-tech. This was not a world many people wanted to live in, but its style and ethos seem to reverberate in the tech industry’s boldest visions of the future.

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Elon Musk went on stage on Thursday night during Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting and made some big claims and promises. The company is “almost comfortable” letting owners with Full Self-Driving (FSD) “text and drive,” he said. At the moment, its vehicles are still strictly monitoring drivers to make sure their eyes are on the road, but Musk said that Tesla will enable unsupervised FSD that will allow texting and driving within “a month or two.”

To note, Tesla’s FSD is currently capable of level 2 autonomous driving. Musk is promising at least a level 4 capability, in which the driver can be disengaged as the car performs all driving tasks for them, within a short span of time. While he said that Tesla will look at its safety data first, he didn’t discuss the steps it’s taking to enable texting while driving and whether it’s already discussing the legalities of it with regulators.

Talking about the Cybercab, Musk said production of the robotaxis will begin by April next year. Since it will be specifically built with autonomy in mind, it will not have pedals, a steering wheel and even side mirrors. The Cybercab’s manufacturing process, he explained, is vastly different from typical car production and is more comparable to phone manufacturing. That’s why he thinks the company will be able to produce one unit every 10 seconds.

Musk also talked about the flying car he teased on Joe Rogan’s show. When asked at the event, he said the demo will now take place on April 1, 2026, instead of this month or the next like he told Rogan. It remains to be seen whether we’re going to get April Fooled, but Musk claimed that production of Tesla’s flying vehicle will happen a year or so after its unveiling. As always, take Musk’s claims with a grain of salt, as he’s pretty infamous for being overly ambitious with his timelines.

While Musk was on stage talking about Tesla’s plans, an Optimus humanoid robot was standing by the side. The CEO said Optimus is bound to become the “biggest product of all time,” bigger than cellphones, “bigger than anything.” Tesla will start with a 1-million production line and then a 10-million production line, but he said the company expects to eventually produce 100 million to a billion Optimus robots a year. He envisions a world wherein the humanoid machines will provide people with medical care… as well as a world wherein instead of being jailed, Optimus follows criminals around to stop them from committing more crimes.

Before Musk went on stage, Tesla’s shareholders had voted to approve his pay package worth up to $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Tesla has to hit several goals for Musk to become the first trillionaire, though, including reaching a market value of $8.5 trillion from its current worth of $1.4 billion and selling a million Optimus robots.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/elon-musk-says-tesla-owners-can-text-and-drive-very-soon-042454805.html?src=rss

Mark Zuckerberg opened an unlicensed school named after the family’s pet chicken — and it was the final straw for his neighbors, writes Slashdot reader joshuark, citing a report from Wired. The magazine obtained 1,665 pages of documents about the neighborhood dispute — “including 311 records, legal filings, construction plans, and emails.” Here are excerpts from the report: The documents reveal that the school may have been operating as early as 2021 without a permit to operate in the city of Palo Alto. As many as 30 students might have enrolled, according to observations from neighbors. […] Over time, neighbors became fed up with what they argued was the city’s lack of action, particularly with respect to the school. Some believed that the delay was because of preferential treatment to the Zuckerbergs. “We find it quite remarkable that you are working so hard to meet the needs of a single billionaire family while keeping the rest of the neighborhood in the dark,” reads one email sent to the city’s Planning and Development Services Department in February. “Just as you have not earned our trust, this property owner has broken many promises over the years, and any solution which depends on good faith behavioral changes from them is a failure from the beginning.” […]

In order for the Zuckerbergs to run a private school on their land, which is in a residential zone, they need a “conditional use” permit from the city. However, based on the documents WIRED obtained, and Palo Alto’s public database of planning applications, the Zuckerbergs do not appear to have ever applied for or received this permit. Per emails obtained by WIRED, Palo Alto authorities told a lawyer working with the Zuckerbergs in March 2025 that the family had to shut down the school on its compound by June 30. […] However, Zuckerberg family spokesperson Brian Baker tells WIRED that the school didn’t close, per se. It simply moved. It’s not clear where it is now located, or whether the school is operating under a different name. […] Most of the Zuckerbergs’ neighbors did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. However, the ones that did clearly indicated that they would not be forgetting the Bicken Ben saga, or the past decade of disruption, anytime soon.

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alternative_right shares a report from The Conversation: Countries around the world have been discussing the need to rein in climate change for three decades, yet global greenhouse gas emissions — and global temperatures with them — keep rising. When it seems like we’re getting nowhere, it’s useful to step back and examine the progress that has been made. Let’s take a look at the United States, historically the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. Over those three decades, the U.S. population soared by 28% and the economy, as measured by gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce greenhouse gases — transportation, industry, agriculture, heating and cooling of buildings — have remained about the same over the past 30 years.

Transportation is a bit up; industry a bit down. And electricity, once the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has seen its emissions drop significantly. Overall, the U.S. is still among the countries with the highest per capita emissions, so there’s room for improvement, and its emissions (PDF) haven’t fallen enough to put the country on track to meet its pledges under the 10-year-old Paris climate agreement. But U.S. emissions are down about 15% over the past 10 years. The report mentions how the U.S. managed to replace coal with cheaper, more efficient natural-gas plants while rapidly scaling wind, solar, and battery storage as their costs fell. At the same time, major gains in appliance, lighting, and building efficiency flattened per-capita power use. This also coincided with improved vehicle fuel economy that helped keep transportation emissions in check.

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