Computer scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have proved that pricing algorithms can drive up prices even when they lack the capacity to collude. Aaron Roth and four colleagues studied so-called no-swap-regret algorithms, which are designed to minimize losses and were previously thought to guarantee competitive pricing. The researchers found that when such an algorithm faces an opponent using a nonresponsive strategy — one that randomly selects from predetermined price probabilities without reacting to competitor moves — both players can end up in equilibrium at high prices.
Neither has an incentive to switch strategies because their profits are nearly equal and as high as possible under the circumstances. The nonresponsive strategy cannot express threats because it does not respond to opponent behavior, yet it effectively coaxes the learning algorithm into raising prices. Mallesh Pai, an economist at Rice University not involved in the research, said the finding matters because regulators have no clear grounds to intervene without evidence of threats or agreements. Roth conceded however that he lacks a solution to the regulatory challenge his team identified.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nintendo is teaming up with Laced Records on a couple of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vinyl soundtrack releases, which is pretty darned cool. There’s even a massive 8-LP box set that ships with some franchise-friendly bells and whistles.
Let’s start with that box set. It’s available in limited-edition colored vinyl or standard black vinyl. At eight vinyl records, it probably includes just about every piano twinkle and wind rustle found throughout the game. All told, there are 130 newly remastered tracks.
The records here are split into themes, mirroring a player’s progression through Hyrule. These themes “revolve around exploring the Kingdom of Hyrule, freeing the Divine Beasts from Calamity Ganon’s hold and discovering the mysteries of the Shrines.”
It ships with a nifty-looking collector’s case and comes with 16 art prints depicting various scenes from the game. The 8-LP collection costs $195, which is high but not the worst deal in the world. That breaks down to around $24 per record.
The double-LP collection is a more standard affair, with 34 tracks pulled from throughout the game. These include musical cues from visiting the Great Fairy Fountain, Hyrule Castle and other locations. This one costs $50 and is also available in both black and colored vinyl.
Both collections are available to pre-order right now via Laced Records and My Nintendo Store. They won’t be shipped until June 19, 2026.
This is one of the first major Nintendo game soundtracks available in a physical format outside of Japan. Breath of the Wild is an interesting choice here for an initial vinyl release, given that the game’s soundtrack is known for mood-setting vibes but not really known for bops.
Composers Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, Hajime Wakai and Soshi Abe filled the game with gentle piano riffs, nature sounds and rhythmic pieces to accompany battles. However, it does have a few absolute bangers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-is-releasing-a-massive-breath-of-the-wild-vinyl-soundtrack-collection-on-eight-lps-151531479.html?src=rss
Grammarly is no more, at least with regards to its name. The AI-powered writing assistance tool founded in 2009 has been absorbed into a new software platform called Superhuman. It follows Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman Mail earlier this year, with the former taking the somewhat unusual step of adopting its newly obtained company’s name, rather than the other way around.
Superhuman unites Grammarly, Superhuman Mail and the AI work assistant Coda (also acquired by Grammarly in 2025) in one productivity suite, allowing users to access all three tools as part of a single plan. The company has also launched a new AI assistant called Superhuman Go that is included in every Superhuman plan tier and is baked into the Grammarly browser extension for Chrome and Edge.
Superhuman Go’s capabilities include assisting with professional-sounding email responses, fetching information and scheduling meetings. At launch it can connect to your Google Workspace apps and Microsoft Outlook, with the idea being that the AI is always there making suggestions in the background, rather than you needing to ask it for assistance.
Superhuman plans to add additional functionality to Coda and Superhuman Mail, such as turning ideas from meetings into drafts and more effectively organizing your inbox according to your schedule. Its vision for the rebrand is that instead of thinking of Grammarly as a writing agent alone, you utilize all of its different agents and platforms to work more productively.
Anyone previously using Grammarly can now use Superhuman Go, and the Superhuman suite is being bundled into a number of different plans. The $12 per month (billed annually) Pro plan offers unlimited paragraph rewrites and translations in 19 languages — a feature Grammarly added earlier this year — while the Business plan costs $33 per month (billed annually) and includes Superhuman’s mail client.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grammarly-has-rebranded-to-superhuman-151001417.html?src=rss
Amazon Games is winding down support for New World: Aeternum amid layoffs in the division and even deeper job cuts across its parent company. The game debuted on PC in 2021 and it landed on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S just over a year ago.
“After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we’ve reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates,” Amazon Games wrote in a blog post. “The recently launched Season 10 and Nighthaven update will serve as the final content release for New World on PC and consoles. It is only after much consideration that we’ve reached this decision.”
Players will still be able to buy New World for now, and it will remain available to PlayStation Plus subscribers on the Extra and Premium tiers “until further notice.” Amazon is making this month’s Nighthaven expansion available to everyone for free too.
The company said it will keep the game’s servers up and running through 2026, “allowing our community time to continue their adventures in Aeternum.” In terms of how long fans will be able to keep playing the game, Amazon said it will provide more details about “what to expect in the coming months.” It pledged to “provide a minimum of six months’ notice before making any changes that impact your ability to play New World: Aeternum.”
According to Bloomberg, Amazon told staff in a memo this week that, as part of widespread layoffs, it would dial back work on big-budget games, especially MMOs — a category that New World falls under. Updates for Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark — MMOS that Amazon publishes but are developed externally — will continue, the company confirmed to MassivelyOP. Amazon did not comment on the status of a planned Lord of the Rings MMO.
Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann told me last year that Amazon started its big push into games with MMOs because it saw an opportunity. At the time, there weren’t too many titles in that genre popping up. However, he noted that “we’re evolving out of the MMOs” into other genres, hinting then that the division was changing focus. (Amazon’s first AAA game, the free-to-play shooter Crucible, didn’t last long after its debut in 2020.)
New World is still a popular game. It got off to a blistering start, with a peak concurrent player count of 914,000 on Steam. This past weekend, it at one point had nearly 50,000 concurrent players on that platform. It was also one of the highest grossing games on Steam in 2021.
And yet it seems that Amazon’s games division will now focus more on Luna, the cloud service for which it rolled out an overhaul just last week. It reportedly plans to keep releasing “casual and AI-focused games” for Luna, such as Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg, which puts an AI-generated version of the rapper in a Judge Judy-type role for court case-style debates between players. Amazon’s most recent game for PC and consoles is King of Meat, a co-op dungeon-building platformer that has so far reached a peak Steam concurrent player count of just 253.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-winding-down-its-still-popular-new-world-mmo-amid-mass-layoffs-150500426.html?src=rss
On Wednesday, Nvidia became the first company in history to reach a $5 trillion market capitalization, fresh on the heels of a GTC conference keynote in Washington, DC, where CEO Jensen Huang announced $500 billion in AI chip orders and plans to build seven supercomputers for the US government. The milestone comes a mere three months after Nvidia crossed the $4 trillion mark in July, vaulting the company past tech giants like Apple and Microsoft in market valuation but also driving continued fears of an AI investment bubble.
Nvidia’s shares have climbed nearly 12-fold since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, as the AI boom propelled the S&P 500 to record highs. Shares of Nvidia stock rose 4.6 percent on Wednesday following the Tuesday announcement at the company’s GTC conference. During a Bloomberg Television interview at the event, Huang dismissed concerns about overheated valuations, saying, “I don’t believe we’re in an AI bubble. All of these different AI models we’re using—we’re using plenty of services and paying happily to do it.”
Nvidia expects to ship 20 million units of its latest chips, compared to just 4 million units of the previous Hopper generation over its entire lifetime, Huang said at the conference. The $500 billion figure represents cumulative orders for the company’s Blackwell and Rubin processors through the end of 2026, though Huang noted that his projections did not include potential sales to China.
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If you’re in the market for a new Windows 11 laptop for everyday use that’s under $150, the bestselling Lenovo IdeaPad 1i 14″ Laptop is a smart choice – and right now, it’s $129 (originally $249.99) at Walmart.
Compared to the highly rated Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14, this version has more premium features and a more efficient processor. The laptop has a 14” HD display and two Dolby Audio speakers for rich sound. It comes with 128 GB of storage, 4 GB of RAM, and an Intel Celeron processor that enables multitasking with multi-screen capabilities. Four GB of non-upgradable RAM might mean that things get a bit sluggish if you have a lot of browser tabs or background apps open, but that’s to be expected at a sub-$150 price point.
On a full charge, the battery lasts around 11 hours, and with rapid charge boost, it provides just over two hours of extra juice. 128GB eMMC allows you to access and edit files when you’re offline (though it’s slower than a full SSD) and a feature called Flip to Start powers the laptop on as soon as you flip open the lid. It includes a 720p camera with a privacy shutter and Smart Noise Cancelling to reduce background noise during calls.
If you don’t need a lot of storage (and don’t mind upgrade limitations), this ultra-budget Lenovo IdeaPad 1i 14″ Laptop is suitable for simple, everyday functionality. While it does come with its performance and hardware limitations and can’t compete with pricier powerhouse laptops, for $129, this entry-level laptop offers reliable value for budget-conscious buyers.
Since the dawn of civilization, leeches have been firmly attached to medicine. Therapeutic bloodsuckers are seen in murals decorating the tombs of 18th dynasty Egyptian pharaohs. They got their earliest written recommendation in the 2nd century BC by Greek poet and physician Nicander of Colophon. He introduced the “blood-loving leech, long flaccid and yearning for gore,” as a useful tool for sucking out poison after a bite from a poisonous animal. “Let leeches feed on [the] wounds and drink their fill,” he wrote. Ancient Chinese writing touted their medicinal potential, too, as did references in Sanskrit.
Galen, the physician for Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, supported using leeches to balance the four humors (i.e. blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile) and therefore treat ailments—as initially outlined by Hippocrates. Leeches, doctors found, provided a method for less painful, localized, and limited bloodletting. We now understand that leeches can release an anesthetic to prevent pain and a powerful anticoagulant, hirudin, to prevent clotting and keep blood flowing.
In the centuries since the Roman era, leeches’ popularity only grew. They were used to treat everything from gout to liver disease, epilepsy, and melancholy. The very word “leech” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “laece,” which translates to “physician.”
Nvidia became the world’s first $5 trillion company on Wednesday after its stock climbed 5% in early Wall Street trading to push its market capitalization to $5.13 trillion. The Silicon Valley chipmaker reached the milestone three months after hitting $4 trillion and three years after it was valued at roughly $400 billion before the debut of ChatGPT.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said Tuesday that Nvidia had secured half a trillion dollars in orders for its AI chips over the next five quarters. The stock had already gained 5% on Tuesday and added more than $200 billion to its market value. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he planned to discuss Nvidia’s Blackwell chip with China’s President Xi Jinping when the two leaders meet later this week. Nvidia’s latest generation of graphics processing units is not currently available in China because of US export controls. The company’s shares have risen more than 85% in the past six months.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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A depressing byproduct of global climate change is more powerful hurricanes—four of the six strongest hurricanes on record have occurred since 2005, and Hurricane Melissa, which tore through Jamaica yesterday as category 5 storm, may become number five.
Everyone living near either U.S. coast is potentially in danger from these types of vicious storms, whether from debris made deadly from high winds, accidental electrocutions from downed power lines, and especially from storm surge and fresh-water flooding, the main cause of hurricane-related deaths. But you can keep yourself safer if you follow a few simple steps.
First, get out of the hurricane’s path. The safest place to be when a hurricane approaches is somewhere else; so you should definitely evacuate when you are told to. Hurricanes are not entirely predictable but they’re slow enough that evacuation is usually possible. Don’t be prideful; track storms early and get out of Dodge if you’re in danger. (Information on how to track hurricanes is below.)
Go to a designated shelter: Sometimes residents are ordered to shelters as hurricanes approach. If the civic authorities tell you to go to one, do it. An “official” shelter will almost definitely be safer than your house.
Stay inside your home. If you haven’t evacuated (whether because you’re stubborn or “shelter in place” orders have been given), stay inside. Hurricanes are powerful, fascinating storms, but resist the urge to go outside and experience them or to try to batten down the hatches once the storm is upon you. It’s too late. Save yourself, not your lawn furniture.
Stay away from windows. Don’t look out the windows during a hurricane. The storm’s winds can turn the glass in your windows to flying shards of death in an instant.
Go to a small, interior room: The safest part of your house is the middle. You’re trying to avoid the shards of flying glass when your windows are blown in, so an interior room with no windows is your best bet. It could be a hallway, a bathroom, a pantry, etc. Wherever you hunker down, make sure there are no heavy objects above you that could fall.
Stay on the lowest floor that isn’t the basement: You might think higher ground is the move, but it is not. Avoid the upper floors of your home because the wind is stronger the higher you go, and in severe hurricanes, roofs can be blown off or destroyed by blown debris. Stay on the lowest interior floor that is not likely to flood; but not the basement. Basements can fill quickly during storm surge and are not always safe.
Stay in your house even longer: Be patient, and do not be fooled if there is a lull in the storm. You could be in the eye of the hurricane, and the high winds might pick up again. Listen to your radio and wait for local officials to indicate it’s OK to go outside.
While there are ways to mitigate risk, being trapped in your house during a hurricane is a potentially deadly situation, and can almost always be avoided if you take some precautions and evacuate when ordered to.
Make sure your phone and backup burner phone are set up to receive Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) from FEMA through the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS). These are free 90-character texts that local authorities can send to mobile devices within range of any cell towers in an affected area. There’s no need to sign up; just make sure your phones are updated and charged.
Next, do a search for your jurisdiction’s opt-in public alert system. Click here and enter your town, city, or county name + “emergency alerts” to see how you can sign up. It’s not a bad idea to check with your local emergency management or public safety office either. You can also receive alerts and warnings directly from the National Weather Service with a NOAA Weather Radio. Do your best to make sure everyone in the family is able to get warnings and alerts—not just you.
Warnings aren’t much help if you don’t know what they mean. Here’s a quick breakdown of hurricane and tropical storm warnings, via FEMA:
Hurricane advisory: The National Weather Service (NWS) issues this when they expect a storm to cause significant inconveniences that may be hazardous, but not life-threatening.
Hurricane watch: NWS issues this when there is a possible hurricane within the next 48 hours. If you see a watch issued, turn on your NOAA Weather Radio, local radio, TV, or other news source to stay informed. Double check your emergency supplies and go-bag in case you need to hunker down or evacuate.
Hurricane warning: The NWS issues this when it expects a hurricane within the next 36 hours. Do everything listed in the “Watch” section, then prepare to evacuate if told to do so.
It’s possible local authorities will tell you to evacuate the area, so you need to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. Here’s what you need to do to be ready:
Have an evacuation plan: Either learn your community’s evacuation plan or develop one of your own using suggested routes via your state’s Department of Transportation or Office of Emergency Management websites.
Have a place to go: Inform family or friends who you might be staying with, or locate a nearby emergency shelter location using the FEMA mobile app. Designate a meet-up place for everyone in case you get separated.
Prepare your vehicle: Fill up your gas tank, load up your car with basic emergency supplies, and make sure it’s ready to roll out.
Grab your go-bag: Everyone in your household should have a go-bag (aka “bug-out bag”) packed and ready. It should include water, non-perishable food, a flashlight, backup power for your phone, a first-aid kit and prescriptions, copies of important documents, a change of clothes, hygiene basics, and anything your kids, seniors, or pets need to get through a few days away from home. Here are more details on what to put in a go-bag.
Leave no one behind: Make sure your evacuation plan accounts for everyone in your household, including pets.
If you have the time before the storm threatens, prepare your home for being battered with high winds, heavy rains, and airborne debris. That means reinforcing doors and protecting windows. All windows, skylights, and sliding glass doors should be covered. Plywood is the cheapest option, but it has to be installed properly. They know a lot about hurricanes in Florida, so here’s the government’s guide to proper plywood installation for hurricane preparedness.
DO NOT tape your windows in hopes of protecting them. It isn’t very effective and this method can actually create larger, more dangerous shards of glass if they break.
Once you’ve got all openings covered, bring in all loose objects from your yard: patio furniture, garbage cans, bicycles, toys, lawn tools, etc. If something is too big to bring inside, anchor it as best you can outside. Make sure your trees are trimmed to avoid branches smashing into your home. Unplug electronics and be sure to shut off all propane tanks.
Last, get your home and property ready for potential flooding. Clean debris out of your gutters and drains, elevate your heating system, water heater, and electric panel, and don’t keep any easily-damaged valuables in the basement or in low areas.
The danger isn’t over when the winds stop blowing. Here are some things to remember after a hurricane ends.
Stay out of floodwater: Don’t walk or drive on a flooded street. Never enter floodwaters—even shallow water can hide electrical hazards and could be rife with dangerous chemicals, human and animal waste, and possibly deadly pathogens.
Do not go near damaged buildings: Storm-damaged structures can collapse.
Beware of downed power lines: Powerful winds can knock over power lines and power lines can electrocute you.
Use generators safely: If you’ve lost power but you have a generator, make sure you know how to use it safely.
Make sure your food and water are not contaminated: Throw away food and beverages that have had any contact with floodwater, or smells or looks suspicious.
Follow directions of civic authorities: Listen to emergency broadcast radio and be ready to follow the directives of authorities.
Do you have one streaming service too many? While you’re far from alone in that, sometimes it’s worth saying goodbye to one and saving some cash. Take Paramount+, which starts at $8 per month for its ad-supported Essential plan. Then there’s its ad-free Premium plan, coming in at $13 a month.
If you’re not really using it, or just can’t justify the cost, canceling your Paramount+ subscription is pretty easy. Plus, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are right around the corner if you change your mind. Paramount+ has run significant deals for both in recent years.
In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about canceling your subscription through Paramount+ or third-party providers like Apple or Google.
If your subscription is directly through Paramount+ then canceling it takes only a few clicks.
Sign in to your Paramount+ account on your browser.
Go to the Paramount+ Account page.
Tap on Cancel Subscription.
It’s still relatively simple to cancel your Paramount+ subscription even if you bought it through a third-party. Here’s what you need to know based on where you purchased it.
Go to Settings in your iPhone or iPad.
Choose your name.
Tap Subscriptions.
Click Paramount+ and then select Cancel Subscription.
Tap Confirm.
Go to Settings in your Apple TV.
Tap Users & Accounts.
Select your Apple TV account.
Choose Subscriptions.
Click Paramount+ and select Cancel Subscription.
Cancel via Google Play Store on a web browser
Go to the Google Play Store through a web browser.
Sign in to your Google Play Store account.
Click Bills & Accounts on the left side of the screen.
Choose Paramount+ and tap Cancel Subscription.
Go to the Google Play Store app.
Click on your profile icon.
Choose Payment & Subscriptions.
Tap on Subscriptions.
Click Paramount+ and then select Cancel Subscription.
Follow the prompts to confirm your cancelation.
Cancel via your Android TV
Open the Google Play Store app.
Go to Menu.
Choose My Apps.
Tap on Subscription.
Click Paramount+ and then select Cancel.
Choose Yes to confirm your cancelation.
Go to Amazon App Store Subscriptions.
Sign in to your Amazon account.
Find your Paramount+ subscription and choose Actions.
Tap Turn Off Auto-Renewal.
Click Turn Off Auto-Renewal again to confirm your cancelation.
No, there’s no option as of yet to pause your Paramount+ subscription. If you want to cancel it then just do so and rejoin when the time is right — or a better deal is available.
The good news is that your subscription won’t end immediately. If you’re in a free trial then your access to Paramount+ will remain until the trial period ends. Similarly, paid subscribers will lose the ability to use Paramount+ at the end of the current billing period. Notably, if you’ve used a multi-month promotion, your subscription will still stop at the end of your current billing period.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-cancel-your-paramount-subscription-140053714.html?src=rss
Bill Gates is retreating from his earlier warnings about climate change. The Microsoft co-founder now argues that what he called the “doomsday view of climate change” has caused the climate community to focus too heavily on near-term emissions goals and divert resources from addressing poverty and disease in the world’s poorest countries.
In a blog post, Gates wrote that climate change will have serious consequences but will not lead to humanity’s demise. He acknowledges that some climate advocates will call him a hypocrite given his own carbon footprint and his 2021 book warning that climate change could be as deadly as COVID-19 by mid-century and five times as deadly by 2100.
The poorest countries receive less than 1% of rich countries’ budgets at their highest level and that this share is shrinking as wealthy nations cut aid and low-income countries struggle with debt, he wrote. Rising temperatures are now inevitable and that the current consensus suggests Earth’s average temperature will be between two and three degrees Celsius higher than 1850 levels by 2100.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I vividly remember testing the first Echo Studio. Even though that was nearly six years ago, I can clearly recall my surprise that Amazon had finally built a smart speaker that actually sounded good. It certainly helped that Amazon created a device that appropriately broadcasted spatial audio, and one that offered a boost to movies in the living room (if you bought a pair of them).
I was similarly surprised to see the overhauled Echo Studio when Amazon revealed it a few weeks ago. Could the company offer the same audio performance in a speaker that was 40 percent smaller? The 2025 Echo Studio ($220) combines three 1.5-inch full-range drivers with a 3.75-inch woofer in a very confined space, all powered by the company’s new AI-ready processor. There’s certainly a lot to like about the comprehensive reboot of the Studio after such a long time, but for now, there are also several caveats.
Amazon completely redesigned the Echo Studio, opting for a much more compact, spherical look compared to the previous large cylinder. To me, this is an upgrade; it looks less like a speaker and more like a piece of home decor. Amazon also moved the trademark light ring to the front, the element that illuminates when you’re talking to Alexa, so it’s easier to see when you’re directly facing the speaker. The lights will also display volume level in white when you make an adjustment, flash red if you mute the microphones and show blue for Bluetooth pairing mode. If you employ the Drop In feature, the Echo’s intercom of sorts, the ring glows green while you check in on what’s happening in the room from somewhere else.
The company also relocated all of the controls. The volume and mute buttons that used to be on top are now on an angled panel on the front, offering satisfying travel when you press them. And those are the only three buttons you get on the Echo Studio, as Amazon wants you to use noice commands for everything else when playing music or podcasts. Or, you know, you could reach for your phone.
There are optional tap controls that can be used to snooze alarms, stop timers and end both calls and Drop Ins. You simply tap the top of the Echo Studio for this. What’s more, you can enable “advanced” tap control that allows you to play/pause media with the same action.
Amazon promises “powerful bass and crystal-clear vocals” on the new Echo Studio, and I’d say the latter holds true. There is great clarity in the sound here, and the tuning definitely favors highs and mids across nearly every genre. For example, the synths and vocals on the TRON: Ares soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails are more prominent than the drum machines or bass line. Still, I heard an immersive quality to these songs, but not as much as I’ve noticed using headphones or earbuds. There’s more low-end tone on Thrice’s Horizons/West, and overall, the instruments offer a more enveloping quality than most other albums I tested. Just know there’s quite a bit of variation from album to album and genre to genre.
Like the original Echo Studio, this model supports spatial audio, Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio content. Those are available from various streaming platforms, including Amazon Music Unlimited. Amazon only sent me one of the new speakers, so it’s tough to evaluate immersive Atmos sound here, but I gave it my best shot. The Echo Studio performs slightly better with Dolby Atmos tunes from Amazon Music as those songs have more depth and a wider soundstage. However, the bass is still quite muted, so even the spatial audio and Ultra HD quality boost don’t rescue the sluggish low-end tone and prominent vocals.
The new Echo Studio comes with early access to Alexa+, Amazon’s next-gen virtual assistant. The company has spent the last few years overhauling its companion, and my colleague Cherlynn Low has an in-depth preview of what you can expect when you’re able to use it. I’ve been chatting with the new Alexa for about a week during the course of testing this speaker, and to my surprise, this AI-powered assistant is indeed much improved.
The biggest change I’ve noticed is in on-going conversations with multiple follow-up questions or comments. The new AZ3 Pro chip inside the Echo Studio certainly helps keep things snappy, so there are no awkward pauses. I asked Alexa+ to remind me to make pizza dough one afternoon, and it confirmed the request without hesitation. Taking a cue from Cherlynn, I then asked about my mood right after, to which Alexa replied that I seemed to be chill based on my voice — a good “Monday vibe.”
Except it wasn’t Monday, it was Tuesday. When I corrected Alexa, the assistant played it cool, thanking me for helping and apologizing for the mistake. It then recalled the initial pizza request, commenting that it seemed like I was on top of things that day, including my dough recipe and the task at hand. It was the most human-to-human interaction I’ve ever had with a virtual assistant, and it felt like the promise of casual conversations with technology like this was finally fulfilled. And, I have to say, it kind of freaked me out.
My week–long fling hasn’t been without a few bumps though. Despite the Echo Studio having a built-in temperature sensor, Alexa+ can’t pull data from it. When you ask about the temperature in your house, the assistant checks for a connected thermostat, which I don’t have synced with the Alexa app. There are still times like this where you’ll run into some head-scratching limitations, but overall, the new Alexa is more human-like than ever when you interact with it. And again, at times, it’s pretty unsettling.
When the early access period is over, you’ll need a Prime membership to continue using Alexa+ for free. If you don’t have one, the next-gen assistant will cost you a whopping $20/month. And right now, the preview is only available in the US and in US English.
While the clarity and somewhat immersive audio performance on the Echo Studio is a highlight, the lack of detail in the bass tuning is a hindrance most of the time. There is noticeable bass when a song calls for it, but the low-end tone has a muted, almost muffled quality that’s missing nuance. This makes songs like Water From Your Eyes’ “Born 2” sound much flatter and constrained than I’ve heard on the second-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and AirPods Pro 3.
Amazon spent time during its recent launch event talking about Alexa Home Theater, a feature that will allow you to combine up to five Echo Studio speakers (or Echo Dot Max) with a compatible Fire TV stick. The company promises that all you have to do is plug in your gear and Alexa will handle the setup and tuning for you automatically. Unfortunately, Alexa Home Theater isn’t available yet; the company says it will be released “in the coming weeks.” Of course, this means I wasn’t able to test it, which leaves one of the Echo Studio’s best features — at least on paper — for future evaluation.
The company also nixed the 3.5mm input from the original Echo Studio. While I can appreciate that it was a much larger speaker, and 2019 was an entirely different time, I did like that Amazon gave us the option for wired connectivity on that device. With this new model, you’re left with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Despite enabling tap controls in the Echo Studio settings in the Alexa app, I could only get a few of them to work (snooze alarms, dismiss timers, end calls and stop Drop In). I even made sure to stand right in front of the speaker so its proximity sensors would know I was there, tapping awkwardly on the 3D knit fabric. Obviously, this doesn’t block any of the speaker’s functions as you can just use your voice for all of it. However, the ability to at least play/pause directly on the speaker would be handy.
The second iteration of the Echo Studio is a refined smart speaker that’s purpose-built for Amazon’s next-gen AI voice assistant. The device is a nice home for Alexa+ and the new design is certainly an improvement over the 2019 aesthetic of the original. While there’s some aspects of the sound on the Echo Studio that I admire, the tuning doesn’t offer the comprehensive oomph of that first speaker. That’s mostly due to the lack of detail in the bass, despite a pleasingly immersive soundstage overall. One of the speaker’s main features is still on the way, and the tap controls need fine-tuning, so for now, the new Echo Studio has a considerable amount of unfulfilled potential.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/amazon-echo-studio-2025-review-a-comprehensive-redesign-for-alexa-140000191.html?src=rss
Trusted execution environments, or TEEs, are everywhere—in blockchain architectures, virtually every cloud service, and computing involving AI, finance, and defense contractors. It’s hard to overstate the reliance that entire industries have on three TEEs in particular: Confidential Compute from Nvidia, SEV-SNP from AMD, and SGX and TDX from Intel. All three come with assurances that confidential data and sensitive computing can’t be viewed or altered, even if a server has suffered a complete compromise of the operating kernel.
A trio of novel physical attacks raises new questions about the true security offered by these TEES and the exaggerated promises and misconceptions coming from the big and small players using them.
The most recent attack, released Tuesday, is known as TEE.fail. It defeats the latest TEE protections from all three chipmakers. The low-cost, low-complexity attack works by placing a small piece of hardware between a single physical memory chip and the motherboard slot it plugs into. It also requires the attacker to compromise the operating system kernel. Once this three-minute attack is completed, Confidential Compute, SEV-SNP, and TDX/SDX can no longer be trusted. Unlike the Battering RAM and Wiretap attacks from last month—which worked only against CPUs using DDR4 memory—TEE.fail works against DDR5, allowing them to work against the latest TEEs.
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