On Tuesday, IBM released its plans for building a system that should push quantum computing into entirely new territory: a system that can both perform useful calculations while catching and fixing errors and be utterly impossible to model using classical computing methods. The hardware, which will be called Starling, is expected to be able to perform 100 million operations without error on a collection of 200 logical qubits. And the company expects to have it available for use in 2029.

Perhaps just as significant, IBM is also committing to a detailed description of the intermediate steps to Starling. These include a number of processors that will be configured to host a collection of error-corrected qubits, essentially forming a functional compute unit. This marks a major transition for the company, as it involves moving away from talking about collections of individual hardware qubits and focusing instead on units of functional computational hardware. If all goes well, it should be possible to build Starling by chaining a sufficient number of these compute units together.

“We’re updating [our roadmap] now with a series of deliverables that are very precise,” IBM VP Jay Gambetta told Ars, “because we feel that we’ve now answered basically all the science questions associated with error correction and it’s becoming more of a path towards an engineering problem.”

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Apple is bundling its News+ subscriptions with a new game that users will be able to access when they get iOS 26. MacRumors has reported that Apple is calling it the “Emoji Game,” because, well, it’s all about using emoji to fill blanked-out letters in incomplete words and phrases. For the word “Disappear,” for instance, you can use the “pear” emoji to complete it if the puzzle only shows its first five letters. For the phrase “rubbing elbows,” you can use the “pink bows” emoji if the blank spaces correspond to “bows.” The same emoji could have several meanings, as well: “Pear” can also be used to correspond to “fruit” in the word “fruitful,” as an example.

It’s a neat little game that people can play to pass the time, but it can only be accessed by those paying $13 a month for Apple News+. The subscription will give you access to magazines and newspapers, audio stories and regional publications, along with daily puzzles like the Emoji Game. It’s pretty pricey, though like Apple’s other services, users can share their subscription with up to six family members. 

At the moment, only developers who already have iOS 26 beta will be able to play the Emoji Game. Apple’s new mobile OS, which the company announced at WWDC, will be released to the public this fall. It will be compatible with all iPhones announced in 2019 or later, which means iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max owners won’t be able to install it anymore. In addition to adopting a new naming convention that’s based on the year it’s released, the upcoming version of iOS has undergone a major visual overhaul, with translucent user interfaces inspired by the look of visionOS. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-news-subscribers-are-getting-an-emoji-game-with-ios-26-123056186.html?src=rss

In June of 2025, Marc Maron announced he’ll be ending his beloved interview podcast WTF With Marc Maron after 16 years and 1,600 episodes. The show became a staple for Maron’s ability to get notable figures from then-sitting President Barack Obama to the late Robin Williams to open up and share intimate details of their lives, and will be much missed.

While there is only one WTF, long-time listeners needn’t be at a total loss for intimate celebrity chats Here are 12 suggestions for other podcasts that can help fill the void.

The Blindboy Podcast

Credit: The Blindboy Podcast

If you’re craving interviews that feel like they’re happening in the dark, dozy corner of a pub at 2 a.m., The Blindboy Podcast delivers. He disarms guests with his surreal humor and gentle curiosity, then leads them into raw, vulnerable conversations that unfold like therapy sessions. It’s weird, it’s wise, it’s deeply human. Not all episodes are interviews, but all episodes do have moments that feel academic, philosophical, and full of heart. Blindboy gets to the hearts of his guests in a way that nobody else can—and it’s clear he’s only interviewing people he really wants to talk to.

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Credit: Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Queuing up an episode of Kelly Corrigan Wonders is like dialing up your smartest, funniest, most probing friend. In each episode, Kelly blends curiosity, vulnerability, and that rare honesty that makes you feel like you’re eavesdropping. It’s part therapy, part storytelling, and all heart. Kelly has a gift for asking questions that go beyond the surface—interviews often feel more like soul-level check-ins than media soundbites. Kelly doesn’t shy away from hard topics (loss, abortion, aging parents) but is still able to make you feel seen, soothed, and just a bit better about being human.

Death, Sex & Money

Credit: Death, Sex & Money

Anna Sale started Death, Sex & Money in 2017 after realizing other interview shows often avoided the hardest yet most interesting questions about human nature. So she started a show about just that—episodes go to places no other show will go when it comes to death (Anna talks to a man whose father has voluntarily stopped eating and drinking, ending his life), sex (why a woman left her polyamorous marriage), and money (this writer’s favorite episode, an interview with someone who steals). Anna is gentle and direct, encouraging her guests to talk openly about the stuff we were told not to bring up at the dinner table. 

How to Fail

Credit: How to Fail

Asking someone what has gone wrong in their life is maybe the fastest (and most uncomfortable) path to intimacy. On every episode of How To Fail, journalist Elizabeth Day asks her guest to take us through three failures they’ve experienced, reframing them as events that helped them be better people or live better lives (eventually, at least). Elizabeth creates a magical chemistry with all of her guests, including the likes of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mo Gawdat, and Brene Brown. The focus isn’t hacks or tips, but unpacking the mistakes and regrets that these people have been able to overcome, and how. 

I Feel That Way Too

Credit: I Feel That Way Too

Award-winning author Michelle MiJung Kim’s mission is to make people feel seen—her podcast I Feel That Way Too is all about the big, messy questions we usually don’t ask aloud, like, “Why are so many Asian women with white men?” and “Am I really supposed to sleep with one person forever?” Think We Can Do Hard Things or Death, Sex & Money, but through the lens of a queer Korean American woman who leads with radical vulnerability.

Good Hang With Amy Poehler

Credit: Good Hang with Amy Poehler

Good Hang is silly and fun and gets into fewer deep moments than WTF, but Amy Poehler’s candidness and honesty with her guests makes this podcast feel especially intimate and quite unlike most other celebrity interview podcasts. It feels like the late-night heart-to-heart you didn’t know you needed. There are sneakily vulnerable moments—you show up for the laughs and stay for the unexpected emotional truths. If you’re into podcasts that feel like a friend gently (or not-so-gently) pulling back the curtain, this one’s for you.

Blocks

Credit: Blocks

If you’re craving interviews that go beyond the usual celeb promo chatter, Neal Brennan’s Blocks is a must-listen. It’s not just funny—it’s uncomfortably honest. Brennan asks guests to share the emotional “blocks” that mess with their lives (think: shame, ego, addiction), and what unfolds feels more like therapy than a talk show.

Therapy for Black Girls

Credit: Therapy for Black Girls

On Therapy for Black Girls, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, covers mental health, personal development, and exploring the small changes we can make to become the best possible version of ourselves, with the experience of women of color at the forefront. Whether the topic is work, friendship, money, or understanding Seasonal Affective Disorder, Dr. Joy is there to explain these experiences through a Black lens.

Where Should We Begin?

Credit: Where Should We Begin With Esther Perel

On Where Should We Begin?, renowned psychotherapist Esther Perel lets you be a fly on the wall inside her office to eavesdrop on a real couple’s counseling session. You’ll hear everything about their relationship—every raw and intimate detail. Esther’s advice is both philosophical and reflective, dynamic and engaging, and direct but gentle. She’s solution-oriented, focused on helping these couples, who come to her for help with infidelity, desire, and divorce.

On Being

Credit: On Being

If you’re craving interviews that feel like a warm cup of tea to calm your existential dread, On Being is your go-to. Krista Tippett doesn’t just ask questions—she invites people to bring their entire souls to conversations filled with un-google-able questions about faith, grief, joy, and the meaning of life.

Talk Easy

Credit: Talk Easy

On Talk Easy, Sam Fragoso has thoughtful, long-form conversations that don’t feel like interviews, but deep dives into the minds of his guests artists, activists, and politicians. (Sam goes from sitting with the first Gen Z Congressman to discuss his fight for gun reform to getting a tea with Amelia Dimoldenberg of Chicken Shop Date.) Each conversation has a narrative arc. Sam is curious and empathetic, he does his research, and he’s interested in not just simple answers, but the full story.

From Now On

Credit: From Now On

From Now On is hosted by Lisa Phillips, a former model and current talent scout who has navigated the complexities of the entertainment industry. Lisa is also, importantly, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein. This podcast dives headfirst into stories of abuse and recovery. An empathetic survivor herself, Lisa is the perfect host. Although it doesn’t look like a true crime or investigative podcast on the surface, it has had a real-world impact: Because of it, several women who have been assaulted by the same man in the same way have come forward, and credited the show for giving them the courage.

There’s a psychology to selling a house. From pricing strategies designed to inspire bidding wars to careful staging that helps you see yourself already living there, real estate agents know that selling a house is as much about selling a lifestyle as a piece of property.

That process starts long before you actually show up to look at a house—way back when the real estate agent writes up the property listing. We all know that listing descriptions are marketing copy, but even if you read them with a skeptical eye, you might not spot some of the misleading words and phrases peppered in there because they seem so innocuous. Most of these hidden red flags aren’t exactly lies—they’re just efforts to obscure the truth with softer vocabulary. Here’s what to look for.

The red flags

Real estate pros use language artfully. The “red flag” words don’t always jump out at you, but you can look for any phrases that seem out of place or overly poetic. Here are some of the most common terms real estate professionals use to make a bad listing look worth your time.

• Cozy. Probably the most over-used word in real estate listings, “cozy” is weaponized to conjure up images of comfort and familiarity. But any real estate pro will tell you that “cozy” really means just one thing: small. Sometimes the placement of the word can give you some hints—for example, if it’s a “cozy garden,” the house itself might be spacious enough.

• TLC/Handyman’s special. These terms both evoke easy, low-effort transformations—a lick of paint, maybe some new carpeting. But in real estate listings, they usually mean you’re buying a project—and probably an expensive one. No one’s going to list a house saying “needs $200,000 in renovations,” after all.

• Convenient location. Look for what it’s supposedly conveniently located near. Easy access to main roads could mean there’s an on-ramp right nearby. Local bars and restaurants? In that case, “convenient” translates to “noisy.” What you’re really looking for is “walking distance.” Things are only convenient when they don’t adversely affect your life when you’re not using them.

• Unique. This word implies that you’re getting something special, unlike all the cookie-cutter condos that otherwise litter the market. And maybe you are, but it’s often used to describe homes that are difficult to sell due to design elements that most people don’t like. Barbara Corcoran told CNBC that “unique” was “the worst word in all real estate copy,” which means “nobody wants it.”

• Quiet. This might seem perfectly reasonable—people do often want peace and quiet in their homes. But seeing this word in a listing should prompt some questions about why the agent felt the need to underscore that aspect of the property. Often this is included because the property is in a noisy area, so stressing that it has good windows and you can’t hear all that traffic or crowd noise when you’re trying to sleep can head off concerns. If “quiet” is also one of the first things mentioned, that might imply that it’s the sole selling point of the place.

• Charming. This classic is almost not even a code word anymore—most people understand that it usually means “old.” In the absence of the words “renovated” or at least “updated” (see below), this probably means it’s a time capsule that will require some work.

• Vibrant. This word paints a picture of a cool, hip neighborhood filled with people from all over. What it usually means, though, is “loud.”

• Original condition. Context matters here. If specific architectural or design elements are in original condition, that could be a wonderful detail. If the whole place is in original condition, that could just mean that literally everything from the wallpaper to the plumbing is 75 years old and in desperate need of replacement.

• Green belt. This one is tricky, as it’s factual, but crucial information is often omitted when it appears in a listing. A green belt is desirable because it’s a patch of nature that can’t be developed, so if the lot backs up to a green belt, you’ll potentially have a gorgeous, unspoiled view and possibly access to some wilderness without the threat of someone developing the land into an eyesore. But greenbelts aren’t always nature preserves—they often obscure power lines or other infrastructure, so finding out the purpose of the green belt is essential.

• Updated. This word works hard to make a run-down place feel fresher. If a house is renovated, the listing will say renovated, and probably go into detail about the quality of the work and materials. “Updated,” on the other hand, usually means that some things have been replaced—new carpeting, new appliances, one of the three bathrooms. But these updates often come at different times, usually have no coordinating design, and can leave a house feeling patch-worked and not cohesive.

• Generous (size). There aren’t any standards when it comes to describing the size of things in a house, and the word “generous” is so open to interpretation as to be useless. It feels big, though—if you get a “generous” portion of something, it’s big, right?—so it’s often deployed when the rooms or other aspects of the property are actually average size to embiggen the place and make it seem grander.

• Motivated. This word hooks into our greed and desire for a deal: If the buyer’s motivated, you can lowball on the offer and demand concessions! But it’s worth asking yourself (or, better, the listing agent) why they’re motivated. Has the house been on the market for months, but they can’t sell it because of defects (that you will have to fix)?

• Well-maintained. This innocuous phrase sounds great—no one wants a house that isn’t well-maintained. Except that well-maintained is kind of the baseline for a property. Stressing this usually means that the house hasn’t been renovated, remodeled, or significantly improved in a long time. Sure, everything works, but you’re probably going to spend money in the near future to bring it out of the last century.

Spotting one or more of these hidden red flags in a property listing doesn’t necessarily mean the place isn’t worth looking at—but it does mean you should be prepared to dig into the reality behind the marketing copy.

WWDC 2025 felt like a course-correction. Last year’s tech event season left me cold — all the AI-powered tools supposedly for consumers that Microsoft, Google and finally Apple were peddling felt like a lot of hype without much real benefit. And that was before Apple fumbled the development of its more advanced Siri, showing off pre-recorded demos that weren’t close to ready. Google I/O last month was more of the same, with seemingly infinite versions of Gemini and not a lot of things I felt like I would use day-to-day. And if you go back to 2023, the highlight of WWDC was the Vision Pro — most definitely not a product for most people.

But yesterday, Apple offered up a number of features that’ll actually likely be noticed and used by more people, whether we’re talking about the redesigned iPad multitasking system or a ton of new customization options for the iPhone. And when Apple Intelligence was mentioned, it felt less like fixes to problems no one has and more like smart tools that could actually make your life easier.

Live Translation is probably the best example of that. Apple Intelligence will be able to do things like automatically translate your messages, show live-translated captions in FaceTime calls and provide spoken translations on telephone calls. For anyone dealing with multi-lingual conversations, this could be extremely useful, something you couldn’t always say about many of the Apple Intelligence features from 2024.

Visual Intelligence is another Apple Intelligence standout. It’s quite similar to Google Lens, in that you pointed your phone’s camera at something and it would recognize what it was looking at and give you information about what was on your screen. This year, Apple’s building that right into the screenshot tool and using the information it recognizes in a variety of intriguing ways. (It’s worth mentioning that Google has offered features like these for a while now, though.) For example, you could screenshot an image of an event poster and Visual Intelligence can create a calendar event with its details. You can also take a screenshot of something and then ask ChatGPT about it. The example Apple gave was a screenshot of a picture of a mandolin; the user then asked ChatGPT to give some examples of rock songs that use the instrument.

And even the more frivolous Apple Intelligence features at least sounded more fun this year. The first real use of Apple Intelligence on the Apple Watch is Workout Buddy, a coach that can inspire you throughout a workout. Instead of just letting you know you’re halfway through a run, the Workout Buddy can see your whole workout history and offer more detailed insights — like giving you kudos on finishing your fastest 10K, for example. That said, none of this runs on the Apple Watch itself. You’ll need an iPhone with Apple Intelligence “nearby” to use it.

Beyond Apple Intelligence are a variety of features that I hope will meaningfully improve using Apple’s hardware. The new Liquid Glass design across all of the company’s products looks nice, but I’m more excited about the work that Apple is doing to minimize spam on the iPhone. Being able to screen for messages from unknown contacts should go a long way towards making the Messages app better — text spam is out of control (I got two spam messages while Apple was talking about spam messages), and anything to crack down on that now before it becomes as bad as phone spam is crucial. Apple is also adding some call screening features similar to something Android has had for more than five years now.

For me, though, the iPad updates Apple announced yesterday are probably the most exciting things I’ve seen. I’ve long been interested in trying to use one as my main device and I’ve gotten to the point where I can do almost anything I need or want to do on Apple’s tablet. But I also can’t deny that the software has almost always felt a step behind the power and cutting-edge technology the company puts in the iPad Pro lineup.

Apple answered that with what it called its biggest update to iPad multitasking ever, something that actually doesn’t feel like hyperbole. Apps still open in full screen, but you can resize them and layer them in whatever fashion you like. Stage Manager attempted this, but the new layout seems even more flexible than that. And, perhaps more importantly, it should remember sizing and arrangement better than before. There’s also a menu bar for easier access to power features, and the Files app lets you drop any folder you want in your dock for quick access. I’m not naive enough to think this will satisfy everyone who finds iPadOS to be lacking in some way, but it does feel like Apple has listened to a lot of the complaints power users have had with the iPad over the years.

Despite the theme of unification — in the platform names, with the new UI design and shared features, the event did feel a little like a rapid-fire feature drop that wasn’t always fully connected. Given that Apple broadly covered six platforms as well as Apple Intelligence in 90 minutes, it’s not surprising that things felt quick and also a bit scattered. But amidst the slightly chaotic bursts of news, there were plenty of things that caught my attention, and I’m sure there will be more as I dig further into what Apple is planning (there are always features that aren’t touched on in the keynote, after all). It feels like a bit of a throwback, and it made me enjoy this WWDC a good bit more than the last.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/wwdc-2025-was-a-return-to-smaller-scale-features-that-are-actually-useful-120027296.html?src=rss

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC 2025) kicked off yesterday, with the usual glossy keynote from the iPhone maker. As ever, the company outlined the changes it’s made to its operating systems, all now named by year rather than version number. The biggest news is a visual overhaul of all the OSes, dubbed Liquid Glass, to bring them more in line with each other, and sharing features across the platforms. For instance, it’s redesigned the iPhone’s phone app, but it’ll also be available on macOS Tahoe as well. Plus, some updates to Apple Intelligence, which include the useful (live translation of text and speech) and the less useful (using Image Playground to make backgrounds for your group chats).

The focus here, on smaller tweaks and features with more practical utility, is welcome after last year’s show. After all, the company made some bold claims about what it was bringing to Siri, which it simply couldn’t deliver in the time allowed. Apple does its best work when it’s giving its users features that make their lives easier, not when it’s trying to shout down its Silicon Valley rivals in AI.

— Dan Cooper

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The news you might have missed

• GOG adds a one-click option to install select mods

• ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming devices are real and will be released during the 2025 holiday season

Nintendo Switch 2: Early review thoughts from our first days with the gaming system

It’s a review in progress.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The first Switch 2 units are still making their way to customers around the world, so there are lots of people who still don’t know what they’re about to get. That’s why the team has been working on this early thoughts story, where they’re finding out in real time all the joys and quirks the new hardware has to offer. Our full and comprehensive review is coming, but if you’re eager to get the details early, this is worth keeping an eye on.

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Warner Bros. Discovery will split into two media giants

You already know the dividing lines.

There’s nothing Warner Bros. likes more than a high-profile merger, followed swiftly by an equally high-profile de-merger. Not long after its ill-advised coupling with Discovery, WBD is cleaving itself in twain, and it’s not hiding where it sees the future of its business. One company, Streaming and Studios, will hold on to Warner Bros, New Line, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max. The other, Global Networks, includes the entity’s cable channels and brands, like CNN, HGTV Cartoon Network and Discovery. Perhaps a better name for that second outfit would be The Stuff We’d Otherwise Lose Money On When People Ditch Cable Plus A Lot Of The Merger Debt, So Let’s Cast It Into The Sea To Sink Now… Inc.

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Nintendo delays The Legend of Zelda movie

But only by six weeks.

Nintendo is saying “Well, excuuuuuse me” to the 2027 cinema release schedule, punting The Legend of Zelda back to May 7. Shigeru Miyamoto said the delay was to ensure the film was as “good as it can be,” even if the phrase live-action Zelda movie chills the blood by default. Mercifully, director Wes Ball has said he’s aiming to make a movie in the spirit of a live action Miyazaki, which is the best anyone can hope for.

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YouTube now allows more harmful misinformation on its platform

Oh, goody.

The New York Times reports YouTube has relaxed rules around moderating problematic content, like misinformation. It saw internal training documents telling moderators to leave up clips even if up to half of its runtime includes material that violates the platform’s policies. In a statement to Engadget, YouTube said the exceptions were broadened to preserve content that serves the public interest.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111551630.html?src=rss

In 1965, Ted Nelson submitted a paper to the Association for Computing Machinery. He wrote: “Let me introduce the word ‘hypertext’ to mean a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper.” The paper was part of a grand vision he called Xanadu, after the poem by Samuel Coleridge.

A decade later, in his book “Dream Machines/Computer Lib,” he described Xanadu thusly: “To give you a screen in your home from which you can see into the world’s hypertext libraries.” He admitted that the world didn’t have any hypertext libraries yet, but that wasn’t the point. One day, maybe soon, it would. And he was going to dedicate his life to making it happen.

As the Internet grew, it became more and more difficult to find things on it. There were lots of cool documents like the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Internet, but to read them, you first had to know where they were.

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Meta is preparing to unveil a new AI research lab dedicated to pursuing “superintelligence,” a hypothetical A.I. system that exceeds the powers of the human brain, as the tech giant jockeys to stay competitive in the technology race, New York Times reported Tuesday, citing four people with the knowledge of the company’s plans. From the report: Meta has tapped Alexandr Wang, 28, the founder and chief executive of the A.I. start-up Scale AI, to join the new lab, the people said, and has been in talks to invest billions of dollars in his company as part of a deal that would also bring other Scale employees to the company.

Meta has offered seven- to nine-figure compensation packages to dozens of researchers from leading A.I. companies such as OpenAI and Google, with some agreeing to join, according to the people. The new lab is part of a larger reorganization of Meta’s A.I. efforts, the people said. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has recently grappled with internal management struggles over the technology, as well as employee churn and several product releases that fell flat, two of the people said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom’s Hardware: The head of the Federal Aviation Administration just outlined an ambitious goal to upgrade the U.S.’s air traffic control (ATC) system and bring it into the 21st century. According to NPR, most ATC towers and other facilities today feel like they’re stuck in the 20th century, with controllers using paper strips and floppy disks to transfer data, while their computers run Windows 95. While this likely saved them from the disastrous CrowdStrike outage that had a massive global impact, their age is a major risk to the nation’s critical infrastructure, with the FAA itself saying that the current state of its hardware is unsustainable.

“The whole idea is to replace the system. No more floppy disks or paper strips,” acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau told the House Appropriations Committee last Wednesday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also said earlier this week,” This is the most important infrastructure project that we’ve had in this country for decades. Everyone agrees — this is non-partisan. Everyone knows we have to do it.” The aviation industry put up a coalition pushing for ATC modernization called Modern Skies, and it even ran an ad telling us that ATC is still using floppy disks and several older technologies to keep our skies safe. […]

Currently, the White House hasn’t said what this update will cost. The FAA has already put out a Request For Information to gather data from companies willing to take on the challenge of upgrading the entire system. It also announced several ‘Industry Days’ so companies can pitch their tech and ideas to the Transportation Department. Duffy said that the Transportation Department aims to complete the project within four years. However, industry experts say this timeline is unrealistic. No matter how long it takes, it’s high time that the FAA upgrades the U.S.’s ATC system today after decades of neglect.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In this special episode, recorded live in Cupertino, Cherlynn and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham are joined by the Washington Post’s Chris Velazco and Wired’s Julian Chokkattu to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2025. Though the announcements were all over the place and felt difficult to judge until they roll out to devices, our guests and hosts agree that they felt more meaningful than past WWDCs.

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Credits 

Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Nathan Ingraham
Guests: Chris Velazco and Julian Chokkattu
Music: Dale North

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/engadget-podcast-breaking-down-the-highlights-of-wwdc-2025-023505128.html?src=rss

South Asia has warmed far more slowly than the rest of the world over the past four decades with temperatures rising just 0.09C per decade compared to 0.30C elsewhere on land, according to new climate research. Scientists believe this “warming hole” results from two factors that have masked the true impact of global warming: heavy aerosol pollution that reflects sunlight back to space and expanded irrigation that cools air through evaporation.

The protective effect is temporary and comes at a deadly cost. Air pollution currently kills between 2 million and 3 million people annually in South Asia, while extreme heat causes 100,000 to 600,000 deaths. As governments reduce pollution and groundwater depletion limits irrigation expansion, atmospheric scientists predict India will warm at twice the rate of the past 20 years. By 2047, the average Indian could experience a four-fold increase in dangerous heat stress days, threatening a region where only 10% of households have air conditioning.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has called for changes to the roster of officials appointed to oversee the forthcoming election at the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), the latest twist in a conflict that stretches back years and has left the African regional internet registry in limbo. From a report: AFRINIC is one of the world’s five regional internet registries, the governance bodies that delegate and manage IP addresses and autonomous systems numbers in co-ordination with ICANN. The African organization has essentially been dead in the water, operating without a board or CEO since 2022. The problems started in 2020 when AFRINIC alleged that one of its members — a company called Cloud Innovation — had breached its agreement with the registry in ways that could lead AFRINIC to reclaim the company’s IP address holdings.

Cloud Innovation countered that AFRINIC acted improperly and launched multiple lawsuits in Mauritius, the Indian Ocean nation the registry calls home. Other parties also sued AFRINIC for similar reasons. The lawsuits left AFRINIC’s bank accounts frozen and meant it was unable to convene a board or run elections. In February 2025, the Supreme Court of Mauritius appointed a receiver to secure AFRINIC’s assets and reconstitute its board.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Robert F. Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners, told attendees at the SuperReturn International 2025 conference in Berlin last week that 60% of the 5,500 finance professionals present will be “looking for work” next year due to AI disruption.

Smith predicted that while 40% of attendees will adopt AI agents — programs that autonomously perform complex, multi-step tasks — the remaining majority will need to find new employment as AI transforms the sector. “All of the jobs currently carried out by one billion knowledge workers today would change due to AI,” Smith said, clarifying that while jobs won’t disappear entirely, they will fundamentally transform.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple announced a lot of new features in today’s WWDC stream, but news from one follow-up meeting heralds the end of an era. MacOS 26, also known as macOS Tahoe, will be the last version of the operating system to work on Macs powered by Intel Processors. Tahoe-supporting Intel Macs will get full access to all the new features, and they’ll still get security updates for the next three years. By 2028, though they’ll be out of the Apple ecosystem.

The first Apple Silicon processor launched in 2020. Since then, Apple has run all its hardware on its own Apple Silicon microchips, which are significantly more powerful than the Intel chips it had been using for most of the millennium. Apple Silicon’s ARM-based architecture can perform more operations and use less battery power than the x86-based Intel processors. Many Intel-powered Macs have already aged out of updates, but today’s update puts an expiration date on the last survivors.

The announcement, which came during a Platform State of the Union (SOTU) following the main WWDC event, was aimed primarily at app developers. Apple is encouraging developers to plan for the post-Intel era and ensure the migration is as smooth as possible for themselves and their users. Both macOS 26 and the planned next version, macOS 27, will include the Rosetta translation process, which helps apps built for x86 run on ARM. After 27, Rosetta will remain in place to support legacy video games.

Intel-powered Macs that will support Tahoe include the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro, the 2020 27-inch iMac and the 2019 Mac Pro.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/macos-tahoe-is-the-end-of-the-line-for-intel-macs-113036626.html?src=rss

Apple announced that macOS 26 “Tahoe” will be the final version to support Intel-based Macs, with future macOS releases running exclusively on Apple Silicon devices (that is, 2020 M1 models and newer). They will, however, continue to receive security updates for a few more years. 9to5Mac reports: In some ways, Apple has already stopped supporting some non-Apple Silicon models of its lineup. macOS Tahoe does not work with any Intel MacBook Air or Mac mini for instance. But Tahoe does still support some Intel Macs. That includes compatibility with the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 2020 Intel 13-inch MacBook Pro, 2020 iMac, and the 2019 Mac Pro.

Based on Apple’s warning, you can expect that macOS 27 will drop support for all of these legacy machines, and therefore macOS 26 will be the last compatible version. These devices will continue to receive security updates for another three years, however. Going forward, the minimum support hardware generations will be from 2020 onwards, as that is when Apple began the Apple Silicon transition with the M1. M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros followed in 2021.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hideo Kojima doesn’t really go for half measures. Following a 10-minute trailer that unveiled some early details, the game creator participated in a beefy 80-minute panel discussion with Geoff Keighley about Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on the final day of Summer Games Fest 2025.

The wide-ranging conversation included some clips from the sequel to the acclaimed Death Stranding, including its first five minutes, which sparked lots of cheers as people recognized performers’ names in the opening credits. Kojima also showed the English language version of a scene that was revealed during the Tokyo Game Show, highlighting the performances of Elle Fanning as Tomorrow and Shioli Kutsuna as Rainy. Fans also got a chance to see Tomorrow in action as she literally gets down and dirty in the tar to take out some robotic combatants. There was also a live gameplay demo, first showing Sam in combat with a blood boomerang and a tar cannon, then a more challenging fight against Neil that showed off some stealth attacks as well as some more weaponry.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be available on PlayStation 5 starting June 26.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/watch-22-minutes-of-death-stranding-2-gameplay-from-summer-games-fest-224814307.html?src=rss

Ohio State University is launching a campus-wide AI fluency initiative requiring all students to integrate AI into their studies, aiming to make them proficient in both their major and the responsible use of AI. “Ohio State has an opportunity and responsibility to prepare students to not just keep up, but lead in this workforce of the future,” said the university’s president, Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. He added: “Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we live, work, teach and learn. In the not-so-distant future, every job, in every industry, is going to be [affected] in some way by AI.” The Guardian reports: The university said its program will prioritize the incoming freshman class and onward, in order to make every Ohio State graduate “fluent in AI and how it can be responsibly applied to advance their field.” […] Steven Brown, an associate professor of philosophy at the university, told NBC News that after students turned in the first batch of AI-assisted papers he found “a lot of really creative ideas.”

“My favorite one is still a paper on karma and the practice of returning shopping carts,” Brown said. Brown said that banning AI from classwork is “shortsighted,” and he encouraged his students to discuss ethics and philosophy with AI chatbots. “It would be a disaster for our students to have no idea how to effectively use one of the most powerful tools that humanity has ever created,” Brown said. “AI is such a powerful tool for self-education that we must rapidly adapt our pedagogy or be left in the dust.”

Separately, Ohio’s AI in Education Coalition is working to develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that the state’s K-12 education system, encompassing the years of formal schooling from kindergarten through 12th grade in high school, is prepared for and can help lead the AI revolution. “AI technology is here to stay,” then lieutenant governor Jon Husted said last year while announcing an AI toolkit for Ohio’s K-12 school districts that he added would ensure the state “is a leader in responding to the challenges and opportunities made possible by artificial intelligence.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The support list for macOS Tahoe still includes Intel Macs, but it’s been whittled down to just four models, all released in 2019 or 2020. We speculated that this meant that the end was near for Intel Macs, and now we can confirm just how near it is: macOS Tahoe will be the last new macOS release to support any Intel Macs. All new releases starting with macOS 27 will require an Apple Silicon Mac.

Apple will provide additional security updates for Tahoe until fall 2028, two years after it is replaced with macOS 27. That’s a typical schedule for older macOS versions, which all get one year of major point updates that include security fixes and new features, followed by two years of security-only updates to keep them patched but no longer receive new features.

Apple is also planning changes to Rosetta 2, the Intel-to-Arm app translation technology created to ease the transition between the Intel and Apple Silicon eras. Rosetta will continue to work as a general-purpose app translation tool in both macOS 26 and macOS 27.

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iPadOS 26 makes Apple‘s tablet much more like macOS. Better windowing? Check. The menu bar? Yup. There’s even a more fine-tuned Files app, along with document editing in Preview. It’s as if Apple took a checklist of longtime power-user requests and fulfilled them all. It’s enough that the App Store’s walled garden could be the last remaining reason to stick with your Mac.

For me, the iPad’s productivity changes were the most intriguing part of Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote. Years ago, when Apple first made iPadOS more work-friendly, I tried to replace my MacBook with the iPad Pro. After reviewing several Microsoft Surfaces, I wanted an Apple equivalent, dammit. So, despite the iPad’s obvious limits, I gave it a shot.

For most things I did, it was… fine. But there were always tasks that slowed me down. Apple’s Split View, which places two apps side by side, was solid. Stage Manager added even more windowing nuance. But it still wasn’t the same as arranging windows manually. All I had to do was hop back on a Mac, and things became clear: The iPad was nowhere near ready for my workflow. I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

The changes in iPadOS 26 will finally bring the tablet close to something that could replace a Mac. For many, I suspect it will be more than enough. You can place windows anywhere and resize them fluidly. The menu bar will make it easier to access the finer controls of apps. You can tile windows and see them all in a grid with Exposé. The Files app catches up with the Mac’s Finder. The new Preview app should make document editing a breeze. And you can easily return to full-screen iPad simplicity at any time.

Apple

That raises the question: Where does iPadOS still fall short of macOS? It’s the lock-in, stupid.

The Mac grew up in an era when you could install apps from anywhere. First, it was discs. Then, the internet. Sure, Apple made changes in the last decade that make macOS a bit more restricted. System Integrity Protection (SIP) comes to mind. Gatekeeper, too. However, on the whole, it remains a relatively open environment. Getting your apps from anywhere often means a broader selection, faster updates and fewer restrictions.

The iPad, on the other hand, evolved from the iPhone. (Those old enough may recall the “It’s just a big iPod touch” commentary mocking the first model.) The App Store has always been the only official way to install apps on the iPad (EU exceptions notwithstanding). That remains so in iPadOS 26.

The tablet software also prevents apps from overriding security and privacy restrictions. While that may not sound like a good idea, it can be a killer feature for trusted Mac apps.

Stairways Software

For example, Keyboard Maestro on macOS can automate almost anything you can do with a keyboard and mouse. BetterTouchTool also offers a (nearly) endless list of customizations, including window controls. (My favorite is changing the yellow “traffic light” button so that it hides apps instead of minimizing them.) Karabiner-Elements lets you remap any key. A clipboard manager can, with a single keystroke, display everything you’ve copied.

Then there are Mac apps that let you use alternatives to Apple’s versions. Third-party launchers like Raycast and Alfred are like Spotlight on steroids. (Their extension libraries are so vast, they have their own storefronts.) Apps like Rectangle and Moom give you alternatives to Apple’s window management. Many Mac apps offer more flexible text replacement than Apple’s built-in solution.

Apple

What iPadOS 26 does is draw a line between two types of power users. Like before, Mac power users will use some combination of the above examples. Meanwhile, a new class of iPad power users will enjoy the tablet’s desktop capabilities. But the latter will still be limited to Apple’s version of, well, everything. The power is much stronger now; openness, however, isn’t.

For that reason alone, I’ll likely remain a Mac-first guy for the foreseeable future. But iPadOS 26 will surely tempt me to experiment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/apples-walled-garden-is-the-ipads-biggest-roadblock-to-becoming-a-mac-223014619.html?src=rss