The page describing the exploit doesn’t
You just set up your brand new Mac and are about to scroll through a long document. You press the middle button on your mouse, expecting to be able to scroll by moving your cursor the way you can on Windows or Linux. Nothing happens. What gives?
It turns out macOS doesn’t support this feature, sometimes called auto scrolling. There are all kinds of little annoyances when you switch from one operating system to another, even if you prefer the operating system you’re switching to. This is an example of that but, as usual, there’s an application you can install to get things working the way you expect.
Scrollapp is a free and open-source application that does one thing: Add the fast scrolling feature to your Mac. This simple application can be downloaded from the website and installed by dragging it to your Applications folder. You might see a security warning after trying to run it—you’ll have to head to Security and Privacy in the Settings app to enable the application. After you do that, you’ll see Scrollapp running in the menu bar, as seen above.
After that, you should be able to scroll the way you did on Windows—just click the middle button and move your mouse. You can also enable the feature from the menu bar—just click the Start/Stop Auto-Scroll option—or by pressing the Control key and scrolling a little. That last option is great for trackpads.
The speed of scrolling depends on how far your cursor moves from the starting point, meaning you can scroll more quickly by moving your cursor farther. It’s a great way to power through a long document when you’re looking for something specific.
Disabling the auto scrolling is simple: Just click the left mouse button, or click the middle button again.
This is a simple application, granted, but it solves a specific problem that new Mac users have. If you have more such problems, we’ve got advice about adding the best Windows features to your Mac, so be sure to read that for more tips like this one.
Last week, Google introduced Veo 3, its newest video generation model that can create 8-second clips with synchronized sound effects and audio dialog—a first for the company’s AI tools. The model, which generates videos at 720p resolution (based on text descriptions called “prompts” or still image inputs), represents what may be the most capable consumer video generator to date, bringing video synthesis close to a point where it is becoming very difficult to distinguish between “authentic” and AI-generated media.
Google also launched Flow, an online AI filmmaking tool that combines Veo 3 with the company’s Imagen 4 image generator and Gemini language model, allowing creators to describe scenes in natural language and manage characters, locations, and visual styles in a web interface.
Both tools are available now to US subscribers of Google AI Ultra, a plan that costs $250 a month and comes with 12,500 credits. Veo 3 videos cost 150 credits per generation, allowing 83 videos on that plan before you run out. Extra credits are available for the price of 1 cent per credit in blocks of $25, $50, or $200. That comes out to about $1.50 per video generation. But is the price worth it? We ran some tests with various prompts to see what this technology is truly capable of.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 has a small handful of new releases in its launch lineup, but for the first few months after its release, the main thing you’ll be able to play on it will be your existing library of Switch games. And while Nintendo has promised reasonably comprehensive backward compatibility, the company is still working through the process of testing over 15,000 third-party Switch games with the new console.
With a week to go until launch, Nintendo has updated its compatibility support page with the results of nearly two months of extra testing. Of the “over 15,000” third-party Switch games, Nintendo says roughly two-thirds of them either have “no issues” or have problems that will be resolved quickly at or after launch. On the original version of this support page, Nintendo had only performed its basic compatibility testing on roughly 20 percent of all third-party Switch games.
Nintendo says that nearly all of the roughly 5,000 remaining Switch games will launch just fine on the Switch 2 but that “further tests” are “in progress.” The support page doesn’t say when Nintendo will provide its next update.
International interest in American higher education has plummeted to levels not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data tracking prospective student behavior online. Studyportals, which operates a global directory of degree programs, reports that clicks on American university courses have reached their lowest point since the early pandemic period.
Weekly page views of US university courses halved between January 5th and the end of April. First-quarter traffic to American undergraduate and master’s degree programs fell more than 20% compared to the same period last year, while interest in PhD programs dropped by one-third. India, which supplies nearly a third of America’s international students, showed the steepest decline at 40%. The data suggests British universities would be the primary beneficiaries of students looking elsewhere.
The sharp drop in interest follows the Trump administration’s escalating restrictions on international students, including stripping Harvard University of its enrollment authority on May 22nd and suspending all new student visa interviews on May 27th. International students contributed $43.8 billion to the American economy during the 2023-24 academic year, with about three-quarters of international PhD students indicating they plan to remain in the country after graduation.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Insurance is a modern necessity—and it can often be a literal lifesaver. When any sort of disaster strikes, whether it’s to your property, your business, or your health, getting a payment on your claim can mean the difference between getting through the emergency in one piece and being buried under bills for years to come.
While it might seem pretty straightforward, anyone who’s actually dealt with insurance companies knows that their least favorite thing to do in this world is pay out on claims. In fact, studies have found that 17% of claims made to HealthCare.gov insurers and 18% of claims made to private insurers are denied—with some insurance companies rejecting nearly 50% of all claims.
In fact, some insurers employ several legal but underhanded tricks to avoid paying out on claims. Here are five common tricks insurance companies will use against you.
The simplest trick an insurance company can play is to drag their feet on your claim—there’s a reason the phrase “deny and delay” has become linked to the insurance industry as a whole. This tactic works because your insurer knows you’re desperate for a settlement on your claim; that’s the whole point of insurance. The longer they make you wait, the more likely you’ll accept whatever they offer you, even if you know it’s much less than you’re entitled to.
Delay tactics vary, but can include:
Documentation overload. Insurance companies sometimes request huge amounts of (sometimes unnecessary) documentation that takes a lot of time to procure and organize.
Personnel swaps. Insurers may change the adjuster and other employees on your case, with each new person requiring some time to review the claim and get up to speed.
Claiming no response. Your insurer asked for something, and you provided it. Weeks later they claim they never received it, and ask that you submit it again.
The best way to counter these tactics is meticulous record-keeping. If you feel that your insurer is asking for unnecessary documentation, ask them to explain why they need the documents—this sometimes makes document requests magically vanish. Send all written communications via certified mail and turn on read receipts for emails and other electronic communications.
Insurers are often extremely nice to you when you initially start dealing with them. They express sympathy, use the words “I’m sorry” in the context of your injuries or loss, and generally sound warm and friendly. That’s nice, and may even be genuine. But it’s also a tactic they use to delay or eventually find reasons to deny your claim.
Studies have found that apologies can be weaponized, and that people will tolerate delays and settle for less if they think the other party is taking responsibility or expressing empathy. Being excessively nice to you can fool you into thinking you can rely on the insurer to handle things on your behalf. This lets the company delay as much as possible, stringing you along. Love bombing like this can also get you to say things you shouldn’t say—as we’ll see in the next entry.
Another reason an insurance adjuster or other employee might apologize to you? Because it can gently goad you into expressing regrets of your own which can then be used against you. Any expression of apology or regret could be interpreted as an admittance of fault. And establishing a friendly, sympathetic rapport with you could be a tactic to get you to say more than you should by speculating on causes or your responsibility in a claim.
For example, while speaking with a friendly adjuster about a car accident you were involved with, you might tell them you wish you’d noticed the other car driving erratically—if you had, you might have avoided the accident. This might seem like a simple observation, but it could be twisted into an admittance that you weren’t paying attention—and thus your claim is denied.
Insurers will also sometimes demand that you submit a recorded statement, often very quickly after the incident covered by the claim. They will sometimes state that this is best for you, as it will get the claim moving more quickly. But a rushed recorded statement can also lead to a denied claim—if you’re wrong or inaccurate about anything in your statement, this could be used as a basis for denial.
To avoid the tactics listed above, follow a few simple rules for dealing with insurers:
Lawyer up. Hiring a lawyer to help you deal with insurance claims might seem like overkill, but you should always have a lawyer with you when speaking with insurers. An experienced attorney can ensure you don’t say anything that could hurt your claim.
Never record. You’re typically not required to submit recorded statements, so don’t do it. Insist that all communications be done in person or over the phone, with your attorney present.
Be suspicious. If an adjuster or other representative of the insurance company is overly friendly, don’t fall for it. Their sympathy might be genuine, but it can still get you into trouble if you let your guard down.
Ironically, an effective tactic to delay and deny claims is to rush things. You file your claim, and before you can get organized, hire a lawyer, and recover from whatever happened, the insurer is on the phone, offering a settlement. This is often combined with pressure—like sending you a letter stating that you have two weeks to accept the settlement offer, or the company will “close the file.”
This is usually designed to reduce the payout—that easy, fast settlement is probably for a lot less than the amount you’re actually entitled to—and to force errors on your part. By rushing to pull together information, you’ll probably make mistakes that can then be used to deny the claim.
You can defend against this in two simple ways:
Slow down. Ignore pressure to respond immediately or by arbitrary deadlines. Take your time, gather information, and respond when you’re ready. An attorney can help by acting as a buffer between you and the company.
Know the statute. If your insurer tells you it will close your claim file, let it happen. It’s a meaningless administrative action. Your state’s laws will have a defined Statute of Limitations on your claim—a period of time when you’re legally allowed to pursue the claim. As long as you’re within that time period, you can force the insurer to re-open the claim.
If your insurer doesn’t think it can totally deny your claim, it may offer you a lowball settlement. You shouldn’t accept an insurance company’s calculations as gospel. In fact, the most important piece of information you can have about the claims process is that you are allowed to hire your own insurance adjuster. A public insurance adjuster works for you, not the insurance company, and will often arrive at a much higher figure for your claim.
Hiring your own adjuster also insulates you from internal delays, as you won’t have to wait on your insurer’s processes or play phone tag with their adjuster. In addition to an experienced lawyer, a public adjuster can also ensure that you have all the support and knowledge you need to navigate the often murky world of insurance claims.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Sonos appears to have co-opted Apple’s business strategy: making premium products that are user-friendly for high prices. People will buy them whether they’re discounted or not, apparently, but it’s always better to get a good price. And that’s what you get with the Sonos Beam Gen 2, currently $369 (originally $499), the lowest price it has ever been, according to price tracking tools.
As the name suggests, this isn’t the first generation of the Beam soundbar. That would be the Sonos Beam Gen 1, which came out in 2018. It was the first smart soundbar to support both Google and Alexa voice assistants, as well as AirPlay, according to CNET’s review. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 then came out in 2021, adding Atmos compatibility, eARC connectivity, NFC connectivity, and a better processor from the features that were already in the Gen 1, according to CNET’s review. The Sonos companion app also improved dramatically, making for a much better experience and extra features, like the Sonos TruePlay (only for Apple phones), which calibrates the speaker based on its environment.
The release of the bigger and more powerful Sonos Arc Ultra last year meant the Beam Gen 2 was no longer the flagship premium soundbar and started falling in price, landing at its current low price, which matches last year’s Black Friday deals.
Getting a Sonos speaker means getting into their ecosystem, which allows you to connect their speakers for multi-room listening (play music in sync, despite where the speakers are in the house, through wifi). It’s important to note that the Beam, like all Sonos soundbars, doesn’t have Bluetooth. You’ll need to play your audio through wifi using the Sonos app, AirPlay, or Spotify.
The Beam Gen 2 is a great option for anyone looking for a premium soundbar in a small, compact space, especially if you want to get into the Sonos ecosystem or add one to the mix.
Donald Trump can’t impose whatever tariffs he wants on a whim, a federal court ruled Wednesday, issuing an opinion that analysts say has only stoked more trade chaos.
The ruling permanently blocked some of the most controversial tariffs and reportedly scrambled Trump’s ongoing trade talks with many countries pressured into negotiations by the threat of those tariffs, CNN reported.
The blocked tariffs—which the court found were implemented unconstitutionally under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)—included tariffs the administration said were designed to stop drug and human trafficking, as well as retaliatory tariffs placed on all countries that were supposed to put an end to persistent US trade deficits.
Sony is offering PS Plus subscription plans at a deep discount. An annual subscription to the Premium tier is available for just $107, which is a discount of 33 percent. This promotion is running until June 11, giving gamers a bit of time to think things over.
For the uninitiated, PS Plus Premium provides full access to the Game Catalog. This library includes hundreds of PS4 and PS5 titles. Each month, users also get a handful of free games and some PlayStation Store discounts. Other exclusive benefits include game trials, online multiplayer, cloud streaming and access to the Classics Catalog. This is a collection of older games.
That’s a whole lot of perks, and the main reason a subscription to PS Plus topped our list of the best PS5 accessories. It’s an easy and budget-friendly way to pad out that library, especially for those who just purchased a console. Recent additions to PS Plus include standout titles like Balatro and Battlefield V.
An annual subscription to the PS Plus Extra tier is also on sale for $101, which is a discount of 25 percent. This is basically the same thing as Premium, but lacks game trials and cloud streaming. No matter which tier you choose, remember to cancel before the year runs out or you’ll be locked into the original price.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/ps-plus-annual-subscriptions-are-up-to-33-percent-off-165355268.html?src=rss
New submitter salyavin writes: The final issue of Linux Format has been released. After 25 years the magazine is going out with a bang. Interviewing the old staff members, and looking back at old Linux distros […] The last 10-15 years have been absolutely brutal to computer hobbyist magazines — (or magazines and media at large, in general).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Discord is further distancing itself from its ad-free beginnings by offering users a new virtual currency for clicking on in-platform advertisements.
Acoording to a blog post this week by Peter Sellis, Discord’s SVP of product, a “small group” of Discord users around the globe can now earn “Orbs” through Play Quests, which Discord announced in March 2024 and let users earn in-game rewards by getting people to watch a stream of them playing a sponsored game. With enough Orbs, Discord users can purchase items in Discord’s shop, including customization options for their profiles and credits for Nitro, a subscription add-on that offers features like 500MB uploads and HD resolution streaming.
The goal is to fuel Discord’s advertising business by making clicking on ads more appealing. Advertisers also benefit by associating their ads with the ability to get desirable rewards.
As long as there have been smartphones, there have been issues with battery life. Sometimes, battery drain is inevitable. Many modern apps are powerful, and, as such, power-intensive; taking high-quality photos or videos can waste a battery like no one’s business; and constantly searching for cell service can put a strain on your phone. However, problematic apps can also be to blame: If an app’s developer pushes an update with a bug that, say, runs too many resources for too long, your battery will suffer—as will your sanity. (“How is my phone at 50% already?”)
It’s frustrating when you don’t know what’s causing the unusual battery drain on your phone, especially the culprit is a rogue app. But every now and then, a company will confirm your suspicions. If you’ve been experiencing unexplained battery drain on Android, for example, there’s now an explanation. Spoiler alert: It was Instagram.
As spotted by The Verge, Google recently posted on its Android Help Community blog. The Wednesday post addresses the Android community, and notes that Instagram is now rolling out an updated version of the app that fixes a battery drain issue on Android devices. The post notes the latest update version is 382.0.0.49.84, and urges users to install the update.
Google didn’t share any other details, and Instagram did not publish release notes for this version, so it’s unclear exactly what the issue was. Still, the problem must have been substantial enough to compel Google to make a public statement about it. If your Android device has been struggling lately, updating Instagram just may help.
To check if you’re running the latest version of Instagram on Android, head to Instagram’s Play Store page. If you see an option to Update, go ahead and do so. If you don’t, the update likely already installed. To check your app’s version number, long-press the icon, tap App info, then scroll to the bottom of the page.
Elon Musk said he is leaving the Trump administration, attributing his departure not to any disagreement with Trump but rather to the legal limit on the number of days a special government employee may serve each year.
“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on X. “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Musk’s “off-boarding will begin tonight,” a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday. Under US law, special government employees in the executive branch are limited to serving 130 days in a 365-day period. They are subject to more lenient ethics rules than other federal employees and officials.
California’s battery power capacity rose from 500 megawatts in 2018 to nearly 16,000 megawatts in 2025. Nearly a quarter of America’s battery capacity is now in California alone, according to Bloomberg.
At their daily peak around 8pm, batteries can provide as much as 30% of the state’s electricity. The batteries charge in the afternoon when solar power is cheap and release energy in the evenings when Californians get home and crank up their air conditioners. In the middle of the day, when the sun is strongest, as much as three-quarters of the state’s electricity can come from solar.
California relied on regulation to achieve this scale. In 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered the state’s three big investor-owned utilities to procure 1,325 megawatts of energy storage by 2020 to help meet renewable targets and stabilize the grid. That goal was easily met. Mark Jacobson, an engineering professor at Stanford University, told Economist that most days this year contained periods when solar, hydropower and wind, helped by batteries, met 100% of California’s demand — even though just 54% of the state’s electricity generation comes from renewables.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Department of Health and Human Services—under the control of anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—has canceled millions of dollars in federal funding awarded to Moderna to produce an mRNA vaccine against influenza viruses with pandemic potential, including the H5N1 bird flu currently sweeping US poultry and dairy cows.
Last July, the Biden administration’s HHS awarded Moderna $176 million to “accelerate the development of mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines.” In the administration’s final days in January, HHS awarded the vaccine maker an additional $590 million to support “late-stage development and licensure of pre-pandemic mRNA-based vaccines.” The funding would also go to the development of five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza.
On Wednesday, as news broke that the Trump administration was reneging on the contract, Moderna reported positive results from an early trial of a vaccine targeting H5 influenza viruses. In a preliminary trial of 300 healthy adults, the vaccine candidate appeared safe and boosted antibody levels against the virus by 44.5-fold.
The Nintendo Switch 2 comes with 256GB of built-in storage, eight times more than the original Switch and four times more than the Switch OLED. But the new console’s improved performance means that some games will hog a ton of that space: Cyberpunk 2077 is a 60GB download, for one, while Split Fiction checks in at 73GB. Other titles aren’t nearly as big, but chances are you’ll eventually want to add more room to the device.
When you do, you’ll need a microSD Express card. These are not the same as the standard microSD cards you may have bought for the first Switch or other gaming handhelds — they’re newer, faster and significantly more expensive. But if you want more space, they’re your only choice. If you’re looking to grab one today, we’ve laid out the best microSD cards for the Switch 2 and broken down what you should know before you buy.
The Switch 2 is the first mainstream device to require microSD Express for storage expansion, so there aren’t many options available to buy just yet. To make things easy, here’s a list of every microSD Express card we’ve seen at retailers at the time of writing:
SanDisk microSD Express Card ($56 MSRP)
PNY microSD Express Card ($47 MSRP)
Samsung microSD Express Card for Nintendo Switch 2 ($60 MSRP)
SanDisk microSD Express Card ($75 MSRP)
Lexar Play Pro ($50 MSRP)
PNY microSD Express Card ($59 MSRP)
GameStop Express microSD Card for Nintendo Switch 2 ($60 MSRP)
Onn microSD Express Card ($36 MSRP)
Lexar Play Pro ($100 MSRP)
GameStop Express microSD Card for Nintendo Switch 2 ($100 MSRP)
Onn microSD Express Card ($66 MSRP)
Lexar Play Pro ($200 MSRP)
GameStop Express microSD Card for Nintendo Switch 2 ($190 MSRP)
Remember: You’re looking for microSD Express, not “Extreme,” a la the branding SanDisk uses for some of its conventional microSD cards. A microSD Express card will have a big “EX” logo printed on it — if you see that, you should be good to go.
Nintendo says the Switch 2 technically supports cards with a capacity up to 2TB, but we haven’t seen any microSD Express model go beyond 1TB just yet. It’s also worth noting that GameStop and Onn (Walmart’s in-house electronics brand) aren’t manufacturers, so it’s unclear who exactly is making their cards.
Currently, stock for each of these cards has been extremely spotty. SanDisk’s microSD Express Card has also increased in price since it first went up for sale in February; originally, it cost $45 for 128GB and $60 for 256GB. Either way, all of these cards are far pricier than traditional microSD options. The Samsung Pro Plus, for example, costs $17 for 128GB, $25 for 256GB, $43 for 512GB and $90 for 1TB as of this writing.
We’ve already tested SanDisk’s Express card and the Lexar Play Pro for our broader guide to the best microSD cards. Between the two, SanDisk’s card has much faster sequential read speeds — up to 899 MB/s vs. 712 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark, to name one benchmark — which theoretically makes it better equipped to reduce load times.
The Play Pro is quicker for sequential writes (up to 720 MB/s vs. 650 MB/s), available in more sizes and should be cheaper at 256GB whenever it’s in stock. (SanDisk says the 128GB version of its card has slower sequential writes than the 256GB model, too.) Random performance is about equal, so the two should be similarly adept at keeping large games like Mario Kart World running smoothly.
We mainly tested those cards on a Windows PC and Mac, though. How they perform on the actual Switch 2 remains to be seen. We’ll test as many options as we can once we have our hands on the console, but for now we can’t say if it’ll render all microSD Express cards to similar speeds. That was largely the case with the first Switch: Once a (regular) microSD card hit a certain threshold of performance, there wasn’t that much practical difference between it and other alternatives. The Switch 2 is working with a different standard, but if something similar were to happen again, the “best” microSD Express card would simply be the most affordable one from a reputable brand in the capacity you want.
That brings us to our main piece of advice: If you can hold off on buying one of these things early on, that’s probably a good idea. It’s not just about the lack of testing — truthfully, we’d be surprised if any of the cards above were truly “bad.” It comes down to value: Barring more tariff shenanigans, all of these cards are as expensive today as they’re ever likely to get. The Switch 2 is already popular and will continue to be, thus more microSD Express cards will need to be made and prices will (eventually) come down. Try to use all 256 of the gigabytes baked into the Switch 2 first, even if it means having to delete a game or two. But if you’re absolutely sure you want more space right away, the cards above should be good enough.
Most microSD cards are based on a standard called Ultra High Speed (UHS), of which there are three versions: UHS-I, UHS-II and UHS-III. The vast majority of cards you may have bought in the past utilize UHS-I. These have one row of pins in the back and a theoretical maximum data transfer speed of 104 megabytes per second (MB/s). (Though many cards are able to surpass that limit with proprietary tech and card readers.) The original Switch has a UHS-I microSD slot, as do most other gaming handhelds like Valve’s Steam Deck.
UHS-II cards add a second row of pins and can reach up to 312 MB/s. These are pricier and much less common than cards based on UHS-I, but they’re supported by some cameras and higher-power handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally X. UHS-III, meanwhile, is twice as fast as UHS-II in theory (624 MB/s), but no microSD cards have actually used it.
UHS-I cards have held on over the years because they’re cheap, widely supported and fast enough for the things most people need them to do: record 4K video, stash photos and so on. But with the Switch 2, Nintendo needs more. The new console is dramatically more powerful, which allows it to run demanding games that may have originally been built for stronger hardware like the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X or gaming PCs. The device also uses UFS 3.1 storage internally, which is much speedier than the eMMC storage used by the original Switch. (A custom file decompression engine should help improve load times as well.) So if the Switch 2 is going to accept microSD cards, it needs ones that won’t bring a serious drop-off in performance and can hold up with modern games.
Hence, SD Express. This standard has technically been around since 2018 but mostly went nowhere until the Switch 2 came along. It also uses a second row of pins, but it lets microSD cards take advantage of the PCI Express (PCIe)/NVMe interface, which is the same underlying tech used by modern SSDs. As a result, it can produce considerably faster read and write speeds, with a current theoretical maximum of 985 MB/s.
As noted above, real-world performance won’t be quite that fast. Even if it was, the best microSD Express cards would still be much slower than the NVMe SSDs used by the PS5 and Xbox. (Sony recommends SSDs with sequential read speeds of at least 5,500 MB/s.) And they’ll fall well below their peak speeds under sustained loads: SanDisk, for instance, says sustained write speeds for its 128GB Express card can drop as low as 100 MB/s.
But they’re still a marked improvement over old UHS-I cards, and in theory, they should be quicker than some older SATA-based SSDs when it comes loading game levels, asset streaming, retrieving saves or copying games to external storage. Whereas SanDisk’s microSD Express card can produce sequential read speeds around 900 MB/s, Lexar’s Professional Silver Plus — the top UHS-I pick in our general microSD card guide — topped out just over 200 MB/s, and that’s with a proprietary reader. (On the first Switch, it’d be closer to 100 MB/s.) Sequential writes and random speeds were three to four times better as well, and sometimes even more depending on the benchmark we used.
It remains to be seen how well these Express cards will hold up with extended use, and there’s no way to know exactly when their sky-high prices will drop. Non-Switch 2 devices that support microSD Express are still exceedingly rare, and the standard itself isn’t backwards compatible with UHS-II, so you’ll be limited to UHS-I speeds if you want to use your card with another device (unless you buy a pricey external reader). Still, while the increased costs and limited selection are annoying, the tech itself seems worthy of a next-gen Switch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-best-microsd-cards-for-the-nintendo-switch-2-160052535.html?src=rss
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
When you’re juggling work on your laptop, managing your calendar on your phone, and storing family vacation photos somewhere in the cloud, it helps to have one service that actually talks to all your devices. That’s what Microsoft 365 Personal aims to do. Right now, StackSocial has a 1-year subscription for $79.99 instead of $99.99, which isn’t massive, but it’s a solid $20 off for something most of us end up using daily. You get access to premium versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, which means no more stripped-down online versions when you’re trying to format a resume or budget spreadsheet. It works across five devices at once—PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Androids—so it’s flexible if you bounce between gadgets.
What’s new here is Microsoft Copilot, the company’s AI add-on baked right into the apps. It helps speed up tasks like summarizing documents or generating ideas in Word and PowerPoint. In practice, it feels a bit like having ChatGPT inside your Microsoft apps—handy if you do a lot of writing, data analysis, or just want to save time. The 1TB of OneDrive storage is enough to store everything from work docs to your personal photo archive, and it syncs across devices. You also get security perks like ransomware detection, file recovery for up to 30 days, and a personal vault for sensitive files. For users in the U.S., there’s also identity theft monitoring through Microsoft Defender.
This subscription is designed for one person, and the apps are tied to a single Microsoft account. So if you’re looking to share it with family, this isn’t the right plan (look at the Family version instead). It’s also only valid for purchases and use in North America, so international buyers should skip this one. But for someone who wants everything under one umbrella—secure cloud storage, powerful productivity tools, and now AI help baked in—it’s a pretty cohesive package. The value adds up, especially if you’re already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem.
The New York Times and Amazon have entered into a multi-year licensing agreement that will allow Amazon access to much of the publication’s editorial content for AI-related uses. In a press release announcing the deal, The New York Times shared that this agreement will bring new features for customers like accessing summaries or excerpts of Times content using Alexa. It will also allow Amazon to train its AI models on The New York Times content.
In announcing the deal, The New York Times shared, “The collaboration will make The New York Times’ original content more accessible to customers across Amazon products and services including direct links to Times products and underscores the companies’ shared commitment to serving customers with global news and perspectives within Amazon’s AI products.” Access to content from NYT Cooking and The Athletic is also included in the deal.
AI models require training on vast amounts of data, and many of the companies building them are likely running afoul of copyright laws by training on protected materials. OpenAI and Google went so far as to ask for a government exemption to copyright laws for their models to train freely. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for training their models on the company’s content without permission back in 2023, though the case is still ongoing.
Licensing agreements can offer additional revenue streams for companies willing to hand over user data or allow AI models to train on content created by their employees. The Washington Post is one of several major publications that have signed deals with OpenAI earlier this year. The specific contents of today’s deal, such as how much Amazon is paying, have not been disclosed. Amazon has been on a tear releasing AI-powered tools for shopping, book recaps and product explanations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-and-the-new-york-times-enter-ai-related-licensing-agreement-155019578.html?src=rss
