Acer’s new Swift Edge 14 AI laptop packs in a matte display and AI features

Acer is updating its lineup of Swift Edge, Go and X laptops at Computex with the latest Intel chips, and in of one of these Copilot+ PCs, a unique matte display treatment developed by Corning, the glass manufacturer behind the Gorilla Glass covering millions of smartphones.

The beneficiary of that new display is the Swift Edge 14 AI. The laptop’s display has an anti-glare Gorilla Matte Pro finish that’s the first of its kind on a laptop, and is supposed to “reduce screen reflection by 95 percent” compared to alternative anti-glare glass. Acer introduced the original Swift Edge 14 AI alongside the parade of Copilot+ PCs that accompanied Microsoft‘s big push into AI last year. The new Swift Edge 14 AI benefits from those same AI features like Recall or Click to Do thanks to its updated internals. You can spec the Swift Edge 14 AI with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor with Intel Arc graphics, up to 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of storage. All of this components are packed into a white and relatively light (2.18 lbs) magnesium-aluminum alloy body, with a 14-inch OLED screen and a “soft-touch” stain-resistant keyboard.

For the new Swift Go 14 AI and Swift Go 16 AI, Acer lets you build the laptop with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7, up to 32 GBLPDDR5X RAM and up to 2TB of storage. On the Swift Go 14 AI you can opt for a 16:10, 1,920 x 1,200 resolution OLED and a similarly laid out 2,048 x 1,280 resolution OLED on the Swift Go 16 AI. Neither laptop is as sleek as the Swift Edge 14 AI — in terms of appearance, the Swift Go laptops seem like the kind you’d be assigned for work. Case in point, both Go models have 1080p, Windows Hello-compatible webcams and touchpads with built-in video conferencing controls.

Acer is also updating its Swift X laptops, the company’s go-to option if you’re looking for more graphical oomph. Both the Swift X 14 AI and the plain Swift X 14 include a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU, which should power you through all sort of video editing and 3D rendering tasks. You can pair the GPU with up to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 on the Swift X 14 AI or up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 on on the Swift X 14. Both laptops can include up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 2TB of storage. This year’s Swift laptops also feature a 14.5-inch 3K OLED displays and larger haptic touchpads that support tilt-enabled styluses for drawing and photo retouching.

Likely due to the unpredictable nature of global trade, none of Acer’s new Swift laptops have finalized pricing or availability in the US, though we can share the info Acer has for Europe. The Swift Edge 14 AI is expected to be available in June for €1,599, the Swift Go 14 AI a little bit later in July for €1,199 and the Swift Go 16 AI in August for €1,299.

The story is the same for Acer’s Swift X laptops. Both the Swift X 14 AI and Swift X 14 will be available in July for €1,799.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/acers-new-swift-edge-14-ai-laptop-packs-in-a-matte-display-and-ai-features-130010112.html?src=rss

The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI is now my most anticipated gaming laptop of the year

Acer is announcing a boatload of PCs and gadgets for Computex 2025. But among the sea of new tablets, monitors, productivity machines and more is the Predator Triton 14 AI, which just became my most anticipated laptop of the year.

The Predator Triton 14 AI tops out with an RTX 5070 GPU, but that’s understandable given its compact size (3.5 pounds and 0.68 inches thick). Aside from that limitation, this thing has practically everything I look for in a premium notebook. It sports a slick design, a bunch of fancy features and a gorgeous display — all in a surprisingly portable chassis. In some ways, calling it a gaming laptop is kind of a disservice, because it’s clear Acer designed this thing to do a whole lot more.

The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI has a very sleek and understated design, especially for a gaming laptop.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

For performance, the Predator Triton 14 AI features up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V chip, 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. Acer then turned things up a notch by equipping it with its latest sixth-gen AeroBlade fans (which are made of metal instead of plastic) and a vapor chamber. But the potential cherry on top is that Acer says the Triton is the world’s first laptop to use graphene thermal interface materials. The company claims this increases thermal capacity by as much as 14.5 percent over more traditional pastes.

Meanwhile, the Triton 14 AI also comes with a 2,880 x 1,800 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and Calman Verified certification. So not only is it accurate, it also has a wide gamut that covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color spectrum. And unlike a lot of rival gaming machines, the Predator’s display is touch-enabled. For content creators, the laptop comes with a new haptic touchpad covered by Gorilla Glass with native stylus support (and the pen comes included). This means artists can use the track area as a mini Wacom pad (with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity) while traveling.

The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI's haptic touchpad also supports stylus input with up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Honestly, the closer you look, the more impressive this laptop gets, because it feels like Acer paid attention to every little detail. Thanks to some help from AI, the Triton’s 1080p IR webcam offers human presence detection, which allows it to automatically lock itself when you walk away or dim the display when you’re looking elsewhere to prevent Peeping Toms from spying on your work. Acer even coated both the screen and the laptop’s deck with an anti-fingerprint finish to prevent it from looking greasy.

Despite its slim dimensions, the Triton also has great connectivity. There’s support for Wi-Fi 7 along with two USB-C ports (one of which is Thunderbolt 4), two Type-A jacks, 3.5mm audio, a microSD card reader and a full-size HDMI 2.1 connector. And because it’s a gaming laptop, it naturally comes with per-key RGB lighting.

For a compact 14-inch system, the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI has a strong selection of ports including a microSD card reader, two USB-C jacks, two USB-A connectors and full-size HDMI 2.1 .
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Unfortunately, Acer has yet to release official US pricing for the Predator Triton 14 AI, which is almost certainly due to the ever-shifting tariff situation. But if European info is anything to go by, this thing won’t be cheap with a listed starting price of 2,999 euros. That’s steep, but it makes sense given the laptop’s impressive specs.

On the bright side, if you like the Predator Triton 14 AI, Acer is also making a more affordable sibling in the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI. It features the same display, a similar Intel Core Ultra 9 285H chip and up to an RTX 5070, but with a different (and less elegant) chassis, Wi-Fi 6E and older fifth-gen AeroBlade fans. Like the Triton, there isn’t official pricing for this one yet either, but with it starting at 1,699 euros overseas, it doesn’t present nearly as big of a hit on your wallet.

Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is Acer's more affordable alternative to the Predator Triton 14 AI.
The biggest change for the Helios Neo 14 AI compared to the Predator Triton 14 AI aside from price is that it has a bulkier chassis with a large thermal shelf in back. 
Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Besides gaming, the Triton 14 AI looks like it could be a great video editing station, featuring enough performance to blast through practically everything else you can throw at it. I’m going to be eagerly awaiting its release (along with the Helios Neo) sometime later this summer.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-acer-predator-triton-14-ai-is-now-my-most-anticipated-gaming-laptop-of-the-year-130007910.html?src=rss

US, UAE Unveil Plan For New 5GW AI Campus In Abu Dhabi

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Patently Apple: It’s being reported in the Gulf region that a new 5GW UAE-US AI Campus in Abu Dhabi was unveiled on Thursday at Qasr Al Watan in the presence of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and US. President Donald Trump, who is on a state visit to the UAE. The new AI campus — the largest of its kind outside the United States — will host US hyperscalers and large enterprises, enabling them to leverage regional compute resources with the capability to serve the Global South. The UAE-US AI Campus will feature 5GW of capacity for AI data centers in Abu Dhabi, offering a regional platform through which US hyperscalers can provide low-latency services to nearly half of the global population.

Upon completion, the facility will utilize nuclear, solar, and gas power to minimize carbon emissions. It will also house a science park focused on advancing innovation in artificial intelligence. The campus will be built by G42 and operated in partnership with several US companies including NVIDIA, OpenAI, SoftBank, Cisco and others. The initiative is part of the newly established US-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership, a bilateral framework designed to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. The UAE and US will jointly regulate access to the compute resources, which are reserved for US hyperscalers and approved cloud service providers. An official press release from the White House can be found here.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What’s New on Disney+ in June 2025

Disney isn’t bringing a lot of new content to its streaming platform in June, but there a few original and exclusive titles on the lineup. Season five of Disney Channel’s animated comedy series Phineas and Ferb (June 6) will premiere with 10 episodes, returning for the first time since 2015. The show follows two stepbrothers trying to fill their time during the 104 days of summer vacation.

Disney+ Original Ironheart will launch with a three-episode premiere at 6 p.m. PT on June 24. The Marvel Television miniseries is set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and tells the origin story of Ironheart—MIT student and inventor Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne).

Also premiering on the platform this month are documentaries Sally (June 17), about the first American woman astronaut, and Ocean with David Attenborough (June 8) as well as Disney’s Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical (June 20).

Finally, female-led sports show Vibe Check will land exclusively on Disney+ sometime during the month.

Here’s everything coming to Disney+ in June.

Movies and complete series/seasons coming to Disney Plus in June 2025

Arriving in June

  • Underdogs (Season 1)

  • Vibe Check

Arriving June 4

  • Pupstruction (S2, 6 episodes)

Arriving June 6

  • Phineas and Ferb (Season 5)

Arriving June 8

  • Ocean with David Attenborough

Arriving June 17

  • SALLY

Arriving June 20

  • Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical

Arriving June 24

  • Ironheart

Hulu + ESPN content coming to Disney+ in June 2025

As in previous months, Disney+ subscribers will also have access to select content from Hulu and ESPN. This includes live events like Day 1 of all PGA TOUR LIVE events, Day 1 of Wimbledon, and the Dallas Wings vs. Seattle Storm WNBA match-up. Here’s a sampling of what else is coming to Disney+:

  • Snowfall

  • 9-1-1: Lone Star

  • Station 19

  • Class of ‘09

  • Cruel Summer

  • Death and Other Details

  • High Fidelity

  • Alien: Resurrection

  • A Real Pain

  • Predators

  • Prom Dates

  • ESPNFC

  • Pardon the Interruption

  • The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny

  • Full Court Press

  • Vince’s Places

  • P.K.’s Places

  • 30 for 30

Acer Unveils Swank New Predator Gaming Laptops & Desktops With RTX Firepower

Acer Unveils Swank New Predator Gaming Laptops & Desktops With RTX Firepower
There’s still a few days to go before Computex 2025 officially kicks off, but not all hardware makers are waiting to unveil new products. Enter Acer, which is blitzing the event with whole bunch of new laptops, desktops, and other gear. Among all of the products it’s unveiling, it’s the expanded Predator lineup that will be of most interest

The Morning After: Sony’s best headphones keep getting better

When it comes to headphones, we can’t shut up about Sony’s top-tier buds and over-the-head options. In each iteration, the company adds new features, develops better technology and hones its strengths in portable audio, and three years on from the WH-1000XM5, the sixth-gen model does it yet again.

Sony’s overhauled its flagship headphones in all the right ways. The WH-1000XM6 sound better, with improved active noise cancellation and convenient features that match the best-sounding and the most feature-packed rivals.

You should definitely check out Billy Steele’s full review. The headphones’ only major challenge remains a non-clunky naming convention.

— Mat Smith

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Even more tech news you might have missed


Android gets a young, vibrant makeover

It’s bright, it’s brash, it’s… bouncy? It’s Android 16.

TMA
Google

As spoiled by Google itself, Android is getting a major visual refresh. Dubbed Material 3 Expressive, it’s the latest evolution of the Material You design, adding customizable color swatches and, I guess, spicier fonts.

Google says the Quick Settings menu can now fit more actions, and there is an addition of live-updating notifications, similar to Apple’s Live Activities.

In Android 16 (and even Wear OS 6), expect more animation between menus and items, while notifications will jiggle and offer haptic responses to your touch.

Google is basing a lot of these tweaks on research: The company claims up to 87 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds prefer expressive design — a term hard to define. There’s a lengthy post on Google’s design blog if you want to get into all that.

Continue reading.


The Xperia 1 VII is here, with some Walkman inspiration

Sony still makes phones!

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Sony

Sony has now folded in Hi-Fi sound from its Walkman series, as well as the company’s Bravia screen tech and Alpha camera smarts. The Xperia 1 VII has launched quietly with an array of new audio features, including high-end Walkman components. Unlike other smartphone makers, Sony has kept its headphone jack and improved wired sound via a premium-grade integrated circuit. The Xperia 1 VII supports Sony’s DSEE Ultimate AI sound upscaling technology, along with 360 Reality audio or Dolby Atmos formats.

The latest Xperia also features a new 48-megapixel ultrawide camera with a good-sized 1/1.56-inch sensor, significantly improving the specs of the Xperia 1 VI’s ultrawide. That’s on top of the main 48MP 1/1.35-inch 24mm camera and a 12MP telephoto zoom.

Sony is also trying to differentiate its smartphones through camera features, with improved Bokeh mode, real-time tracking, and even real-time eye autofocus. It claims low-light shooting is “in line with full-frame cameras, ” which is bold!

I’m wondering what other parts of Sony’s corporate machinery it will integrate next. Maybe Aibo dog ears?

Continue reading.


One year of Peacock Premium is on sale for only $25

The Memorial Day deal knocks off $55.

Want a cheaper sub for Peacock? You’ll need a code, but if you input SPRINGSAVINGS at checkout you’ll get $55 off the standard annual price of the Premium plan. It does include ads, however. The big draw for this particular streaming service is likely the long-awaited spinoff of The Office, called The Paper. That premieres in September, so you’ll be primed and ready to watch (and rewatch).

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-123515822.html?src=rss

‘Bread Baking for Beginners’ Will Give You All the Confidence You Need

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Welcome to “Cookbook of the Week.” This is a series where I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While finding a particular recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has a magic all its own. 

Baking bread isn’t for everyone, and I get it: Spending hours (or days) making one “simple” staple item that you could easily purchase at the store for a few dollars is arguably absurd. I fully accept that I may never be able to bring folks who feel this way over to the other side, and that’s fine.

But what about the home cooks who are intrigued, rather than bothered, by the idea of bread baking? Despite generations-worth of recipes and tips, yeast-raised loaves are notoriously finicky, and nothing will defeat your spirit quite like tossing your third dense and doughy sourdough attempt into the compost bin. That’s why I chose to spotlight Bread Baking for Beginners this week. This cookbook creates a safe space where you can build the confidence and know-how you’ll need for your illustrious future as a bread baker. 

A bit about the book

As you can tell from the title, Bread Baking for Beginners has clear intentions. Author Bonnie Ohara has been the owner and baker of Alchemy Bread since 2014, and her experience of slingin’ dough comes through on every page. She has a kind and teacherly way of instructing you on bread baking in this cookbook, and frankly, it’s a breath of fresh air in contrast to the aloof, know-it-all approach you’ll find all over the internet.

This cookbook has a somewhat curriculum-style progression, but without ever feeling like a textbook. It’s actually quite approachable: Starting with terminology and equipment, and then moving from simple no-knead breads over to kneaded breads, and proceeding to enriched breads and sourdough starters, Ohara teaches you how to walk before you run.

A ball of bread dough on a wooden counter.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

A great cookbook for the wannabe bread-head

Being a beginner at something is a vulnerable state. A messed up loaf of bread is akin to rejection, and a lot of people can’t handle that feeling. That’s why it’s important to have a good teacher. Throughout the pages of Bread Baking for Beginners, Ohara is there to cheer you on, and I fully believe that kind of supportive encouragement is what can keep a new baker coming back to the kitchen after a failed loaf or two.

Ohara’s encouragement is never exaggerated or disingenuous. She has her own way of letting you know that perfection isn’t the goal. A little wiggle to your ficelle? It’s character! Your dough hasn’t risen enough? Don’t worry, it’s totally normal to adjust the proofing time on the fly. 

Every recipe is easy to start, with a short headnote and even shorter ingredient list, and the instructions are always clear. I appreciate that each recipe includes how to shape and how to check for proofing, because that can look and feel different depending on the type of bread you’re making. 

And what’s a lesson without a Q&A session? Common problems and helpful FAQs sections appear throughout. You’ll get likely answers for why your dough was too dense and why it exploded out of the bottom instead of the score mark. She’ll offer suggestions on what to do if your loaf is seemingly ruined. Of course this is helpful for next time, but it also normalizes the act of messing up: It’s all a part of learning. But unlike in math class, you can snack on your mistakes.

The bread I made this week

I don’t normally go for no-knead breads, but I think they are the most welcoming recipes for new bread bakers. Clearly Ohara agrees, because they’re in the first chapter. From her offerings, I made the Master Recipe for No-Knead Breads.

As may be expected, it is a classic four-ingredient lean bread. You can’t get simpler than flour, water, salt, and yeast. I’m not new to bread baking (you can peep my sourdough boule recipe here), so I was a little surprised to see all-purpose flour used. Bread flour is usually the go-to for its higher gluten content, which leads to better structure and increased elasticity.

Bread dough in a silver bowl.

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I flipped to the front to check out the author’s thoughts on the ingredient choice and she makes it clear that not only has she had success with regular all-purpose flour, but that it’s more accessible for most home cooks. I respect this choice. If a person can be successful with fewer obstacles, then they can make the switch on their own if and when they choose. However, a kitchen scale is also required (all of the measurements are in grams with no volume option), so there is still some expectation you’ll acquire the right tools before getting started. (Personally, I’d switch to bread flour for this type of recipe.)

Her no-knead bread is as simple as promised. I weighed my ingredients and mashed them all up with a wooden spoon as thoroughly as I could without it qualifying as kneading. As long as you aren’t using expired yeast, I can’t see this bread failing to come to life. Ohara is very clear about ambient temperatures and reminds you of the ideal conditions for the best rise. Even with that advice, and a decade of bread baking under my belt, I managed to overproof my no-knead dough, but I’m not mad about it. The loaf came out light and evenly aerated. It strikes me as a good sandwich bread. And it’s Bread Baking 101 that it takes a few trials to learn the personality of a new bread recipe. I’ll try it again soon enough. 

How to buy it

I normally grab the hardcover for cookbooks, but I actually went with the softcover this week. It’s a great price, and since it’s more of a learning cookbook than a display piece, I figure I won’t feel as bad if the pages get flour, oil, or water marks on them. If you haven’t been lately, take a walk to your nearest bookstore and see if you can find it on the shelves. 

Grok kept talking about ‘white genocide’ due to an ‘unauthorized modification’

In the early hours of May 14, xAI’s chatbot Grok repeatedly gave X users responses that referred to claims about a “white genocide” in South Africa even if their inquiries had nothing to do about the subject. Now, in a statement posted on the social network, Elon Musk‘s AI company has explained that “an unauthorized modification” to Grok’s prompt on X caused it to “provide a specific response on a political topic.” It didn’t say what had happened to the personnel involved in rolling out the rogue update. But it added that the modification violated its “internal policies and core values” and that it has conducted a thorough investigation about the incident. 

The website’s various users had posted several instances wherein Grok included references to the controversial claims that white South African farmers are facing racial discrimination and land seizures in their country. Their questions? Well, in one tweet, someone asked how many times HBO has changed its streaming service’s name. In another, the user asked a baseball player’s salary history. In yet another one, someone asked for more information about a WWE match. CNBC was able to replicate the chatbot’s responses with white genocide references. When the news website asked if it was specifically programmed to promote “white genocide,” Grok said that it wasn’t and that its “purpose is to provide factual, helpful, and safe responses based on reason and evidence.”

Before xAI issued a response, OpenAI chief Sam Altman posted a snarky response on X. “I’m sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon,” he wrote, and then mimicked Grok’s responses by segueing into talking about white genocide. xAI said that from now on, it will be publishing its system prompts on GitHub so that the public can give feedback on every alteration. The company also said that it will put additional checks and measures to ensure xAI employees can’t modify Grok’s prompt without a review. Whoever edited it recently was able to circumvent its current review process in this case. In addition, the company said it’s putting together a team that can monitor incidents related to Grok’s answers not caught by automated systems 24/7.

As TechCrunch has noted, this isn’t the first time xAI had blamed a contentious Grok behavior to an unauthorized change. Back in February, the chatbot briefly censored sources that talked about how Musk and President Donald Trump are spreading misinformation. xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin said at the time that a rogue employee had pushed an unapproved modification to Grok’s prompt.

We want to update you on an incident that happened with our Grok response bot on X yesterday.

What happened:
On May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot’s prompt on X. This change, which directed Grok to provide a…

— xAI (@xai) May 16, 2025

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grok-kept-talking-about-white-genocide-due-to-an-unauthorized-modification-120044119.html?src=rss

Engadget Podcast: Who needs Samsung’s super-thin Galaxy S25 Edge?

It looks like we’re entering the era of crazy-thin phones. This week, Samsung finally announced the Galaxy S25 Edge, its slimmest smartphone yet. Is there actually a point to it, or is Samsung just trying to beat Apple to its rumored super-thin iPhone? Engadget’s Sam Rutherford joins us to dive into the S25 Edge, as well as some pre-Google I/O news from the Android Show.

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Topics

  • Surface Pro 12-inch review: less weight, less power? – 2:04

  • ASUS’ Xbox handheld photos leak in FCC filing – 21:39

  • OpenAI restructures business, announces plan for hostile takeover-proof public benefit corp – 26:14

  • The EPA announces plans to shut down the Energy Star Program – 31:16

  • Telemessage, a Signal clone favored by Trump administration officials has been hacked – 34:44

  • Samsung subsidiary buys Masimo and now it owns all the fancy speakers – 36:35

  • Half-Life 3 is fully formed and playable?! – 40:59

  • Around Engadget – 49:53

  • Pop culture picks – 51:42

Credits 

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low
Guest: Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/engadget-podcast-who-needs-samsungs-super-thin-galaxy-s25-edge-113049744.html?src=rss

Drop Duchy is a deck-building, Tetris-like, Carcassonne-esque puzzler

When my colleague Kyle Orland submitted Tetrisweeper for a list of Ars’ favorite 2024 games not from 2024, I told him, essentially: “Good for you, not for me.” I’m a pedestrian Tetris player, at best, so the idea of managing a whole different game mechanic, while trying to clear lines and prevent stack-ups, sounded like taking a standardized test while baking a three-layer cake.

And yet, here I am, sneaking rounds of Drop Duchy (Steam, Epic, for Windows/Linux via Proton) into lunch breaks, weekend mornings, and other bits of downtime. Drop Duchy is similarly not just a Tetris-esque block-dropper. It also has you:

  • Aligning terrain types for resources
  • Placing both your troops and the enemy’s
  • Choosing which cards to upgrade, sell, and bring into battle
  • Picking between terrain types to leave behind
  • Upgrading a tech tree with achievements
  • Picking the sequence of battles for maximum effectiveness

Drop Duchy is a quirky game, one that hasn’t entirely fused together its various influences without some seams showing. But I keep returning to it, even as it beats me to a pulp on Normal mode, based on decisions I made five rounds ago. It feels like a medium-deep board game, played at triple speed, with someone across the table timing you on how fast you arrange your tiles.

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Rocket Report: How is your payload fairing? Poland launches test rocket.

Welcome to Edition 7.44 of the Rocket Report! We had some interesting news on Thursday afternoon from Down Under. As Gilmour Space was preparing for the second launch attempt of its Eris vehicle, as part of the pre-launch preparations, something triggered the payload fairing to deploy. We would love to see some video of that. Please.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight. On Wednesday, US-based propulsion company Venus Aerospace completed a short flight test of its rotating detonation rocket engine at Spaceport America in New Mexico, Ars reports. It is believed to be the first US-based flight test of an idea that has been discussed academically for decades. The concept has previously been tested in a handful of other countries, but never with a high-thrust engine.

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How to cancel subscriptions on iPhone

Managing subscriptions directly from your iPhone is one of the simplest ways to prevent unwanted charges and keep track of active services. Whether you’re looking to cancel a streaming platform, cloud storage plan or any other recurring charge that you signed up for through Apple, doing so only takes a few steps.

If you download an app from the App Store, you may find the app unlocks additional features through a subscription. It’s easy to manage your subscription and app directly through your iPhone, allowing you to keep an eye on what you’re paying out. Some apps might tempt you with a free trial, so if you don’t want to pay a monthly subscription fee or you’ve had enough of your subscription, you can cancel or renew on your iPhone. Here’s how to find and cancel your subscriptions on iPhone.

How to cancel a subscription using your iPhone

Apple allows you to manage and cancel App Store subscriptions pretty easily. Subscriptions tied to your Apple ID include services such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud+ and third-party offerings purchased through the App Store.

To cancel a subscription:

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

  2. Tap your Apple ID name at the top of the screen.

  3. Select Subscriptions.

  4. Scroll through your list of active subscriptions.

  5. Tap the subscription you want to cancel.

  6. Tap Cancel Subscription, then confirm.

If the subscription is already marked as “Canceled” or shows an expiration date, no further action is needed.

Keep in mind that when you cancel a subscription, it typically remains active until the end of the current billing cycle(since you’ve already paid for it). You won’t be charged again, but you’ll still be able to use the service until the subscription officially ends.

How to cancel a subscription using your iPhone
Rob Webb for Engadget

How to cancel a subscription through the App Store

In addition to the Settings app, you can also access subscription details from within the App Store.

  1. Open the App Store.

  2. Tap your profile icon in the upper-right corner.

  3. Tap Subscriptions.

  4. Select the subscription you want to cancel.

  5. Tap Cancel Subscription and follow the confirmation prompts.

This method leads to the same subscription menu found in the Settings app, so it’s simply a different way to get there. Both approaches work equally well, as they require the same number of taps.

What to do if you don’t see the subscription listed

If a subscription you want to cancel isn’t listed in the Subscriptions section, it may not be billed through Apple. Some services, such as Spotify, Netflix or Hulu, often require you to manage your subscription directly through their website or billing provider.

To check if a subscription is handled outside of Apple:

  • Look at or search for the confirmation emails you received when signing up.

  • Check your bank or credit card statement for the company name.

  • Open the app and look under its account or settings section for billing info.

If the subscription isn’t associated with your Apple ID, canceling it will require visiting the provider’s website or app, or contacting its customer support directly.

How to cancel Apple One

If you’re subscribed to Apple One, which bundles several Apple services into one plan, you can cancel the entire bundle or individual services to stop using them.

To cancel Apple One:

  1. Go to Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions.

  2. Tap Apple One.

  3. Tap Cancel Apple One to remove the bundle.

  4. If you only want to cancel one service within the bundle, tap Choose Individual Services and turn off the specific one you no longer want.

Canceling Apple One may remove access to multiple services, including Apple Music, iCloud+, and Apple Arcade, depending on your plan.

How to cancel a free trial

If you signed up for a free trial, be sure to cancel before the trial period ends to avoid charges. Apple will begin billing you automatically once the trial converts to a paid subscription.

Free trials follow the same cancellation process:

  1. Go to Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions.

  2. Select the trial you want to cancel.

  3. Tap Cancel Subscription.

The trial will end immediately if canceled, and you may lose access to premium features.

How to resubscribe after canceling

If you change your mind and want to restart a canceled subscription, you can do so from the same Subscriptions menu, as long as the service is still available.

  1. Open Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions.

  2. Scroll down to the Inactive section.

  3. Tap the service you want to reactivate.

  4. Select a plan and confirm your payment method.

Your subscription will resume under the current terms, and the billing cycle starts from the date you resubscribe.

To downgrade or cancel iCloud+:

  1. Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage or iCloud Storage.

  2. Tap Change Storage Plan > Downgrade Options.

  3. Sign in if prompted.

  4. Select the Free 5GB plan to cancel your paid plan.

Changes take effect at the end of your current billing period.

How to check for hidden or expired subscriptions

To view old subscriptions:

  1. Go to Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions.

  2. Scroll to the Inactive or Expired section at the bottom of the screen.

These entries can’t be canceled again and are listed for reference only. If a subscription you no longer use is listed under “Active,” it’s still billing and needs to be manually canceled.

More tips for subscription management

  • Use reminders: Set calendar reminders to review subscriptions before trials or renewals occur.

  • Review billing statements: Check your monthly charges for unexpected renewals.

  • Enable purchase sharing: If you’re in a Family Sharing group, know that some subscriptions can be shared or managed by the organizer.

  • Consider using Apple’s Report a Problem page if you were charged for a subscription you didn’t authorize: reportaproblem.apple.com

  • If a subscription doesn’t have a cancel option or is listed as “renewing soon,” you may not be able to cancel it from the iPhone directly. In this case:

  • Double-check for another Apple ID you may have used to subscribe.

  • Try restarting your iPhone and checking the Subscriptions list again.

  • If it’s an Apple service like iCloud+ and the cancel button isn’t visible, you may need to change your iCloud storage plan instead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-cancel-subscriptions-on-iphone-110015175.html?src=rss

China Launches First of 2,800 Satellites For AI Space Computing Constellation

China launched 12 satellites on Wednesday as part of the âoeThree-Body Computing Constellation,â the worldâ(TM)s first dedicated orbital computing network led by ADA Space and Zhejiang Lab. SpaceNews reports: A Long March 2D rocket lifted off at 12:12 a.m. Eastern (0412 UTC) May 14 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. Insulation tiles fell away from the payload fairing as the rocket climbed into a clear blue sky above the spaceport. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced a fully successful launch, revealing the mission to have sent 12 satellites for a space computing constellation into orbit. Commercial company ADA Space released further details, stating that the 12 satellites form the “Three-Body Computing Constellation,” which will directly process data in space, rather than on the ground, reducing reliance on ground-based computing infrastructure. The constellation will be capable of a combined 5 peta operations per second (POPS) with 30 terabytes of onboard storage.

The satellites feature advanced AI capabilities, up to 100 Gbps laser inter-satellite links and remote sensing payloads — data from which will be processed onboard, reducing data transmission requirements. One satellite also carries a cosmic X-ray polarimeter developed by Guangxi University and the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), which will detect, identify and classify transient events such as gamma-ray bursts, while also triggering messages to enable followup observations by other missions. […] The company says the constellation can meet the growing demand for real-time computing in space, as well as help China take the lead globally in building space computing infrastructure, seize the commanding heights of this future industry. The development could mark the beginning of space-based cloud computing as a new capability, as well as open a new arena for strategic competition with the U.S. You can watch a recording of the launch here.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dark Matter Formed When Fast Particles Slowed Down and Got Heavy, New Theory Says

Dartmouth researchers propose that dark matter originated from massless, light-like particles in the early universe that rapidly condensed into massive particles through a spin-based interaction. Phys.Org reports: [T]he study authors write that their theory is distinct because it can be tested using existing observational data. The extremely low-energy particles they suggest make up dark matter would have a unique signature on the cosmic microwave background, or CMB, the leftover radiation from the Big Bang that fills all of the universe. “Dark matter started its life as near-massless relativistic particles, almost like light,” says Robert Caldwell, a professor of physics and astronomy and the paper’s senior author. “That’s totally antithetical to what dark matter is thought to be — it is cold lumps that give galaxies their mass,” Caldwell says. “Our theory tries to explain how it went from being light to being lumps.”

Hot, fast-moving particles dominated the cosmos after the burst of energy known as the Big Bang that scientists believe triggered the universe’s expansion 13.7 billion years ago. These particles were similar to photons, the massless particles that are the basic energy, or quanta, of light. It was in this chaos that extremely large numbers of these particles bonded to each other, according to Caldwell and Guanming Liang, the study’s first author and a Dartmouth senior. They theorize that these massless particles were pulled together by the opposing directions of their spin, like the attraction between the north and south poles of magnets. As the particles cooled, Caldwell and Liang say, an imbalance in the particles’ spins caused their energy to plummet, like steam rapidly cooling into water. The outcome was the cold, heavy particles that scientists think constitute dark matter.
The findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Student Demands Tuition Refund After Catching Professor Using ChatGPT

A Northeastern University student demanded her tuition money back after discovering her business professor was secretly using AI to create course materials. Ella Stapleton, who graduated this year, grew suspicious when she noticed telltale signs of AI generation in her professor’s lecture notes, including a stray ChatGPT citation in the bibliography, recurring typos matching machine outputs, and images showing figures with extra limbs.

“He’s telling us not to use it, and then he’s using it himself,” Stapleton told the New York Times. After filing a formal complaint with Northeastern’s business school, Stapleton requested a tuition refund of about $8,000 for the course. The university ultimately rejected her claim. Professor Rick Arrowood acknowledged using ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and presentation generator Gamma. “In hindsight, I wish I would have looked at it more closely,” he said.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Do You Trust Mark Zuckerberg To Solve Your Loneliness With an ‘AI Friend’?

An anonymous reader shares an opinion piece from The Guardian, written by columnist Emma Brockes: Mark Zuckerberg has gone on a promotional tour to talk up the potential of AI in human relationships. I know; listening to Zuck on friendship is a bit like taking business advice from Bernie Madoff or lessons in sportsmanship from Tonya Harding. But at recent tech conferences and on podcasts, Zuck has been saying he has seen the future and it’s one in which the world’s “loneliness epidemic” is alleviated by people finding friendship with “a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do.” In essence, we’ll be friends with AI, instead of people. The missing air quotes around “knows” and “understands” is a distinction we can assume Zuck neither knows nor understands.

This push by the 41-year-old tech leader would be less startling if it weren’t for the fact that semi-regularly online now you can find people writing about their relationships with their AI therapist or chatbot and insisting that if it’s real to them, then it’s real, period. The chatbot is, they will argue, “actively” listening to them. On a podcast with Dwarkesh Patel last month Zuck envisaged a near-future in which “you’ll be scrolling through your feed, and there will be content that maybe looks like a Reel to start, but you can talk to it, or interact with it and it talks back.” The average American, he said, has fewer than three friends but needs more. Hey presto, a ready solution.

The problem, obviously, isn’t that chatting to a bot gives the illusion of intimacy, but that, in Zuckerberg’s universe, it is indistinguishable from real intimacy, an equivalent and equally meaningful version of human-to-human contact. If that makes no sense, suggests Zuck, then either the meaning of words has to change or we have to come up with new words: “Over time,” says Zuckerberg, as more and more people turn to AI friends, “we’ll find the vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why that is valuable.” … The sheer wrongness of this argument is so stark that it puts anyone who gives it more than a moment’s thought in the weird position of having to define units of reality as basic as “person.” To extend Zuckerberg’s logic: a book can make you feel less alone and that feeling can be real. Which doesn’t mean that your relationship with the author is genuine, intimate or reciprocated in anything like the way a relationship with your friends is.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

YouTube Crackdowns on AI-Generated Fake Movie Trailers

YouTube has suspended ad revenue for two additional channels — Screen Trailers and Royal Trailer — as part of an ongoing effort to combat fake movie trailers using AI-generated content. These channels, alternative accounts of previously demonetized Screen Culture and KH Studio, splice actual movie footage with AI-generated material, often accumulating millions of views.

The action follows a recent Deadline investigation revealing Hollywood studios had requested YouTube redirect revenue from these misleading videos. Despite losing monetization, Screen Culture, which has 1.42 million subscribers, continues uploading content including a recent “Trailer 2 concept” for James Gunn’s upcoming Superman film.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple Keeps Fortnite in App Store Limbo

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said Thursday that Apple has “neither accepted nor rejected” Fortnite’s second App Store submission, potentially delaying the game’s major update planned for Friday.

Epic initially submitted Fortnite on May 9 following Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ order for Apple to comply with the original 2021 injunction. After five days without response, Epic withdrew and resubmitted to accommodate the upcoming update. While Apple’s guidelines state 90% of submissions are reviewed within 24 hours, this silence is unprecedented.

The legal context remains complex — the judge’s original ruling didn’t require Apple to reinstate Fortnite, as she determined Epic had willingly violated agreed-upon rules. Meanwhile, Sweeney is actively pointing out on X that Fortnite knock-offs are flooding the App Store.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The top fell off Australia’s first orbital-class rocket, delaying its launch

The payload fairing at the top of Gilmour Space’s first Eris rocket was supposed to deploy a few minutes after lifting off from northeastern Australia. Instead, the nose cone fell off the rocket hours before it was supposed to leave the launch pad Thursday.

Gilmour, the Australian startup that developed the Eris rocket, announced the setback in a post to the company’s social media accounts Thursday.

“During final launch preparations last night, an electrical fault triggered the system that opens the rocket’s nose cone (the payload fairing),” Gilmour posted on LinkedIn. “This happened before any fuel was loaded into the vehicle. Most importantly, no one was injured, and early checks show no damage to the rocket or the launch pad.”

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