This is a video of Rube Goldberg machinist Joseph of Joseph’s Machines building and testing a real life version of Wallace & Gromit’s breakfast machine from the 1993 movie The Wrong Trousers. Wrong Trousers? Not a problem for me, I haven’t worn anything but sweatpants and athletic shorts for years. “It’s true, they had to crop him out of all my sister’s wedding reception photos.” Honey! “What?” I thought it was because I was puking.

Keep going for the video. Machine in action begins at 7:30, followed by a side-by-side comparison of the scene from the original movie.

The Department of Commerce officially rescinded the Biden administration’s Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule on Tuesday, just days before its May 15 implementation date. The rule would have imposed first-ever export restrictions on U.S.-made AI chips to dozens of countries while tightening existing controls on China and Russia.

Instead of implementing blanket restrictions, the DOC signaled a shift toward direct country-by-country negotiations. The department released interim guidance reminding companies that using Huawei’s Ascend AI chips anywhere violates U.S. export rules and warned about consequences of allowing U.S. chips to train AI models in China. Commerce Secretary for Industry and Security Jeffery Kessler criticized the previous administration’s approach, calling it “ill-conceived and counterproductive.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We finally have some actual footage of the upcoming Spider-Noir series, thanks to a teaser trailer. This is a real boon for fans of the original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as the show brings back Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man: Noir.

It’s also live action, so we get to see a real-life Nic Cage kicking butt as a down-on-his-luck private detective that’s bitten by a magical spider. You can likely guess what happens to him after that. Amazon says that the character will be “forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.”

This is a short trailer, but it’s positively soaked in retro vibes. After all, the show’s called Spider-Noir. The teaser is in black-and-white, but it’s worth noting that the actual series will be available in both black-and-white and color. It’s all up to personal preference, but I’m digging the black-and-white.

Spider-Noir will first air on MGM+ before heading to Prime Video the next day. We don’t have a release date yet. In addition to Cage, the show stars Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson, Li Jun Li and Karen Rodriguez, among others. Harry Bradbeer, who helmed most episodes of Fleabag, is directing the first two installments.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the pair behind the Spiderverse franchise, are on-hand as executive producers. The show’s based on the comic book Spider-Man: Noir, which was first released back in 2009.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/watch-nicolas-cage-kick-black-and-white-butt-in-this-trailer-for-spider-noir-163332837.html?src=rss

Intel has certified Shell’s lubricant-based method for cooling servers more efficiently within data centers used for AI. From a report: The announcement on Tuesday, which follows the chipmaker’s two-year trial of the technology, offers a way to use less energy at AI facilities, which are booming and are expected to double their electricity demand globally by 2030, consuming as much power then as all of Japan today, according to the International Energy Agency.

So far, companies have largely used giant fans to reduce temperatures inside AI data centers, which generate more heat in order to run at a higher power. Increasingly, these fans consume electricity at a rate that rivals the computers themselves, something the facilities’ operators would prefer to avoid, Intel Principal Engineer Samantha Yates said in an interview.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Letterboxd is the social media app of choice for many movie fans out there—and for good reason. The service has long been a platform for rating movies, sharing and viewing recommendations, and organizing your watch lists. Now, however, the company is gearing up for a new business model: on-demand video streaming.

Letterboxd announced the news at the Cannes film festival on Tuesday. While the company’s reveal is lacking many details, we do have some idea of what to expect. The new streaming service will be called the Letterboxd Video Store, and will host “shelves” of select titles.

These movies are curated by Letterboxd, and are quite specific. According to the company, Letterboxd Video Store customers can expect to find movies in the film festival circuit, lesser-known movies, and films from around the world, as well as titles from new filmmakers. Letterboxd is making a point to offer movies that don’t have a wide distribution yet, which means the service might offer a way for people to see a movie they otherwise never would have.

You’ll be able to rent these movies on-demand, similar to other services like Prime Video, Apple TV, or Google Play, or during specified windows of time. As of yet, however, there is no release date or specific timeline for the feature. Letterboxd says that details on which movies they’ll release, which regions they will support, and launch dates will be announced in “the coming months.”

Hopefully, those months come sooner rather than later. This sounds like a great feature, and a complement to other non-traditional streaming services like Mubi. In the meantime, if you’re looking for ways to get more out of your Letterboxd experience, Lifehacker contributor Eric Ravenscraft recently offered five tips to make the most of the app—especially if you’re willing to pay for Letterboxd’s premium subscription tiers.

As first reported by CNBC, Microsoft will be laying off 3 percent of its global workforce in an aim to streamline its operations and thin out its management structure. The layoffs will be felt across all teams, levels and regions within the company and are not performance-based.

In a statement to CNBC, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.” This latest round of layoffs follows deep cuts in 2023, when Microsoft laid off over 10,000 employees.

Microsoft and other large tech companies are doing all they can lately to weather a shaky economic environment, made more challenging by on-and-off-again tariffs, a bevy of FTC anti-trust activity, and the demand to burn billions in cash vying for pole position in the AI race.

Huge layoffs have become a regular occurrence over the last few years as giant companies seek to right-size from pandemic-era overhiring. Microsoft also recently raised prices on its Xbox consoles and removed entry-level Surface laptops to drive more profits.

Last quarter, Microsoft reported earnings that outperformed expectations for both revenue and profit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-is-laying-off-3-percent-of-its-global-workforce-154755787.html?src=rss

Apple has partnered with brain-computer interface maker Synchron to develop tech that lets consumers control devices like iPhones with their thoughts, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. This is primarily intended to help people with medical conditions that limit hand use, such as spinal cord injuries or diseases like ALS.

Here’s the gist. Synchron has been developing a stent-like implant that’s placed in a vein on top of the brain’s motor cortex. It’s called the Stentrode and it reads brain signals before translating them into the selection of icons on a screen. People can use the implant to select icons on Apple devices thanks to software called switch control, which is a feature in Apple’s OS that allows for the addition of new input devices.

Human trials of Stentrode have been successful and now the two companies are working to develop a new standard for the technology specifically for Apple devices. These implants are typically called brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and Apple looks forward to a day when this type of technology receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

That day, however, is likely years away, even if recent tests have shown a lot of promise. Apple does plan on releasing the new software standard for Synchron implants to third-party developers later this year.

An early tester used Apple’s new software along with a Stentrode implant to control the Apple Vision Pro and other devices. The ALS patient was able to peer over a mountain in the Swiss Alps in VR and communicate with his iPhone and iPad. It’s worth noting that the current tech has its limits. The tester couldn’t use the implant to mimic navigating a touch screen with fingers or moving a cursor with a mouse. Still, there are over 150,000 people in the US who suffer from serious upper-limb impairments that could be candidates for a BCI.

Apple has long been at the forefront of accessibility tech. It launched similar connectivity software for hearing aids all the way back in 2014 that has since become an industry standard. More recently, the company brought its accessibility-focused Magnifier reader to Macs and enhanced its Braille Access toolset.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-has-teamed-up-with-synchron-to-develop-tech-that-lets-people-control-its-devices-with-thoughts-154018858.html?src=rss

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The Peloton functional threshold power test (known most often as the FTP test) is a brutal 20-minute slog that is, well, uncomfortable to do. It’s also important, especially if you want to start taking Power Zone classes on your Bike or Bike+. At the end of this miserable little ride, ideally, you’ll feel accomplished. You’ll also have some data about your general fitness level. Even though it’s not fun—unless you are one of those people who finds a lot of fulfillment in hard work and/or suffering—it is useful, which is why I want to encourage you to finally do it if you never have or redo it if it’s been a while.

What is the FTP test for?

The purpose of the much-feared FTP test is to gauge your general fitness level by figuring out a benchmark for your spinning sessions and customize what the company calls “power zones.” Peloton will set power zones from one to seven for you if you choose to engage in those types of classes. (Read more about this specific class type here.) Even if you’re not going to do Power Zone classes, knowing your functional threshold power and tracking it by repeating the test every four to six weeks can help you get a broader sense of how well you’re doing with your training.

During the test, you ride as hard as you can for 20 minutes. That’s really it. Your FTP, as the instructor will explain to you, is 95% of your average power during that test—it’s meant to represent what your average output would be if you were to actually go as hard as possible over the course of an hour. Honestly, be grateful it’s not an hour.

How to access the FTP test (and what to expect)

It’s actually a little tricky to find this devil. First, I found “Discover Your Power Zones” under the Programs tab on my bike’s touchscreen, but once I had enrolled in a Power Zone course, it didn’t even start with the test. That was to come after a few workouts—in that course, anyway—and the workouts only unlock week by week. I didn’t want to wait weeks, so I tried a different method. I just navigated to Classes, then filtered search results to “Power Zone” and “Length: 20 minutes.” A number of FTP tests came up.

Really, these are just 20-minute rides in the standard class format. There is an instructor, a playlist, and an on-screen display letting you know your cadence and resistance. If you’ve taken a single class on a Peloton bike, it will be familiar to you. If you have not taken a class on the Peloton bike, please do that a few times first so you know how the machine works. There’s also a meter across the bottom of the screen letting you know which power zone you’re in at a given time, but if it’s your first time taking the test, it’s going to be more of an estimate of what the zones should be, since it hasn’t really been customized to you and your fitness level yet. Let me explain a little more.

The zones range between one and seven, with one being easiest and seven being hardest, and represent your output, which is a number that combines your resistance (how hard it is to pedal) with your cadence (how fast your legs are moving). If your resistance is up and you’re pedaling fast, you’ll scoot yourself into a higher zone. This is especially relevant when taking a Power Zone class after completing your FTP test, since the zones will be automatically calibrated to your own fitness level. That is to say, your “zone four”—when you’re huffing and puffing but still able to operate just fine—might be a different output number from someone else’s. Some unfortunate news: No matter which instructor you choose for your FTP test, they’ll always encourage you to start in zone four and move up from there over the course of 20 minutes. This is why a warmup before the test is crucial, but we’ll get to that.

My first FTP experience

First of all, I want it on the record that this is a decently difficult endeavor. I am saying that as someone who teaches at least three cycling classes per week, has done so for four years, lifts about four times per week, and also rides the Peloton bike for at least 15 minutes every day (but usually more). I am not an exercise novice. Still, my first FTP test kicked my ass.

After finding it among my filtered class search results, I approached my FTP test, led by Olivia Amato, with a very foolish mindset of, “How hard can it be?” It can be hard. You start in zone four and are instructed to increase your resistance periodically, moving through the zones at a rate of about one every five minutes until you’re in zone seven, pushing as hard as you can. The FTP test I chose stuck with a cadence around 90, though I’ve checked out a few others using my Peloton app and noticed they vary. Christine D’Ercole’s FTP test, for instance, starts at a cadence of about 80. Each class has user-generated difficulty ratings, so check those if you’re unsure which instructor to choose. Denis Morton’s FTP test scores a whopping 9.8 out of 10 on the difficulty scale while Amato’s has a 9.2 and D’Ercole’s has a 9.3. Keep in mind that you don’t have to stay at the cadence they’re suggesting. This is a test of your abilities, so perform to your abilities only.

Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Over the 20 minutes, Amato said a lot of encouraging things. A few selections:

• “Today is one of those days where we get to work hard, where we get to show up for ourselves, so do it with everything that you have, everything that you are. That’s what you deserve to give yourself.”

• “Celebrate the fact that we get to do this together, that you’re capable, that you’re here, that you’re alive, that we’re breathing, that we’re moving, that we get to work hard. Celebrate the fact that you showed up today.”

• “I want you to really start to step into your potential. We already know it’s there so let’s start to bring it to life.”

It went on like this for the full 20 minutes. Amato, for sure, is good at her job because by the end of this test I was not interested in continuing, but her peppy little encouragements did make me (begrudgingly) keep at it. Of note, participants are encouraged not to come out of the saddle unless they really need a break. I challenged myself to not lower my resistance even once, but only raise it every few minutes, so that was really tough.

In the end, my highest output over the course of 20 minutes was 394 watts. My best cadence was 124 rpm. Per my Apple Watch, my average heart rate was 144 bpm. Even if I didn’t get a bunch of data out of this that enables me to track my progress—which I certainly love to do—this was a damn fine workout.

You want me to reveal my ultimate FTP score, I know. I am not doing that. First of all, I’m not doing that because I scored lower than I expected to. (I partially attribute that to hubris and partially attribute that to first-time confusion and poor preparation. I’ll get to my prep tips in a minute.) But also because, for as structured as this test is, it’s also very subjective and is not a decisive or thorough overview of your health and fitness. This score is just one benchmark. It can be affected by so many things, from your age and experience level to how nutritious your breakfast was and how much sleep you got the night before. Don’t take your score as anything more than a benchmark upon which you can build some training plans. Don’t compare your score to mine (not that I’m allowing it) or to the hundreds of Peloton users who post theirs on Reddit. Only compare your score to the next score you get, and even then, do it with some grace for yourself. Like your weight or BMI, this is just a number in a big sea of numbers that, all together, still don’t paint the full picture of your health and wellness, let alone do that individually.

Preparing for your FTP test

To prepare for my FTP test—which I decided to do on the same day I even made up my mind to do it at all, which was my first mistake—I put on my all-time favorite workout set and drank a protein-powder smoothie while I relaxed for exactly 30 minutes, then drank some pre-workout mixed into a bottle of water and did a 15-minute warmup while I waited for it to kick in. That’s about it! A few critical errors were made by me right off the bat: I slept badly the previous night and woke up before the sun to… lift and teach a spin class. My breakfast was a granola bar I found in my bag on the way to the gym and, by the time I started my FTP test, I had already banged out 90 minutes of strenuous exercise earlier in the day. The good news is that if I can do it in unideal circumstances, we can all do it in great ones.

Here’s what you should do:

• Because this is designed to be a test of your optimal output, do it on an optimal day! There’s no rush. Sometimes, I like to hop on my bike on a day I’m feeling down because it perks me up, but this is not the time for an FTP test. Instead, pick a day when you’re feeling good.

• Be well rested. Don’t over-exert yourself beforehand and make sure you get sufficient sleep the night before.

• Eat something nutritious. It doesn’t have to be right before you hop on the bike (and, for what it’s worth, I’m not a big believer in eating too soon before cardio), but you should have some fuel in the tank to perform well.

• Hydrate before and during. It sounds obvious, but it’s key. I don’t love water so I find ways to trick myself into hydration. Right now, I’m obsessed with my Owala water bottle because it’s comfy in the hand and easy to grab from the cup holder, plus the unique sipper-and-straw combo makes it easy to swig from even if I’m riding hard. I also keep some SaltStick FastChews—chewable electrolyte tablets—with me when I’m spinning because they’re easier to gobble up and taste better than plain water. Whatever works for you and motivates you to stay hydrated, take advantage of it for this.

• Do a warmup. There are FTP-focused warmups available on Peloton. You’ll see them when you filter your classes by “Power Zone” but before you filter for 20-minute rides, as they are either 10 or 15 minutes long. These are meant to ease you into the right physical and mental space since, again, the test starts in zone four.

• Do whatever self-talk you have to. I’m not a flowery person. I don’t like inane platitudes and I never say corny motivational stuff when I’m teaching a class. We are trying to burn some calories and strengthen our cardiovascular systems here, not find nirvana or whatever. That said, this is the moment for some peppy self-motivation. Remind yourself, first of all, that you can do it, that you know you can do it, and that when, 16 minutes in, you want to stop, there’s no reason you should. Have a little plan in place for what, precisely, you’re going to say to yourself when you want to slow down or give up.

• Remember this isn’t that serious. This is not the end-all, be-all final word on your overall health. I actually really like what D’Ercole said in Peloton’s blog post about the FTP test: “Riders should not be afraid of the FTP test because it is not a judgment on one’s fitness. It is simply about taking a moment to recognize where one is at that moment in time, on that particular day. Over time and retakes, it may go up and it may go down, either incrementally or dramatically. It is not a linear process. It is not a scale. It is not a compass. Understanding these things will help remove the fear from the experience.”

And don’t forget you can take it again. In fact, I’m going to again today. I’m interested in seeing if there’s any notable difference in my score when I better prepare. It’s just as instructive for me to understand how—or if—my body and capacity change in the span of 24 hours as it is to finish up a tough ride and be shown an FTP score. Try taking the test at a few different points. Try different times of day or after eating certain things. At the completion of an FTP test, you’re given the option to keep your score as your benchmark for Power Zone classes, but you don’t have to, so you might as well play around and see what you can discover.

For most users, Windows 10 will stop receiving security updates and other official support from Microsoft on October 14, 2025, about five months from today. Until recently, Microsoft had also said that users running the Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 would also lose support on that date, whether they were using the continually updated Microsoft 365 versions of those apps or the buy-once-own-forever versions included in Office 2021 or Office 2024.

Microsoft has recently tweaked this policy, however (as seen by The Verge). Now, Windows 10 users of the Microsoft 365 apps will still be eligible to receive software updates and support through October of 2028, “in the interest of maintaining your security while you upgrade to Windows 11.” Microsoft is taking a similar approach to Windows Defender malware definitions, which will be offered to Windows 10 users “through at least October 2028.”

The policy is a change from a few months ago, when Microsoft insisted that Office apps running on Windows 10 would become officially unsupported on October 14. The perpetually licensed versions of Office will be supported in accordance with Microsoft’s “Fixed Lifecycle Policy,” which guarantees support and security updates for a fixed number of years after a software product’s initial release. For Office 2021, this means Windows 10 users will get support through October of 2026; for Office 2024, this should extend to October of 2029.

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Linux creator Linus Torvalds has abandoned his six-month experiment with a quieter low-profile keyboard in favor of his old mechanical one with Cherry MX Blue switches. In a post about Linux 6.15-rc6 on LKML.org, Torvalds explained that his typing accuracy suffered without the tactile feedback.

“It seems I need the audible (or perhaps tactile) feedback to avoid the typing mistakes that I just kept doing,” Torvalds wrote. The famously outspoken developer couldn’t recall why he initially switched to the quieter keyboard, as he doesn’t work in a shared office where the noise would disturb others. After the failed experiment with the unnamed quiet keyboard, Torvalds has now returned to what he describes as a “noisy clackety-clack” input device. He joked that since he can no longer blame his keyboard for typos, “going forward, I will now conveniently blame autocorrect.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Samsung released its Galaxy S25 series earlier this year to generally favorable reviews. It also teased the perplexingly thin S25 Edge, and now that phone is a reality. You can preorder Samsung’s thinnest smartphone-ever today, but you should know what you’re getting into. This $1,099 smartphone is incredibly slim, at just 5.8 mm, but it also steps down in the camera department and packs an anemic battery that may struggle to last all day.

This is a big, flat phone featuring a 120 Hz 6.7-inch OLED at 1440×3120. Like the S25 Ultra, it has a titanium frame with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back. The front has Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 for improved scratch protection. There’s almost no bezel around the display—in fact, there’s almost no phone around the display. The body is only 5.8 mm thick, a substantial reduction from the similarly sized S25+ at 7.3 mm. That’s really this phone’s claim to fame: It’s really thin. Everything else (and we do mean everything) is secondary to that.

Cramming premium camera modules into a smartphone is an engineering challenge even when you’re not trying to make the phone as slim as possible. Similar to foldables, there just isn’t enough space in the S25 Edge for a full suite of Samsung cameras. Therefore, this phone only has two rear camera modules: a 200 MP primary shooter that appears identical to the S25 Ultra’s and a meager 12 MP ultrawide. There’s a 12 MP selfie camera on the front as well. There is no telephoto lens at all, which you get even on the base model S25.

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When I bought my first robot vacuum, I thought my floors would thereafter be effortlessly spotless—endlessly patrolled by a 24/7 custodian, with absolutely no work required on my part. Today, there are never less than three robot vacuum cleaners installed in my small home at any given time. And yet I am definitely not doing nothing to keep my floors clean. While I’m certainly doing less daily upkeep, I would not say my floors are spotless, nor that I have been alleviated of all floor-related housework.

Here’s what I wish I’d known about what robot vacuums can and can’t do, and how much human effort they require.

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop

$1,799.98
at Amazon

$1,799.98
at Amazon

Narwal Freo Z Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop

$1,499.99
at Amazon

$1,499.99
at Amazon

3i S10 Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop

$1,399.99
at Amazon

$1,899.99
Save $500.00

$1,399.99
at Amazon

$1,899.99
Save $500.00

Saros 10 Robot Vacuum and Mop

$1,599.99
at Amazon

$1,599.99
at Amazon

Saros 10R Robot Vacuum and Mop

$1,618.98
at Amazon

$1,618.98
at Amazon

Narwal S20 Stick Mop

$499.99
at Amazon

$499.99
at Amazon

You’ll have to rearrange your furniture

The Freo Z navigating around an air purifier on the floor
Credit: Amanda Blum

When you hire someone to clean your home, you typically don’t move furniture around yourself to make their job easier,. For your robot vacuum, you might have to. While these robots have gotten much better at navigation, the less there is on the floor, the easier it will be for them to clean. Each table leg, chair and floor lamp is another obstacle to be worked around, and it’s worth knowing that most robots can’t get as close to table legs and floor lamps as you would be able to with a stick vacuum. Nor can they move a piece of furniture aside to get under it. As such, you will have to make some changes to your floor plan if you want to make the most of your new robot friend. 

More important than furniture relocation is the trend of having less on the floor, generally. If you like to let a laundry pile accumulate, have potted plants or a stack of books, you’ll end up relocating those items to give your robot better access. Corded items are particularly tricky, so the less cords on the floor, the better. Over time, I’ve learned to suspend the cords from the wall, and keep them wound as much as possible so nothing trails on the floor. 

I was recently quite impressed with the Roborock 10R, which relied solely on AI assisted cameras. The navigation skills of the robot were great, allowing it to venture into tight and low spaces that other robots hadn’t.

Robot vacuums can’t clean near their docks

the robot can’t navigate around the Eureka tower, so debris accumulates around it
Credit: Amanda Blum

It’s an unsurprising fact that robot vacuums can only clean where they can reach. Where they can’t reach, you’ll still see dirt and debris. All robot cleaners have a dock of some sort, and many now come with self emptying towers, which usually work exceptionally well at emptying the robots of dirt so you don’t have to do it manually. Given all of this automation, it’s a bit ironic that the dirtiest place in your home might well be right around the tower or dock itself. As these towers are usually tucked into a corner or small space, detritus can easily accumulate around them, but the robot can’t move around the tower to clean it up. As the robot returns to the dock, it sweeps dirt with it, and it all eventually winds up at the foot of the tower. 

This Roomba can’t navigate into the small space underneath this plant stand, so instead it just kicks debris into the space.
Credit: Amanda Blum

Only the latest robots (like the 3i S10 Ultra) are at all good at cleaning around the base of pieces of furniture and thresholds between rooms. With most robots, you’ll usually still find a band of dust and grime against the wall and around any items that the robot can’t easily clean. And then there are all the spaces too narrow or too low for the robot to slide into. While a few robots, like the Narwal Freo Z, have a fluffy pad that’ll occasionally rub against the base board to dust it, they don’t do any real cleaning, so you’ll need to clean your baseboards manually, too. Again, you can rearrange your space to allow the robot more autonomy by making sure any spaces you want to be cleaned allow clearance of at least 1.5 times the width of the robot, and enough vertical height that the robot can reach it.

This is always going to be a bit of a losing game, however, which is why I still have a stick vacuum I use to quickly suck up debris from narrow spots the robot can’t reach, the corners and edges that the robot can get close enough to, and against the wall and thresholds. 

Robots are best at vacuuming up only certain types of debris

The same way you might organize before a visit from a cleaning professional, you’ll find yourself pre-sweeping for your robot. While robots are reliable at getting up dust and small detritus like rice or cereal, they’re not great at large debris, which means anything larger than a standard dice cube. Pieces of mulch, pet toy fluff, kitchen scraps, bobby pins, and pocket change will all get caught in a robot’s rollers and need to be fished out. Pre-sweeping is a way to avoid that annoying task by getting up larger items of debris and leaving the rest for the bot. (But once again allow me to praise the 3i S10 Ultra, which has excelled at vacuuming up larger debris than any other robot vacuum I’d ever tested.)

Even if your robot vacuum has a mop, you’ll need to mop manually

This Roborock is starting to get up the muddy pawprints, but it takes many passes
Credit: Amanda Blum

Most robot vacuums are now combo vacuums and mops.Some models are great at mopping—sometimes even better than they are at vacuuming. The docking tower empties the mop of dirty water, fills it with clean water, and sanitizes everything afterward. With the combined functions of vacuuming and mopping your floors will surely be clean, right? Not necessarily. 

Robot mops are great at cleaning up surface spills. What they’re less good at is scrubbing away stains and compound floor messes like mud or spilled food. While most robots can mostly get muddy paw prints up after a number of passes, doing so requires a lot of water, battery life, and time, and I’ve yet to find a single robot mop that is good at getting grime out of tile or wood floors. The robot simply can’t put enough pressure on the mop to really scrub the floor.

For these reasons, you’ll need to keep an old-fashioned mop around, and you should expect to have to give the floor a good, hardy mop every few days and use real elbow grease to get out grime. Once the floor is clean, repeated patrols by the robot mop can help stave off new grime deposits, but they’re inevitable, so don’t assume your mopping days are over. 

If mopping is your priority, I recommend highly Roborock models that have a singular vibrating mop pad, versus twin spinning mops. The Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra remains one of my top recommendations.

Robot vacuums are slow

With most robot vacuums working with voice assistants like Google, Alexa, or Apple, its well within the realm of possibility to simply ask the robot to “clean up around the high chair” after dinner (presuming you’ve set up a zone around the high chair, and it is always in the same approximate spot). If you’ve got such a routine set up, the robot will begin whatever pre-deployment practices it has, whether that’s filling the water resivior or orienting or cleaning the mop head, and eventually will amble over to the intended spot and proceed to take its time cleaning.

Though still not particularly fast in getting to the spot you pin, Roborock’s Pin and Go feature allows you to quickly place a pin on your floor map and the robot will proceed immediately to that spot to clean. This feature is available on all premium Roborock models, including the latest Saros 10 and 10R.

Roborock lets you put a pin on the map for the robot to proceed to
Credit: Amanda Blum

If you’ve got the time to spare, great. But if your kid spills a cup of orange juice on the floor, you might not be willing to wait the five to 10 minutes it will take the robot to get to the spot in question and start cleaning when you could grab a mop or towel and be done in under a minute. 

For that reason, I’m still happy to have a Narwal S20, a newer model stick mop I can quickly grab, mop as needed, and then put back on the dock, all without having to get my hands dirty.  

Robot vacuums occasionally require human intervention

Robot vacuums can range wildly in price (from $200 to $2,500) and quality, and they are getting more intelligent and feature-rich all the time. Robots that have AI on board can actually learn about your home and get better at cleaning it over time. Despite all of that, however, your robot will need your intervention more than you’d like. 

Depending on how good a model you own, you will likely need to routinely unclog the rollers (the most common robot vacuum maintenance task). Your robot will also get stuck—sometimes because there is a new obstacle for it to navigate around, like a waylaid toy or sock, or a loose cord under the couch the robot gets stuck on it. Sometimes, it will simply gets lost. The bottom line is, even the best robots can’t be left on their own for weeks at a time. Most will require a human around eventually to get them back to the dock, clear the rollers, unclog it any clogs in the mopping system, and/or change the water in the dock.

If all of this hasn’t scared you away from getting one, your goal should be to choose a robot that matches your home and needs, and that enough features that you won’t be following it around every day, making sure it does its job.

On Sunday night, House Republicans added language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that would block all state and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years, 404 Media reports. The provision, introduced by Representative Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, states that “no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.”

The broad wording of the proposal would prevent states from enforcing both existing and proposed laws designed to protect citizens from AI systems. For example, California’s recent law requiring health care providers to disclose when they use generative AI to communicate with patients would potentially become unenforceable. New York’s 2021 law mandating bias audits for AI tools used in hiring decisions would also be affected, 404 Media notes. The measure would also halt legislation set to take effect in 2026 in California that requires AI developers to publicly document the data used to train their models.

The ban could also restrict how states allocate federal funding for AI programs. States currently control how they use federal dollars and can direct funding toward AI initiatives that may conflict with the administration’s technology priorities. The Education Department’s AI programs represent one example where states might pursue different approaches than those favored by the White House and its tech industry allies.

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Nothing says “please, leave me alone” while you’re in public like a good pair of over-ear, noise-canceling headphones. The Beats Studio Pro — which are, coincidentally, a good pair of over-ear, noise-canceling headphones — are on sale right now. You can snap up a pair for $170. That’s a discount of 51 percent (or $180) and only $10 more than the lowest price we’ve seen to date for them.

The Beats Studio Pro arrived in 2023 and we gave them a score of 81 in our review. While they aren’t among our top picks for the best wireless headphones or the best noise-canceling headphones, they’re still a decent option — especially at this price.

Thanks in large part to Beats’ second-gen chipset, the Beats Studio Pro deliver notably better audio quality than the brand’s earlier over-ear headphones. Beats upgraded the active noise cancellation (ANC), while the addition of spatial audio with dynamic head tracking is welcome. So too is the USB-C wired mode if you’d like to listen to high-resolution and lossless audio.

The Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds are also on sale. They can be yours for $200, which is $50 off and a record low price. We gave these a score of 79 in our review.

These are Apple’s first earbuds with built-in sensors that can track your heart rate, making them an intriguing option for fitness enthusiasts. The Powerbeats Pro 2 have Apple’s H2 chip, which enables them to offer many of the same features that you’d find on the AirPods Pro 2, such as Hearing Protection — but not the hearing aid or hearing test options. The earbuds are comfortable to wear (though the hook design may not be for everyone) and deliver generally solid audio including powerful, balanced performance on the low end. However, we felt the ANC performance was so-so.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-beats-studio-pro-headphones-are-half-off-right-now-144737501.html?src=rss

Microsoft is laying off 3% of employees across all levels and geographies, the company said Tuesday. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a spokesperson told CNBC. Microsoft had 228,000 employees worldwide at the end of June, meaning that the move will affect thousands of employees.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The second season of the Fallout TV series doesn’t even have a concrete release date in December yet, but Amazon has already renewed the show for a third season. Amazon has announced that it has greenlit the new season at its annual presentation in New York City. The company said Fallout has had more than 100 million viewers since it dropped on Prime Video in April 2024 and remains one of its top-three most watched titles ever. 

If you’ll recall, the live adaptation was so well-received, Fallout 4 enjoyed a resurgence in sales nearly a decade after its release. Amazon also renewed the series for a second season just a few days after the first season debuted on its streaming service. Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Fallout is set 200 years into the future after an apocalyptic event. In the story, the humans who survived the apocalypse hid in luxury fallout shelters where their descendants remained for hundreds of years. The show follows Lucy as she leaves her shelter after an attack by outsiders to find her father who’d been kidnapped. Along the way, she meets more characters, including a squire from the Brotherhood of Steel and a ghoul bounty hunter.

Amazon has yet to reveal season 3’s story, which doesn’t come as a surprise, seeing as the second season has yet to drop. But season 2 will pick up from where the first one had left off and will take viewers from the Mojave wastelands to New Vegas.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/amazon-renews-fallout-months-before-season-2s-premiere-143028657.html?src=rss

Following its initial reveal early last month, Nintendo has been drip-feeding announcements about the Switch 2, and two announcements recently posted to the Nintendo Today app are especially exciting. The company revealed that your Switch 2 will have a feature that can limit charging speeds once it hits around 90%, in order to reduce battery degradation. But perhaps more exciting, especially for parents or kids with nosy siblings, is that you’ll be able to use a PIN to lock your Nintendo Switch 2.

Set charging limits on Nintendo Switch 2

Credit: Nintendo

In a feature similar to the 80% charge limit on iPhones, Nintendo Switch 2 will optionally let you stop charging the device once the battery reaches around a 90% charge. This could help reduce battery degradation on your Switch 2, which could stave off repairs in the future. That said, the settings page mentions that your Switch 2 may still occasionally charge to 100% to ensure accurate display of the console’s battery level.

Once you have your Switch 2, you can enable this feature by going to Settings > System > Stop Charging Around 90%. This is a great feature when you consider that many people will near permanently leave their Switch 2 in docked mode.

Lock your Switch 2 with a PIN

Credit: Nintendo

Got someone in your house that you don’t trust with your console? The good old PIN lock is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. The default screen lock on the original Nintendo Switch would require you to press a button thrice to unlock the console, which wasn’t great for security. With the Switch 2, you can lock the console with a PIN, which is better for those who want to stop people from using their console without permission. 

To enable a screen lock on your Switch 2, go to Settings > System > System Lock and enable the feature. This means that you’ll have to enter a PIN every single time you wake the Switch 2 from sleep mode. Such is the price of improved security. Personally, the slight inconvenience is worth it for me, and I’m sure any parents with kids who are always trying to sneak in extra screen time would agree.

This is a video of a man attempting a speedrun past his cat Gulliver in the hallway, which requires a boss battle in order to proceed. Things get pretty hairy for a couple of the splits, but he manages to set a new world record thanks to great times in both claw sequences. The internet, am I right? “What about it?” This is as high as it goes, we should all return to the wilderness now.