It’s a well documented fact that skulls make everything cooler. As you may or may not know, I’m somewhat of a skull collector myself. I don’t actually own any real ones, but I’m not foolish enough to keep evidence after battling a mortal enemy to the death. Please don’t put me on a list. These are the skull themed kitchen utensils available from Suck UK. Constructed of stainless steel, they’re available individually in (from left to right) sugar spoon, pickle fork, bar spoon, serving spoon, spatula, and tongs. They’re all $15 except the sugar spoon, which is $8. I only bought the sugar spoon because it’s all I can afford and I’m going to complain about the dribbling every time I try to eat cereal with it, which will be at least three times a day (I’m a huge cereal guy).

The Trump administration’s tariffs are having swift and serious consequences on global markets. Companies are pausing sales to the United States, while others are thinking about price increases to compensate for the added tariff fees. Combine that instability with inflation and other financial insecurities, and it’s a tough time for economies everywhere.

Unfortunately, these increased costs of doing business don’t usually end up benefitting the consumer. In fact, quite the opposite: We end up eating the extra cost. Such is the case with the PlayStation 5. Depending on where you live, it’s now more expensive than ever—despite being more than four years old.

PS5 prices are going up

In a Sunday post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony announced that SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) made the decision to bump the MSRP for the PS5 in “select markets.” That includes Europe, Middle East and Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. (However, Sony did not specify price increases for its Middle East and Africa markets.) The company did not mention tariffs as part of its reasoning, and, to that point, spared the U.S. from a price increase—as well as the rest of North America.

These are not incremental price increases, either. Australia, for example, gets a AUD $100 increase on the Digital Edition PS5, while its standard PS5 is now above AUD $800. I suppose the small silver lining is Sony reduced the price of the Disc Drive accessory in these markets, but I doubt that will come as too much comfort for affected consumers here:

Here’s what the PS5 now costs in these regions:

Europe

• PS5 Digital Edition: €499.99 (€50 increase)

• Disc Drive: €79.99 (€40 decrease)

UK

• PS5 Digital Edition: £429.99 (£40 increase)

• Disc Drive: £69.99 (£30 decrease)

Australia

• PS5 Digital Edition: AUD $749.95 (AUD $100 increase)

• PS5 with disc drive: AUD $829.95 (AUD $30 increase)

• Disc Drive: AUD $124.95 (AUD $30 decrease)

New Zealand

• PS5 Digital Edition: NZD $859.95 (NZD $90 increase)

• PS5 with disc drive: NZD $949.95 (NZD $50 increase)

• Disc Drive: NZD $135.95 (NZD $30 decrease)

Could the U.S. be next?

It’s definitely possible. The U.S. under the Trump administration is roiling global markets with inconsistent and severe tariffs. If Sony finds they’re on the hook for importing PS5 units into the U.S., they very well may pass the increased costs onto American consumers.

Experts believe the situation could go either way. Christopher Dring of The Game Business thinks Sony won’t increase PS5 prices in the U.S. even if they’re affected by tariffs. Dring believes Sony wants to “protect” the U.S. market, and, as such, is willing to increase global prices instead. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games thinks the opposite, that Sony will likely raise prices and soon, as the timing is “right.”

The Li-ion batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric cars are usually packed in rigid, sealed enclosures that prevent stresses from damaging their components and keep air from coming into contact with their flammable and toxic electrolytes. It’s hard to use batteries like this in soft robots or wearables, so a team of scientists at the University California, Berkeley built a flexible, non-toxic, jelly-like battery that could survive bending, twisting, and even cutting with a razor.

While flexible batteries using hydrogel electrolytes have been achieved before, they came with significant drawbacks. “All such batteries could [only] operate [for] a short time, sometimes a few hours, sometimes a few days,” says Liwei Lin, a mechanical engineering professor at UC Berkeley and senior author of the study. The battery built by his team endured 500 complete charge cycles—about as many as the batteries in most smartphones are designed for.

Power in water

“Current-day batteries require a rigid package because the electrolyte they use is explosive, and one of the things we wanted to make was a battery that would be safe to operate without this rigid package,” Lin told Ars. Unfortunately, flexible packaging made of polymers or other stretchable materials can be easily penetrated by air or water, which will react with standard electrolytes, generating lots of heat, potentially resulting in fires and explosions. This is why, back in 2017, scientists started to experiment with quasi-solid-state hydrogel electrolytes.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from DefenseScoop: NATO announced Monday that it has awarded a contract to Palantir to adopt its Maven Smart System for artificial intelligence-enabled battlefield operations. Through the contract, which was finalized March 25, the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) plans to use a version of the AI system — Maven Smart System NATO — to support the transatlantic military organization’s Allied Command Operations strategic command. NATO plans to use the system to provide “a common data-enabled warfighting capability to the Alliance, through a wide range of AI applications — from large language models (LLMs) to generative and machine learning,” it said in a release, ultimately enhancing “intelligence fusion and targeting, battlespace awareness and planning, and accelerated decision-making.” […] NATO’s Allied Command Operations will begin using Maven within the next 30 days, the organization said Monday, adding that it hopes that using it will accelerate further adoption of emerging AI capabilities. Palantir said the contract “was one of the most expeditious in [its] history, taking only six months from outlining the requirement to acquiring the system.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Starting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust trial Monday with a bang, Daniel Matheson, the FTC’s lead litigator, flagged a “smoking gun”—a 2012 email where Mark Zuckerberg suggested that Facebook could buy Instagram to “neutralize a potential competitor,” The New York Times reported.

And in “another banger of an email from Zuckerberg,” Brendan Benedict, an antitrust expert monitoring the trial for Big Tech on Trial, posted on X that the Meta CEO wrote, “Messenger isn’t beating WhatsApp. Instagram was growing so much faster than us that we had to buy them for $1 billion… that’s not exactly killing it.”

These messages and others, the FTC hopes to convince the court, provide evidence that Zuckerberg runs Meta by the mantra “it’s better to buy than compete”—seemingly for more than a decade intent on growing the Facebook empire by killing off rivals, allegedly in violation of antitrust law. Another message from Zuckerberg exhibited at trial, Benedict noted on X, suggests Facebook tried to buy yet another rival, Snapchat, for $6 billion.

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With Tax Day 2025 finally here, many of us are pressed for time to file our returns. You might be wondering, “Hey, what if I just… don’t pay my taxes at all?” And you’re not alone in this line of thinking. But even if you can’t pay right now, you absolutely want to file before the deadline.

Fortunately, the IRS offers taxpayers an easy way to get more time: by filing for an extension. Let’s take a look at how to properly request an extension, what it means for your tax obligations, and important considerations to avoid penalties.

What a tax extension actually gives you

Let’s start with a critical point: A tax extension grants you additional time to file your tax return, not additional time to pay any taxes you owe. More specifically:

• You get six more months to complete and submit your tax forms (until Oct. 15, 2025).

• You still must estimate and pay any taxes due by April 15, 2025.

• An extension helps you avoid the failure-to-file penalty, which is much more severe than the failure-to-pay penalty.

Anyone can request an extension for any reason—whether you’re missing documentation, traveling, or simply need more time to organize your finances. You don’t need a “good reason” or to submit any explanation. Plus, filing an extension does not increase your chances of being audited. The IRS treats extended returns the same as timely filed returns.

How to file for an extension

You have a few options to secure that six-month extension.

Option 1: File Form 4868

The official way to request an extension is by submitting IRS Form 4868, “Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.”

1. Download Form 4868 from the IRS website.

2. Complete the form with your personal information.

3. Estimate your total tax liability for 2024.

4. Determine if you owe any remaining tax.

5. Submit the form by April 15, 2025, along with payment for any estimated taxes due.

The form is relatively straightforward and requires basic information like your name, address, Social Security number, and estimated tax figures.

Option 2: Electronic filing

You can also file for an extension electronically. The IRS Free File program offers an extension here. Commercial tax softwares, like TurboTax and H&R Block, should also have “File an extension” options on their sites. Electronic filing offers confirmation that your extension request was received and processed.

Option 3: Payment method as extension request

If you’ll be making a payment, you can get an extension without filing Form 4868. Let’s say you make a payment through the IRS Direct Pay system, the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), or using your credit/debit card through an approved payment processor. When using these methods, indicate the payment is for an extension, and the IRS will automatically process an extension for your filing.

Estimating your tax liability

The challenging part of filing an extension is estimating your tax liability when you don’t have all your documentation ready. To tackle this, some strategies include:

1. Use last year’s return as a baseline, adjusting for major changes in income or deductions.

2. Gather whatever documents you do have (W-2s, 1099s, mortgage interest statements) and make a best-effort calculation.

3. When in doubt, overestimate rather than underestimate (you’ll get any overpayment back as a refund).

And going forward, I recommend you start using a spreadsheet to track all your tax-related information throughout the year. I’ve created a basic template to get you started here. The purpose is to create a handy archive of all your tax records in one spot, making it much easier to file on time next year.

State tax extensions

Most states grant automatic extensions if you’ve received a federal extension, but rules vary widely. Key points:

• Some states require their own extension forms

• Many states have different deadlines than the federal extension

• Some states require payment of estimated taxes with the extension request

Check with your state’s tax agency for specific requirements.

Special situations

Filing for an extension typically means an automatic Oct. 15 deadline, except in some specific circumstances.

Americans living abroad

U.S. citizens living abroad automatically receive a two-month extension until June 15 without filing a formal request. (Filing Form 4868 extends this deadline to Oct. 15.)

Military personnel in combat zones

If you’re serving in a combat zone, you receive an automatic extension for both filing and paying for the duration of your service plus 180 days.

Disaster victims

The IRS often provides special extensions for taxpayers affected by federally declared disasters. Check the IRS website for announcements if you’ve been impacted.

What happens if you still miss the extended deadline

If you obtain an extension but still fail to file by Oct. 15, you’re in a tough spot. From here, the failure-to-file penalty starts accruing. That means 5% of unpaid taxes per month, up to 25%. You may lose the ability to make certain elections on your tax return, and you risk losing any unclaimed refund if you wait more than three years to file.

The bottom line

Filing an extension is a straightforward process that can save you from significant penalties if you need more time. Remember these key points:

1. File Form 4868 or make an extension-related payment by April 15.

2. Pay your estimated tax liability by April 15 to avoid failure-to-pay penalties.

3. Complete your actual tax return by Oct. 15.

An extension gives you breathing room to file an accurate tax return rather than rushing and potentially making costly errors. If you’re not ready to file by Tax Day, taking a few minutes now to request an extension is a smart financial move that can save you from much larger penalties down the road.

OpenAI has announced its phasing out GPT-4.5 from its developer API in favor of its new GPT-4.1 model. When it launched, OpenAI described GPT-4.5 as its best and most capable model so far, in part because it was a more natural conversationalist and could capably mimic some notion of emotional intelligence. Despite what its name suggests, GPT-4.1 is supposed to be better and more efficient.

OpenAI says GPT-4.1 is available exclusively to developer’s using OpenAI’s API, and comes in three sizes, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini and GPT-4.1 nano. That means that if you won’t find it as in option in the public-facing ChatGPT interface, but you could someday interact with an agent that leverages the model’s improvements. GPT-4.1 is supposed to be better at coding and “long context understanding,” according to OpenAI, with support for “up to one million tokens of context” and knowledge of the world up to June 2024. 

Important to the decision to phase out the GPT-4.5 Preview, GPT-4.1 is also cheaper to run. OpenAI says the model is “26 percent cheaper than GPT-4o for median queries.” The company imagines developers using GPT-4.1 to build agents that can work in software engineering environments, one of the more popular uses for generative AI. Even though GPT-4.5 will be eventually removed from OpenAI’s API, the model preview will still be available in ChatGPT if you wan’t to play with it.

OpenAI says the GPT-4.1 family is available to use today via the company’s API. GPT-4.5 will be fully-phased out in three months on July 14, 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-is-phasing-out-gpt-45-for-developers-185554841.html?src=rss

VMware has resumed offering a free hypervisor. News of the offering emerged in a throwaway line in the Release Notes for version 8.0 Update 3e of the Broadcom business unit’s ESXi hypervisor. From a report: Just below the “What’s New” section of that document is the statement: “Broadcom makes available the VMware vSphere Hypervisor version 8, an entry-level hypervisor. You can download it free of charge from the Broadcom Support portal.”

VMware offered a free version of ESXi for years, and it was beloved by home lab operators and vAdmins who needed something to tinker with. But in February 2024, VMware discontinued it on grounds that it was dropping perpetual licenses and moving to subscriptions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ubisoft has open-sourced Chroma, the company’s in-house colorblind assistance tool. It’s available for download via GitHub and is described as a “one-stop solution for detecting color blindness-related issues in games.”

Here’s how it works. It throws a filter over the game screen that simulates various types of color blindness. This allows testers to flag accessibility issues in real time. The tool uses the Color Oracle algorithm and integrates with both single or dual-screen setups. It works with hotkeys and there’s a customizable overlay for adjusting settings. Ubisoft says that applying the filter will not impede game performance.

Ubisoft

It’s important to note what this software does and who it’s for. It simulates how a person with color blindness will experience a game, allowing devs to take action. It doesn’t fix anything on its own. However, knowing is half the battle as they say. This move by Ubisoft should allow other devs to address these concerns before shipping a game out the door.

Ubisoft isn’t the only company that has been widening the availability of accessibility tools. EA recently made a whole bunch of accessibility patents open-source. This included photosensitivity and speech recognition tech.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-just-open-sourced-its-colorblind-assistance-tool-chroma-184546640.html?src=rss

The European Commission is issuing burner phones and basic laptops to some US-bound staff to avoid the risk of espionage [non-paywalled source], a measure traditionally reserved for trips to China. Financial Times: Commissioners and senior officials travelling to the IMF and World Bank spring meetings next week have been given the new guidance, according to four people familiar with the situation. They said the measures replicate those used on trips to Ukraine and China, where standard IT kit cannot be brought into the countries for fear of Russian or Chinese surveillance.

“They are worried about the US getting into the commission systems,” said one official. The treatment of the US as a potential security risk highlights how relations have deteriorated since the return of Donald Trump as US president in January. Trump has accused the EU of having been set up to “screw the US” and announced 20 per cent so-called reciprocal tariffs on the bloc’s exports, which he later halved for a 90-day period.

At the same time, he has made overtures to Russia, pressured Ukraine to hand over control over its assets by temporarily suspending military aid and has threatened to withdraw security guarantees from Europe, spurring a continent-wide rearmament effort. “The transatlantic alliance is over,” said a fifth EU official.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

2024 was the hottest summer ever recorded, and there’s a good chance that future summers will be even warmer. For most people, planning for those future summers involves upgrading their air-conditioning systems and taking other steps to turn the interior of their homes into cool, dark caves. But what happens if you want to get outside for some fresh air? If your yard is too hot to enjoy during the summer, you might as well not have a yard at all.

You can’t air condition the outdoors—but you can lower the temperature with some thoughtful landscaping decisions. If you hesitate to throw a cookout in your outdoor space because you feel like you’re on a grill when you’re out there, consider implementing some of these simple suggestions for how your landscaping is designed.

Plant shade trees

Step one for making your outdoor areas cooler is to remove all that pesky solar energy that makes every moment in your yard feel like a trip to Mercury. Trees are the most attractive, natural, and effective way to shade your yard. Shade can lower the air temperature of your outdoor space by 15 to 20 degrees, which is a significant drop.

Concentrate on deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves annually), as these will shade your yard and house in the summer but let the warming sun through in the winter. Fast-growing choices include sycamores, which have varieties that thrive in a wide range of climates, as well as maple, oak, and honey locust trees.

Ditch hardscapes

If you’ve ever walked out onto your patio in bare feet in the summer, you know that pavement and hardscaping absorb the sun’s heat. While a grass yard has an average temperature of about 78° in full sun, concrete can reach temperatures as high as 135°. Eliminating as much hardscaping as possible in your outdoor areas will not only spare your feet, it will help tamp down the ambient temperature because less heat will be radiating from the ground.

For the hardscaping you want or need to keep, consider using a lighter color scheme, as lighter colors reflect more heat. When installing pavers or other hardscape materials, check the light reflectance value (LRV), which is a measurement of how much light the color reflects. The higher the number, the cooler the surface will be—an LRV above 50 percent is a good starting point.

Finally, consider using permeable pavers or pavements. These materials allow water to pass through, soaking the ground, which can help cool off your outdoor space.

Grow ground cover

You can lower the temperature of the ground or hard surfaces by planting ground cover plants like creeping thyme or vinca. These low-growing plants will spread out and block the sun, lowering the overall temperature of the area and avoiding surfaces that are like skillets against your feet. You can also use a reflective mulch in your plant beds; these include aluminum or other reflective materials to bounce the sun’s light away from the ground, resulting in a small but appreciable decrease in temperature.

Use layers

One strategy for cooling down your outdoor area is to trap and hold onto cool, shaded air. You can accomplish this by creating a layered effect, with plants of different heights helping to hold cooler air in and warmer air out. Trees would obviously be your tallest layer, but planting shrubs and other medium-height plants along with a robust ground cover can insulate your outdoor space naturally, moderating the temperature (and enhancing privacy).

Encourage vines

While tree canopies can keep the sun off your outdoor space when it’s high in the sky, when it starts to sink those punishing rays can still bake your space. Vines and other climbing plants can provide shade horizontally, creeping up fences, trellises, or other vertical surfaces and blocking the sunlight while allowing air movement. Just don’t let them grow on your house—that can lead to serious damage.

Channel the air

Even on hot summer days, a cool breeze can make an incredible difference in your comfort levels. Designing your landscaping to guide those breezes to the areas where you utilize your outdoor space can help tremendously. Planting a line of tall shrubs or evergreen trees on the opposite side of a fence or wall can create a “wind tunnel” effect that drives refreshing breezes toward you, and pruning your shade trees low will facilitate air movement.

On the other hand, if your outdoor space is baked by hot winds, you can plant shrubs or trees to block those winds. Even tall grasses can be effective windbreaks, absorbing and breaking up oven-like breezes before they invade your patio area.

Install a rain garden

Rain gardens are typically used to control water runoff, but they can also be effective in lowering the surrounding temperature of an outdoor space. Rain gardens are located in depressions where deep-rooted native plants are planted, allowing rainwater to drain into the garden instead of pooling elsewhere (on hardscapes, for example). The cooling effect of the rainwater on the ground can impact what’s known as the Urban Heat Island Effect, lowering the overall temperature of the space.

Add water features

You can also add water features like fountains or ponds to help with the temperature of an outdoor space—especially when used in conjunction with layered plantings of trees, shrubs, and grasses. The impact of a small water feature might not be huge, but every little bit will help, and water features also bring beauty and a sense of tranquility to any space—which might make the heat more tolerable.

Meta plans to start using data collected from its users in the European Union to train its AI systems, the company announced today. Starting this week, the tech giant will begin notifying Europeans through email and its family of apps of the fact, with the message set to include an explanation of the kind of data it plans to use as part of the training. Additionally, the notification will link out to a form users can complete to opt out of the process. “We have made this objection form easy to find, read, and use, and we’ll honor all objection forms we have already received, as well as newly submitted ones,” says Meta. 

The company notes it will only use data it collects from public posts and Meta AI interactions for training purposes. It won’t use private messages in its training sets, nor any interactions, public or otherwise, made by users under the age of 18. As for why the company wants to start using EU data now, it claims the information will allow it to fine tune its future models to better serve Europeans.            

“We believe we have a responsibility to build AI that’s not just available to Europeans, but is actually built for them. That’s why it’s so important for our generative AI models to be trained on a variety of data so they can understand the incredible and diverse nuances and complexities that make up European communities,” Meta states. 

“That means everything from dialects and colloquialisms, to hyper-local knowledge and the distinct ways different countries use humor and sarcasm on our products. This is particularly important as AI models become more advanced with multi-modal functionality, which spans text, voice, video, and imagery.” 

Meta notes other AI companies, including Google and OpenAI, have similarly used data from European users to fine tune their own systems. Today’s announcement follows the initial release of Meta’s new Llama 4 models. After some early hype, the company was accused of gaming LMArena, a website where humans compare the outputs of different AI models to rank them. Researchers noticed Meta had provided an experimental version of Llama 4 to the site “optimized for conversationality.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-will-start-using-data-from-eu-users-to-train-its-ai-models-175307338.html?src=rss

The Meta Quest 3S is on sale for $269 via Amazon. This is a record-low price for the 128GB VR headset, as it typically costs $300. It comes with a download code for Batman: Arkham Shadow and a three-month trial for Meta Quest+. This is the platform’s version of Game Pass or PS Plus, with an extensive catalog of playable titles.

The Quest 3S made our list of the best VR headsets, and for good reason. It offers a similar experience to the standard Quest 3, with just a couple of cut corners. This means that the graphics fidelity is a bit lower with the 3S, as it doesn’t have those sweet pancake lenses.

However, it does have the exact same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip as the Quest 3 and uses the same Touch Plus controllers. They offer decent motion controls and responsive joysticks and buttons. There’s no headphone jack, but we found the speakers to be adequate in most cases. Plus, you can always insert a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter or just pair wireless headphones.

Just like the original Quest 3, this one can connect to gaming PCs over USB-C or wirelessly. This allows folks to play AAA titles intended for power-hungry computers and not standalone VR headsets. It can also wirelessly stream gameplay to Chromecast devices or to AirPlay devices by mirroring the Quest app from an iPhone.

We called it “impressive VR for $300” in our official review. This is even more true with today’s sale. The only caveat here is this is the 128GB version, which could fill up pretty fast. Batman: Arkham Shadow, for instance, is around 20GB. The 256GB model is on sale for $369 instead of $400. 

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-meta-quest-3s-is-on-sale-for-a-record-low-price-174954820.html?src=rss

Blue Origin’s New Shepard completed its 31st mission Monday morning, carrying the first all-female crew to space since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 solo flight. The NS-31 mission lifted off from West Texas at 9:30 a.m. EDT, with hundreds of thousands watching via livestream as the autonomous vehicle crossed the Karman line 62 miles above Earth.

The 10-minute suborbital journey carried six passengers: journalist and Bezos’ fiancee Lauren SÃnchez, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen, CBS journalist Gayle King, pop star Katy Perry, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. Bowe conducted three research experiments during the flight, while Nguyen became the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space. The fully reusable New Shepard system features a pressurized capsule that separates from its booster before returning to Earth with three parachutes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is a video created by Joseph of Joseph’s Machines (previously) in collaboration with Dr. Squatch hand soaps of the automatic hand washing machine he constructed (not actually a Rube Goldberg machine because it’s powered). Does it look like a medieval torture device? Kind of. I especially liked the stuffed animal hand drying wheels at the end. Me? I dry my hands the old fashioned way. “Never washing them in the first place?” Come on, I’m not an animal, I just went to the bathroom. On my pants — the answer was ‘on my pants.’