The internet is losing its mind over using your drill in your garden. In short, you put a really long drill bit on and create holes to drop your bulbs into. But it gets even better: They make drill bits specifically for this—they’re called augers—and they’re even better than regular drill bit and you can do a lot more…
Source: LifeHacker – What Your Garden Needs Is a Power Drill
Enlarge / Taking a close look… (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica)
In its long-awaited final report, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority said that Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision would “result in a substantial lessening of competition” (SLC) in the supply of cloud gaming services in the UK.” As such, the regulator said that “the only effective remedy to this SLC and its adverse consequences is to prohibit the Merger.”
The final report cites Microsoft’s “strong position” in the cloud gaming sector, where the company has an estimated 60 to 70 percent market share that makes it “already much stronger than its rivals.” After purchasing Activision, the CMA says Microsoft “would find it
commercially beneficial to make Activision’s titles exclusive to its own cloud gaming service.”
Microsoft has in recent months signed deals with Nvidia and smaller cloud gaming providers in an attempt to “mak[e] even more clear to regulators that our acquisition of Activision Blizzard will make Call of Duty available on far more devices than before,” as Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said in a statement last month. But the CMA said these kinds of cloud-gaming deals—which Microsoft submitted to the CMA as a proposed remedy for any anticompetitive effects of the merger—were “limited to cloud gaming providers with specific business models” and thus not sufficient to address the regulator’s concerns.
Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – UK government blocks Microsoft’s proposed Activision purchase
The UK’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, has announced it will block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. In a statement, the body said the deal risks harming the nascent cloud-gaming market by creating a monopoly player. It said that Microsoft would have a market share of between 60 and 70 percent, giving it an “incentive to withhold [Activision Blizzard] games from competitors and substantially weaken competition in this important growing market.”
This breaking news story is developing, please refresh for more information.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uk-regulator-blocks-microsofts-activision-blizzard-merger-over-cloud-concerns-113517255.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – UK regulator blocks Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard merger over cloud concerns
Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he’s running for re-election, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was primed with a new attack ad. However, new for 2023, the ad uses AI-generated imagery to create almost-realistic visions of what might happen. This includes hypothetical domestic and international incidents the RNC suggests might happen if Biden wins again: “This morning, an emboldened China invades Taiwan,” a fake news announcer says.
The RNC told Axios it was the first time it had used a video made entirely with AI. The ad features a faint disclaimer in the top-left corner noting the ad was “built entirely with AI imagery.” Given I thought the Pope in a puffer jacket was real, this is, unfortunately, probably just the start.
– Mat Smith
The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.
WhatsApp now lets you use your account on multiple phones
AT&T helps complete the first ‘space-based voice call’ using a standard smartphone
‘The Witcher’ season 3 trailer shows Henry Cavill’s last stint as Geralt
NVIDIA made an open-source tool for creating safer and more secure AI models
On an earnings call with investors, General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company plans to cease production of the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV by the end of 2023. Between them, the models account for most of GM’s EV sales. However, the Bolt’s battery cells are based on an older design, and GM is transitioning to its Ultium system. According to Barra, GM will modify a Detroit-area plant where it makes the Chevy Bolts, so it can produce the electric Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra there starting in 2024.
Valve released the Steam Deck over a year ago. Now it’s finally time for some true competition. Thanks to potent specs, a speedy screen and a slick design, this might be the most powerful PC gaming handheld yet. Not only does it feature a new Ryzen Z1 chip – which is a customized Zen 4/RDNA 3 APU designed specifically for handheld gaming PCs – it also has a 7-inch 1080p screen with 500 nits of brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate. That alone represents some very premium upgrades compared to the Steam Deck. But we still don’t know when the Ally will land – or how much it’ll cost. Still, you can read about it.
DJI has unveiled its new flagship consumer drone, the Mavic 3 Pro, with a triple-camera setup that includes a new 70mm lens designed for “powerful subject framing.” It also includes a new 10-bit D-Log M color mode, improvements in the tele cameras and ProRes capture on the Mavic 3 Pro Cine option. As for the price, the Mavic 3 Pro is only a bit more expensive than the Mavic 3’s current $2,049 starting price. The Mavic 3 Pro with a DJI remote control starts at $2,199, while the Fly More combo with the DJI RC, three intelligent flight batteries, a charging hub, carrying bag and one ND filter set is $2,999. It’s set to go on sale next month.
Opera has released the early access version of its completely redesigned browser, Opera One. It can automatically and intuitively group websites people open based on their content. It will open all pages with menus and restaurant details in one island, for instance, and all tabs with Google Docs in another. Opera One also comes with ChatGPT, ChatSonic and AI Prompts enabled by default. If you recall, the company introduced sidebar integration for the AI chatbots back in March, allowing users to quickly launch them in a separate window in the browser.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-ai-generated-political-ads-are-here-111524202.html?src=rssMicrosoft’s $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard, suffered a hammer blow after Britain’s antitrust watchdog vetoed the gaming industry’s biggest ever deal, saying it would harm competition on the cloud. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority said its concerns couldn’t be solved by remedies such as the sale of blockbuster title Call of Duty or so-called behavioral remedies involving promises to permit rivals to offer the game on their platforms, according to a statement Wednesday. Pressure had been mounting on Microsoft as it lobbies at home and in Europe to convince watchdogs to clear the deal — one of the 30 biggest acquisitions of all time. Crucially, the CMA’s conclusions comes before decisions from the European Union and the US Federal Trade Commission, which is awaiting a hearing in the summer after formally suing to veto the transaction.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Microsoft’s Billion Activision Deal Blocked by UK Watchdog
ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 was poised to make history. It was going to be the first successful moon landing by a private company and the first Japanese lunar landing overall. But shortly before the spacecraft was supposed to touch down on the lunar surface, ispace lost contact with it. Now, the Japanese company has announced that there was a “high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the moon’s surface.” It didn’t use the word “crash,” but the spacecraft is clearly not in a condition that would allow the company to proceed with the mission.
The spacecraft was scheduled to land on the moon on April 26th at 1:40 AM Japan time (April 25th, 12:40PM Eastern time). ispace said it was able to confirm that the lander was in vertical position as it approached the surface and that its descent speed rapidly increased by the time its propellant was almost gone.
By 8AM Japan time, ispace has determined that “Success 9” of Hakuto-R’s mission milestones, which is the completion of its lunar landing, was no longer achievable. The company has yet to detail what happened to the spacecraft and what the root cause of the failure was, but it’s currently analyzing the telemetry data it had acquired and will announce its findings once it’s done.
Hakuto-R launched on top of a SpaceX rocket around 100 days ago, carrying payloads from NASA, JAXA, as well as the UAE’s first lunar rover called Rashid. While the mission failed to reach its ultimate goal, ispace said it was “able to acquire valuable data and know-how from the beginning to nearly the end of the landing sequence” and that it will use what it has learned from this event to enable a “future successful lunar landing mission.” The company still intends to push through with Mission 2 scheduled for launch in 2024 and Mission 3 for 2025.
ispace will continue to make the most of the data and know-how acquired during the operation through Success 8, and landing sequence, including aspects of Success 9, aiming to dramatically improve the technological maturity of Mission 2 in 2024 and Mission 3 in 2025. (2/3)
— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 26, 2023
There’s a bit of Linux kernel code for AMD Zen 2 processors called the “spectral chicken” and a call for cleaning up that code, which was originally written by an Intel Linux engineer, has been rejected…
Source: Phoronix – Linux Kernel Drama: AMD’s Spectral Chicken
A young Harrison Ford will grace cinema screens for 25 minutes this summer — aided by some new Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) software. The news that LucasFilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would feature a de-aged Ford came at the end of last year, but an interview with director James Mangold in Total Film just revealed it will be for almost a fifth of the film’s running time.
The fifth Indiana Jones iteration starts with an opening scene from 1944 — about eight years after Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark took place. “My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago,” Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm and a producer, told Empire. The rest of the movie shoots forward to 1969, with Indy on a mission to prevent a comeback of Nazism.
The news of Ford’s extended return to his thirties comes a few months after Disney, which produced the movie alongside LucasFilm, announced it had built an AI that could make an actor appear older or younger with relative ease at the end of last year. The researchers behind the AI, known as FRAN (face re-aging network), explained it would only work with real people if there were images available of the person in those poses and lighting at a younger age.
Footage of Ford’s earlier roles was pulled from the Lucasfilm archives to accomplish this. Ford also acted with dots across his face to aid the system — and with the agility of a young man, according to Mangold. Then, the technology would quickly do its thing. Mangold would “shoot Harrison on a Monday as, you know, a 79-year-old playing a 35-year-old, and I could see dailies by Wednesday with his head already replaced.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/indiana-jones-5-will-feature-a-de-aged-harrison-ford-for-the-first-25-minutes-103553183.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – ‘Indiana Jones 5’ will feature a de-aged Harrison Ford for the first 25 minutes
GCC 13.1 has been released as the first stable version of GCC 13 as this annual feature release to the GNU Compiler Collection…
Source: Phoronix – GCC 13.1 Released With Modula-2 Language Support, More C23/C++23 Features
The xf86-video-ati 22.0 driver has been released as a rare update to this X.Org DDX driver used by older pre-GCN ATI/AMD Radeon graphics cards…
Source: Phoronix – xf86-video-ati 22.0 Released For Older ATI/AMD GPUs
In early April with the start of previews for “Windows Frontline” — a service that provides a single license for frontline employees to use up to three Cloud PCs, Microsoft floated the idea that businesses should buy fewer PCs. The Register reports: The “Frontline” name hints at its purpose: Microsoft thinks this license will benefit organizations that employ shift workers in roles like customer support or healthcare. Microsoft imagines shift workers will log on for eight hours, then the next worker on duty will do likewise, and advances this as a fairer way to charge than assuming cloud PCs are used 24×7. To burnish that argument, Microsoft’s launch material for Windows Frontline included research (PDF) by tech sustainability consultancy Px3 that tries to answer the question “Can modern work applications and endpoints abate end user computing greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate action?” The answer is “Yes,” when one considers cloudy PCs to be “modern endpoints.”
The research reaches that conclusion with analysis of the energy consumption of desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and thin clients, compared to the impact of running a Cloud PC. The research also considers bring your own PC plans that see business fund the acquisition of PCs that their staff use for personal and employment purposes, meaning fewer devices need to be summoned into existence and fewer resources are consumed because users operate one machine instead of two. Px3 instead imagines that end users and their sole device to access a Windows365 Cloud PC when they’re on the clock. Doing so would mean corporate PC replacement cycles could stretch to eight years!
Readers will not be surprised that the research found the combination of Windows365 and a bring your own PC plan has significantly lower environmental impact and is therefore a jolly good idea. The research’s concluding paragraph states “it is reasonable to state that modern work applications and endpoint computers not only abate GHG emissions, they are perhaps critical to securing a sustainable future.” That’s perhaps a little overblown but the point is made: slowing consumption is a good idea and it’s now possible to turn down the speed of the PC upgrade treadmill.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Microsoft Suggests Businesses Buy Fewer PCs
Tile, best known for its AirTag-like trackers that help you locate lost objects, can now find something that can get lost on purpose — your cat. The $40 Tile for Cats tracker from Life360 is a modified version of the Tile Sticker with a silicon collar attachment and 250 foot Bluetooth range. The idea is to give you peace of mind that your cat is somewhere in the house, and then help you figure out exactly where that sneaky floof is hiding.
The battery on the Tile for Cats lasts a generous three years, and you can easily replace the sticker. It even offers AI assistant integration with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, so you can locate Sir Fluffybutt with a voice command.
For the $40 price tag, you get a Tile sticker and attachment that’s compatible with most cat collars, including breakaway collars. The attachment can stretch up to 1.7 times without breaking and is water resistant, so it’ll continue to function even if hit with a few drops.
Tile for Cats is Life360’s first pet tracker, though the company was already marketing its regular Tile Trackers for the same purpose. It’s designed for indoor use only, though, due to the limited range. If you’re worried about your pet getting lost outside, you’d be better off with a dedicated pet tracker, typically costing around $100 plus a subscription fee.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiles-latest-accessory-helps-track-your-cat-095531840.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Tile’s latest accessory helps track your cat
Beats might release its next-gen Studio Buds model on May 18th. MacRumors spotted an Amazon listing that showed images and details for Apple’s Beats Studio Buds+ — the page even allowed customers to pre-order the earbuds until it was yanked offline. The earbuds, which were listed for $170 or $20 more than the current model, will have a transparent option that puts their internal components on display, similar to Nothing’s design. That said, they will also be available in black and ivory for those who aren’t quite as intrigued or enamored by transparent electronics.
According to the listing, the Studio Buds+ can run up to 36 hours, instead of just 24 when combined with the charging case like the current model. Speaking of the charging case, it seems to retain its predecessor’s shape, except it’s most likely lighter. The upcoming product’s item weight is 3.87 ounces, while the current Studio Buds’ is listed as 4.5 ounces.
The Studio Buds+ microphones are three times larger than the current model’s, and they also have a more powerful processor. Those components enable 1.6 more active noise cancelling power and a transparency mode — that is, the mode that lets some ambient noise in so the user remains aware of their surroundings — that’s apparently twice as effective.
The upcoming earbuds also support spatial audio for immersive sounds, “always on” Siri and compatibility with Apple’s “Find My” tracking app. Plus, they feature one-touch pairing with both Apple and Android devices, as well as automatic switching that makes it easy to use them with multiple phones and tablets. Considering the Amazon page for the Studio Buds+ seems to have the complete details about the model, we’ll likely see it go back up in the coming weeks when Apple is ready to take pre-orders.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/beats-studio-buds-leak-on-amazon-with-a-may-18th-release-date-091639570.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Beats Studio Buds+ leak on Amazon with a May 18th release date
TikTok may soon let you create AI stylized avatars not unlike what you can with deep learning apps like Midjourney or Lensa, according to a Twitter thread from social media guru Matt Navarra seen by The Verge. Called AI Avatars, the tool lets you upload three to 10 photos of yourself and choose from five art styles. It will then generate up to 30 separate avatars in a couple of minutes. You can then download one, several or all of the images to use as a profile picture or in stories.
Though the styles are more limited than what you can get on Lensa, the results look pretty good — so the feature is bound to be popular. Likely for that reason, TikTok will only let you use it once a day to presumably avoid overloading servers.
Though generative AI images seem like harmless fun, they’re not without some controversy. For both Lensa and Midjourney, artists have complained that the AI has sampled their work and borrowed from it a bit too liberally at times. And earlier this year, Getty launched a lawsuit against Stable Diffusion claiming it was scraping its data to generate art.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-may-have-generative-ai-avatars-soon-065038031.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – TikTok may have generative AI avatars soon
Satellite manufacturer AST SpaceMobile partnered with AT&T to make the first two-way audio call using satellites with a standard smartphone. “The initial call was placed using AT&T’s networks in Midland, Texas, to mobile carrier Ratuken in Japan on an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone using AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite,” reports Engadget. AST SpaceMobile claims to be building “the first and only space-based cellular broadband network.” From the report: AT&T aims to use satellites to provide global cellular broadband from 2G to 5G. “Achieving what many once considered impossible, we have reached the most significant milestone to date in our quest to deliver global cellular broadband from space,” Abel Avellan, CEO and chairman of AST SpaceMobile, said in a release. “While we take a moment to celebrate this tremendous accomplishment, we remain focused on the path ahead and pivotal next steps that get us closer to our goal of transforming the way the world connects.”
It’s unclear whether satellite access would come at an extra cost. In AT&T’s original AST SpaceMobile partnership announcement, the company couldn’t say whether existing plans would include satellite coverage. […] While satellite offerings aren’t available for consumers yet, this successful test brings widespread access one step closer to becoming a reality.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – AT&T Helps Complete the First ‘Space-Based Voice Call’ Using a Standard Smartphone
Tinder is bolstering its photo verification system by letting members take video selfies to better prove who they are. The feature will actually be required for Photo Verification to earn Tinder’s official blue checkmark. The site will also double-check your video selfie against profile photos. The aim is to guard against dating scammers, as a video is a lot harder to fake than a photo.
To perform this verification, you just need to record video of yourself in the app using your smartphone’s front camera — again, something that would be quite difficult to cheat. Another dating site, Hinge, implemented a similar video verification system last year to combat scam accounts and catfishing.
Performing the video selfie procedure also earns you status into Tinder’s new “Photo Verified Cuties” club. That lets you choose to only see other photo verified member recommendations via their Message Settings. You can also ask a match to verify before they’re allowed to send a message. If you currently have the verification check mark, Tinder will soon ask you to re-verify with a video selfie “in the coming months,” the company wrote.
The feature could help a lot of users avoid scams if they use it correctly — and photo verification is free, unlike the Tinder Gold subscription service. However, the dating site still isn’t forcing members to use photo verification, so you’ll still want to stay on guard.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tinder-adds-video-selfies-to-photo-verification-062835070.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Tinder adds video selfies to photo verification
We might see an electric vehicle based on Honda’s e:Architecture, its dedicated EV platform, a year earlier than the company had previously announced. At a business briefing, wherein the automaker talked about earnings structure, battery initiatives and other things, it has announced that it’s building a mid-to-large-size EV based on the e:Architecture and that will go on sale in North America by 2025. Honda previously said that vehicles adopting the architecture will be available in 2026.
The company also announced that it’s further developing its vehicle OS for use with mid-to-large-size EVs in North America and making sure that it allows for the “continuous advancement of vehicle functions and services for customers even after the vehicle is purchased.” As TechCrunch notes, though, it didn’t say if it’s currently working on (or at least planning) a smaller vehicle based on its e:Architecture for the North American market at the moment.
Before the vehicles based on its dedicated platform come out, Honda will launch the EVs it’s currently developing with General Motors: The Acura ZDX and the Prologue, which is automaker’s first electric SUV. Both vehicles will be available in 2024. In Japan, Honda is expected to release a series of small-size EVs, including an electric N-One, which is a mini box-like Kei car that can be commonly seen on the streets in the country, in 2024. It will also launch a small-size SUV for the Japanese market in 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/honda-will-debut-a-mid-to-large-size-ev-based-on-its-earchitecture-in-2025-051042586.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Honda will debut a mid-to-large-size EV based on its e:Architecture in 2025
The latest Linux kernel boasts security, speed, and power improvements for Intel, AMD, ARM, and RISC-V architectures.
Source: LXer – Linux Kernel 6.3 is released with some major new features
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Joshua Bergen is a very productive person. His secret is the workspace app Notion. Bergen, a product manager living in Vancouver, uses it to plan trips abroad in meticulous detail, with notes and timelines. He uses it to curate lists of the movies and TV shows he’s watched, and records what he thought of them. It’s also a handy way to keep tabs on his 3D-printing projects, map snowboarding runs, and quickly update his cute list of the funny things his kid has said. It might sound strange, but Bergen is one of a growing number of people using Notion, software intended for work, to organize their personal lives. They’re using it in a myriad of different ways, from tracking their meditation habits and weekly schedules to logging their water intake and sharing grocery lists.
So why has a platform built to accommodate “better, faster work” struck such a chord when there are countless other planning apps out there? Part of the reason Notion has such a devoted fan base is its flexibility. At its heart, Notion is designed to combine the various programs a business might use for functions like HR, sales, and product planning in a single hub. It uses simple templates that let users add or remove features, and remote workers can easily collaborate on notes, databases, calendars, and project boards. This high level of customizability sets Notion apart from other work apps. It’s also what’s made it so popular among people looking to map out their free time. It started to gain traction around 2018 in YouTube’s thriving productivity subculture, where videos of fans swapping time management tips and guides to organizing their lives regularly rack up millions of views.
Since then, its following has snowballed. More than 275,000 people have joined a dedicated subreddit, tens of thousands of users share free page templates in private Facebook groups, and TikTok videos advising viewers on how to make their Notion pages look pretty have been watched hundreds of millions of times. “You don’t have to change your habits to how rigid software is. The software will change how your mind works,” says Akshay Kothari, Notion’s cofounder and chief operating officer. “I think that’s actually been a big reason why you see so much love in the community: because people feel like the things they build are theirs.” While platforms like Notion are great for people who enjoy feeling organized, spending too much time optimizing and organizing our lives can be counterproductive when we prioritize creating to-do lists over completing the actual tasks on them, says Gabriele Oettingen, a psychology professor at New York University. It’s a phenomenon known as the planning fallacy.
Using Notion to track whether you’re drinking enough water or going jogging, or using it to plan assignments, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re actually getting those things done. “In a way, Notion might help me to get structure, but it might not work to get me going,” she says.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Meet the People Who Use ‘Notion’ To Plan Their Whole Lives
Enlarge / The Acura ZDX will use GM’s Ultium tech. (credit: Honda)
Honda hopes to recharge its electric car portfolio with a pair of new models—plus an Acura—in the coming years. The Japanese automaker has just held a briefing on its business plan, which calls for the company to have an entirely electric portfolio worldwide by 2040. By 2030, it plans to be building 2 million EVs a year.
Here in North America we should start seeing the first of those cars next year. 2024 sees the debut of the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX, a pair of electric crossovers being developed with General Motors, using the latter’s Ultium battery family. Ars got an early look at the Prologue last year on a visit to Honda’s virtual reality design studio. (We expect some cheaper EVs to emerge from the GM/Honda partnership as well, but not until 2027.)
In 2025, we’ll see another Honda EV, this one on a vehicle architecture it is developing in-house. Honda says this will be a mid- to large-size EV for the North American market. There are also new EV models for China, and some EVs for the Japanese market—three small cars, including a Kei car—that will amplify whatever FOMO feelings you had when Honda didn’t import the Honda e.
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Source: Ars Technica – Remember the EV Honda is building with GM? It goes on sale in 2024
