Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai has warned of a potential bubble forming in data center construction, arguing that the pace of that buildout may outstrip initial demand for AI services. From a report: A rush by big tech firms, investment funds and other entities to erect server bases from the US to Asia is starting to look indiscriminate, the billionaire executive and financier said. Many of those projects are built without clear customers in mind, Tsai told the HSBC Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong Tuesday.
“I start to see the beginning of some kind of bubble,” Tsai told delegates. Some of the envisioned projects commenced raising funds without having secured “uptake” agreements, he added. “I start to get worried when people are building data centers on spec. There are a number of people coming up, funds coming out, to raise billions or millions of capital.” […]
At the same time, Tsai had choice words for his US rivals, particularly with their spending. “I’m still astounded by the type of numbers that’s being thrown around in the United States about investing into AI,” Tsai told the audience. “People are talking, literally talking about $500 billion, several 100 billion dollars. I don’t think that’s entirely necessary. I think in a way, people are investing ahead of the demand that they’re seeing today, but they are projecting much bigger demand.”
A new home screen feature is possibly on the horizon for Xbox Series X/S owners. Microsoft is currently testing new Xbox Game Hub pages that would provide players with more information but also put their games an extra button press away.
When it comes to having the hottest, crispiest snacks at the ready, I’ve always had your best interest in mind. While any air fryer is better than no air fryer, in a perfect world the best air fryer would be available to us all at an affordable price. Well folks, my favorite air fryer is 39% off for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale and it’s a deal worth jumping on.
The Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven is $139.95 right now, compared to its usual $229.95, and while it’s not cheap per se, I would say it dips down into a much lower price bracket for sure. If you were looking for air fryers in the $100 to $150 range, then the Cuisinart is worth considering.
I reviewed the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven late last year and I was completely won over by how quiet it was. Convection ovens across the board are effective cooking machines, so I believe it’s the side benefits that make an air fryer right or wrong for a person—like, do you need double baskets? Or do you need a travel air fryer? There are many things to consider. The cherry on top is that this very air fryer also became my top pick for Best Overall Air Fryer when considering size, ease of use, price, and other features (like window or basket model).
My favorite features of the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven are the simple operating controls using turning knobs instead of digital buttons that might have you clicking 25 times just to increase the time, the ample interior space, and the sweet, sweet (near) silence of the convection fan.
In a habitat like Brooklyn (near an above-ground subway train in a neighborhood that loves to honk horns for all communication) an air fryer as quiet as this is like a vacation. A vacation that gives you crisp tater tots at the end. Whether you have a new baby that wakes up at a pin’s drop, or you simply enjoy a quiet atmosphere, you can have peace and the perks of a high-quality air fryer for an excellent price right now.
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In a world where you can’t even take a walk down the street without somebody threatening you with a sword, it is quite important to remember the simple things in life, like sitting down for a nice warm cup of tea with some new friends to share ideas and life experience. Of course, you’ll have to neckshank one of these…
Apple plans to start using images it collects for Maps to train its AI models. In a disclosure spotted by 9to5Mac, the company said starting this month it would use images it captures to provide its Look Around feature for the additional purpose of training some of its generative AI models.
Look Around is Apple’s answer to Google Street View. The company originally released the feature alongside its 2019 revamp of Apple Maps. The tool allows users to see locations from ground level. Apple blurs faces and license plates photographed in Look Around images to protect the privacy of any individuals caught in its survey efforts.
“In addition to improving Apple Maps and the algorithms that blur faces and license plates in images published in Look Around feature, Apple also will use blurred imagery collected during surveys conducted beginning in March 2025 to develop and improve other Apple products and services,” the company writes in the disclosure. “This includes using data to train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement.”
Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for more information.
The company’s Apple Maps image collection policy page provides a list of regions and dates when it plans to collect new images for Look Around. People can find when Apple’s survey crews and vehicles plan to visit their area by sorting by country and then clicking on a specific region.
Apple currently offers a few different features that rely on image generation models. Image Playground, for instance, allows owners of Apple Intelligence-compatible devices to write a prompt to create a new image. There’s also Clean Up in Photos, which you can use to remove objects from your favorite snapshots.
Google has been using Street View images to train AI models for years. In 2017, for example, a pair of researchers from the company trained a machine learning model to generate professional-looking photographs from a dataset collected from Street View.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-will-use-its-street-view-maps-photos-to-train-ai-models-150919972.html?src=rss
Another day, another security breach, but this time it’s going down in the group chat. On Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that he had been added to a Signal conversation with Trump administration officials—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz—who were discussing highly sensitive “operational details” about impending attacks in Yemen.
Signal is a secure messaging app, but as a publicly available service, it’s not meant for coordinating military operations (the U.S. government doesn’t allow its use to communicate classified information). Here’s what Signal is great for—and the limits to the privacy it ensures.
When you should use Signal
Signal is a free, open-source messaging app with end-to-end encryption, allowing users to keep conversations (including text, images, audio and video messages, and calls) private and safe. It’s one of our top picks for secure communication, and its privacy and security settings and open-source protocol are lauded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as many data security experts.
In addition to end-to-end encryption, Signal has a disappearing messages function, which deletes chats after a set period of time, as well as features like photo blurring, hiding your phone number by default, and other security settings to protect your identity and your data.
All of these factors make Signal an excellent choice for communication you want to keep private, whether you’re transmitting personal or sensitive information or are engaging in activism or otherwise want to know that no one but you and the intended recipient can read your messages. If you’re an iPhone user, you can make Signal your device’s default messaging app. (Signal used to support SMS/MMS on Android, allowing you to use it as your default messenger, but removed that functionality in 2022.) But there’s still a couple of sticking points to keep in mind.
Signal still has privacy risks
While Signal is an excellent tool for encrypted communication, it doesn’t guarantee absolute privacy for classified information, such as that related to matters of national security.
As recent events show, users can be added to group chats—mistakenly or on purpose—leaving open the possibility that your messages will be exposed to someone not meant to see them. You should verify the identity of everyone included your threads before sending sensitive information to them, and consider utilizing Signal’s group chat settings to require approval of new members or restrict who can add members to the thread.
If private information is being shared, you can also verify a contact’s safety number to ensure they are who you think they are.
But even if you maximize all of Signal’s security settings, the mobile device you’re using could be compromised by spyware, as Apple has warned users in more than 150 countries. These campaigns attempt to install invasive malware on smartphones to capture users’ location, data, and activity—defeating any encryption benefit Signal offers in the process. Bad actors are most likely to target high-profile politicians, activists, journalists, and others who have access to classified or sensitive information.
Additionally, Signal can also be downloaded and accessed across multiple devices, including a desktop app, where data may be stored less securely or compromised by malware.
Finally, there’s always the possibility that your device could simply be swiped, leaving your data open to whoever can unlock it (a good reason to enable disappearing messages).
With that in mind, while installing Signal is a good place to start, it shouldn’t be the entirety of your privacy routine. If you have an iPhone, here are a few additional steps you can take to keep your data secure—perhaps our government officials could benefit from going through this checklist, too.
Another Vision Pro knock-off is coming to town, and this time it even has the ‘Vision’ name.
While not a household name, China’s Vivo is known for its sensible, mid-range smartphones, regularly ranking it in the top five smartphone creators by market share.
Now, at the Boao Forum for Asia in China’s Hainan Province today, the company showed off its first entry into the XR segment: Vivo Vision.
In a press statement, Vivo says the move comes as a broader push to pursue both robotics and XR devices, referring to Vivo Vision as “a significant milestone in vivo’s exploration of mixed reality technology.”
Image courtesy GSM Arena
While Vivo Vision is expected to be officially unveiled in mid-2025, specifics are still thin on the ground, with notable question marks surrounding the MR headsets specs, operating system, release date, global availability, price—pretty much everything besides the device’s externals.
A display model was present at Vivo’s booth at Boao Forum for Asia however, revealing the company is taking more than a few design cues from Apple Vision Pro, including its unique headstrap design, digital crown button, and magnetically-tethered external battery.
Notably, Vivo’s fleet of smartphones run modified versions of Android, with Funtouch OS used as its global-facing OS, and Origin OS used for those shipped in China.
As Vivo’s first XR device, it’s possible the company may attempt the same feat with Google’s upcoming Android XR OS, which is being launched with Samsung’s upcoming mixed reality, ‘Project Moohan’, which is said to release sometime this year, although that’s pure speculation for now.
This marks a growing trend of look-alike Vision Pros arriving from Chinese manufacturers, with the first notable arriving from Play for Dream; its MR headset not only stole the show at CES 2025 earlier this year, but also garnered high praise from former Quest engineer Amanda Watson, who called it “absolutely the best all around HMD demo I saw on the floor today.”
While we are still awaiting the Linux 6.14 release (or a 6.14-rc8 release) with no kernel drop having occurred on Sunday, early pull requests for the Linux 6.15 kernel cycle continue flowing in. Among the early pull requests over the weekend were the CRC code updates that include some nice optimizations for those running on AVX-512 processors…
The weather might be getting nicer, but that doesn’t reduce the need to sometimes stay home and have cozy nights in front of the TV. That’s all the more desirable thanks to the great discounts available for Amazon’s Spring Sale. For instance, the newest Amazon Fire TV Stick HD is currently down to $20 from $35.
Amazon released the Fire TV Stick HD last October in a move that can best be defined as a rebrand. The company cut its price by $5 (pre-sale) while keeping pretty much all the features of its previous basic streamer. It’s also our pick for best budget streaming stick.
The Fire TV Stick HD has HDR support and streams with full HD resolution. It also comes with an Alexa-powered remote control, which lets you search for titles with just a click of the Alexa button. That remote also has Netflix and Prime Video buttons, but the device can run most streaming apps, like Disney+ and Peacock.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazon-spring-sale-deals-include-the-fire-tv-stick-hd-for-only-20-144514114.html?src=rss
Continental has released its new Terra Adventure gravel tyre, the first model in the brand’s re-launch of the Terra range, blurring the line between gravel and cross-country mountain bike tyres.
The Terra Adventure has been designed to prioritise puncture protection, durability and grip rather than low rolling resistance and weight. Continental tells us “riders want to escape to the unknown, but seek reliability in tires”.
The tread pattern is reminiscent of those found on XC mountain bike tyres, albeit with lower-profile knobs.
The tread pattern is inspired by the brand’s MTB tyres. Felix Smith / Our Media
I flew out to Italy to test the new tyre ahead of the official launch in Tuscany, where I got the chance to ride with professional gravel athletes Paige Onweller and Rosa Klöser.
There is no central slick section, with an alternating pattern of ramped and edged studs in a ‘3-3-4’ sequence making up the middle part of the tyre. This is said to increase braking performance, while maintaining rolling resistance.
Paige Onweller’s 55mm Terra Adventure tyres are a similar size to many narrow XC tyres. Emm Whitaker
Sightly wider-spaced outer knobs are angled and designed to improve cornering and off-camber grip.
The Adventure is not only visually similar to some mountain bike tyres, though. It comes in the brand’s Grip compound and uses its Trail casing. Continental says it is “the first model being partly integrated in the technology nomenclature of our new MTB Line-Up”.
The aggressive tread pattern of the Terra Adventure promises improved grip on loose surfaces. Emm Whitaker
Continental’s Trail-casing tyre construction sees a reinforced two-ply sidewall and three layers of carcass material under the tread pattern for better puncture protection.
Paige Onweller’s Trek Checkpoint in full adventure mode, complete with gravel-specific suspension fork. Emm Whitaker
The Terra Adventure is available in widths from 45 to 55mm.
The latter size is equivalent to 29×2.2in for those who like to work in mountain bike tyre dimensions.
Continental Terra Adventure first ride impressions
It was a pleasure to share the trails with such esteemed company while testing the Terra Adventure.
The two riders alongside me in Tuscany are right at the top of the sport, with Onweller finishing third in both Unbound and the Lifetime Grand Prix overall in 2024. Klöser became Unbound 200 champion and finished second overall in the UCI Gravel World Series in the same year.
The region had suffered extreme rainfall in the weeks before our visit, which made for plenty of loose, wet and muddy surfaces – a vital element of testing gravel tyres, particularly for use in the UK.
The guided route took in a huge variety of trail and surface types, from sandy beaches to beautiful Strade Bianche-esque trails and steep off-camber tracks.
My Cube Nuroad was equipped with the Terra Adventure in a 700X45 size. I started the ride with around 22psi in the front tyre and 26psi in the rear. I lost a small amount of pressure in the front tyre early in the ride, so had the opportunity to increase the pressure slightly to a more reasonable level in the front.
Another sublime gravel trail through the vineyards towards our lunch spot in Follonica. Emm Whitaker
After around 20 minutes of warming up and remembering my slightly rusty mountain biking skills, I started to push the tyres into corners and deliberately take rougher lines.
I was rewarded with impressive levels of grip, helping me stay with the group. This was more noticeable after higher-speed turns on loose terrain – the kind of corners where I’d normally back off a touch.
On a couple of occasions, the rear lost traction under heavy braking, but each time the deceleration was excellent and I was able to stay in control.
All too quickly, and after a memorable lunch in the seaside town of Follonica (salad, pizza, gelato and espresso if you were wondering), the group split, with Onweller and Klöser unsurprisingly leading the way.
While at this point I was barely three hours into riding the new tyres, the performance on wet, loose terrain clearly made up for the slightly slower speeds on road and hardpack trails.
One of the many light gravel roads crisscrossing the Tuscan farmlands.
Riding with these two was immense fun as we climbed up and into several forested areas with steep pitches, deep gullies and large rocks to negotiate. Some of the rocks were slippery, which required careful body positioning and speed to get the most from the tyres.
I slipped a couple of times, so don’t expect the Terra Adventure to completely cover up your lack of off-road skills.
If I was planning a particularly long gravel route with minimal loose surfaces, I’d consider opting for a tyre with less rolling resistance. For those rides, the lower risk of puncturing and need to cover ground faster wouldn’t warrant the need for such a robust tyre.
I’ve since weighed a single 45mm Terra Adventure tyre at 527g.
Given its beefed-up Trail casing and Grip compound, the Continental tyre is not going to be the choice for gravel racers looking to go fast. If that’s your preferred type of gravel riding, you’ll be better served by tyres such as the Terra Speed, WTB Vulpine S TCS, Hutchinson Caracal Race or even the Continental Race King, an XC mountain bike tyre, if it can fit in your frame.
Many gravel riders just want to get outside and explore new areas rather than pushing their limits, while gravel events such as Grinduro are more about pure fun than pure speed. More grip and better puncture protection will likely be welcomed by many riders.
Post-lunch and not quite ready to take on the return leg, did someone say espresso? Emm Whitaker
So, if you ride on mostly tarmac and hardpack surfaces and don’t mind it taking a little longer to get to technical, natural trails, my initial impressions suggest this could still be a good option.
With the boundaries between XC mountain biking and gravel cycling becoming ever more blurred, the launch of the Terra Adventure feels like another step in that direction. Are we going to see a major tyre brand merging its XC and gravel tyres into a single line-up soon?
Gravel bike frame clearances seem to be half a step behind and, in a similar vein, it feels like a matter of time before drop handlebars could be the only distinguishing feature of gravel bikes.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes companies will eventually need fewer software engineers as AI continues to transform programming. “Each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while. And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers,” Altman told Stratechery.
AI now handles over 50% of code authorship in many companies, Altman estimated, a significant shift that’s happened rapidly as large language models have improved. The real paradigm shift is still coming, he said. “The big thing I think will come with agentic coding, which no one’s doing for real yet,” Altman said, suggesting that the next breakthrough will be AI systems that can independently tackle larger programming tasks with minimal human guidance.
While OpenAI continues hiring engineers for now, Altman recommended that high school graduates entering the workforce “get really good at using AI tools,” calling it the modern equivalent of learning to code. “When I was graduating as a senior from high school, the obvious tactical thing was get really good at coding. And this is the new version of that,” he said.
Customization is one of my favorite parts of just about any video game, followed closely by base-building elements. Assassin’s Creed Shadows features both, and you can even customize your base—otherwise known as your hideout—with cherry blossom trees, deer statues, intricate pathways, and so much more. Unfortunately,…
Nearly six months after release, USB-C versions of Apple’s AirPods Max will FINALLY get lossless audio playback via USB-C. Lightning-equipped AirPods Max headsets had wired playback ability since day one, thus when the new variant launched last September, customers were not amused that Apple had seemingly cut the feature out. However, this
Over the past week a lot of new Rust “gccrs” code was merged into the GCC 15 compiler code-base as a big step forward for this open-source Rust front-end. Another big batch of patches have been merged with for-loops now working among other functionality…
I have a lot of questions about A Minecraft Movie, a film which, even if it’s not “for me,” has raised all sorts of red flags in its pre-release trailers and marketing. But one thing that doesn’t appear to be in question is star Jack Black’s commitment to the bit. He plays the crafting game’s iconic blue-shirted…
Apple may avoid a fine in one of the European Union investigations it’s currently the subject of. The bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, will next week end a probe into whether Apple hindered iPhone users from easily changing their browser or search engine, according to Reuters.
Apple is said to have complied with rules laid out under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to make it a cinch for users to switch to alternative browsers, social media platforms and other online services while giving smaller rivals a better chance to compete. Violations of the DMA, legislation that broadly seeks to keep the power of Big Tech in check, can lead to a fine of up to 10 percent of a company’s total annual revenue, and up to 20 percent for repeat offenses.
However, Apple may not be entirely off the hook. Per the report, the EU is set to dish out fines to both that company and Meta. The second Apple case concerns whether the company inhibited app developers from freely informing users about alternate payment options that are available away from the App Store ecosystem. As for Meta, it was reported this week that the EU may fine the company north of $1 billion for violating DMA rules as a result of its “consent or pay” ad-free subscription option in the region.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-may-evade-an-eu-fine-over-ios-browser-options-142115844.html?src=rss
As time goes on, we’ll inevitably see more mainstream graphics card launches by both AMD and NVIDIA based on each firm’s latest generation GPU architectures—RDNA 4 and Blackwell, respectively. Pertaining to the former, leaks and rumors suggest a Radeon RX 9060 XT launch is imminent. While we’ll have to wait for a formal launch for confirmation
The tool analyzes dependencies for Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) identifiers. When a match is found, the tool generates a report with links to the relevant Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) entries, helping teams address security risks.
