American Airlines has announced plans to finally offer free Wi-Fi on flights. The company said that its AT&T-sponsored program will start offering free, high-speed Wi-Fi “across more than 2 million American flights per year” in January 2026.

To be able to access free Wi-Fi you’ll have to be a member of American’s AAdvantage loyalty program, but once you’re signed up, all you’ll need to do is log in to access the internet. Wi-Fi will be offered on planes with “Viasat and Intelsat high-speed satellite connectivity”, according to American, which includes 90 percent of the airline’s fleet. “American is also on pace to outfit more than 500 regional aircraft with high-speed Wi-Fi by the end of 2025,” the company says.

Nearly every major US-based airline offer some kind of free Wi-Fi program, and they’re all able to do so thanks to satellite connectivity. United started using Starlink for Wi-Fi earlier this year, and both Hawaiian Airlines and Delta ran tests with SpaceX’s satellite internet service back in 2022. Delta ultimately went with Viasat for its T-Mobile-sponsored Wi-Fi program in 2023, with the same loyalty program requirement as American Airlines.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/american-airlines-will-provide-inflight-wi-fi-for-free-starting-next-year-211243870.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google on Wednesday said it suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts on its platform in 2024 — more than triple the number from the previous year — in its latest crackdown on ad fraud. By leveraging large language models (LLMs) and using signals such as business impersonation and illegitimate payment details, the search giant said it could suspend a “vast majority” of ad accounts before they ever served an ad.

Last year, Google launched over 50 LLM enhancements to improve its safety enforcement mechanisms across all its platforms. “While these AI models are very, very important to us and have delivered a series of impressive improvements, we still have humans involved throughout the process,” said Alex Rodriguez, a general manager for Ads Safety at Google, in a virtual media roundtable. The executive told reporters that a team of over 100 experts assembled across Google, including members from the Ads Safety team, the Trust and Safety division, and researchers from DeepMind. “In total, Google said it blocked 5.1 billion ads last year and removed 1.3 billion pages,” adds TechCrunch. “In comparison, it blocked over 5.5 billion ads and took action against 2.1 billion publisher pages in 2023. The company also restricted 9.1 billion ads last year, it said.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zoom went down for many of its users this afternoon. People began experiencing issues with video conferencing service over the past few hours, peaking at more than 60,000 reports on DownDetector. Zoom shared an update acknowledging the problems and posted on X that “a restore is underway.” Around 5PM ET, the company stated that normal service has resumed. 

On the down side, people may have been unable to connect to their meetings and calls during the workday. On the positive side, people may have been unable to connect to their meetings and calls during the workday.

It’s been a bad day for online services, as Spotify went down for several hours earlier today.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/zoom-is-back-up-after-outages-this-afternoon-210704980.html?src=rss

The Trump administration plans to kill the free tax filing program operated by the Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press reported today, citing two anonymous sources.

The IRS launched Direct File in a pilot for the 2024 tax filing season. It was available to taxpayers in 12 states last year, and was available in 25 states this year. The program’s website says the filing tool will be open until October 15 for people who obtained deadline extensions, but it hasn’t been updated to account for the plan to end Direct File.

“The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have slashed their way through the federal government,” the AP article said. “Musk posted in February on his social media site, X, that he had ‘deleted’ 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File.”

Read full article

Comments

May the Fourth is upon us, and Disney+ of course has a lineup of Star Wars premieres to celebrate. First is Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, a Lucasfilm Animation sequel to 2022’s Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi and 2024’s Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. The new mini-series tells the stories of bounty hunter and former assassin Asajj Ventress and outlaw Cad Bane. Disney+ will also have two P.O.V. experiences from Disneyland: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

Aside from Star Wars, May will bring Tucci in Italy (May 19), a new National Geographic miniseries combining travel and food with actor Stanley Tucci in, well, Italy. Lastly, Disney+ will be wrapping up seasons of both Andor and Doctor Who, with the finales set for May 13 at 6 p.m. ET and May 31 at 11 a.m. PT, respectively.

Here’s everything coming to Disney+ in May.

Disney Plus series with new episodes weekly in May 2025

• Andor (Season 2)—Disney+ Original, new episodes on Tuesdays through May 13

• Doctor Who (Season 2)—new episodes on Saturdays through May 31

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

Arriving May 1

• Rise Up, Sing Out (Shorts) (S2, 7 episodes)

• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Arriving May 2

• Genghis Khan: The Secret History of the Mongols (S1, 6 episodes)

Arriving May 4

• Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

• Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge | Disneyland® Resort

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance | Disneyland® Resort

Arriving May 7

• Broken Karaoke (S3, 2 episodes)

• Firebuds (S2, 2 episodes)

• Hamster & Gretel (S2, 12 episodes)

• Big City Greens (S4, 1 episode—100th)

Arriving May 9

• History’s Greatest of All Time with Peyton Manning (S1, 8 episodes)

• The Toys That Built America (S3, 12 episodes)

• The UnXplained (S7, 6 episodes)

• WWE Rivals (S2, 10 episodes)

• WWE Rivals (S4, 6 episodes)

Arriving May 19

• Tucci in Italy

Arriving May 20

• Minnie’s Bow-Toons: Pet Hotel (S1, 5 episodes)

Arriving May 28

• Me & Winnie the Pooh (S2, 6 episodes)

• Playdate with Winnie the Pooh (S2, 5 episodes)

Arriving May 31

• How Not to Draw (S3, 4 episodes)

Hulu + ESPN content coming to Disney+ in May 2025

As in previous months, Disney+ subscribers will also have access to select content from Hulu and ESPN. This includes live sports like Day 1 of PGA TOUR LIVE events, an NWSL match, and UFC 315 Prelims. Here’s a sampling of what else is coming to Disney+:

• A Thousand Blows

• 9-1-1: Lonestar

• High Potential

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

• Scandal

• White Collar

• King of the Hill

• Fight Club

• Kingsman: The Secret Service

• Black Swan

• Pardon the Interruption

• The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny

• ESPNFC

• Vince’s Places

• P.K.’s Places

• E60 Once Upon a Time in Anaheim

• No Easy Victories: The 1994 New York Rangers

Sony is jacking up PlayStation Plus prices in Canada. In an email to Engadget’s Kris Holt, the company said the increase would apply to subscribers’ first payments on or after June 24. The price hikes are now live on the PS Plus website for new Canadian subscribers. They vary depending on the tier and billing period but range from 12 to 22 percent higher than they were yesterday.

The new Canadian prices for PS Plus Premium are CA$25 monthly (up from $21), $69 for three months (from $60) and — yikes — $225 for a year (from $190). Meanwhile, Extra members will now pay $21 monthly (from $18), $56 for three months (from $50) and $190 annually (from $155). Finally, Essential subscribers’ prices go up to $14 monthly (from $12), $35 for three months (from $30) and $110 annually (from $95).

Sony

Other countries saw (previously announced) price increases go into effect on Wednesday. These include — deep breath — Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. So far, we haven’t seen or heard of any US or UK price increases.

The company didn’t mention the elephant in the room — tariffs — in its email, instead justifying the price increase in vague terms. “This is necessary to enable us to continue bringing you high-quality games and benefits,” it stated.

But in a blog post last week announcing similar rate hikes in other countries, Sony perhaps hinted at the “T” word. “Like many businesses around the world, we continue to be impacted by global market conditions and will be adjusting our local prices for PlayStation Plus,” Game Services Director Adam Michel wrote.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-raises-playstation-plus-prices-in-canada-205342723.html?src=rss

After X (formerly Twitter) announced it would be killing its “Support” account, disgruntled users quickly roasted the social media platform for providing “essentially non-existent” support.

“We’ll soon be closing this account to streamline how users can contact us for help,” X’s Support account posted, explaining that now, paid “subscribers can get support via @Premium, and everyone can get help through our Help Center.”

On X, the Support account was one of the few paths that users had to publicly seek support for help requests the platform seemed to be ignoring. For suspended users, it was viewed as a lifeline. Replies to the account were commonly flooded with users trying to get X to fix reported issues, and several seemingly paying users cracked jokes in response to the news that the account would soon be removed.

Read full article

Comments

OpenAI has released Codex CLI, an open-source coding agent that runs locally in users’ terminal software. Announced alongside the company’s new o3 and o4-mini models, Codex CLI directly connects OpenAI’s AI systems with local code and computing tasks, enabling them to write and manipulate code on users’ machines.

The lightweight tool allows developers to leverage multimodal reasoning capabilities by passing screenshots or sketches to the model while providing access to local code repositories. Unlike more ambitious future plans for an “agentic software engineer” that could potentially build entire applications from descriptions, Codex CLI focuses specifically on integrating AI models with command-line interfaces.

To accelerate adoption, OpenAI is distributing $1 million in API credits through a grant program, offering $25,000 blocks to selected projects. While the tool expands AI’s role in programming workflows, it comes with inherent risks — studies show AI coding models frequently fail to fix security vulnerabilities and sometimes introduce new bugs, particularly concerning when given system-level access.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US government has continued to make drastic cuts to budgets and personnel, but one cybersecurity service has at least temporarily avoided the chop. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database operated by nonprofit MITRE Corp will receive 11 months of federal support. A representative from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, whose parent agency funds the MITRE database, told Reuters that the department exercised an “option period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE services.” The news was an eleventh-hour announcement, as federal funding for the project was slated to expire today.

This CVE database identifies and tracks cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and it is regularly used by IT professionals. It offers a standardized approach that allows complex and technical information about potential problems to be quickly shared across companies and organizations worldwide. 

“We appreciate the overwhelming support for these programs that have been expressed by the global cyber community, industry, and government over the last 24 hours,” said Yosry Barsoum, vice president and director for MITRE’s Center for Securing the Homeland.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/database-for-cybersecurity-vulnerabilities-secures-last-minute-government-funding-202703659.html?src=rss

LG TVs will soon leverage an AI model built for showing advertisements that more closely align with viewers’ personal beliefs and emotions. The company plans to incorporate a partner company’s AI tech into its TV software in order to interpret psychological factors impacting a viewer, such as personal interests, personality traits, and lifestyle choices. The aim is to show LG webOS users ads that will emotionally impact them.

The upcoming advertising approach comes via a multi-year licensing deal with Zenapse, a company describing itself as a software-as-a-service marketing platform that can drive advertiser sales “with AI-powered emotional intelligence.” LG will use Zenapse’s technology to divide webOS users into hyper-specific market segments that are supposed to be more informative to advertisers. LG Ad Solutions, LG’s advertising business, announced the partnership on Tuesday.

The technology will be used to inform ads shown on LG smart TVs’ homescreens, free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, and elsewhere throughout webOS, per StreamTV Insider. LG will also use Zenapse’s tech to “expand new software development and go-to-market products,” it said. LG didn’t specify the duration of its licensing deal with Zenapse.

Read full article

Comments

TikTok is joining the ranks of social networks with Community Notes programs, which allow users to add context, corrections, and additional information to posts on the platform. The new feature is called Footnotes, and it will be rolled out first on short-form videos in the U.S.

TikTok is just the latest app to add user-generated notes for existing content, though it has yet to drop formal fact-checking and other content moderation entirely. In February, Meta announced plans for a Community Notes beta to replace fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads and is now admitting contributors from the program’s waitlist. YouTube and X both have active Community Notes programs as well (X’s Community Notes, formerly known as Birdwatch, replaced the option to report misleading content).

According to TikTok’s page explaining the program, Footnotes can only be added to public posts but will remain visible if those posts are made private. Creators can add footnotes to and rate footnotes on their own content if they are enrolled contributors. Footnotes must meet a threshold for “helpful” as rated by contributors before they become visible to all users (who can then vote on them as well).

TikTok will still partner with IFCN-accredited fact-checking organizations to assess the accuracy of content on the platform.

How to sign up to write TikTok Footnotes

Users in the U.S. can apply to write Footnotes starting today if they are at least 18 years old, have been on TikTok for six months or more, have a valid email address or U.S. phone number, and have no history of violating the platform’s community guidelines within the last six months. TikTok may also notify users who meet these eligibility requirements, and those approved for the program can begin contributing “over the coming months.”

On April 2, 2025, our president announced major new taxes on imports from foreign countries (“tariffs”), ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent. The stated goal is to bring manufacturing back to the United States and to “make America wealthy again.”

These tariffs will not work. In fact, they may even do the opposite, fail to bring manufacturing back, and make America poorer in the process.

This article gives the 14 reasons why this is the case, how the United States could bring manufacturing back if it were serious about doing so, and what will ultimately happen with this wrongheaded policy.

Read full article

Comments

OpenAI has released two new AI models that can “think with images” during their reasoning process. The o3 and o4-mini models represent a significant advancement in visual perception, enabling them to manipulate images — cropping, zooming, and rotating — as part of their analytical process.

Unlike previous models, o3 and o4-mini can agentically use all of ChatGPT’s tools, including web search, Python code execution, and image generation. This allows them to tackle multi-faceted problems by selecting appropriate tools based on the task at hand.

The models have set new state-of-the-art performance benchmarks across multiple domains. On visual tasks, o3 achieved 86.8% accuracy on MathVista and 78.6% on CharXiv-Reasoning, while o4-mini scored 91.6% on AIME 2024 competitions. In expert evaluations, o3 made 20% fewer major errors than its predecessor on complex real-world tasks. ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users will see o3, o4-mini, and o4-mini-high in the model selector starting today, replacing o1, o3â’mini, and o3â’miniâ’high.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

On Wednesday, Apple pushed updates to most of its platforms: iOS 18.4.1, iPadOS 18.4.1, macOS 15.4.1, tvOS 18.4.1 and visionOS 2.4.1. They contain two security fixes for flaws that may have been used in real-world attacks, so it’s wise to update your devices without too much delay.

Apple is aware of a report that both security issues “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on iOS.”

One patched bug is in Apple’s audio framework, CoreAudio. This memory corruption issue allowed malicious media files to execute code when processed as audio streams. The other relates to the Remote Participant Audio Control (RPAC) framework, which lets communications apps manage audio streams. That flaw allowed an attacker with arbitrary read / write capabilities to bypass Pointer Authentication (a security feature in Apple’s processors).

Apple “strongly advises” all users to update their devices.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/ios-1841-patches-two-iphone-security-flaws-used-in-extremely-sophisticated-attacks-194922877.html?src=rss

Deezer, a Spotify alternative that launched in the US in 2016, shared on Wednesday that 20,000 completely AI-generated tracks are added to its music service on a daily basis, making up “over 18% of all uploaded content” the platform receives every day.

Like other streaming services, Deezer offers methods for independent artists to upload their own music without having to be part of a larger licensing deal with a record label. While that lowers some barriers, it also leaves the door open for music that isn’t made by people at all. Clearly, people are taking advantage of the option.

Deezer introduced a tool for detecting and tagging AI-generated content in January 2025, when at the time, AI-generated music only made up 10 percent of uploads. The tool is helpful, but it feels like a stopgap until there’s consensus on whether AI-generated tracks should be allowed to exist in the first place. AI companies contend that training on existing books, movies, music, and internet ephemera is “fair use,” but many of the people who made that material feel differently. In terms of pushback, AI music startups Suno and Udio were sued by record labels for copyright infringement in 2024 and artists have spoken out about “unlicensed AI training” but there’s yet to be ruling that sets the new legal standard. 

Deezer also isn’t alone in dealing with an infestation of AI-generated content. It’s well-documented at this point that Spotify has the same issue. Subscribers have highlighted dozens of instances of AI-generated tracks that were clearly uploaded to try and game Spotify’s popular weekly playlists, and while Spotify has removed some copycat tracks when artists have complained, the company has no qualms with hosting AI music. 

“If creators are using these technologies — where they are creating music in a legal way that we reimburse and people listen to them — and are successful, we should let people listen to them,” Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström shared on a Big Technology podcast episode from November 2024. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/deezer-reports-18-percent-of-the-music-uploaded-to-its-service-every-day-is-ai-generated-193652533.html?src=rss