YouTube says it will now let viewers dismiss the popups and video suggestions that appear at the end of videos with a new “Hide” button. These end screen popups are a standard part of most YouTube videos, but the company says it received community feedback that viewers wanted to dismiss them so they “focus on the content they’re watching.”

If end screens are bothering you before the video you’re watching has finished, you can now tap or click on a new Hide button in the top right corner of YouTube’s video player to dismiss them. It’s worth noting, though, that the setting only applies to the current video you’re watching, so you’ll have to tap on the Hide button again for each new video you watch. Even with that small annoyance, giving viewers the option is a positive change. End screens might improve a channel or videos metrics, but when they get in the way of watching, you should be able to hide them.

Alongside this new button, YouTube is also changing an interface element on the desktop version of the video platform. Now you’ll no longer see a “Subscribe” button when you hover your mouse over a video’s watermark — a feature that was already redundant because of the dedicated Subscribe button under each video.

YouTube claims neither of these changes will prevent video creators from adding things like end screens or watermarks if they want to, and the tweaks themselves only have a minor effect on the views or subscriptions a channel earns. “Giving users the option to hide end screens resulted in a less than 1.5 percent decrease in views from end screens,” YouTube claims. Meanwhile, “less than ~0.05 percent of all channel subscriptions come from the hover-to-subscribe functionality on the video watermark,” so removing the option isn’t much of a loss.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/youtube-will-finally-let-you-hide-popups-at-the-end-of-videos-183002850.html?src=rss

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Google’s Gemini AI app has been topping the “most downloaded” charts on both the Apple App Store and the Android Store ever since the company added a free image generation feature, called “Nano Banana,” back in August. Of course, Google is hardly the only huge tech corporation with an AI assistant that can make images right on your phone.

I wanted to know which mobile AI image generation tools is best, so I pitted three of the biggest—Google’s Gemini (with Nano Banana), the iPhone version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Meta’s Meta AI—against one another in a not-so-old-fashioned image-generation throw down. While there was ultimately a winner, the results weren’t exactly clear cut.

How I tested these tools

I wanted to compare how each app handled the same basic prompts to generate images an average user might want to create.

To test their photo editing acumen, I asked the different models to remove an object from a photo and to expand the background of a photo. To test their utility for straightforward purposes, I asked them to create a cover for a brochure. And to test their “creativity,” I asked them to put a celebrity in a surreal situation, draw a one-panel comic, and make an image of Frankenstein doing stand-up comedy.

Here’s how it went.

Removing an object from an image

For the source image, I used the below photo of my mom, and the prompt “Remove the cup from the subject’s hand.”

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Here are the results:

Gemini object removal

Credit: Stephen Johnson

ChatGPT object removal

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Meta AI object removal

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Winner: Gemini

Loser: ChatGPT

While all three tools removed the cup, Gemini added a fairly natural-looking hand held in a jaunty position that suggests my mom has just made a really good point. Other than that, Gemini mostly left the original image alone, just like I asked.

Meta AI’s made the fingers look cartoonish and left the hand in an awkward looking “holding a cup” pose, making the image look like someone did a bad Photoshop.

I am not sure what ChatGPT is doing here. It seems to have removed my mom’s entire right arm instead of just the cup. It smoothed out wrinkles, took out stray hairs, changed the entire color palette to be more orange, and even subtly shifted the direction my mom is looking. I asked for none of this, and all it of it made the photo worse. ChatGPT, You made my mom into an AI-ghoul; you’re doing too much.

Expanding a photo’s background

For the “expand the background” challenge, I used this selfie, and the prompt “Expand the background on this image and remove the sweat stain.”

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Gemini background expansion

Credit: Stephen Johnson

ChatGPT background expansion

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Meta background expansion

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Winners: Gemini and ChatGPT

Loser: Meta AI

There are really only two competitors here, as Meta doesn’t do background expansion.

Gemini was more ambitious this time out: It expanded the background further, and did a nice job approximating what the parts of my bike and bike rack it couldn’t “see” actually looked like. It even added a distant car. But it also changed the shape of the mountains behind my head for some reason, and turned down the red-tint—more flattering, maybe, but not requested.

ChatGPT was more modest in its background expansion, and while it didn’t mess around with the color scheme, it did give my skin that weird plastic look common to many AI images.

I consider this one a draw: adequate work from everyone. Except you, Meta AI.

Generating an image for a brochure cover

For this test, I let each tool have more “creativity,” but also provided some clear context and a suggested style, via the prompt “I’m making a brochure for my country club. Generate a painterly image of two rich people playing tennis.”

Gemini brochure cover

Credit: Stephen Johnson- Gemini

ChatGPT brochure cover

Credit: Stephen Johnson – ChatGPT

Meta AI brochure cover

Credit: Stephen Johnson – Meta AI

Winner: ChatGPT

Loser: Meta AI

The winner here is obvious. ChatGPT’s output looks “painterly,” as requested, and the placement of the two figures suggests a friendly game of mixed-doubles.

I found Gemini’s generic depiction of “rich people” to be kind of funny, especially with the mansion in the background, but that is not what a painting looks like, and that is not how anyone plays tennis.

Meta’s depiction of “people playing tennis” isn’t funny. Its result looks like an Exhibit A in a high-profile divorce case, and domestic violence is not a joke.

A famous person in an unlikely situation

To test how each program would handle creating the likeness of an actual person—a dead person, to stay on the safe side—I fed each tool this prompt: “Generate a photo of David Bowie going cave exploring.”

Bowie spelunking by Gemini

Credit: Stephen Johnson-Gemini

Bowie spelunking by ChatGPT

Credit: ChatGPT

Bowie spelunking by Meta AI

Credit: Stephen Johnson-Meta AI

Winner: Meta AI

Loser: ChatGPT

This time, Meta’s the hands-down winner. I asked for a photo of David Bowie, and got something like a photo of David Bowie. I like that Meta chose an older-Bowie, but not ancient-Bowie, as if he’d taken up cave exploring to clear his mind and ponder his future after the commercial failure of 1989’s Tin Machine.

I’m not sure what Gemini is going for here: Bowie with a light saber made out of a crystal and wearing a colander with lights for a hat? Bowie was cool, man.

But ChatGPT is the big loser, for being cowardly and not generating an image at all.

Drawing a one-panel comic

I like asking AI to tell jokes, because I like to see hard evidence that there’s still something people can do better than robots. Expecting AI to actually be funny is as foolish as—I couldn’t come up with a simile, so I asked chatGPT, and it said, “…asking a goldfish to explain quantum physics while juggling flaming marshmallows.” Ha ha ha.

Anyway, I thought if I gave AI guidelines and a model of something funny, maybe it would come up with a good comic. Here’s the prompt I used: “I’m making a one-panel comic in the style of The Far Side. Generate an image for the caption: ‘The real reason Larry was late for work.'”

Here are the results:

The Far Side by Gemini

Credit: Stephen Johnson-Gemini

The Far Side by ChatGPT

Credit: ChatGPT

The Far Side by Meta AI

Credit: Meta AI

Winner: Gary Larson

Loser: Comedy itself

Are any of these comics funny? No. But I think Gemini provided the most interesting result: It kind of made a joke, but it also made me think. If the joke is that Larry was late because it was his goose’s birthday, why is there a hole in the door? Why is the goose so mad? Why is there a suitcase full of money and a UFO? Sometimes I didn’t understand The Far Side either. I also appreciate that Gemini didn’t copy Gary Larson’s drawing style at all, but did add the signature “Gary Larnson.”

Meta AI’s comic is just lazy. I’m not convinced it’s even reading my prompts.

ChatGPT’s result looks the most like The Far Side, without being a direct copy, and the signature is even spelled correctly. But it doesn’t capture any of the weird spirit of the source material. In the end, it’s way more obvious and workmanlike than Gemini’s left-field approach.

And it’s also worth noting that here I ran into one of the main limitations with ChatGPT’s iPhone app when compared to Meta AI and Gemini: I ran out of tokens for the day and had to wait 24 hours to make the image. Output quality aside, if you’re interested in iterating and improving your result, or you just want to make a ton of pictures, five a day on the free tier will certainly hamper your, uh, creativity. Your solution is to upgrade to the paid version for $19.99 per month.

Frankenstein doing stand-up comedy

I next asked these programs to generate images of Frankenstein doing stand-up comedy, because that’s the kind of person I am. The prompt: “Generate a photo-realistic image of Frankenstein doing stand-up comedy.”

Here are the results:

Frankenstein doing stand-up comedy by Gemini

Credit: Stephen Johnson – Gemini

Frankenstein doing stand-up comedy by Chat GPT

Credit: Stephen Johnson ChatGPT

Frankenstein doing stand-up Comedy by Meta AI

Credit: Stephen Johnson-Meta AI

Winner: Everyone!

I can’t choose a favorite here. ChatGPT followed the prompt most closely, and depicted an expressive Frankenstein having a good night.

Gemini went way off-script, but sometimes you don’t know exactly what you want, and it turns out I wanted a crowd made up of both people and Draculas, with a monster with a lost expression, like he’s trapped between two worlds.

Meta AI’s miserable monster seems to be saying “We belong dead!” which I appreciate as well. So it’s a three-way tie.

Note: Not one AI pointed out that “Frankenstein” is the name of the doctor, not the monster.

The ultimate test: Recursive image generation

Every blog post needs an image to accompany it, so as a final, ultimate test, I fed this entire article into Gemini, ChatGPT, and Meta AI with the prompt: “Generate an image to accompany this blog post.”

Gemini recursive test

Credit: Stephen Johnson-Gemini

ChatGPT recursive test

Credit: Stephen Johnson-

Meta AI recursive test

Credit: Stephen Johnson – Meta AI

Winner: Gemini

Loser: Art

Meta AI seemed determined to covertly compare tennis to domestic violence, and ChatGPT’s grid approach is staid, but I gotta hand it to Gemini for at least understanding the assignment.

(The real test is whether Lifehacker’s editors have left the image in place at the top of this page or sent me a terse message saying, “Steve, take that garbage down immediately.”)

Overall winner: Gemini (but not by much)

There’s a reason everyone has been downloading Gemini to mess around with Nano Banana—it’s really good. It’s not perfect—in my tests, ChatGPT’s image generation engine was better at generating different styles of art from scratch—but Gemini can whip up pictures fast that are often surprisingly close to what you want.

And Gemini is free, whereas ChatGPT’s app costs $19.99 a month for unlimited pictures. Meta AI is also free, and its results have a goofy charm, but it fails to properly understand prompts more often than the other two models, and doesn’t have some useful functions, like expanding backgrounds. (It did a good job with Bowie, though, I must admit.)

Bowers & Wilkins just released the Px8 S2 wireless headphones, a follow-up to the well-reviewed original Px8 cans. This new entry brings a bevy of updated features, many of which were pulled from the recently-released Px7 S3 headphones.

They feature new audio drivers, a built-in digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and an improved digital signal processor (DSP.) This allows for a 24-bit/96 kHz high-resolution audio signal. The headphones can handle high-res audio from streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz, thanks to Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless audio codec.

The sound is aided by a five-band customizable EQ, which is accessible via a proprietary app. This app also lets users set other parameters and play audio directly from streaming platforms.

The Px8 S2 headphones also include more microphones for ANC, which should allow for better noise cancellation and a more nuanced transparency mode. The battery lasts for 30 hours, which is in line with all of the other Bowers & Wilkins models.

Bowers & Wilkins

The overall design has been refreshed, with a slimmer form factor. The company says it’s the “most considered and comfortable over-ear headphone design we’ve ever made.” The exterior has been crafted with Nappa leather and die-cast aluminum. There are two colorways to choose from and both are extremely easy on the eyes. These headphones are also slightly lighter than the original Px8 cans.

Each unit ships with a new carry case that’s been designed to fit in most bags. The Px8 S2 headphones cost $800, which is $100 more than the original Px8 cost when they were released in 2023. Bowers & Wilkins does promise future software updates, including one that brings spatial audio.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/bowers–wilkins-px8-s2-headphones-have-updated-drivers-improved-anc-and-a-new-look-181913079.html?src=rss

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Best Buy has joined the battle against Amazon’s Prime Big Deals Day, the fall version of Prime Day. There will actually be two sales leading up to Best Buy’s main Techtober sale, so I’ve rounded up all the info below to help you keep things straight.

All of Best Buy’s October sales

Best Buy’s fall sale is actually three separate sales from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12. Here are the dates of each sale and what you can expect from each:

• Sept. 27 to Sept. 28: A 48-hour flash sale.

• Sept. 28 to Oct. 5: Member deal days event. You will need to be a Best Buy Plus or My Best Total member, which starts at $49.99 per year.

• Oct. 6 to Oct. 12: Best Buy’s Techtober Sale. This will be Best Buy’s equivalent to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, which is from Oct. 7 to Oct. 8.

Do you need to be a member to shop for Best Buy’s fall sale?

Only the second event from Sept. 28 to Oct. 5 will be exclusive for paying members. The rest are for everyone, but members can get better savings throughout the sales. Keep in mind, it is free to sign up for a My Best Buy membership, which will give you free shipping. If you join one of its paid subscriptions (My Best Buy Plus for $49.99 per year or My Best Buy Total for $179.99 per year) you’ll get faster free shipping, exclusive prices and deals, an extended 60-day return window on most products, and access to select sales. Paid members will also earn extra rewards from both the current sale and the upcoming Black Friday in July sale.

What deals can I expect during Techtober Sale?

There is no official list of deals from Best Buy yet, but in an email, the company said shoppers can expect deals on tech like laptops, TVs, headphones, video games, electric bikes, “and more.” The retailer will debut new deals every day in stores, on its website, and in the Best Buy mobile app.

What other retailers are competing with Amazon’s October Prime Day?

After Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days announcement, both Target and Walmart announced theirs. Target is having Circle Week, which will run from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and Walmart is having Walmart Deals from Oct. 7 to Oct. 12.

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When the Powerbeats Pro 2 came out earlier this year, with their in-ear heart rate sensors, I had a hard time getting them to read my heart rate accurately from my ears. Now, with iOS 26, Apple and Beats are introducing some new fitness features that make these headphones work better as heart rate sensors. They also apply to the new  AirPods Pro 3, which also measure heart rate. I tested the new features, and found that the experience is much improved—but still has serious problems. 

The heart rate feature now works on iPhones without third-party apps

This is the biggest improvement, and it’s unquestionably a good thing. In iOS 26, Apple has turned the Fitness app into a real workout-tracking app, not just a viewer for Apple Watch data. And it can pull heart rate data from Powerbeats or AirPods with heart rate sensors.

Just tap the Workout tab, check the heart rate icon in the upper right corner to make sure your Powerbeats are paired, and hit the start button on the activity you want to do. It’s easy and simple—as it should have been in the first place. 

Previously, iPhones could only read heart rate data from the Powerbeats Pro 2 through certain third-party apps. These apps included a few popular premium and specialty apps, like Runna and Peloton, but there was no basic option. Now, with the updates to the Fitness app, you can log a workout that is just a native Apple workout, without having to create an account on a new app. 

None of this was ever an issue for Android users, by the way: They were always able to pair the Powerbeats Pro 2 as a Bluetooth heart rate sensor the way you would a chest strap, and can still do that. Unfortunately, iPhone users still don’t have that kind of freedom. Only some apps are supported—16 of them so far, which are listed here—but at least the main Fitness app is one of them.

You can now use a single earbud (sort of)

At first, the Powerbeats Pro 2 could only read your heart rate if you had both earbuds in. With the changes in iOS 26, you can now get heart rate readings with just a single earbud. I tried this out, with mixed results. 

On the bright side, it’s true—the Fitness app gives me heart rate data even with only one earbud in. But the downside is that accuracy is diminished. The earbuds already have an accuracy issue, as I’ll discuss below, so they lose data points when the fit isn’t perfect. Remove one earbud, and you’re taking away half your data. 

This is good news for people who get a good fit and good accuracy; they can choose between one and two earbuds and get a heart rate reading either way. But for those of us who can’t get a good enough fit to get good data (like me), this just gives us worse data.

The algorithm is better, but maybe not good enough

Powerbeats Pro 2 in orange; chest strap (for reference) in black,
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Apple has said that its new heart-rate-sensing algorithm is able to sample data points faster, which should help accuracy. It can also combine data from the headphones and from your Apple Watch, rather than choosing one or the other. (Previously, if you were wearing your Apple Watch, heart rate data from your earbuds would be ignored). 

I took the earbuds for a few test runs (without the Apple Watch) to try the new algorithm. I do think the accuracy is a little bit improved! It’s still not great, but as long as I had both earbuds in, I can at least see the similarity between my chest strap data and what I was getting from the Powerbeats. 

It still tended to read high for me, though—often riding above the peaks of my intervals and never dropping down very far. This isn’t good enough to follow heart rate zone training very closely, and would likely skew heart-rate-based metrics such as estimated VO2max. But it does seem to be an improvement. 

My single-earbud readings were awful, though, as you can see. To Apple’s credit, I did get a poor fit notification after both the runs that produced the graphs above.

New fit notification

A new feature in iOS 26 is that you’ll get a notification to check the fit of your earbuds if the data seemed to be poor. That’s a helpful feature, because otherwise you wouldn’t know whether you’re getting good data or not. (I sit down at my computer and compare new devices to chest strap data, but it’s not fair to expect everyone to do that.) 

Based on my experience, the Powerbeats’ issue with heart rate accuracy seems to be tied to the way they fit in your ears. The optical heart rate sensor is built into the hard plastic component, and it needs to be in close contact with your skin to be able to detect your pulse. 

The earbuds come with different silicone tips to adjust the fit, and an “ear tip fit test” you can do in Settings to ensure that you get a good seal between your tip and your ears. If you get the notification telling you to check your fit, it directs you to this test and its associated advice about getting a good fit. 

But there’s still a big problem here. Apple assumes that a good fit for sound is the same as a good fit for heart rate. That’s not always the case, as my own testing showed. When I passed the fit test, I got terrible heart rate data. If I turned the earbuds backward so the ear hooks were vertical, I got good heart rate data but terrible sound quality—and failed the fit test.

So these notifications can tell you that you have a problem, but they can’t solve your problem. I suspect it’s not really solvable. The plastic component only comes in one size, and if your ears are a different size or shape than what it was designed for, there’s no way to put the sensor in closer contact with your ears. 

iPhone users still can’t play music while broadcasting heart rate to gym equipment

I almost feel embarrassed for Apple on this one. The Powerbeats Pro 2 can broadcast your heart rate data to gym equipment, but not while playing music. This still feels half-baked and I hope Apple is working on a fix for this. For now, here’s what you can expect: 

• Android users can play music from their phone while broadcasting to gym equipment.

• Gym equipment that plays sound over bluetooth can play to your Powerbeats while you broadcast heart rate to that same gym equipment.

• iPhone users cannot play music from their iPhone while broadcasting to gym equipment. 

Overall, I’m pleased to see the changes Apple has made to improve the usefulness and accuracy of the Powerbeats Pro 2’s heart rate monitoring feature, but I’m still disappointed in some of the ways it fails to live up to its promises. These are expensive headphones to buy without knowing whether they’ll fit your ears well enough to get reliable heart rate data. The missing music when broadcasting to gym equipment is especially disappointing. But the fit notifications are a great addition so that at least people know when they’re having accuracy issues, and I appreciate the more accurate data sampling—even if the result isn’t perfect.

Australian horror film Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, underwent digital alterations for its mainland China release on September 12. Chinese cinemagoers discovered that a wedding scene between two men had been modified using face-swapping technology to transform one male character into a female appearance. The change only became apparent after side-by-side screenshots from the original and altered versions circulated on social media platforms.

Chinese viewers are expressing outrage over the AI-powered modification, The Guardian reports, citing concerns about creative integrity and the difficulty of detecting such alterations compared to traditional scene cuts. The film’s distributor halted the scheduled September 19 general release following the backlash. China’s censorship authorities require all imported films to undergo approval before release.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you spend any significant amount of time using Steam, you’ve probably joked ruefully about your massive backlog of games acquired through cheap bundles or the service’s frequent massive sales. However, we’re willing to bet your backlog can’t hold a candle to that of SonixLegend, who recently earned a unique Steam badge as the first person to own 40,000 distinct paid games on Valve’s platform.

Based in Shanghai, SonixLegend obtained their 40,000th Steam game this week, according to Steam’s badge data, putting them atop an elite club of just 19 Steam users with at least 30,000 paid games. According to SteamDB tracking, that makes for an account roughly worth anywhere from $248,000 (based on the lowest prices ever tracked in the database) to $642,000 (based on the current prices of those games).

However, SonixLegend’s full collection might be more extensive than this massive achievement suggests. That’s because Steam’s Game Collector badges don’t track any of the many, many shovelware titles that have failed to reach “broad player engagement and some commercial success” on the service under Valve’s “profile features” guidelines. It also reportedly doesn’t include almost all free-to-play games, which could easily be used to inflate a title count for determined badge chasers.

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iOS 26 is one of Apple’s biggest operating system updates in years. The new “Liquid Glass” design, while controversial, offers the first major UI overhaul since iOS 7, while new features like call screening and hold assist might change the way your make and receive phone calls.

If you have an iPhone, you may be tempted to install the new update—and, seeing as it has been out for a week and a half now, you might have updated already. If you haven’t installed iOS 26, yet, however, think twice before you do, because you’re going to be stuck with it: Apple has made it impossible to downgrade and return to iOS 18.

You can’t go back to iOS 18

As reported by MacRumors, Apple stopped “signing” iOS 18.6.2 on Monday. When Apple signs a particular piece of software, it means you can download that software to your compatible device. Apple stops signing software shortly after it releases a new version. It’s a system meant to block users from installing old software versions on their Apple devices, intended to protect those users from insecurities in operating systems that haven’t been patched.

As such, now that iOS 18.6.2 is no longer being signed, there is no way to downgrade to that software version from iOS 26 if you change your mind. Though the process was tedious, previously, you could downgrade from iOS 26 by putting your iPhone in recovery mode, erasing it completely, and installing a new version of 18.6.2. Now that Apple has stopped signing 18.6.2, however, there’s no way to install it, so a factory reset will only leave you with an iPhone running iOS 26, and none of your data.

You might be wondering why you can’t downgrade to iOS 18.7, since that’s a newer version of iOS 18 than 18.6.2. As users on the MacRumors forum point out, you need an IPSW file in order to downgrade your iPhone, but Apple hasn’t provided an IPSW file with iOS 18.7, as that update is only available over the air for uses already running iOS 18. That is to say: Unless your iPhone is already running 18.6.2, you can’t install iOS 18.7.

If you haven’t updated your iPhone yet, you have two options. First, there’s nothing forcing you to install iOS 26 on your device. You can keep running iOS 18.6.2 or iOS 18.7 as long as you want, and take advantage of any future security updates Apple provides to keep your iPhone protected. Alternately, you can go ahead and install iOS 26, with the understanding that you won’t have the option to undo it—though you will be able to undo many of the UI changes, at least. And if your main concern is performance and battery life, it might be smart to wait for iOS 26.1, which is currently in beta testing.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told attendees at yesterday’s Snapdragon Summit opening keynote that he has seen Google’s merged Android-ChromeOS platform for PCs. Speaking alongside Google’s head of platforms and devices Rick Osterloh, Amon said the software “delivers on the vision of convergence of mobile and PC” and that he “can’t wait to have one.”

Osterloh confirmed Google is building a common technical foundation for PCs and desktop computing systems that combines Android and ChromeOS. The platform will include Gemini, the full Android AI stack, all Google applications and the Android developer community. “I’ve seen it, it is incredible,” replied Amon excitedly. “It delivers on the vision of convergence of mobile and PC. I can’t wait to have one.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.