Odontotermes obesus is one of the termite species that grows fungi, called Termitomyces, in their mounds. Workers collect dead leaves, wood, and grass to stack them in underground fungus gardens called combs. There, the fungi break down the tough plant fibers, making them accessible for the termites in an elaborate form of symbiotic agriculture.
Like any other agriculturalist, however, the termites face a challenge: weeds. “There have been numerous studies suggesting the termites must have some kind of fixed response—that they always do the same exact thing when they detect weed infestation,” says Rhitoban Raychoudhury, a professor of biological sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education, “but that was not the case.” In a new Science study, Raychoudhury’s team discovered that termites have pretty advanced, surprisingly human-like gardening practices.
Going blind
Termites do not look like particularly good gardeners at first glance. They are effectively blind, which is not that surprising considering they spend most of their life in complete darkness working in endless corridors of their mounds. But termites make up for their lack of sight with other senses. “They can detect the environment based on advanced olfactory reception and touch, and I think this is what they use to identify the weeds in their gardens,” Raychoudhury says. To learn how termites react once they detect a weed infestation, his team collected some Odontotermes obesus and challenged them with different gardening problems.
Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division is on shaky ground, as the company has increased prices for both its hardware and Game Pass subscription service while major vendors like Costco have quit carrying the consoles altogether. The vibes won’t be improved by today’s news that a veteran member of one of its key studios has abruptly departed and did
There’s much to say about Sora, which is essentially OpenAI’s TikTok for AI slop. But putting my concerns aside for what appears to be a glorified deepfake machine, it’s evident the app is popular. OpenAI says Sora hit one million downloads in under five days, likely fueled by interest from users seeing hyper-realistic videos going viral on social media.
But with big hype, comes big risk for fraud. While OpenAI made Sora free to download, the app started out invite-only, which only built anticipation for users who wanted in. As such, those users might open the App Store, search for Sora, and download the first app that makes itself available—especially if they can start using it right away. That’s exactly what happened in this case.
As reported by TechCrunch, over a dozen fake Sora apps were made available on the iOS App Store following the launch of OpenAI’s real app. These apps were either called “Sora” or “Sora 2,” the latter in reference to the specific video model powering these hyper-realistic AI generations.
You might assume developers hastily uploaded these apps to the App Store in an attempt to pull traffic from users curious about Sora. And while that is true, a number of these apps were already live on the App Store long before OpenAI ever announced the Sora app—some of which were operating under different names. It’s not clear how many changed their names in this situation, but it’s apparent that many did adjust their names shortly after Sora launched. TechCrunch says some apps had been available on the App Store since earlier this year, while others were available since last year.
Apple’s App Store isn’t the only affected app market here. Google’s Play Store played host to fraudulent Sora apps, as well. Taken together, these apps were downloaded more than 300,000 times, with more than 80,000 of those occurring after Sora’s official launch. Perhaps the most successful fake Sora app, “Sora 2 – AI Video Generator,” pulled in over 50,000 downloads alone once OpenAI released Sora. TechCrunch reports that these apps collectively earned over $160,000, all from apps claiming to be something else entirely.
At this time, most, but not all, of these apps have been pulled from app stores.
How to spot fake apps on your app store
First of all, if the app you’re trying to download is trendy and popular, like Sora, assume there will be developers trying to spoof it. Malicious developers want to trick users looking for one app into downloading theirs, whether it’s to install malware on your device, steal your information, or make money off you by running ads. If they know a million people are going to be downloading an app, hosting a fraudulent one makes for good business.
When looking through the app store’s results page, pay close attention to the name of the app. Sure, it might have “Sora” in the title, but does it have any odd, extraneous words added in? “Sora 2 – AI Video Generator” isn’t the worst fake name I’ve ever seen, but the app’s name is Sora, not Sora 2. OpenAI also likely wouldn’t add AI Video Generator to its own product’s name: They probably know the product speaks for itself, and wouldn’t feel the need to clutter up the name with extra details. Instead, the real title is “Sora by OpenAI,” likely done to both distinguish itself from legitimate apps named Sora, as well as indicate that it is indeed made by OpenAI.
Speaking of which, you should always make sure the app in question is distributed by the company that made it. If you’re trying to figure out which of the Sora apps on your app store is the real one, it’s going to be the one that says it’s made by OpenAI. I’m not talking about the title alone, either. Tap on the app, and look at the developer name underneath the title. If it doesn’t match the exact company you know develops the app, don’t download it.
You’ll also want to investigate the copy and images advertising the app here. Is everything written well, and free of spelling and grammar mistakes? Are the images high quality, and reflect the experience the app it advertising? Don’t download something that feels slapped together: Some fraudsters don’t bother with the finer details.
Finally, make sure the app in question is actually available on the platform you’re using. Sora is currently iOS-only, which means any app claiming to be Sora by OpenAI on the Play Store is a fraud. If you’re on Android, you’ll simply need to wait for OpenAI to make the app for your platform.
Xbox is getting absolutely battered this console generation, but Microsoft still insists a next-gen AMD-powered Xbox is in the works—and the rumor mill is now pointing toward a 2027 release window for the next-gen Xbox with AMD’s “Magnus” APU within. The Magnus APU, which we’ve heard about previously, looks to be a mega-sized APU packing Zen
An anonymous reader shares a report: Control of NSO Group is set to leave Israeli hands. A group of American investors led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds has agreed to acquire the controversial spyware developer in a deal valued at several tens of millions of dollars. The transaction is expected to be signed in the coming days, though its completion will require approval from Israel’s Defense Export Control Agency (DECA) at the Ministry of Defense.
Since March 2023, NSO’s shares have been held by a Luxembourg-based holding company wholly owned by founder Omri Lavie. The company’s lender syndicate, which had extended roughly $500 million in loans to finance a share buyback from the private equity fund Francisco Partners, transferred ownership to Lavie following the restructuring.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
If you’ve ever tried dragging a too-large speaker—or worse, relied on your phone’s tiny audio for sound projection—you should appreciate this sale on the Skullcandy Terrain Mini: It’s palm-sized, no-frills, and currently on sale for $32.99 on StackSocial, with free shipping in the U.S. That price drop isn’t jaw-dropping, but for under $35, you’re looking at an IPX7-rated waterproof speaker that won’t be damaged if it’s dropped or gets wet.
The Skullcandy Terrain Mini features Bluetooth 5.3, ensuring a stable connection within a 33-foot range. The battery is said to offer 14 hours of playtime, which should cover most day-long adventures or at least a solid workday playlist without needing a recharge. When the battery dies, it can be charged using a USB-C port, which is included, so you won’t need to dig through old cords. It also comes with a wrist strap that you can clip to a bag or swing around like a lanyard when you’re on the move.
As far as sound quality goes, it’s decent on its own, but the True Wireless Stereo feature allows you to pair it with a second unit for true stereo separation. You can also use Skullcandy’s Multi-Link to chain together up to 99 of these. Realistically, you’ll probably never do that, but the option’s there if you ever want to DJ a flash mob.
That said, this speaker doesn’t punch far above its size. It’s built more for casual, portable listening than booming bass or high-volume precision. The fabric mesh helps with durability and sound clarity, but it won’t replace your home speaker setup. If you’re in the market for a rugged little speaker that’s waterproof, rechargeable, and easy to toss in a bag, the Skullcandy Terrain Mini fits.
When Google announced the Pixel Watch 4, it made a point to mention that the smartwatch was “designed with serviceability in mind.” Now that it’s out, the repair experts at iFixit have taken a look and can confirm Google’s claims. The how-to specialist site has called the Pixel Watch 4 the most repairable smartwatch you can buy right now. That’s notable, as iFixit points out, because you’d probably expect a sustainability-oriented brand such as Fairphone or Framework to be getting this kind of recognition ahead of Google. (That said, the Fairphone 6 did recently receive a perfect 10/10 repairability review.) But iFixit said it was “truly impressed” with what owners can do to fix Google’s latest wearable on their own.
The first thing it highlights is the presence of visible screws that don’t interfere with the watch’s IP68 water and dust resistance rating. Both the vibration motor and battery are also easy to remove, the latter being glue-free and requiring you only to unscrew from its enclosure. As for the display, that’s also secured by screws alone (spotting a pattern here yet?) and sealed using a replaceable O-ring gasket that you can easily purchase. iFixit notes that it’s harder for square watches to use the same solution, so Google’s decision to make the Pixel Watch 4 round boosts its repairability.
At the end of its comprehensive video, iFixit awards Google a provisional rating of 9/10 for repairability, calling it “the most satisfying smartwatch teardown” it has performed to date. For transparency, the site points out that it does have an ongoing business partnership with Google, but insists it’s completely unrelated to the teardown treatment it gives the Pixel Watch 4.
Its perhaps surprising level of repairability isn’t the only thing in the Pixel Watch 4’s favor. In Engadget’s 86/100 review of the device, Cherlynn Low also praised its rapid charging speeds, excellent health and fitness tracking credentials and attractive display.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/ifixit-says-the-pixel-watch-4-is-the-most-repairable-smartwatch-around-171242107.html?src=rss
Chrome is getting a new feature aimed at cutting back on notification overload. If enabled, Chrome can now revoke notification permission for websites that the user hasn’t interacted with recently. It’s a similar option to the automatic actions taken by Chrome’s Safety Check for apps such as the camera or location information. The new feature will roll out to Chrome on both Android devices and on desktop.
Chrome revoking notifications
The browser will, ironically, notify you when a site is no longer going to send notifications. Once a site’s permissions have been revoked, a user can re-enable them through Safety Check or by manually re-starting them from the site in question. If you don’t want Chrome to ever take these actions for you, you can turn off the permissions revoking option completely.
Right now, Google said less than 1 percent of all notifications get any interactions from users. According to the company’s internal tests, it found that receiving fewer overall notifications meant people were more likely to click on the alerts they did receive.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chrome-update-aims-to-automatically-turn-off-unwanted-notifications-170000844.html?src=rss
Google is facing multiple antitrust actions in the US, and European regulators have been similarly tightening the screws. You can now add the UK to the list of Google’s governmental worries. The country’s antitrust regulator, known as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has confirmed that Google has “strategic market status,” paving the way to more limits on how Google does business in the UK. Naturally, Google objects to this course of action.
The designation is connected to the UK’s new digital markets competition regime, which was enacted at the beginning of the year. Shortly after, the CMA announced it was conducting an investigation into whether Google should be designated with strategic market status. The outcome of that process is a resounding “yes.”
This label does not mean Google has done anything illegal or that it is subject to immediate regulation. It simply means the company has “substantial and entrenched market power” in one or more areas under the purview of the CMA. Specifically, the agency has found that Google is dominant in search and search advertising, holding a greater than 90 percent share of Internet searches in the UK.
It feels like it was just yesterday that Sony hardware architect Mark Cerny was first teasing Sony’s “PS4 successor” and its “enhanced ray-tracing capabilities” powered by new AMD chips. Now that we’re nearly five full years into the PS5 era, it’s time for Sony and AMD to start teasing the new chips that will power what Cerny calls “a future console in a few years’ time.”
In a quick nine-minute video posted Thursday, Cerny sat down with Jack Huynh, the senior VP and general manager of AMD’s Computing and Graphics Group, to talk about “Project Amethyst,” a co-engineering effort between both companies that was also teased back in July. And while that Project Amethyst hardware currently only exists in the form of a simulation, Cerny said that the “results are quite promising” for a project that’s still in the “early days.”
Mo’ ML, fewer problems?
Project Amethyst is focused on going beyond traditional rasterization techniques that don’t scale well when you try to “brute force that with raw power alone,” Huynh said in the video. Instead, the new architecture is focused on more efficient running of the kinds of machine-learning-based neural networks behind AMD’s FSR upscaling technology and Sony’s similar PSSR system.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Poland’s critical infrastructure has been subject to a growing number of cyberattacks by Russia, whose military intelligence, has trebled its resources for such action against Poland this year, the country’s digital affairs minister told Reuters. Of the 170,000 cyber incidents that have been identified in the first three quarters of this year, a significant portion has been attributed to Russian actors, while other cases are financially motivated, involving theft or other forms of cybercrime, Krzysztof Gawkowski said.
He said Poland is a subject to between 2,000 and 4,000 incidents a day and that 700 to 1,000 are “taken up by us, meaning they posed a real threat or had the potential to cause serious problems,” he said. Foreign adversaries are now expanding their focus beyond water and sewage systems to the energy sector, he said.
When you log into the Peloton app, you probably get down to the business of finding a class, whether that means searching through the absurdly large library of single classes, turning to your Stack, or following the personalized plan curated for you by the app’s AI. All of that is fine and well—though generally, following a Stack or personalized plan is better, since it reduces the time you spend deliberating and dilly-dallying and gives you a clear goal for the workout—but you have another option. In fact, depending on your goals, you have another potentially superior option in the form of a Peloton Program.
What is a Peloton Program?
Program is the term Peloton uses for longer-term, guided training routines that are tailored to a specific goal. They can range from a few days long to weeks long, but the idea is that you’ll finish the program and be more prepared to do whatever it was you were training for.
When you log into the app on your mobile device or Peloton equipment, you’ll see your personalized plan first, followed by a subheading that says Your Programs. There, any Programs you’re currently participating in will be ready to go. You can just tap it to keep moving through it with whatever class or exercise is next up. To access Programs and see everything available, tap Classes in the bottom row of the mobile app, then Programs up at the top. (It’s to the right of Classes, Gym, and Collections.)
Each program is designed by an instructor (or, sometimes, more than one instructor) and when you tap on it, you’ll see information on how many classes are in it, how many days or weeks it lasts, and how long the classes are. You’ll also see a summary of the Program and what it’s designed for, as well as notes on which equipment, if any, is necessary for the classes. You can even see a week-by-week breakdown of what classes to expect.
These are self-paced, so you can take the classes or participate whenever you want, but you should try to do them in the timeframe laid out by the instructor.
What can you use Programs for?
This is the fun part. There are so many Programs and some of them are almost too specific to believe—but that’s why they’re useful. There’s probably one in there that aligns with exactly what you’re trying to do, whatever it is. A selection of titles:
Strength for Soccer (one week, seven classes)
The Power of Sleep (two weeks, 15 classes)
Strength for Cyclists (one week, six classes)
Floor Bootcamp (four weeks, 24 classes)
Road to Half Marathon (10 weeks, 40 classes)
Strength for Tennis & Pickleball (one week, eight classes)
Strength for Skiers (one week, 11 classes)
You Can Run Outdoors (eight weeks, 16 classes)
Set the Barre (four weeks, 13 classes)
Path to Inversion (two weeks, 12 classes)
There is “density training,” training for people who golf, and training for anyone looking to pull off a yoga inversion. Again, these are specific goals, but with strength, meditation, and other classes geared toward them, you can take a more well-rounded approach to meeting them. Programs are also classified as beginner, intermediate, or advanced, so you don’t end up in over your head or bored.
One thing I like about them—besides that they help you create a goal-based workout plan and are so tailored to specific achievements—is that participating in them earns you extra points toward your Club Peloton rank. By moving up in Club Peloton, you can unlock discounts and early access to other classes, providing even more variety (and some smugness, if you’re like me).
An online game lives and dies on its community and matchmaking, not just for its longevity and the experience but for building momentum and word-of-mouth that propel a game forward. Possible greatness will always be lacking if this area falls short. While BlackGate has plenty of potential, and I hope it can build its audience, it’s difficult to recommend when enjoying the strong core mechanics underneath the surface is so hard in its current early access state.
BlackGate imagines a blend of the Alien movies and Dead by Daylight in crafting its spacefaring, multiplayer-driven tension. A match begins when a maximum of five players have assembled, split between up to four crew members and one alien inside an incapacitated space station. The alien’s task is to kill every crew member, while crew members work together to incapacitate it and repair the ship. For the latter, this involves fixing the engine, power, communications systems, and more, each enhancing the players when doing so. Fixing communication turns proximity voice chat into a ship-wide communication tool, while the dark corridors are lit once power is restored.
This 4v1 setup is balanced by the relative strength of crew members and aliens alike. Crew members move around the ship by using thrusters coinciding with A and X on the Touch Controllers, while B has you brake in the air. Grip buttons can hold and push off walls while floating through the ship to get a burst of speed when used with the thrusters. Your ship map can be pulled up from your wrist, which also hosts a few generic pings for warnings and assistance alongside a tether for healing a crew member by attaching it to their backpack. Using the trigger will fire a stun beam that can temporarily stun an alien in place.
The alien might be outnumbered, but you have more tools at your disposal. It moves faster, while it’s also possible to fire out noxious gas using the triggers that can blind and impede a crew member, making them easier prey. They can move through the ship vents and smaller spaces, or use pincers attached to the grips to attack a crew member and destroy locked doors. Before jumping into a match, the lobby lets you practice particular skills, while players can similarly jump into a set of tutorials prepared to help players get attuned to the controls.
At its core, BlackGate is great and effectively creates a tense survival horror experience. Playing as a crew member, for example, you begin as a slow human who genuinely feels at the mercy of the infections lurking amidst the spaceship. With only slow movement and no power, dark corridors become tense centers of the unknown, the lack of vision making it impossible to know what’s lurking around the next corner. Visually, the game is a triumph on Quest 3S, creating a sense of clarity in where to go and core objectives without compromising the atmosphere.
In this sense, it’s a game attuned to and takes advantage of VR. Fully immersed in that world, the sense of dread you feel even when other people are nearby is wonderfully achieved. Great sound design, mostly ambient aside from the creaking of the ship that enhances the feeling of teetering on the edge, means that even with your team nearby, you never feel truly safe. Though the tasks required to repair systems are relatively simple (repair communications by turning dials to align a satellite, taking a ring through a wire course), they offer enough to make them feel like a race against time. Even when lights are restored and you gain more strength, you never feel safe, a testament to what the team has built.
While the alien activities aren’t quite as engaging, this is still enjoyable. You move far faster, using grippers against the wall to pull you forward. As an offensive alien intent on destroying the humans on board, however, you’re limited mostly to destruction and attacks, and can only be incapacitated rather than killed. You have to proactively search the ship, though without extra activities this can feel admittedly limiting, if still engaging. BlackGate is in early access, though, with plenty of time to evolve. New alien types with differing offensive maneuvers and attack patterns, coupled with variety in the games for the crew, could easily ensure each game feels different.
At least, if you get the chance to play properly. As I mentioned before, multiplayer games live and die on matchmaking, and any new online game faces a self-fulfilling cycle where people want to play once a community has formed, but you need players to build a community. Playing at numerous times of the day, my difficulties were less to do with not finding new players but sustaining that enough to start and get through a match.
Online matchmaking in BlackGate is host-driven, with one player hosting a game that others can join. If the host leaves, the match ends and all players are disconnected. On many occasions, I would begin launching a quick game only to find that I would enter a loading screen and be booted to the main menu without actually joining a match, the host having disconnected a session. This can also occur when joining a match by selecting a lobby directly from the ‘Join Game’ tab. After an at-times extensive wait for players to ready up or for a full lobby to assemble, the game sometimes ends before it even begins.
Even when a game starts, if not the host, other players leaving a match tilt it in one direction and make it difficult to achieve your goals. This is understandable if you’re a crew member who dies at the hands of an alien, only able to communicate via voice chat or open doors without interacting with the world. It can feel like twiddling thumbs in such a state. Similarly, without clear communication, it can feel frustrating when crew members don’t help and you’re left at the hands of the alien with nothing to do but wait for death.
These problems aren’t exclusive to BlackGate. Still, this means that despite playing tutorials numerous times, becoming accustomed to the systems, and spending a few hours playing over a dozen matches, I couldn’t complete a single match due to other players or the host disconnecting. Worse still, there are no penalties for someone quitting early to disincentivize this behavior.
BlackGate is not without other flaws. I understand the idea of thruster-driven movement over analog sticks, yet it never feels like you have enough control to make movement manageable. Its map can also feel confusing on multiple layers. These are redeemable issues. There’s enough strength in the core idea that Megaverse did well putting this together, particularly in how far they’ve pushed the Quest hardware. That said, it seems like the game is only successful if every player acts exactly as the developer intended. One uncooperative or disconnecting player causes that experience to fall apart, as it so often does for me.
Perhaps once the PC VR version is launched, crossplay is introduced to increase the player count, and certain kinks are ironed out, games can more frequently reach their conclusion. But, in that vicious cycle, it’s hard to recommend new players pick up BlackGate in its current early access state on Quest 3 and 3S, even if committed players are what this game needs most right now.
Tata Consultancy Services made its steepest-ever job cuts as strained ties with the US and a rapid shift toward AI reshape the country’s $280 billion IT services sector. From a report: India’s biggest private-sector employer cut 19,755 employees in the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to the company’s quarterly earnings presentation. That number includes staff fired by the company and people who left voluntarily. The number of employees at Asia’s biggest IT outsourcer fell 3.2% from the previous quarter, dipping below 600,000 for the first time since since the year ended March 2022. The company made a provision of 11.35 billion rupees ($128 million) in the quarter for severance related costs.
Over one hundred Gorilla Tag clones have been removed from the Meta Horizon Store in a series of mass delistings.
As seen on QuestStoreDB, a database hobby project similar to SteamDB that’s not affiliated with Meta, dozens of clones for the popular multiplayer hit Gorilla Tag were suddenly removed over the space of an hour on September 30. This mass delisting didn’t exclusively affect clones, though it was almost entirely such games, and two additional delistings occurred later that day.
65 Gorilla Tag clones were removed in total that day, though more clones continue to appear as further titles get taken down. Since then, QuestStoreDB shows that a similar, second wave of mass delistings occurred on October 9 within roughly an hour. This time, another 64 clones were removed, with a further five following those at the time of writing this morning.
While games disappearing from digital storefronts is nothing unusual, the widespread nature of these delistings in quick succession suggests a deliberate removal effort. Meta previously did not respond to UploadVR when asked for comment.
Though this doesn’t appear to be a complete ban, it’s reminiscent of VR sideloading platform SideQuest no longer accepting Gorilla Tag clones in 2022. “At a certain point it becomes too much and there is no point in adding any more games that want to be like gorilla tag,” stated SideQuest at the time.
Curation has been a hot subject on the Meta Horizon Store since 2019, when Meta’s then Director of Content Ecosystem, Chris Pruett, outlined a stricter process for software approval. Numerous studios have since criticized the impact of Meta getting rid of App Lab and opening the store to all developers last year.
App Lab allowed studios to host unlisted apps, an approach that was praised for reducing shovelware but also criticized, since Meta’s strict curation left some developers unable to move to the main store. Currently, the Meta Horizon Store uses an open model that allows developers to more freely publish to the store.
While many studios praised this move as a good one in our February report, they also considered discoverability to have been significantly impacted by the changes as more clones appeared. We’ll continue monitoring this situation to see whether these delistings continue.
