Apple is moving ahead with plans to bring advertising to its Maps app. Starting next year, businesses will be able to pay for more prominent placement within search results, according to Bloomberg [non-paywalled source]. The approach mirrors Search Ads in the App Store, where developers purchase promoted slots based on user queries. Apple has said the sponsored results will remain relevant to searches.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Samsung’s Galaxy XR is finally here, and with it, a perfect middle-ground of price and features to simultaneously turn up the competitive pressure on both Meta and Apple.
Over many years I had been patiently waiting for Apple to launch its own headset in order to finally give Meta some real competition. Even though the Quest and Vision Pro headsets are so far apart in price, there’s already plenty of examples of Meta adding or improving features on its headset in direct response to Apple’s work.
But there’s only so much competitive pressure that a $3,500 headset can put on a $500 headset like Quest 3. In the end, they aren’t in the same price class (hell, they aren’t even in adjacent price classes), and the potential audience for each headset doesn’t have a huge overlap.
But now we have Galaxy XR which has managed to land right in the middle of Quest and Vision Pro, on price and features. This is a single headset that’s bringing new competition to both of these other headsets.
On the lower end, Quest 3 is primarily a gaming machine.
Thanks to Galaxy XR’s optional controllers (and Android XR’s compatibility with OpenXR and Unity), it has the potential to be just as much of a gaming machine as Quest 3. We’ll have to see if the headset gets enough traction to get a critical mass of VR game ports from the Quest library, but that path is at least much more straightforward for developers than it is to port a Quest game to Vision Pro.
On the much higher end, Vision Pro is a ‘spatial computing’ machine focused on media, browsing, and flatscreen productivity.
Thanks to Android XR’s replication of Vision Pro’s major features, it has the potential to do most of the same tasks—like media playback, browsing, and flatscreen productivity—at a much lower cost.
In a way, Galaxy XR is proving that it can do much of what Vision Pro does at a fraction of the cost, while also supporting the gaming-focused capabilities of Quest. If the finished product is polished enough to actually be worth using, it’s in the perfect position to put real competitive pressure on both Meta and Apple at the same time.
That’s not to say that Quest 3 doesn’t also do many of the things Vision Pro does at an even lower cost. But it’s origin as a ‘gaming console’—and its lack of access to the massive flat app libraries of Google’s Play Store or Apple’ App Store—has left it with some notable deficiencies in the ‘spatial computing’ department.
Competition is always good for consumers as it tends to mean better products at lower prices, which accelerates the pace of innovation.
The consumer XR industry has been firmly in the Quest 3 and Vision Pro era for the last two years or so. Things have been steady, but nothing has moved the needle enough to bring a step-change in the number of users. For that, the industry is going to need to offer smaller, cheaper, and better headsets.
Galaxy XR’s fusion of the gaming capabilities of Quest and the spatial computing capabilities of Vision Pro is just the right thing, at the right time, to accelerate and take XR to its next phase of adoption.
The post Galaxy XR is the Headset the Industry Needs to Take Its Next Major Step appeared first on Road to VR.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is number one, but can you guess the rest of the list? I doubt you get number 12 right
The post The PS2 Turns 25 Years Old And Here Are Its Best-Selling Games appeared first on Kotaku.
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Five years after its debut, Apple’s first M1 MacBook Air still holds up as one of the most important laptops the company ever made. Back in 2020, this was the machine that introduced Apple Silicon to the world, replacing Intel chips with a homegrown design that ran cooler, faster, and quieter. Currently, a refurbished 13.3-inch model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage is available for sale on StackSocial for $384.99. It carries a Grade-A rating, which means the condition should be close to mint, although there may be minor signs of handling, such as small scuffs on the case. At this price, the bigger trade-off is that it’s sold as a final sale with no warranty.
Performance-wise, the 8-core CPU of the M1 MacBook Air outperforms older Intel-based MacBooks, making it snappy enough for tasks such as word processing, streaming, and light photo or video editing. The 8-core GPU won’t compete with newer M3 or M4 models for demanding graphics tasks, but it’s fine for casual gaming and creative apps. Battery life was a major selling point in 2020, and it remains impressive today, with up to 15 hours of wireless web or 18 hours of video playback. For students or remote workers, this means all-day use without needing to hover near an outlet. Your mileage may vary depending on use.
That said, there are some limits worth considering. The 256GB SSD fills up quickly if you frequently use large files, so cloud storage or external drives may be necessary. The 720p webcam shows its age in an era where most laptops have transitioned to 1080p or higher resolution. And while the two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports are versatile, they may feel restrictive if you’re used to plugging in multiple accessories without a hub. On the bright side, the Retina display remains crisp at 2560×1600 resolution, the backlit Magic Keyboard is comfortable, and Touch ID enables quick logins. For under $400, this MacBook Air makes sense if you need a reliable everyday laptop and can live without the latest Apple hardware.
Federal investigators who are looking into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) tech have requested information from the company about the Mad Max mode it added to the system. The company has claimed that Mad Max offers “higher speeds and more frequent lane changes” than its Hurry speed profile.
“NHTSA is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told Reuters. “The human behind the wheel is fully responsible for driving the vehicle and complying with all traffic safety laws.”
When it opened a fresh probe into FSD earlier this month, the NHTSA said the tech had “induced vehicle behavior that violated traffic safety laws.” Some Tesla vehicles with FSD engaged are said to have run red lights and driven against the flow of traffic.
Tesla initially offered a Mad Max mode in 2018, before FSD was available. The company revived Mad Max this month and it didn’t take long before there were reports of Tesla vehicles that were using the mode rolling stop signs and driving above speed limits.
Earlier this year, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk was at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration initiative reportedly culled NHTSA staff. As part of that, DOGE was said to have fired three people who were part of a small team that worked on autonomous vehicle safety.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/federal-investigators-are-looking-into-teslas-mad-max-mode-which-reportedly-defies-speed-limits-170913959.html?src=rss
Quest’s new Immersive Home system has a Blumhouse Forest background for Halloween.
Meta Horizon OS v81, which rolled out this month, got rid of all the legacy Quest VR home environments and replaced them with a new “Immersive Home”, powered by Meta’s new Horizon Engine. The new Immersive Home is a singular core environment that launched with four background scenery options: Horizon Central, Midnight, Valley, and Oceanarium, each a combination of nearby 3D assets and a skybox.
For Halloween, Meta has now added a fifth background scenery option: Blumhouse Forest.
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Footage captured by UploadVR.
Blumhouse is the studio behind the biggest horror movie franchises of the 21st century, including Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, The Purge, Split, Get Out, M3GAN, and the cinema adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Earlier this year, Blumhouse released a Horrorverse world in Meta Horizon Worlds, with social experiences based on M3GAN, The Purge, Wolf Man, The Black Phone, and more.
And just a few weeks ago, it released Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema, a Quest 3 app which lets people in the US rent M3GAN or The Black Phone to watch them in custom VR environments with tailored immersive effects.
You can activate the new Blumhouse Forest background scenery in Quest’s Immersive Home by pressing the left Touch controller’s menu button or pinching your left index finger to your left thumb.
Google’s long-awaited AI health coach is nearly upon us, as a preview version is launching tomorrow for some Fitbit Premium users in the US. This will only be for Android devices at first, but the company promises an iOS version is in the works.
This is a Public Preview version of the software, so think of it like a beta release. Google says it’ll incorporate user feedback to “add, change or improve features and capabilities.” The company warns users that this is a “new experience, so initially, there will be some gaps.”
For the uninitiated, Google’s AI health coach is exactly what it sounds like. This is an AI chatbot intended to help users reach fitness and health goals. The company boasts that the tech is “secure, personalized and grounded in science.” Everything starts with a five to ten minute conversation with the coach to assess health and fitness goals.
The coach can be a sounding board for personal health, fitness and sleep goals, but also acts as a personal trainer. Google says it can be used to review and adjust fitness plans, check progress, get advice on trends and create workouts. To that last point, the company says the chatbot can create workouts based on pre-existing constraints. For instance, users can ask the bot to make a workout that can be done in a cramped hotel room.
The coach can also be used to brainstorm questions to ask a doctor and to track and analyze a number of sleep metrics. The bot provides a “detailed sleep analysis” and can allegedly understand patterns and trends that can impact sleep. All of this data can be accessed via the app.
Being as this is a preview build, it won’t roll out to everyone tomorrow. Eligible Fitbit Premium users will receive notification that the software is ready to use. It works with any Pixel Watch or Fitbit device.
The entire Fitbit app is being redesigned to focus more on AI and this is a large piece of the puzzle. Google promises integration with its health coach across every aspect of the app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-ai-health-coach-will-soon-be-available-to-some-fitbit-premium-users-170022769.html?src=rss
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Nothing says Halloween quite like an ominous countdown. Right now, subscribers to YouTube TV, the company’s live TV service, are waiting to learn if they’ll still have access to Disney-operated channels, including ABC and ESPN, come Oct.31. It’s the latest conflict in ongoing fee disputes between Google and its various content providers, but even if Disney takes its ball and goes home, you won’t be left entirely without options.
According to Variety, if Disney and Google are unable to reach a deal by the end of Thursday, all Disney networks will vanish from YouTube TV on Oct. 30 at midnight ET. These include Disney Channel, ESPN, ABC News, Disney Jr., FX, FXX, FRXM, NatGeo, Freefrom, and even local ABC stations.
It’s not the first time YouTube has been through something like this. Last February, Paramount made a similar threat before eventually reaching an agreement that saw no pause in customer access to its channels. Since then, YouTube has had similar conflicts with Fox Corp., NBC Universal, and Univision, with only the Spanish-language network failing to reach a deal before its channels went dark.
What’s happening here all comes down to licensing fees. To offer channels like the cable providers it’s trying to replace, YouTube TV has to continually pay fees to content providers, and occasionally, those providers propose higher fees. That leaves YouTube in a bit of a lurch, as it tries to navigate between paying a fair price to its partners while also avoiding raising prices for its subscribers.
Disney told Variety that, “[t]his is the latest example of Google exploiting is position as the expense of their own customers,” implying that Google was risking stripping away channels its customers had paid for by refusing to compensate Disney with “fair rates.” Google in turn argues that giving into Disney’s “costly economic terms” would force the company to “raise prices on YouTube TV,” as well as leave the service in a rough spot when compared to Disney’s own Live TV offering, Hulu + Live TV.
Personally, I wouldn’t take either company’s statement too seriously, at least if the earlier Paramount and NBC Universal conflicts are anything to go by—there’s a good chance a deal will be reached before YouTube TV subscribers are affected. But as with those earlier conflicts, YouTube is willing to make it up to its customers if they lose access to Disney content.
“If it [Disney content] remains unavailable for an extended period of time, we will offer subscribers a $20 credit,” YouTube said. That would be enough to subscribe to a month of the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN bundle with ads, although YouTube hasn’t said if the credit will be recurring.
Currently, a YouTube TV Base Plan starts at $72.99/month for your first three months, then jumps up to $82.99/month after that, making it slightly less expensive than Hulu + Live TV in the long term ($64.99/month for the first three months, then $89.99/month after that). Whether prices will stay the same if Disney pulls its channels remains to be seen.
Big names are pushing AI browsing as the future of the web, yet open source options are rare, leaving users to either weigh features against control and privacy… or fight back.
Finland’s fertility rate has dropped below 1.3 children per woman, the lowest among Nordic countries and far beneath the 2.1 replacement level needed to maintain a steady population. The rate has declined by a third since 2010. Kela, Finland’s social insurance agency, started distributing 2025 “baby boxes” — filled with clothing and other infant supplies — in August instead of spring because so many 2024 boxes remained unclaimed.
More parents now choose cash payments over the traditional boxes filled with infant supplies. The decline puzzles researchers because Finland offers paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers, subsidized childcare and national healthcare. Anneli Miettinen, Kela’s research manager, said that good family policies no longer explain birth rates in Nordic countries. Immigration has offset some population loss, but officials worry about workforce shrinkage and pension system strain.
Anna Rotkirch, who authored a government-commissioned report, found that many 17-year-olds describe wanting a house, garden, spouse and three children. Her research suggests young people struggle to form relationships, focus on education and careers, and delay childbearing. Some researchers attribute relationship difficulties to technology reducing physical interactions.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The best prices on virtually anything you can think of are can be found at the warehouse giant, but you need a membership to take advantage.
The post Costco’s 1-Year Membership Now Comes With a Digital Shop Card That Almost Covers the Cost, Making It Basically Free appeared first on Kotaku.
In this
Mexico City is one of the more unusual places that Formula 1 races, and it’s all thanks to altitude. The city sits at than 7,350 feet (2,240 m) above sea level, which makes the air noticeably thin compared to the average Grand Prix held at sea level. Like humans, F1 cars need air.
Oxygen is necessary if you want any internal combustion to happen inside the turbocharged 1.6 L V6 engine. A good flow of air across the various radiators and heat exchangers in the car is vital if you want to make it to the end of the race. And the downforce-generating wings and underbody only generate downforce by creating differences in air pressure above and below the car.
At over a mile above sea level, there’s about 20 percent less air, and therefore less power created by combustion, less efficient cooling of the cars, and less downforce able to be generated.
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Contacts with cat pupils or neon colors can be fun, but are you sure you want to put a piece of plastic from a costume store into your eye? Experts, like those at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, warn against it. These non-prescription contacts are technically illegal in the U.S. (even though plenty of companies sell them anyway). The CDC warns that the risks include “eye sores and vision loss.”
Cheap Halloween contacts tend to be one-size-fits-all, but the AAO points out that contacts should never be one-size-fits-all. A contact that is too large or too small for your eye can cause corneal abrasions, corneal ulcers, and can result in infections like keratitis. Infections can, in severe cases, lead to blindness. A 2017 report from the FDA found bacterial contamination in 27% of costume contacts.
If you do wear contacts (Halloween or otherwise), the AAO recommends keeping an eye out for symptoms like redness, swelling, pain, or excessive discharge. Seek care as soon as you suspect an infection. Your eyes are more sensitive to infections than other parts of the body, so be cautious.
Legally, contacts require a prescription, so if those colored contacts you’re eyeing can be bought without showing a doctor’s prescription, they’re not legit. The real thing can be expensive, though: I found prices ranging from $40 to $110 per pair from lens.com, Discount Contacts, and Wicked Eyez.
These websites all let you order online, but you’ll have to provide your prescription information before you can check out. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission has ruled that providers must give you your contact prescription after a fitting so that you can take the prescription elsewhere. And they cannot charge you extra for this.
Once you’ve got the lenses, you have to know how to take care of them. If you wear contacts every day, you already know the drill. But if you’re just picking up a pair to use with a costume, here are the basics:
Wash your hands before handling the lenses.
Store them in contact lens solution, and keep the lenses and their case clean.
Don’t sleep or swim with them in.
And for Pete’s sake, don’t share them with your friends!
After all, the bloodshot look stops being cool after you take your zombie costume off.
The Python Software Foundation, earlier this year, successfully obtained a
$1.5 million grant from the US National Science Foundation “to
“. The actual
address structural vulnerabilities in Python and PyPI
grant came with some strings attached though, in the form of a requirement
not to pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. So the Foundation
has withdrawn
the proposal rather than agree to terms that run counter to its own
mission.
We’re disappointed to have been put in the position where we had to
make this decision, because we believe our proposed project would
offer invaluable advances to the Python and greater open source
community, protecting millions of PyPI users from attempted
supply-chain attacks. The proposed project would create new tools
for automated proactive review of all packages uploaded to PyPI,
rather than the current process of reactive-only review.
The Ubuntu Unity community flavor of Ubuntu Linux built around the Unity desktop is in a difficult position and at risk for its survival given the lack of developers involved. A call-out has been made in seeking more community developers to contribute to Ubuntu Unity…
The Trump administration is using Master Chief a lot today
The post <em>Halo</em> Gets Sucked Into ICE’s Recruitment Meme War appeared first on Kotaku.
Save 25% on the GMKtec Mini PC designed for gaming for a limited time at Amazon.
The post Forget Mac Mini, Ryzen 7 PRO Gaming Mini PC Drops to Its Lowest Price Yet on Amazon appeared first on Kotaku.