The controversial practice dates back to the 1990s when Apple introduced a service called Watson that critics say ripped off another companyβs tool. Since then, small apps have said it has become a pattern.
Enlarge/ Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy. (credit: Universal Pictures)
Ryan Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman in the new action comedy The Fall Guy, a loose adaptation of the popular 1980s TV series of the same name starring Lee Majors. Gosling even did a few of his own stunts, although professional stunt performers handled the most dangerous sequences. It's their job to assume the risk so the stars don't get injured but that can translate into a high rate of head injuries in particular. According to a study published in the Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, a significant fraction of stunt performers never report such injuries, largely because it's a competitive industry, and they are afraid of losing work. The impacts can lead to more serious cognitive issues later in life.
βMany stunt performers are afraid to report their injuries, especially head trauma, in fear they will be put on a do-not-hire list or looked at as a liability,β said co-author Jeffrey Russell of Ohio University. βThe more injuries or trauma, the harder it may be to find work. But that should not be how it is; production companies and their unions should be ensuring stunt performers are taken care of and not reprimanded for any injuries sustained on the job.β
The work builds on Russell's prior research, published last year, looking at the prevalence of head trauma and concussion in stunt performers and how well such injuries are managed. The prevalence of such injuries means that stunt performers are at high risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)βa degenerative brain disease associated with a history of repetitive head impacts that is a cause of much concern in collision sports like football and ice hockeyβover the course of their careers.
Itβs been described as Appleβs βkiss of death.β When the tech giant reaches out to app developers, many fear that Apple is really looking to copy their product. At its annual developersβ conference this year, Apple was accused of just that.
Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general, has called attention to what he has called the 'youth mental health crisis' that is currently happening in the U.S.
This week, he published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for social media warning labels like those put on cigarettes and alcohol. He hopes to warn young people of the danger social media poses to their mental wellbeing and development.
On average, teens in the U.S. are spending nearly 5 hours on social media every single day. And it is negatively impacting their health.
So what options do parents have? And will the government step in?
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Supermassive black holes appear to be present at the center of every galaxy, going back to some of the earliest galaxies in the Universe. And we have no idea how they got there. It shouldn't be possible for them to grow from supernova remnants to supermassive sizes as quickly as they do. And we're not aware of any other mechanism that could form something big enough that extreme growth wouldn't be necessary.
The seeming impossibility of supermassive black holes in the early Universe was already a bit of a problem; the James Webb Space Telescope has only made it worse by finding ever-earlier instances of galaxies with supermassive black holes. In the latest example, researchers have used the Webb to characterize a quasar powered by a supermassive black hole as it existed approximately 750 million years after the Big Bang. And it looks shockingly normal.
Looking back in time
Quasars are the brightest objects in the Universe, powered by actively feeding supermassive black holes. The galaxy surrounding them feeds them enough material that they form bright accretion disks and powerful jets, both of which emit copious amounts of radiation. They're often partly shrouded in dust, which glows from absorbing some of the energy emitted by the black hole. These quasars emit so much radiation that they ultimately drive some of the nearby material out of the galaxy entirely.
"Over at Fast Company, where we're celebrating 1994 Week, I wrote about the year of Peak CD-ROM, when excitement over the medium's potential was sky-high and the World Wide Web's audience still numbered in the extremely low millions," writes Slashdot reader and Fast Company technology editor Harry McCracken (harrymcc). "I cover once-famous products such as Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, the curse of shovelware, the rise of a San Francisco neighborhood known as 'Multimedia Gulch,' and why the whole dream soon came crashing down." Here's an excerpt from the article: Thirty years ago, a breakthrough technology was poised to transform how people stayed informed, entertained themselves, and maybe even shopped. I'm not talking about the World Wide Web. True, it was already getting good buzz among early adopter types. But even three years after going online, Tim Berners-Lee's creation was "still relatively slow and crude" and "limited to perhaps two million Internet users who have the proper software to gain access to it," wrote The New York Times' Peter H. Lewis in November 1994. At the time, it was the CD-ROM that had captured the imagination of consumers and the entire publishing industry. The high-capacity optical discs enabled mass distribution of multimedia for the first time, giving software developers the ability to create new kinds of experiences. Some of the largest companies in America saw them as media's next frontier, as did throngs of startups. In terms of pure mindshare, 1994 might have been the year of Peak CD, with 17.5 million CD-ROM drives and $590 million in discs sold, according to research firms Dataquest and Link Resources.
You already know that the frenzy didn't last. As the web got faster, slicker, and more readily accessible, CD-ROMs came to look pretty mundane, and eventually faded from memory. Myst, once the best-selling PC game of all time, might be the only 1990s disc that retains a prominent spot in our shared cultural consciousness. (Full disclosure: I do have a friend who can be relied upon to fondly bring up Microsoft's Cinemania movie guide about once a year for no apparent reason.) Revisiting the discs that defined the mid-1990s -- all of which are incompatible with modern operating systems -- isn't easy. To get some of them up and running again, I downloaded virtual CD-ROM files from the Internet Archive and used them with Windows 3.1 on my iPad Pro, courtesy of a piece of software Apple removed from the App Store in 2021. Spending time with titles such as Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia and It's a Wonderful Life Multi-Media Edition, three decades after they last commanded my attention, was a Proustian rush. You may not want to go to similar extremes. But would you indulge me as I wallow in enough CD-ROM nostalgia to get it out of my system?
Thomas Claburn reports via The Register: Meta allegedly tried to discredit university researchers in Brazil who had flagged fraudulent adverts on the social network's ad platform. Nucleo, a Brazil-based news organization, said it has obtained government documents showing that attorneys representing Meta questioned the credibility of researchers from NetLab, which is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). NetLab's research into Meta's ads contributed to Brazil's National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) decision in 2023 to fine Meta $1.7 million (9.3 million BRL), which is still being appealed. Meta (then Facebook) was separately fined of $1.2 million (6.6 million BRL) related to Cambridge Analytica.
As noted by Nucleo, NetLab's report showed that Facebook, despite being notified about the issues, had failed to remove more than 1,800 scam ads that fraudulently used the name of a government program that was supposed to assist those in debt. In response to the fine, attorneys representing Meta from law firm TozziniFreire allegedly accused the NetLab team of bias and of failing to involve Meta in the research process. Nucleo says that it obtained the administrative filing through freedom of information requests to Senacon. The documents are said to date from December 26 last year and to be part of the ongoing case against Meta. A spokesperson for NetLab, who asked not to be identified by name due to online harassment directed at the organization's members, told The Register that the research group was aware of the Nucleo report. "We were kind of surprised to see the account of our work in this law firm document," the spokesperson said. "We expected to be treated with more fairness for our work. Honestly, it comes at a very bad moment because NetLab particularly, but also Brazilian science in general, is being attacked by far-right groups."
On Thursday, more than 70 civil society groups including NetLab published an open letter decrying Meta's legal tactics. "This is an attack on scientific research work, and attempts at intimidation of researchers and researchers who are performing excellent work in the production of knowledge from empirical analysis that have been fundamental to qualify the public debate on the accountability of social media platforms operating in the country, especially with regard to paid content that causes harm to consumers of these platforms and that threaten the future of our democracy," the letter says. "This kind of attack and intimidation is made even more dangerous by aligning with arguments that, without any evidence, have been used by the far right to discredit the most diverse scientific productions, including NetLab itself." The claim, allegedly made by Meta's attorneys, is that the ad biz was "not given the opportunity to appoint a technical assistant and present questions" in the preparation of the NetLabs report. This is particularly striking given Meta's efforts to limit research into its ad platform. A Meta spokesperson told The Register: "We value input from civil society organizations and academic institutions for the context they provide as we constantly work toward improving our services. Meta's defense filed with the Brazilian Consumer Regulator questioned the use of the NetLab report as legal evidence, since it was produced without giving us prior opportunity to contribute meaningfully, in violation of local legal requirements."
A Zillow listing for a $2.4 million house in a Dallas suburb is grabbing attention for its 5,786-square-foot data center with immersion cooling tanks, massive server racks, and two separate power grids. Tom's Hardware reports: With a brick exterior, cute paving, and mini-McMansion arch stylings, the building certainly looks to be a residential home for the archetypal Texas family. Prospective home-buyers will thus be disappointed by the 0 bedroom, 1 bathroom setup, which becomes a warehouse-feeling office from the first step inside where you are met with a glass-shielded reception desk in a white-brick corridor. The "Crypto Collective" branding betrays the former life of the unit, which served admirably as a crypto mining base.
The purchase of the "upgraded turnkey Tier 2 Data Center" will include all of its cooling and power infrastructure. Three Engineered Fluids "SLICTanks," single-phase liquid immersion cooling tanks for use with dielectric coolant, will come with pumps and a 500kW dry cooler. The tanks are currently filled with at least 80 mining computers visible from the photos, though the SLICTanks can be configured to fit more machines. Also visible in proximity to the cooling array is a deep row of classic server racks and a staggering amount of networking.
The listing advertises a host of potential uses for future customers, from "AI services, cloud hosting, traditional data center, servers or even Bitcoin Mining". Also packed into the 5,786 square feet of real estate is two separate power grids, 5 HVAC units, a hefty amount of four levels of warehouse-style storage aisles, a lounge/office space, and a fully-paved backyard. In other good news, its future corporate residents will not have an HOA to deal with, and will only be 20 minutes outside of the heart of Dallas, sitting just out of earshot of two major highways.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A French court has ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to poison their DNS resolvers to prevent circumvention of blocking measures, targeting around 117 pirate sports streaming domains. The move is another anti-piracy escalation for broadcaster Canal+, which also has permission to completely deindex the sites from search engine results. [...] Two decisions were handed down by the Paris judicial court last month; one concerning Premier League matches and the other the Champions League. The orders instruct Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to implement measures similar to those in place at local ISPs. To protect the rights of Canal+, the companies must prevent French internet users from using their services to access around 117 pirate domains.
According to French publication l'Informe, which broke the news, Google attorney Sebastien Proust crunched figures published by government anti-piracy agency Arcom and concluded that the effect on piracy rates, if any, is likely to be minimal. Starting with a pool of all users who use alternative DNS for any reason, users of pirate sites -- especially sites broadcasting the matches in question -- were isolated from the rest. Users of both VPNs and third-party DNS were further excluded from the group since DNS blocking is ineffective against VPNs. Proust found that the number of users likely to be affected by DNS blocking at Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco, amounts to 0.084% of the total population of French Internet users. Citing a recent survey, which found that only 2% of those who face blocks simply give up and don't find other means of circumvention, he reached an interesting conclusion. "2% of 0.084% is 0.00168% of Internet users! In absolute terms, that would represent a small group of around 800 people across France!"
In common with other courts presented with the same arguments, the Paris court said the number of people using alternative DNS to access the sites, and the simplicity of switching DNS, are irrelevant. Canal+ owns the rights to the broadcasts and if it wishes to request a blocking injunction, it has the legal right to do so. The DNS providers' assertion that their services are not covered by the legislation was also waved aside by the court. Google says it intends to comply with the order. As part of the original matter in 2023, it was already required to deindex the domains from search results under the same law. At least in theory, this means that those who circumvented the original blocks using these alternative DNS services, will be back to square one and confronted by blocks all over again. Given that circumventing this set of blocks will be as straightforward as circumventing the originals, that raises the question of what measures Canal+ will demand next, and from whom.
Robert Morris, a former Trump adviser, made the statement after Cindy Clemishire said the megachurch pastor in Southlake, Texas, abused her in the 1980s.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for tobacco-style warning labels on social media platforms for social the social media, saying that excessive use of the sites can harm children's mental health. NBC News' Tom Costello reports.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for tobacco-style warning labels on social media platforms for social the social media, saying that excessive use of the sites can harm children's mental health. NBC News' Tom Costello reports.
Cinnamon, the popular GTK desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint project, pushed out Cinnamon 6.2 today, which will serve as the default desktop for Linux Mint 22. Itβs a relatively minor release, but it does contain a major new feature which is actually quite welcome: a new GTK frontend for GNOME Online Accounts, part of the XApp project. This makes it possible to use the excellent GNOME Online Accounts framework, without having to resort to a GNOME application β and will come in very handy on other GTK desktops, too, like Xfce.
The remainder of the changes consist of a slew of bugfixes, small new features, and nips and tucks here and there. Wayland support is still an in-progress effort for Cinnamon, so youβll be stuck with X for now.
Less than a month after 3.5.0, IceWM is already shipping version 3.6.0. Once again not a major, earth-shattering release, it does contain at least one really cool feature that I think it pretty nifty: if you double-click on a window border, it will maximise just that side of the window. Pretty neat.
For the rest, itβs small changes and bug fixes for this venerable window manager.
It seems that if you want to steer clear from having Facebook use your Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. data for machine learning training, you might want to consider moving to the European Union.
Meta has apparently paused plans to process mounds of user data to bring new AI experiences to Europe.
The decision comes afterΒ data regulators rebuffedΒ the tech giantβsΒ claimsΒ that it had βlegitimate interestsβ in processing European Union- and European Economic Area (EEA)-based Facebook and Instagram usersβ dataβincluding personal posts and picturesβto train future AI tools.
These are just the opening salvos of the legal war thatβs brewing here, so who knows how itβs going to turn out. For now, though, European Union Facebook users are safe from Facebookβs machine learning training.
The project doesnβt seem to really publish any changelogs or release notes, so itβs difficult to figure out what, exactly, is going on at the moment. The roadmap indicates theyβve already got a solid base going to work from, such as mlibc, bash, GCC/G++, X and an X window manager, and more β with things like Wayland, networking, and more on the roadmap.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration plans to announce an executive action protecting about 500,000 undocumented spouses of American citizens from deportation.
The most anticipated international European tournament kicked off Friday, June 14, in Germany. Euro 2024 will run until July 14, and if you know where to look, you can catch all of the 51 matches (not "games") right here in the U.S.
How to watch Euro 2024 matches
Most of the games will be played on the FOX networks and Fox Sport 1 (FS1), and five matches will be played on Fubo. You have only one option if you want to catch all of the games with a single subscription: Fubo Pro. The subscription is $79.99 per month and gets you access to all of the relevant Fox channels. If you only want to watch some games, you can get a seven-day free trial.
DirecTV Stream is $79.99 per month. The YouTube TV Base Plan is $57.99 per month for the first three months. Sling Blue will run you $40 per month, and you can stream on three screens simultaneously. Vix Premium with ads starts at $4.99 per month and can also stream on three screens simultaneously; just be aware the matches will be narrated in Spanish.
If you're considering getting one of these subscriptions, remember that Copa America will be starting June 20 and running until July 14. Copa America will also be streamed on FOX and FS1 so you'll get to enjoy both tournaments.
The Euro 2024 match schedule
Here is the full list of who plays who during the group stages, what time in Eastern Time (ET) and what channel you can watch the matches.
June 14
Germany vs Scotland, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 15
Hungary vs Switzerland, 9 a.m.
Spain vs Croatia, 12 p.m. (FOX)
Italy vs Albania, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 16
Poland vs Netherlands, 9 a.m. (FS1)
Slovenia vs Denmark, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Serbia vs England, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 17
Romania vs Ukraine, 9 a.m.
Belgium vs Slovakia, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Austria vs France, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 18
Turkey vs Georgia, 12 p.m.
Portugal vs Czechia, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 19
Croatia vs Albania, 9 a.m. (FS1)
Germany vs Hungary, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Scotland vs Switzerland, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 20
Slovenia vs Serbia, 9 a.m. (FS1)
Denmark vs England, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Spain vs Italy, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 21
Slovakia vs Ukraine, 9 a.m.
Poland vs Austria, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Netherlands vs France, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 22
Georgia vs Czechia, 9 a.m.
Turkey vs Portugal, 12 p.m. (FOX)
Belgium vs Romania, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 23
Switzerland vs Germany, 3 p.m. (FS1)
Scotland vs Hungary, 3 p.m. (FOX)
June 24
Croatia vs Italy, 3 p.m. (FOX)
Albania vs Spain, 3 p.m. (FS1)
June 25
Netherlands vs Austria, 12 p.m. (FS1)
France vs Poland, 12 p.m. (FOX)
England vs Slovenia, 3 p.m. (FOX)
Denmark vs Serbia, 3 p.m. (FS1)
June 26
Slovakia vs Romania, 12 p.m. (FS1)
Ukraine vs Belgium, 12 p.m. (FOX)
Czechia vs Turkey, 3 p.m. (FS1)
Georgia vs Portugal, 3 p.m. (FOX)
After the group stages, the tournament will go into the round of 16 from June 29 to July 2.Then, the quarterfinals will be on July 5 and 6. The semifinal matches will be on July 9 and 10, and the Euro 2024 final will be played on July 14.
Google has been working to update how it handles text-to-speech (TTS) in Chrome on Android for a few months now. The feature was first noticed in beta in January, but now appears to be rolling out to more users with Chrome 125. Though it is still not fully ready just yet, 9to5Google reports, you can already enable it if you don't already have it.
Previously, to have your smartphone read webpages to you, youβd normally have to rely on Google Assistant on Android and Siri (plus Safari) on iPhone. While the new Listen to Page feature doesnβt appear to be coming to iOS anytime soon, itβs still nice to see Google baking this accessibility feature into Chrome itself.
9to5Google says that the new function appears to work on most text-heavy websites. However, youβll need to wait for the page to fully load and then access the option from the three dot menu at the top of Chrome. If you donβt see the feature listed, just activate it through the Chrome flag chrome://flags/#read-aloud. Enter the bold text into the URL bar, press enter to access the settings, and turn it on.
On top of reading webpages to you, the feature also comes with various controls, including options for playback speed as well as the ability to highlight text and turn on auto-scroll. Google has also included several voice options, including selections for U.S., U.K., Indian, and Australian English voices. There are also several different pitches available to provide a more warm, calm, bright, or peaceful tone.
The control bar for the TTS feature will remain docked even if you open additional tabs, and playback will continue if you lock your device. However, if you close the browserβor even push it to the background for any reasonβthe reading will end. The feature also appears to be available in Chrome Custom Tabs, and it can be set as a toolbar shortcut to help avoid scrolling through the menu looking for it.
As it hasnβt officially rolled out (any access you might have right now is a preview), the feature is likely still being worked on in some fashion. As such, Google may make more changesβor even add new featuresβbefore fully releasing it. If you'd rather wait for the full release, Googleβs Reading mode app remains a great alternative.
I come from a family that collects old photographs, which means my mom's basement is full of huge plastic containers of picturesβand that collection is only increasing with time. Some pictures are a century old and feature people we've never even met before. Most are a few decades old and show distant relatives eating cake or accidentally blinking when the flash went off.
We almost never look at any of these, but they take up so much spaceβand that's why my mom decided last year she'd had enough. She wanted them out of the house and enlisted me to help her. We decided to go through them once, looking for anything genuinely important, throw out the vast majority, and digitize anything decent. Here is what we learned along the way.
Decide what photographs to keep
Whether you decide to ship your pics off to a digitizing company or upload them all yourself, it helps to work with the smallest volume possible. The same way I recommend holding a remembrance night to go through old stuff before you chuck it out, I recommend going through your physical pictures before you digitize them. From a practical standpoint, this will help you pare down duplicates, toss out anything useless, and only keep what actually deserves to be kept. From a nicer perspective, you can have a lot of fun and make some nice memories by reliving the past for a nightβwhich was the point of holding onto these to begin with.
When I sort through photos, I categorize them into two piles: Throw away and digitize. Here and there, though, I snap a quick pic of one on my phone, just so I have it right away if I need it. It's easy to get sentimental and start making excuses about how every photo should be kept for some reason or another, but do your best to be pragmatic. You're not going to look at these often in the future. There's no reason to have five photos of your grandpa watching a football game or your toddler self visiting an aquarium you don't even remember. Select only the most important things to keep, reminisce a little about the stuff you're tossing, and keep going. My personal rule is that I pick one picture from each eventβbirthday parties, vacations, ceremonies, whateverβand make sure it's the best one. The rest have to go.
My best advice is to do this on a totally random night. Don't do it on a day you're feeling sentimental or nostalgic and especially don't do it around the date of something important that happened in the past, like the birth or death date of someone who's going to come up in the pictures a lot.
Digitizing photos on your own
If you want to tackle this on your own, you have two options: A photo scanner or an app on your phone. If you opt to get a scanner, get something that gets through the stacks quickly. PC Mag recommends the Epson FastFoto FF-680W, but keep in mind this thing is $599.99.
It's also a solid document scanner that can create searchable PDFs, so if you're looking to upgrade your scanner and you're in the market for something to digitize your pics, this could be the one for you. Others on the market are cheaper, like the Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300 ($199), but you'll have to manually feed the photos in one by one, which might not work if you have a whole family history's worth of memories to upload.
No matter what kind of scanner you're using, I recommend setting up a Google Photos account to keep all the pictures in one place. If you want to make the pics accessible to a wide group of people, setting up a separate account, like [yourlastname]familyphotos@gmail.com might be the way to go. I love Google Photos because it's searchable and easy to customize. It recognizes faces (making it easy to highlight or hide certain people), you can make folders and add details, and it's free and easy to access across multiple devices.
Naturally, then, the app I recommend for digitizing pics with your phone is Google PhotoScan, since it uploads your scans straight into your Google Photos library. However, this one is time-consuming: You may have to take a few pictures, which will then be put together to create the best digitization, so you have to go through every photo one by one. If you want an app that will scan multiple photos at once, your best bet is Photomyne, but you'll have to pay $199.99 upfront for a 10-year plan. You can then save all the photos individually and upload them to whatever cloud service or device you want.
Photo digitizing services
I didn't say this was a cheap endeavor; I only said it was an important step in decluttering your home and modernizing your record-keeping. Scanners and apps cost money and so does shipping your photos to a service that will digitize them for youβbut the lack of hassle might be worth it.
iMemories is a service that charges $.99 per photo (but is frequently running specials, so you could pay as little as $.49). You can then pay $7.99 per month or $49.99 per year to access the iMemories Cloud full of your media, $39.99 for an 8GB USB drive, or $19.99 for a DVD or Blu-ray disk of the pics. Downloading them after the scan is free.
You could also try ScanMyPhotos, which also frequently offers specials but usually charges $229.98 per box of pics you send in. They estimate each box holds about 1,800 photos. Higher quality results will run you another $150 and you'll pay more the longer you want your download link to work before it expires.
Obviously, none of that is cheap either, which is why it's important to sort through your photo stack before you send it all in. But it's better than having stacks of pictures collecting dust and being far from useful in your attic.
Adobe prioritized profits while spending years ignoring numerous complaints from users struggling to cancel costly subscriptions without incurring hefty hidden fees, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged in a lawsuit Monday.
According to the FTC, Adobe knew that canceling subscriptions was hard but determined that it would hurt revenue to make canceling any easier, so Adobe never changed the "convoluted" process. Even when the FTC launched a probe in 2022 specifically indicating that Adobe's practices may be illegal, Adobe did nothing to address the alleged harm to consumers, the FTC complaint noted. Adobe also "provides no refunds or only partial refunds to some subscribers who incur charges after an attempted, unsuccessful cancellation."
Adobe "repeatedly decided against rectifying some of Adobeβs unlawful practices because of the revenue implications," the FTC alleged, asking a jury to permanently block Adobe from continuing the seemingly deceptive practices.
With a market flooded with vacuums and mops and models changing so rapidly, itβs almost impossible to feel confident about what youβre buying in the moment. For the last month, I have been testing the Ecovacs Deebot T30S Combo ($1199.99)βa robot vacuum and mop, in a self-emptying tower, combined with a stick vacuum. Itβs a machine trying to do a lot; Iβm going to discuss the parts as they compare to other vacuums and mops already out.Β
The T30S comes in two variations: The first has a handheld vacuum with a few attachments, but without the extension for the vacuum, itβs merely a nice Dustbuster. (For about 30 dollars more, you can get a fully extendable stick vacuum.)Β
The first thing youβll notice about the T30S is that the base is monstrousβit eclipsed in size any other robot I've tested in the last year, particularly in height. Water tanks and vacuum accessories can all be stowed in the tower itself, which is handyβbut even so, its size and width makes it harder to place in your home. Thereβs almost no assembly except for clicking together the ramp to the tower and stowing the accessories in a drawer designed for them.Β Pairing the robot to the Ecovacs app was also fast and streamlined.Β
Advanced features in app, but lots of advertising
Open the Ecovacs app, and without fail youβll be hit with offers and banners. Theyβre easy to click off, but still, itβs an annoying distraction. Otherwise, the interface for the vacuum works very similarly to other advanced robots out there including Roborock, Switchbot, and Dreame. Like Roborock, it has a voice assistant named Yiko and it works about as well as Roborockβs (which isnβt very well, but shows promise). Unlike other robots in this price range, the T30S lacks onboard video. The T30S is missing two of my must-have features on robot vacuums these days: remote control and pin and go, which you now see in almost all high-end models, including those mentioned above. Remote control allows you to control the robot using your phone, meaning you never have to go fishing for a bot under the couch again. You can simply drive it over to you. "Pin and go" allows you to mark a spot on the map and have the robot proceed to that pin and clean in that specific area. Itβs a great way to quickly deal with a spill.
In its favor, the T30S had a feature Iβm beginning to see more of: the ability to designate room cleaning priorities. In other words, if it's cleaning my bathroom and any other space, I can have it always clean the bathroom last. If it's cleaning the kitchen and any other space, I can direct it to always get the kitchen first. Another newer feature I like is the maintenance log for all the working parts, which gives you a status report of every single replaceable part. Other standard features like child lock, schedules, and intensity settings for your mop and vacuum are present on the T30S.Β
A better mop than vacuum
Every household produces different kinds of detritus. A floor that only has some dust could use almost any robot vacuum with success, and might want to focus on models like Dyson, which are specifically designed to capture microparticles. Some vacuums are specially designed to grab pet hair. I, on the other hand, have "macroparticles": large stuff that is tracked in by the dog, or dropped during various crafting or cooking activities. If you have kids who drop Cheerios, for instance, you have a macroparticle problem, and itβs one that robot vacuums struggle with. The T30S struggled with macroparticles, getting stuck on almost anything larger than a popcorn kernel, which meant I had to come clear out the roller brush. But it didnβt really capture smaller debris that well, either. This could be due to a singular roller design, but I think itβs also due to the small size of the debris container. The T30S did not seem to return to the base once full to empty itself, instead stubbornly continuing its run, unable to pick up anything else. If you, like me, suffer from larger detritus, then this is not the vacuum for you. But I believe this could be capable of picking up pet hair and dust, etc. without a problem.Β
More successful was the mop, which is handled by two spinning mop pads, much like the Roborock Qrevo line. While I still believe that mop pads, like the Roborock S8 are better for mopping than spinning pads, I thought the T30s did an admirable job, better than the Dreame L10 I recently reviewed, and on par with the Qrevo. Because the pads extend out from the robot, theyβre able to get into corners and room edges admirably. I generally found that this was all more successful when I ran a complete vacuum run and then a separate mop run.Β
The T30S did something that surprised me: It moved through a curtained-off area. When robots used bump-and-go technology to map an area, they would go anywhere a little battery-powered motor could take them. New robots including the T30S use LiDAR (lasers that use light and distance to determine where to go), which means most robots these days donβt bump into things at all, and actively avoid themβthey perceive obstacles they could get through or under as walls. So I was shocked to watch the T30S slip under a floor-length velvet curtain between my hallway and living room as if the curtain didnβt exist. While this is probably a bug (Ecovacs is still looking into it), I think it's a bug that could work in your favor if you have a space that previous LiDAR robots haven't "seen," whether that's a space blocked by a pet gate a robot could still slip under, someplace you're using a room divider, or a curtain, like me. While a bug could always get corrected, I think it's unlikely to happen, given that most companies just make a new robot altogether. In fact, this "bug" didn't exist on the Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni, which I tried (and liked) just a few months ago.
On the downside, the T30S also stranded itself more than a few times once the job was completed. It struggled to return to the base, abandoning itself in hallways and other random spots, and although this only represents 15% of all the times I used it, it's still a consideration.
A near-miss on what could have been a killer feature
The hand vac included in the T30S makes you question how badly you want to use it. On one hand, itβs such a good idea to have a self-emptying hand vac; you never have to deal with a messy canister over a trash can. This one feature is what makes me prefer the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI vacuum over any Dyson Iβve tried, because you simply grab the vacuum all ready to go, clean, and then place it back on the dock, where it empties itself.Β Unlike Samsung, though, there are extra steps to use the T30S. You have to assemble it each time you want to use it, and then disassemble it to put it back in the dock, where it self empties. All the time and energy saved by the self-emptying feature is canceled out by the work to put the vacuum together and take it apart each time you want to use it.
At least when you get the T30S with the extended stick vacuum, you just remove the handheld portion to place it in the tower, and the stick and whatever accessory youβre using get docked on the exterior of the tower, so it's not as labor-intensive. However, this also means the tower now takes up even more space vertically and horizontally.Β
Not a bad buy, but not the best buy
Despite all that, the truth is that if you were to buy a mid-range stick vac and robot vacuum, youβd still end up spending more than the list price for this combo tower. While I think if you want a better robot vacuum/mop youβd buy a Roborock or Switchbot, and if you wanted a better stick vacuum youβd get the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI, the Deebot T30S is going to work well for someone without major floor detritus who just wants a reliable bot to keep up with the daily dust, and wants a handheld vac nearby for things above ground level.
Apple made a splash during last week's WWDC keynote when it announced Apple Intelligence. It's the company's official foray into the trendy AI features most tech companies have adopted already. While Apple Intelligence might have generated the most headlines over the past week, many of its main features will not be present when you update your iPhone, iPad, or Mac this fall.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is staggering the rollout of these highly-anticipated AI features. A key reason is, simply, these features just aren't ready yet. Apple has been scrambling for over a year to implement generative AI features in its products, after the tech exploded in late 2022. (Thanks, ChatGPT.) Many of these features are quite involved, and will take more time to get right.
That said, Apple probably could release these features sooner and in larger batches if it wanted to, but there's a strategy here: By rolling out big AI features in limited numbers, Apple can root out any major issues before adding more AI to the mix (AI hallucinates, after all), and can continue to build up its cloud network without putting too much pressure on the system. It helps that the company is keeping these features to a specific, small pool of Apple devices: iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (and likely the iPhone 16 line), as well as M-Series Macs and iPads.
Apple Intelligence in 2024
If you installed the iOS 18 or macOS 15 beta right now, you might think no Apple Intelligence features were going to be ready in the fall. That's because Apple is delaying these AI features for beta testers until sometime this summer. As the public beta is scheduled to drop in July, it seems like a safe assumption that Apple is planning on dropping Apple Intelligence next month. Again, we don't know for sure.
There are some AI features currently in this first beta, even if they aren't strictly "Apple Intelligence" features: iOS 18 supports transcriptions for voice memos as well as enhanced voicemail transcriptions, and supports automatically calculating equations you type out. It's a limited experience, but seeing as it's only the first beta, we'll see more features soon.
In fact, Apple currently plans to roll out some flagship features with the first release of Apple Intelligence. That includes summaries for webpages, voice memos, notes, and emails; AI writing tools (such as rewriting and proofreading); and image generation, including the AI-generated emojis Apple is branding "Genmoji." You'll also receive AI summaries of notifications and see certain alerts first based on what the AI thinks is most important.
In addition, some of Siri's new updates will be out with iOS 18's initial release. This fall, you should notice the assistant's new UI, as well as the convenient new option for typing to Siri. But most of Siri's advertised features won't be ready for a while. (More on that below.)
The timeline for ChatGPT integration is also a bit up in the air: It may not arrive with the first release of iOS 18 in the fall, but Gurman believes it'll be here before the end of the year. For developers, Xcode's AI assistant, Swift Assist, is likely not out until later this year.
Apple Intelligence's new Siri won't be here until 2025
The largest delay appears to be to Siri's standout upgrades, many of which won't hit iOS and macOS until 2025. That includes contextual understanding and actions: The big example from the keynote was when a demonstrator asks Siri when her mom's flight is getting in, and the digital assistant is able to answer the question by pulling data from multiple apps. This "understanding" that would power many convenient actions without needing to explicitly tell Siri what you want it to do, needs more time to bake.
In addition, Apple is taking until next year for Siri's ability to act within apps from user commands. When available, you'll be able to ask Siri to edit a photo then add it to a message before sending it off. Siri will actually feel like a smart assistant that can do things on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac for you, but that takes time.
Siri also won't be able to analyze and understand what's happening on your screen until 2025. Next year, you should be able to ask Siri a simple question based on what you're doing on your device, and the assistant should understand. If you're trying to make movie plans with someone to see Inside Out 2, you could ask Siri "when is it playing?" and Siri should analyze the conversation and return results for movie times in your area.
Finally, Apple Intelligence remains English-only until at least next year. Apple needs more time to train the AI on other languages. As with other AI features, however, this is one that makes a lot of sense to delay until it's 100% ready.
AI might be the focus of the tech industry, but big AI features often roll out to disastrous ends. (Just look at Google's AI Overviews or Microsoft's Recall feature.) The more time Apple gives itself to get the tech right, the better. In the meantime, we can use the new features that are already available.
Enlarge/ Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, chief executive officer Novo Nordisk A/S, during an interview at the company's headquarters in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on Monday, June 12, 2023. (credit: Getty | Carsten Snejbjerg)
After some persuasion from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the CEO of Novo Nordisk will testify before lawmakers later this year on the "outrageously high cost" of the company's diabetes and weight-loss drugsβOzempic and Wegovyβin the US.
CEO Lars JΓΈrgensen will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), which is chaired by Sanders, in early September. The agreement came after a conversation with Sanders in which the CEO reportedly "reconsidered his position" and agreed to testify voluntarily. As such, Sanders has canceled a vote scheduled for June 18 on whether to subpoena Novo Nordisk to discuss its US prices, which are considerably higher than those of other countries.
The independent lawmaker has been working for months to pressure Novo Nordisk into lowering its prices and appearing before the committee. In April, Sanders sent JΓΈrgensen a letter announcing an investigation into the prices and included a lengthy set of information requests. In May, the committee's investigation released a report suggesting that Novo Nordisk's current pricing threatens to "bankrupt our entire health care system."
Adobe just canβt catch a break. After raising eyebrows earlier this month with new terms of service that had users worried the company would be poking through their files and potentially training AI on their work, the Photoshop maker is now coming under fire by the FTC, this time over alleged dishonest pricing. The government organization is suing Adobe over its hidden fees and hard to cancel subscriptions.
In a complaint filed on Monday, the FTC said, βAdobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.β In a related blog post, the regulator dinged Adobe for not making it clear that the subscription is a one-year commitment that charges 50% of any remaining payments when canceled, which can amount to βhundreds of dollars.β
The FTC also complained about Adobeβs poor treatment of customers who are trying to cancel. βSubscribers have had their calls or chats either dropped or disconnected and have had to re-explain their reason for calling when they re-connect,β reads the complaint.
In a statement, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Samuel Levine said βAmericans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel.β
The lawsuit targets Adobe executives Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani directly, implicating them for their control and authority in implementing such practices.
The complaint follows an investigation that began in 2022. Despite being aware of the increased scrutiny, βAdobe has nevertheless persisted in its violative practices to the present day,β the FTC says.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Currently, there are 20 different plans for individual subscribers listed on Adobeβs website, with more options available as you click through the listed cards. The Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which is highlighted with a βBest Valueβ banner, does say that a βfee applies if you cancel after 14 daysβ for its βAnnual, paid monthlyβ tier, although it does not provide specifics on the amount, even when you hover over an info button. Customers can go as far as entering payment information without seeing the final figure.
In a statement posted to the company's newsroom, Adobe General Counsel and Chief Trust Officer Dana Rao said, "We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements and have a simple cancellation process. We will refute the FTC's claims in court."Β
Hardware manufacturer Asus has released updates patching multiple critical vulnerabilities that allow hackers to remotely take control of a range of router models with no authentication or interaction required of end users.
The most critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-3080 is an authentication bypass flaw that can allow remote attackers to log into a device without authentication. The vulnerability, according to the Taiwan Computer Emergency Response Team / Coordination Center (TWCERT/CC), carries a severity rating of 9.8 out of 10. Asus said the vulnerability affects the following routers:
A second vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-3079 affects the same router models. It stems from a buffer overflow flaw and allows remote hackers who have already obtained administrative access to an affected router to execute commands.
Everyone can be scammed. Even if you think youβre pretty savvy about things, you can be scammedβmaybe especially because you think youβre pretty savvy about things. Between our desire to have goods and services and our determination to get a good deal on those goods and services, we can all be vulnerable to a good scam.
Owning a house, as you may have noticed, is expensive, and thus homeowners can be extra vulnerable to scammers. And hiring contractors can be a fraught, stressful process. You might think that would make it harder to fall for contractor scams, since we usually enter into these relationships with our bullshit antennae already up, but people fall for contractor scams all the timeβabout 10% of Americans have been hit by a contractor scam, losing an average of $2,426 in the process. While you might think scammers are obvious and easy to avoid, thatβs probably only because you havenβt been scammed yet.
Driveway destruction
The scam: You hire someone to repave your drivewayβmaybe they showed up at your door offering a great quote, or maybe you found them through internet research. Either way, they get to work and tear up your existing driveway. Then, once your driveway resembles the surface of the Moon, they announce the cost will be twice as much as the original quoteβor more. If theyβre being polite theyβll offer some excuse as to why the price increased, but either way, youβre in the same spot: You either pay up or you have no driveway.
Why itβs easy to fall for: Itβs just so ... brazen. Holding your house for ransom is often totally unexpected, but they know that once your driveway is ruined your only alternative is to hire a second contractor for even more money.
More materials, more problems
The scam:A contractor shows up at your door and tells you theyβre working in your area, and they have materials left over. To get rid of them and make their time in your neighborhood more profitable, theyβd be happy to do some work at your house for a big discount (since they already have the necessary materials). They negotiate a perfectly reasonable deposit and disappearβor spend a day doing some really low-quality work and leave you with a mess.
Why itβs easy to fall for: Like all great scams, it combines a perfectly reasonable scenario with your own desire to save a buck. Plus, having a friendly person at your door puts you at ease because you feel like youβve made a connection.
The "urgent" deal
The scam: A contractor offers you a terrific deal on a project, but only if you sign a contract and put down a deposit immediately. Once you do, they walk away and never return.
Why itβs easy to fall for: Time pressure is a common psychological trick used by scammers. And itβs common because it worksβit triggers a primitive reaction in our brain that drives us to make decisions we normally wouldnβt make. This is one reason why people often have a sense of disbelief that they fell for a scam like thisβonce the time pressure is removed, we think rationally again.
Straight-up insurance fraud
The scam: You tell a contractor you canβt afford a project, but they have a helpful idea: insurance. They tell you that they will get your insurer to cover the project; just let them handle it. One of two things happens next: Your contractor literally commits insurance fraud in your name by inventing a covered event, or they file a claim and take payment from the insurance companyβbut never actually do the work.
Why itβs easy to fall for: Contractor scammers always approach as friends who are just trying to help us out, and itβs not uncommon for legitimate contractors to deal with insurance companies on behalf of homeowners. Itβs always a good idea to be in on any communications between your contractor and your insurer and to double-check any claims a contractor makes about whatβs covered.
My friend the lender
The scam: Weβve all had that moment when a contractor gives us a quote and our souls briefly leave our body in shockβbut this contractor has a solution. They have a lender they work with frequently who will offer a great rate to finance the project, and the contractor will offer a discount if you use them. The contract you sign with the βlenderβ actually takes out a home equity loanon the houseβand the contractor vanishes.
Why itβs easy to fall for: Financing home repair and improvement projects is pretty commonβbut everyone dreads the trouble and paperwork. When a contractor makes it easy for us, weβre grateful, and might not do the due diligence we should.
Free inspection!
The scam: A contractor knocks on your door and offers to inspect some aspect of your home for free. They might claim they can see from the street that your roof, windows, air conditioning, or other part of the home is old and showing some wear and tear. The contractor then magically finds an emergency situationβand may even damage your home purposefully to force you to hire them to do the work. Once you pay a deposit, they go to βget materialsβ and never come back.
Why itβs easy to fall for: You figure if the inspection is free, thereβs no riskβand youβre getting over on them because youβll get the information and then you can go looking for the best deal to fix it. Youβre not expecting the sudden pressure of having to make a decision right there because theyβve discovered a very bad, no good situation that threatens your home or familyβand youβre certainly not expecting a roofer, for example, to come down from your roof holding a bunch of shingles they literally tore off on purpose.
How to protect yourself from contractor scams
Because weβre all human and our brains are hackable, anyone can fall for a scamβbut you can take steps that will protect you from most contractor scams:
Always do research. Never hire a contractor without researching them first. No matter how good an impression they make while standing in your doorway or when working up a quote, do your due diligence every time. Ask them for the license and insurance information and then use your stateβs license verification website to make sure theyβre legit.
You should also ask for and check their references to make sure theyβve completed projects and have satisfied clients. If they canβt provide these or you canβt actually get in touch with them, think twice.
Never sign right away. If youβre being pressured to sign a contract and/or drop a deposit to get a deal or secure an appointment for the work, walk away. Even if itβs not a scam, itβs a contractor you probably donβt want to work with.
Watch the deposit. Many contractors want a deposit before scheduling or beginning a job, and typically an amount between 10% and 33% isnβt crazy, depending on the total cost of the project. But more than that should give you pause, because you want to have some leverage if things go south. And some states limit how much a contractor can ask for, so check your local regulations before agreeing to anything.
Never pay cash. If a contractor insists on a cash deposit, politely show them the door. A credit card offers you a lot more fraud protection, although some contractors wonβt accept them because of the associated fees. But even a check is a better option than cash, as it at least establishes a paper trail.
Always get your own financing. Just as shopping around for car loans is always a good idea, you can almost always get a better financing deal for home repair or improvement projects on your own. And by not using a contractorβs βrecommendedβ financing you remove any risk of getting suckered.
Trust your gut. Legit contractors will outline the project, give you clear costs, and then give you time to consider and ask questions. If you feel pressured, confused, or frightened when speaking with a contractor walk away, even if it seems like theyβre making sense.
If you got scammed by a contractor
So what happens if a fast-talking scammer caught you at a bad moment and scammed some cash out of you for a repair or project theyβre obviously never going to do? There are a few basic steps to take:
Contact law enforcement.File a report with your local police. Even if they never identify and catch the scammer, having a record of the scam may be useful for you if you need to make an insurance claim. You should also contact your stateβs Attorney Generalβs office and file a report.
Consult a lawyer. Itβs possible you can pursue legal action against the scammer if you can locate them and prove they scammed you. Speaking with a lawyer can give you some idea of your chances and outline a way forward.
Contact your insurer. Your homeowners insurance may cover at least some of the financial loss, and if the scammer damaged your home as part of their scheme, you may have coverage for that as well. A conversation with your local insurance agent is a must.
Consult a (legit) contractor. Just because you got scammed doesnβt mean your home doesnβt need work, and sometimes scammers damage homes accidentally or purposefully while doing their βworkβ (or they do some of the work, and not particularly well). Donβt assume your financial loss is the end of the troubleβget a real contractor in there to ascertain if you actually do need work done.
Invite-Only deals started last year during Prime Day in an effort to give more people an equal chance to take advantage of the best deals Amazon has to offer. The program must've worked well for Amazon because they repeated it during Prime Big Deal Days later in October. While we don't have the official dates for Prime Day yet, we know it'll be sometime in mid-July. Knowing how to sign up for the Invite-Only deals will give you a fighting chance at taking advantage of these deals.
How to sign up for Prime Day Invite-Only deals
As Amazon explains, you must be a Prime Member to sign up for the Invite-Only deals. What you're doing is essentially requesting an invitation to the deal, which will come by email. Here are the steps from Amazon:
Find an "Invite-Only Prime Deal" that you want to purchase. You can find the deals on the Deals page.
Navigate to the product detail page.
Select "Request Invite." If you are not a Prime member, sign up for Prime to be able to request an invite.
You will receive an email notification confirming you requested an invite. The confirmation will be sent to the email that is on your Amazon account. If you don't have an email on your account, add one by navigating to Your Account > Login > Security.
Keep in mind that just because you requested an invitation doesn't mean you'll receive one. If you are selected, you'll receive a push notification and email during the sale. If you're not selected, Amazon will also let you know you didn't get one. You can only buy one of the products that you were invited for, but you can request as many different product invitations as you want. The invitation will last as long as Prime Day lasts (two days).
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wants to put a warning label on social media platforms, alerting young users of potential mental health harms.
"It is time to require a surgeon generalβs warning label on social media platforms stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents," Murthy wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Monday.
Murthy argued that a warning label is urgently needed because the "mental health crisis among young people is an emergency," and adolescents overusing social media can increase risks of anxiety and depression andΒ negatively impact body image.
Apple's Reminders app is great, but I've always wanted to add its entries to my iPhone's Calendar app, too. I am at my most productive when I have a to-do list with deadlines clearly listed, but I find it overwhelming to look at that list at the start of the day. I used to dread adding too many entries to Reminders until I discovered ReminderCal ($5). This app does one job and does it wellβsync reminders with the Calendar app.
Why I like seeing my tasks in Calendar
The Calendar app has a neat week view that adds a bit of space between every entry. If I have a run at 5am, meditation at 7, and work at 9:30, these entries seem overwhelming in Reminders. In the Calendar, the same three entries appear vertically with long gaps in between, which tells me that I have lots of free time in between my tasks. It's almost like a trick that reduces the urgency of tasks and makes my brain think: "I can do this!"Β
How to sync Reminders with Calendar
Credit: Pranay Parab
Once you download and install ReminderCal on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac (a single purchase unlocks the app on all three platforms), you'll need to give it access to your calendars and to the Reminders app. From here, the app will do its job with minimal input.
Now, when you add timed reminders in Apple's Reminders app, they'll start appearing in the Calendar automatically. If there are reminders that you don't want to sync, you can start those entries with $nocal or $nocalendar and ReminderCal will ignore them.
On Mac, as long as you let ReminderCal run in the background, it'll automatically sync all your tasks. You don't need to keep opening it and hitting the sync button.
On iPhone and iPad, background syncing is less reliable due to battery saving measures in the operating system. That's why I suggest using Apple's Shortcuts app to set up an automation to force a sync at a fixed interval. Just open the Shortcuts app, click the "+" in the top-right corner, select a time of day for the Shortcut to activate, tell the shortcut to activate daily, and choose the ReminderCal option.Β If you want ReminderCal to run multiple times a day, you'll have to set up a few different automations to force it to run every few hours.
Personally, I like to plan my day in advance, so I've set ReminderCal up to automatically sync at sunrise. When I add tasks for the same day, I can always open ReminderCal on my iPhone and sync it manually. It takes a second for the entries to appear in the calendar.
Configuring ReminderCal to your liking
Credit: Pranay Parab
I like ReminderCal's simplicity, and that shows in its settings menus as well. The default options are great for almost everyone, but you can change a few things if you like. The app allows you to choose if you want repeating reminders to appear in your calendars, for example. It's enabled by default but you can disable it if you want to. You can also force the app to sync completed reminders that were due in the past, but this is disabled by default to avoid cluttering your calendar.
There are two tweaks I suggest. I changed the default event duration to one hour from 30 minutes. The second tweak lets you invert the $nocal exception phrase. If you enable it, ReminderCal will only sync those reminder entries that have the $nocal phrase in the body. This is a good option for those who want to be very selective with syncing reminders with the calendar.
A limitation that you should be aware of
Unfortunately, third-party apps often have to deal with restrictions. ReminderCal cannot sync your reminders to calendars other than Outlook and iCloud. That's going to be a dealbreaker for lots of people, especially those who rely on Google Calendar, but there's nothing the app's developer can do about this as of yet.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple appears ready to embrace a thinner design language with the upcoming MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone. MacRumors reports: When the M4 iPad Pro was unveiled last month, Apple touted it as the company's thinnest product ever, and even compared it to the 2012 iPod nano to emphasize its slim dimensions. Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says that like the iPad Pro, Apple is now focused on delivering the thinnest possible devices across its lineups without compromising on battery life or major new features. Gurman writes that the new iPad Pro is the "beginning of a new class of Apple devices," and that Apple's aim is to offer "the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry." Apple now reportedly has its sights on making thinner versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, and MacBook Pro over the next couple of years.
Gurman's sources tell him Apple is now focused on developing a significantly skinnier iPhone in time for the iPhone 17 line in 2025, corroborating a May report by The Information. According to the latter report, Apple is planning to launch an all-new thinner iPhone 17 model next year that will allegedly feature a "major redesign" akin to the iPhone X. Gurman previously reported that Apple is planning a complete revamp of the Apple Watch for the device's tenth anniversary, dubbed "Apple Watch X." Since the original Apple Watch was unveiled in 2014 and launched in 2015, Gurman is unsure whether the Apple Watch X will be released in 2024 or 2025. However, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today claimed that this year's upcoming Apple Watch will have a larger screen and thinner design, which sounds like the sort of major overhaul and design signature that Gurman has suggested.
After two years of testing, McDonald's has ended its use of AI-powered drive-thru ordering. "The company was trialing IBM tech at more than 100 of its restaurants but it will remove those systems from all locations by the end of July, meaning that customers will once again be placing orders with a human instead of a computer," reports Engadget. From the report: As part of that decision, McDonald's is ending its automated order taking (AOT) partnership with IBM. However, McDonald's may be considering other potential partners to work with on future AOT efforts. "While there have been successes to date, we feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly," Mason Smoot, chief restaurant officer for McDonald's USA, said in an email to franchisees that was obtained by trade publication Restaurant Business (as noted by PC Mag). Smoot added that the company would look into other options and make "an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year," noting that "IBM has given us confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurant's future."
McDonald's told Restaurant Business that the goal of the test was to determine whether AOT could speed up service and streamline operations. By automating drive-thru orders, companies are hoping to negate the need for a staff member to take them and either reduce the number of workers needed to operate a restaurant or redeploy resources to other areas of the business. IBM will continue to power other McDonald's systems and it's in talks with other fast-food chains over the use of its AOT tech. The likes of Hardee's, Carl's Jr., Krystal, Wendy's, Dunkin and Taco Johns are already testing or using such technology at their drive-thru locations.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday called on Congress to require a tobacco-style warning for visitors to social media platforms. In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Murthy said the mental health crisis among young people is an urgent problem, with social media "an important contributor." He said his vision of the warning includes language that would alert users to the potential mental health harms of the websites and apps. "A surgeon general's warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe," he wrote.
In 1965, after the previous year's landmark report from Surgeon General Luther L. Terry that linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer and heart disease, Congress mandated unprecedented warning labels on packs of cigarettes, the first of which stated, "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health." Murthy said in the op-ed, "Evidence from tobacco labels shows that surgeon general's warnings can increase awareness and change behavior." But he acknowledged the limitations and said a label alone wouldn't make social media safe. Steps can be taken by Congress, social media companies, parents and others to mitigate the risks, ensure a safer experience online and protect children from possible harm, he wrote.
In the op-ed, Murthy linked the amount of time spent on social media to the increasing risk that children will experience symptoms of anxiety and depression. The American Psychological Association says teenagers spend nearly five hours every day on top platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. In a 2019 study, the association found the proportion of young adults with suicidal thoughts or other suicide-related outcomes increased 47% from 2008 to 2017, when social media use among that age group soared. And that was before the pandemic triggered a year's worth of virtual isolation for the U.S. In early 2021, amid continued pandemic lockdowns, Murthy called on social media platforms to "proactively enhance and contribute to the mental health and well-being of our children." [...] A surgeon general's public health advisory on social media's mental health published last year cited research finding that among its potential harms are exposure to violent and sexual content and to bullying, harassment and body shaming.
Cybercriminals are demanding payments of between $300,000 and $5 million apiece from as many as 10 companies breached in a campaign that targeted Snowflake customers, according to a security firm helping with the investigation. From a report: The hacking scheme has entered a "new stage" as the gang looks to profit from the most valuable information it has stolen, said Austin Larsen, a senior threat analyst at Google's Mandiant security business, which helped lead Snowflake's inquiry. That includes auctioning companies' data on illegal online forums to try to pressure them into making payments, he said.
"We anticipate the actor to continue to attempt to extort victims," Larsen said. Snowflake, a cloud-based data analytics firm, said on June 2 that hackers had launched a "targeted" effort directed against Snowflake users that used single-factor authentication techniques. The company declined to comment on any specific customers.
Apple said on Monday it will no longer offer its "buy now, pay later" service, Apple Pay Later, in the United States, and will instead focus on bringing installment loan offerings to Apple Pay users globally later this year. The company told 9to5Mac that the new feature will allow users to access installment loans from eligible credit and debit cards, as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay.
Existing Apple Pay Later users in the U.S. will still be able to manage their loans through the Wallet app. Apple Pay Later, which launched in the U.S. in March last year, allowed users to split purchases of $50 to $1,000 into four equal payments over six weeks without fees or interest. The company said the shift to a global installment loan offering will enable it to provide flexible payments to more users worldwide in collaboration with Apple Pay enabled banks and lenders.
Proton, the secure-minded email and productivity suite, is becoming a nonprofit foundation, but it doesn't want you to think about it in the way you think about other notable privacy and web foundations. From a report: "We believe that if we want to bring about large-scale change, Proton can't be billionaire-subsidized (like Signal), Google-subsidized (like Mozilla), government-subsidized (like Tor), donation-subsidized (like Wikipedia), or even speculation-subsidized (like the plethora of crypto "foundations")," Proton CEO Andy Yen wrote in a blog post announcing the transition. "Instead, Proton must have a profitable and healthy business at its core."
The announcement comes exactly 10 years to the day after a crowdfunding campaign saw 10,000 people give more than $500,000 to launch Proton Mail. To make it happen, Yen, along with co-founder Jason Stockman and first employee Dingchao Lu, endowed the Proton Foundation with some of their shares. The Proton Foundation is now the primary shareholder of the business Proton, which Yen states will "make irrevocable our wish that Proton remains in perpetuity an organization that places people ahead of profits." Among other members of the Foundation's board is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of HTML, HTTP, and almost everything else about the web.
Of particular importance is where Proton and the Proton Foundation are located: Switzerland. As Yen noted, Swiss foundations do not have shareholders and are instead obligated to act "in accordance with the purpose for which they were established." While the for-profit entity Proton AG can still do things like offer stock options to recruits and even raise its own capital on private markets, the Foundation serves as a backstop against moving too far from Proton's founding mission, Yen wrote.
The U.S. government on Monday sued Adobe, accusing the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat of harming consumers by enrolling them in its most lucrative subscription plans without clearly disclosing important terms. From a report: In a complaint filed in the San Jose, California, federal court, the government said Adobe failed to adequately disclose hefty early termination fees, sometimes reaching hundreds of dollars, when customers sign up for "annual, paid monthly" subscription plans.
The government said Adobe hides important terms in fine print and behind textboxes and hyperlinks, clearly discloses the fees only when subscribers try to cancel, and makes canceling an onerous and complicated process.
Dick Durbin sent a letter to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, on Monday asking for details on how the platform plans to combat sexually explicit deepfakes.
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