Category: Technology

One year ago today, the largest aircraft ever built was destroyed during the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, the Antonov An-225 Mriya is once again taking to the skies — albeit in Microsoft Flight Simulator. What’s more, if you buy the add-on, you could help restore the only real-life Mriya that was ever completed.

The Ukraine-built Mriya was an ultra-heavy lift jet transport aircraft with six engines. It was the heaviest aircraft ever built and it had the largest wingspan of any plane at 290 feet. The Mriya, which had its first flight in 1988, was used to transport things like Soviet space shuttles, tanks, diesel locomotives and dozens of cars at a time.

A second Mriya was in the works, but it was never finished. There are plans to reconstruct the plane by using parts of the destroyed Mriya and pieces from the unfinished airframe. The project is expected to cost over $500 million.

The Microsoft Flight Simulator version of the Antonov An-225 Mriya is available in six liveries, including an Xbox Aviators Club one. It’s in the in-game marketplace on PC today and will be available for the Xbox Series X/S and cloud versions later this month. The Mriya costs $20, with all proceeds going to the Antonov Corporation’s Mryia reconstruction efforts. Meanwhile, iniBuilds, the team behind the virtual Mriya, has released a manual and other details about the plane on its forums.

Reddit announced today that it added the ability to search for comments within a single post. The new feature is now available on desktop, iOS and Android.

As Reddit mod u/anon-axolotl explained in the pinned announcement post in r/reddit, “So what does this mean? You don’t have to ‘cmd-f’ on the post page anymore and you can search comment threads without expanding them. No more long scrolling sessions — quickly get to the parts of the conversation you’re looking for and jump in where you want.” Previously, searching in a browser with Ctrl-F (Windows) or Cmd-F (macOS) required you first to expand any collapsed comments before it would yield the full results. Reddit’s enhanced built-in search will bring up all results without extra taps or clicks.

The new feature builds on the ability to search comments sitewide, which Reddit only added last year. Before that, Reddit’s search would only yield results from the original posts and topics within a community.

Reddit has been busy beefing up its search capabilities in recent months. It introduced the ability to search for text within images in October, which is handy for memes or other text-filled pictures. The company also improved the algorithm for its subreddit search, delivering “a larger number of and more relevant subreddits for most searches” along with better autocomplete results. Finally, it incorporated better navigation for video search results in Reddit mobile apps, letting you swipe up and down to browse between the results of a video search easily.

Late last year, Waymo secured a Driverless Pilot permit from the state of California, bringing the alphabet-owned brand one step closer to launching its autonomous taxi service in the state. Now, Waymo is already expanding its service area, announcing plans to begin testing driverless cars in Los Angeles. The company tells Engadget that the test will mark the first time that fully autonomous cars will roam the streets of LA, and that thanks to successful tests in San Francisco, its been able to roll out autonomous drivers in new cities with “little-to-no on-board engineering work.”

That doesn’t mean the company is ready to launch its Waymo One taxi service in California, however. The LA test will likely follow the same course as Waymo’s fleet in San Francisco: a limited number of vehicles only available to riders in the Waymo Research Trusted Tester program. Waymo didn’t have any details to share regarding when the full driverless taxi service will be available to customers in Los Angeles, but it probably hinges on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issuing the firm a Driverless Deployment permit. Until it can clear that final legal hurdle, Waymo’s paid taxi service will remain exclusive to Phoenix AZ. So far, GM’s Cruise robotaxi service is the only company permitted to charge for driverless rides in the state, so long as those rides take place during daylight hours.

Waymo didn’t give any specific dates for when the test will begin, but noted that its 5th-generation Jaguar I-Pace cars will start rider-only testing in Santa Monica, and only outside of rush-hour. Then, the program will expand in accordance with Waymo’s safety framework before eventually launching to consumers. Oh, and in case you were worried that the cars might make LA traffic even worse, the company promises that its continuously updating its self-driving software to avoid stalling traffic, as one stopped Waymo vehicle recently did in San Francisco.

Meta is taking further action as part of its long-running promise to combat sextortion and other forms of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The company has revealed that Facebook and Instagram are founding members of Take It Down, an initiative from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that helps young people and their parents remove intimate photos posted online. The system relies on locally stored photos, but theoretically protects privacy.

Instead of sharing the photos themselves, concerned users visit Take It Down to upload generated hashes. If Facebook, Instagram and other program members spot those hashes elsewhere, they can pull and block the content so it won’t proliferate. Meta notes that this isn’t just for those under 18, either. Parents can act on a child’s behalf, and adults can scrub images taken of them when they were younger. The NCMEC warns that platforms may have “limited capabilities” to remove content that’s already online, but this could still help mitigate or undo the damage from unwanted sharing. We’ve asked Meta for clarification.

Meta announced its anti-sextortion plans in November as part of a broader crackdown against “suspicious” adults messaging teens. The project is a follow-up to the StopNCII technology the company developed to fight revenge porn, and shares a similar implementation. This is the latest in a string of efforts to protect teens on Meta’s social networks. The company already limits sensitive content for teen Instagram users and restricts ads targeting young audiences, for instance.

The action isn’t entirely voluntary. Meta is under pressure from state attorneys general and other government bodies to show that it protects teens, particularly in light of whistleblower Frances Haugen’s accusations that the firm downplayed research into Instagram’s effects on mental health. The new takedown platform may lift some of that pressure even as it gives abuse survivors more control over their online presence.

Spotify is waving goodbye to its heart icon. The company is combining the icon, which enables you to quickly save music to your library, with the “add to playlist” prompt under a single plus button.

The plus button works a little differently on Spotify than it does on Apple Music, where tapping it a second time on an album or playlist downloads it to your device. When you tap Spotify’s plus button once, you’ll add a song, playlist, podcast or audiobook to your library. The plus button will then turn into a green check. If you tap the checkmark on the Now Playing view, you’ll be able to add the song or podcast episode to a playlist rather than just saving it to your Liked Songs or Your Episodes.

Spotify says the plus button will streamline how folks save songs and podcasts. It wrote in a blog post that user research showed the button “helped save time and gave users the ability to add to multiple playlists at once.” It could come in useful, for instance, if you’re listening to a radio station or Discover Weekly and encounter a song you like that would work well on one or more of your playlists. 

The plus button is starting to roll out on Spotify’s iOS and Android apps today. It’ll be available to all Spotify users in the coming weeks.

Snap announced today that it’s adding an OpenAI chatbot (similar to ChatGPT) to Snapchat. “My AI” is an experimental feature initially available for $3.99-per-month Snapchat+ subscribers, although the company reportedly wants to expand it to all users eventually. Snap’s bot rolls out this week.

My AI will appear as a regular Snap user profile, suggesting the company is marketing it less as an all-purpose writing machine and more as a virtual friend. “The big idea is that in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we’re going to talk to AI every day,” CEO Evan Spiegel toldThe Verge. “And this is something we’re well positioned to do as a messaging service.” When it rolls out, you’ll find the bot pinned to the app’s chat section above conversations with friends.

Snap’s announcement says the bot runs “the latest version of OpenAI’s GPT technology that the authors have customized for Snapchat.” That reportedly refers to OpenAI’s Foundry, a recently leaked, invitation-only developer program for deep-pocketed developers; it lets them use GPT-3.5, the more advanced model on which ChatGPT is based. The company’s publicly available API currently only supports up to GPT-3, an older and less intelligent model. We contacted Snap for clarification on the model used and will update this article if we hear back.

Snap’s chatbot will include restrictions to stay within the platform’s trust and safety guidelines. Hopefully, it avoids a similar fate to CNET’s AI-written articles, the AI Seinfeld experiment or various other AI bot train wrecks. For example, My AI will reportedly steer clear of swearing, violence, sexually explicit content or political opinions. Snap reportedly plans to continue tuning the model as more people use it and report inaccurate or inappropriate answers. (You can do so by holding down on a troublesome message and submitting feedback.)

Even with those protections, Snap’s bot could still become a dumpster fire of misinformation and offensive content. “As with all AI-powered chatbots, My AI is prone to hallucination and can be tricked into saying just about anything. Please be aware of its many deficiencies and sorry in advance!” the company said in its announcement post. “While My AI is designed to avoid biased, incorrect, harmful, or misleading information, mistakes may occur.”

Canada is reportedly the latest jurisdiction to ban TikTok from government-issued devices. The US federal government, multiple states and the European Union have previously prohibited their workers from using the app on official devices.

According to a note sent to Global Affairs Canada employees that was obtained by the National Post, TikTok “will be automatically removed and blocked from use on all government-issued mobile devices.” The report suggests that the government will announce the policy, which is expected to be effective March 1st, on Tuesday. 

“A review of the mobile application’s behavior in relation to the Policy on Service and Digital found that TikTok’s data collection methods may leave users vulnerable to cyber attacks,” the note purportedly reads. It may be the case that, similar to their counterparts in the US and EU, officials are concerned about the Chinese government gaining access to the data TikTok holds on Canadian citizens and residents. TikTok parent ByteDance is located in China, which has laws that force companies to share data with authorities when requested.

ByteDance has refuted suggestions that the Chinese government can access such data. It has claimed that Canadian user data is stored in the US and Singapore. However, it said that former employees in China and the US accessed data on American journalists, seemingly in an attempt to detect the sources of leaks from the company.

Canada’s Communications Security Establishment warned earlier this month that “adversary states can influence their domestic vendors to compromise products to advance their national interest, counter to Canadian clients’ interests and the interests of Canada,” but the report didn’t explicitly mention TikTok or China. The Canadian government, meanwhile, is facing scrutiny over possible Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, as the National Post notes.

“We’re disappointed that the Chief Information Officer of Canada has moved to block TikTok on government-issued mobile devices without citing any specific security concerns about TikTok or contacting us to discuss any concern prior to making this decision,” a TikTok spokesperson told Engadget. “We are always available to meet with our government officials to discuss how we protect the privacy and security of Canadians, but singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to achieve that shared goal. All it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by millions of Canadians.” 

Engadget has contacted the Canadian government for comment.

Update 2/27 12:35PM ET: Added TikTok’s statement.

Apple is finally ready to show more than a brief glimpse of Ted Lasso‘s next chapter. The company has shared its first full trailer for the Apple TV+ show’s third season, and it’s clear the new episodes will illustrate both highs and lows as AFC Richmond returns to the Premier League. The team’s quest for redemption and the showdown with Nate (now working for West Ham United) remain the main arcs, but it’s evident drama off the field is as important as before.

The trailer suggests Nate has mixed feelings about his defection, and that the new season will dive further into the relationship between Keeley and Roy. It’s also clear we’ll see more attention spent on Jamie, and Ted’s son makes an appearance. Roy’s role as assistant coach is already known to factor into the plot, as is Rebecca’s rivalry with her ex Rupert.

Ted Lasso returns on March 15th, with new episodes arriving each week. It’s unclear if there will be more seasons beyond this. However, it’s safe to say Apple isn’t leaning on the series as much as it did before. Well-received productions like Slow Horses and Severance have helped bolster the catalog, even if it’s still considerably smaller than what you’d find at rivals like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

Apart from making a few of our favorite chargers and power banks, Anker also sells some of the better values among wireless headphones through its Soundcore brand. If you’ve been looking to pick up a competent set of noise-canceling headphones for less than $100, a couple of those standouts are currently on sale, with the Soundcore Life Q30 discounted to $60 and the Soundcore Space Q45 down to $100. For the Life Q30, that’s not quite an all-time low, but it’s still $20 off the pair’s typical going rate. The Space Q45 usually retails for $150; this deal matches the lowest price we’ve seen.

To be clear, neither pair here can match the active noise cancellation (ANC), build quality, call quality, sound and/or overall feature set of the top picks in our best wireless headphones guide, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45. But if you can’t drop $350 or so on a new set of headphones, they can get you much of the way there at a far lower cost. 

Both pairs offer a comfortable fit that doesn’t clamp too tight on the head and offers ample padding. Both have superb battery life, lasting between 40 and 50 hours at moderate volumes. Both can connect to two devices simultaneously, and both come with a 3.5mm cable for wired listening, though only the Space Q45 can still use ANC when while wired. The two sets also include a transparency mode, which is serviceable, though not as clean as what you can get on pricier alternatives. And while the ANC on each pair isn’t top-of-the-line, it’s still good, particularly when it comes to muting bass-range noises like a plane or bus engine.

Sound quality is where the Life Q30 and Space Q45 might require some tweaking. Both headphones offer a strongly v-shaped profile out of the box, so their default sound is particularly boosted in the bass and highest parts of the treble. The Life Q30’s low-end is especially boomy. Some may like this more excited sound, but it’s not exactly natural. With either headphone, you may want to adjust the sound through Anker’s companion app, which offers a graphic EQ tool and a few alternative sound profile presets. Just note that, like many cheaper ANC headphones, the signature will sound slightly different depending on what ambient sound mode you use. 

If you can afford the Space Q45, it’s the better headphone of the two. Its design feels a bit less flimsy (though both pairs are mostly plastic), and it has an adaptive ANC mode that can automatically adjust the headphone’s ANC strength based on your surroundings. The Life Q30, on the other hand, just offers three preset ANC levels. For Android users, the Space Q45 also supports the higher-quality LDAC audio codec. That said, finding any good ANC headphones for less than $100 is difficult; at these deal prices, both the Life Q30 and Space Q45 perform well enough to offer good value.

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Netflix’s long-running Pokémon partnership is heading in a slightly unexpected direction. The streaming service has marked Pokémon Day by unveilingPokémon Concierge, a show featuring stop-motion animation from Japan’s Dwarf Studio. The series follows Haru, who joins Psyduck in meeting various trainers and creatures on vacation.

The companies haven’t shared the cast, format or release date. The production is “coming soon,” Netflix says. However, it’s safe to say you can expect a different style and storyline than the usual tales of Ash, Pikachu and crew.

Netflix first brought Pokémon content to subscribers in 2014, when it added the classic television series and two movies, among other videos. More has flowed in the years since, including the service-exclusive Pokémon Journeys. The strategy remains the same: Netflix potentially draws hordes of younger fans who may stick around for other kid-friendly shows, while The Pokémon Company helps introduce its gotta-catch-em-all brand to a generation that may never watch conventional TV.