Category: Technology

Meta’s Threads is pushing out another test that could address a major long-running complaint about the service. The company is experimenting with allowing users to set the non-algorithmic “following” feed as the default, Mark Zuckerberg shared in a post.

The change, according to Zuckerberg, will allow users to select any feed as their default, including the newly announced custom feeds. But longtime Threads users will likely be relieved to finally have the ability to make “following” their default view. Up until now, Meta has pushed users to its “for you” algorithmic feed, which has long been criticized for its problems with engagement bait and its uncanny ability to push a mix of bizarre posts from total strangers to the top of users’ feeds

As part of the test, Meta will also make the ability to change your feed “more visible” in the app. Zuckerberg didn’t share how many users would be part of the test or how long it might take for the feature to become official. “Interested to see how and if people use this,” he wrote.

The update is the latest in a series of changes Meta has pushed over the last couple of weeks as it has faced surging growth from rival Bluesky. Bluesky, which has seen an influx of new users since the election, defaults to a feed of content from accounts you follow and doesn’t have a centralized algorithmic feed, though it’s had custom feeds for more than a year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-latest-test-will-finally-let-you-make-the-following-feed-the-default-180857332.html?src=rss 

Max’s Black Friday deal gives you six months of one of the best streaming services for only $18 (billed monthly). The sale applies to new and returning subscribers. This is the Max with Ads plan, which usually costs $10 monthly, so you’re getting a 70-percent discount. Since the ad-free one costs $17 per month, perhaps that’ll make it easier to stomach some commercials before each episode of The Last of Us.

The deal is only available in the US and will automatically renew during the six months — and beyond. If you don’t want to pay $10 monthly after the discount period, just remember to cancel before the renewal date.

Max’s lineup has series and films like The Last of Us, House of the Dragon, Euphoria, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Penguin, Dune: Part Two, Everything Everywhere All at Once and Barbie. In addition, you get full series from HBO’s legendary archives, like The Sopranos, The Wire, Sex and The City, Game Of Thrones and Six Feet Under. It also includes current and old content from Warner Bros., A24, Adult Swim, ID and the DC Universe.

The Black Friday deal lasts from now through December 2. Head over to Max and log in or sign up.

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/max-black-friday-deal-get-six-months-of-access-for-only-18-165721872.html?src=rss 

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is back to once again paint a glorious portrait of the heavens. This time, the powerful telescope was set loose on the Sombrero galaxy, otherwise called Messier 104 or M104. The end result? A gorgeous image that reframes our understanding of that particular region of space.

Upon closer inspection using the JWST’s mid-infrared view, the Sombrero galaxy no longer truly resembles its namesake. It looks more like an archery target, complete with a bullseye in the center. That bullseye? It’s actually a supermassive black hole.

The sharp resolution offered by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) finally gives us a detailed glimpse of the outer ring, showing “intricate clumps” of dust. Previous images, captured via visible light, made the area appear “smooth like a blanket.” The JWST presents a more complicated picture.

The “clumpy nature of the dust” indicates carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which typically illustrate the presence of young star-forming regions. This is likely the case here, though the Sombrero galaxy is thought to not be a hotbed of star formation.

Scientists believe that the galaxy produces less than a single solar mass per year. The Milky Way galaxy, where you’re most likely reading this from, creates roughly two solar masses per year. Messier 82, otherwise called the Cigar galaxy, is responsible for around 20 solar masses per year.

The MIRI image also shows a whole bunch of galaxies littering the background of space, all with different shapes and colors. Astronomers are busy studying these background galaxies to determine how far away they are. As for the Sombrero galaxy, it’s 30 million light-years from Earth deep in the Virgo constellation. A galaxy too far for us to ever even hope of traveling to? Typical independent Virgo.

Of course, this is just the latest glorious image provided to us by the JWST. It recently found the most distant galaxy ever observed and gave us a new perspective on everyone’s favorite ice giant, Uranus.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-just-released-a-stunning-new-image-of-the-sombrero-galaxy-captured-by-the-jwst-171642105.html?src=rss 

The Department of Commerce has finalized federal funding for two more recipients under the CHIPS and Science Act. One of those is Rocket Lab, which has secured up to $23.9 million in funding to boost production of space-grade solar cells that power satellites and spacecraft.

The company, which launched its 200th satellite to orbit over the weekend, will use the money to upgrade its manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The funding will create more than 100 jobs and the goal is to beef up Rocket Lab’s compound semiconductor production by 50 percent within the next three years. The Commerce Department says this will “meet the growing national security and commercial demand for these solar cells in the United States.”

Rocket Lab’s solar cells are vital components of many of the country’s space programs. They’re found on the James Webb Space Telescope, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and Mars Insight Lander. The solar cells are also used in NASA’s Artemis missions, as well as in commercial satellites. Rocket Lab, one of only two US companies that make space-grade solar cells, agreed to preliminary terms for the funding in June.

Defense contractor BAE Systems will also get funding of up to $35.5 million to drastically speed up the timeline of a modernization project. According to the Department of Commerce, BAE will replace “aging tools” and quadruple its supply of chips for key US defense programs, such as F-35 fighter jets.

The department will provide the funding to the two companies as they complete various project milestones. To date, the Department of Commerce has allocated over $10 billion of the $36 billion in funding that was earmarked under the CHIPS and Science Act to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/rocket-lab-gets-up-to-239-million-in-chips-funding-for-space-grade-solar-cells-155932062.html?src=rss 

The dry air, hats and wind mean there’s little that can be done to make hair behave in the winter. But, there’s no harm in trying — especially when there’s a sale on devices that can help you. Right now, a Black Friday deal has brought the Dyson Airwrap down to $499 from $600 on Amazon — a 17 percent discount. That brings it to only $20 more than what we saw last year. It’s available for the same price on QVC. 

Ok, so spending half a grand on hair tools is still quite an investment, but it should be a big boost to your hair. We named it one of the best self-care gifts for 2024 thanks to its air flow system. It uses the Coanda effect to style your hair — theoretically causing less damage to your locks than typical hot tools. The device also comes with six attachments, including a wide-tooth comb, diffuser and Coanda smoothing dryer. 

The Airwrap is only one of the Dyson hair products on sale for Black Friday. Right now, you can buy the Dyson Airstrait Hair Straightener (another of our self-care gift picks) for $399, down from $500 — a 20 percent discount. The same deal is available on the Dyson Corrale Hair Straightener, while the Supersonic Hair Dryer has dropped to $329 from $430. 

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-dyson-airwrap-is-100-off-for-black-friday-153056294.html?src=rss 

NVIDIA has debuted a new experimental generative AI model, which it describes as “a Swiss Army knife for sound.” The model called Foundational Generative Audio Transformer Opus 1, or Fugatto, can take commands from text prompts and use them to create audio or to modify existing music, voice and sound files. It was designed by a team of AI researchers from around the world, and NVIDIA says that made the model’s “multi-accent and multilingual capabilities stronger.”

“We wanted to create a model that understands and generates sound like humans do,” said Rafael Valle, one of the researchers behind the project and a manager of applied audio research at NVIDIA. The company listed some possible real-world scenarios wherein Fugatto could be of use in its announcement. Music producers, it suggested, could use the technology to quickly generate a prototype for a song idea, which they can then easily edit to try out different styles, voices and instruments. 

People could use it to generate materials for language learnings tools in the voice of their choice. And video game developers could use it to create variations of pre-recorded assets to fit changes in the game based on the players’ choices and actions. In addition, the researchers found that the model can accomplish tasks not part of its pre-training, with some fine-tuning. It could combine instructions that it was trained on separately, such as generating speech that sounds angry with a specific accent or the sound of birds singing during a thunderstorm. The model can generate sounds that change over time, as well, like the pounding of a rainstorm as it moves across the land. 

NVIDIA didn’t say if it will give the public access to Fugatto, but the model isn’t the first generative AI technology that can create sounds out of text prompts. Meta previously released an open source AI kit that can create sounds from text descriptions. Google has its own text-to-music AI called MusicLM that people can access through the company’s AI Test Kitchen website. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nvidias-new-ai-model-fugatto-can-create-audio-from-text-prompts-140017297.html?src=rss 

As Black Friday arrives again, it’s time to consider getting something new. If that something happens to be a reliable assistant for home cleaning, consider this Dyson 360 Vis Nav, one of our choices for the best robot vacuums. This is the first time it’s been discounted since Dyson started selling these earlier this year.

We put this robot vacuum through its paces, and you can see the results in our Dyson 360 Vis Nav review. It managed to suck up an impressive amount of dog hair in our tests and has 360-degree vision augmented with LED lights to prevent collisions and accidents. While not perfect, it only hit chair legs a couple of times. On top of this, the robot has more than enough sensors and memory to remember your room’s layout.

Even if you’re not home, you can tell the vacuum to start cleaning up if you’ve connected it to your MyDyson app. It compiles deep clean reports and other useful information to help you find the right settings for better results in the future. Sadly, it doesn’t have a self-emptying base, but the debris ejection process is straightforward.

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/dyson-black-friday-deals-include-the-360-vis-nav-robot-vacuum-for-200-off-143634325.html?src=rss 

Raspberry Pi has announced the Pico 2 W, a wireless version of its Pico 2 microcontroller board built for hobbyists and industrial applications. At $7, it’s a relatively inexpensive way to control electronic devices like smart home gadgets and robots. With the new version, users will be able to securely link to remote sources to send and receive data, either via Bluetooth 5.2 or Wi-Fi 802.11n.

As with the Pico 2, the wireless variant is built around the RP2350 microcontroller built in-house by Raspberry Pi. it offers more speed and memory than the original RP2040 chip, along with a security model built around Arm’s TrustZone for Cortex-M. Users can program it using C, C++ and MicroPython, and choose between Arm Cortex-M33 or RISC-V cores. 

There are many potential use cases for the Pico 2 W, like smart home control that can link to external devices (plugs, lights, etc.) over Wi-Fi, robotics and science experiments. It’s now available for hobbyists from a variety of sources at $7.00 for the board only, $21 for a basic kit or $31 for the starter kit. You can see them here when you select the Pico 2 W option at the bottom of the page. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/raspberry-pis-7-pico-2-w-microcontroller-board-adds-wireless-connectivity-130001976.html?src=rss 

In its heyday, I used the PlayStation Portable (PSP) obsessively, but I haven’t been pulled in by other handheld devices — no, not even the Nintendo Switch. That could change in the future as Sony is reportedly developing a new portable console that would offer games directly on-device, Bloomberg reports. 

Yes, the handheld device will allegedly have games right on the device, so you won’t have to invest in a PlayStation 5 (or whatever number we’re up to at that point). The news comes from unnamed sources with Sony declining to comment on the possible development.

Sony currently offers the $200 PlayStation Portal but, unlike my beloved PSP and the PS Vita, only works for streaming games from your PlayStation. We were not fans when Sony released it last November, giving it only a 68 in our review and found it to be “among the most fickle devices” out there. It’s not the best quality picture, even when it and the PS5 have stable Wi-Fi connection. 

However, we’ve come to appreciate it over the past year, with some of Engadget’s editors really enjoying it. Also, last week Sony started testing cloud streaming on the Portal for PlayStation Plus Premium members. It’s a much more reliable connection than in the past and offers over 120 PS5 titles. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-is-reportedly-developing-a-new-portable-console-121417218.html?src=rss