Category: Technology

The next time you visit your local Apple Store, you might see Form’s Smart Swim 2 goggles in the accessory section. Starting November 5, Apple will begin stocking the $249 wearable at 20 of its retail locations across the US and Canada. That same day, the goggles will also go on sale on the company’s website, with availability there extending to the UK. In addition to home delivery, select Apple Store locations will offer in-store pickup.

“With Apple’s knowledgeable staff, we know the experience presenting our goggles will be exceptional. As a must-have fitness tech product, we’re excited to showcase Form at Apple,” said From founder and CEO Dan Eisenhardt.

From debuted Smart Swim 2 at the start of April. Building on its original smart goggles, the company integrated a heart rate sensor, and improved comfort and adjustability. It also managed to reduce the size of the “tech pack,” the component that houses all of the device’s electronics. The company continues to sell its original Smart Swim goggles for $179, and they remain a great bargain; they include From’s signature SwimStraight feature, which displays a digital compass inside the goggles to assist with open water navigation. However, if you want those, you’ll need to order them from the company’s website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/froms-smart-swim-2-goggles-will-be-available-to-buy-at-select-apple-stores-soon-100004858.html?src=rss 

Microsoft is accusing Google of funding a proxy campaign designed to discredit it in the eyes of regulatory authorities and policymakers in the European Union and beyond. In a blog post penned by Rima Alaily, the company’s deputy general counsel, Microsoft claims the search giant has gone to “great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding and control” of the Open Cloud Coalition, a group of “cloud service providers, industry leaders and stakeholders” that says it’s committed to advocating for a “fair, competitive, and open cloud services industry across the UK and EU.”

According to Microsoft, Google hired a lobbying agency in Europe to create and operate the organization, and recruited “a handful of” European cloud providers to appear as the public face of the soon-to-launch campaign. The company says that Google plans to “present itself as a backseat member” of the Open Cloud Coalition, rather than its leader and primary funder. As one example, Microsoft points to a recruitment document (PDF link) that makes no mention of the group’s claimed affiliation to Google. It also notes the involvement of Nicky Steward, who co-wrote a complaint against Microsoft and Amazon Web Services as part of the UK’s ongoing antitrust investigation into the cloud services market.

“It remains to be seen what Google offered smaller companies to join, either in terms of cash or discounts,” Microsoft says. It adds that one of the cloud providers Google approached about joining the Open Cloud Coalition claims that the company will direct the group to attack “Microsoft’s cloud computing business in the European Union and the United Kingdom.”

Engadget was unable to independently verify Microsoft’s claims.

“We’ve been very public about our concerns with Microsoft’s cloud licensing. We and many others believe that Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices lock-in customers and create negative downstream effects that impact cybersecurity, innovation, and choice,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget, and pointed us to four separate blog posts on the matter.

As for why Google would potentially go to the extraordinary lengths of funding an astroturf campaign, Microsoft points to the recent uptick in regulatory scrutiny of the company’s search, advertising and mobile app store businesses. By Microsoft’s count, Google faces at least 24 antitrust investigations globally, including a Department of Justice probe that could see the potential break up of the company.

“Never in the past two decades have Google’s search, digital advertising, and mobile app store monopolies faced such a concerted and determined threat as they do today.” Alaily writes. “At a time when Google should be focused on addressing legitimate questions about its business, it is instead turning its vast resources towards tearing down others. It is disappointing that, with the foundation of their business facing jeopardy, they have sought to bolster their cloud computing service – Google Cloud Platform – by attacking ours.”

The accusations come after Google had reportedly attempted to derail an antitrust settlement Microsoft had negotiated with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE). In July, Bloomberg wrote that Google had offered the group €470 million to go forward with litigation against its rival, an overture CISPE ultimately rejected.

As revenue growth from digital ads has slowed for Google in recent years, the company has increasingly turned to the cloud market to pick up the slack. In 2023, Google’s cloud business broke even for the first time. More recently, the unit generated a $900 million profit in the first quarter of this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-accuses-google-of-secretly-funding-regulatory-astroturf-campaign-203804594.html?src=rss 

Google now offers refurbished Pixel phones, as originally spotted by The Verge. The company is selling refurbed Pixel 6, Pixel 6A and Pixel 7 handsets directly on the Google Store. The phones can be purchased for up to 40 percent off, when compared to new models. Each smartphone ships with the same 1-year limited warranty and customer support options as a new model.

Google says that each refurbished handset has been “carefully inspected” to ensure that the phones, screens and batteries are all in tip-top shape. However, a company representative offered no guarantees regarding battery life in a statement to The Verge. Phone batteries age like people. Slowly at first and then all at once.

However, the prices are enticing. The Pixel 6 is available for $339, instead of $599, while the well-reviewed Pixel 7 Pro is $629 instead of $899. All of these refurbished models offer 128GB of storage, but Google spokesperson Patrick Seybold says that the store will soon offer other storage tiers.

Each phone ships with the latest Android software, which is a nice touch, and comes with a compatible charger. There’s also free shipping.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-starts-selling-refurbished-pixel-phones-184348702.html?src=rss 

Folks in the European Union finally know when Apple Intelligence will be available on their mobile devices. Apple told EU users on Monday that its AI suite will arrive in April 2025. The first Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools and AI notification summaries, are now available for English speakers elsewhere.

Apple announced the EU release date in a press release for the European Union (via 9to5Mac). Translated from Italian, the news post reads, “In April, Apple Intelligence features will begin to be distributed to iPhone and iPad users in the EU.”

The article notes that the first wave of Apple Intelligence is already available for EU users in macOS Sequoia 15.1. That’s because Apple used the Digital Markets Act (DMA) as its rationale for delaying its EU AI. In this case, the regulations only affect iPhone and iPad software, not macOS.

On Monday, Apple also confirmed that its AI suite will be available in more languages in April. These include Chinese, Korean, French, Japanese, English (India), English (Singapore), Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German and Vietnamese. In December, Apple Intelligence will become available in English variants for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.

Apple Intelligence is getting a tiered rollout. Today’s first batch in iOS 18.1 (for those outside the EU) includes Writing Tools, live transcriptions, notification summaries and more. iOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2 will bring additional features like ChatGPT integration, Genmoji, Visual Intelligence and Image Playground. That software is currently in beta and is expected to arrive with an official release in December.

The only catch is you’ll need a compatible device. On iPhone, that’s limited to the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 series. M-series iPads, Macs, and the new seventh-gen iPad mini are also supported.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-intelligence-is-coming-to-eu-iphones-and-ipads-in-april-191028410.html?src=rss 

The free-to-play mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is going the way of the dodo on November 28. However, it’s being replaced by a paid, (mostly) offline version called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. This refresh drops on December 3, giving mobile Animal Crossing players just a few days without access to their beloved campsites.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete won’t be cheap. It’ll be $10 from December 2 until January 25. After that, the price doubles to $20. Tom Nook doesn’t mess around. However, it will allow existing players to transfer save data and progress via their Nintendo accounts. This should be a boon for those who have been on board with the title since 2017. These players have until June 1 to transfer data from the old version to the new game.

The paid version will be different from the original in some ways. First of all, Leaf Tickets are being replaced by Leaf Tokens, likely because the tickets were purchased using real money and this is no longer a freemium game. There’s also something called Camper Cards, which Nintendo calls “customizable in-game cards that each player can create and trade through a QR Code, and that includes information like your personal favorite animal pal.” QR codes? Everyone loves those.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is also losing gift-sharing and the Market Box. There are a couple of other caveats for pre-existing players. First of all, there are no discounts available for current campers, even those who have regularly paid a monthly subscription fee. Some people have been paying those subs for years.

Finally, it looks like Nintendo plans on discontinuing support for the game next October, according to Kotaku. I’m no economist, but spending $20 on a mobile title that will likely stop receiving updates in less than a year doesn’t sound like fiscal responsibility. In any event, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete will be available for both iOS and Android come December.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-paid-version-of-animal-crossing-pocket-camp-arrives-on-december-3-175248073.html?src=rss 

Stung from the hit it took from an Apple privacy feature three years ago, Meta is reportedly looking to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft. The Information said on Monday that Meta is developing a search engine for its chatbot. The company also recently partnered with Reuters to help its AI answer news-related questions.

Meta has reportedly been working on indexing the web for at least eight months. The company’s goal is said to be to integrate the indexes into Meta AI, giving the chatbot an alternative to Google Search and Microsoft Bing. Meta publicly disclosed its web crawler tech this summer, only saying it was for “training AI models or improving products” without stating outright that it was building a search backend. Senior engineering manager Xueyuan Su is reportedly leading the search engine project.

The Information says the move directly results from dependence on other Big Tech companies that have “stung” the company in the past, like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT). Meta previously said the iPhone privacy feature introduced in 2021 would cost over $10 billion in lost ad revenue. (It was so concerned about the feature it was sued for allegedly evading its rules.)

The thinking is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta to be as autonomous as possible to avoid a repeat of that if Google or Microsoft were to cut off its access to web searches. It’s unknown if Meta currently pays either company for that access.

Engadget reached out to Meta for comment. We’ll update this story if we hear back.

The company’s AI investments appear to be paying off. Zuckerberg posted on Threads in August that Meta AI has over 185 million weekly active users and more than 400 million monthly. “Growing quickly, and we haven’t even rolled out in UK, Brazil, or EU yet,” the Facebook founder wrote. OpenAI said early this month that ChatGPT had 250 million weekly users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-reportedly-developing-a-search-engine-for-its-chatbot-172505704.html?src=rss 

In a blog post today, Google said it will make AI Overviews in Google Search available to users living in more than 100 countries. Google says people like AI Overviews, so the company plans to reach 1 billion users each month. Additionally, Google is expanding language support — now, users in any country where AI Overviews can get them in any available language. For example users in Japan are no longer limited to Japanese. 

If you aren’t familiar with AI Overviews by now, it’s a feature found in Google Search. Google’s Gemini AI model will generate a summary for most things people search for, or at least when Google’s systems detect a query where generative AI can be useful. This summary appears at the top of the page. Besides answering questions, it can also act as a meal planner, vacation organizer and brainstorming tool, among many other things.

This update follows several released over the last few months since the introduction of AI Overviews in May. The most recent update before this one allowed users to visit websites by clicking on links within the AI Overview text. Google says that this has resulted in a traffic increase to “supporting websites.” However, some publishers and sites fear that the overviews are destroying their traffic by being the first thing people see.

News like this isn’t surprising, as Google has been stuffing as much AI into Search as it can. AI Overviews have also generated some controversy after the AI gave people inaccurate information for searches — for example, it recommended putting glue on pizza for a bit. In response to those issues, Google put some protections and guardrails on AI overviews to avoid similar strange issues.

Correction, October 28 2024, 1:30PM ET: This story originally stated that Google was adding local language support to AI Overviews. That feature was already available, so we’ve clarified that any supported language can be displayed in any country where AI Overviews are available. We apologize for the error.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-expanding-ai-overviews-in-search-to-more-than-100-countries-170925933.html?src=rss 

A UK man who used AI to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has been sentenced to 18 years in prison, according to The Guardian. Hugh Nelson, 27, created the images by using photographs of real children, which were then manipulated by AI. Nelson was convicted of 16 child sexual abuse offenses back in August, after a lengthy police investigation. This was the first prosecution of its kind in the UK.

Nelson used modeling software called Daz 3D to manufacture the loathsome images. The program has a suite of AI tools, which he used to transform regular photos of children into CSAM. Greater Manchester police said that he sold these images online and was even commissioned in several cases to create specific items of CSAM via photographs of real kids. Police say that Nelson made around $6,500 by selling images online.

He was caught when trying to sell images to an undercover cop in a chatroom. “I’ve done beatings, smotherings, hangings, drownings, beheadings, necro, beast, the list goes on,” Nelson said to the cop to entice a sale. This is according to a transcript of a conversation provided by the prosecution.

It’s worth noting that Daz 3D doesn’t create deepfakes, in which one face is swapped onto another body. Nelson created actual 3D renders by feeding the photos to the AI algorithm.

At sentencing, the judge called the images “harrowing and sickening” and addressed Nelson specifically, saying “there seems to be no limit to the depths of depravity exhibited in the images that you were prepared to create and exhibit to others.” He also said that it was “impossible to know” if children had been abused as a result of the images. Police searches of Nelson’s devices did find a series of text messages in which he encouraged people to sexually abuse children under 13. These suspects and potential victims are allegedly located throughout the world, including the US.

The United States is, of course, not immune from this horrifying trend. A soldier was arrested back in August for allegedly using AI to generate CSAM. A Wisconsin man faces 70 years in prison for allegedly creating over 13,000 AI-generated images depicting CSAM. The world’s leading AI companies have signed a pledge to help stop this type of software from being used to generate child sexual abuse material.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/uk-man-gets-18-years-in-prison-for-using-ai-to-generate-csam-154037476.html?src=rss