Technology - Kalakshar US

Most US TikTok users aren’t following political accounts, study says

As TikTok faces the possibility of a ban in the United States, a new study sheds light on the type of accounts US adults follow on the platform. According to the report, published by Pew Research, political content and news are only a small fraction of the accounts US adults follow in the app.

The report is based on an analysis of 227,946 accounts followed by 664 TikTok users who participated in the study. Of those accounts, less than one percent were “politicians, civic actors or traditional media outlets and journalists,” Pew found, noting that “the typical U.S. adult on TikTok follows no accounts in each of these categories.”

Instead, people were more likely to follow accounts that posted about entertainment and pop culture, humor and viral dance clips. “To the extent Americans’ followed accounts discuss politics, it tends to be mixed with other topics,” Pew writes. “Some 43% of all followed accounts that discussed politics or current events during the study period also discussed entertainment and pop culture.”

Pew Research Center

The content of users’ following feeds doesn’t offer a complete picture of what people see on TikTok. The app defaults to the algorithmic “for you” feed, which is made up mainly of recommendations. And even though most users may not choose to follow explicitly political accounts, previous research from Pew found that 45 percent of US TikTok users report seeing “at least some” content about politics or political issues in the app.

The question of what US users see on TikTok has been more closely scrutinized over the last year. Some lawmakers stepped up calls for a ban of the app last fall after TikTok critics used hashtag data to suggest that the app was disproportionately recommending pro-Palestinian content. The company said such takes were the result of “unsound analysis.” TikTok stopped showing view counts for specific hashtags earlier this year.

While Pew’s report doesn’t touch on TikTok’s algorithmic recommendations, the authors note that follows are an important signal for the app. “User interactions with posts from the accounts they follow play a nontrivial role in shaping their For You page,’” the report says. “And studying these followed accounts can give us a better understanding on the content that users actively choose to look for on the platform.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/most-us-tiktok-users-arent-following-political-accounts-study-says-140053492.html?src=rss

Red Dead Redemption finally comes to PC 14 years after its original release

Fourteen years after it debuted on PS3 and Xbox 360, and endless rumors later, Red Dead Redemption is finally coming to PC. It will hit the Rockstar Store, Steam and the Epic Games Store on October 29 with the Undead Nightmare standalone expansion included.

Developer Double Eleven helped Rockstar with the port, which has many of the bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a PC version of a classic. Rockstar says RDR will run at up to 144Hz (no unlocked framerates, sadly) in a native 4K resolution if you have capable hardware. There’s support for HDR 10 along with Ultrawide (21:9) and Super Ultrawide (32:9) monitors. You’ll be able to play with a keyboard and mouse too.

Upscaling tech in the form of NVIDIA DLSS 3.7 and AMD FSR 3 is supported. So too are NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation, adjustable draw distances, shadow quality settings and other things that would sound like newfangled gobbledygook to John Marston.

Rockstar brought RDR to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch last year, but it’s the PC version that many folks have long been waiting for. I can’t wait to see what modders do with this one.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/red-dead-redemption-finally-comes-to-pc-14-years-after-its-original-release-141709270.html?src=rss

Google Docs adds tabs to help you stay organized

Google has released a new feature for Docs that will make it easier to break down — and, later, to find and access — information into separate sections. It’s adding tabs to Docs, so that you can “build content in a way that makes it possible for you to find what you’re looking for quickly.” Instead of creating multiple Doc files or merely using headings to organize information, you can write down whatever you want into distinct tabs, which will be much quicker to parse than a lengthy document. Tabs could also make collaborating with classmates or co-workers less chaotic.

In its announcement, Google enumerated several examples of how tabs could help people. “A project manager,” the company wrote, “can create a tab for budget, roles and responsibilities, goals, and key dates so that their working team can stay on track.” In addition to Google’s examples, we could also see the feature being useful to authors, who can use separate tabs for their outline, character profiles, plot plans, scenario details and other important notes.

Document tabs will take up the left-hand section of the Google Docs interface. You can create several subtabs under each tab if you want to break down the information that’s supposed to go into that section each further. If you edit a tab’s name, you’ll also be able to set an emoji to best represent what it’s about, which will then replace the default article icon. The new feature has already started rolling out and will be making its way to all Google Workspace users, as well as everyone with personal Gmail accounts, over the next 15 days.

Google

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/google-docs-adds-tabs-to-help-you-stay-organized-130016429.html?src=rss

Machine learning pioneers, including the ‘Godfather of AI,’ are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

Two scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.” John Hopfield, an emeritus professor of Princeton University, devised an associative memory that’s able to store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data. Geoffrey Hinton, who has been dubbed the “Godfather of AI,” pioneered a way to autonomously find properties in data, leading to the ability to identify certain elements in pictures.

“This year’s physics laureates’ breakthroughs stand on the foundations of physical science. They have showed a completely new way for us to use computers to aid and to guide us to tackle many of the challenges our society face,” the committee wrote on X. “Thanks to their work humanity now has a new item in its toolbox, which we can choose to use for good purposes. Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionizing science, engineering and daily life.”

This year’s physics laureates’ breakthroughs stand on the foundations of physical science. They have showed a completely new way for us to use computers to aid and to guide us to tackle many of the
challenges our society face.

Thanks to their work humanity now has a new item in… pic.twitter.com/0sGCbEoMsS

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2024

However, Hinton has grown concerned about machine learning and its potential impact on society. He was part of Google’s deep-learning artificial intelligence team (Google Brain, which merged with DeepMind last year) for many years before resigning in May 2023 so he could “freely speak out about the risks of AI.” At the time, he expressed concern about generative AI spurring a tsunami of misinformation and having the potential to wipe out jobs, along with the possibility of fully autonomous weapons emerging.

Although Hinton acknowledged the likelihood that machine learning and AI will improve health care, “it’s going to exceed people in intellectual ability. We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us,” he told reporters, according to The New York Times. That said, Hinton, a Turing Award winner and professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, was “flabbergasted” to learn that he had become a Nobel Prize laureate.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/machine-learning-pioneers-including-the-godfather-of-ai-are-awarded-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-132124417.html?src=rss

Meta Quest 3S hands-on: A $300 VR headset without major compromises

Instead of cramming more technology into its Quest VR headsets, which would inevitably escalate their price, Meta has taken the opposite approach with the Quest 3S. It’s a slightly bulkier, slightly less sharp version of the Quest 3 starting at $300, almost half off that headset’s $500 launch price. The Quest 3S pitch is clear for consumers and developers alike: It’s a more powerful and feature-rich budget device than the now defunct Quest 2, and since it has the same processor and GPU as the Quest 3, developers don’t have to worry as much about supporting older headsets either.

Based on my brief hands-on time with the Quest 3S (our full review is in the works), it’s easy to see how this could be another hit for Meta. Despite its lower price, it doesn’t look or feel inferior to the Quest 3 at first. The only noticeable external difference is that it uses a triangular array of sensors up front, instead of three pill-shaped modules. While it’s a bit larger than the Quest 3, it still sits comfortably on my face, and is easily adjustable via its rear and top straps.

I winced when I noticed it no longer had a 3.5mm jack, leaving you to use wireless headphones or a USB-C dongle instead, but its absence makes sense for a cheaper product. I’d wager the people who care most about a headphone jack would also opt for the Quest 3, instead.

Meta cut corners all over the place to drive the Quest 3S’s price down. There are only three lens adjustment positions to match your pupillary distance, whereas the Quest 3 has finer controls. And instead of pancake lenses, the Quest 3S uses Fresnel lenses which can lead to additional glare or other artifacts. Those also pair together with lower quality displays, which offer 1,832 by 1,920 pixels per eye (like the Quest 2), instead of the Quest 3’s 2,064 by 2,208 resolution.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

What’s more important for consumers is what Meta does include in the Quest 3S. It sports the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor and 8GB of RAM, and uses the same updated touch controllers. So while the Quest 3S might look a bit fuzzier than the Quest 3, it should perform the same.

That’s something I immediately noticed upon booting up the Quest 3S. Navigating its main menu and the Quest store felt effortless and snappy, with little lag between screens or apps loading. The touch controllers still feel very responsive, too, something I confirmed with a few Beat Saber sessions. While it does get a bit warm, like its pricier sibling, the Quest 3S trucked along without any noticeable slowdown while I was installing several large games. The mixed reality experience was also similar to that on the Quest 3 — it’s far from lifelike, but it’s clear enough to read text on your monitor or phone in a pinch.

Based on a few hours of testing, the Quest 3S clearly manages to deliver an immersive VR experience at a lower price point. But we’ll have to spend a bit more time in virtual reality to determine how, exactly, it differs from the Quest 3.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-quest-3s-hands-on-a-300-vr-headset-without-major-compromises-133012786.html?src=rss

SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts are leaving the ISS on October 13

NASA and SpaceX are looking to undock the Crew-8 mission vehicle from the ISS on October 13, 3:05AM Eastern time. Crew-8’s astronauts were originally scheduled to start making their way back to Earth on October 7, but since their spacecraft is going to splash down off the coast of Florida, NASA and SpaceX had decided to push it back “due to weather conditions and potential impacts from Hurricane Milton.” They will hold another briefing on the situation on October 11 and could delay the mission’s return further for the safety of everyone involved.

The Crew-8 mission launched on March 4 this year with four members: NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin. They conducted several experiments while on the International Space Station, such as sequencing the DNA of any antibiotic-resistant organism they could find on the ISS to look into how they adapted to the conditions out there. They also studied human brain organoids created with stem cells to look into Parkinson’s disease and into how extended spaceflight affects the human brain. They printed human tissues, studied how microgravity affects drug manufacturing and worked with an Astrobee robot. NASA will most likely cover their flight back on a livestream.

While Crew-8 has yet to leave the space station, SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission astronauts have been on board since September 29. That mission only flew with two crew members, because it will be coming back home with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who originally flew to the ISS on the Boeing Starliner. NASA said Wilmore and Williams have already tried on and tested their SpaceX Intravehicular Activity spacesuits and have completed all the work required to fly back to Earth with the Crew-9 vehicle.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/spacex-crew-8-astronauts-are-leaving-the-iss-on-october-13-133027531.html?src=rss

Ooni pizza ovens are up to $280 off for Amazon Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day is here, flooding the internet with all kinds of wild deals. Even Ooni pizza ovens are available at remarkable discounts. For instance, the Karu 16 is now $519, which is $281 off the usual price. That’s quite a sale.

The Ooni Karu 16 topped our list of the best pizza ovens, and with good reason. This is a fantastic appliance that could turn the most hesitant home chef into a true-blue pizzaiola. It’s the company’s largest multi-fuel model, meaning you can choose between wood, charcoal and gas. There’s a hinged glass door for peeping in on your pies and a digital thermometer for zeroing in on the absolute correct temperature. To that end, the oven can reach a crust-charring 950 F.

The “16” in the name refers to the size of the interior, which translates to larger pizza pies when compared to rival ovens. This also means that the oven can accommodate pans and large cast iron cookware, so it can whip up stuff other than pizza. However, pizza rules and other types of food drool.

The major downside here is regarding the price. The typical cost is $800, which is a massive splurge for a pizza oven. This sale alleviates much of that frustration. However, the Karu 16 requires a gas burner for that type of cook, and these burners are sold separately.

Today’s discounts aren’t just for the Karu 16. The company’s Volt 12 electric pizza oven is also on sale for $720, which is a discount of $180. As the name suggests, this is an indoor appliance that runs on good ole electricity. It can actually reach a maximum temperature of 850 F, which is a fantastic metric for an indoor oven.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ooni-pizza-ovens-are-up-to-280-off-for-amazon-prime-day-114521277.html?src=rss

Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is $85 off for Prime Day

The Kindle that lets you take handwritten notes is on sale for Amazon Prime Day. The 16GB model of the Kindle Scribe is currently $85 off and down to $255 instead of the usual $340. That’s not an all-time low — the ereader hit $240 as recently as July’s Prime Day — but this is the lowest price we’ve tracked since then. And, while there’s likely a new Kindle or two on the horizon, nothing is confirmed just yet.

The Kindle Scribe is our pick for the best E Ink tablet that’s also an ereader. The latency is next to nothing when it comes to drawing and handwriting notes, and we like that the basic stylus is included in the price (instead of coming as a separate purchase like with some E Ink slabs). You also get a number of brush types to choose from, like fountain pen, marker and pencil, and it’s easy to create and manage notebooks in which you can put those stroke styles to work.

We gave the device a score of 85 in our full review of the Kindle Scribe, again praising the writing experience as well as the premium build and ample screen size. One caveat is the lack of support for writing in the margins on most Kindle ebooks. While there’s a small library of titles that allow you to scribble directly on the page, they’re mostly crosswords and planner titles. For most ebooks, you’ll make notes in a pop-up window linked to the text.

As an ereader, the Scribe has a few abilities other ereaders don’t, such as letting you read two pages side-by-side when the screen is in landscape orientation. It also has a flush-front display and auto-adjusting warm front lights. We also like how easy it is to read borrowed library books on a Kindle. Plus a recent update enabled handwriting-to-text conversions that you can email to your contacts.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-kindle-scribe-is-85-off-for-prime-day-120059393.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals include this self-emptying Shark robot vacuum for a record-low price

Amazon Prime Day is a peak time to make upgrades to home tech, with some steep discounts on gadgets that might feel like too much of a splurge at list price. If you’ve been considering letting a machine take over vacuuming responsibilities in your house, then the Shark AI Ultra Robot Vacuum is on sale for just $300.

That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for this gadget; normally you need to shell out up to $420 to add it to your housework routine. The model on sale today is a version of the one we found to be a top all-around performer in our tests of robot vacuums.

The Shark AI Ultra model is a bag-free vacuum, which we appreciate since it removes the recurring cost of replacing bags every few months. It’s also a self-emptying model and this version is the 60-day capacity, meaning you can go two months before you need to get involved in disposing of the accumulated dust and dirt. Shark says it gets 120 minutes of runtime.

If you want a more heavy-duty option, the Shark Detect Pro Robot Vacuum is also on sale this Prime Day for $400. This model has the same bagless and self-emptying features as the Ultra and a 30-day capacity. It also can lift itself to better navigate around obstacles while it runs, and it uses blasts of air to better clean up corners and edges that are typically difficult for a round vacuum to reach. The average battery life is a little shorter than the Ultra at 110 minutes, but still a solid amount of cleaning time. The Prime Day discount can save you $150 off the usual $550 price tag for the Detect Pro.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-include-this-self-emptying-shark-robot-vacuum-for-a-record-low-price-110002458.html?src=rss

Save $100 on the Dyson Airwrap for October Prime Day

Amazon has the Dyson Airwrap available for close to an all-time low. The Prime Day sale shaves $100 off the price of this innovative styling tool, which can reduce styling time and potentially boost your hair’s long-term health. Usually $600, Amazon’s Prime Day sale drops the tool’s price down to $500.

The secret sauce to the Dyson Airwrap is the Coanda effect, which describes airflow’s tendency to follow a curved surface’s path. In this case, the air jets follow the Airwrap’s barrel or brush attachment. This phenomenon helps avoid the extreme heat (which can cause long-term damage) many competing products use.

The Dyson Airwrap measures the airflow’s temperature over 40 times per second, ensuring it stays within a safe range for your hair. Dyson advertises that the device can simultaneously dry and straighten hair with up to 58 percent less frizz and fewer flyaways than the original model. (This sale is for the 2022 upgrade, which followed the 2018 original.)

The tool includes six attachments for different hair types, styles and lengths. It comes with two barrels (in 1.6-inch and 1.2-inch lengths), two smoothing brushes (soft and firm), a round volumizing brush and a Coanda smoothing dryer. A filter cleaning brush and storage case are also in the box.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/save-100-on-the-dyson-airwrap-for-october-prime-day-111540673.html?src=rss