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Ayaneo’s ever-expanding range of handheld gaming PCs is about to get more form factors. As part of its 2023 strategy event, the company introduced an Air Plus that boasts a larger screen than the base Air (6 inches versus 5.5) and, crucially, a much larger 46.2Whr battery (versus 28Whr). We still wouldn’t expect the new version to last long with more demanding titles, but it might be better-suited to extended casual game sessions.

The Windows-based Air Plus will be available in two lower-end Intel configurations (Celeron and Core i3) as well as speedier AMD models (Ryzen 5 7520U and Ryzen 7 6800U). Performance should scale the more you’re willing to spend, then. Final pricing isn’t available, but Ayaneo expects to start pre-orders after Lunar New Year celebrations end on February 5th.

The company is also expanding into sliders with (what else?) the Ayaneo Slide. To some degree, it’s an answer to the GPD Win 4 — you can pop the screen up when you need a keyboard for text input or simply navigating games that aren’t gamepad-friendly. Ayaneo said little else about the Slide during its event, but did confirm the system would be based on AMD’s recently-launched Ryzen 7000 mobile APUs and ship sometime in the second quarter of the year.

It’s too soon to say how well Ayaneo’s latest offerings fare against its biggest rival, Valve’s Steam Deck. The company has promised an updated front end (Ayaspace 2), but it’s not clear if this will be enough to overcome the limitations of running Windows on a handheld. With that said, it’s clear Ayaneo isn’t sitting still in the face of stiffer competition.

 

TikTok is expanding its use of labels for state-run media accounts, the company announced. The app is now bringing the tags, which identify “accounts run by organizations whose editorial output or decision-making process is subject to control or influence by a government,” to dozens of markets.

The company is relatively late to adopt such labels compared with most of its counterparts. YouTube added similar labels in 2018, while Meta and Twitter adopted them in 2020. TikTok only began labeling state-run media accounts last March, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the labels, which the company described as a “pilot,” only applied to accounts from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Now, TikTok says it has formalized its policy and “will begin applying our state-controlled media label in a phased approach, starting immediately with over 40 markets across multiple regions.” And while the company’s announcement doesn’t name specific countries, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed the labels will appear on accounts run by Chinese state media outlets.

That’s notable as TikTok has long been viewed with suspicion by lawmakers and government officials over concerns about the company’s perceived ties to the Chinese government. Though TikTok has long pushed back on claims that its service could be a national security threat, the issue has proved to be a rare source of bipartisan agreement, and the app has recently been banned on federal government devices and some college campuses. Congress has also introduced bills for more sweeping bans, though their future is uncertain.

But by finally expanding its state-run media labels, TikTok can now claim it’s treating accounts affiliated with Chinese government entities the same as other state-controlled media organizations. Of course, the labels alone are unlikely to dispel critics’ suspicions of the company. TikTok has partnered with Oracle to review its recommendation and content moderation systems. Oracle has also partnered with the company on a broader effort, known as Project Texas, to restrict employees’ access to US user data.

 

If you visit any of CNET’s AI-written articles, you’ll now see an editor’s note at the top that says: “We are currently reviewing this story for accuracy. If we find errors, we will update and issue corrections.” The publication has added the note after being notified of major errors in at least one of the machine-written financial explainers it had published. 

If you’ll recall, CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo recently admitted that the publication had put out around 75 articles about basic financial topics since November last year. Guglielmo said the website decided to do an experiment to see if AI can truly be used in newsrooms and other information-based services in the coming months and years. Based on Futurism’s report, it looks like the answer is: Sure, but the pieces it generates need to thoroughly fact-checked by a human editor. 

Futurism combed through one of the articles Guglielmo highlighted in the post, namely the piece entitled “What Is Compound Interest?”, and found a handful of serious errors. While the article has since been corrected, the original version said that “you’ll earn $10,300 at the end of the first year” — instead of just $300 — if you deposit $10,000 into an account that earns 3 percent interest compounding annually. The AI also made errors in explaining loan interest rate payments and certificates of deposit or CDs. 

You’ll find a huge difference in quality when comparing CNET’s articles with machine-written pieces in previous years, which read more like a bunch of facts thrown together rather than coherent stories. As Futurism notes, the errors it found highlight the biggest issue with the current generation of AI text generators: They may be capable of responding in a human-like manner, but they still struggle with sifting out inaccuracies. 

“Models like ChatGPT have a notorious tendency to spew biased, harmful, and factually incorrect content,” MIT’s Tech Review wrote in a piece examining how Microsoft could use OpenAI’s ChatGPT tech with Bing. “They are great at generating slick language that reads as if a human wrote it. But they have no real understanding of what they are generating, and they state both facts and falsehoods with the same high level of confidence.” That said, OpenAI recently rolled out an update to ChatGPT meant to “improve accuracy and factuality.” 

As for CNET, a spokesperson told Futurism in a statement: “We are actively reviewing all our AI-assisted pieces to make sure no further inaccuracies made it through the editing process, as humans make mistakes, too. We will continue to issue any necessary corrections according to CNET’s correction policy.”

 

Twitter is now offering a yearly discount on its Blue subscription service, according to a new support page spotted by The Verge. Web users can now sign up for $84 per year ($7 per month) and save a buck over the monthly $8 price. Similar discounts are available in other countries that offer Twitter Blue, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. 

Until now, Twitter Blue users only had the option of an $8 per month subscription via the web, or $11 month on iOS (passing Apple’s 30 percent fee onto the user). However, iOS users can still sign up on the web to save the extra $3. In that case, the new yearly subscription would save them 36 percent compared to signing up directly on iOS. 

A Twitter Blue subscription offers a number of perks, including a blue “verified” checkmark, higher ranking replies, 60-minute video uploads and more. Users can also undo and edit tweets, customize app icons, themes and navigations, bookmark tweets and more. You’ll need a phone number to sign up, and Twitter is supposed to verify your account to assure it’s not fraudulent or fake — something it failed at recently. 

The Elon Musk-owned social media network seems to need as many subscriptions as possible. According to a recent report on The Information, more than 500 of Twitter’s advertisers have paused spending on the site, and daily revenue on January 17th was down 40 percent compared to last year. 

In the first quarter of 2022 before Musk’s acquisition was finalized, Twitter reported sales of $1.2 billion, with $1.1 billion of that in advertising, and subscriptions (plus other revenue) making up the rest. 

 

Getty Images announced it’s suing Stability AI, makers of the AI art tool Stable Diffusion, over alleged copyright violations. “It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators,” the company wrote in a press statement released Tuesday. The lawsuit will reportedly include copyright and site TOS violations, like web scraping. The company wants to establish a favorable precedent, rather than chase monetary damages.

Text-to-image generation tools, like Stable Diffusion and Dall-E, are trained to do what they do using massive databases of annotated images, pulling together thousands of commonalities. That’s why Getty’s huge stable of images is so compelling. An independent study last August concluded that a notable portion of Stable Diffusion’s data was likely pulled directly from the Getty Images site. The art tool had a tendency to recreate the Getty watermark in its generated images. I think that’s what they call evidence.

– Mat Smith

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Apple’s M2 Pro and M2 Max chips finally arrive for MacBook Pro and Mac mini

Sometimes the rumors are right.

Apple has unveiled its new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, which will arrive very soon in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers. The new models will be up to 40 percent faster and should also offer superior battery life. The new entry-level processor is the M2 Pro, which has 10- or 12-core CPUs, including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, boosting performance by up to 20 percent over the 10-core M1 Pro CPU. The new MacBook Pro models are now available to pre-order at Apple and other retailers, starting at $1,999 for the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. The new Mac mini starts at $599, with the M2 chip or $1,299 with the M2 Pro. All are available to pre-order now, with shipping to start on January 24th.

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Samsung’s new 200-megapixel camera will probably appear in the Galaxy S23 Ultra

Better low-light performance incoming.

Samsung is continuing its “more pixels is better” mantra with the launch of its latest 200-megapixel (MP) sensor. The ISOCELL HP2 is a relatively large (for a smartphone) Type 1/1.3 sensor (around 12mm diagonally). The HP2 uses something Samsung calls Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG) technology. This essentially doubles the number of electrons from each photodiode, “boosting the pixel’s full-well capacity by more than 33 percent,” the company wrote. That means a pixel can hold more charge before saturating, reducing overexposure. Last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra “only” had a 108MP sensor, but rumors suggest the S23 Ultra will have a 200MP sensor – and the HP2 fits the bill. Samsung is set to reveal the Galaxy S23 series in just two weeks, on February 1st.

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Watch the latest ‘The Mandalorian’ season three trailer

It’s all about redemption.

Disney+ released a new trailer for The Mandalorian during the NFL Wild Card Game on ESPN and ABC. It shows Pedro Pascal’s character, Din Djarin, and Grogu reunited on their next adventure. Not that we have long to wait – season three will be streaming on Disney+ starting March 1st.

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Twitter admits it’s breaking third-party apps, cites ‘long-standing API rules’

It didn’t explain which rules developers had violated.

Several days after Twitter abruptly cut several third-party apps off from its API, the company has quietly acknowledged the move. “Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules,” the company tweeted from its developer account. “That may result in some apps not working.” However, the company offered no explanation which “long-standing API rules” developers of apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot were violating. It also doesn’t address why some smaller third-party Twitter apps are still up and running. Some have speculated that Twitter made the decision because third-party clients don’t show ads and may be perceived as siphoning off already declining ad revenue from the company.

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Logitech has unveiled a colorful, budget-oriented line of 1080p webcams, the $70 (£75) Brio 300 series. The aim is to help users struggling with “poor lighting conditions, unflattering camera angles and low-quality sound,” the company said. 

To that end, the Brio 300 for consumers and business-oriented Brio 305 models feature high dynamic contrast, auto light correction (via the company’s RightLight 2 tech) and a digital microphone with noise reduction. It also comes with a privacy shutter that rotates around to block the lens. It supports 1080p at up to 30 fps and 720p at 60 fps and connects to any USB-C port (you’ll need to buy an adapter for USB-A). Logitech promises Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet certification. 

The Brio 300 is priced the same as Logitech’s C920s Pro HD webcam, but has a funkier cone-shaped design and comes in Rose, Off-White or Graphite colors. Compared to the $130 Brio 500, it’s missing the stereo microphones, has a narrower field of view (70 versus 90 degrees) and no auto-framing. But it’s also nearly half the price — the Brio 300 is now available for $70 at Logitech’s store. 

 

Apple is already working on a more affordable version of its yet-to-be-announced mixed reality headset, according to Bloomberg and The Information. Based on previous reports about the long-rumored mixed reality device, it will cost around $3,000, which is double the price of the Quest Pro headset Meta released last year. Apple’s engineers are reportedly working to develop a more budget-friendly version that’s closer to the price of the Quest Pro and are already discussing strategies to achieve that goal, such as using cheaper components. 

While the flagship device will have 4K internal displays for each eye, its more affordable counterpart will likely use ones with lower resolution. The company’s engineers are also considering the use of fewer cameras and slower processors, which would, in turn, eliminate the need for internal fans. Apple might ask users to manually adjust their field of view for the cheaper headset instead of equipping it with a motor that can automatically do that. It might choose not to equip the device with its custom H2 wireless chip that would allow it to work better with AirPods, as well. A Bloomberg report earlier this month claimed the tech giant is developing its own Bluetooth and WiFi chip to replace Broadcom’s by 2025. The Information said Apple could also choose to use that in-house chip to prevent a third-party company from affecting the device’s pricing.

The cheaper mixed reality headset is in its very early stages, the sources reported, and Apple has yet to build a working prototype. According to Bloomberg, though, the majority of Apple’s 1,000-person Technology Development Group is working on the two headsets and that the company could release it next year or in 2025. As a result of this dual-device strategy, though, Apple has reportedly put its plans to launch lightweight augmented reality glasses on hold. The company’s original vision was to create AR glasses that could one day replace the iPhone, but it has now scaled back work on the project. It’s now apparently unclear if the AR glasses will ever launch. 

As for Apple’s flagship mixed reality headset, Bloomberg previously said that the company plans to formally announce it this spring ahead of WWDC in June. 

 

In 2023, there are cameras and microphones that match and surpass the capabilities of human sight and sound. But for all of our technological advancements, humans haven’t quite managed to build a better nose. After all, evolution has had millions of years to perfect the receptors humans, animals and inspects use to identify odors. But, with the help of nature, scientists may have made a breakthrough on that front.

In a study published Monday in the journal Biosensor and Bioelectronics, a group of researchers from Tel Aviv University (via Neuroscience News) said they recently created a robot that can identify a handful of smells with 10,000 times more sensitivity than some specialized electronics. They describe their robot as a bio-hybrid platform (read: cyborg). It features a set of antennae taken from a desert locust that is connected to an electronic system that measures the amount of electrical signal produced by the antennae when they detect a smell. They paired the robot with an algorithm that learned to characterize the smells by their signal output. In this way, the team created a system that could reliably differentiate between eight “pure” odors, including geranium, lemon and marzipan, and two mixtures of different smells. The scientists say their robot could one day be used to detect drugs and explosives.

A YouTube video from Tel Aviv University claims the robot is a “scientific first,” but last June researchers from Michigan State University published research detailing a system that used surgically-altered locusts to detect cancer cells. Back in 2016, scientists also tried turning locusts into bomb-sniffing cyborgs. What can I say, after millennia of causing crop failures, the pests could finally be useful for something.

 

Apple has agreed to review its labor practices in the US after regulators and employees accused the company of union busting. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its annual shareholders meeting, Apple said it would carry out an assessment of its “efforts to comply with its Human Rights Policy as it relates to workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in the United States by the end of calendar year 2023.”

The company will bring in a third-party firm to conduct the audit, according to The New York Times. A group of investors, including five New York City public worker pension funds, that controls around $7 billion worth of Apple stock called for the assessment in a September shareholder proposal. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who started talks with Apple on behalf of the city pension funds, told the Times that Apple agreed to the audit if the investors withdrew the proposal.

“Workers organizing at Apple for a collective voice in their workplace have reported strong pushback from the company — that flies in the face of Apple’s stated human rights commitment to workers’ freedom of association,” Lander said in a statement. “I’m grateful to Apple’s board of directors for listening to the concerns of shareholders regarding worker rights and hope the company will heed the findings of the third-party assessment and take concrete steps to adopt a genuine commitment to non-interference that respects the rights of its workers.”

In a letter to Apple chairman Arthur Levinson, the investor group urged Apple to hire a firm with expertise in labor (and that has not advised clients on how to prevent workforces from unionizing) to carry out the review. The investors also brought Microsoft’s neutral stance on labor organizing to Levinson’s attention and urged Apple to include its global supply chain and non-US operations as part of the audit.

“Apple has made commitments to worker rights globally as well as in its supply chain, and while much of the current organizing activity has occurred in the US, there are Apple worker organizing efforts occurring around the world, including in Australia and the UK,” they wrote. “Addressing these topics at a global level can add credibility to the assessment and address other potential areas of concern proactively and efficiently.”

News of the assessment comes amid talks between Apple and unionized workers at a store in Towson, Maryland over their first union contract. Workers in at least a half-dozen stores have accused Apple of violating labor laws, claiming that the company has clamped down on attempts to organize. The Communications Workers of America, which represents a collective of Apple Store workers in Oklahoma City, said in a National Labor Relations Board filing that the company set up an illegal union controlled by management at a store in Columbus, Ohio to thwart support for an independent employee union.

“While a credible, independent assessment by individuals or organizations with the appropriate expertise on workers’ freedom of association could uncover important information about Apple’s response to worker organizing, including its use of union busting consultants, workers need concrete solutions now. Apple must commit to a true policy of neutrality toward union organizing efforts,” the Communications Workers of America told Engadget in a statement. “Apple’s workers deserve respect and a voice on the job, not just another self-congratulatory exercise in corporate image management. We support investor advocates’ efforts to ensure this is a credible audit.”

 

Google has released the online tool it promised to enable Bluetooth support on the Stadia controller. This gives the cloud-streaming gamepad a second life, so owners can use it with PC, iOS or Android devices, preventing the platform’s central accessory from becoming a glorified paperweight. Stadia will shut its doors for good on Wednesday at 11:59 PM PT.

Owners of the Stadia controller can visit this web-based tool to unlock Bluetooth. The process is quick, simple and easy to follow. First, you’ll need to connect your controller to your computer using a USB-C cable and ensure it’s charged to at least 10 percent. Then, you can open the tool in Chrome and follow the website’s instructions.

Google announced in September that it would shut down its cloud gaming service. It refunded all game and hardware transactions starting in November, and several game studios stepped in to assist with porting progress. For example, IO interactive released a promised Progression Carryover tool for Hitman players, and Ubisoft is offering free PC copies of its games purchased through Stadia.

I dusted off my Stadia controller to test out the tool. After half an hour of charging (it had been in a box for two years), I connected it to my MacBook, fired up Chrome and had no problems completing the process. After finishing, you can hold down the Stadia button and the ‘Y’ button to pair it with compatible devices.

The Bluetooth tool disables the controller’s WiFi, required for Stadia gameplay, so you may want to wait until after the closure if there’s a chance you’ll want to play one last time. You could even seize the opportunity to try the Worm Game Google released last week as a “thanks” to its loyal users. Stadia had its share of enthusiastic and dedicated fans; they just fell short of the numbers needed to keep the service afloat.