A report claimed that Dan was feeling ill shortly before he died. Get updates on what happened to the late paranormal investigator.
A report claimed that Dan was feeling ill shortly before he died. Get updates on what happened to the late paranormal investigator.
Jack Dorsey has been back in the news lately after unveiling a pair of new apps he worked on, Bluetooth-based messenager Bitchat and UV exposure tracker Sun Day. The Block CEO put those together under the auspices of a new development collective called “and Other Stuff,” a nonprofit that he is backing with a $10 million cash injection through his StartSmall foundation, as TechCrunch reports.
The group plans to work on open-source projects, including ones that could become consumer social media apps, along with app-development tools. The developers met on Nostr, a social networking protocol Dorsey has also backed financially.
The “and Other Stuff” collective aims to support Nostr’s “transition from an experimental protocol to a widely adopted, sustainable ecosystem through collaborative growth and funding.” In addition to Nostr projects, the collaborators plan to experiment with building tools based on the likes of ActivityPub — which powers Mastodon — and Cashu. That e-cash platform’s creator, dubbed Calle, is part of the “and other Stuff” team alongside Twitter’s first employee, Evan Henshaw-Plath.
The projects that “and Other Stuff” has worked on so far include voice note app heynow, a private messenger app called White Noise and social community +chorus. They have also created Shakespeare, which is designed to help developers build Nostr-based social apps with AI.
Dorsey has long fostered an interest in open-source protocols. In 2019, during his second stint as Twitter CEO, the company set up a team that was tasked with forming an open, decentralized standard for social media. Dorsey had hoped to eventually shift Twitter onto that protocol, but of course that didn’t pan out. Instead, Twitter spun out that project — Bluesky — as a public benefit corporation in 2022. Last year, after leaving Bluesky’s board, Dorsey claimed that the team there was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter such as, uh, setting up moderation tools (which are, in reality, a critically important aspect of any successful social platform).
On an episode of Henshaw-Plath’s new podcast, Dorsey reiterated a point he had made previously, that Twitter was beholden to advertisers (an issue that X is contending with under Elon Musk’s ownership). “It’s hard for something like [Twitter] to be a company, because you have corporate incentives when it wants to be a protocol,” Dorsey said. “If [Twitter] were an open protocol, if it were truly an open project, you could build a business on top of it, and you could build a very healthy business on top of it.”
He was also once again critical of Bluesky’s structure, adding that, “I want to push the energy in a different direction… which is more like Bitcoin, which is completely open and not owned by anyone from a protocol layer. That’s what I see in Nostr as well. That’s where I want to push my energy… rather into the more corporate direction, even if it is a public benefit corporation.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/jack-dorsey-backs-an-open-source-development-collective-with-10-million-140052825.html?src=rss
Whether on the highway or on city streets, car accidents are nearly always stressful and overwhelming. But not all car crashes are created equally. A collision between two personal vehicles may be more straightforward, but if a commercial vehicle, such as a delivery van, semi-truck, or rideshare vehicle, is involved, the process becomes much more…
Whether on the highway or on city streets, car accidents are nearly always stressful and overwhelming. But not all car crashes are created equally. A collision between two personal vehicles may be more straightforward, but if a commercial vehicle, such as a delivery van, semi-truck, or rideshare vehicle, is involved, the process becomes much more…
From courtside seats at NBA games to viral moments at the Super Bowl, celebrities and sports have always gone hand in hand. But lately, Hollywood’s biggest stars aren’t just watching from the sidelines—they’re shaping the way fans experience sports, both on and off the field. Here’s how A-listers are turning major sporting events into can’t-miss…
From courtside seats at NBA games to viral moments at the Super Bowl, celebrities and sports have always gone hand in hand. But lately, Hollywood’s biggest stars aren’t just watching from the sidelines—they’re shaping the way fans experience sports, both on and off the field. Here’s how A-listers are turning major sporting events into can’t-miss…
Since rolling out the redesign of its Firefly app in April, Adobe has been releasing major updates for the generative AI hub at a near monthly clip. Today, the company is introducing a handful of new features to assist those who use Firefly’s video capabilities.
To start, Adobe is making it easier to add sound effects to AI-generated clips. Right now, the majority of video models create footage without any accompanying audio. Adobe is addressing this with a nifty little feature that allows users to first describe the sound effect they want to generate and then record themselves making it. The second part isn’t so Adobe’s model can mimic the sound. Rather, it’s so the system can get a better idea of the intensity and timing the user wants from the effect.
In the demo Adobe showed me, one of the company’s employees used the feature to add the sound of a zipper being unzipped. They made a “zzzztttt” sound, which Adobe’s model faithfully used to reproduce the effect at the intended volume. The translation was less convincing when the employee used the tool to add the sound of footsteps on concrete, though if you’re using the feature for ideation as Adobe intended, that may not matter. When adding sound effects, there’s a timeline editor along the bottom of the interface to make it easy to time the audio properly.
The other new features Adobe is adding today are called Composition Reference, Keyframe Cropping and Video Presets. The first of those allows you to upload a video or image you captured to guide the generation process. In combination with Video Presets, you can define the style of the final output. Some of the options Adobe is offering at launch allow you to create clips with anime, black and white or vector art styles. Lastly, with Keyframe Cropping you can upload the first and final frame of a video and select an aspect ratio. Firefly will then generate a video that stays within your desired format.
In June, Adobe added support for additional third-party models, and this month it’s doing the same. Most notable is the inclusion of Veo 3, which Google premiered at its I/O 2025 conference in May. At the moment, Veo 3 is one of the only AI models that can generate video with sound. Like with all the other partner models Adobe offers in Firefly, Google has agreed not to use data from Adobe users for training future models. Every image and video people create through Firefly is digitally signed with the model that was used to create it. That is one of the safeguards Adobe includes so that Firefly customers don’t accidentally ship an asset that infringes on copyrighted material.
According to Zeke Koch, vice president of product management for Adobe Firefly, users can expect the fast pace of updates to continue. “We’re relentlessly shipping stuff almost as quickly as we can,” he said. Koch adds Adobe will continue to integrate more third-party models, as long as their providers agree to the company’s data privacy terms.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/adobe-firefly-can-now-generate-sound-effects-from-your-audio-cues-130008172.html?src=rss
TikTok has proven to be a powerful platform to help tunes go viral and now the company is making it easier for songwriters to benefit from that reach. The social media site has rolled out a pair of new features in beta: a Songwriter label that identifies users as such under their profile, and a Songwriter Music Tab that lets them spotlight tracks they’ve written or co-written.
So far, only a limited number of publishers and songwriters can apply to get the new label and tab. TikTok noted that several established songwriters including Lauren Christy (Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears), Toby Gad (Fergie, John Legend) and Justin Tranter (Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande) are among the first to gain access. Others who want to join can put their names on a waitlist.
TikTok and its parent ByteDance developed the Songwriter Features after surveying 871 songwriters and doing 18 in-depth interviews. Those findings informed the design of the feature with the aim of improving discovery and monetization opportunities while raising songwriters’ profiles on TikTok. The platform noted that 53 percent of full-time songwriters who post content on social media do so on TikTok.
When it comes to royalties and copyright, TikTok has taken a similar tack to YouTube and other social media sites. All the music available on TikTok can be used in videos and the platform has deals in place with distributors and labels to license music. Artists then receive royalties whenever creators use their music on TikTok, the amount of which depends on the individual distributor.
TikTok is following belatedly in the heels of Spotify, which has offered a similar songwriter spotlight feature since 2020. Last month, ByteDance introduced the TikTok for Artists music insight platform designed to help musicians gain access to “data and insights about their music, posts and followers.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktoks-latest-feature-will-help-songwriters-show-off-their-work-131512204.html?src=rss
Stellantis, the automotive giant behind Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep and Peugeot, is pulling out of hydrogen. The company said it’s killing its fuel cell development program in the face of “limited availability of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, high capital requirements and the need for stronger consumer purchasing incentives.” To put that another way, it’s realized hydrogen EVs are facing the same set of challenges it’s not been able to overcome in the last two or three decades.
It’s a stark shift in tone from January 2024, when the company promised to roll out a fleet of commercial fuel cell vehicles. Stellantis sells many of Europe’s most popular panel vans including the Citroen Jumper, Fiat Ducato, Opel Movano and Peugeot Boxer. Back then, it said we’d see hydrogen versions of all those vehicles (as well as its smaller siblings) with maximum ranges of 500km (310 miles).
The decision to pull the plug came relatively late, with the company saying it was due to begin production at its plants in France and Poland “this summer.” It added the decision to kill the range will not impact staffing in production or R&D, with employees transferred to other projects. It will, however, have to delicately negotiate its exit with Symbio, the fuel cell maker it bought a one-third share of back in 2023.
Stellantis isn’t the first company that pledged to put its weight behind fuel cells only to pull back. Toyota has thrown a lot of time, effort and money behind hydrogen, believing fuel cells would be preferable to battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Sadly, as time progressed, the company has had to cede more and more of the market to batteries, and only advertises its third-generation fuel cell as a power unit for heavy industrial vehicles.
Hydrogen was, and has been for some time, an article of faith for fossil fuel companies, the car industry and even some countries that lack their own energy reserves. After all, the promise of being able to pull (theoretically limitless), emission-free energy out of water is the stuff of dreams. Not to mention, it requires much of the same knowledge and infrastructure used by the traditional oil and gas industry, and refueling can only take place at a commercial site.
Had hydrogen made more of an impact, it would have likely preserved the status quo or something much like it, for those industries long into the future. But while the hope was that hydrogen could be a cleaner, greener substitute for oil and gas, its inherent flaws always made that a non-starter.
For instance, hydrogen is far less energy dense than oil and gas, and far less physically dense — it’s so prone to leaking that you have to go above and beyond to seal it in. It’s difficult to mass produce cleanly, especially if you want to power every car in the world, unless you use a dirty process like the steam reformation of methane. So, rather than moving away from fossil fuels and emissions, you’d be further entrenching them into the system and adding to the problem.
And if you did want to just use renewable energy to pull hydrogen from water, then you’d require an unprecedented amount of investment. Back in 2021, I asked Tim Lord, who had previously been in charge of the UK’s decarbonization strategy, about that sort of industrial-scale hydrogen generation. He said that you’d essentially need to double your whole electricity generation output to get close.
That’s before you get to the other factors, like hydrogen’s efficiency as a store of energy or the investment necessary to equip every gas station on the planet with a hydrogen tank. Which is not likely going to pay off given that Toyota’s Mirai, arguably the flagship hydrogen fuel cell EV, has only sold 28,000 models since its launch in 2014. In the US market, there’s only the Mirai, the Hyundai Nexo and the Honda CR-V e-FCEV knocking around, nothing compared to how many BEVs are on sale. I think it’s time for everyone to admit that we’re done with hydrogen fuel cell EVs and focus their attention elsewhere.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/another-big-car-company-gives-up-on-hydrogen-133011978.html?src=rss
Slack, the cloud‑based team messaging juggernaut, is charging ahead with further integration of AI into users’ day‑to‑day experience. The company is introducing a series of tools aimed at improving productivity and improving team communication.
AI writing assistance has been built directly into Slack Canvas, allowing users to create assets like project briefs as well as refine the content they create using natural‑language prompts. Writing assistance can also be used to generate and assign action items, refine raw meeting notes, create FAQs and more. AI writing assistance seems to be in vogue, as Google has also been developing AI writing assistance tools integrated into Google Workspace, and Apple offers similar tools via Apple Intelligence.
AI message context will help users understand the lingo of their organization and help ensure they don’t get lost in long threads by pulling surrounding context to explain a message when a user hovers over it. This tool will provide explanations for project names, internal tools or team‑specific shorthand. This will presumably help new team members get up to speed more quickly while they learn whatever random acronyms their company uses. AI‑generated channel recaps and thread summaries will similarly help users catch up when joining an ongoing project or conversation.
If you’re heads down working on a high‑priority task, Slack will use AI action items to understand what you’re working on and only interrupt your workflow if something provides a meaningful update or is more important than what you’re working on at the time.
The company also said it will be widening the availability of AI translation, which allows teammates to read and contribute in their preferred language, as well as Enterprise Search, which surfaces information across connected apps, data and conversations from the likes of Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive and more.
Slack has been rapidly incorporating AI tools into the platform recently. This should come as no surprise since Slack has been owned by Salesforce since 2021. The software company is among the most bullish on the future of AI and its applications in the workplace. We know that Slack has been using data from your chats to train its machine‑learning models, and recently Salesforce moved to ensure that rival software firms were not using or accessing the same data.
These tools and more are available to users with a paid Slack plan, though not every new AI tool is included at the lower price tiers. The higher the subscription tier, the more of these tools are included. Slack says that Enterprise Search, channel recaps, AI meeting notes and translations are available now. In contrast, AI‑assisted message explanations, action items, writing assistance in Canvas and profile summaries are coming soon and may be released throughout the year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/slack-is-getting-a-host-of-new-ai-tools-120023607.html?src=rss
Apple has rolled out the Emoji Game exclusively for its News+ subscribers in the US and Canada, just in time for World Emoji Day. While the company originally announced the game for iOS 26 at WWDC earlier this year, the Emoji Game is now available to subscribers on iPhone, iPad and Mac running iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 or later, respectively. The game is similar to other word games out there like Wordle in that players would have to fill in the blanks to guess words and phrases. But like its name implies, players will have to fill the blanked-out letters with emoji instead.
If the letters for “apple” are missing in the word “pineapple,” for instance, users would have to use the “apple” emoji to complete the word. For the phrase “the night is young,” players can choose the baby emoji if it’s the word “young” that’s missing. In addition to standard emoji, the game also uses Genmoji, which are custom emoji created using Apple Intelligence. For each round of the game, players will have to complete three phrases. They can reveal the clues baked into the phrases if they want, but it will use up one of their moves, which are limited in number.
News+ subscribers will be able to play the game in the Puzzles section of the Apple News app. Later this year, they’ll be able to play it in the upcoming dedicated Apple Games app, as well. An Apple’s News+ subscription costs $13 a month. It gives subscribers access to magazines and newspapers, audio stories and regional publications, along with daily puzzles like crosswords and sudoku.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/apples-emoji-game-is-now-out-for-news-subscribers-in-the-us-and-canada-121505775.html?src=rss
After several generations of iterative updates, it feels like Samsung tossed the Galaxy Z Fold 7 into a Hyperbolic Time Chamber to create a stunning device that’s leaner, stronger and more powerful than before. The best part though is the phone looks and functions just like a regular handset now that there’s less bulk to lug around. But at a moment’s notice, it can go Super Saiyan by opening up to reveal an even larger 8-inch display to become a true multimedia Raidboss. Unfortunately, it’s still extremely expensive at $2,000. Though if you can handle the price, in a lot of ways, Samsung has finally achieved foldable phone nirvana with the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
When Samsung debuted its updated super sleek design language on the Galaxy S25 Edge, it felt like a novel way to reimagine the S25+ as a more engaging device. But when the company gave the same treatment to the Z Fold 7, that engineering became something truly transformative. Compared to its predecessor, Samsung’s big foldable for 2025 is 10 percent lighter at just 215 grams. The bigger drop comes in thickness with Galaxy Z Fold 7 measuring a whopping 26 percent thinner (just 8.9mm when folded). This represents the biggest generation-over-generation decrease for the entire Z Fold line, which is kind of shocking considering it’s happening seven years in. The result is a foldable that is basically the same size and weight as the Galaxy S25 Ultra (it’s actually a little narrower), which is no mean feat for a class of gadgets that has been plagued by extra heft since they first came out.
What might be just as impressive is that Samsung hasn’t really cut corners to deliver the Z Fold 7’s streamlined dimensions. You still get an IP48 rating for dust and water resistance (which can handle submersions of up to 5 feet for 30 minutes) along with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 in front and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 in back. Samsung also completely re-engineered its Armor FlexHinge, which glides open and closed like a dream. Samsung even says that Z Fold 7’s ultra-thin glass is 50 percent thicker than before while also sporting a new titanium lattice that adds additional support and durability to the phone’s flexible display.
Inside, Samsung has switched away from the under-display sensor used on previous models in favor of a more traditional hole-punch camera. This is a bit of a shame as it adds a small blemish to that otherwise gorgeous screen. However, with the panel now measuring 8 inches across (up from 7.6 on the Z Fold 6), there’s more of it to enjoy even after you account for the small cutout. Plus, the move to a higher-res 10-megapixel sensor for this camera results in significantly better image quality than any of Samsung’s under-display modules.
The one small design quirk is that sometimes the phone doesn’t unfold all the way, often stopping just short at 179 degrees — much like the original Pixel Fold. That said, you can always make it go fully flat with a bit of extra pressure, though most of the time I don’t even bother because this is the kind of thing that you don’t really notice unless you’re specifically looking for it.
As for brightness and image quality, Samsung’s panels are still unmatched. In addition to a larger main display, the Z Fold 7’s exterior Cover Screen is slightly bigger at 6.5 inches. More importantly, it’s noticeably wider too while sporting even thinner bezels, which makes the whole phone feel more usable. The feeling of holding a skinny baton I got on previous models is completely gone. Both screens also support a 120Hz refresh rate and can hit a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. And when compared to rivals like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Fold 7’s displays just pop a touch more thanks to slightly richer colors and saturation.
After introducing S Pen integration on the Z Fold 3, Samsung has removed stylus support for this model — a big downgrade that may anger longtime Z Fold fans. The company claims it made this decision after seeing “very low” S Pen usage on previous generations, which frankly isn’t all that surprising. But, as one of the highlight features that separated Samsung’s big foldables from practically all of its rivals, it’s still sad to see it go.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 unquestionably packs top-tier performance. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip along with 12GB or 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Everything feels fast and snappy while OneUI 8 and Android 16 bring app optimizations that help make the most of the phone’s big display.
The biggest eye-opener for me was when I compared how long it took the Z Fold 7 to launch my current favorite mobile game, Sword of Convallaria, against the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Even with the increased performance of Google’s recent Tensor chips, Samsung’s foldable loaded the game in 13 seconds compared to 18 seconds for the Pixel. That might not sound like a ton, but it’s around 25 percent faster and when it’s something you do multiple times a day, shaving off even a few seconds adds up fast..
While the Z Fold 7’s ultrawide and 3x telephoto cameras are largely unchanged, the phone features a big photo upgrade thanks to a new 200MP sensor for its main camera. This is essentially the same component Samsung used in the S25 Ultra and S25 Edge, and it delivers a much-needed bump in image quality.
In bright light, the Z Fold 7 easily keeps pace with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. In certain situations like when snapping pics of food, some may prefer its shots thanks to Samsung’s warmer color profile. The phone still tends to oversharpen things, but colors are vibrant. For those who want to maximize resolution, you can select the phone’s full 200MP mode (images are captured at 12MP by default). At night, the Fold 7’s shots remained surprisingly sharp. I still prefer the Pixel 9 Pro Fold due to its more accurate white balance and often sharper focus, though Samsung’s phone isn’t far behind.
Potentially the biggest shortcoming on the Fold 7 is that its 3x optical zoom can’t quite match the 5x telephoto cam on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. But for fans of group shots, Samsung added a new selfie camera with a wider 100-degree field of view.
While the Z Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery is the same size as its predecessor, you will get slightly increased longevity due to improved power efficiency from its processor. In our local video rundown test, the Z Fold 7 lasted 20 hours and 50 minutes when using its main 8-inch display and 26 hours and 22 minutes with its exterior screen. Depending on which display you use, that’s between 45 minutes and an hour longer than what we got from the previous model, which is nice to see considering battery life was already pretty solid.
Sadly, Samsung hasn’t changed much when it comes to recharging. The Z Fold 7 supports wired charging at up to 25 watts — which is rather average for a modern flagship — alongside 15 watt wireless charging. And like the rest of the 2025 premium Galaxy line, this phone is merely Qi 2 ready, which means there’s no built-in attachment system for magnetic accessories like charging pucks, card holders and battery packs. So if you want to use peripherals like those, you’ll need to get a case with full support for Qi 2.
I’ve always said that Samsung is at its best when it focuses on hardware design, and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 may be one of the best examples of that. With its latest flagship foldable, Samsung has removed one of the remaining barriers preventing people from trying out the new breed of phones: excessive size and weight.
By widening its cover display, the Z Fold 7 looks and acts just like a regular smartphone, which is great for checking messages, looking up directions or snapping a photo. When you want to get really immersed in a show, movie or game, you can open up that beautiful flexible display, which is now even larger for your viewing pleasure. The phone’s higher-res main camera also brings upgraded image quality while its Snapdragon 8 Elite chip gives it a performance edge over rivals like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
I don’t love how Samsung is backtracking on features by removing S Pen support and reverting to an old-school camera cutout instead of an under-display sensor for its main display. But at least in the case of the latter, that change comes with much improved image quality, which is a big upgrade for video calls.
With the Galaxy Z Fold 7, you really do get the best of both worlds. Its new design is just as sleek as comparable traditional flagships while hiding a larger display that makes the need for small tablets obsolete. Unfortunately, with a starting price of $2,000, Samsung hasn’t addressed the last roadblock stopping people from trying out a device that might completely change the way they use their phone.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-z-fold-7-review-foldable-phone-nirvana-for-a-price-123004636.html?src=rss
