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Amazon MGM Studio’s James Bond movie, the first of what could be many in a series, will be directed by Denis Villeneuve. The company has revealed that he will be leading the production in an announcement, where it also named Villeneuve’s wife Tanya Lapointe as an executive producer. Villeneuve is perhaps best known for directing Dune and Dune: Part Two, the latest adaptations of Frank Herbert’s novel starring Timothée Chalamet. He also directed the sci-fi drama Arrival with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, as well as Blade Runner 2049 with Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford. 

“Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007,” Villeneuve, who’d previously expressed many times in the past that he wanted to direct a Bond movie, said in a statement. “I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory. I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor. Amy [Pascal], David [Heyman], and I are absolutely thrilled to bring him back to the screen. Thank you to Amazon MGM Studios for their trust.”

Amazon bought MGM back in 2021 for $8.5 billion, and with it came the rights to the James Bond franchise. However, Barbara Broccoli, the producer who inherited the rights to the franchise from her father, reportedly didn’t trust Amazon with the property, putting the development and production of the next Bond film on pause. Earlier this year, both parties have finally come to an agreement. It’s unclear if Amazon told Brocolli back then that Villeneuve was a potential director, but she and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson ultimately agreed to take a step back and give the company full creative control over the next Bond films. Amazon has yet to announce the franchise’s new star, but seeing as a lot of actors want to work with Villeneuve these days, the production won’t have a shortage of names to choose from. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/amazons-james-bond-film-will-be-directed-by-denis-villeneuve-123023234.html?src=rss 

Senators Marsha Blacburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have reintroduced a bill that would force app store owners like Apple and Google to allow third-party payment systems and sideloading apps, among a collection of other developer-friendly changes. The bill, called the Open App Markets App, was originally introduced in 2021, but it never came up for a vote after passing through the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2022.

The Open App Markets Act applies its changes to app stores with 50,000 monthly users or more, most obviously applicable to the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Like the original bill, the reintroduced Open App Markets Act wants covered companies to allow things like sideloading, third-party app stores and alternative payments systems, while protecting developers ability to “tell consumers about lower prices and offer competitive pricing.” It would also prevent app store operators from privileging their own apps and services in app store search results. 

While the aims of the new bill are largely the same as the original one, the legal environment is meaningfully different. Apple has been forced to allow third-party app stores and alternative payment systems in the European Union following the introduction of the Digital Markets Act in 2022. Thanks to its failure to make good on the small concession Epic won via its lawsuit, Apple has also been forced to allow developers to direct customers to pay for things outside of the App Store and its in-app payments system. The Open App Markets Act would make these kinds of changes the law in the US.

It seems possible the bill could pass, too. Regulatory pressure on tech companies has only increased since 2021. For example, Utah recently passed an age-verification law that would require app stores to only allow users 18 and up to make an account.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-senators-reintroduce-bill-to-open-apple-and-googles-app-stores-215037373.html?src=rss 

We’re getting yet another Hollywood sequel. Deadline reports that Aaron Sorkin will be directing The Social Network II, a follow-up to the film that chronicled the development of Facebook and the ensuing lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg. The next movie will take its inspiration from a 2021 investigation by The Wall Street Journal into the harms caused by Facebook and the company’s failure to address those problems.

Sorkin has a long career as a writer, including the screenplay for The Social Network, but only three credits as a director on his resume. There’s no production date for the movie at this time, and it’s unknown whether actors from the original will return to their roles, most notably Jesse Eisenberg as Zuck.

Facebook certainly provides no shortage of potential inspiration for a biopic. Just in the past six months, the platform dug a deeper hole for itself when it tried to quash a tell-all memoir with some pretty wild behind-the-scenes stories from a former employee. Facebook also eliminated its third-party fact checkers and gutted its own hate speech policy, which was unsurprisingly followed by an increase in violent content and harassment. But given all the negative hits for Facebook’s reputation, viewers may not be too excited about spending two hours or more stewing in all the crappy stuff the network has done.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/aaron-sorkin-is-making-a-second-social-network-movie-221555267.html?src=rss 

The Trump Organization announced a cellular brand earlier this summer, and its main selling point for Trump Mobile was that its T1 smartphone was “made in the USA.” It seemed highly unlikely that those claims about the phone were possible. Now, the website for the device has removed all language indicating that it was manufactured in the US. Instead, there is broader language such as “designed with American values in mind” and “Premium Performance. Proudly American.”

The Verge also noticed that some of the specs for the ostentatious gold smartphone have changed. The listed screen size has shrunk from 6.78 inches to 6.25 inches, and there’s no longer any information about RAM. The phone is also offering a more general “later this year” availability time frame rather than promising to arrive in September. Despite walking back the loud promises made about the device, it seems unlikely the changes will matter to anybody who wants to buy this thing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/trump-mobile-drops-its-made-in-the-usa-claims-193917169.html?src=rss 

Meta is adding a new Message Summaries feature to WhatsApp that uses AI to summarize unread messages in a few bullet points. The feature is built on the Private Processing technique Meta announced at Llamacon in April, and claims to let AI work with content in WhatsApp without exposing any of it to Meta itself.

Once the feature appears in your app, you just tap on the onscreen banner over your unread messages with that says “Summarize privately” to receive a summary from Meta AI. The Message Summaries feature is rolling out to WhatsApp users in the US chatting in English first, but Meta says it hopes to “bring it to other languages and countries later this year.”

The company pitches summaries as an easier way to catch-up on what you missed if you haven’t checked your phone or you’re just in too many chats. AI is by no means foolproof at even simple tasks like this — Apple’s trouble with notification summaries was only a few months ago — but the tool could be appealing to people in particularly large and active chats.

The real novelty of the summaries is how Meta claims to be deploying them without walking back the private nature of WhatsApp chats. The company has a blog post and whitepaper digging into the details of how Private Processing works, but on first blush it sounds similar to Private Cloud Compute, the method Apple uses to call on more demanding AI features without exposing its users’ data. Using end-to-end encryption and a secure cloud environment, WhatsApp messages can be processed without data being accessed while its happening, or saved after the fact.

Importantly, all of this is still optional. Summaries won’t be provided without you asking for them first, and the feature is disabled by default. Meta also says you can exclude chats from being shared with the company’s AI via the Advanced Chat Privacy feature.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/ai-powered-chat-summaries-are-coming-to-whatsapp-191201240.html?src=rss 

Bumble, the makers of the Bumble Dating App and Bumble For Friends, announced Wednesday that the company will be laying off 30 percent of its workforce, or roughly 240 employees. This comes as dating app companies struggle to perform in recent years. Bumble was once a company worth almost $8 billion, but finds itself worth about 90 percent less today.

Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd had briefly stepped down as CEO in early 2024 before returning as CEO this year. The company has posted declining revenues this year as it struggles to attract and maintain paying members. In a statement to CNBC, a Bumble spokesperson said, “Our focus now is on moving forward in a way that strengthens our core business, continues to serve our members effectively, and positions us for future growth.”

Bumble added new safety and verification tools back in March that allow users to upload an image of their government-issued ID and receive a verification badge on their profiles. Users searching through profiles could then filter their search to show only verified users. Trust and safety issues are of paramount concern on dating apps where you meet up with strangers. New features like Share Date on Bumble and double dating on Tinder aim to ease the anxiety of what are normally solo meetups.

The securities filing for the layoffs said that employees were notified today but did not include any details on whether the affected employees were mostly in Bumble’s Austin, TX, headquarters or global in scope. The company has also not shared which teams have been affected.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/bumble-is-laying-off-30-percent-of-its-workforce-165350687.html?src=rss 

Last August, Anthropic released Artifacts. The feature allows Claude users to create small, AI-programmed apps for their own use. Today, Anthropic is making it easier to share Artifacts. At the same time, it’s making the apps you can make with the feature more powerful.

To start, Artifacts now have their own dedicated space you can access from the Claude app sidebar. Here you’ll find a curated selection of projects made by other people to get you started on your own programs. Every Artifact you create will be organized in this space, making them easy to find later.

Once you have an idea of what you’d like to make, creating an Artifact simply involves typing a prompt. “Just tell Claude an idea to instantly create shareable interactive apps, tools, and games with Claude’s intelligence directly embedded, making them independently smart and responsive,” says Anthropic.

When using the feature, the company recommends thinking big. That’s because you can embed Claude’s AI abilities into your creations. For instance, if you’re a student studying for a language exam, instead of asking Claude to create a set of flashcards, prompt it to make a flashcard app. “One request gets you static study materials. The other creates a shareable tool that generates cards for any topic,” says Anthropic.

Notably, Anthropic is making the updated Artifacts experience available to all users, including those with free accounts. Additionally, everyone can share their projects with others for free, with no associated API cost for doing so. All you need to access someone else’s Artifact is a Claude account, free or otherwise.

The new Artifacts experience is available on both mobile and desktop. To access every feature, you’ll need to use your computer. On Android and iOS, you can create, view, interact with and customize Artifacts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-makes-it-easier-to-create-and-share-claudes-bite-sized-artifact-apps-170022293.html?src=rss