Apple dropped a big batch of medium-size software updates for nearly all of its products this afternoon. The iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, tvOS 18.4, and visionOS 2.4 updates are all currently available to download, and each adds a small handful of new features for their respective platforms. A watchOS 11.4 update was also published briefly, but it’s currently unavailable. For iPhones and iPads that support Apple Intelligence, the…

2024 was “a year of growth,” according to fire-suppression company Fire Rover, but that’s not an entirely good thing. The company, which offers fire detection and suppression systems based on thermal and optical imaging, smoke analytics, and human verification, releases annual reports on waste and recycling facility fires in the US and Canada to select industry and media. In 2024, Fire Rover, based on its fire identifications, saw 2,910 incidents,…

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk. The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not…

Microsoft released a new Windows Insider build of Windows 11 to its experimental Dev Channel today, with a fairly extensive batch of new features and tweaks. But the most important one for enthusiasts and PC administrators is buried halfway down the list: This build removes a command prompt script called bypassnro, which up until now has been a relatively easy and reliable way to circumvent the otherwise mandatory Microsoft Account…

Imagine working with special cameras that capture light your eyes can’t even see—ultraviolet rays that cause sunburn, infrared heat signatures that reveal hidden writing, or specific wavelengths that plants use for photosynthesis. Or perhaps using a special camera designed to distinguish the subtle visible differences that make paint colors appear just right under specific lighting. Scientists and engineers do this every day, and they’re drowning in the resulting data. A…

Oracle isn’t commenting on recent reports that it has experienced two separate data breaches that have exposed sensitive personal information belonging to thousands of its customers. The most recent data breach report, published Friday by Bleeping Computer, said that Oracle Health—a health care software-as-a-service business the company acquired in 2022—had learned in February that a threat actor accessed one of its servers and made off with patient data from US…

Google acquired Nest in 2014 for a whopping $3.4 billion but seems increasingly uninterested in making smart home hardware. The company has just announced two of its home gadgets will be discontinued, one of which is quite popular. The Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector is a common fixture in homes, but Google says it has stopped manufacturing it. The less popular Nest x Yale smart lock is also…

After a long and gloomy winter, many people are looking forward to some summer travel. Google has some new tools to help you plan, but like most of what Google does now, the new features lean heavily on AI. And unusually, the most interesting of these additions is launching first on iOS. Google says that lots of people tend to take screenshots when they’re planning a trip. Instead of letting…

As previously rumored, Discord, a popular communications platform, is working with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to plan an IPO as soon as this year, according to a recent report by Bloomberg. The report cites people familiar with the matter and notes that more advisors may come on board as the talks progress. This isn’t the first we’ve heard about plans for an IPO; an article in The New…

The arrival of OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 in the spring of 2022 marked a turning point in AI, when text-to-image generation suddenly became accessible to a select group of users, creating a community of digital explorers who experienced wonder and controversy as the technology automated the act of visual creation. But like many early AI systems, DALL-E 2 struggled with consistent text rendering, often producing garbled words and phrases within images….