Join Ars in DC for infrastructure, cocktails, and spycraft on October 29

After a great event last month in San Jose, Ars is switching coasts for October and descending in force on our nation’s capital. If you’re on the East Coast and want to come hang out with Ars EIC Ken Fisher and me while we talk to some neat speakers and learn some stuff, then read on! Continuing our partnership with IBM, Ars presents “AI in DC: Privacy, Compliance, and Making…

October 10, 2024
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Maze of adapters, software patches gets a dedicated GPU working on a Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi owners have always been prone to coming up with elaborate, technically-interesting-but-practically-questionable projects, and Pi enthusiast Jeff Geerling has an exciting new submission to that canon: an old AMD Radeon RX 460 GPU, connected to the Raspberry Pi 5’s PCI Express bus and managing to play demanding titles like Doom 3 (2004) and Tux Racer at a crisp 4K resolution. Geerling’s maze of adapters, software tweaks, and workarounds is a testament…

October 9, 2024
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Is China pulling ahead in AI video synthesis? We put Minimax to the test

October 9, 2024

If 2022 was the year AI image generators went mainstream, 2024 has arguably been the year that AI video synthesis models exploded in capability. These models, while not yet perfect, can generate new videos from text descriptions called prompts, still images, or existing videos. After OpenAI made waves with Sora in February, two major AI models emerged from China: Kuaishou Technology’s Kling and Minimax’s video-01. Both Chinese models have already powered…

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Thunderbird Android client is K-9 Mail reborn, and it’s in solid beta

Thunderbird’s Android app, which is actually the K-9 Mail project reborn, is almost out. You can check it out a bit early in a beta that will feel pretty robust to most users. Thunderbird, maintained by the Mozilla Foundation subsidiary MZLA, acquired the source code and naming rights to K-9 Mail, as announced in June 2022. The group also brought K-9 maintainer Christian Ketterer (or “cketti”) onto the project. Their…

October 9, 2024
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Apple brings years-old features to iCloud web interface

In a rare event, Apple has rolled out substantial updates to the web-based iCloud interface meant to allow users to access Apple services like Mail and Photos when they’re away from a Mac, iPad, or iPhone. The flagship addition is dark mode; it “will automatically match your device settings with a Light Mode or Dark Mode color scheme,” Apple explains as part of the update. There is also now a…

October 8, 2024
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Samsung quits updating Galaxy Z Fold 2 that came out in 2020 for $2,000

Samsung is no longer providing software or security updates for the Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable smartphone that it released in September 2020. Highly anticipated ahead of its full unveiling, the Z Fold 2 released with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, and a 4500 mAh battery. The phone’s hallmark is, of course, a foldable 7.6-inch OLED screen with 2208×1768 pixels running at a…

October 8, 2024
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In stunning Nobel win, AI researchers Hopfield and Hinton take 2024 Physics Prize

On Tuesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics to John J. Hopfield of Princeton University and Geoffrey E. Hinton of the University of Toronto for their foundational work in machine learning with artificial neural networks. Hinton notably captured headlines in 2023 for warning about the threat that AI superintelligence may pose to humanity. The win came as a surprise to many, including Hinton…

October 8, 2024
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Report: First wave of M4 Macs, including smaller Mac mini, coming November 1

Reliable rumors have suggested that M4 Macs are right around the corner, and now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is forecasting a specific launch date: November 1, following a late-October announcement that mirrors last year’s Halloween-themed reveal for the first M3 Macs. This date could be subject to change, and not all the products announced in October would necessarily launch on November 1—lower-end Macs are more likely to launch early, and higher-end…

October 7, 2024
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Smart TVs are like “a digital Trojan Horse” in people’s homes

The companies behind the streaming industry, including smart TV and streaming stick manufacturers and streaming service providers, have developed a “surveillance system” that has “long undermined privacy and consumer protection,” according to a report from the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) published today and sent to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Unprecedented tracking techniques aimed at pleasing advertisers have resulted in connected TVs (CTVs) being a “privacy nightmare,” according to…

October 7, 2024
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