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Enlarge / Harbinger's chassis mounts the eAxle and battery modules between the chassis rails. (credit: Harbinger)

It seems that every time Ars writes about a new commercial electric vehicle, about half the comments are along the lines of "great, now make me a camper out of that." Well, we have some good news for you on that front. The RV manufacturer Thor has just taken delivery of the first customer chassis from EV truck maker Harbinger.

"Harbinger believes in enabling the electrification of RVs, along with the wide variety of medium-duty e-commerce delivery vehicles you see every day," said Harbinger CEO John Harris. "Our strategy is focused on empowering companies to transform their fleets with sustainable options, tapping into a significant market opportunity that drives towards a greener, more innovative future in transportation."

You may remember Harbinger from our coverage last year. To briefly recap, it's targeting the medium-duty truck market—classes 4–7, to use the correct lingo. There's some interesting engineering at play too—the 800 V modular battery is made up of multiple 35 kWh packs using 2170 cylindrical cells, each in a gigacast aluminum enclosure.

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Enlarge / Polestar is running a few months late with its next EV, but US deliveries should begin within the next three months. (credit: Polestar)

Polestar is almost ready to start selling its next electric vehicle here in the US. The Polestar 3 SUV has finally gone into production, and the automaker says deliveries to US customers should start in the second quarter of this year. That's a little behind schedule—in October 2022 we were told that the Polestar 3 would go on sale here toward the end of 2023.

There's just one powertrain at launch, the Polestar 3 long-range dual motor, which starts at $73,400. This offers 489 hp (365 kW) and 620 lb-ft (840 Nm), which should give the EV a range of about 315 miles (507 km) from its 111 kWh battery pack. And Polestar is making the Pilot Pack standard equipment, which includes a heads-up display and some advanced driver assistance systems.

There will also be the Polestar 3 with the Plus Pack, for $78,900. This adds different 21-inch wheels, an upgraded interior with either "MicroTech" fabric or wool covering the seats, heated rear seats to go with the heated front seats, and an upgraded Bowers and Wilkins sound system with 25 speakers and a subwoofer.

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Spotify is officially expanding its offerings beyond just audio with the introduction of music videos. The streamer is rolling out a beta program that offers premium subscribers access to music videos on mobile, desktop and TV for a select number of tracks by artists like Ed Sheeran and Ice Spice. 

In an email seen by TechCrunch, Sten Garmark, Spotify vice president and global head of consumer experience said: "We're starting with a limited subset of the full catalog, which includes thousands of music videos. Within this subset, we aimed to prioritize a wide range of genres and artists across our launch markets." YouTube (of course) and Apple Music both already offer music videos, so this new feature helps Spotify match up to some of its biggest competitors. 

To watch a music video, Spotify users listening to a song can click "switch to video" right on the now-playing screen. The music video will always start the song back from the beginning, but users can touch switch back to audio at any point. Even if the music video plays through, Spotify will still queue the next song as audio only.

Currently, the beta option is only available in 11 countries, chosen for a "number of criteria including market size and the availability of local content support," Garmark said. While the US didn't make the cut, the countries included represent quite a global audience: Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Poland, Philippines, Sweden and the UK. Users from these nations must also have a premium account to watch music videos.

Rumors that Spotify might add music videos started last July following a number of layoffs (and more have come since). This announcement is the first time Spotify has announced the existence of music videos on its platform. However, a Reddit user posted three months back that they had the "switch to video" option on a single song: My Way, by Limp Bizkit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-adds-music-videos-in-11-countries-but-not-the-us-120002692.html?src=rss

Neil Young is back on Spotify after boycotting the platform over two years ago, he said in a new blog post. The Canadian singer ditched the platform over vaccine misinformation on the Joe Rogan podcast. He’s returned because Rogan’s podcast is no longer exclusive on Spotify. “My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” he said – which isn’t really the stance he thinks it is.

When Young dropped his catalog from Spotify, he added he was fed up with Spotify’s “shitty” sound quality. Nothing has particularly changed there.

— Mat Smith

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In the EU, Apple will allow iOS apps to be distributed on websites Instead of its App Store.

Days after Apple started allowing iOS users in the EU to use third-party app stores, the company has announced more changes to how developers can distribute their apps. Most significantly, those who meet certain criteria can let users download apps from their websites. The Web Distribution option, available this spring, will effectively let developers bypass the app ecosystem entirely for their own apps. To be eligible, devs must opt in to new App Store rules and pay a fee for each user install after a certain threshold.

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Ray-Ban’s Meta sunglasses can now identify and describe landmarks It’s one of the more useful AI-powered features. Engadget

AI-powered visual search features arrived to Ray-Ban’s Meta sunglasses last year with some impressive (and divisive) tricks — but a new one in the latest beta looks quite useful. It identifies landmarks and tells you more about them — a sort of tour guide for travelers. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained in a (Meta-owned) Threads post with a couple of sample images explaining why the Golden Gate Bridge is orange (easier to see in fog), a history of the painted ladies houses in San Francisco and more.

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X rival Bluesky will let users run their own moderation services Users can subscribe to third-party labeling services too.

Bluesky, the open-source Twitter alternative, is about to start testing one of its more ambitious ideas: allowing its users to run their own moderation services. The change will bring Bluesky users and developers together to work on custom labeling tools for the budding social media platform.

Bluesky is seeing a surge in growth after it removed its waitlist and opened to all users in February. The service has added about 2 million new users, bringing its total community to just over 5 million. It might need the extra moderation.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-neil-young-returns-to-spotify-after-two-year-protest-111513737.html?src=rss

A startup company called Space One launched a rocket earlier in hopes of becoming the first private entity in Japan to put a satellite in orbit. Unfortunately, its attempt ended in a fiery explosion, mere seconds after lift off at 11AM local time. Its 60-foot-long rocket Kairos launched from the company's Space Port Kii in Wakayama, a prefecture south of Osaka in Japan's Kansai region. Space One director Mamoru Endo told reporters at a conference that the rocket's automated system detected an anomaly five seconds after liftoff and triggered its self-destruct function. The company has yet to figure out what that anomaly is and will be investigating the incident for answers. 

Kairos was carrying payload for the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center, which collects and analyzes imagery information for the Japanese government. That satellite was supposed to be an alternative to an existing Japanese satellite monitoring military facilities in and rocket launches from North Korea. Masakazu Toyoda, the company's president, said during the conference that Space One is "prepared to take up the next challenge." He also emphasized how common failed launches are in space travel. And that is true — SpaceX, for instance, lost several Starship vehicles over the past few years when they blew up during testing. 

Space One, backed by Canon and aerospace manufacturer IHI, eventually hopes to offer satellite launch services using small rockets, which it says "offer greater scheduling flexibility than large ones." It's also aiming to provide the "world's shortest lead time from contractual engagement to launch, as well as the world's most frequent launching schedule" while also minimizing the costs of putting satellites into orbit. Since the company must be able to stage a successful launch before customers come knocking on its doors, it will most likely announce its next attempt in the near future. 

Last year, Japanese company ispace also failed to become the first private company to land on the moon when it lost contact with its Hakuto-R lander. But the country's space agency, JAXA, is doing better than its private counterparts: Its SLIM lunar lander successfully touched down in January and is expected to resume its operations in late March after the lunar night is over. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japans-space-one-rocket-launch-attempt-ends-in-a-fiery-explosion-104937369.html?src=rss

Your PC is likely one of the most crucial pieces of technology in your home, so it behooves you to keep it in good condition. A little bit of proper maintenance every now and then can help you get the most from your computer, not only today, but years down the road. But where to start? Here, we share some quick tips for taking care of your PC. While it’s impossible to cover this topic from every viewpoint, you can think of our guide as an introduction that can help you decide where to begin. Whether you’re looking to physically clean your desktop or digitally declutter Windows, here’s some advice to get you started.

How to clean your computer and peripherals Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Windows PCs, especially desktops, come in various shapes and sizes, but the tips we're about to go through here will help you clean your computer whether you bought it prebuilt or put together yourself. If you own a laptop, look at our Mac organization guide. All the steps we detail there will work just as well for a Windows portable.

Before cleaning the inside of your computer, start with your display and peripherals. At this stage, all you'll need is some distilled water in a spray bottle and a microfiber cloth. You can buy the former at a grocery store or make it yourself. And if you don't already own any microfiber cloths, Amazon sells affordable 24-packs you can get for less than $15. Once you have those in hand, spray the water onto a clean cloth and wipe down your computer's display before moving to the mouse and keyboard. You want to start with your screen to avoid transferring dirt and residue to the panel.

Once you’re done with those, turn off your PC and unplug everything that's connected to it. You'll also want to switch off the power supply unit (PSU) by flipping the toggle on its outside to the "O" position. Next, push down the power button and hold it down for about 30 seconds to discharge the capacitors. To protect your computer against static electricity, we highly recommend buying an anti-static wrist strap.

If at all possible, do most of the steps we're about to describe outside. The last thing you want to do is go through the trouble of cleaning your computer and then let it pull in all that dust again.

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Once you've moved your computer, start by removing the side panels. Most modern cases allow you to do this without any tools, but you'll need at least one screwdriver for most of the work we'll detail in a moment. When it comes to most screws inside your computer, a 4-inch Phillips screwdriver should be all you need. Some components, such as your GPU, may include Torx screws and the like, but don't worry about those for now since we won't be taking them apart. If you don't already own a decent set of screwdrivers and have something of a DIY streak in you, a driver kit from iFixit is your best bet. The 16, 32 and 64-bit kits it sells are an excellent starting point, and they'll come in handy with more than just your computer.

If your PC has any dust filters, remove those now and give them a rinse at the sink before setting them aside to dry. Depending on how long your computer has been collecting dust, you may want to remove some components such as the GPU to make it easier to clean everything.

If that's something you feel comfortable doing and it's your first time removing any of the internals, use your phone to take photos of the interior. The images will help you put all the parts in their original place at the end. That's important to do since there's an optimal way to install many of the components in your computer. For instance, you always want to install your GPU in the fastest available PCIe lane. When it comes to removing any PCI cards, first unscrew its mounting bracket and then push the corresponding release on your motherboard before pulling the card out.

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Whether you decide to keep all your computer's internals in place or not, you'll need something to blow all that dust away. A can of compressed air is one option, but I like to use a Giottos Rocket Blower. It was designed for cleaning camera sensors and won't damage any of your components. It's also a one-time purchase.

Whatever you have at hand, use it to blow away the dust that's been building up on your computer's internal components, fans and grills. Pay special attention to the heatsinks attached to your PC’s CPU, GPU, chipset and voltage regulators. They will likely have most of the hardest to remove dust in your system thanks to their tight fin stacks. What’s more, especially bad buildup can make them ineffective at cooling those components, which will, in turn, affect their performance.

When cleaning any exposed PCB, use an antistatic brush (like this one from Amazon) instead of a microfiber cloth. You'll avoid damaging any of the sensitive components on the board. You can go over any non-electronic part with a dampened microfiber cloth.

At this point, all you need to do is put everything back in its place. As one final tip, if there's any way you can avoid leaving your desktop on the floor, you'll end up spending less time cleaning it since it won't be near all the dust and dander that collects there. If your desk setup or living space makes that not an option, a PC tower stand is a cheap but effective way to elevate your computer off the ground and help it pull in less debris.

How to organize your PC’s storage drives Engadget

If it's been a while since you've done an audit of all the software you have installed on your computer, the best place to start is in the Task Manager. It's here you can see how much of its resources your computer is devoting to specific processes. Since everyone will have different software installed on their PC, it's hard to offer blanket recommendations, but using the Task Manager you can get a sense of the apps that may be slowing down your computer. For most people, there will be two main culprits: bloatware and antivirus software.

If you bought your PC from a system integrator like Dell, it will almost certainly include software your computer doesn't need to operate. You can safely uninstall unused, preloaded apps to improve performance and save on space.

This next tip may be contentious for some: I believe as long as you avoid clicking on sketchy links and stay away from the dark corners of the internet, the Microsoft Defender tool built into the Windows Security app is all you need to protect your computer from the majority of malware that's out there. While there are good antivirus programs like Bitdefender and Malwarebytes, the majority cost far too much for what they offer and will only slow down your computer. If you don't feel comfortable uninstalling your antivirus software, then by all means, leave it on your computer.

While you're in the task manager, you'll also want to click on the "Startup apps" tab to see what programs your computer is launching when you power it on. You can speed up that process simply by limiting that list to as few apps as possible. As for the actual process of deleting any software you don't need, always uninstall programs from the Control Panel as this will leave the fewest leftovers when everything is said and done. If you've used Windows for a while, you'll have errant files all over the place. It's possible to cull those manually, but doing so can be time-consuming. Thankfully, Windows’ built-in Disk Cleanup will help you wrangle those with ease.

If you have older mechanical drives installed in your computer, it's good to get into the habit of defragging them regularly. First, launch the built-in Defragment and Optimize Drives app and click the "Optimize" button. Depending on the size of your hard drive, this process may take a while. Don't defrag your SSDs, as you'll only shorten their lifespan for little to no performance improvement.

How to organize your apps, tabs and other windows Jeff Dunn / Engadget

Say what you will about Windows 11 (or 10), but the fact is it comes with some of the best window management tools built right into an operating system. You don't need to download any additional software to organize your desktop, but there are some settings you can tweak to get even more out of its signature Snap functionality.

As you may already know, you can press the Windows and Tab keys at the same time to bring up the Task View pane. It's here that you can add additional virtual desktops. If you're not already using virtual desktops, they're great for organizing your active windows so that you don't have to constantly rearrange them when you're trying to find a specific one. You can quickly press the Windows key, Ctrl and either the left or right arrow keys to move between desktops. But to make things even simpler, head to the Settings app and into the Multitasking section of the System menu. Under the "Desktops" heading, switch both settings to "On all desktops." You can now use the Alt-Tab shortcut or taskbar to switch to any app on any desktop.

When it comes to wrangling your tabs, a lot of that will depend on the browser you use. We have a comprehensive guide to tab organization if you want to deep-dive into the tools available with the most popular options. But as a basic starting point, all the major players include a feature that allows you to pin tabs. I use this to keep the websites I visit most frequently throughout a workday (in my case, Gmail, Trello and Google Drive) open at all times and at the top of my tab bar. In that way, those tabs never get lost among the countless other websites I might have open for a story I'm writing. What's more, in the case of Brave, the browser I use, I can use a handful of keyboard shortcuts to jump to those tabs quickly.

In closing, we want to highlight just how much customization Windows offers you when it comes to the organization of your computer. As just one example, you can right-click on items located on the taskbar and start menu to put the apps and shortcuts you use most frequently within easy reach. However, if you want to really dig into all the options Windows offers on that front, websites like Windows Central have detailed how-tos that are an excellent starting point.

Jeff Dunn contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-clean-and-organize-your-windows-pc-150026502.html?src=rss

Neil Young is back on Spotify after boycotting the platform over two years ago, he said in a new blog post. The Canadian singer ditched the platform over vaccine misinformation on the Joe Rogan podcast, later saying he was fed up with Spotify’s "shitty" sound quality anyway. 

Young returned because Rogan's podcast is no longer exclusive on Spotify. "My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify," he said, without specifically mentioning the Joe Rogan Experience.

There's no way he could also pull his catalog from Apple Music and Amazon as well, he added, "because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all" if he did. Young also expressed hope that Spotify would improve its sound quality, while shouting out Quobuz and Tidal for presenting his songs in high-res. 

"Spotify, you can do it! Really be #1 in all ways. You have the music and listeners!!!! Start with a limited Hi res tier and build from there!" he wrote. (Spotify did announce that it would launch a HiFi tier way back in early 2021, but it has yet to actually do so.) 

Fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell joined Young in the boycott, and her music is still missing from the platform. Both had reason to be incensed about the vaccine misinformation on Rogan's show as both were victims of polio — a disease that was wiped out in North America thanks to vaccines.

It's hard to say how Young's boycott affected Spotify, but it certainly impacted his finances. Last year, Billboard estimated that pulling his songs from Spotify cost him roughly $300,000 in lost recorded music and publishing royalties.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/neil-young-is-returning-to-spotify-after-boycotting-it-over-joe-rogans-vaccine-comments-071217691.html?src=rss

If you consider yourself a mobile creator and you’re not using some sort of dedicated microphone, you might be holding yourself back. We’re not judging, but your audience likely is. Audio, especially dialog, is often overlooked, but you need good sound quality if you want your content to stand out. There are many, many options for the home or office/studio, but there are a surprising amount of mobile-specific (or at least, mobile-friendly) solutions out there to elevate your on-the-go recordings be that for social, a jam session, live streaming, making movies, podcasting and beyond.

What “the best mic for iOS or Android” is will vary depending on the task you need it for. If you want to record a TikTok or a podcast or even a jam session, all have slightly different needs but the selection below covers most bases (and maybe even a few you didn’t think of yet) for recording high-quality sound with little more than a mobile phone.

This guide is all about recording audio on the go, free from the constraints of a studio or office, but also far away from luxuries like power outlets, acoustically friendly rooms and a full-size PC. As such there are two styles of external mic that really shine here: Lavalier (lapel) and shotgun. We’ll be covering a few other types, too, but between those, most tasks are covered.

We’ll also show you how you can use the USB mics you may already have with your phone and even ways to connect heavy-duty studio classics (XLR) to your humble handset, but all that will be through accessories. For now, let’s start with the classic clip mics.

Lavalier mics James Trew / Engadget

The obvious benefit of a lapel microphone is size. Their small profile makes them perfect for presenting to the camera with the flexibility to move around while maintaining consistent audio quality. If you’re a budding TikTok or vlogger it’s definitely worth having one of these mini microphones in your bag.

The main trade-off, however, is that they’re only good for recording the person they’re attached to. If you have two people talking and only one is wearing the mic, you’ll only get good audio for one half of the conversation, so for multi-person recordings you’ll need a mic for each guest and a way to record them at the same time, so costs can go up quickly.

Fortunately, lapel mics have become a very competitive market with good, viable options costing as little as $14.95. For an absolute bargain with a long cord and some connectivity accessories, the Boya BY M1 is hard to argue with. But, while these budget choices are great value, if you want something that should either last longer, is more versatile or just sounds better it’s worth paying a little bit more.

A word on wireless mic

Recently there has been an explosion in mobile-friendly wireless mic systems, but there's one wireless mic we really like. DJI's Mic 2 system provides some important upgrades from its predecessor. Notably, it can connect directly to your smartphone via Bluetooth, and it sports improved AI noise reduction and a bigger touchscreen.

Adapters

So we’ve already touched on this with the AI Micro, which is an adapter of sorts. One of the first things you might bump up against when dealing with mobile audio accessories is TRRS vs TRS connectors. Simply put, 3.5mm TRS is what you might know as the age-old classic headphone jack while TRRS became common for its support for headsets and inline mics. You can easily tell them apart as TRS connectors have two black bands on them while a TRRS has three.

For you, the budding creator, it can be a bit of an annoyance as many 3.5mm lavaliers are going to be TRS and won’t work when plugged into your phone’s headphone adapter. Sometimes your lavalier might include what you need in the box, but otherwise, you’ll want to pick up a TRS to TRRS adapter like this. Of course, some smartphone-specific mics have TRRS connectors already – for those, you’ll want a cable that goes the other way should you want to use it with other devices like a DSLR.

Shotgun mics James Trew / Engadget

You may be more familiar with shotgun microphones when it comes to video recording. It’s the style of microphone most often found atop a DSLR or mirrorless camera, but they make great companions for other portable devices too, your cell phone included.

The benefit of a shotgun is that they tend to be highly directional, which makes them perfect for podcasts, recording instruments, foley sounds and much, much more. For us mobile recordists, another benefit is that they tend to be light and portable, perfect for slipping into a backpack or even a laptop bag. Even better, there are some great mobile-specific options.

Desktop and USB mics go mobile James Trew / Engadget

Mobile-specific mics are great, but there’s nothing stopping you from using your phone mic or another you might already have (if it’s somewhat portable). You’ll definitely need to do a little dance with some adapters, but that’s half the fun. Below are a couple of recommendations for “regular” microphones that pair well with a phone and then the cables and adapters that you’ll need to get setup.

A word on cables James Trew / Engadget

Connecting USB microphones directly to phones is rarely as simple as just one cable, although that’s starting to become more common. In general, Android makes this simpler, but also, thanks to the wide range of manufacturers and software versions you can’t always guarantee things will work smoothly.

The iPhone is a whole other situation. USB microphones have a good chance of working via the USB camera kit we mentioned earlier, but that’s still inelegant sometimes. Frustratingly, some USB-C to Lightning cables will play nice with microphones, but sadly most will not – including Apple’s own. One confirmed option is this cable from Fiio or this generic alternative. These are inexpensive enough that it’s worth having a couple around if you work with audio a lot (they of course can also be used to charge your phone as a bonus).

Other mobile microphones to consider

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-mobile-microphones-for-recording-with-a-phone-154536629.html?src=rss

Bluesky, the open-source Twitter alternative, is about to start testing out one of its more ambitious ideas: allowing its users to run their own moderation services. The change will allow Bluesky users to and developers to work together to create custom labeling tools for the budding social media platform.

The new moderation tools arrive as Bluesky is seeing a surge in growth after it got rid of its waitlist and opened to all users in February. Since then, the service has added about 2 million new users, bringing its total community to just over 5 million.

The company has said its approach to moderation is based on the same philosophy that has led it to embrace custom feed algorithms. The goal, Bluesky wrote in a blog post, is to create “an ecosystem of moderation and open-source safety tools that gives communities power to create their own spaces, with their own norms and preferences.”

In practice, these moderation tools will take the form of labeling services. Just as Bluesky allows users to set their own moderation preferences — for example, you can choose whether you want the app to “show,” “warn,” or “hide” explicit content — developers will be able to create their own filtering systems others can opt into. “For example, someone could make a moderation service that blocks photos of spiders from Bluesky — let’s call it the Spider Shield,” the company explains. “If you get a jump scare from seeing spiders in your otherwise peaceful nature feed, you could install this moderation service and immediately any labeled spider pictures would disappear from your experience.”

To help make these kinds of experiences possible, Bluesky is open sourcing its collaborative labeling tool called Ozone, which will allow groups of moderators to respond to reports and add labels to content. But the company notes that developers can also create automated labeling systems using Bluesky’s API.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has referred to the concept as “composable” or “stackable” moderation. “We're always doing baseline moderation, meaning that we are providing you with a default moderated experience when you come in [to Bluesky],” Graber told Engadget last month. “And then on top of that, you can customize things.”

These new third-party labeling services will start to roll out later this week on the desktop version of Bluesky, with a mobile version coming “soon,” according to the company. And it’s likely users will see more options available in the coming weeks as more developers and groups get their hands on the underlying tools.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-will-let-users-run-their-own-moderation-services-230017647.html?src=rss

Enlarge / A brightly colored transmission microscope image of measles viruses. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

A team of health experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Chicago Tuesday to help respond to a flare-up of measles cases at a migrant shelter in the city's Pilsen neighborhood, according to CNN.

So far, there have been four cases identified at the Halsted Street shelter: two young children, one recovered and one hospitalized in good condition as of March 10; and according to an announcement on Monday, March 11, two adults who were reported in good condition.

The four cases come just days after the city's health department announced a measles case in a Chicago resident with no recent travel outside of the city and no reported connection with the shelter. The case, announced on March 7, was the first measles case identified in the city since 2019, officials noted. It remains unclear how that resident contracted the highly infectious virus, though the health department noted that the person had been in contact with domestic and international travelers. The person was said to be recovering well at home, and their infectious period ended on March 6.

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Former special counsel Robert Hur testifies on Capitol Hill about his report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss that testimony. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) defends his legislation that would force Chinese company ByteDance to divest from TikTok or face a ban. Mychael Schnell, Maria Teresa Kumar and Stephen Hayes join the Meet the Press NOW roundtable.

Gemini, Google's AI chatbot, won't answer questions about India’s upcoming national elections, the company wrote in a blog post today. “Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” the company wrote. The restrictions are similar to the ones Google announced in December ahead of global elections in the US and the EU.

“As we shared last December, in preparation for the many elections happening around the world in 2024 and out of an abundance of caution, we’re restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” a Google spokesperson wrote to Engadget.

The guardrails are already in place in the US. When I asked Gemini for interesting facts about the 2024 US presidential election, it replied, “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search.” In addition to America’s Biden-Trump rematch (and down-ballot races that will determine control of Congress), at least 64 countries, representing about 49 percent of the world’s population, will hold national elections this year.

When I prompted OpenAI’s ChatGPT with the same question, it provided a long list of factoids. These included remarks about the presidential rematch, early primaries and Super Tuesday, voting demographics and more.

OpenAI outlined its plans to fight election-related misinformation in January. Its strategy focuses more on preventing wrong information than supplying none at all. Its approach includes stricter guidelines for DALL-E 3 image generation, banning applications that discourage people from voting, and preventing people from creating chatbots that pretend to be candidates or institutions.

It’s understandable why Google would err on the side of caution with its AI bot. Gemini got the company in hot water last month when social media users posted samples where the chatbot applied diversity filters to “historical images,” including presenting Nazis and America’s Founding Fathers as people of color. After a backlash (mainly from the internet’s “anti-woke” brigade), it paused Gemini’s ability to generate people until it could iron out the kinks. Google hasn’t yet lifted that block, and it now responds to prompts about images of people, “Sorry, I wasn’t able to generate the images you requested.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-gemini-will-steer-clear-of-election-talk-205135492.html?src=rss

Hypoxia is the medical term for when there is insufficient oxygen in the body. Kansas hasn't executed someone since 1965, and Attorney General Kris Kobach is pushing to legalize the method first used in Alabama this January. Critics call it cruel and akin to suffocation.

Enlarge / Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building on January 30, 2024, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | J. David Ake )

The Internal Revenue Service's free tax filing service, Direct File, is now available in 12 states for taxpayers with simple tax returns. The service available in English and Spanish underwent "weeks of successful testing" before the launch, the US Treasury Department said today.

"Direct File provides a free, secure option for taxpayers with simple tax situations in 12 states to file their taxes directly with the IRS," the Treasury Department said. "Direct File is easy to use, with no hidden junk fees, and works as well on a smartphone as it does on a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer. Direct File shows taxpayers the math so they can be sure that their return is accurate, and they are getting the refund they are entitled to."

You can check whether you qualify to use the system at directfile.irs.gov. Based on the eligibility restrictions in the IRS program, the Treasury Department said it "estimates that one-third of all federal income tax returns filed could be prepared using Direct File."

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Apple and Microsoft recently released software updates to fix dozens of security holes in their operating systems. Microsoft today patched at least 60 vulnerabilities in its Windows OS. Meanwhile, Apple’s new macOS Sonoma addresses at least 68 security weaknesses, and its latest updates for iOS fixes two zero-day flaws.

Last week, Apple pushed out an urgent software update to its flagship iOS platform, warning that there were at least two zero-day exploits for vulnerabilities being used in the wild (CVE-2024-23225 and CVE-2024-23296). The security updates are available in iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, and iOS 16.7.6.

Apple’s macOS Sonoma 14.4 Security Update addresses dozens of security issues. Jason Kitka, chief information security officer at Automox, said the vulnerabilities patched in this update often stem from memory safety issues, a concern that has led to a broader industry conversation about the adoption of memory-safe programming languages [full disclosure: Automox is an advertiser on this site].

On Feb. 26, 2024, the Biden administration issued a report that calls for greater adoption of memory-safe programming languages. On Mar. 4, 2024, Google published Secure by Design, which lays out the company’s perspective on memory safety risks.

Mercifully, there do not appear to be any zero-day threats hounding Windows users this month (at least not yet). Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at Tenable, notes that of the 60 CVEs in this month’s Patch Tuesday release, only six are considered “more likely to be exploited” according to Microsoft.

Those more likely to be exploited bugs are mostly “elevation of privilege vulnerabilities” including CVE-2024-26182 (Windows Kernel), CVE-2024-26170 (Windows Composite Image File System (CimFS), CVE-2024-21437 (Windows Graphics Component), and CVE-2024-21433 (Windows Print Spooler).

Narang highlighted CVE-2024-21390 as a particularly interesting vulnerability in this month’s Patch Tuesday release, which is an elevation of privilege flaw in Microsoft Authenticator, the software giant’s app for multi-factor authentication. Narang said a prerequisite for an attacker to exploit this flaw is to already have a presence on the device either through malware or a malicious application.

“If a victim has closed and re-opened the Microsoft Authenticator app, an attacker could obtain multi-factor authentication codes and modify or delete accounts from the app,” Narang said. “Having access to a target device is bad enough as they can monitor keystrokes, steal data and redirect users to phishing websites, but if the goal is to remain stealth, they could maintain this access and steal multi-factor authentication codes in order to login to sensitive accounts, steal data or hijack the accounts altogether by changing passwords and replacing the multi-factor authentication device, effectively locking the user out of their accounts.”

CVE-2024-21334 earned a CVSS (danger) score of 9.8 (1o is the worst), and it concerns a weakness in Open Management Infrastructure (OMI), a Linux-based cloud infrastructure in Microsoft Azure. Microsoft says attackers could connect to OMI instances over the Internet without authentication, and then send specially crafted data packets to gain remote code execution on the host device.

CVE-2024-21435 is a CVSS 8.8 vulnerability in Windows OLE, which acts as a kind of backbone for a great deal of communication between applications that people use every day on Windows, said Kevin Breen, senior director of threat research at Immersive Labs.

“With this vulnerability, there is an exploit that allows remote code execution, the attacker needs to trick a user into opening a document, this document will exploit the OLE engine to download a malicious DLL to gain code execution on the system,” Breen explained. “The attack complexity has been described as low meaning there is less of a barrier to entry for attackers.”

A full list of the vulnerabilities addressed by Microsoft this month is available at the SANS Internet Storm Center, which breaks down the updates by severity and urgency.

Finally, Adobe today issued security updates that fix dozens of security holes in a wide range of products, including Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Premiere Pro, ColdFusion 2023 and 2021, Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, and Adobe Animate. Adobe said it is not aware of active exploitation against any of the flaws.

By the way, Adobe recently enrolled all of its Acrobat users into a “new generative AI feature” that scans the contents of your PDFs so that its new “AI Assistant” can  “understand your questions and provide responses based on the content of your PDF file.” Adobe provides instructions on how to disable the AI features and opt out here.

Enlarge / Apple's App Store. (credit: Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Mobile app developers are expected to push subscriptions more aggressively over the next year. Numbers that RevenueCat recently shared examining over 30,000 apps suggest why: Most apps struggle to reach $1,000 per month in revenue.

RevenueCat makes a subscription toolkit for mobile apps. The 7-year-old company's study shared today, as spotted by TechCrunch, said the firm examined apps using its in-app subscription SDKs. RevenueCat's report didn't list all apps studied but claims Reuters, Buffer, Goodnotes, PhotoRoom, and Notion as customers. The report claims that 90 percent of apps with an in-app-subscription platform use RevenueCat. The San Francisco-based company also claims to support "everything from niche indie apps to several of the top 100 subscription apps," which notably suggests that most of the top-100 subscription apps aren't included in this study.

With these caveats in mind, the 120-page report still provides unique details about a claimed $6.7 billion in subscription revenue touching over 18,000 developers and 290 million subscribers using the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

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At the end of January, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City announced that Jessica May would soon become its new executive director. She says the museum already feels like home.

• The 2024 Moto G and Moto G Power. [credit: Motorola ]

Motorola is launching the 2024 version of its "Moto G" budget phone. Today we've got two versions, the "Moto G 5G 2024" and the "Moto G Power 5G 2024" to pick from. The base Moto G 2024 is $199.99, while the Power version is $299.99.

The specs on the base model Moto G are all over the place. We've got a low-resolution, high refresh rate 6.6-inch, 120 Hz, 1612×720 LCD and a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. The phone has a whopping 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 5000 mAh battery with 18 W wired charging. You get a lot of extras: a 3.5 mm headphone jack, NFC (!), a side fingerprint reader, and a microSD slot. The Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 is about as cheap of a chip as you can get from Qualcomm, a 6 nm chip with two Cortex A78 CPUs and six A55 CPUs. It seems criminal that these budget Qualcomm chips prioritize barely there 5G bands yet only support 802.11ac, AKA "Wi-Fi 5," which first hit smartphones in 2013.

On the back of the base-model Moto G is one real camera, a 50MP rear sensor, and a just-for-looks 2MP "macro" sensor. The front camera is 8MP.

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Enlarge / Apple's $329 9th-gen iPad is over 2 years old and the last model to use Lightning or the old Apple Pencil. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

After leaving the iPad lineup untouched for the entirety of 2023, Apple is reportedly preparing to overhaul all of its tablets within the next few weeks, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. We should see major iPad Pro and iPad Air refreshes "around the end of March or in April," says Gurman, along with a special build of iOS 17.4 that adds support for the new hardware.

We'll talk about the specifics of these iPad rumors momentarily, but reading about them got me thinking about what it would take to make me consider an upgrade for either of the iPads currently rolling around my house—a third-generation iPad Air that is currently used mostly for watching Octonauts and assembling Super Mario Lego sets, and a fifth-generation M1 Air that I use mostly for reading and browsing.

At least for me, the answer isn't "new hardware." After a brief stint a few years ago using the iPad as a focused writing device, I've mostly relegated it to tablet-y content consumption, leaving behind the cottage industry of enthusiasts who keep trying to come up with workarounds to make the iPad into a Mac. To replace an iPad at this point, I would either need one of them to break or for Apple to dramatically change what the high-end iPads are capable of.

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The wait is almost over. Nightdive Studios just announced a May 21 release date for the console version of its System Shock remake. It’ll be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, after arriving for PCs last year.

The developer, alongside publisher Prime Matter, dropped a new trailer for the console release, showing off the stunning graphical update to the 1994 first-person shooter/RPG. Combat has also received a significant upgrade, as the mechanics of the genre weren’t quite refined when the game originally released, gulp, 30 years ago.

The PC version of the remake has been well-received, with a positive review score on Metacritic, but this isn’t a simple re-release. Console players are getting some exclusive features to sweeten the pot. It’ll boast 4K visuals with 60FPS on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. There’s also a new ending that “upgrades the final confrontation” with series antagonist Shodan. The controls have been reworked to better suit console gamepads and there’s a new female hacker protagonist.

Prime Matter

There’s also a little bit of something here for collectors. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are getting a physical release, though it’s a digital-only affair for PS4 and Xbox One players. There’s no pricing information yet, but the game costs $40 on PC.

This remake of the iconic shooter has been a long time coming. It was first announced all the way back in 2016 as part of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Nightdive Studios is also working on an enhanced port of System Shock 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-system-shock-remake-finally-hits-consoles-on-may-21-190550537.html?src=rss