After launching automatically generated captions for videos last year, Google Drive is now launching searchable video transcripts. Google announced that starting Monday, Drive users can now view and search transcripts for their videos. The new feature gets rid of the need to upload a video’s audio to a transcription service like Otter. Transcripts will appear […]
Anthropic is releasing a new frontier AI model called Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which the company designed to “think” about questions for as long as users want it to. Anthropic calls Claude 3.7 Sonnet the industry’s first “hybrid AI reasoning model,” because it’s a single model that can give both real-time answers and more considered, “thought-out” […]
If you ever wondered if Beyonce is any good at pool, then look no further. Today, Levi's released its second ad starring the singer, called "Chapter 2: Pool Hall." Set to her Cowboy Carter hit "Levii's Jeans" featuring Post Malone, the ad sees her denimed down, sporting a bedazzled Levi's denim jacket and matching jeans,...
Anthropic is releasing Claude 3.7 Sonnet, its first “hybrid reasoning model” that can solve more complex problems and outperforms previous models in areas like math and coding.
In addition to a new model, Anthropic is also releasing a “limited research preview” of its “agentic” coding tool called Claude Code. While Anthropic already powers AI coding tools like Cursor, it’s pitching Claude Code as “an active collaborator that can search and read code, edit files, write and run tests, commit and push code to GitHub, and use command line tools.”
Claude 3.7 Sonnet is available starting Monday in the Claude app and for developers through Anthropic’s API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertix AI. The model costs the same to run as its predecessor, 3.5 Sonnet, at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens.
While OpenAI and others offer separate so-called reasoning models, Anthropic product research lead Dianne Penn tells The Verge that the company wanted to simplify the experience of using a model. “We fundamentally believe that reasoning is a feature of the AI rather than a completely separate thing,” she says, noting that Claude shouldn’t take long to answer the question “What time is it?” versus responding to a more complex prompt like, “plan a two-week trip to Italy while considering the weather in late March.”
Penn says that Claude 3.7 Sonnet performs noticeably better on “agentic coding,” finance, and legal tasks. While Claude still lacks real-time web search like other models, version 3.7’s knowledge cut-off date of October 2024 is more up to date. Anthropic is also allowing developers to help steer how the model “thinks” via its scratchpad and even dictate exactly how long it takes to respond. “Sometimes the developer just needs to say it shouldn’t take more than 200 milliseconds to answer this question,” says Anthropic’s VP of product, Michael Gerstenhaber. “And that’s a product decision.”
Inside Anthropic, employees have used the new model to build front-end website designs, interactive games, and even spend up to 45 minutes on coding work by “building test sets and editing test cases back and forth iteratively,” according to Penn.
She says that the company also tests its models on their ability to advance through an old-school Pokémon video game by mapping the model’s API to a controller scheme. Claude 3.5 Sonnet couldn’t get out of Pallet Town at the beginning of the game while version 3.7 was able to defeat multiple gym leaders.
As Elon Musk showed with Grok-3 last week, the AI model race is moving incredibly fast. For now, Anthropic appears to be in the lead again thanks to Claude 3.7 Sonnet’s performance gains. Its release also suggests that, rather than offer standalone reasoning models, the industry is moving toward a future where one model can do everything.
If you recently heard about strange reboot issues with Android Auto but didn’t run into those problems yourself, it seems the reason is that these issues were seemingly caused by developer settings.
Apple has just released new public betas for its various software platforms, including macOS Sequoia 15.4, iPadOS 18.4, tvOS 18.4, and more. Here are the new features to expect.
iOS 18.3 launched almost a month ago, leaving a long gap afterward with no new software. But the first iOS 18.4 public beta is finally here, and it brings a lot of big and small changes for iPhone. Here’s what’s new in today’s release.
This week Sophia and Zac go behind-the-scenes on what happened at Humane, what the future could hold for the Ai Pin, and a quick look back at Apple’s iPhone 16e announcement.
Apple plans to ramp up its US hiring and investments. On Monday, the company said it will hire around 20,000 workers and spend over $500 billion in the US over the next four years.
In 2021, several months after former President Biden took office, Apple said it would invest $430 billion domestically over the following five years. Bloombergnotes today's announcement marks an added $39 billion in spending and an extra 1,000 jobs annually over its previous numbers.
Apple said most of the 20,000 new jobs will focus on R&D, AI and machine learning, silicon engineering and software development. The company will also expand its data center capacity in North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada to help meet Apple Intelligence's growing backend needs.
The company will also open an Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit, where its engineers will work alongside "experts from top universities such as Michigan State" to consult with small and medium-sized businesses on implementing AI and smart manufacturing techniques. Apple will also offer free in-person and online skills development courses. It already runs a Developer Academy in the Motor City.
The announcement follows a meeting between Tim Cook and President Donald Trump last week at the White House. Trump implied that Apple was making additional investments to avoid tariffs due to the iPhone maker's heavy reliance on manufacturing in China. "They don't want to be in the tariffs," Trump said after the meeting.
Apple hasn't said whether investments are related to tariffs, instead framing them as a sign of confidence in the nation's ability to innovate. "We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we're proud to build on our long-standing US investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country's future," Cook said in a press release.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-plans-to-invest-500-billion-in-the-us-over-the-next-four-years-181217017.html?src=rss
My dream of a Sayonara Wild Heartssequel might never be fulfilled, but the sudden arrival of an enhanced version for PS5 just filled my heart on a dreary Monday. Publisher Annapurna Interactive announced the upgrade for the 2019 rhythm action game during its latest showcase.
The PS5 edition includes support for 4K visuals, 120 fps gameplay and haptic feedback via the DualSense controller. There's also a new unlockable mode called Remix Arcade that's only available on this PS5 version. Here, you'll try to nail high scores across random chunks of levels with no loading time between each. Developer Simogo notes that the mode will get progressively faster to add to the challenge.
Simogo had some downtime while figuring out its next big project after Lorelai and the Laser Eyesand the opportunity came up to bring Sayonara Wild Hearts to PS5. The PS4 version already works on the console and the team wasn't really interested in only upgrading the fidelity.
However, the studio "thought about the hardware and what type of experience that would only be possible on it and remembered that PlayStation 5 has a very fast SSD, which would allow for the type of quick loading we needed for our long lost Infinite Shuffle mode." Along with adding some new art and sound assets, the renamed Remix Arcade has "a random element that [will] sometimes mirror the level visually to keep players on their toes," the studio said.
Best of all, the enhanced edition for PS5 is a free upgrade from the PS4 version. Sayonara Wild Hearts is also available in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. Otherwise, it costs $13.
Sayonara Wild Hearts is one of my favorite games of all time, so I'm more than happy to have an excuse to play through its riotously fun, heart-mending story yet again. I'm tempted to plug my PS VR2 headset back in to let the stylized art and signature neon purple wash over my eyes as the dreamy pop soundtrack fills my ears.
Here's hoping Annapurna brings the game back to iOS as well — it left Apple Arcade a few months ago. I need to have Sayonara Wild Hearts available at all times. It's not enough to have it on PS5, Steam Deck, Switch and PC (can you tell I like this game a whole lot?).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/an-enhanced-version-of-sayonara-wild-hearts-for-ps5-is-out-now-174752837.html?src=rss
Natural-language search engine Perplexity will launch a web browser, joining a competitive and crowded space that has for years been dominated by Google.
The browser will be called Comet, but we know nothing at all about its features or intended positioning within the browser market at this stage. Comet was announced in a brief X post with a flashy animation but no details.
Perplexity followed up the X post with a link and an invitation to sign up for beta access to the browser. Those who follow the link will find a barebones website (again with no details) and a simple form for entering an email address.
Acura is gearing up to build its first entirely in-house battery electric vehicles, but it's gotten a head start with the ZDX SUV. Built in collaboration with General Motors, the ZDX is a comfortable and competent luxury EV. More than that, it's a shining example of what badge engineering looks like in the digital age.
Automakers have long collaborated with each other. Sometimes that means working together on a powertrain or vehicle platform for use in quite different products. Sometimes, it's a little less involved—the Dodge Hornet differs very little from the Alfa Romeo Tonale, for example.
In the case of the Acura ZDX, the vehicle platform and the battery electric powertrain are all thoroughly GM, what used to be called Ultium, until the American automaker retired that branding. It is, in essence, Acura's take on the Cadillac Lyriq and is similar, if not identical, in terms of power output and pricing.
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, released Grok 3, its long-awaited flagship AI model, last week. Grok 3 powers the Grok chatbot apps for mobile and the web, as well as the Grok experience on the Musk-owned social network X. Given that there’s so much competition in the AI chatbot space these days, it wasn’t a […]
Along with a new Andor trailer showcasing some of the action Cassian (Diego Luna) is going to get into in the show’s second and final season, Disney announced today that the upcoming episodes (there are 12 total) will be released as four weekly chapters. In a statement about the new season, creator and executive producer Tony Gilroy teased that that, because it follows Cassian’s adventures during the four years leading up to Rogue One, the show is going to feel even bigger this time around.
“One of the great thrills of making Andor is the scale of the story and the number of characters we’re able to meet — ordinary people, Imperial overlords, passionate revolutionaries,” Gilroy said. “They are real people making epic decisions, all of them staring down questions with terrifying consequences. Cassian’s journey is the soul and spine of our story, but it’s the choir that makes the show.”
The trailer definitely makes Andor’s second season seem like its stakes are going to be raised to meet its scale as Cassian marches towards a fate we’ve already seen play out. The weekly episode was part of what made the first season work so well, but these new batch drops might be a refreshing change of pace when Andor season 2 premieres on April 22nd.
The Ember Mug 2 is costly for a drink receptacle, but it may be the last one you buy.
Warm beverages are a winter staple, particularly when the flu is making the rounds. Keeping your favorite drinks warm is a battle if you’re not one to chug; however, the Verge-favoriteEmber Mug 2 lets you sip and savor your beverage of choice at the ideal temperature all day long. And right now, Amazon and Best Buy are selling the 14-ounce smart mug in select colors starting at an all-time low of $89.99 ($60 off).
The Ember Mug 2 hides heaters in a stainless steel body to keep your drinks uniformly warm at any temperature you want — so long as that temperature is between 125 degrees to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. It can last up to 80 minutes per charge, but it also runs indefinitely if you set it on the included charging coaster, which has a configurable LED to indicate its charging status. You can also use Ember’s app on iOS or Android to set the temperature and create presets for your favorite drinks.
Washing is a cinch, too, thanks to its IPX7 rating, which means you can dunk it in up to a meter of soapy water, with a scratch-resistant coating that should keep it looking neat. It’s not dishwasher safe, however.
Monday’s deals continued
If you’re running out of storage space on your Xbox Series X / S, the 2TB WD_Black C50 is on sale for $199.98 (about $260 off) at Amazon, B&H Photo, and SanDisk’s online store, which is about $10 more than its best price to date. If you’re working with a smaller budget, you can also pick up the 1TB version for $109.99 ($48 off) from Amazon, B&H Photo, and SanDisk, which is also $10 more than its record low. Unless you’re an exceptionally heavy gamer, either should be enough to harbor your daily rotation of Series X / S games. Western Digital’s officially licensed expansion cards are one of two that are fast enough to play those games directly from your console’s storage, so it’s worth the investment if you’re tired of constantly redownloading or moving games around.
Prime members can get the Shargeek 170 Power Bank for $99 ($69 off) at Amazon and directly from Sharge, which is an all-time low. The 24,000mAh charger is doubly unique in appearance, with a prism-shaped exterior and a translucent window that exposes some of its electronics. That window also offers a clear view of the dot-matrix LED display that communicates charging status and capacity. It has two 140W USB-C Power Delivery 3.1 ports and a single USB-A port. All three are exposed, yet the charger bears an IP66 rating for protection against dust and water, making it an ideal option for those who frequent the great outdoors.
Now through February 28th, Woot is offering steep discounts on a host of popular games and quality accessories, including a number of first- and third-party Nintendo Switch titles. You can get the excellent Super Mario RPG for an all-time low of $29.99 (50 percent off), for example, along with Donkey Kong Country Returns HDfor $44.99 ($15 off). 8BitDo’s Ultimate 3-mode Controller — which works wired on Xbox and wirelessly on Windows and mobile — is also down to $39.99 ($30 off) right now. It’s the newest version with Hall effect sticks and triggers, too, and ships with a charging dock.
