Intel’s big bet on chipmaking in Ohio is facing yet another setback. The company has delayed the completion of its first semiconductor factory to 2030—five years later than originally planned, local media outlet The Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday. The […]
The post Intel delays $28 billion Ohio chip factory to 2030 amid financial challenges first appeared on Tech Startups.
It's a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we've featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we're experimenting with a monthly collection. February's list includes dancing sea turtles, the secret to a perfectly boiled egg, the latest breakthrough in deciphering the Herculaneum scrolls, the discovery of an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, and more.
There is growing evidence that certain migratory animal species (turtles, birds, some species of fish) are able to exploit the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, using it both as a compass to determine direction and as a kind of "map" to track their geographical position while migrating. A paper published in the journal Nature offers evidence of a possible mechanism for this unusual ability, at least in loggerhead sea turtles, who perform an energetic "dance" when they follow magnetic fields to a tasty snack.
Sea turtles make impressive 8,000-mile migrations across oceans and tend to return to the same feeding and nesting sites. The authors believe they achieve this through their ability to remember the magnetic signature of those areas and store them in a mental map. To test that hypothesis, the scientists placed juvenile sea turtles into two large tanks of water outfitted with large coils to create magnetic signatures at specific locations within the tanks. One tank features such a location that had food; the other had a similar location without food.
© Vesuvius Challenge
Sergey Brin co-founded Google in the 1990s along with Larry Page, but both stepped away from the day to day at Google in 2019. However, the AI boom tempted Brin to return to the office, and he thinks everyone should follow his example. In a new internal memo, Brin has advised employees to be in the office every weekday so Google can win the AI race.
Just returning to the office isn't enough for the Google co-founder. According to the memo seen by The New York Times, Brin says Googlers should try to work 60 hours per week to support the company's AI efforts. That works out to 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, which Brin calls the "sweet spot of productivity." This is not a new opinion for Brin.
Brin, like many of his Silicon Valley bros, is seemingly committed to the dogma that the current trajectory of generative AI will lead to the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Such a thinking machine would be head and shoulders above current AI models, which can only do a good impression of thinking. An AGI would understand concepts and think more like a human being, which some would argue makes it a conscious entity.
© KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/GettyImages
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Hype can be good or bad. This week, we’ve seen startups on both sides of that fence — and being on the good side warranted large funding […]
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Pixel started the concept of “Feature Drops” at Google in December of 2019, with Android later starting something similar every season. Google Workspace is now the latest to get on the “feature drop” bandwagon.
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We've published our review of the new "budget" iPhone 16e, but if the savings there don't feel like quite the bargain you were looking for, there are a few consolation deals on other Apple gear — along with a handful of sales on more tech we currently recommend. The spotlight deal highlights the lowest price yet on a four-pack of Apple AirTags (now $65 at Amazon). We also noticed Amazon is still running a deal that tosses in a free $200 gift card with the purchase of a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (we gave the new phone an 89 in our review). Other deals include a discounted Anker charger, a hefty coupon on our favorite budget cordless vacuum and more. Here are the best deals from this week that you can still get today.
Apple 2024 MacBook Air M3 for $899 at B&H Photo ($200 off): The next generation of the MacBook Air with an M4 chip is likely on the horizon. But there's little chance it'll be $200 off. The nice thing about most Apple gear is it tends to be relatively long-lived. So if you don't need the latest model, this deal could be one to snag. We gave the 13-inch model a high score of 90 in our review and named it the best laptop you can buy. Note that the discount applies to the Air model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in the Midnight colorway. Also at Amazon.
Apple Pencil Pro for $99 at Amazon ($30 off): If you have a newer iPad and want a compatible Apple Pencil to go along with it, take a gander at this deal, which is $30 off and about $10 more than the record low. The Pro stylus allows for squeeze-based gestures, haptic feedback, pressure sensitivity and the ability to sense when the stylus is rolled to change the orientation of pen and brush tools.
Apple Watch Series 10 for $329 at Amazon ($70 off): This is the same deal we've seen for a few months now, but if you missed it the other times we mentioned it, here's another chance to save $70 on Apple's latest generation flagship smartwatch. It's currently our favorite smartwatch overall and we gave it a positive review when it came out back in September of last year. It has a thinner design this time, but a larger screen. The health tracking features are great and it's an ideal companion for an iPhone.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with a $200 Amazon gift card for $1,300 at Amazon ($200 off): When Samsung's latest premium phone came out this January, Amazon offered a free $200 gift card for pre-orders. The same deal is still going strong, so if you were holding out to see what the reviews said (we gave it a score of 89) before you bought it, then you still have a chance to get the same deal. If you shop at Amazon regularly, you might consider the $200 gift card akin to free money.
Anker Soundcore 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker for $38 at Amazon ($17 off): It's not an all-time low, but still a pretty cheap price on a Bluetooth speaker. We recommend two Anker Soundcore speakers in our guide to portable speakers and this is the budget version of those. The 12-watt speaker isn't the most powerful, but you do get 24 hours of battery life on a charge and it's waterproof. For less than $40 it could be a good option for a knockaround speaker you don't have to worry too much about.
Anker USB-C Nano 65W charger for $30 at Amazon ($26 off): We've seen this price again and again over the past few months, but it since one can never have enough wall chargers on hand, we'll mention it again. This is the larger version of the Nano charger we recommend in our fast charger guide and should serve you well for speedy refills on your laptop, smartphone and tablets.
Reolink Altas PT Ultra 4K solar security camera for $139 at Reolink ($71 off): In our newly published guide to security cameras, the Reolink Atlas earned the honor of best camera with solar power. We like the big battery, affordable solar panel and hi-res video quality. Also at Amazon with a clickable coupon.
Rad Power Bikes RadCity 5 Plus plus battery for $1,499 at Rad Power ($699 off): The ebike company's bestselling commuter model with a 14 Ah battery is selling for $1,499, which is $699 off. The battery is $499 on its own, so this is still $200 less than buying the bike on it's own at full price. The deal will run through March 12 and you'll see the full discount when you add both the battery and bike to your cart. Here at Engadget, we've tried out a few Rad Power bikes and found them to strike a good balance between quality and affordability.
Tineco Pure ONE S11 cordless vacuum for $199 at Amazon ($100 off): The budget pick from our guide to the best cordless stick vacs is currently on sale for $100 off. It's relatively lightweight, easy to use and the suction is great for the price. It also has a feature that adjusts the suction to accommodate the amount of dirt it encounters.
Crucial X9 Pro (1TB) for $70 at Amazon ($31 off): We've seen this deal a few times in recent months on one of our favorite portable SSDs. It's not the absolute fastest model but quick enough for most needs at a reasonable price. We also appreciate the rugged design and the fact that it stays cool with extended use. Also at B&H and Best Buy.
ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) for $450 at Best Buy ($200 off): This is the original ROG Ally that came out in mid-2023. It's not as powerful or ergonomic as the newer ROG Ally X, and we still think Valve's Steam Deck is he best gaming handheld overall. But this is cheaper than either of those models with similar capacites and it can play games from Steam, the Epic Games Store or the Xbox app. This deal ties the all-time low for the model with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip.
ThermoWorks Thermapen One for $79 at ThermoWorks ($30 off): We recommend the Thermapen One in our guide to the best grilling gear. It reads temperatures quickly and accurately and has an easy-to-read display. This isn't the lowest price we've ever tracked, but this Engadget-exclusive deal marks the lowest price we could find in the last few months.
Every day, Engadget editors hunt down the best discounts on the tech we recommend. See them all on our deals page.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-four-apple-airtags-for-a-new-low-of-65-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-173011789.html?src=rss©
© Chris Velazco/Engadget
Firefox maker Mozilla deleted a promise to never sell its users' personal data and is trying to assure worried users that its approach to privacy hasn't fundamentally changed. Until recently, a Firefox FAQ promised that the browser maker never has and never will sell its users' personal data. An archived version from January 30 says:
Does Firefox sell your personal data?
Nope. Never have, never will. And we protect you from many of the advertisers who do. Firefox products are designed to protect your privacy. That's a promise.
That promise is removed from the current version. There's also a notable change in a data privacy FAQ that used to say, "Mozilla doesn't sell data about you, and we don't buy data about you."
The data privacy FAQ now explains that Mozilla is no longer making blanket promises about not selling data because some legal jurisdictions define "sale" in a very broad way:
© Getty Images | Anadolu Agency
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss stunt blogging, Signal pains, and murderous Reels.
EMANUEL: Yesterday Jason wrote about Instagram delivering users reels showing murder, gore, and extreme violence. It’s hard to say exactly how many people saw these videos, but judging by what users have said online, and the fact that Meta felt the need to publicly apologize for the videos, which the company said it served users because of an error, suggest that these were very widespread.
I’ll admit that when Jason first flagged to us on Slack that this was happening it didn’t immediately strike me as a must do it immediately story. First, it’s kind of hard to suss out if what one or a handful of users say they see on Instagram is really a widespread problem or a very specific rabbit hole the algorithm put them in because of their particular Instagram habits. Second, I think that I’ve become numb to how terrible content on Meta platforms and Instagram in particular has become.
Today’s deals include some sweet ongoing promotional offers on Samsung’s S25 devices – you can still score a completely FREE Galaxy Fit3 wearable with purchase, among other things, but we are starting off unlocked Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 smartphones at up to $300 off alongside Google’s white Nest WiFi Pro router at 40% off. Then it’s on to the Chromebook, PC, and gaming deals – ASUS’ latest Chromebook Plus Expertbook CX54 with the Intel Core Ultra 5 is at a new $590 all-time low and ASUS’ ROG Strix 27-inch QHD gaming monitor is down at $199. Those offers join a straight up $100 price drop on the Bose QuietComfort ANC headphones for today only alongside even more down below.
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EA doesn't always treat its classic library with respect, as evidenced by its recent barely touched-up The Sims Legacy Collection. But the folks shepherding Command & Conquer, a vanguard series in the bygone genre of real-time strategy (RTS) games, are seemingly fueled by a different kind of Tiberium.
After releasing a reverential remaster of the first two games in 2020 with 4K upscaling and behind-the-scenes looks at their full-motion video scenes, EA is now opening up the series even more to its fans. Source code for the original C&C, Red Alert, Renegade (the first-person one), and Generals/Zero Hour has been dropped on GitHub. Along with Steam Workshop support for most of the series, that should enable a new generation of mods for the games. Given the extent of the code available, mods could include the kinds of modern updates, like higher and wider resolutions or beefed-up textures and refresh rates, that all good games deserve.
Building and working with this code will not be a plug-and-play affair. The namesake 1995 game and its hugely popular 1996 Red Alert sequel require some older dependencies, like DirectX 5 and the Greenleaf Communications Library (for a full build and tool access) and the Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM 4.0) to compile. Renegade and Generals, however, call for a whole lot more nostalgia: STLport 4.5.3, the SafeDisk API, the GameSpy SDK, the RAD Miles Sound System SDK, and at least eight more.
© EA
