SpotifyWrapped isn’t the only service offering a year-end recap these days. In addition to the year-end reviews from other streamers and social apps, Google Photos is among the apps providing users with a look back at key moments throughout the past year. “2024 Recap,” as the feature is called, introduces a collection of memories, insights, and photos, which can also be augmented with AI captions. The latter feature is available to select users in the U.S., Google says. Users who have opted in to using AI in Photos will be able to add personalized captions to their photos, generated by…
Author: Olsi
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT creator announced “12 Days of OpenAI,” a series of reveals that will be livestreamed at 10 a.m. PT for the next 12 weekdays. Day one of the event saw the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan, and the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model. While we don’t know what else is in store, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company event will feature announcements ranging from new demos to product launches, and even “stocking stuffers.” It’s possible we could see updates to its Advanced Voice…
A federal appeals court has unanimously voted to uphold a law that could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership. The decision comes seven months after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the ban. Friday’s ruling from the appeals court rejects TikTok’s claims that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s commitment to free speech and individual liberty. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” the court’s opinion reads. “Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that…
The New York Times reported that Musk and the entities he controls disclosed about $277 million in donations to federal groups this election cycle. Fresh campaign financing data shows that Elon Musk poured more than $260 million into political groups in 2024 that helped Donald Trump win the presidential election and, consequently, secured a position for himself as the co-head of government efficiency, according to the Federal Election Commission. Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and owner of X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. His donations make Musk the largest donor of the election cycle, and they can be…
Meta has announced the newest addition to its Llama family of generative AI models: Llama 3.3 70B. In a post on X, Ahmad Al-Dahle, VP of generative AI at Meta, said that the text-only Llama 3.3 70B delivers the performance of Meta’s largest Llama model, Llama 3.1 405B, at lower cost. “By leveraging the latest advancements in post-training techniques … this model improves core performance at a significantly lower cost,” Al-Dahle wrote. Al-Dahle published a chart showing Llama 3.3 70B outperforming Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, OpenAI’s GPT-4o, and Amazon’s newly released Nova Pro on a number of industry benchmarks, including…
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault was announced during today’s PC Gaming Show event. It’s a sequel to 2018’s Moonlighter, a hidden gem in which players balance exploring dungeons with being a shopkeeper. The original Moonlighter is the game that put developer Digital Sun on the map; the studio has since gone on to work on games such as The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story and Cataclismo. Digital Sun is now returning to the IP that kicked things off for it with the help of 11 bit Studios, which also published the original and is known for games like Frostpunk…
NASA has announced that it is delaying its ambitious Artemis II and Artemis III missions, which will see astronauts travel around and then land on the moon for the first time in over 50 years. The missions will be pushed to April 2026 and mid-2027 respectively, which is around six months later than previously planned. The delay is due to problems with the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. Orion is the capsule in which crew members for each mission will travel, and it must withstand temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere. On the previous Artemis…
Skylight is a smart home company that produces a variety of smart display alternatives, such as the Skylight Cal Max. These serve as a central hub for all your daily planning — they’re primarily used as a digital calendar, but you can also use them to track chores, make lists, or meal prep. That last aspect just became much more exciting, as Skylight is officially introducing Sidekick, an AI-powered assistant that can plan all your meals in just a few minutes. Sidekick is a new AI feature for Skylight devices. It’s capable of generating personalized recipes based on your budget,…
Are you ready to extend your perception of the color brown? That’s exactly what Motorola promises will happen when you lay your eyes on the new color option for the Motorola Razr Plus 2024, now available in the 2025 Pantone Color of the Year. In addition to the Razr Plus 2024, the rich mocha is also available for the Motorola Edge 50 neo in markets where it is available. “Mocha Mousse reinforces the importance of savoring the moment—a reminder to indulge in life’s simple pleasures. Mocha Mousse also inspired us to create a new soft inlay composed of coffee grounds.…
Uber has 30 days to require certain drivers to get fingerprinted if the ride-hail giant intends to continue transporting unaccompanied teens in California. The California Public Utilities Commission issued a ruling Thursday that requires taxi and ride-hail drivers who are carrying unaccompanied minors in the state to pass a fingerprint background check. The ruling also requires transport companies to pay for the cost of those background checks. Uber has a history of fighting back against fingerprint-based background check requirements for drivers. Seven years ago, Uber and Lyft blocked a similar effort in California to fingerprint drivers. The company has argued…
