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The Trump administration might think regulation is killing the AI industry, but Anthropic president Daniela Amodei disagrees.View the full article

Spotify's latest listener recap is a year-end hit.View the full article

Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with a second release candidate version of tvOS 26.2 and HomePod Software 26.2, which is based on tvOS. The second RC comes one day after the first RC and has a build number of 23K53, up from 23K51. tvOS 26.2 can be downloaded through the Software Update section of the Apple TV settings app. With tvOS 26.2, Apple is adding support for creating a profile without an Apple Account, and there is a dedicated ‌Apple TV‌ app kids mode that's available for children's profiles. Apple doesn't provide beta release notes, so it's not clear what's changed between the first RC and the second RC. Typically, release candidates are updated if there is a major bug discovered during the testing period. RCs represent the final version of the software that will be released to the public. We're expecting tvOS 26.2 and ‌HomePod‌ Software 26.2 to come out next week. This article, "Apple Seeds Second tvOS 26.2 Release Candidate" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

Bluetti's Elite 30 V2 that came out earlier this year is a portable power station that's ideal for short trips, plus it works well as a temporary backup for powering small electronics in a power outage. The Elite 30 V2 is one of many power stations that Bluetti offers, and it is on the smaller, more compact side with a 288-watt-hour capacity. This is the first Bluetti power station that I've reviewed, but I have experience with larger power banks from Jackery, DJI, Anker, and other companies. The Elite 30 V2 has a LiFePO4 battery, which Bluetti says will last for over 3,000 charging cycles and 10 years. There's a five-year warranty, which is solid. Most power stations are utilitarian, with a black or gray plastic design, but the Elite 30 V2 comes in several fun colors. There's nothing wrong with a simple design for battery equipment, but colors make Bluetti's little power station stand out. The model I tested is green, but it also comes in blue, purple, pink, light gray, and dark gray. Appearance isn't going to matter to most, but if you're going to have a battery out for people to use at the beach, on a camping trip, at the park, or during some other activity, it might as well have some pizazz. The power station is just about 9.5 pounds, and it measures 9.8 inches long, 7 inches wide and 6.6 inches tall. There's a handle for carrying it, and an LCD display shows you input, output, charge level, and an estimate of how long the power will last based on what's plugged in. The Elite 30 V2 supports 600W charging, though it can handle up to 1500W temporarily as part of a Power Lifting mode. The Elite 30 V2 has more ports than you might even need on a power station this size, and it can charge up multiple devices at a time. There's a 140W USB-C port, a 100W USB-C port, two 15W USB-A ports, and two AC outlets. There are also AC and DC inputs for charging, a cigarette lighter port, a grounding terminal, and a pair of 12V/8A barrel ports. Both USB-C ports can be used at full power at the same time. There's a power button, a button to turn on DC power to the USB-C/USB-A ports, and an AC button to turn on power to the AC outlets. When you plug something in, you have to turn on power to the appropriate port before charging will begin. It's also a good idea to turn it off when you're done to ensure there's no power drain when you're not charging anything. The power stations that I've tested in the past haven't had separate buttons for DC power (just AC power), but that's the way Bluetti's power stations are designed. I've been using the Elite 30 V2 to charge my Apple devices for the last several weeks to get an idea of what it's useful for. Charging my iPhone 17 Pro Max from 0 to 80 percent drains the power station from 100 percent to 90 percent, and it's about the same for an iPhone 16 Pro Max and an iPhone 15 Pro Max. I can charge my ‌iPhone‌'s battery between 9 and 10 times, though I do limit my charging to 80 percent. The variation is because the power station's battery level can drop slightly with nothing plugged in unless it's turned off. Over a four-hour period, the battery dropped around 10 percent with DC power on. It charges my MacBook Air three and a half times. It was able to run my MacBook Pro, Studio Display, and two lights (my desk setup) for half of my work day (12:51 p.m. to right around 5:00 p.m.). It ranged from 60W to 110W depending on workload. Charging takes around an hour and 20 minutes to get to full, though it can get to an 85 percent charge in around 50 minutes. It can charge through a cigarette lighter port in a car, or with solar panels for off-grid connectivity. The Elite 30 V2 isn't the power station you want to get to run something that's power hungry like an electric heater, but it's good for smaller things like computers, lights, speakers, and consoles. You could run a mini refrigerator for a few hours, a hair dryer or flat iron long enough to do your hair, or a lower power electric kettle or coffee maker. It is able to run my entire computer setup, plus it can power my Wi-Fi for a full work day. Some people use power stations as backups for medical devices. The Elite 30 V2 may be able to run a CPAP machine for a night's sleep, but that will depend on the individual machine. I wouldn't recommend this one for other devices like an oxygen concentrator, which would draw too much power and require a much larger battery for an extended power outage. You can use the Elite 30 V2 as a backup in case of a power outage, plugging a device into it and then plugging the power station into an outlet. In that situation, the power station will kick on automatically in a power outage with no interruption in function (Bluetti says there's a super fast 10ms response time). It actually supports up to 980W of passthrough power. Since the Elite 30 V2 is a smaller power station, it runs and charges quietly. It is nearly silent when charging and when powering things like iPhones and Macs. The fan inside will kick on under higher loads, but it's still not unreasonably loud. I can hear it, but it's a noise I could sleep through. There is a Bluetti app, and you can connect to the power station via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to monitor it remotely. The app tells you what's drawing power and how much, how long the battery will last under the current load, and your energy usage statistics. You can also remotely turn the AC/DC power on or off, choose power modes, and enable the 1500W Power Lifting feature. You should also be able to upgrade the firmware, but it wasn't working properly for me in the app (the button to actually install firmware was blank). Bottom Line I'm a fan of the Elite 30 V2. It provides enough power to charge multiple phones, tablets, portable gaming systems, or computers, but it's not too heavy to carry around. For an active use power station that you're using for day or weekend trips where portability is an issue, this is one of the better power stations that you can get. I am petite and can struggle to haul around some of the bigger power 20lb+ stations that I've tested, but this one is the perfect size. I'm more likely to use a power station that is convenient for me to carry and take places. This would be ideal as a backup battery if you just wanted to power smaller devices like smartphones and your router in a power outage. For medical devices or appliances that draw a lot of power, a bigger battery would be better. Some power stations can cost over $1,000, but the Elite 30 V2 is much more affordable. The MSRP is $304, but it's often on sale. How to Buy The Bluetti Elite 30 V2 Portable Power Station can be purchased from the Bluetti website for $209 at the current time. This article, "Bluetti Elite 30 V2 Review: A Lightweight Portable Power Station for Camping and Backup Power" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we talk to writer Evan Ratliff about how he created a small startup made entirely of AI employees—and what his findings reveal about the reality of an agentic future.View the full article

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 5, No. 438.View the full article

This triple-display foldable will first arrive in Korea later this month.View the full article

If you're interested in anti-aging and want to take advantage of red light therapy, these are the best FDA-cleared LED face masks around.View the full article

Anthropic's CEO shared his thoughts on the economics of AI and the risk-taking of competitors, saying some were "YOLO-ing" with regard to spending. View the full article

The security of operational technology (OT) in critical infrastructure has been a recurring theme for years, but this week the US National Security Agency (NSA) and its global partners added a new concern to the mix: how the increasing use of AI in OT risks making things worse. The scope of these concerns, and guidance for addressing them, is outlined in the Principles for the Secure Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Operational Technology, authored by the NSA in conjunction with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) and a global alliance of national security agencies. While the use of AI in critical infrastructure OT is in its early days, the guidance reads like an attempt by the NSA and its partners to get ahead of the problem before misuse or misapplication becomes entrenched. Although drafted for OT admins, the guidelines mirror concerns that also apply to IT administration. Currently, AI is being put to work in OT networks in the energy, water treatment, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors for the same reason it is being used elsewhere: to optimize and automate processes, thereby improving efficiency and uptime. The worry is that organizations are jumping into a new and far from battle-hardened technology without assessing its limitations, echoing what has been happening in IT. Measuring risk against the industrial control systems (ICS) Purdue Model hierarchy, the guidelines enumerate worries such as adversarial prompt injection and data poisoning, data collection leading to reduced safety, and “AI drift” in which models become less accurate as new data diverges from training data. Also mentioned: AI can lack the explainability necessary to diagnose errors, there are difficulties meeting compliance requirements as AI rapidly evolves, and there’s a human de-skilling effect caused by a creeping over-dependence on AI. Likewise, AI alerts might lead to distraction and cognitive overload among employees. Finally, the tendency of AI technologies such as chatbots and LLMs to hallucinate raises doubts about whether the technology is robust enough to be used in environments where safety is a priority. “AI may not be reliable enough to independently make critical decisions in industrial environments. As such, AI such as LLMs almost certainly should not be used to make safety decisions for OT environments,” said the authors. This underlines an important difference between using AI in an OT setting and an IT one – OT networks are by nature safety-critical. Although many of the issues are the same, the margin for error is much smaller. Struggling to unwind “The guidance raises the right questions: what risks are we introducing, what value does AI truly bring, who is accountable for oversight, and how do we respond when the technology misbehaves?” commented Sam Maesschalck, an OT engineer with cyber security training platform Immersive Labs. “We’ve already seen what happens when operational demands outpace secure design. IT/OT convergence brought efficiency, but it also exposed OT networks in ways the industry is still struggling to unwind.” According to Maesschalck, grafting AI systems onto OT infrastructure would fail if pre-existing issues aren’t addressed first. These include the inability of some OT devices to feed the required volumes of data to AI platforms, and a lack of asset inventories that make problem interactions more difficult to predict. Among the guidelines’ recommendations are for organizations to adopt CISA’s secure design principles, and to assess whether developing an AI-OT project inhouse would give organizations more control over AI design and implementation in the long run. “This kind of guidance is influential because operators are looking for clarity. Having government-backed principles to reference gives owners and engineers something concrete to point to when they push back on unsafe or rushed adoption. It also reinforces how essential education is,” said Maesschalck. The guidelines arrive on the heels of last year’s NSA and ACSC report listing the steps organizations should take to secure OT in critical infrastructure. But neither document addresses continuing concerns that OT security still doesn’t get the budget it warrants. View the full article

The Wicked: For Good director says being able to improvise on set allows for the kind of moments that are hard for machines to make.View the full article

Texting while driving is banned in nearly every state, even with the use of advanced driver assistance systems like Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.View the full article

Madame Web, Love+War, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Disney+ this month.View the full article

The 30-year-old Virginia resident evaded capture for years after authorities discovered pipe bombs planted near buildings in Washington, DC, the day before the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.View the full article

Lisa Su leads Nvidia’s biggest rival in the AI chip market. When asked at WIRED’s Big Interview event if AI is a bubble, company said “Emphatically, from my perspective, no.”View the full article

On season one of Build Mode: Product, Meet Market, we explore what it really takes to get your product into the hands of customers. We’ve talked a lot about product-market fit, but this week we take a step back to something just as essential and far less discussed: founder-market fit. Investors love to ask, “What’s your competitive advantage?” Usually they’re talking about moats, […]View the full article

Alltroo co-founders Kyle Rudolph and Jon Walburg share how they transformed their pro-athlete star power into a fundraising platform that allows their community the ability to donate to a variety of organization and win high-value prizes. In this episode of Build Mode, they reveal how they leveraged their networks to disrupt the charitable giving industry, […]View the full article

Harvey confirms a third enormous round of funding in 2025 that has skyrocketed its valuation. Again.View the full article

Russia has blocked Apple's FaceTime video calling app in an ongoing effort to eliminate private communication methods, reports Reuters. Russia claims ‌FaceTime‌ is being used for criminal activity, and that blocking the app is a legitimate law enforcement measure. Social network Snapchat and multiplayer gaming platform Roblox were also banned this week. Multiple other apps and services have been blocked in Russia previously. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Discord, and LinkedIn are unavailable and can't be accessed without a VPN. Russia throttles YouTube heavily to make it almost unusable, and since 2022, TikTok has had a Russia-only feed that does not include content from other countries. Viber and Signal are banned in the country, and Russians are not able to make calls through WhatsApp or Telegram as of earlier this year. Messaging on those apps is also restricted. In a statement to Reuters, Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor said the following: According to law enforcement agencies, FaceTime is being used to organise and carry out terrorist attacks in the country, recruit perpetrators, and commit fraud and other crimes against Russian citizens. ‌FaceTime‌ is now restricted nationwide, and has likely been blocked at the network level, so it may still be accessible through a VPN. Moscow residents are seeing a "User unavailable" message when attempting to use ‌FaceTime‌, which is the error displayed when a ‌FaceTime‌ call is unable to connect. The app still opens and activates, so Apple hasn't removed it. Russia claims that the app is used for coordinating illegal activity, with no option for the Federal Security Service (FSB) to monitor calls. Apple has declined to allow the FSB to access ‌FaceTime‌ traffic, and the company has not budged on end-to-end encryption. ‌FaceTime‌ likely wasn't banned earlier because Russia initially focused on more widely used apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. When voice and video calling were banned in those apps, Russians transitioned to ‌FaceTime‌ as an alternative, making it a government target.Tags: FaceTime, Russia This article, "Russia Blocks Apple's FaceTime Amid Crackdown on Encrypted Apps" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

Based on a leaked video, security researchers alleged that Intellexa staffers have remote live access to their customers' surveillance systems, allowing them to see hacking targets’ personal data. View the full article

Find out how to watch or stream tonight's game and the rest of the Week 14 slate no matter where you live.View the full article

Microplastics are everywhere, and certain habits increase the likelihood of them entering your system. We consulted an expert for guidance on using plastic in the microwave.View the full article

The new Kindle Scribe has a larger 11-inch glare-free display, is just 5.4 mm thick, and weighs only 400 g. It’s also 40% faster when writing or turning pages. View the full article

In a statement shared with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Apple confirmed that its software design chief Alan Dye will be leaving. Apple said Dye will be succeeded by Stephen Lemay, who has been a software designer at the company since 1999. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Dye will lead a new creative studio within the company's AR/VR division Reality Labs. On his blog Daring Fireball, longtime Apple commentator John Gruber has since reacted to the news with some scathing commentary about Dye. Specifically, Gruber said Dye does not care about design. "If you care about design, there's nowhere to go but down after leaving Apple," said Gruber, in a lengthy post citing conversations with Apple employees. "What people overlooked is the obvious: Alan Dye doesn't actually care about design." Gruber said that everyone he spoke to inside and outside of Apple was "happy" — if not downright "giddy" — to learn that Lemay is replacing Dye. "Lemay is well-liked personally and deeply respected talent-wise," he said. "He has always set an extraordinarily high bar for excellence and embodies Apple's culture of collaboration and creativity," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of Lemay, in his statement to Bloomberg that confirmed Dye is leaving the company. Dye was promoted to Vice President of Human Interface Design at Apple in 2015, at the same time as Jony Ive became Chief Design Officer at the company. Gruber said this was a "big mistake," as Dye had no background in user interface design. Lemay, on the other hand, is described as being a "career" interface designer with a particular "attention to detail and craftsmanship." The move from Dye to Lemay could be the best thing to happen to Apple's human interface design "in the entire stretch since Steve Jobs's passing and Scott Forstall's ouster," according to Gruber. At the very least, he expects the move to "stop the bleeding" at Apple, both in terms of quality of work and talent retention. Dye is expected to begin his role at Meta at the end of December. Gruber's full post on Daring Fireball: "Bad Dye Job"Tags: Alan Dye, John Gruber This article, "John Gruber Shares Scathing Commentary About Apple's Departing Software Design Chief" first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums View the full article

The threat actor known as Silver Fox has been spotted orchestrating a false flag operation to mimic a Russian threat group in attacks targeting organizations in China. The search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning campaign leverages Microsoft Teams lures to trick unsuspecting users into downloading a malicious setup file that leads to the deployment of ValleyRAT (Winos 4.0), a known malwareView the full article