Anduril Industries has taken another step forward in its quest to become the next great American prime, this time by beating out major defense companies to develop and test small unmanned fighter jet prototypes. The venture capital darling beat out Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on the deal, under the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat
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Threads has 150 million monthly users
Meta’s Threads app now has more than 150 million monthly users, an increase of about 20 million new users since February. Mark Zuckerberg shared the latest user numbers during Meta’’s first-quarter earnings call, saying that the app “continues to be on the trajectory that I hope to see.”
The update suggests Threads is continuing to grow steadily, though at a slower rate than its initial explosive growth. The app racked up more than 100 million downloads in its first week, but later saw a drop-off in engagement. But over the last six months, Threads has seen more consistent growth and Zuckerberg has speculated the service could eventually be Meta’s next billion-user app.
Notably, Threads seems to be out-performing X (formerly known as Twitter) by some metrics. Estimates from analytics firm Apptopia indicated Threads has more daily users in the United States than X, Business Insider reported earlier this week. (X has claimed 550 million daily users globally.) Threads also scored another significant win recently when Taylor Swift joined the platform to promote her latest album.
Threads is, for now, unique among Meta’s apps in that it doesn’t have advertising so the company doesn’t make money from the app directly. That will likely change at some point provided Threads continues to expand its reach. Zuckerberg has previously said the company would “focus on monetization” only after the app has grown sufficiently.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/threads-has-150-million-monthly-users-215853190.html?src=rss
TikTok Lite axes ‘addictive as cigarettes’ reward-to-watch feature under the EU’s watchful eye
The EU has effectively vanquished a TikTok feature that Europe’s digital commissioner described as “toxic” and “addictive as cigarettes.” Owner ByteDance said on Wednesday that TikTok Lite’s reward-to-watch feature would be suspended. It’s been a brutal day for TikTok as President Biden signed a bill (also on Wednesday) forcing ByteDance to sell the platform’s US operations or face a ban.
TikTok Lite, launched earlier this month in France and Spain, lets users earn rewards by watching and liking videos. They can then exchange their points for real-world perks like Amazon vouchers or in-app ones like TikTok’s virtual currency, which is used to tip creators. The EU Commission said the “task and reward” feature can stimulate “addictive behavior” in children.
“Our children are not guinea pigs for social media,” EU commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X (Twitter) on Wednesday. “I take note of TikTok’s decision to suspend the #TikTokLite ‘Reward Program’ in the EU.”
However, he added a parting shot to remind ByteDance it isn’t out of the woods: “The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue.”
Statement on TikTok Lite: “TikTok always seeks to engage constructively with the EU Commission and other regulators. We are therefore voluntarily suspending the rewards functions in TikTok Lite while we address the concerns that they have raised.”— TikTok Policy Europe (@TikTokPolicyEUR) April 24, 2024
Breton fired a warning shot at ByteDance earlier this week, saying the EU had opened a formal investigation into TikTok for violating the Digital Services Act (DSA). The landmark legislation, adopted in 2022, gives European regulators the teeth to force significant changes in social media platforms to protect consumers.
Companies that break the rules can risk fines of up to six percent of their global revenues — enough to force compliance from even the richest companies. Wednesday’s suspension marks the first concrete example of the EU using the DSA’s enforcement powers to force significant changes on a social platform.
The EU’s formal investigation into TikTok Lite was its second targeting the platform this year. An earlier case, launched in February, opened proceedings against TikTok and Meta for their handling of the privacy and safety of minors. The Guardian notes that both cases remain active.
“TikTok always seeks to engage constructively with the EU Commission and other regulators,” the platform’s Policy Europe X account posted on Wednesday. “We are therefore voluntarily suspending the rewards functions in TikTok Lite while we address the concerns that they have raised.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-lite-axes-addictive-as-cigarettes-reward-to-watch-feature-under-the-eus-watchful-eye-211157092.html?src=rss
IBM moves deeper into hybrid cloud management with $6.4B HashiCorp acquisition
IBM wisely gravitated away from trying to be a pure cloud infrastructure vendor years ago, recognizing that it could never compete with the big three: Amazon, Microsoft and Google. It has since moved onto helping IT departments manage complex hybrid environments, using its financial clout to acquire a portfolio of high-profile companies. It began with
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PUBG will take a nostalgia-infused trip back to its first map in May
PUBG: Battlegrounds is somehow old enough to evoke nostalgia. The pioneering battle royale game, which entered Steam Early Access in 2017, will borrow a page from Fortnite’s playbook and honor its first map. Erangel Classic will recreate the old-school battlefield from the game’s inception for a limited two-week run in May and June.
Developer and publisher Krafton says the Erangel Classic map will reproduce the original’s concepts, graphics, atmosphere and UI. However, it will blend those with “modern tweaks” to deliver “the enjoyable gameplay experiences that players have grown accustomed to.” In other words, much like remasters of other classic games, the goal is to feel as close to the original as possible without chucking out all of its subtle quality-of-life improvements from the game’s evolution.
Krafton
If the revamped map idea sounds familiar, Fortnite brought back its original 2018 island map late last year, breaking its records for player counts. (It peaked at 44.7 million players, marking its biggest day ever.) It’s easy to see why Krafton would want a piece of that action.
Specific nods to the original map include foggy and rainy weather to add an air of unpredictability. In addition, you’ll find bench weapons on the starting island (get ready to scramble for your favorite), and all weapons will have reduced recoil to match the original. It will also have a Tommy Gun in the care package, a vintage map UI and a “charmingly tacky font and graphics.”
The tiered rollout will arrive on PCs and consoles at different times, extending the playtime for those who own the game on multiple platforms (perhaps helping Krafton sell a few extra in-game items). Erangel Classic will be available in PUBG: Battlegrounds on PC from May 14 to May 28 and on consoles from May 23 to June 6, replacing the modern Erangel map during those periods. Krafton says the May 14 patch notes will go into more detail about all the map’s changes, so keep an eye out.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pubg-will-take-a-nostalgia-infused-trip-back-to-its-first-map-in-may-194736249.html?src=rss
Radical thinks the time has come for solar-powered, high-altitude autonomous aircraft
Though many eyes are on space as orbit develops into a thriving business ecosystem, Radical is keeping things a little closer to the ground — but not too close. Its high-altitude, solar-powered aircraft aim to succeed where Facebook’s infamous Aquila failed by refining the tech and embracing more markets. It’s hard to believe that Facebook’s
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PBS Retro is a new FAST channel playing just the classics
Parents throughout the country just breathed a sigh of relief at the prospect of allowing more screen time for their kids that doesn’t revolve around some really loud and annoying YouTube dude. PBS just launched a new free ad-supported channel called PBS Retro, as reported by The Wrap. As the name suggests, this is a repository for all of your favorite edutainment classics from the 1980s, 1990s and beyond. The nostalgia is strong with this one.
PBS Retro is available via The Roku Channel, which is a streaming service on smart TVs and, of course, Roku devices. The 24/7 channel airs all of the shows you’re likely picturing right now, including Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. You’ll also be able to introduce your kids to Thomas and Friends, Zoboomafoo and Kratt’s Creatures, among others. It’s a collection of old-school classics.
This isn’t the only PBS-adjacent channel available on Roku’s platform. It’s home to other ad-supported channels like PBS Antiques Roadshow, Antiques Road Trip, PBS Food, Julia Child and PBS Nature. There are also plenty of PBS-related channels available via subscription, including PBS Masterpiece, PBS Kids, PBS Living, PBS Documentaries and PBS America. Some of these are available on Hulu+ Live TV.
PBS may become an even bigger fixture in the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) space in the future. The organization says it’s in the “early days of experimentation” with a goal of making PBS content “available in new places.” It will “continue to consider additional opportunities” if these FAST channels increase revenue and brand awareness. In the meantime, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood makes for some mighty fine ASMR.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pbs-retro-is-a-new-fast-channel-playing-just-the-classics-173125500.html?src=rss
Rabbit R1 hands-on: Already more fun and accessible than the Humane AI Pin
At CES this January, startup Rabbit unveiled its first device, just in time for the end of the year of the rabbit according to the lunar calendar. It’s a cute little orange square that was positioned as a “pocket companion that moves AI from words to action.” In other words, it’s basically a dedicated AI machine that acts kind of like a walkie talkie to a virtual assistant.
Sound familiar? You’re probably thinking of the Humane AI Pin, which was announced last year and started shipping this month. I awarded it a score of 50 (out of 100) earlier this month, while outlets like Wired and The Verge gave it similarly low marks of 4 out of 10.
The people at Rabbit have been paying close attention to the aftermath of the Humane AI Pin launch and reviews. It was evident in founder and CEO Jesse Lyu’s address at an unboxing event at the TWA hotel in New York last night, where the company showed off the Rabbit R1 and eager early adopters listened rapturously before picking up their pre-orders. Engadget’s sample unit is on its way to Devindra Hardawar, who will be tackling this review. But I was in attendance last night to check out units at the event that industry peers were unboxing (thanks to Max Weinbach for the assistance!).
What is the Rabbit R1?
As a refresher, the Rabbit R1 is a bright orange square, co-engineered by Teenage Engineering and Rabbit. It has a 2.88-inch color display built in, an 8-megapixel camera that can face both ways and a scroll wheel reminiscent of the crank on the Playdate. The latter, by the way, is a compact gaming handheld that was also designed by Teenage Engineering, and the Rabbit R1 shares its adorable retro aesthetic. Again, like the Humane AI Pin, the Rabbit R1 is supposed to be your portal to an AI-powered assistant and operating system. However, there are a few key differences, which Lyu covered extensively at the launch event last night.
Rabbit R1 vs Humane AI Pin
Let’s get this out of the way: The Rabbit R1 already looks a lot more appealing than the Humane AI Pin. First of all, it costs $199 — less than a third of the AI Pin’s $700. Humane also requires a monthly $24 subscription fee or its device will be rendered basically useless. Rabbit, as Lyu repeatedly reiterated all night, does not require such a fee. You’ll just be responsible for your own cellular service (4G LTE only, no 5G), and can bring your own SIM card or just default to good old Wi-Fi. There, you’ll also find the USB-C charging port.
The R1’s advantages over the Pin don’t end there. By virtue of its integrated screen (instead of a wonky, albeit intriguing projector), the orange square is more versatile and a lot easier to interact with. You can use the wheel to scroll through elements and press the button on the right side to confirm a choice. You could also tap the screen or push down a button to start talking to the software.
Now, I haven’t taken a photo with the device myself, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of images I saw on its screen. Maybe my expectations were pretty low, but when reviewers in a media room were setting up their devices by using the onboard cameras to scan QR codes, I found the images on the screens clear and impressively vibrant. Users won’t just be capturing photos, videos and QR codes with the Rabbit R1, by the way. It also has a Vision feature like the Humane AI Pin that will analyze an image you take and tell you what’s in it. In Lyu’s demo, the R1 told him that it saw a crowd of people at “an event or concert venue.”
Cherlynn Low for Engadget
We’ll have to wait till Devindra actually takes some pictures with our R1 unit and downloads them from the web-based portal that Rabbit cleverly calls the Rabbit Hole. Its name for camera-based features is Rabbit Eye, which is just kind of delightful. In fact, another thing that distinguishes Rabbit from Humane is the former’s personality. The R1 just oozes character. From the witty feature names to the retro aesthetic to the onscreen animation and the fact that the AI will actually make (cheesy) jokes, Rabbit and Teenage Engineering have developed something that’s got a lot more flavor than Humane’s almost clinical appearance and approach.
Of all the things Lyu took shots at Humane about last night, though, talk of the R1’s thermal performance or the AI Pin’s heat issues was conspicuously absent. To be clear, the R1 is slightly bigger than the Humane device, and it uses an octa-core MediaTek MT6765 processor, compared to the AI Pin’s Snapdragon chip. There’s no indication at the moment that the Rabbit device will run as hot as Humane’s Pin, but I’ve been burned (metaphorically) before and remain cautious.
I am also slightly concerned about the R1’s glossy plastic build. It looks nice and feels lighter than expected, weighing just 115 grams or about a quarter of a pound. The scroll wheel moved smoothly when I pushed it up and down, and there were no physical grooves or notches, unlike the rotating hinge on Samsung’s Galaxy watches. The camera housing lay flush with the rest of the R1’s case, and in general the unit felt refined and finished.
Most of my other impressions of the Rabbit R1 come from Lyu’s onstage demos, where I was surprised by how quickly his device responded to his queries. He was able to type on the R1’s screen and tilted it so that the controls sat below the display instead of to its right. That way, there was enough room for an onscreen keyboard that Lyu said was the same width as the one on the original iPhone.
What’s next for the Rabbit R1?
Rabbit also drew attention for its so-called Large Action Model (LAM), which acts as an interpreter to convert popular apps like Spotify or Doordash into interfaces that work on the R1’s simple-looking operating system. Lyu also showed off some of these at the event last night, but I’d much rather wait for us to test these out for ourselves.
Lyu made many promises to the audience, seeming to acknowledge that the R1 might not be fully featured when it arrives in their hands. Even on the company’s website, there’s a list of features that are planned, in the works or being explored. For one thing, an alarm is coming this summer, along with a calendar, contacts app, GPS support, memory recall and more. Throughout his speech, Lyu repeated the phrase “we’re gonna work on” amid veiled references to Humane (for instance, emphasizing that Rabbit doesn’t require an additional subscription fee). Ultimately, Lyu said “we just keep adding value to this thing,” in reference to a roadmap of upcoming features.
Hopefully, Lyu and his team are able to deliver on the promises they’ve made. I’m already very intrigued by a “teach mode” he teased, which is basically a way to generate macros by recording an action on the R1, and letting it learn what you want to do when you tell it something. Rabbit’s approach certainly seems more tailored to tinkerers and enthusiasts, whereas Humane’s is ambitious and yet closed off. This feels like Google and Apple all over again, except whether the AI device race will ever reach the same scale remains to be seen.
Last night’s event also made it clear what Rabbit wants us to think. It was hosted at the TWA hotel, which itself used to be the head house of the TWA Flight Center. The entire place is an homage to retro vibes, and the entry to Rabbit’s event was lined with display cases containing gadgets like a Pokedex, a Sony Watchman, a Motorola pager, Game Boy Color and more. Every glass box I walked by made me squeal, bringing up a pleasant sense memory that also resurfaced when I played with the R1. It didn’t feel good in that it’s premium or durable; it felt good because it reminded me of my childhood.
Whether Rabbit is successful with the R1 depends on how you define success. The company has already sold more than 100,000 units this quarter and looks poised to sell at least one more (I’m already whipping out my credit card). I remain skeptical about the usefulness of AI devices, but, in large part due to its price and ability to work with third-party apps at launch, Rabbit has already succeeded in making me feel like Alice entering Wonderland.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rabbit-r1-hands-on-already-more-fun-and-accessible-than-the-humane-ai-pin-163622560.html?src=rss
Elon Musk wants to turn Tesla’s fleet into AWS for AI — would it work?
Image: Getty
During last night’s earnings call with investors, Elon Musk threw out an all-time late-night dorm room bong sesh of an idea: what if AWS, but for Tesla?
Musk, who loves to riff on earnings calls, compared the unused compute power of millions of idle Tesla vehicles to Amazon’s cloud service business. If they’re just sitting there, he mused, why not put them to good use to run AI models? (Also, have you ever really looked at your hands? No, I mean really looked?)
“There’s a potential… when the car is not moving to actually run distributed inference,” Musk said. “If you imagine the future perhaps where there’s a fleet of 100 million Teslas and on average, they’ve got like maybe a kilowatt of inference compute. That’s 100 gigawatts of inference compute, distributed all around the world.”
So, to summarize, you buy a Tesla. It’s your property. But Musk wants to freely use the unused compute power in your vehicle for… something? Possibly AI-related? Hopefully not the blockchain. (Tesla is an AI company now, by the way. Musk said so himself during the call.)
Would Tesla pay you for this? Unclear
Would Tesla pay you for this? Unclear. After all, this is Musk at his most hypothetical. Still, I wouldn’t put it past him to just try to take compute power from his customers’ vehicles without consent or compensation. GM was giving your driving data to insurance companies without your consent! Baby, it’s a free-for-all.
But before we can even treat this as a serious idea, we need to figure out if it’s even possible. I reached out to Sam Anthony, former chief technology officer at Perceptive Automata, a now-defunct company that built modules for self-driving cars to allow them to do “theory of mind” tasks.
Anthony said, as a concept, it’s “perfectly possible” to split large computing tasks out over lots of small nodes. We’ve seen it done with Bitcoin mining or Folding@home, a distributed computing project to develop new therapeutics. But just because something is possible doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea.
Anthony said there are two main issues that make cars — and electric cars, in particular — imperfect nodes for a distributed computing project. First, you have to rely on the car’s battery, or if it’s plugged in, the charging station’s energy source, for power. And that power usually doesn’t come free, with owners paying retail rates for electricity. Second, connectivity and speed are a “big issue” in distributed computing, Anthony said.
“Inference in particular is a part of the [machine learning] workflow where your speed is essential.”
“Inference in particular is a part of the [machine learning] workflow where your speed is essential,” he added. “You’re not doing a ton of offline inference overnight, you’re answering questions as they’re asked — this is the big inference issue the AI companies are running into right now — which makes the connectivity and availability issues of cars (which, you know, move around) even more of an issue.”
In Musk’s mind, the distributed network would only work when the cars are parked or otherwise immobile. Still, Anthony argues that no one would willingly create a distributed computer architecture out of millions of car ECUs (electronic control units) unless they were somehow forced to do it.
“It’s somebody with a very weird looking hammer imagining the existence of deeply implausible nails,” he said.
To be sure, computer scientists have been trying to create fast computers out of many small, idle nodes for a very long time. One of the earliest examples was SETI@home, in which Berkeley researchers thought they could find extraterrestrial life by tapping a volunteer network of distributed computers to analyze radio data. So why not a Tesla@home?
To be sure, computer scientists have been trying to create fast computers out of many small, idle nodes for a very long time
For one thing, the more geographically distributed the nodes, the harder it is to get them to work in concert with one another, said Phil Koopman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University who co-authored a book about supercomputers.
Like Anthony, Koopman acknowledged that the project could work as long as the vehicles were plugged in while computing to avoid draining the battery. Good Wi-Fi was also a necessary component, so the Tesla would likely need to be parked at home overnight for the distributed network to function properly. But even then, you’d likely run into obstacles while growing the project in order to make it useful for AI computing.
“Scalability to that size is always challenging and rarely succeeds to the degree it is worth doing that instead of building a data center,” Koopman said. “The devil is in the details, so I’d want to see some serious experimental confirmation it is viable.”
Musk loves to pontificate on what’s possible in a future overrun by autonomous connected vehicles. Things like a 24/7 robotaxi service in which your vehicle is out earning you passive income while you sleep sound awesome in theory. But when the rubber meets the road, Musk’s big ideas tend to deflate.
“For now it is an interesting idea,” Koopman said, “but we need to keep in mind that most cool ideas like this do not pencil out to be practical.”
‘PBS Retro’ is coming to Roku as a FAST channel
It’s where Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood lives. | Image: PBS Distribution via The Wrap.
Parents, it’s time to green-light more screen time.
PBS classics from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, including titles like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Thomas and Friends, are coming to streaming. PBS Distribution is making the edutainment programming available for free in the form of a FAST (free, ad-supported streaming) channel called PBS Retro, which is accessible through The Roku Channel.
“We identified an interest in connecting audiences with the content they grew up watching,” PBS distribution president Andrea Downing told The Wrap. The Roku Channel is home to other PBS FAST channels as well, including PBS Antiques Road Show, Antiques Road Trip, PBS Food, Julia Child, and PBS Nature.
The Roku Channel is becoming increasingly popular, gaining diverse content like news and sports — and can be watched on Roku devices, web browsers, and even Google TV. The service operates in a format similar to over-the-air programming, where you flip to a channel and watch whatever is on at the time.
That means you can’t flip to PBS Retro and demand to watch the theme song for the show with the talking lemur (that’s what YouTube is for). But you can give your child a rest from choice fatigue as episodes of Reading Rainbow, Kratt’s Creatures, Zoboomafoo, and others cycle and repeat.