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Normalizing Flows Are Capable Generative Models

Normalizing Flows (NFs) are likelihood-based models for continuous inputs. They have demonstrated promising results on both density estimation and generative modeling tasks, but have received relatively little attention in recent years. In this work, we demonstrate that NFs are more powerful than previously believed. We present TarFlow: a simple and scalable architecture that enables highly performant NF models. TarFlow can be thought of as a Transformer-based variant of Masked Autoregressive Fl

Android phones could soon warn you of “Stingrays” snooping on your communications

Smartphones contain a treasure trove of personal data, which makes them a worthwhile target for hackers. However, law enforcement is not above snooping on cell phones, and their tactics are usually much harder to detect. Cell site simulators, often called Stingrays, can trick your phone into revealing private communications, but a change in Android 16 could allow phones to detect this spying. Law enforcement organizations have massively expanded the use of Stingray devices because almost every

The Nothing Phone 3 might have the weirdest camera design out there

Earlier this month, I wrote about a leaked image of what was rumored to be the Nothing Phone 3. That image showed a design with a translucent back and three center-aligned cameras. But a new set of supposed Nothing Phone 3 images reveal a different design — with one of the wildest camera layouts I’ve ever seen. Renders from Android Headlines show a phone with a translucent back but three cameras in a weirdly separated layout. Instead of a neat triangle like on Pro iPhones or the camera bar on P

Jesse Draper’s Halogen Ventures closes $30M Fund III to focus on ‘future of family’

In Brief Halogen Ventures closed a $30 million Fund III to invest in early-stage startups building in the “future of family,” as reported first by Fortune. The firm was founded in 2015 by Jesse Draper, the daughter of famed venture capitalist Tim Draper. She explained to Fortune that the fund will focus on the physical and financial health of households. Startups in the care economy have received more investor interest in the past few years after the pandemic, which exacerbated childcare and

As Tesla Crumbles, Elon Musk Just Fired One of His Top Supporters at the Company

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has fired the automaker's vice president of manufacturing and operations Omead Fashar, Forbes reports, amid plummeting sales and public backlash against the company. Fashar was one of Musk's closest confidants and a powerful executive at the company, according to Bloomberg, which reported that Fashar had departed but didn't say that Musk was behind the personnel change. The exact reason for his departure isn't clear, although one can make an educated guess based on the broad

Can AI run a physical shop? Anthropic’s Claude tried and the results were gloriously, hilariously bad

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more Picture this: You give an artificial intelligence complete control over a small shop. Not just the cash register — the whole operation. Pricing, inventory, customer service, supplier negotiations, the works. What could possibly go wrong? New Anthropic research published Friday provides a definitive answer: everything. The AI company’s ass

Best July 4th TV deals 2025: My favorite early sales save you up to $2,800

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

The best iPhone 15 screen protectors of 2025: Expert tested

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

Steam Summer Sale: Snag 4 Major Borderlands Games for Under $25 Before Borderlands 4

If you want to catch up on the Borderlands series before Borderlands 4 comes out on Sept. 12, you won't find a better opportunity than this. Every mainline Borderlands game is steeply discounted for Steam's Summer sale, with many of them in the single digits. You can currently get Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3 for a grand total of $22. The first game represents about half that cost, so if you've already played that one or wan

Here’s where you can buy microSD Express cards for the Switch 2

is an editor covering deals and commerce. He joined in 2018, and served as commerce editor at Polygon until May 2025. The Nintendo Switch 2 is here, and so you might be in the market for a microSD card to store more games. While all microSD cards look the same, only microSD Express cards will work on the Switch 2 for storing and playing games. The card you used in your original Switch or Switch Lite will only offer very limited functionality if installed into Nintendo’s new handheld, letting yo

Eufy’s Omni C20 mopping robovac is $300 off for a limited time

After a long week, the last thing I want to do is clean my floors (they’re seriously overdue for a cleaning). Busting out the vacuum and mopping can be tiring. That’s why I’m a big fan of robot vacuums, especially ones with built-in mops that can handle all the cleaning on their own. Speaking of, you can pick up the Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni C20 at Amazon and Eufy for $399.98 ($300 off), matching its all-time low. This deal may be around for just a matter of hours. The Omni C20 is one of Eufy’s ne

Prolific cybercrime gang now targeting airlines and the transportation sector

Cybersecurity firms are warning that the prolific hacking group known as Scattered Spider is now targeting airlines and the transportation sector. Executives from Google’s cybersecurity unit Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks’ security research division Unit 42 say they have observed cyberattacks targeting the aviation industry resembling Scattered Spider. Scattered Spider is a collective of mostly English-speaking hackers, typically teenagers and young adults, who are financially motivated to st

While Tesla's Robotaxi Program Crumbles, Its Sales Are Falling Apart

Tesla's sales in Europe have officially plummeted for the fifth month in a row in May, delivering a staggering blow to its investors. Per ABC, Tesla's automotive sales dropped a further 28 percent last month across 30 European countries, despite a booming demand for EVs from other manufacturers. As Elon Musk's pet company falters, other companies are making out bigtime. For example, China's SAIC sold over 18,000 vehicles across Europe in May, while Tesla didn't even break 9,000, according to A

Apple TV+ confirms return date for award-winning animated series ‘Stillwater’

Stillwater is one of the highest-rated Apple TV+ shows for kids, and it has snatched quite a few awards since it premiered in 2020. And after a two-year hiatus since the end of last season, Apple has officially confirmed the show’s return date for season 4. Stillwater returns for season 4 on August 1 For those unfamiliar, Stillwater is Apple’s gentle, mindfulness-focused animated series based on Jon J Muth’s bestselling Zen book collection. The show follows three siblings, Karl, Addy, and Mic

Anthropic has a plan to combat AI-triggered job losses predicted by its CEO

NurPhoto/Getty Images The rise and rapid adoption of advanced AI tools has led to widespread concerns about mass job displacement and other economic disruptions. Now, one of the industry's biggest players is looking ahead, hoping to understand what steps can be taken in the present to brace the world for the future. AI start-up Anthropic announced Friday that it was launching its Economic Futures Program, a research initiative devoted to studying and preparing for AI's near-term economic impac

Project Vend: Can Claude run a small shop? (And why does that matter?)

We let Claude manage an automated store in our office as a small business for about a month. We learned a lot from how close it was to success—and the curious ways that it failed—about the plausible, strange, not-too-distant future in which AI models are autonomously running things in the real economy. Anthropic partnered with Andon Labs, an AI safety evaluation company, to have Claude Sonnet 3.7 operate a small, automated store in the Anthropic office in San Francisco. Here is an excerpt of

Trump Kills Trade Talks With Canada After It Hits U.S. With Digital Services Tax

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is terminating all trade talks with Canada after the country decided to move forward with a digital services tax on U.S. tech companies like Meta. The president, who also mentioned high dairy tariffs, called Canada “a very difficult Country to TRADE with,” in a Truth Social post. Trump characterized the digital services tax as a “direct and blatant attack on our Country.” The new Canadian measure imposes a 3% tax on digital services revenue mad

Best Grills for 2025: We Tested Dozens to Find the Best Grill in Every Category

We use thermocouples linked to computer software to measure internal grill temperatures. Brian Bennett/CNET We test the main types of grills differently, but for most, we include a high-heat test like searing steak or grilling burgers, a medium, indirect heat test like grilling a whole chicken for more than an hour and a low-and-slow test with racks of ribs. With over 30 grills tested, we've got this down to a tee. To determine what should be the best outdoor barbecue grill, we collect data inc

Riot turns to sports betting to help fund its esports leagues

is a reporter who covers the business, culture, and communities of video games, with a focus on marginalized gamers and the quirky, horny culture of video game communities. As the esports industry searches for new sources of revenue, Riot Games has opened up its League of Legends and Valorant esports leagues to sports betting sponsorships. The decision will permit tier one organizations – or the highest level of professional players – in the North and South America and European esports leagues

TechCrunch All Stage 2025 welcomes Boldstart partner Ellen Chisa to talk early-stage enterprise bets

We’re thrilled to announce that Ellen Chisa, partner at Boldstart Ventures, will be joining us at TechCrunch All Stage 2025 for an energizing conversation about investing in enterprise startups from day one. She’s one of the standout voices shaping this year’s lineup of founders, funders, and operators gathering July 15 in Boston’s SoWa Power Station, and you won’t want to miss what she brings to the table. All Stage is where startup builders get real answers to real questions — from how to rai

Congress might block state AI laws for a decade. Here’s what it means.

A federal proposal that would ban states and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years could soon be signed into law, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers work to secure its inclusion into a GOP megabill ahead of a key July 4 deadline. Those in favor – including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen – argue that a “patchwork” of AI regulation among states would stifle American innovation at a time when the race to beat China is heating up. Crit

TechCrunch Mobility: The Tesla robotaxi Rorschach test and Redwood’s next big act

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Less than a week ago, Tesla robotaxis began rolling out and giving rides to invited customers in Austin. As Sean O’Kane and I wrote this week, the rollout is the first big test of CEO Elon Musk’s belief that it’s possible to safely deploy fully autonomous vehicles using just cameras and end-to-end AI — an approach that differs from

Intel Nova Lake CPUs may finally bring a 3D V-Cache rival to desktop gaming

Rumor mill: Since their launch in early 2022, AMD's X3D CPUs have become the most-sought after CPUs for PC gamers who want top performance, thanks largely to their 3D V-Cache technology, which enables higher frame rates and smoother gameplay. Intel is now reportedly planning to counter AMD's recent dominance in high-end gaming by incorporating similar technology in its upcoming Nova Lake CPUs. According to tipster @Haze2K1, at least two SKUs in the Nova Lake lineup will ship with increased L3 c

The First Week of Tesla's Robotaxis Has Been a Disaster

While autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo and Baidu clock hundreds of thousands of self-driving taxi trips, Tesla is lagging far behind. We're now one week into the EV giant's robotaxi pilot in Austin — a program Elon Musk has teased for over a decade — and it's going about as horribly as expected. Citizens who've braved the robotaxi program have flooded social media this week with videos and tales of their harrowing experiences. The footage ranges from one Tesla veering into an oncoming l

Google will show you more news from your favorite sources - here's how to set it up

SOPA Images / Contributor / Getty Thanks to a new Google Labs feature, you can now tell Google which news sources you want to see more often in Top Stories (as long as you opt in). The company detailed the feature in a blog post Thursday, as part of six ways you can better personalize your Search experience. With the "Preferred Sources" experiment in Labs, you might choose to see world or political news from your preferred outlet, news about your favorite sports team from the newspaper beat re

I changed 6 settings on my Roku TV to give it an instant performance boost

Maria Diaz/ZDNET Few things ruin the joy of watching a good show more than suddenly seeing that rotating asterisk symbol or swirly icon that tells you your TV is buffering. Or maybe it's stuttering, or altogether freezing. If this is happening on your Roku TV, don't give up on it just yet. Also: How to disable ACR on your TV (and why doing so makes such a big difference) Like phones and computers, Rokus have caches that accumulate temporary data, which inevitably slows them down over time. Th

How Anthropic's new initiative will prepare for AI's looming economic impact

NurPhoto/Getty Images The rise and rapid adoption of advanced AI tools has led to widespread concerns about mass job displacement and other economic disruptions. Now, one of the industry's biggest players is looking ahead, hoping to understand what steps can be taken in the present to brace the world for the future. AI start-up Anthropic announced Friday that it was launching its Economic Futures Program, a research initiative devoted to studying and preparing for AI's near-term economic impac

Bitmovin (YC S15) Is Hiring a Junior Solutions Engineer in Denver

The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying ou

'Squid Game' Is Back! Here's How to Watch Season 3 on Netflix

The third and final season of Squid Game is here. Get ready, the final games are about to begin. The second season of Netflix's global hit series ended on a cliffhanger, leaving the fates of Gi-hun/Player 456 (Lee Jung-jae) and the rest of the players in question. How will Gi-hun get his revenge against the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun)? Will Jun-ho find the island in time to bring the ones behind these death gauntlets to justice? It's possible, but writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk has created a wor

Best Tablet 2025: Top Tablets From Apple, Samsung, Amazon and More

Tablets are portable computers that have great usability while being less complicated than a traditional computer. The best tablet is the one that's versatile enough for all kinds of use cases from home, school or work. While finding the best tablet for you isn't hard, knowing where to start can be overwhelming, and that's where CNET's testing and reviews can help. We've picked out the best of the best, and these tablets can do it all, including checking email, managing finances, testing your ar