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More news from the labs of MIT

New electronic “skin” could lead to lightweight night-vision glasses MIT engineers have developed a technique to grow and peel ultrathin “skins” of electronic material that could be used in wearable sensors, flexible transistors and computing elements, and sensitive compact imaging devices. Technology makes pesticides stick to plant leaves A new pesticide application system developed by MIT researchers and their spinoff company could significantly cut use of pesticides and fertilizers, saving

Art rhymes

As an MIT visiting scholar, rap legend Lupe Fiasco decided to go fishing for ideas on campus. In an approach he calls “ghotiing” (pronounced “fishing”), he composed nine raps inspired by works in MIT’s public art collection, writing and recording them on site. On May 2, he and the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble debuted six of them, performing in front of a packed audience in Kresge for the final performance of the MIT Artfinity festival. The concert featured arrangements of Fiasco’s music done by

Travels with Rambax

Lamine Touré, director of Rambax MIT, leads drum practice in Grand Mbao NIKO ODHIAMBO ’25 Touré, a Senegalese master drummer and an MIT lecturer in world music, cofounded Rambax in 2001 with Patricia Tang, an associate professor and ethnomusicologist who specializes in West African music. It began as an extracurricular group to teach students and other members of the MIT community the art of sabar, a vibrant West African drumming and dance tradition. Today, Rambax is a credit-bearing class (21M

Samsung needs to build a Galaxy Watch that looks as good as this mod

TL;DR A Redditor modified a mechanical watch body to fit the electronics from a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. The 40mm Watch 4 was supposedly the only one small enough to fit in the case, which appears to be from a Panerai Luminor watch. Even the crown button is reportedly functional. What’s the most customizable device you own? Plenty of us dress up our phones with a case intended to help it stand out, but we might argue that smartwatches place an even higher priority on customization. Alternate b

PyTorch Reshaping with None

PyTorch Reshaping with None Currently I am learning attention mechanism from Dive into Deep Learning book. In the book I see following implementation in masked softmax: def sequence_mask (X, valid_len, value = - 1e6 ): """ X is 2D array (number_of_points, maxlen), valid_len is 1D array (number_of_points)""" max_len = X . size( 1 ) mask = torch . arange(max_len, dtype = torch . float32, device = X . device)[ None , :] < valid_len[:, None ] X[ ~ mask] = value return X In sequential data process

Forget the Mac Mini, This HP Mini PC with Windows 11 Pro Is 70% Off in Early Prime Day Deals

HP is competing directly with Apple’s Mac Mini in the world of compact desktops. The HP Pro Mini 400 G9 Mini PC is currently available at a record low price on Amazon and makes it a great chance to get a high-end machine at a much lower cost. The price is the big news: this model (32GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, Intel 6-Core i5-12500T) is now just $699 which is 70% off its usual price of $2,339. On HP’s own website, a similar setup would cost close to the original price. See at Amazon Build for

Topics: mini pc price type usb

Microsoft Offers Free Windows 10 Extended Security Updates -- Under One Condition

Microsoft is closing the door on Windows 10 in October 2025, and will be ceasing security support for that operating system unless users pay $30 for a one-year extended security update. On Tuesday, with less than four months on the clock until support expires, Microsoft has added a free option. Users need to turn on cloud backup and connect it to their OneDrive account. The ability to get free updates on Windows 10 is a pretty big deal because it is still the most widely used Windows OS, accoun

Discovery of HMS Endeavour wreck confirmed

Back in 2022, we reported on the Australian National Maritime Museum's (ANMM) announcement that its researchers had confirmed that a shipwreck proposed as a likely candidate in 2018 is indeed the remains of the HMS Endeavour. However, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP)—the museum's research partner in the project—promptly released a statement calling the announcement premature. RIMAP insisted that more evidence was needed. The final report is now available, and both RIMAP and A

You’ve got one week to stock up on Philips Hue gear before a tariff-fueled price hike

We’d usually advise most shoppers to wait until Prime Day to get the best prices on tech, but smart home buyers in the US may want to consider stocking up in the next week. Philips Hue devices are already on the costly side, but it has now been confirmed that prices will increase from July 1. The unsurprising reason is the impact of US tariffs. After alluding to the price hike in a marketing email, Hue’s parent company, Signify, confirmed the increases in a statement to HueBlog. No further deta

Topics: home hue july price smart

Save $25 on the Anker Laptop Power Bank and keep all your devices juiced up

Dave Carr So yoy keep running out of juice mid-day? The best solution is to get a power bank, and this one is one of our favorite ones right now. The Anker Laptop Power Bank is very portable, well-built, and plenty capable. It’s also $25.01 off today! Buy the Anker Laptop Power Bank for just $109.98 ($25.01 off) This offer is available from Amazon. You can get the same discount on both the Black and Silver color models. The Anker Laptop Power Bank seems to have suffered from the recent market

Google Fi rolling out visual voicemail support for the iPhone

As previewed in April, Google Fi Wireless is rolling out support for visual voicemail on the iPhone. With this update, voicemail will no longer be available in the Fi app. Going forward, voicemail will appear in the iOS Phone app. Previously, subscribers had to use the Google Fi companion app to hear and read those messages. Now, Fi users will be able to “play, share, and delete voicemail messages directly through their device’s Phone app. Additionally, they will “no longer receive duplicate v

SonicWall warns of trojanized NetExtender stealing VPN logins

SonicWall is warning customers that threat actors are distributing a trojanized version of its NetExtender SSL VPN client used to steal VPN credentials. The fake software, which was discovered by SonicWall's and Microsoft Threat Intelligence (MSTIC) researchers, mimics the legitimate NetExtender v10.3.2.27, the latest available version. The malicious installer file is hosted on a spoofed website that is made to appear authentic, tricking visitors into thinking they are downloading software fro

ElevenLabs' new AI voice assistant can automate your favorite tasks - and you can try it for free

oxygen/Getty Images AI assistants are cropping up faster than we can keep track of them, promising to automate our mundane daily tasks and skyrocket productivity. AI audio company ElevenLabs wants to take those promises a step further: from words to actions. Also: How AI can save us from our 'infinite' workdays, according to Microsoft On Monday, the company launched 11ai, a voice assistant powered by the company's library of more than 5,000 voices. What sets this assistant apart, ElevenLabs c

Biocide overdose blunder suspected in A321 dual-engine incident

UK investigators probing a serious dual engine problem on a departing Airbus A321 have discovered its fuel system had previously been overdosed with biocide, after a maintenance engineer misunderstood a measurement term. The engineer was confused by the term ‘ppm’ – meaning ‘parts per million’ – while conducting a biocidal shock treatment of the Titan Airways A321’s fuel tanks, as the jet neared the end of a month-long maintenance check. While the anti-contamination treatment required a biocid

The Economics Behind "Basic Economy" – A Masterclass in Price Discrimination

Basic Economy fares are ultra-restricted airline tickets that offer a lower base price in exchange for fewer benefits than standard economy class. Introduced by major U.S. carriers in the 2010s, these fares have become a widespread strategy for market segmentation - a textbook example of price discrimination in practice. By design, Basic Economy compels travelers to self-select based on their willingness to pay and tolerate restrictions, thus allowing airlines to maximize revenue from different

The 15 Best Nonalcoholic Drinks That Your Party Guests Will Fight Over

CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review products and services. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. If you're sober, sober curious or simply looking to cut back on alcohol, you might be planning to enjoy nonalcoholic drinks all year round. For folks who like to host, these beverages are great alcohol alternatives to serve to people who don't want to drink booze. Fortunately, nonalcoholic drinks have come a long way, and many br

What Is 'Toxic Positivity'? We Asked an Expert

At some point in your life, you’ve probably read or heard about the importance of being positive and always focusing on the bright side. But being positive all the time might not be the best approach in every situation. We are all humans, and because of that, we all have a variety of emotions that we experience on a daily basis. Those emotions can be happy, sad, angry, shame, pride, envy and more. It's nothing to be embarrassed about because it's just a part of being human. And we all have our g

Philips Hue bulbs will be even more expensive in July. And it may not end there.

Philips is upping the prices of its popular and already-expensive Hue series of smart lighting products starting July 1. The company is blaming tariffs for the changes and has suggested that prices could go up even higher after the initial bump in July. Philips started informing its customers via an email marketing message earlier this month that prices would go up and urged people to buy Hue lighting sooner rather than later. In a statement to the Hueblog website, Philips’ parent company, Sig

Discovery of HMS Endeavor wreck confirmed

Back in 2022, we reported on the Australian National Maritime Museum's (ANMM) announcement that its researchers had confirmed that a shipwreck proposed as a likely candidate in 2018 is indeed the remains of the HMS Endeavour. However, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP)—the museum's research partner in the project—promptly released a statement calling the announcement premature. RIMAP insisted that more evidence was needed. The final report is now available, and both RIMAP and A

In just 4 months, AI medical scribe Abridge doubles valuation to $5.3B

In Brief Abridge, an AI startup automating medical notes, has secured a $300 million Series E at a $5.3 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. The round, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Khosla Ventures, follows the company’s $250 million February fundraise at a $2.75 billion valuation. The seven-year-old Abridge is widely considered to be the leader in the increasingly crowded AI-powered medical scribe market, largely due to its early entry and integration

Meet Mu, the small language model in charge of Microsoft's Settings AI agent

In brief: Small language models are generally more compact and efficient than LLMs, as they are designed to run on local hardware or edge devices. Microsoft is now bringing yet another SLM to Windows 11, as users apparently need a few AI-powered hints to help them find specific OS settings and customize their PC experience. Microsoft recently announced Mu, a new small language model designed to integrate with the Windows 11 UI experience. Mu will work alongside Phi Silica – the language model p

Chinese Military Shows Off Fly-Sized Drones for Covert Ops

When it comes to robotics, nobody's doing it quite like China. Despite not truly industrializing until the 1950s — some 75 years after the United States — the nation has surged to the global forefront of robotics development. Between 2022 and 2023, China installed over half of all global robotics installed throughout the globe, scoring the second-highest annual robot deployment ever recorded — a close runner up to its own previous record, which it set between 2021 and 2022. Since then, the sec

iCloud is down for some users as outage impacts Photos, Mail, more

iCloud is currently down for some Apple users, impacting key apps and services like Photos, Mail, iWork, and more. Here’s what we know so far about the outage. iCloud outage hits several popular Apple services Downdetector.com shows spiking reports of iCloud being down. The outage appears to have started shortly after 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. According to Apple’s system status page, the outage impacts a variety of iCloud services, including: iCloud Mail iCloud Web Apps iCloud Storage Upgrad

Judge OKs Anthropic's Use of Copyrighted Books in AI Training. That's Bad News for Creators

Anthropic's use of copyright-protected books in its AI training process was "exceedingly transformative" and fair use, US senior district judge William Alsup ruled on Monday. It's the first time a judge has decided in favor of an AI company on the issue of fair use, in a significant win for generative AI companies and a blow for creators. Fair use is a doctrine that's part of US copyright law. It's a four-part test that, when the criteria is met, lets people and companies use protected content

Key fair use ruling clarifies when books can be used for AI training

Artificial intelligence companies don't need permission from authors to train their large language models (LLMs) on legally acquired books, US District Judge William Alsup ruled Monday. The first-of-its-kind ruling that condones AI training as fair use will likely be viewed as a big win for AI companies, but it also notably put on notice all the AI companies that expect the same reasoning will apply to training on pirated copies of books—a question that remains unsettled. In the specific case

Apple Wallet notifications for an F1 movie promotion ticked off iPhone owners

is an editor covering deals and commerce. He joined in 2018, and served as commerce editor at Polygon until May 2025. Apple poured some good money into making F1 – a Formula 1 racing movie starring Brad Pitt – and it wants its customers to know that. To that end, many people, including some Verge staffers, noticed an unusual Apple Wallet notification this morning that’s both an advertisement and promotion for the film. The notification prompts users to save on movie tickets via Fandango with a

ElevenLabs releases a stand-alone voice-generation app

Voice AI company ElevenLabs just released a stand-alone mobile app for iOS and Android users to generate voice clips from text. Until now, if you had to generate samples using ElevenLabs’ AI-powered voice libraries, you had to rely on its web app. Now you can use its mobile app to generate clips on the go. To use the app, simply type or paste in the text, then select a suitable voice to generate an audio clip. The free plan gives users access to roughly 10 minutes of audio generation. You can

Philips Hue lighting is getting even more expensive on July 1 as a ‘direct result’ of tariffs

In the smart home world, Philips Hue already has some of the more expensive options, and now those prices are going even higher thanks to US tariffs. Over the past few weeks, Philips Hue has been advertising a 25% off sale to its customers via email with the added detail that “Our prices increase on July 1.” Signify, the company behind the Philips Hue brand, has now expanded on what this means. Speaking to HueBlog, Signify says that Philips Hue will “increase prices” in the US starting on Jul

Roland just released a weird little riff on an acoustic handpan

Synthesizer giant Roland just announced a fairly bizarre contraption. The Mood Pan is the company's digital take on an acoustic handpan. For the uninitiated, a handpan is a version of the steelpan instrument that's been popular in Trinidad and Tobago since the 1930s. It's widely considered to be the only truly new acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century. However, handpans and steelpans take serious skill to play. Roland's Mood Pan is much easier to play, thanks to clearly visible pads

Judge rules Anthropic's AI training on copyrighted materials is fair use

Anthropic has received a mixed result in a class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors who claimed the company used their copyrighted creations without permission. On the positive side for the artificial intelligence company, senior district judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California determined that Anthropic's training of its AI tools on copyrighted works was protected as fair use. Developing large language models for artificial intelligence has