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Yes. Backdrop supports using custom video files and Rive animations to create a scene. You can import your own content via the Creator feature, and even submit it to the Community Platform for others to use.
The genies are out of the bottle. Let’s take as a given that augmented coding is steadily reducing the cost, skill barriers, and time needed to develop software. (Interesting debate to be had—another day.) Will this lead to fewer programmers or more programmers? Economics gives us two contradictory answers simultaneously. Substitution . The substitution effect says we'll need fewer programmers—machines are replacing human labor. Jevons’. Jevons’ paradox predicts that when something becomes c
Spotify Free comes with enough limitations that the company hopes it will persuade you to upgrade to a premium subscription. But one of the four limits is being removed from today … Unlike Apple Music, which offers paid subscriptions only (aside from a limited free trial), Spotify offers the choice of free and premium subscriptions. Spotify Free has so far had four major drawbacks: Interruptions from ads Lower audio quality Limited ability to skip unwanted tracks Shuffle-only playback on m
Andy Walker / Android Authority In a recent article I wrote about alternatives to Files by Google, several users mentioned a name I hadn’t heard in ages: Total Commander. Launched back in 2012, the app still has a strong following on Android, even though I remember it best as my preferred Windows file manager back in the day. You all intrigued me, so I installed it on my main phone and started using it as my primary file manager. But is it any good compared to the many alternatives available? I
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Qualcomm has announced that its upcoming flagship mobile chipset is the “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5,” a confusingly named successor to the Snapdragon 8 Elite. While the processor itself will be unveiled during the Snapdragon Summit on September 23rd-25th, Qualcomm has already published an explanation for the branding update. “It might look like we skipped generations, but the truth is simpler— and more powerf
Qualcomm TL;DR Qualcomm has announced that its new flagship processor will be called “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.” Xiaomi has confirmed that its next flagship phone lineup, the Xiaomi 17 series, will be powered by the new chipset. The processor will also power the Galaxy S26 series, with a possible “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy” branding. Qualcomm has officially announced its next flagship mobile chipset, the “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.” Ahead of the 2025 Snapdragon Summit, where the chi
Committing to a better future Lend your skills to an open source project focused on the Digital Public Goods (DPGs). From fighting climate change, to solving world hunger, your efforts will contribute to creating a better future for everyone. Together, we can drive positive and lasting contributions to the world, one commit at a time. Explore a DPG repo below to get started.
The Stop Killing Games campaign is continuing to gain momentum after hitting more than a million signatures in July. After a July 31st deadline, the movement secured around 1.45 million signatures, which the organizers are currently in the process of verifying. The initiative aims to enact legislation that preserves access to video games, even when developers decide to end support, as seen with Ubisoft when it delisted The Crew and revoked access to players who already purchased the game. There
I’ve seen a couple of examples recently of how super simple “bots” are replacing bits of user interface. I feel like this is a trend connected with the return of VR. I am in love with the virtual events platform Skittish which is a 3D cartoon world (where everyone is a low-poly animal) for running multiplayer online parties, conferences, workshops etc. RECOMMENDATION: Hit the “Try it now” button in the top right of their homepage and run around the sandbox. Talk to the other animals! Go into t
While the Trump administration has continued to refer to efforts to avoid the worst impacts of climate change as a scam, it has done almost nothing to counter the copious scientific evidence that demonstrates that climate change is real and doing real damage to the citizens of the US. The lone exception has been a draft Department of Energy report prepared by a handful of carefully chosen fringe figures that questioned the mainstream understanding of climate change. The shoddy work and questiona
“Yesterday was an interesting day for the Helldivers community.” That’s the very obvious understatement that announced the reopening of the Helldivers gaming subreddit in the small hours of Saturday morning. On Friday it was discovered that Tyler Robinson, arrested for the alleged killing of Charlie Kirk, had inscribed messages on the casings of several bullets found at the crime scene. One of those read “Hey fascist! Catch!” accompanied by an up arrow symbol, a right arrow, and three down arrow
Underlying great creations that you love—be it music, art, or technology—its form (what it looks like) is driven by an underpinning internal logic (how it works). I noticed this pattern while watching a talk on cellular automaton and realized it's "form follows function" paraphrased from a slightly different angle. Inventing a form is a hard task, so you must approach it obliquely—by first illuminating the underlying function. This made me realize something crucial about visual programming: it’
"In space on a spaceship right now." The sky's the limit for how outrageously implausible some scams can get. Actually, try beyond the atmosphere. An elderly woman in Japan sent thousands of dollars to a trickster who claimed to be an astronaut trapped in space and in danger of suffocating, Agence France-Presse reports. In fairness to the lady, though, she thought they were in love. The 80-year-old pensioner, who lives in Sapporo, the capital of Japan's northern island Hokkaido, met the scamm
Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact. If you’re an avid Apple Watch fan (or use another fitness tracker that syncs to Apple Health), you’ll find SUMRY incredibly useful. It allows you to pull multiple Apple Health workouts together, and it creates comprehensive summaries that tell a story about your activity. Top features SUMRY works with
In my old age I’ve mostly given up trying to convince anyone of anything. Most people do not care to find the truth, they care about what pumps their bags. Some people go as far as to believe that perception is reality and that truth is a construction. I hope there’s a special place in hell for those people. It’s why the world wasted $10B+ on self driving car companies that obviously made no sense. There’s a much bigger market for truths that pump bags vs truths that don’t. So here’s your new
The Emmy Awards are nearly here, meaning your favorite TV shows from the past year may be taking home some well-deserved wins. I guess it's time to once again start the comedy-or-drama debate about The Bear. The Emmys eligibility rules say programs must have premiered new episodes between June 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025. This year's top contenders feature one from Netflix (the limited series Adolescence), two from Apple TV Plus (Severance and The Studio) and HBO's The Penguin. Presenters this y
Las Vegas immersive entertainment hub AREA15 is turning five in a big way, celebrating the arrival of its second phase of development on September 17. Zone 2’s main attraction, Universal Horror Unleashed, opened its doors over the summer to attract seasonal tourists, but the rest of the offerings are following suit as the year draws out. After io9’s invited visit to Universal Horror Unleashed, io9 chatted with Mark Stutzman, AREA15’s chief technology officer, about the new way to experience Veg
While the Trump administration has continued to refer to efforts to avoid the worst impacts of climate change as a scam, it has done almost nothing to counter the copious scientific evidence that demonstrates that climate change is real and doing real damage to the citizens of the US. The lone exception has been a draft Department of Energy report prepared by a handful of carefully chosen fringe figures that questioned the mainstream understanding of climate change. The shoddy work and questiona
Nissan provided flights from Austin to San Diego and then to Washington, DC, and accommodation so Ars could drive the Nissan Leaf. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. SAN DIEGO—The original Nissan Leaf was a car with a mission. Long before Elon Musk set his sights on Tesla selling vast numbers of electric vehicles to the masses, then-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn wanted Nissan to shift half a million Leafs a year in the early 2010s. That didn't quite come to pass, but by 2020, it had sold its
Thanks to a pledge to unbundle its corporate messaging app Teams from its productivity suites, Microsoft has managed to slip unscathed through a major antitrust investigation by the European Commission that could have resulted in massive fines for the tech giant. The Commission on Friday okayed Microsoft’s concessions to address the EU’s competition concerns over the company including Teams along with the rest of its Office productivity suite for free, concluding a multi-year investigation that
Microsoft is no longer in trouble with the European Commission, at least when it comes to Teams. The commission has accepted the changes and commitments the company made in response to its concerns related to Microsoft's bundling of its Teams collaboration platform with its other apps. This particular antitrust saga started years ago when Slack filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, claiming that it illegally bundled its work chat competitor with the popular Office suite. The commission
We will, of course, put a live tracker online for his journey, and thanks to modern communications equipment, the paddler will be able to send information, pictures and even videos from the middle of the Atlantic. Preparations for this special challenge have been ongoing for many months. However, for a project like this to come together, a lot of things have to fit together perfectly.
The Microsoft Teams app on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. The European Union on Friday said it has accepted commitments from Microsoft to unbundle its Teams workplace communication platform from its popular productivity apps. The decision essentially exempts Microsoft from receiving a potentially hefty antitrust fine after the company was last year accused by the European Commission — the executive body of the EU — of breaching competition rules with the "abusive
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia, at the London Tech Week exposition in London, UK, on Monday, June 9, 2025. Nvidia and OpenAI are in discussions about backing a major investment in Britain focused on boosting artificial intelligence infrastructure in the country. The two tech firms are discussing a sizable deal to support data center development in the country which could ultimately be worth billions of dollars, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC, confir
Crispr gene-editing technology has demonstrated its revolutionary potential in recent years: It has been used to treat rare diseases, to adapt crops to withstand the extremes of climate change, or even to change the color of a spider’s web. But the greatest hope is that this technology will help find a cure for a global disease, such as diabetes. A new study points in that direction. For the first time, researchers succeeded in implanting Crispr-edited pancreatic cells in a man with type 1 diab
is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Microsoft has avoided a fine from the European Commission after it was charged with EU antitrust violations for bundling its Teams app with Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions. The European Commission says it has accepted commitments from Microsoft to address competition concerns rel
Crispr gene-editing technology has demonstrated its revolutionary potential in recent years: It has been used to treat rare diseases, to adapt crops to withstand the extremes of climate change, or even to change the color of a spider’s web. But the greatest hope is that this technology will help find a cure for a global disease, such as diabetes. A new study points in that direction. For the first time, researchers succeeded in implanting Crispr-edited pancreatic cells in a man with type 1 diab
19 August 2025 Ankur Goyal I spend a decent amount of time reviewing code I didn't write. An AI agent takes a detailed problem description, writes code (primarily Typescript, Rust, and Python), adds tests, and commits the changes to a branch. I tap back in when everything's ready for review. This used to feel like a futuristic scenario, but it's how I work now, and it's how many developers are starting to work. The shift is subtle but powerful: instead of writing code line by line, we're learn
DC Comics canceled its new, mature-rated Red Hood comic just hours after it launched on September 10 because its writer made comments about the assassination of right-wing activist and Turning Point USA creator Charlie Kirk at Utah University. Red Hood writer Gretchen Felker-Martin made comments and joked on social media about Kirk’s death—which occurred on the same day as the comic’s launch. Red Hood, which Felker-Martin was creating along with artist Jeff Spokes, will discontinue after its f
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday expressed support for several NASA missions that currently sit on the chopping block as a result of the administration’s 2026 budget proposal. While the committee did not specifically allocate more money to these missions, the support breathes new life into planetary science efforts that have been years in the making. The House committee met to discuss the commerce, justice, and science budget bill, which allocates funding to federal agencies