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Dictionary.com “devastated” paid users by abruptly deleting saved words lists

Logophiles are "devastated" after Dictionary.com deleted their logs of favorited words that they carefully crafted for years. The company deleted all accounts, as well as the only ways to use Dictionary.com without seeing ads —even if you previously paid for an ad-free experience. Dictionary.com offers a free dictionary through its website and free Android and iOS apps. It used to offer paid-for mobile apps, called Dictionary.com Pro, that let users set up accounts, use the app without ads, and

Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for July 18, #768

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Today's NYT Connections puzzle is all over the place. If you want to solve the blue category, it helps if you know yoga. (I don't.) Read on for clues and today's Connections answers. The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to

Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 18, #298

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles. The purple group for today's Connections: Sports Edition might be a tough one. If you like baseball, have been paying attention to big games and know some famous sports names, then you'll do just fine with the rest of the puzzle. Read on for more hints and the answers. Connections: Sports Edi

AI-Powered Smart Devices Help Older Adults Age at Home, Survey Finds

Older adults often find artificial intelligence smart home devices and voice assistants useful in helping them age in place, according to a new survey by the University of Michigan. More than half of people surveyed aged 50 and older have used generative AI tools they spoke or typed messages to, according to the National Poll on Healthy Aging, released by the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. By comparison, a June Pew Research Center poll found that 25% of US adults 50 to 64

How Android phones became an earthquake warning system

If you're the owner of an Android phone and live in a seismically active region, there's a chance your phone has popped up an unusual warning. Not one that asks for permission to share personal information, or potential malware, but something far more serious: There's an earthquake nearby, and you have up to a minute or two to get to a safer location. Starting in the US in 2020 and expanding internationally since, the system is called Android Earthquake Alert (AEA), and it's on by default in mo

ICE Is Getting Unprecedented Access to Medicaid Data

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are getting access to the personal data of nearly 80 million people on Medicaid in order to acquire "information concerning the identification and location of aliens in the United States,” according to an information exchange agreement viewed by WIRED. The agreement, which is titled “Information Exchange Agreement Between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Disclosure of Identity and Locat

All AI models might be the same

Project CETI is a large-scale effort to decode whale speech. If AI models do learn a universal language, we might be able to use it to talk to whales. Growing up, I sometimes played a game with my friends called “Mussolini or Bread.” It’s a guessing game, kind of like Twenty Questions. The funny name comes from the idea that, in the space of everything, ‘Mussolini’ and ‘bread’ are about as far away from each other as you can get. One round might go like this: Is it closer to Mussolini or bre

The (Unfinished) PDE Coffee Table Book

THE (UNFINISHED) PDE COFFEE TABLE BOOK Lloyd N. Trefethen and Kristine Embree, editors Unpublished, 2001 During 2000-2001 a group project based in the Oxford University was begun to write this book. The vision was 100 2-page spreads, each one giving exactly the most useful possible starting information about a different partial differential equation, with beautiful color illustrations. Many people at Oxford and around the world contributed drafts, which were then extensively rewritten and e

All AI Models Might be The Same

Project CETI is a large-scale effort to decode whale speech. If AI models do learn a universal language, we might be able to use it to talk to whales. Growing up, I sometimes played a game with my friends called “Mussolini or Bread.” It’s a guessing game, kind of like Twenty Questions. The funny name comes from the idea that, in the space of everything, ‘Mussolini’ and ‘bread’ are about as far away from each other as you can get. One round might go like this: Is it closer to Mussolini or bre

Donkey Kong Bananza is already cheaper at Costco

Theis a great desk accessory for charging multiple devices, and it’s currently down to $35.99 ($14 off) at Amazon , which is an all-time low price. The charging station offers a maximum output of 100W, allowing you to charge power-hungry devices quickly. There are seven ports in total — three AC outlets on the back, and four USB ports (two USB-C and two USB-A) on the front. In addition, the charging station offers surge protection and a 5-foot built-in cable, giving you flexibility to position i

Razer’s new Pokémon collab is not very effective

Razer’s new Pokémon collaboration is a missed opportunity. The four PC gaming peripherals in this lineup are simply reskinned versions of products that already exist, and which cost $20 to $40 more than their all-black counterparts. You really should be getting more for your money here. For example, the themed BlackWidow V4 X keyboard should include at least one highly detailed custom keycap (switching out Alt for pokéball designs doesn’t cut it). Maybe the Kraken V4 X headset could have includ

Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

If you have the Notion Desktop App installed, you may have started to notice a "In a meeting? Start AI Meeting Notes" notification pop up exactly when you are joining a virtual meeting (e.g. joining a Google Meet on Firefox). At first, I assumed it must have been using my Google Workspace account to snoop on my calendar. But then I started to notice it would notify exactly when I joined even if I was late and the meeting had previously started. This was the response from Notion Support after t

July Mortgage Rate Forecast: Buyers Retreat as Rates Rebound

Buyers should keep an eye on the possibility of rate cuts in the next few months. Tharon Green/CNET Every time the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dips, even by a few tenths of a percentage point, prospective homebuyers jump to take advantage. As soon as rates move up again, mortgage activity goes down. The past few weeks offer a textbook example. When rates fell to around 6.7% (the lowest level in months) in early July, applications for home loans promptly ticked up, according to the Mort

Roblox Adds Age Verification for Teens Who Want to Chat: What You Need to Know

Roblox, the popular gaming platform, has revamped the way it will handle player communications, particularly for those under 18. As detailed in a blog post, the company says it's changing "Friends" to "Connections" across the platform and is launching new tools to estimate a player's age via a video selfie. That age verification, for those 13 to 17, will unlock a feature called "Trusted Connections" that allows for less filtered text or voice chat. Those who aren't able to verify their age with

Taiwan Semi is speeding up U.S. chip production due to demand, CEO says

Signage for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) at it's fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on Monday, March 3, 2025. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company CEO C.C. Wei on Thursday said the company is seeing "strong interest" from its leading U.S. customers and is working to speed up its volume production schedule by several quarters. TSMC is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, and the company has pledged to invest a total of $165 billion in advanced semic

Netflix Is Going to Try to Make Live-Action ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Happen Again

In what might be the biggest flex from a streamer to assert dominance in the video game adaptation space, Netflix has announced that its next venture will be to create a live-action adaptation of Ubisoft’s megapopular series, Assassin’s Creed. In a press release, Netflix announced that its live-action Assassin’s Creed series will be helmed by Emmy nominees Roberto Patino and David Wiener, who respectively worked on shows like Westworld, Sons of Anarchy, and Paramount’s own video game adaptation

I tested the Ferrari of robot mowers for a month - here's my verdict

ZDNET's key takeaways The Mammotion Luba 2 3000H is available for $2,599. Built to handle uneven terrain, the Luba 2 is an all-wheel-drive (AWD) reliable robot mower with a GPS-powered perimeter that is surprisingly easy to set up. The Mammotion app is not very user-friendly and can get buggy after a firmware update. View now at Us.mammotion Mowing the lawn is one of my favorite chores. It lets me focus on an uninterrupted task that satisfies my OCD, with the bonus of completing my exercise r

Got ChatGPT Plus? You can record and summarize meetings on a Mac now - here's how

Lance Whitney / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Looking for an automated way to record, analyze, and summarize meetings and other conversations? You can now do that with any paid ChatGPT subscription, as long as you use a Mac. Also: Is ChatGPT Plus really worth $20 when the free version offers so many premium features? On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that its new Record mode is now accessible to ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The recording capability, which kicked off in June, was initially restricted

Voting age to be lowered to 16 in UK by next general election

The voting age will be lowered to 16 across the UK by the next general election in a major change of the democratic system. The government said it was a reform to bring in more fairness for 16- and 17-year-olds, many of whom already work and are able to serve in the military. It brings the whole of the UK voting age to 16. Scotland and Wales have already made the change for Holyrood and Senedd elections, as well as local council elections. In a sweeping package of changes, ministers will also

The AI bubble today is bigger than the IT bubble in the 1990s

The difference between the IT bubble in the 1990s and the AI bubble today is that the top 10 companies in the S&P 500 today are more overvalued than they were in the 1990s, see chart below. This presentation may not be distributed, transmitted or otherwise communicated to others in whole or in part without the express consent of Apollo Global Management, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “Apollo”). Apollo makes no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the accura

ESA’s Moonlight programme: Pioneering the path for lunar exploration (2024)

Applications ESA's Moonlight programme: Pioneering the path for lunar exploration 15/10/2024 10144 views 62 likes Imagine a near future where services such as satellite navigation, video conferencing, and file sharing are as seamless on the Moon as they are on Earth. That’s the vision of ESA’s Moonlight programme, which aims to establish Europe’s first-ever dedicated satellite constellation for telecommunication and navigation services for the Moon. With over 400 planned lunar missions by spac

A US-Only TikTok Could Be Coming. What We Know So Far About the Replacement App

A US-only version of the TikTok mobile app is being developed by the vertical video social media network's owner ByteDance. It will replace the current version of TikTok being used in the US ahead of a September deadline for the Chinese company to divest ownership, according to a report this week by The Information. The new app is codenamed "M2" and would launch on Sept. 5. Users in the US would be required to switch from the existing app to the new one, the report said, citing anonymous source

Roblox launches new age verification system to unlock unfiltered chats

Users over 13 years old will be prompted to use the facial-analysis software to estimate their age and determine whether they can access the new "trusted connections" feature that allows them to engage in private, unfiltered chats with other age-screened users, Ebanks said. Roblox's use of age-estimation tech will help the company "confirm the age of our users and give them more tailored and age-appropriate features," said Ryan Ebanks, a Roblox principal product manager for social products. So

Millions Of Americans Are Being Advised Not To Go Outside

In the wake of massive wildfires in Canada's Manitoba province, people thousands of miles away are being warned to stay indoors thanks to the noxious ash and smoke that's traveling on the wind to their homes. As flagged by Newsweek, people who live in eight American states (and four Canadian provinces) are now under air pollution warning — and as an air quality map shows, the regions impacted have tens of millions of residents. According to AirNow — which publishes a real-time, color-coded air

In defense of air-conditioning

We should all be aware of the growing electricity toll of air-conditioning, but the AC hate is misplaced. Yes, AC is energy intensive, but so is heating our homes, something that’s rarely decried in the same way that cooling is. Both are tools for comfort and, more important, for safety. So why is air-conditioning cast as such a villain? In the last days of June and the first few days of July, temperatures hit record highs across Europe. Over 2,300 deaths during that period were attributed to t

Here’s your first look at Google Translate’s Conversation mode redesign (APK teardown)

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google is set to revamp the Google Translate app’s Conversation mode, featuring Gemini-based branding and smarter AI integration. Updates include clearer speaker identification, quick language-switch chips, inline translations, and visual tweaks across automatic and manual modes. Some settings, like toggling manual modes, are now hidden, reducing immediate accessibility. Google has been working on significant UI updates to the Translate app to better

Many Gen Z use Find My and other apps to share their location with friend groups 24/7

A new report suggests that many people who belong to Gen Z use Find My and other apps to permanently share their location with groups of friends. A study earlier in the year found that 40% of Gen Z adults share their location with three or more people, and a new piece found it was common to location-share with double digit numbers of friends … Gen Z is generally defined as those born between 1997 and 2012, so current ages would be roughly 13 to 28. A CivicScience study back in April found tha

Is HR ready for AI?

sefa ozel/Getty Images A report from technology analyst firm Valoir has found that most companies are either already leveraging AI for HR activities, such as recruiting, learning, and talent management, or they plan to do so within the next 24 months. However, there's a significant gap in terms of policies, practices, and training for safe and effective AI adoption. Only 34% of organizations have a policy on generative AI (gen AI), and even fewer offer effective training. Also: 5 entry-level