Here's what's quietly reshaping the job market, and it's happening faster than you think.

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The Future Of Food: How Extended Reality Will Transform What And How We EatgettyImagine slipping on a sleek, lightweight headset and sitting down for dinner. As you take a bite, you experience the rich flavor of a perfectly grilled steak, the succulent juiciness, the charred edges except, in reality, youre eating a plant-based substitute or even a nutrient-dense gel. It may sound like something out of science fiction, but its becoming a very real possibility.We are on the cusp of a radical shift in how we experience food, and extended reality (XR) a fusion of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)is leading the charge. This isn't just about entertainment or gaming; its about reshaping our relationship with food, redefining taste itself, and unlocking new possibilities for health, sustainability, and commerce. The question is no longer whether XR will change the way we eat but how quickly businesses and consumers will embrace it.Rewriting the rules of tasteIf youve ever pinched your nose while eating a jellybean and noticed the flavor all but disappeared, you already understand the power of sensory perception. Our brains dont just taste food they interpret it through a mix of sight, smell, texture, and even sound. What XR does is hack this process, creating completely new taste experiences by manipulating our senses.Take the "vocktail" (virtual cocktail). This isnt just a drink its an experience enhanced by scent cartridges, LED lighting, and tiny electrical impulses that can make water taste like a mojito or a pia colada. Or consider the digital lollipop, developed by researchers at the National University of Singapore, which uses electrical currents to stimulate the tongue, simulating sweetness, sourness, and even spiciness without any actual sugar or spice.Then theres the electric salt spoon, pioneered by Japanese beverage giant Kirin, which amplifies the perception of saltiness without adding sodium. Given that 1.3 billion people worldwide suffer from hypertension, technology like this isnt just innovative its a game changer for public health. High-end restaurants are already experimenting with VR-enhanced dining, blending digital visuals, scents, and sounds to elevate the way we perceive flavors.Beyond gimmicks: The business potential of XR foodThis isnt just an academic exercise or a sci-fi experiment its a market opportunity with immense commercial potential. Businesses across multiple industries need to be paying attention. Heres why:1. Health and wellness: The future of nutritionWhat if indulgent flavors didnt have to come with calories? What if people could experience the richness of sugar without actual sugar? XR could make this a reality. Everest Groups research suggests XR-enhanced food could revolutionize dietary management, allowing people with diabetes or hypertension to enjoy the perception of sweetness or saltiness without consuming sugar or sodium.Imagine a future where, instead of restrictive diets, patients simply use digital utensils to adjust their perception of food. The implications for nutrition, weight management, and even personalized medicine are profound.2. Sustainable eating: Making plant-based irresistibleOne of the biggest hurdles to widespread adoption of plant-based and lab-grown meat isnt price or availability its taste. But what if we could bypass this psychological barrier?Researchers at Tokyo Universitys "Metacookie" experiment found that VR headsets combined with scent diffusers could trick users into believing a plain cookie was chocolate or lemon. Apply that concept to meat alternatives, and suddenly, a plant-based protein could taste indistinguishable from a Wagyu steak. This could be the breakthrough that finally drives mass adoption of sustainable food sources.3. The collision of gaming, E-Commerce, and foodGaming and virtual worlds already incorporate food as a core part of their experiences characters eat in games, but what if players could actually taste it? XR opens the door to immersive, taste-based gaming where eating becomes a digital-physical hybrid experience.Beyond entertainment, imagine how food brands could leverage this technology. Restaurants could offer virtual tastings before customers make reservations. Food delivery platforms could let customers "preview" the flavors of a dish before ordering. Even grocery shopping could transform shoppers could try digital samples before purchasing, all from the comfort of their homes.From novelty to necessity: Whats next?Its easy to dismiss these innovations as futuristic stunts. But weve seen this story before. A decade ago, the idea of using facial recognition to pay for coffee or attending a business meeting in the metaverse seemed implausible. Today, both are a reality.I predict that within the next five years, well see XR-driven food devices enter the mainstream health and wellness markets. The electric salt spoon is just the beginning soon, we could have digital "sweet spoons" or programmable taste diffusers for water bottles, allowing users to choose their preferred flavor profile on demand.In the longer term, as VR and brain-computer interfaces evolve, we may reach a point where we can simulate an entire meal without consuming any physical food at all. This could be transformative not just for entertainment, but for space travel, disaster relief, and even global food security.The bottom line: Businesses must prepare nowThe intersection of XR, AI, and food science isnt just an interesting experiment its a fundamental shift in how we experience eating. For businesses, this presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Companies in the food, health, gaming, and entertainment industries must start thinking now about how they will integrate XR into their strategies.Were moving toward a world where digital technology doesnt just enhance food it redefines it. The most important question isnt if this change will happen, but how soon.

Synopsys Has Launched And Array Of New Prototyping, Emulation, and Virtualization Tools For EngineersSynopsys headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.Synopsys, Inc.Over the last few weeks, silicon and system design leader Synopsys, has introduced a plethora of new platforms and tools in their hardware-assisted verification (HAV) and virtual prototyping portfolios meant to streamline workflows and accelerate time to market for chips, systems and software across virtually all markets. Synopsys introduced its latest HAPS prototyping and ZeBu emulation systems the HAPS-200 and ZeBu-200 featuring AMDs latest Versal Premium VP1902 adaptive SoC, which deliver vastly improved capacity and better performance, compile times, and debugging capabilities. And just a couple of days ago, the company also introduced Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm Hardware, which is a comprehensive virtualizer suite supported on Arm server hardware, whether running in the cloud or on-premise, for modeling, simulation, debug, and analysis for Arm-based devices.Synopsys HAPS-200 And ZeBu-200 Infused With AMDs LatestThe latest HAPS-200 prototyping and ZeBu-200 emulation systems are built on new Synopsys Emulation and Prototyping (EP-Ready) Hardware and target leading-edge chip and system designers and architects. Though the systems have some fundamental underlying similarities, each is tuned for specific workloads either prototyping or emulation and both offer significantly increased capacity and higher performance than its predecessor, to accelerate the development of todays larger and more complex chips, systems and software. HAPS-200 offers comprehensive prototyping, which enables early software development and validation, and ultimately affords users better hardware-software integration. ZeBu-200 on the other hand is for broad, rich emulation, for thorough verification of complex chips and SoC designs with extensive debug capabilities."With the industry approaching 100s of billions of gates per chip and 100s of millions of lines of software code in SoC and multi-die solutions, verification of advanced designs poses never before seen challenges, said Ravi Subramanian, chief product management officer, Synopsys. Continuing our strong partnership with AMD, our new systems deliver the highest HAV performance while offering the ultimate flexibility between prototyping and emulation use. Industry leaders are adopting Synopsys EP-Ready Hardware platforms for silicon to system verification and validation."Synopsys HAPS-200 and ZeBu-200 Systems.Synopsys, Inc.The new HAPS-200 and ZeBu-200 are complementary systems, but each excels at different things. HAPS-200 has been updated and enhanced with more powerful platform hardware and offers approximately 4 times the performance of the companys previous-gen system for pre-silicon hardware debugging. I should note, however, that the HAPS-200 still integrates with previous-gen systems. In fact, it leverages the existing HAPS-100 ecosystem and supports mixed HAPS-200/100 setups. The HAPS-200 is scalable from single FPGA to multi-rack configurations as well, with capacities of up to 10.8 Billion Gates (BG).The Synopsys ZeBu-200 emulation system has been updated and upgraded as well, to support a design capacity of up to 15.4 BG, with up to double the runtime performance compared to the previous generation ZeBu EP2. The ZeBu-200 also offers faster compile times and up to 8X better debug bandwidth. Synopsys claims the ZeBu-200 offers up to 200 GB debug trace memory per module, with improved job scheduling and relocation too. All of this essentially equates to reduced turnaround times and increased development productivity something all chip makers sorely need. Before sending any chip design off to the fab, it requires extensive qualification and testing it is not cheap to re-spin a chip. HAPS and ZeBu help ensure optimal quality, before committing to fabrication.Accelerating Arm Software Defined Products With Virtualizer TechnologySynopsys isnt just about hardware and chip innovations, however. Its new Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm-based hardware will do for software development, what its HAPS and ZeBu systems do for prototyping and emulation. The Synopsys Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm will effectively accelerate software development for edge devices by improving capabilities and productivity of teams building software-defined products that leverage Arm architectures and instruction sets. As most of you probably know, Arm is near ubiquitous in the automotive, mobile, High-Performance Computing (HPC), and Internet of Things markets.Synopsys HAV Systems.Synopsys, Inc.Software-defined products are driving a re-engineering of product development from silicon to systems, said Ravi Subramanian, chief product management officer, Synopsys. Virtualizer Native Execution on Arm accelerates hardware/software co-design by enabling new agile software development methodologies for Arm-based edge and high-performance computing applications.These kinds of performance increases across virtually every design and development stage are key for chip, system and platform designers in the current AI era, to remain competitive, reduce turnaround time and help speed time to market. A multitude of companies, from NVIDIA and AMD to smaller start-ups, have all committed to yearly updates for some new product releases. That is a tall order for any tech company, and tools like these offered by Synopsys are practically a prerequisite to achieve those goals in the current landscape. Chips and systems are getting more complex and there is a shortage of humans with the experience and expertise to design and build them. Faster, more capable, intelligent tools are paramount to ensure quality and ensure optimal time to market.The Synopsys HAPS-200 prototyping system and Virtualizer Native Execution on the Arm hardware suite are available now. The Synopsys ZeBu-200 emulation system, however, is available for early access customers only at this time.

What just happened? There has been a victory for an AI company in one of the many legal fights over copyrighted works, but the case is far from over. A California judge has rejected a preliminary bid from Universal Music Group (UMG) and other publishers to block their lyrics from being used by Anthropic to train its chatbot, Claude. UMG, Concord and ABKCO sued Anthropic in 2023 over claims that it used lyrics from at least 500 songs by musicians including Beyonce, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, to train Claude without permission. The lawsuit claimed Anthropic was violating US copyright laws with its actions.The music groups said they were not asking Anthropic to retrain its existing AI models or remove any from the marketplace. The injunction would not have impacted any models under development, either it would have just stopped the start-up from using the song lyrics.Judge Eumi K. Lee said this week that the scope of the requested injunction was too broad as the details remain poorly defined the injunction would have potentially covered hundreds of thousands of songs, not just the 500 identified in the suit. The judge added that the publishers failed to show that Anthropic's actions caused them "irreparable harm," a requirement for the injunction.However, the court issued two discovery orders granting the publishers significant investigative tools to potentially improve their legal arguments, writes Music Business Worldwide.The judge also suggested that Anthropic might still have to pay a large amount of damages to the music industry, which the publishers say they are going to pursue "vigorously." // Related Stories"Though the Court denied the remainder of our motion, which would have required Anthropic to refrain from training on our lyrics while the case proceeds, it did so on the narrow grounds that our damages for this injury can ultimately be compensated with money damages, which we intend to pursue vigorously," the publishers said in a statement.The publishers scored their own victory in January when the court approved protective guardrails for AI-generated song lyrics, preventing Claude from reproducing these lyrics in its outputs to users.Legal challenges against AI companies for using copyrighted material continue to be fought in the courts. In August last year, two music-generating startups argued that scraping copyrighted tracks from the internet for training purposes was "fair use."In August last year, authors sued Anthropic for allegedly using pirated copyrighted work to train Claude.It's not just musicians who are aggrieved by what AI companies are doing. Earlier this month, hundreds of stars and Hollywood executives signed an open letter urging the Trump administration to deny proposals from AI companies that would allow their systems to be trained on copyrighted work without obtaining permission.In February, more than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and the Eurythmics' Annie Lennox released a silent album in protest against proposed changes to Britain's copyright laws. Mirroring the US, the proposals would allow companies to use artists' work to train their AI models without permission.

Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things.It can also be about adventuring with friends or watching the sunrise over a blocky ocean. It's pretty. Brave players battle terrible things in The Nether, which is more scary than pretty. You can also visit a land of mushrooms if it sounds more like your cup of tea.As part of their 15th anniversary celebrations, Mojang has made public a deal with Netflix to make an animated series based on Minecraft.How do I update Minecraft?Open the Minecraft Launcher. Click on "Options," next to the username text box, then press "Force update!" and login with your Minecraft credentials afterwards. Minecraft will start updating itself. This can also be used to get a fresh Minecraft installation, which will keep your saved games and texture packs, but not your mods.What is the difference between Minecraft Java Edition and Minecraft Bedrock Edition?Java is, by and large, the more powerful and feature-rich version of Minecraft, but it lacks the compatibility and cross-play support of Bedrock. Furthermore, Bedrock Edition comes packaged with microtransactions, RTX support, and a handful of other exclusive functions (not to mention a broader set of supported devices).Java Edition is PC only and players can only interact with other Java Edition players. Meanwhile, Bedrock Edition is multi-platform which means Bedrock players can interact with each other be it console, mobile or PC.Gamers on the Java Edition have access to numerous communities and endless mods. These two combined make the multiplayer experience of the game a lot more malleable. The biggest con for Java Edition is that it requires higher spec machines to run smoothly.Bedrock Edition does offer a few things that the Java Edition does not have. Mainly its marketplace, where you can acquire skins and add-ons, and the option to use controllers. Parental controls via Xbox services also provide peace of mind to parents.How do I find other Minecraft players online?To play Minecraft with other players, find a server first. Different servers offer different gameplay. Some are centered around building, others offer an MMO experience, and others are centered around survival.There is a universe of possibilities, so your best bet is use any search engine to find Minecraft servers with the kind of gameplay style you're looking for. Such is the diversity that if you're looking for gameplay similar to GTA all you have to do is search "Grand Theft Auto Minecraft servers'' to get a list of options. Once you have found a server, open Minecraft, select Multiplayer, and choose "Add Server."Note: To play Minecraft Java Edition please download and install Java first. (Minecraft 1.19+ requires Java 17)What's NewMinecraft: Java Edition 1.21.5 - Spring to LifeIt's time to experience new wonders of the Overworld as we release the Spring to Life drop, the first Minecraft game drop of 2025.The Spring to Life drop brings more reasons to explore both near and far! Warm winds have swept across biomes, bringing new mob variants, ambient sounds, and lush plants for you to discover. Befriend fluffy pigs, marvel at glittering firefly bushes, listen out for whispers of sand, and delight in a blooming Overworld humming with new beginnings.In this release we are also making the game tests system accessible through data packs with the new test command. And as usual, we continue to rebuild our engine to improve the experience for players and content creators. We are sure all those spare parts left on our floor can't be that important, right?New FeaturesAdded cold and warm variants for the Pig, Cow and ChickenSheep now spawn with wool color dependent on the biome in which they spawnAdded new sound variants for WolvesOverhauled the visuals of each Spawn Egg to improve readability and accessibilityAdded fallen tree generationAdded Firefly Bush blockAdded Leaf Litter blockAdded Wildflowers blockAdded Bush blockAdded Short Dry Grass and Tall Dry Grass blocksAdded Cactus Flower block which can grow on Cactus blocksAdded new falling leaf particles to all Leaves blocks that did not already have themAdded new ambient block sounds in the Desert and Badlands biomesAdded language support for KyrgyzFarm Animal VariantsWarm and cold variants have been added for the following animals: PigCowChickenThe variant is determined by the biome they spawn inTemperate variant - The variants we are all familiar with, spawns by default where the other variants do notCold variant - A variant that will be selected if spawned (naturally or by player) in these biomes: Cold OceanDeep Cold OceanDeep DarkDeep Frozen OceanEnd BarrensEnd HighlandsEnd MidlandsFrozen OceanFrozen PeaksFrozen RiverGroveIce SpikesJagged PeaksOld Growth Pine TaigaOld Growth Spruce TaigaSmall End IslandsSnowy BeachSnowy PlainsSnowy SlopesSnowy TaigaStony PeaksTaigaThe EndWindswept ForestWindswept Gravelly HillsWindswept HillsWarm variant - A variant that will be selected if spawned (naturally or by player) in these biomes: BadlandsBamboo JungleBasalt DeltasCrimson ForestDeep Lukewarm OceanDesertEroded BadlandsJungleLukewarm OceanMangrove SwampNether WastesSavannaSavanna PlateauSoul Sand ValleySparse JungleWarm OceanWarped ForestWindswept SavannaWooded BadlandsWhen bred by a player, a baby variant will not be chosen by the current biome, but instead randomly selected from one of the parents' variantsTwo new Egg items have been added for the warm and cold Chicken variants Blue Egg - The Egg that is laid by and can hatch cold Chicken variantsBrown Egg - The Egg that is laid by and can hatch warm Chicken variantsSheep Wool Color in Warm and Cold BiomesSheep now spawn with wool color dependent on the biome in which they spawn:Temperate biomes: (these colors are unchanged from previous behavior) Common Sheep color is whiteUncommon Sheep colors are black, gray, light gray and brownThere is a rare chance for a pink Sheep to spawnCold biomes: Common Sheep color is blackUncommon Sheep colors are gray, light gray, white and brownThere is a rare chance for a pink Sheep to spawnWarm biomes: Common Sheep color is brownUncommon Sheep colors are gray, light gray, white and blackThere is a rare chance for a pink Sheep to spawnWolf Sounds VariantsAdded 6 new Wolf sound variants with unique ambient, hurt, death, growl, whine, and pant soundsThe new sounds are part of variants that are called "Big", "Cute", "Puglin", "Angry", "Grumpy", and "Sad"The original Wolf sounds now are used for the variant called "Classic"Every Wolf will have a sound variant randomly assigned to it from these 7 variantsThe sound variant is not related to the texture variantSpawn Egg Visuals OverhaulEach Spawn Egg now has their own unique visual which captures the personality and character of the mob it spawnsEach egg visual varies in shape to reflect the in-world size of the mob it spawnsFor example, smaller mobs tend to have a smaller Spawn EggFallen TreesFallen trees are a new decorative variant of treesFallen trees come in four different wood type variants: OakBirchJungleSpruceBirch fallen trees come in a shorter and a longer versionSome fallen trees can be decorated with Mushrooms or VinesFallen trees can be found in all biomes where their standing tree variant grows, except the following: Bamboo JungleFlower Forest (has fallen Birch trees but not fallen Oak trees)GroveMeadowRiverFirefly BushThe Firefly Bush is found adjacent to water in Swamps, Mangrove Swamps, Badlands, and near RiversWhen it is dark, glowing firefly particles appear around the Firefly BushUsing Bone Meal on a Firefly Bush grows a Firefly Bush in a random adjacent space if possibleThe Firefly Bush emits a light level of 2The Firefly Bush has a chance of playing ambient sounds when these conditions are met: it is nightit is not blocked from above by any collidable block except leavesLeaf LitterLeaf Litter is a new type of decorative block which can be found in the Forests, Dark Forests and Wooded Badlands Note: Leaf Litter is only spawned as part of world generation, and does not regenerate during gameplayLeaf Litter can have different amounts of leaves in one block space Up to four Leaf Litter pieces can be placed in the same block spacePlacing a Leaf Litter into an existing Leaf Litter block increases the amount of leavesLeaf Litter can be placed in four orientationsLeaf Litter can be placed on any block with a full top faceLeaf Litter can be created by smelting any type of Leaves blockLeaf Litter can be used as fuel for smeltingLeaf Litter can be used in the ComposterLeaf Litter has unique block soundsLeaf Litter is tinted based on which biome it is inLeaf Litter is replaceable when buildingWildflowersWildflowers are a new type of flower which grow in Birch Forests, Old Growth Birch Forests and MeadowsWildflowers can have different amounts of flowers in one block space Up to four Wildflowers can be placed in the same block spacePlacing a Wildflower into an existing Wildflowers block increases the amount of flowersUsing Bone Meal on Wildflowers will produce more WildflowersWildflowers can be placed in four orientationsWildflowers can be crafted into Yellow DyeBushThe Bush is a new type of decorative block that can be found in small patches in the following biomes: Birch ForestForestFrozen RiverOld Growth Birch ForestPlainsRiverWindswept ForestWindswept Gravelly HillsWindswept HillsThe Bush can be used in the ComposterUsing Bone Meal on a Bush grows a Bush in a random adjacent space if possibleA Bush only drops when broken with Shears or a Silk Touch toolThe Bush is replaceable when buildingShort and Tall Dry GrassAdded two new types of grass: Short Dry Grass and Tall Dry GrassBoth are 1 block high, which means Tall Dry Grass differs from regular Tall Grass which is 2 blocks highBoth generate in the Desert and Badlands biomesBoth can be placed on types of Sand, Terracotta, Dirt blocks, and Farmland like the Dead BushBoth can be bonemealed Using Bone Meal on Short Dry Grass grows it into a Tall Dry GrassUsing Bone Meal on Tall Dry Grass grows a Short Dry Grass in a random adjacent space if possibleBoth can be used in the ComposterSheep can eat both to regrow their woolBoth can be used as fuel for smeltingBoth are replaceable when buildingCactus FlowerCactus Flower is a new type of flower that has a chance of generating on Cactuses in Deserts and BadlandsCactus Flower can be placed on Cactus blocks, Farmland, or any block which has center support at the top of the blockCactus Flowers have a chance of growing on Cactus blocks instead of the Cactus growing taller If a Cactus is 1-2 blocks tall, the Cactus Flower has a 10% chance to growIf a Cactus is 3 blocks or taller the Cactus Flower has a 25% chance to growCactus Flowers will only grow if they have space on all four sidesCactus Flowers can be used in the ComposterA Cactus Flower can be used to craft 1 Pink DyeFalling Leaf ParticlesAll Leaves blocks now have chance of spawning falling leaf particlesThe following blocks are affected by this change: Acacia LeavesAzalea LeavesBirch LeavesDark Oak LeavesFlowering Azalea LeavesJungle LeavesMangrove LeavesOak LeavesSpruce LeavesNew Ambient Sounds for Desert and BadlandsSand, Red Sand and Terracotta of any color have a chance of playing ambient sounds when surrounded by another block in the same group on at least 3 sides, at a distance of 8 blocks block.sand.idle can be played in any biomeblock.sand.wind only plays when in Desert or Badlands biomesDead Bush blocks have a chance of playing ambient sounds when placed on top of two blocks that are any color of Terracotta, Sand or Red Sand blocks in any biomeChangesThe main menu panorama has been updated for the "Spring to Life" dropBeacons and their beams now render beyond 16 chunks, up to the client render distance To keep it easily visible at large distances, the beam is rendered thicker the further away you areThe beam now renders up to 2048 blocks high, up from 1024Lodestones have a new crafting recipe and can now be found in Ruined PortalsThe trades of the Cartographer and Wandering Trader have been updatedBundles can now be found in some of the Chests in VillagesUpdates to Camel, Chicken, Cow, Pig, and Sheep spawningZombified Piglins now need to be killed by a Player to drop the Player-specific loot such as experienceThis makes them consistent with all other mobs in the gameChanges to world generation of the Pale Garden and Meadow biomesChunks loaded by a portal will now be re-loaded again automatically when the world is reopenedImproved how simulation distance affects block ticksTweaks to the Creaking and Creaking HeartTextures and models for temperate Cow, Mooshrooms and Sheep have been updatedMinor tweaks to existing Blocks, Items and EntitiesVarious changes and tweaks to soundsMinor improvements to world uploads in RealmsReverted fix MC-152728 - "The player continues sprinting when performing actions that slow them down" Developer's Note: After consideration, we have decided to revert this fix. While we do want to revisit these mechanics in the future, it's clear that these recent fixes alone didn't quite hit the mark and caused too many negative side effects for parkour, speedbridging, and movement in generalIf the game detects that the last startup did not complete normally, the fullscreen option will now be resetRemoved HerobrineLodestone ChangesThe Lodestone is now crafted from 1 Iron Ingot surrounded by 8 Chiseled Stone BricksLodestones can now be found as loot at Ruined Portals in the Overworld or NetherAdvancement "Country Lode, Take me Home" has been moved from the "Nether" category to the "Adventure" categoryCartographer and Wandering Trader Trade RebalanceCartographer Trades Cartographers now sell 7 new maps each pointing to a different village or other structures in a different biomeCartographers from different village types will sell a different range of maps and colored bannersSome prices and quantities have also been adjustedWandering Trader Trades The Wandering Trader now has better prices, more trades and a larger amount of stock for many itemsThey will also now buy basic supplies from players, so it is possible to get some Emeralds by helping them prepare for their next journey - even if you don't feel like buying anythingThe Wandering Trader will offer to buy two items from this list: Water BottleWater BucketMilk BucketFermented Spider EyeBaked PotatoHay BaleWandering Traders now have a chance of selling these items (in addition to their previous trades): Logs (Acacia, Birch, Dark Oak, Jungle, Oak, Spruce, Pale Oak or Cherry)Enchanted Iron PickaxePotion of InvisibilityMob Spawning ChangesCamels now spawn in DesertsChickens, Cows, Pigs, and Sheep can now spawn in BadlandsWorld Generation ChangesThe Pale Garden biome now occupies more space that was previously taken by Dark ForestWoodland Mansions can now generate in the Pale Garden biomeShort Grass now generates slightly sparser in MeadowsSimulation DistanceAny block in simulation distance of a player, or loaded by another source of chunk loading such as Ender Pearls, may now receive random ticks instead of 8 chunks just around playersFor example: if a chunk is loaded by an Ender Pearl or is in the spawn chunks, crops are able to grow, Ice can melt, Snow can fall, and a Cauldron can be filled by rainMob spawning, Lava spreading fire, and Lightning strikes still occur in the previous radius of 8 chunks around playersFire will no longer burn or spread if no player is within 8 chunksCreaking and Creaking HeartCreakings can now be named using Name TagsNamed Creakings will persist through the dayHowever, they will still be torn down if stuck with a player or if too far from their HeartNamed Creakings are still resistant to all damage, and can communicate with their Hearts via particlesCreaking Hearts correctly placed between Logs have a new dormant texture during the dayDormant Creaking Hearts cannot spawn new Creakings or ResinThe transition between the awake and dormant states for Creaking Hearts, as well as the transition of Eye Blossoms is now based on the fixed day timeAll these behaviors are no longer affected by weather or dimension brightnessMob Texture and Model ChangesThe look of the temperate Cow has been slightly updated to have an extruded snoutThe look of both Mooshroom variants have been slightly updated to have an extruded snoutSheep's wool undercoat is now also colored when dyedThe Sheep wool texture has been tweaked to remove the stark line at the backMinor Tweaks to Blocks, Items and EntitiesSheep can now eat Fern blocksLanding on Powdered Snow with Leather Boots equipped after falling further than 2.5 blocks will now make entities fall through the snowJumping or falling less than 2.5 blocks allows the entity to land on top of the snow like beforeSaddles equipped onto Pigs or Striders will now maintain properties such as custom name when droppedBubble columns produce less particles and sounds when entities are unaffected by them are inside themPale Oak Leaves and Pale Oak Saplings have an updated map colorImproved tooltips for the Crossbow and all container itemsItem TooltipsCrossbows will now show all charged projectiles in their tooltip instead of just the firstAll charged projectiles will also add their entire tooltip as a subsection, instead of only FireworksAll container items with stored contents, such as a Chest picked with Ctrl+Pick Block, will now list the first 4 items in their tooltip just like Shulker BoxesSound ChangesThe volume of the narrator is now affected by the game's configured volume in the "Voice" categoryAdded new break, place, step, fall and hit sounds for Iron Blocks, Iron Bars, Iron Trapdoors, Iron Doors and Heavy Weighted Pressure PlatesThe breaking sound for the "grass" sound type has been loweredBlocks that are broken by a Piston now play their breaking soundAmbient block sounds in Desert, Badlands and Pale Garden which are only used for ambience have been moved from the "Blocks" to the 'Ambient/Environment' categoryRealms World UploadsUploading a world to Realms will now enable Command Blocks by defaultIt is now possible to upload Hardcore singleplayer worlds to RealmsTechnical ChangesThe Data Pack version is now 71The Resource Pack version is now 55A new entry point is present in the server jar: net.minecraft.gametest.MainAutomatically starts a server and runs all available game testsA new command line argument is available for the client: --renderDebugLabelsAdds debug labels to relevant OpenGL objects, making debugging rendering easier for developersMinor changes to chat network protocolGame Test Entry PointThis new entry point automatically starts a server, runs all available game test, and then exits.Options: --help - Shows usage information--packs - Set a folder of data packs to include in the worldAny zip file or folder containing a pack.mcmeta file is included--report - Exports results in a JUnit-like XML report at the given path--tests - Specify which tests to run with a selection - a wildcard expression matching namespace test instance IDsIf omitted, or used with an empty ID, all tests will be run--universe - The path in which the test server world will be createdAny existing folder will be replacedDefault: gametestserver--verify - Enables test verificationRuns the tests specified with test or testNamespace 100 times for each 90-degree rotation stepDefault: falseExample usage: java -DbundlerMainClass="net.minecraft.gametest.Main" -jar server.jar --packs mytestpacksNetwork ProtocolThe clientbound player_chat packet now contains an index increasing for every message sent to the clientThe index starts at 0 when logging in (or is reset by configuration phase and the login packet)For every message, the server should increment this value by 1If this value updates in an unexpected way, the client will disconnectAs the protocol requires that every chat packet reaches the client in produced order, the goal is to enable faster detection of missed/reordered chat messages for custom server developersThe serverbound chat and chat_command_signed packets now contain a checksum byte along with the "last seen" updateThis is a simple hash of the "last seen" signatures which should be reconstructed by the server, allowing quicker detection of desynchronized stateThis can be passed as 0 to disable the check, for compatibility with protocol translationData Pack Versions 62 through 71The Game Tests system is now accessible through data packs and for modsAdded new allowFireTicksAwayFromPlayer and tntExplodes Game RulesAll entities can now store custom dataAdded a uniform way to define variant selection rulesWolf Sound, Pig, Cat, Chicken, Cow, and Frog variants are now data-drivenChanges to commandsStructure Blocks in the "Load" mode have a new option: "Strict Placement"If set to false, the blocks in the placed structure will not trigger block updates, block entity side effects, or shape updatesThe game's handling of NBT has been updated to allow "heterogeneous" lists with elements of different typesThe object notation used in commands for NBT, text components and inline predicates (a.k.a. SNBT) has been extendedUpdated data format of Text ComponentsUpdated many data formats within entities and block entitiesAdded new item components, and updates to existing componentsThe control of tooltip behavior has been reworked into a tooltip_display componentEntity variants are now set and queried with componentsUpdated Entity Predicates to support entity componentsUpdated Block Predicates to support block entity componentsUpdated toggle_tooltips loot function to support new tooltip_display componentThe potion entity type has been split into splash_potion and lingering_potionAdded saddle equipment slot for entities, driven by the equippable componentOnly mobs that normally support saddles will support riding and rendering of the saddleItems in the saddle slot can apply attribute modifiers as with other equipmentChanges to crafting_transmute, smithing_transform, and smithing_trim recipe typesTrim pattern and trim material items are no longer specified in the trim registries, but instead in the recipes and items respectivelyAdded fallen_tree feature type and attached_to_logs tree decorator typeThe background field in Advancement definitions no longer contains a textures/ prefix and .png suffixThe effects field in Biome definitions has a new subfield, dry_foliage_color, that defines the color used for tinting blocks using dry foliage tinting (Leaf Litter)Changes to tagsAdded firefly and tinted_leaves particlesFixed bugs in Minecraft 1.21.5MC-7697 - Tridents or arrows shot through lava sometimes don't catch fireMC-13738 - Invisible saddle when using invisibility potion on a horse, donkey or muleMC-55800 - Successful "/fill air destroy" commands give error message and return 0 for result/successMC-56653 - Zombified Piglins drop XP and rare drops if killed by anything while in angered stateMC-80243 - Saddles don't apply attribute modifiers when worn by entitiesMC-90212 - You cannot hang on to climbable blocks while gliding with elytraMC-93185 - The exit portal in the end generates at highest block at 0 0 which can make it generate incompleteMC-97244 - The "minecraft:enchant.thorns.hit" sound event doesn't play when non-player entities are damaged by the thorns enchantmentMC-98271 - The sound of blocking with a shield is only hearable by other players (not the person blocking)MC-101556 - Nether Portal teleport range is too large (equivalent to a full block)MC-108495 - Non-LivingBase entities can be on a team (and show color) but can't be targeted using team=MC-113878 - Attribute modifiers description for chest is misleading / "When on body" instead of "When on chest"MC-117574 - Using /setblock or /fill to re-place a block entity keeps old NBT (if no NBT specified) but clears inventories, even when the command failsMC-118092 - Crafting recipe unlock toast says "New Recipes Unlocked!" even when only one recipe was unlockedMC-118470 - Narrator plays at full volume when volume is offMC-122840 - "/data remove" cannot delete beam_target tag in End CrystalsMC-128079 - Statistic for using shears doesn't increase when mining certain blocksMC-135192 - Boats are immediately sunken if there is a string on the surface of the waterMC-141297 - You cannot set lit state of redstone torches using setblock, debug stick and BlockStateTag, to be to opposite of the situation it would be inMC-152382 - End gateways and end portals don't fade away with render distance fogMC-153392 - Unable to remove villager gossips using /data removeMC-157196 - Tamed animals cannot be added to a teamMC-160304 - Sneaking on ice can change direction of movement to lines along axisMC-165421 - Bubble columns have the opposite effect on wind chargesMC-165461 - Crossbow loading animation stops after loading, even when still holding down right clickMC-165711 - Eye of ender hitbox always lags behind the animationMC-167125 - Rounding error on fall damageMC-168262 - Dead bushes cannot be placed on farmlandMC-170134 - Minecraft uses several times more VRAM than needed after exploring terrain for a whileMC-176233 - Crossbows no longer have a transition after loadingMC-177522 - Wolf barking and whining sounds are subtitled as "Wolf pants"MC-183329 - Nether portal teleport overlay does not show up if the player has the nausea effectMC-183623 - Hardcore worlds in the world menu have a comma after the red exclamation markMC-184530 - Player movement at low speeds is biased towards cardinal directionsMC-184681 - Customized worlds still say "Buffet world customization" since 20w21aMC-186241 - World border faces are rendered incorrectly with "Fabulous!" graphicsMC-189525 - Armored entities from pre-1.9 worlds upgrade to dual wielding armorMC-190000 - Saddles equipped on horses cannot be replaced without removing them firstMC-193404 - Changing a powered or activator rail to powered using a debug stick or /setblock does not workMC-200311 - Advancement background texture referencing is inconsistent with modelsMC-202226 - /recipe give or take for one recipe says "recipes"MC-203550 - Blocks broken by pistons do not play breaking soundsMC-220091 - Summoning falling_block entities with BlockState NBT set to any air block (air, cave_air, void_air) default to sandMC-220672 - Inconsistent pluralization in customize world preset heading source stringMC-222876 - "Buffet world customization" is incorrectly capitalizedMC-226772 - Shulker box opening / closing subtitle shows "Shulker"MC-227097 - End portals delete blocks that are inside of the portalMC-230445 - End portals and end gateways are not rendered properly with the Blindness or Darkness effectsMC-231331 - Advancement toasts continue to appear despite the said advancements being revoked shortly afterMC-236100 - End crystal beam appears to be blackMC-239705 - Sprinting forward while facing a certain angle pushes the player either to the left or to the rightMC-241951 - Player momentum on X and Z axis are cancelled separately at low valuesMC-248099 - Mob pathfinding breaks after falling into water accidentally while walkingMC-253721 - Wrong logs when running /op @aMC-255756 - When the shield is broken between players, the attacking side has no shield breaking soundMC-256469 - Invisible camels don't show their saddlesMC-257133 - Desync when placing large paintings with NBT on a small spaceMC-258253 - Spawn egg particles use an uncolored spawn egg overlayMC-260440 - Players can no longer activate swimming mode in water while flying with elytraMC-261385 - Bubble columns act differently at the surface depending on non-air blocksMC-262928 - The "minecraft:entity.player.hurt" sound is no longer played when players receive thorns damage from guardians or elder guardiansMC-262939 - Changing dimensions or respawning with nausea effect active displays nether portal overlayMC-265514 - HRTF stuck on even when directional audio is set to off in update 1.20.2MC-266912 - Saddle equipping sounds aren't played when saddles are equipped on horses, donkeys, mules, or camels shortly after the said entity is summonedMC-267221 - "value" within "change_page" clickEvent json looks for a string instead of an integerMC-267323 - Items fields with old boolean JSON formatting are cleared upon world updateMC-268942 - The swimming animation no longer displays when gliding with an elytra and swimming at the same timeMC-269386 - Flow Pottery Sherd is not in the correct spot in the creative inventoryMC-269637 - Horses can wear multiple saddles but not multiple horse armorMC-270043 - Reduced armor glint applies to tridentsMC-270192 - The saddles of some entities stay visible through their death animationMC-270197 - The saddle on pigs and striders stays visible through their death animationMC-270220 - Granting all advancements results in prolonged, disruptive and loud audio spamMC-271065 - Diagonal player movement is not normalized when holding two movement keysMC-272100 - Unused palette pixels in horse textures (horse_[brown/chestnut/creamy/white].png)MC-272790 - Shulker boxes and other blocks in the end exit portal when it changes state are not dropped as itemsMC-273338 - Flying boat glitch using string and rising bubble columnsMC-274187 - The sweeping attack from a sword enchanted with Fire Aspect can ignite other players with PVP disabledMC-274258 - All horse textures contain an unused chest bag textureMC-275994 - Having the pie chart open while the window is unfocused spams the logsMC-276061 - Decorated pot sherds don't visually update until relog when replacing with blank potMC-276861 - The player can sometimes teleport through blocked end portals when moving very fastMC-277403 - Flaming arrows and tridents still don't extinguish when water is placed in their locationMC-277537 - Pale moss carpets sometimes generate disjointedMC-277780 - Minecraft resaves all maps with every autosave even after the 1st patchMC-277807 - Teleporting the player's mount causes rotation de-sync, previously did notMC-277865 - The animation of boats in bubble columns breaks when over a certain "Time" in level.datMC-277922 - Boats in 1 block high downward bubble column will continue to rock back and forthMC-278040 - Creaking swim pathfinding breaks after being submergedMC-278096 - "Fabulous!" graphics and clouds disabled causes all particles to linger in frame buffer for one frameMC-278140 - The "/fill" command doesn't work properly with the directional states of several blocks placed adjacent to one anotherMC-278164 - Click sound is played twice when you click a setting button and there's a slider under the mouse in the next screenMC-278204 - Blaze fireballs now cause TNT minecarts to explode instantlyMC-278249 - Experience orb positions desync severely and abruptly correct themselvesMC-278375 - Feeding wheat or hay bale to llama or trader llama with maximum Temper causes item stack to be desyncedMC-278376 - Arrows and tridents act weirdly in one block deep bubble columnsMC-278400 - Arrows and tridents move after hitting a block in flowing lavaMC-278417 - Arrows and tridents on fire and stuck in the ground cannot be extinguished by rainMC-278422 - Reloading the world after removing Owner tag from a sitting tamed wolf with /data remove makes the wolf moving and sitting at the same timeMC-278455 - Slow sideways movement in spectator mode is wrong at angles which aren't (close to) a multiple of 45MC-278493 - Tamed wolves which are angry at creakings remain angry when said creakings despawnMC-278502 - Weeping and twisting vines disconnectMC-278552 - minecraft:entity.player.big_fall no longer plays the sound when falling from great heightMC-278585 - Players can get stuck when landing on the edge of powder snowMC-278591 - Ender dragon spawn egg is no longer given when using pick block on the ender dragon entityMC-278615 - Reinforcement zombified piglins are angry at you even if you killed the "caller" in one hitMC-278621 - Client/server desync when placing powder snow while landing in itMC-278627 - Players wearing leather boots will take fall damage when landing on the edge of powder snowMC-278634 - Trying to /setblock a 'waterlogged=true' state on (glow_lichen, resin_clump, sculk_vein, etc.) produces an errorMC-278639 - Tripwire hooks are not activated by shulker bulletsMC-278659 - Attacking a natural stationary creaking does not trigger sculk sensorsMC-278673 - The x-rotation of /teleport is limited to 90 degrees relative to the entity's original angleMC-278683 - Mobs spawned from spawners or /summon never drop their equipmentMC-278708 - Throwing ender pearls while mounted only dismounts you, without teleportingMC-278728 - smithing_transform recipes can't set an item's components back to defaultMC-278733 - Breaking a double resin brick slab block only returns a single slabMC-278734 - Sheep's heads stutter when they look up or downMC-278755 - Teleporting far away while riding an entity softlocks the gameMC-278801 - The closed eyeblossom to gray dye recipe is not grouped with the other gray dye recipeMC-278841 - Powder snow no longer slows down the player falling from a high placeMC-279145 - Shulker bullets are no longer affected by bubble columnsMC-279152 - Shulker bullets can't teleport through nether or end portals, end gatewaysMC-279196 - Block loot tables cannot be removed with /data removeMC-279340 - Baby polar bears are too smallMC-279364 - CustomName cannot be removed from block entitiesMC-279390 - Baby zombified piglin helmet clippingMC-279472 - Void appears lower & more faded than beforeMC-279572 - End portals and end gateways aren't affected by water, lava or powder snow fogMC-279646 - Toggling fullscreen with F11 does not visually update the fullscreen option in the video settings menuMC-279653 - Block Entity Data desynchronizes after subsequent setblock commandsMC-279857 - Piglins summoned by the /summon command do not pick up gold itemsMC-280170 - Goats can no longer ram armor stands unless the game rule mobGriefing is set to falseMC-280211 - End crystal beams cause OpenGL errors with glDebugVerbosity set to 3

Zendaya will showcase her musical prowess in a biopic about a Hall of Fame singer.Per Deadline, Zendaya will star in a movie about the life of Ronnie Spector. Oscar winner Barry Jenkins will direct the Spector movie from a screenplay by Dave Kajganich. Instead of a traditional biopic, Zendaya will play Spector in a movie focusing on the singers life with troubled producer Phil Spector.Recommended VideosZendaya will play Spector, the artist who co-founded The Ronettes in 1959. The original lineup included Spector, her sister Estelle Bennett, and cousin Nedra Talley. The Ronettes are best known for the hit songs Be My Baby,(The Best Part of) Breakin Up, Walking in the Rain, and Baby, I Love You. The Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.Please enable Javascript to view this contentSpector died in January 2022 at the age of 78 after a brief battle with cancer. Before her death, Spector reportedly hand-picked Zendaya to play her in a movie.Image via HBOA24 will produce the biopic with Zendaya, Marc Platt, Adam Siegel, Mark Itkin, Tom Shelly, Adele Romanski, and Mark Ceryak. Jonathan Greenfield will executive produce.Zendaya is currently filming the long-awaited third season of Euphoria. She will then join the cast of Christopher NolansThe Odyssey. A leaked character list has Zendaya playing Athena, a goddess and Odysseus mentor. Zendaya also stars alongside Robert Pattinson inThe Drama, an A24 rom-com expected to premiere later this year.Jenkins, who won an Oscar forMoonlight, is coming off the success of Disneys Mufasa: The Lion King, which grossed $720 million worldwide.Editors Recommendations

Gigabyte / GigabyteTable of ContentsTable of ContentsUnleash your creativity: Gigabyte AERO 14 OLED gets a $600 price cutLevel up your game: Gigabyte AORUS 15 slashed by $399The Amazon Spring Sale Event is in full swing, and its bringing serious heat to your laptop lineup. From March 25 to March 31, you can score deep discounts on high-performance Gigabyte laptops built for creators and gamers alike. Two standout models AERO 14 OLED and AORUS 15are getting massive price cuts, and if youve been holding off on an upgrade, nows the time to do it.The Gigabyte AERO 14 OLED is tailor-made for creators, and right now, its more affordable than ever. Originally priced at $1,499.00, its now going for just $899.00 during the Amazon Spring Sale a jaw-dropping $600 off.This is not just any laptop with a fancy screen. The AERO 14 OLED brings a creator-first experience with a gorgeous OLED display that delivers eye-popping color accuracy, perfect blacks, and VESA DisplayHDR certification. Whether youre editing videos, retouching photos, or working in 3D, the visual clarity is game-changing.RelatedUnder the hood, youre getting an Intel Core i5-12500H a hybrid chip with performance and efficiency cores thats ideal for juggling creative apps without melting down your workflow. Pair that with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, and youve got real-time ray tracing, AI-enhanced rendering, and GPU acceleration for tasks like Adobe Premiere and Blender. Its not just capable its studio-ready.And because multitasking is non-negotiable for creators, the AERO 14 comes with 16GB of DDR5 RAM for silky-smooth app switching and a 1TB SSD to store hefty project files and launch them fast.Gigabyte / GigabyteIf your idea of multitasking involves Discord, a browser with 14 tabs, and a competitive Overwatch match, the AORUS 15 is calling your name. This gaming powerhouse normally retails for $1,499.00, but Amazon is dropping it to $1,099.99 during the Spring Sale. Thats nearly $400 off for a true gaming rig.Inside, youll find the beastly Intel Core i7-13700H a 14-core processor built to chew through AAA titles, background processes, and streaming duties. Toss in the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, and youre set for high-frame-rate gaming, complete with ray tracing and DLSS support for sharper visuals and smoother performance.With 16GB of DDR5 RAM, you wont have to choose between your Twitch stream and your game. And thanks to the 1TB SSD, youll enjoy lightning-fast boot times and enough space to hold your growing game library without babysitting your storage.This is a no-compromise gaming laptop thats ready for both competitive action and immersive single-player epics.Two great laptops, one tight windowWhether youre a creator chasing pixel-perfect color or a gamer aiming for lag-free domination, these Gigabyte deals hit the sweet spot. The AERO 14 OLED is built for precision and creative performance, while the AORUS 15 delivers the speed and visuals competitive gamers demand.Just remember: these Amazon Spring Sale deals are live March 2531 only. After that, prices go back up and regret sets in. Act fast.Editors Recommendations

The activist investor is trying to boost the software-design makers share price.

Supposedly Smarter Gemini 2.5 Pro is here with bigger numbers and great vibes Google's new "thinking" model is ready to think for you. Ryan Whitwam Mar 26, 2025 11:36 am | 11 Credit: Google Credit: Google Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreJust a few months after releasing its first Gemini 2.0 AI models, Google is upgrading again. The company says the new Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental is its "most intelligent" model yet, offering a massive context window, multimodality, and reasoning capabilities. Google points to a raft of benchmarks that show the new Gemini clobbering other large language models (LLMs), and our testing seems to back that upGemini 2.5 Pro is one of the most impressive generative AI models we've seen.Gemini 2.5, like all Google's models going forward, has reasoning built in. The AI essentially fact-checks itself along the way to generating an output. We like to call this "simulated reasoning," as there's no evidence that this process is akin to human reasoning. However, it can go a long way to improving LLM outputs. Google specifically cites the model's "agentic" coding capabilities as a beneficiary of this process. Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental can, for example, generate a full working video game from a single prompt. We've tested this, and it works with the publicly available version of the model. Gemini 2.5 Pro builds a game in one step. Google says a lot of things about Gemini 2.5 Pro; it's smarter, it's context-aware, it thinksbut it's hard to quantify what constitutes improvement in generative AI bots. There are some clear technical upsides, though. Gemini 2.5 Pro comes with a 1 million token context window, which is common for the big Gemini models but massive compared to competing models like OpenAI GPT or Anthropic Claude. You could feed multiple very long books to Gemini 2.5 Pro in a single prompt, and the output maxes out at 64,000 tokens. That's the same as Flash 2.0, but it's still objectively a lot of tokens compared to other LLMs.Naturally, Google has run Gemini 2.5 Experimental through a battery of benchmarks, in which it scores a bit higher than other AI systems. For example, it squeaks past OpenAI's o3-mini in GPQA and AIME 2025, which measure how well the AI answers complex questions about science and math, respectively. It also set a new record in the Humanitys Last Exam benchmark, which consists of 3,000 questions curated by domain experts. Google's new AI managed a score of 18.8 percent to OpenAI's 14 percent.It's not clear how effective these attempts at objectively measuring AI capabilities are. Sometimes, a subjective assessment of AI can be more helpful"vibemarking" if you will. Google's new AI is already at the top of the LMSYS Chatbot arena leaderboard, which is a notable feat. This shows that users generally prefer Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental's output to what you'd get from OpenAI o3-mini, Grok, DeepSeek, and others.Instant AI upgradeThe vibes we're getting while using Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental are good, too. We threw some complex tasks at Gemini 2.5things that often confused the 2.0 modelsand the updated AI handled them much better. Coding, math, and science questions are also trending better than what we saw with previous versions of Gemini.Google's new pro model is also blazing fast. It still ticks along like other models, outputting tokens as it "reasons" its way to an answer, but everything feels faster than even the latest OpenAI and Anthropic models. Google has a ton of AI compute at its disposal, which is clearly being leveraged to great effect here. This is also why Gemini models like Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental have such beefy context windowsin this case, it's about five times the size of o3-mini's input limit. And this is just the first stop. Google says the context window will be increased to 2 million tokens soon. Google just can't stop releasing new Gemini models. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Google just can't stop releasing new Gemini models. Credit: Ryan Whitwam Google's 2.0 Pro model seemed reasonably impressive when it launched a few months ago, but that AI is gone. Google says Gemini 2.5 Pro is a drop-in replacement for 2.0 that will be available across Google's products for anyone with a Gemini Advanced subscription ($20 per month). The new model is available right now in the mobile app and on the web, as well as in Google's AI Studio. It will be in Vertex AI soon.Google has not yet announced API pricing for Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, but you won't be able to do much with it right now anyway. Google has set the same 50-message daily limit as its older experimental models, and it's free for the moment. That will change, though. Google's Logan Kilpatrick said on X (formerly Twitter) that 2.5 Pro Experimental will be the first experimental model with higher API limits and pricing. There will be an announcement on that later.Ryan WhitwamSenior Technology ReporterRyan WhitwamSenior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards. 11 Comments