Google is rolling out Gmail updates for mobile users across Android and iOS, with some design updates and new access to AI features. Android tablet and foldable owners will have a more flexible Gmail app interface that lets them drag the divider to adjust the list and conversation panes to whatever size they want in landscape view. You can also drag the divider all the way to one side to switch to a single pane view if preferred. The update is rolling out now for Workspace and personal accounts. Google is also pushing a Material Design 3 update to Gmail on iOS that puts it in parity with the Android and redesigned web versions, including the pill-shaped buttons on the bottom and a rounded search bar on top. The update is rolling out now to both Workspace and personal accounts. Additionally, Google Calendar on iOS will now let you create and modify birthday events like you already can on Android. Finally, Gemini’s image generator is coming to the Gmail app sidebar on both Android and iOS for Workspace users. Like in Google’s Workspace apps on the web, you can generate images within the Gmail app and then save them, copy them, or insert them directly into your email draft.

Recent advancements in multimodal AI have highlighted a persistent challenge: achieving strong specialized reasoning capabilities while preserving generalization across diverse tasks. “Slow-thinking” models such as OpenAI-o1 and Gemini-Thinking have made strides in deliberate analytical reasoning but often exhibit compromised performance on general visual understanding tasks, with increased tendencies toward visual hallucinations. As the field progresses toward building general-purpose AI systems, reconciling this tradeoff remains a critical research problem. Skywork AI Introduces Skywork R1V2 Skywork AI has released Skywork R1V2, a next-generation multimodal reasoning model designed to address the reasoning-generalization tradeoff systematically. Building upon the foundation of Skywork R1V, R1V2 introduces a hybrid reinforcement learning framework, combining reward-model guidance with structured rule-based signals. The model bypasses the conventional reliance on teacher-student distillation by learning directly from multimodal interactions, offering an open and reproducible advancement through its release on Hugging Face. Technical Approach and Innovations Skywork R1V2 incorporates Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) alongside a Selective Sample Buffer (SSB) to enhance training stability and efficiency. GRPO enables relative evaluation among candidate responses within the same query group, but convergence issues can diminish effective learning signals. The SSB mechanism addresses this by maintaining a cache of informative samples, ensuring continuous access to high-value gradients. Additionally, the model adopts a Mixed Preference Optimization (MPO) strategy, integrating reward-model-based preferences with rule-based constraints. This hybrid optimization allows Skywork R1V2 to strengthen step-by-step reasoning quality while maintaining consistency in general perception tasks. A modular training approach, utilizing lightweight adapters between a frozen Intern ViT-6B vision encoder and a pretrained language model, preserves the language model’s reasoning capabilities while optimizing cross-modal alignment efficiently. Empirical Results and Analysis Skywork R1V2 demonstrates robust performance across a range of reasoning and multimodal benchmarks. On text reasoning tasks, the model achieves 78.9% on AIME2024, 63.6% on LiveCodeBench, 73.2% on LiveBench, 82.9% on IFEVAL, and 66.3% on BFCL. These results represent significant improvements over Skywork R1V1 and are competitive with substantially larger models, such as Deepseek R1 (671B parameters). In multimodal evaluation, R1V2 achieves 73.6% on MMMU, 74.0% on MathVista, 62.6% on OlympiadBench, 49.0% on MathVision, and 52.0% on MMMU-Pro. The model consistently outperforms open-source baselines of comparable or larger size, including Qwen2.5-VL-72B and QvQ-Preview-72B, particularly excelling in tasks that require structured problem-solving across visual and textual inputs. When compared against proprietary models, R1V2 demonstrates narrowing performance gaps. It surpasses Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Gemini 2 Flash on critical multimodal benchmarks such as MMMU and MathVista. Importantly, hallucination rates were substantially reduced to 8.7% through calibrated reinforcement strategies, maintaining factual integrity alongside complex reasoning. Qualitative assessments further illustrate R1V2’s systematic problem-solving approach, with the model demonstrating methodical decomposition and verification behaviors in complex scientific and mathematical tasks, reinforcing its alignment with reflective cognitive patterns. Conclusion Skywork R1V2 advances the state of multimodal reasoning through a carefully designed hybrid reinforcement learning framework. By addressing the vanishing advantages problem with the Selective Sample Buffer and balancing optimization signals through Mixed Preference Optimization, the model achieves notable improvements in both specialized reasoning tasks and general multimodal understanding. With benchmark-leading performances such as 62.6% on OlympiadBench and 73.6% on MMMU, Skywork R1V2 establishes a strong open-source baseline. Its design principles and training methodology offer a pragmatic approach toward developing robust, efficient multimodal AI systems. Future directions for Skywork AI include enhancing general visual understanding capabilities while preserving the sophisticated reasoning foundations laid by R1V2. Check out the Paper and Model on HuggingFace. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram Channel and LinkedIn Group. Don’t Forget to join our 90k+ ML SubReddit. Sana HassanSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions.Sana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Microsoft Research Introduces MMInference to Accelerate Pre-filling for Long-Context Vision-Language ModelsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Meet Rowboat: An Open-Source IDE for Building Complex Multi-Agent SystemsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/A New Citibank Report/Guide Shares How Agentic AI Will Reshape Finance with Autonomous Analysis and Intelligent AutomationSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Sequential-NIAH: A Benchmark for Evaluating LLMs in Extracting Sequential Information from Long Texts

Latest   Machine Learning The Future of Work: How Microsoft 365 Office Solutions Are Evolving with AI Integration 0 like April 25, 2025 Share this post Last Updated on April 25, 2025 by Editorial Team Author(s): Sefali Warner Originally published on Towards AI. The Future of Work: How Microsoft 365 Office Solutions Are Evolving with AI Integration Image by author The future of work is upon us, and one of the key driving forces behind this transformation is artificial intelligence (AI). As businesses evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing digital landscape, AI significantly reshapes how we work. Among the tools that are leading this revolution is Microsoft 365. Known for its robust suite of productivity tools, Microsoft 365 is evolving in ways that integrate AI to enhance user experiences, improve efficiency, and enable better collaboration. In this post, we’ll look at how Microsoft 365 Office solutions are evolving with AI integration and what that means for the future of work. AI Integration: A Paradigm Shift for Productivity Microsoft 365 has been synonymous with essential office productivity tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. These tools have been at the heart of business operations across industries. However, as businesses strive for greater efficiency, AI becomes increasingly integrated into these tools, making them smarter and more intuitive. AI is shifting the focus from manual processes to automation, from static tools to dynamic, adaptive systems that learn from user behaviour. In this new world of AI-enhanced productivity, Microsoft 365 is not just a set of static tools; it’s an evolving platform designed to adapt to the needs of users and businesses alike. 1. AI in Word: Smarter Document Creation and Editing One of the most significant innovations in Microsoft 365’s AI integration can be seen in Word. Traditionally, Word was known for its word processing features, but with AI, it is transforming into a smarter, more helpful tool for document creation and editing. The AI-powered “Editor” tool in Word helps users improve the quality of their writing by providing advanced grammar, punctuation, and style suggestions. It goes beyond basic spellcheck to offer suggestions for improving readability, tone, and clarity. The AI even considers the context of the writing, offering personalized recommendations to fit the tone and style of the document. For example, if you’re writing a professional email or a report, Word’s AI can ensure that your language is appropriate for the audience, enhancing your communication efficiency. Moreover, AI assists with summarizing long documents, highlighting key points, and even generating suggestions for content based on the initial context. These capabilities free up valuable time, enabling users to focus on creativity and strategic tasks instead of manual revisions. 2. AI in Excel: Accelerating Data Analysis and Decision-Making Excel has always been the go-to tool for data analysis, and its power has only increased with AI integration. Microsoft 365 brings intelligent automation to Excel, allowing users to analyze data faster and more accurately. One of the standout features is “Ideas,” an AI-powered tool that automatically analyzes data and generates insights, trends, and visualizations. Whether you’re working with sales data, financial reports, or customer information, Ideas helps users uncover valuable insights in just a few clicks. It highlights key trends, outliers, and correlations, reducing the need for complex formulae and manual data manipulation. The “Analyze Data” feature also allows users to input natural language queries, such as “What are the sales trends in the last quarter?” and Excel will instantly respond with relevant data visualizations. This capability empowers businesses to make informed, data-driven decisions quickly without spending hours sorting through rows and columns of data. 3. PowerPoint: Designing Smarter Presentations with AI PowerPoint has been the go-to tool for creating presentations for decades, but AI integration is taking presentations to the next level. AI is helping users design visually appealing slides and improve their delivery and impact. The “Design Ideas” feature in PowerPoint uses AI to automatically suggest slide layouts and design elements based on the content of your presentation. This eliminates the need for users to manually adjust formatting, ensuring that presentations are visually appealing and professional-looking. The tool considers best practices in design to recommend layouts that enhance the presentation’s clarity and impact. AI in PowerPoint is also revolutionizing presentation delivery. The “Presenter Coach” feature uses AI to analyze pacing, tone, and filler words during practice. It offers feedback on speech rate, use of filler words, and tone, enabling presenters to refine their delivery for greater engagement. Whether you’re preparing for a board meeting or a client pitch, these AI-driven features make it easier to create and present compelling slideshows. 4. Teams: The Hub for AI-Enhanced Collaboration Microsoft Teams has quickly become the central hub for communication and collaboration in the modern workplace. By integrating AI, Teams is revolutionizing how teams work together, whether in the same office or across the globe. One of the key AI features in Teams is the integration of Cortana, Microsoft’s AI assistant. Cortana helps users by scheduling meetings, sending reminders, and organizing tasks. It can also answer queries and summarize meeting discussions, making it easier for teams to stay on top of their schedules and tasks. AI also enhances collaboration by improving accessibility. Real-time transcription and translation of meetings help ensure that all team members, regardless of language or hearing ability, can participate fully in discussions. This is especially important in global teams, where communication barriers can be challenging. With AI, Teams is breaking down these barriers and ensuring that collaboration is seamless and inclusive. 5. Cloud AI: Scalable Solutions for a Hybrid Workforce The cloud further enhances the integration of AI within Microsoft 365. Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure provides scalable computing power that ensures AI features are accessible to businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. As businesses adopt hybrid work models, the flexibility and scalability offered by Microsoft’s cloud-powered AI tools are crucial. Teams can access their work, data, and AI-driven insights from anywhere, ensuring that productivity remains high regardless of location. Whether employees work from home, in the office, or on the go, cloud-based AI ensures that tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams are always available and ready to enhance productivity. Moreover, cloud AI makes it easier for businesses to scale their operations. With virtually limitless resources available, companies can grow without worrying about hardware limitations. AI in the cloud can automatically adjust resources based on demand, ensuring that performance remains optimal even as the company’s needs evolve. The Future of AI in Microsoft 365 As AI technology advances, the future of Microsoft 365 looks promising. We can expect even more personalized experiences as AI better understands individual users’ needs and preferences. AI may anticipate what users need before they ask, proactively suggesting tasks, automating processes, and even drafting documents based on the user’s previous work. Additionally, integrating AI with Microsoft 365 will continue to enhance collaboration. As remote work becomes more widespread, AI-powered tools will help businesses maintain smooth communication and foster innovation, regardless of physical location. Features like real-time language translation, intelligent meeting summaries, and automated task assignments will ensure that teams remain productive, creative, and cohesive. Conclusion AI is shaping the future of work, and Microsoft 365 is at the forefront of this transformation. By integrating AI into its suite of productivity tools, many MS 365 Partners now offer Microsoft Consulting with smarter, more efficient, and more collaborative ways. You can easily reach out to a Microsoft 365 Consultant in the US and get a Free Online Consultation today. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect Microsoft 365 to offer even more innovative features that will empower users, streamline workflows, and drive business success. In the future, AI will not just be a tool — it will be a co-worker, helping businesses adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the modern workplace. Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor. Published via Towards AI Towards AI - Medium Share this post

Video game adaptations seem to be the trend of the hour. Just this month we’ve had A Minecraft Movie, the Devil May Cry anime, and the ongoing The Last of Us Season 2. Now we're getting the movie inspired by Sony's 2015 survival horror game Until Dawn. I remember Until Dawn releasing at the height of the YouTube “Let’s Play” era and was a game that was as much fun to watch other people play as it was to play yourself. The game featured high-quality cinematics, in-game choices with real consequences and, most importantly, some pretty darn good jumpscares. It’s not worth talking too much more about the original game because the movie seems to take inspiration mostly from the name and not much else. IGN’s Until Dawn review says it "shares a title and some key details with the game that inspired it, though it mostly tries to do its own thing – to mixed results.” Still, curiosity and a general love of horror is enough for me to still be interested. If you’re planning to watch Until Dawn in theaters or want a sense of how long you’ll have to wait until it’s available to stream, check out the details below. PlayHow to Watch Until Dawn Until Dawn just released in theaters on Friday, April 25. You can check for showtimes near you at the main theater links below: Until Dawn Streaming Release Date Until Dawn will eventually stream on Netflix, which has a licensing agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recent Sony movies, like Venom: The Last Dance and Saturday Night, landed on Netflix exactly four months after their initial release dates. Assuming this same trend holds, Until Dawn will be available to stream on Netflix around August 25. What About VOD? Until Dawn will be available through digital marketplaces like Prime Video before it comes to streaming. VOD release dates vary, often based on box office performance, but generally shorter theatrical release windows mean Until Dawn could be available to rent by the end of May. What Is Until Dawn About? While the Until Dawn movie is technically inspired by the 2014 survival horror game, it features different characters and a standalone storyline. Here's the movie's official synopsis: "One year after her sister disappeared, Clover and her friends head to the remote valley where she vanished to search for answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they soon encounter a masked killer who murders them one by one. However, when they mysteriously wake up at the beginning of the same night, they're forced to relive the terror over and over again."From IGN’s Review of the Original Until Dawn Game: "At its best, Until Dawn is a gleefully cheesy homage to horror movies, set in a world built by a developer that clearly adores the genre. Although its thrills are tempered by a lack of story cohesion, its robust choice-and-consequence system and keen eye on horror’s most ridiculous tropes makes Until Dawn ultimately worth playing."Until Dawn Cast and CharactersThe Until Dawn movie was written by Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler and directed by David F. Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation). The movie stars the following cast: Ella Rubin as CloverMichael Cimino as MaxOdessa A'zion as NinaJi-young Yoo as MeganBelmont Cameli as AbelMaia Mitchell as MelaniePeter Stormare as HillUntil Dawn Rating and Runtime Until Dawn is Rated R for bloody horror violence, disturbing/grisly images, brief strong language, and sexual material. The movie runs for a total of one hour and 43 minutes.

Every item on this page was hand-picked by a House Beautiful editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.Jump to:Art Deco is one of the most easily recognizable architectural styles out there. Known for its sleek symmetry and geometric motifs, the style adorns skyscrapers, storefronts, and apartment buildings across the country. And this year, the fan-favorite style turns one hundred. The style originated in France before spreading worldwide in the latter half of the 1920s. Art Deco architecture was seen as a celebration of progress, using geometric forms, lavish materials, and bold ornamentation to embody the optimism of its time: the Roaring Twenties. Officially a centenarian, Art Deco has dominated the design world longer than mid-century modern and Memphis combined, and it continues to be a popular choice for designers and architects alike.Like any major interior design trend, Art Deco has waxed and waned in its widespread popularity, but the classical elements that define its style have outlasted many a fad, and for good reason. According to a 2025 designer survey by vintage retailer 1st Dibs, Art Deco is the top trending design era this year, with 32 percent of American interior designers looking to the 1920s and ‘30s for inspiration. “Art Deco is a sophisticated, modern design style that combines elements of luxury, geometric precision, and technological innovation,” says Glen Hardwick-Bruce, founder of the Art World Advisory Group. “It was influenced by a mix of modernism, avant-garde movements, exotic cultural imagery, and the optimistic, lavish spirit of the 1920s and 1930s.”The Roaring Twenties was not just a time of opulence and glamour; the decade also saw a major technological boom that influenced the architectural style. Motorized vehicles, ocean liners, and a budding aviation industry all contributed to the atmosphere of limitless possibility. There is so much that encompasses the Art Deco style, especially after 100 years. Below, we highlight the key elements of the architectural juggernaut. Read on for everything you need to know about Art Deco’s influence and lasting impact.Additional copy by Kate McGregor.Related StoriesWhat Is Art Deco?mkfoto//Getty ImagesElevator lobby in the Four Fifty Sutter Building in San Francisco, California. The building was completed in 1929.Art Deco is a decorative arts, architecture, and design movement that began in the mid-1920s and continued through 1940. Known for its sleek, symmetrical lines and rich materials, it’s characterized by an emphasis on industrial innovation, opulent decoration, and fine craftsmanship.When it comes to architecture specifically, Art Deco is largely about verticality, as new engineering techniques and materials led to the rise of steel skyscrapers. Pulling from the other parts of the design movement, Art Deco architecture also featured geometric patterns and flamboyant ornamentation.“Art Deco may best be described as a popular form of modernism. If we think of modern architecture in its most rigorous form as having stripped away ornament and replaced it with glass-and-steel austerity, Art Deco responds with Jazz-Age glamour and sophisticated urbanity,” says Tom McDonough, an art history professor from Binghamton University, State University of New York. “Think streamlined silhouettes, curved corners, and rhythmic composition, not strict geometry and cubic form. Think the Chrysler Building, not Lever House.”The term Art Deco comes from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, where arts décoratifs, meaning “decorative arts” in French, was shortened to Art Deco. At this exposition, Art Deco architects, designers, and artists showcased a new, modern style intended to break away from the flowing, natural forms of Art Nouveau. Launched into international prominence, Art Deco spread globally during the next 15 years. “Its appeal was easy to convey in photographs, which meant it quickly found a global reach, extending from Paris and New York to Mumbai, Shanghai, and beyond,” says McDonough. “Everywhere it spread, its designs offered people a means to identify themselves with what was new, modern, cosmopolitan.”The Influences of Art DecoS. Greg Panosian//Getty ImagesUnion Station in Los Angeles, built in 1939. Art Deco is inextricably tied to the social atmosphere of the 1920s. “Art Deco responded to the atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties, the release and relief felt at the end of the First World War,” says McDonough. “It replaced the ascetic intellectualism—not to say puritanism—of much modern architecture with an image of hedonistic desirability.”But Art Deco was also directly linked to industrial progress, too. The rise of mass production and the advent of new materials such as stainless steel, chrome plating, and plastics including Bakelite allowed designers to create sleek, streamlined forms. “Designers were fascinated by machinery, speed, and the efficiency of industrial production, which can be seen in the sleek and streamlined forms,” says Hardwick-Bruce.Art Deco certainly wasn’t the only art and design movement that drew from those influences. Before it came Cubism, Futurism, and Bauhaus, which promoted technology with an aesthetic vision—these styles directly influenced the development of Art Deco.And finally, there’s the matter of global discoveries. Though Art Deco is a forward-looking style celebrating the machine age, its adherents also incorporated elements from ancient cultures, such as Egyptian and Mayan art into their work. “The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 sparked a fascination with Egyptian art and symbolism, bringing elements like scarabs, sphinxes, and pyramids into the Art Deco style,” says Hardwick-Bruce. Eventually, the Great Depression and World War II shifted the cultural and economic landscape, and Art Deco began to fade in popularity. While new, more austere architectural styles took over—examples include the International Style, Midcentury Modernism, and Brutalism—Art Deco’s influence remains visible in many buildings and design objects around the world.The Defining Characteristics of Art Deco Architecture and StyleGeometric Forms and SymmetryChris MottaliniOpulent materials lend an Art Deco vibe to a Manhattan apartment designed by Nannette Brown.The hallmark of Art Deco architecture lies in its geometric precision. Buildings are structured with sharp, clean lines, often forming stepped or ziggurat shapes—again, a nod to ancient cultures. Ornamentation and Decorative ElementsWhile geometric forms establish structure, ornamentation adds visual richness. “Common motifs include zigzags, chevrons, sunbursts, and trapezoidal shapes,” says Hardwick-Bruce. “An example of this includes The Chrysler Building in New York City which has sharp geometric details, with a sunburst pattern crowning its spire.”Verticality and HeightArt Deco buildings, particularly skyscrapers, are characterized by their vertical emphasis, often accentuated by narrow, elongated windows. Such tall, sleek forms were meant to reflect progress, ambition, and the upward mobility of society.Use of ColorArt Deco designers were not afraid to use color. “Art Deco color palettes often featured vibrant, saturated colors, including deep greens, gold, silver, bright reds, and metallic finishes,” says Hardwick-Bruce. This was not only featured on the exterior of structures but also in interior design.Lavish MaterialsKEVIN J. MIYAZAKIA Deco-inspired bedroom in Chicago by designer Erin Shakoor.“Designers used opulent materials such as lacquer, polished wood, chrome, glass, and exotic materials like ivory or sharkskin to exude luxury,” says Hardwick-Bruce. “Furniture pieces by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann often used rich veneers and inlays of ivory, giving it a sophisticated and expensive appearance.”Famous Art Deco Buildings Around the WorldChrysler Building, New YorkGary Hershorn//Getty ImagesNo building embodies Art Deco quite like New York’s Chrysler Building. Designed by architect William Van Alen and completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building has a tiered crown of stainless steel arches embedded with triangular windows. Much of the ornamentation here is derived from automobile elements like hood ornaments and radiator grilles.Empire State Building, New YorkJamesHarrison//Getty ImagesThe only Art Deco building more famous than the Chrysler Building is the Empire State Building. Completed in 1931, the Empire State Building remains a towering symbol of Art Deco ambition. Designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the building has a geometric look thanks to its tiered setbacks, which are quintessential Art Deco style. Art Deco Historic District, Miami BeachJean-Pierre BOUCHARD//Getty ImagesSouth Beach in Miami Beach, Florida, is a hotspot of Art Deco architecture—it’s impossible to pick a single building to exemplify this entire district of Art Deco structures. Here, the Art Deco architecture was largely inspired by the ocean liners seen just offshore. And in a regional touch, many feature more tropical hues that differ from the jewel tones found in Art Deco design elsewhere.Hoover Building, LondonMichael Nicholson//Getty ImagesDesigned by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners and completed in 1933, this factory-complex-turned-residential building is a masterpiece of British Art Deco. It has a white cement (also known as snowcrete) façade and colorful geometric details that were unheard of in factory design of the era.Eastern Columbia Building, Los AngelesMichael Lee//Getty ImagesA standout example of West Coast Art Deco, this 1930s department store (also now a residential building) is known for its striking turquoise terra-cotta façade with deep blue and gold ornamentation. Architect Claud Beelman’s use of color and form makes it one of L.A.’s most photographed landmarks.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

Even as CarPlay 2 work keeps chugging along, Apple has been slowly adding new features to the existing CarPlay too. Last fall CarPlay got some Apple Intelligence enhancements, and recently Ford EV owners gained NACS routing. Now, with iOS 18.4, there are three more new CarPlay features that just arrived. #1: Third row of app icons One of the complicated things about CarPlay is that it needs to adapt to a wide range of vehicle infotainment systems. Fortunately, iOS 18.4 brings a nice enhancement for vehicles that have especially large displays. Users throughout the beta found that on certain screen sizes, CarPlay gained a third row of app icons where it only supported two before. This extra screen real estate for apps pairs nicely with this next CarPlay addition… #2: Sports apps Apple has made a new API available to app developers that will bring sports apps to CarPlay. Starting in iOS 18.4, apps that show sports scores can integrate with CarPlay. This way, you can stay on top of how your favorite team’s doing even while in the car. It could take some time for third-party sports apps to officially add CarPlay support, but here’s hoping we get a CarPlay update for the Apple Sports app before long. #3: Default navigation in EU iOS 18.4 brought a long-awaited new option for EU users: the ability to set a default navigation app. That’s right, rather than relying on Apple Maps, users in the EU can set alternatives like Google Maps as their default. This change should have a huge impact on the CarPlay experience. Why? Because it means you’ll be able to tell Siri, “Take me to X” and the assistant will use your chosen navigation app to route you. Quick, seamless, and hassle-free—just like voice computing in the car should be. CarPlay iOS 18.4 features: wrap-up I’d just like maps to show me where the storm fronts are. Rain, snow, tornadoes, etc., so I can outrun ‘em or choose a new direction. View all comments CarPlay’s latest updates may not be for everyone—if your vehicle’s display is small, and you’re outside the EU, this list shrinks very quickly—but they’re welcome nonetheless. While we continue waiting for CarPlay 2, anything Apple can do to continue improving the existing CarPlay is a win in my book. Seen in that light, iOS 18.4 is a solid step down the right path. What are your thoughts on iOS 18.4’s new CarPlay features? Let us know in the comments. Best CarPlay accessories Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Now here's a legal-drama-worthy twist in the recent spate of dumb lawyers getting caught using AI: it turns out that the very bar exam administered to aspiring attorneys in California was itself created with the help of a large language model, .The admission was made by the State Bar of California on Monday, following complaints about the quality of the test's questions, and numerous glitches experienced by test-takers when they took it in February.In a news release, the organization said that 23 of the exam's total of 171 scored multiple-choice questions were drafted by the firm ACS Ventures, which developed the questions "with the assistance of AI." Another 48 questions were lifted from an older version of an exam for first-year law students."The debacle that was the February 2025 bar exam is worse than we imagined," Mary Basick, assistant dean of academic skills at UC Irvine Law School, told the LA Times. "I'm almost speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers using artificial intelligence is just unbelievable."Katie Moran, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, called it a "staggering admission." The same company that used AI to draft the questions was then paid "to assess and ultimately approve of the questions on the exam, including the questions the company authored," she noted to the newspaper.For weeks, test takers had complained that they were randomly kicked off the online platform that the bar was administered on, while screens lagged and showed error messages, per the reporting. The test itself was riddled with typos, and some questions were total nonsense.Despite these complaints — and despite pleading guilty to AI usage — a spokesperson for the State Bar insisted that the test questions were reviewed by content validation panels and subject matter experts.In any case, the whole situation sounds like a mortifying catastrophe. For one, the Supreme Court of California, of which the State Bar is an administrative arm, maintains it had no idea about the use of AI to create the test questions until this week — even though it had instructed the State Bar to explore the use of AI to "improve upon the reliability and cost-effectiveness of such testing" last fall, according to Alex Chan, chair of the State Bar's Committee of Bar Examiners.Casting additional scrutiny, Basick and Moran argued that the exam questions, which should take years to develop, were drafted far too quickly, while 50 practice questions re-released just weeks before the actual exam contained numerous errors, they wrote early this month, per the LA Times.What spurred the dubious measures sounds like a familiar tale of disastrous cost-cutting. Faced with a $22 million deficit last year, the State Bar ditched the commonly used National Conference of Bar Examiners' Multistate Bar Examination, and decided to transition to a hybrid model of in-person and remote testing. To create the new test, it inked a $8.25 million deal with Kaplan Exam Services, and contracted Meazure Learning to administer it.In a fittingly legal result, Meazure Learning is now being sued by some of the students who took the glitchy exams. The State Bar said it will ask the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took the test in February. Chan said that the Committee of Bar Examiners will meet on May 5 to discuss other remedies, but doubted that the State Bar would release the exam questions to the public or go back to the NCBE.Share This Article

Apr 25, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Network Security Cybersecurity researchers are warning about a new malware called DslogdRAT that's installed following the exploitation of a now-patched security flaw in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS). The malware, along with a web shell, were "installed by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability at that time, CVE-2025-0282, during attacks against organizations in Japan around December 2024," JPCERT/CC researcher Yuma Masubuchi said in a report published Thursday. CVE-2025-0282 refers to a critical security flaw in ICS that could allow unauthenticated remote code execution. It was addressed by Ivanti in early January 2025. However, the shortcoming has been exploited as a zero-day by a China-nexus cyber espionage group dubbed UNC5337 to deliver the SPAWN ecosystem of malware, as well as other tools like DRYHOOK and PHASEJAM. The deployment of the latter two malware strains has not been attributed to any known threat actor. Since then, both JPCERT/CC and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have revealed the exploitation of the same vulnerability to deliver updated versions of SPAWN called SPAWNCHIMERA and RESURGE. Earlier this month, Google-owned Mandiant also revealed that another security flaw in ICS (CVE-2025-22457) has been weaponized to distribute SPAWN, a malware attributed to another Chinese hacking group referred to as UNC5221. JPCERT/CC said it's currently not clear if the attacks using DslogdRAT is part of the same campaign involving the SPAWN malware family operated by UNC5221. The attack sequence outlined by the agency entails the exploitation of CVE-2025-0282 to deploy a Perl web shell, which then serves as a conduit to deploy additional payloads, including DslogdRAT. DslogdRAT, for its part, initiates contact with an external server over a socket connection to send basic system information and awaits further instructions that allow it to execute shell commands, upload/download files, and use the infected host as a proxy. The disclosure comes as threat intelligence firm GreyNoise warned of a "9X spike in suspicious scanning activity" targeting ICS and Ivanti Pulse Secure (IPS) appliances from more than 270 unique IP addresses in the past 24 hours and over 1,000 unique IP addresses in the last 90 days. Of these 255 IP addresses have been classified as malicious and 643 have been flagged as suspicious. The malicious IPs have been observed using TOR exit nodes and suspicious IPs are linked to lesser-known hosting providers. The United States, Germany, and the Netherlands account for the top three source countries. "This surge may indicate coordinated reconnaissance and possible preparation for future exploitation," the company said. "While no specific CVEs have been tied to this scanning activity yet, spikes like this often precede active exploitation." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

Marvel has made plenty of tie-in comic books for their movies. I remember selling quite a few copies of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man book that was written by Stan Lee back in my days as a comic store clerk. Marvel has made movie prequels and movie adaptations, and movie spinoffs.So it’s not particularly shocking in and of itself that Marvel is making a comic tied to their upcoming Fantastic Four film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. What makes it a little more notable, or at least more interesting is that (per Deadline) the company’s First Steps comic is “designed to be an artifact from the world of the upcoming movie” and also confirms that the film is “not an origin story, but will pick up four years after they become heroes.”In other words: this Fantastic Four comic isn’t just about the MCU version of the characters — played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bacharach — it exists as a comic within the film’s universe. As in, if you were a kid who loved the Fantastic Four in the MCU, you could walk to your local comic store (or more likely your corner drug store, since First Steps takes place in the past before comic stores even existed) and buy a copy of this book.THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPSMarvelloading...Marvel’s First Steps comic is written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Mark Buckingham, with a cover by Phil Noto. As you can see above, Noto’s piece is inspired by the cover to the very first Fantastic Four #1 from 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Given that image, and the fact that the book supposedly confirms the film is not an origin story, I am going to make the educated guess that this comic is this FF’s origin — retelling their first battle with the Mole Man, just as Lee and Kirby did in their original Fantastic Four #1, for fans of the group in the MCU. (The movie’s trailers have already made it clear the FF are huge celebrities in their universe.)Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four stories often referenced the fact that the FF were celebrities with their own comic book — which, in an even more meta touch, was written and drawn by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. So this continues that tradition as well.Marvel‘s First Steps comic goes on sale on July 2. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to open in theaters on July 25.Get our free mobile appThe Best Superhero Movie Of Every Year From 2000 to TodayThere are a lot of comic-book movies these days. If you could only pick one best one from every single year of the 21st century, what would you choose? Here are our picks.

- Could you sell hair care products to Patrick Stewart?- Do you yearn to express yourself through the medium of silly internet videos?- Do you thrive in a high-stress environment filled with political infighting, bureaucracy, and corporate nonsense?If so, then we are the place for you, except you might hate how nice of a company we have - filled with happy, generally competent people that don’t put up with jerks. Frankly, it makes me sick how nice everyone is.We are remote full time, have very flexible hours, people are judged by their output, not by how much they suck up to the boss, and turnover is super low because the company believes that happy employees = happy customers = happy bank account. Simply disgusting, if you ask me.--Is this a real job ad?--Yup! Amazingly enough, we actually paid money to post this on a bunch of different job sites. And it’s not even a pyramid scheme! Plus, get this: the owner just started paying our 70ish employees with money instead of Pizza Hut coupons - we’re big time, people.Our careers page is actually worth checking out to learn more about how insane we are (sidenote: it won a web design award in 1993 - we’re a pretty big deal):http://www.jlstradingco.com/careers/And check out our reviews on Google, Glassdoor, or Indeed to see that it’s not just the founder’s mother who says we’re cool.--What do you guys do?--We do a lot of different things these days including selling awesome consumer products (these are just a small sampling): - Bad Parking Cards (https://amz.run/5Eya)- Beverage Barricades (https://amz.run/6kip)- Child Chucker (https://amz.run/9EUz)Running this Amazon Pay-Per-Click agency: PPCFarm.com (we’re really, really good at PPC)And we will soon be launching a SaaS product for inventory management.We are doing our best to grow rapidly every year, and it’s our intention to continue that for as long as possible, which means we need good people to help us keep up with the growth.--What is your company like?--1. You Can Be Yourself. You don’t have to put on a fake, professional face. You can just be yourself. You can talk smack to the CEO (highly encouraged), and no one will think anything of it. You don't have to dress up, or use formal language, or pretend to be something you're not - you can just be you.2. Major Opportunities for Career Growth. We are not trying to just be a small business. We plan to be doing $100 million annually in the next few years. We promote quickly once we identify talent. It doesn’t matter what your credentials are – it matters what you get done.3. Full Time Remote/Flexible Hours. You will be working from home in your pajamas, on your schedule. And we don’t care if you work 10 hour days 4 days a week or 6 hours a day and catch up over the weekend. So long as you get a lot of work done, we’re happy campers.4. Complete Work/Life Balance. If you’re routinely working more than 45ish hours, you’re gonna get a friendly talking-to. We want you to be operating at 100% capacity, which means that you need to rest.5. Strongly Anti-BS. Anybody in the company can (and is expected to) tell the CEO when he is wrong. There are no bureaucratic or BS rules getting in the way of getting work done.6. No Micro-Management. Once you’re trained and have demonstrated you know your stuff, we are pretty hands-off. In fact, if you need external management to stay on-task and motivated, we probably aren’t the place for you.7. No Toxic/Incompetent People Allowed. We try very hard to screen out mean or stupid people before they get in, but in case they slip through, we fire them quickly. You will never have to interact with someone who is an obvious idiot or straight up malicious. No toxic or incompetent people at work - could it really be? [Yes]8. Supportive Environment. We don’t operate via intense stress or unreasonable top-down deadlines. Everyone wants you to be successful – internal politics are at a minimum here.9. Lots of Raises. We do our absolute best to get ahead of things and give raises preemptively, so you don't have to ask for one. It's not unusual at all for someone to receive 2+ raises per year.10. We’ll Invest in Your Training. We want you and everyone to get better constantly. You’ll be learning new things all the time, and are strongly encouraged to invest time every day to learn new things, improve your system/work process, and just generally try to make your life easier.11. 4-6+ Weeks Vacation. We 100% want you to recharge, so having plenty of time off is absolutely worth it.12. Paid Maternity/Paternity Leave. We’ve even started letting people skip meetings during labor!13. Self-Funded So We Can Do What’s Right for Us. We don’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves, so we can make the right decision for the long-term health of the company vs trying to get big too fast or cut corners to appease some selfish investor.--What are your company’s values?--See here: http://www.jlstradingco.com/careers/Yes, those are legitimately our values. The careers page is definitely worth checking out - it’s not just normal corporate BS. We promise you’ll learn a lot about us.--OK, so I’ve read like 8 dang pages about you guys. Will you tell me what the actual job is?--No.--Wait... What?--OK fine. Super short version:Making social media video content for our products, brands, and services with the aim of building an audience who loves our stuff.Our current channels:- Witty Yeti: https://www.tiktok.com/@wittyyeti.com- PPC Farm: https://www.youtube.com/@PPCFarm/videosHere is a bulleted list of responsibilities:- Follow social media trends- Ideate like crazy- Script/plan your video- Film and edit your videos- Engage with the audience- Iterate and get better- Work with others to give and receive feedback to improve creativelyLike everyone else in the company, you will also need to innovate regularly - which means figuring out ways to improve quality and production speed.It is challenging, but fun work that’s going to require a lot of time and task management, problem-solving, and a reasonable amount of people skills.--Do I need experience?--We expect you to have a minimum of 70 years of experience (120+ preferred).Oh, you haven't lived two lifetimes eating and breathing business 24/7/365? Who TF do you think you are, reading this job description? You absolute buffoon.Oh, you haven't been directly involved in at least two (preferably three) World Wars? You're not even qualified to operate our coffee machine, you sentient potato.Oh, you didn't observe the Big Bang as it happened? Get out of here, you pirated copy of Windows 95.I might literally throw up from your insolence. The hubris to think that you, you absolute fool, could apply to be a content creator - absolutely sickening.Also, no you don't need any experience, per se. We’ll be evaluating you on your current abilities, and obviously experience can help you there, but your work will stand on its own.The Big Bang requirement still stands though.--Do I need a college degree?--You just need to be awesome.--Are there any geographic restrictions?--As long as you are in a country that doesn’t have active sanctions from the US government, we are interested. Our founder isn’t known for respecting the government much, but they have all the guns, so…Having said that, there is a bit of constraint on your accent. We are selling to an American audience, and it’s likely that they are not gonna vibe with you if your accent is really strong (for better or worse, I’m sorry). --Is it long or short form?--Probably both with a bias towards short form. It’s still very early days, and we’ll have to see how it goes and what you most excel at, but in general, I suspect it will be more short form.--Is part time, full time, or contract?--Given the nature of this role, we can be more flexible and can potentially do a contractor/part-time deal with you, especially if you are keeping up with your own channel.We are aiming for full time creator but we’re definitely flexible.--What type of products will I be pitching?--My current thinking is that you should be a “generalist” content creator, which means you can find a creative way to make videos about just about anything.We’ll definitely want to play to your strengths, and we will absolutely help you as much as possible with educating/training you on our catalog and such, though. It will likely be our fun kitchen products like the Beverage Barricades. We’re also launching a crocodile-shaped hot dog cutter called the CrocoDicer soon.Then there are our gag gifts: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Witty+YetiThen we have our B2B departments which consists of PPC Farm, an Amazon advertising agency, and Omniscio, a software product (not yet launched) for Amazon sellers.For the business stuff, we’ll see how it goes. If you can help make content to promote those, that would be ideal, but again, we’ll definitely help you figure out what to make there.--I have my own channel. Do you expect me to post to that?--We are mostly interested in growing our own following, so it would probably make the most sense to post to our (very, very small) accounts. Nothing is in stone though, except that we will never want to take advantage of you and your following unless you thought that would be mutually beneficial.--Who else is on the team?--This is a VERY new effort for us. We previously have had basically no social media presence until recently. There are 2.5ish people working fullish time in content creation. Everyone is really nice, but it’s definitely a startup-like environment as we build this department and feel our way through.--What type of production volume do you expect?--It’s still too early for us to know what a proper production rate is, but in general, we expect everyone to have a lot of output equal to 40 hours of legit work.It will depend on the quality and difficulty of execution for your videos, so it could be 1 per week or it could be 20. We’ll play it by ear but I promise we’re reasonable.--I am shy and don’t want to be on camera--confused_jackie_chan.gif--This sounds pretty good, though I’m still skeptical that this isn’t a pyramid scheme.--You sound just like the tax authorities!--That doesn’t resolve any of my fears, but what do I need to do to apply?--Please submit your information on the following page to apply. We promise to respond within 5-10 business days even if our answer is No.There will be multiple steps in this process, FYI, including a long written application, interviews with potentially a few different people, and paid work test(s). Hiring the right people is really hard and very expensive if we do it poorly, so we have to front-load the process. I'm sorry about that and thank you for sticking with us.Once you’re in our pipeline though, I would anticipate giving you a final answer within a few weeks, depending on how it goes. We definitely don’t want to string you along, and as long as you do what we ask, we promise to tell you “yes” or “no”, and to not just ghost you (like everybody I match with on Tinder).Thank you for your time and interest, and I hope we can work together soon!Apply NowLet's start your dream job Apply now Meet JobCopilot: Your Personal AI Job HunterAutomatically Apply to Remote Sales and Marketing JobsJust set your preferences and Job Copilot will do the rest-finding, filtering, and applying while you focus on what matters. Activate JobCopilot