Macworld Whether or not the iPad can replace a MacBook often depends on what you do. For students and professionals, the iPad Pro’s superior display, Apple Pencil input, and portability have made it the ideal productivity device. It worked for me; I earned my college degree and worked as a TV script translator while relying solely on an iPad. However, anyone with a more complicated workflow beyond reading, researching, writing, and illustrating like I did won’t find the iPad a suitable platform for work. Today, flagship iPads pack Apple’s M-series chipsets, similar to those powering the latest Macs–iPads are powerful. It’s iPadOS that prevents the tablet from truly being a viable option to a MacBook. iPadOS 19 is rumored to address some of these shortcomings by improving multitasking, productivity, and window management. That sounds great, especially if Apple brings over these nine macOS features to truly unlock the iPad’s full potential. Break the App Store shackle In the Apple ecosystem, macOS is the only Apple operating system that officially permits users to install apps from sources other than Apple’s App Store. If an application fails the App Store’s unforgiving screening process, developers can still distribute it independently. This enables Mac users to install third-party apps that don’t necessarily comply with Apple’s guidelines.  In contrast, iPadOS users outside the European Union are currently restricted to the app selection available on Apple’s storefront. If your workflow depends on a noncompliant or niche app, there’s no straightforward way to obtain it on your iPad–a dealbreaker for many. To truly match desktop flexibility, iPadOS 19 should support direct app installation. Enhanced window management macOS’s strength is its window management, which goes beyond what iPadOS offers with organization.Mahmoud Itani While iPadOS currently supports resizable app instances via Stage Manager, the feature is too limited compared to the Mac’s window management. The execution feels wonky and pushes me to use the traditional Split View and Slide Over multitasking features. iPadOS 19 should make multitasking more practical by adopting a macOS-like approach that’s fully optimized for the company’s tablet. Multiple user profiles Another essential feature is support for multiple user profiles on iPadOS. Apple has already built and shipped this feature, but it’s limited to iPads managed by educational institutions. The company could effortlessly make it available for all users, but it chooses not to. This makes it challenging for family members to share a single iPad, as you can’t easily separate individual apps, data, and settings. Improved cursor Another iPad annoyance is the bloated cursor when using a mouse or trackpad. For those unfamiliar, iPadOS’ cursor is significantly larger than that of macOS and features a magnetic effect that pulls it toward UI elements. This is totally expected, as iPadOS is a touch-first OS with large targets to accommodate human fingers. Though with iPadOS 19 and macOS 16 rumored to adopt similar looks, now is Apple’s chance to finally develop a more intuitive pointer.  Upgraded built-in apps Ever since iOS and iPadOS split, Apple has distinguished its own iPad apps with new UIs exclusive to the larger displays. But functionally, these apps continue to mimic the iPhone and its limitations. So, macOS-only features, like Smart Playlists in Apple Music and system file browsing in Finder, are absent from the iPad. To lure power users, iPadOS 19 should upgrade system apps by porting some of the Mac’s unique offerings. Extended work environments An iPad that could support multiple monitors and workspaces like a Mac would make it a more viable workstation.Mahmoud Itani Speaking of power users, the premium iPad Pro M4 still limits you to a single external monitor. Meanwhile, Macs support multiple screens and desktops. This lets users jump between different sets of opened apps by creating several environments with distinct layouts based on the tasks they’re focusing on. Without these functions, iPadOS remains a terrible platform for getting serious work done. Compatibility with Mac software The highest-end iPads now use the same processors as Macs. Yet, while macOS can run many iPad apps (it’s up to the app developer to allow it), iPadOS can’t run Mac software. Consequently, those relying on desktop-exclusive apps, like Xcode, can’t completely ditch their Macs. Similarly, those who already bought lifetime licenses for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro on macOS can’t access these tools on their tablets without paying recurring subscription fees for the mobile editions. Apple could realistically address this limitation and expand the iPad’s app library by supporting Mac software on iPadOS 19. Continuity features The Mac offers special Continuity features that work seamlessly with iOS. With macOS Monterey 12, Apple added support for AirPlay receiving, letting you cast media from your iPhone to the computer’s larger display. And with macOS Sequoia 15, the company introduced the iPhone Mirroring app, enabling users to fully control their iPhones, view iOS notifications, and more. Both of these features are missing from iPadOS, further chaining its potential. Apple should expand the Continuity features between macOS and iPadOS.Mahmoud Itani iPhone OS tools Other macOS exclusives that stop many users from switching to iPadOS are the iOS management tools. Macs let you back up, restore, or update an iPhone using a wired connection. While newer iPads can repair your bricked iPhone wirelessly, they’re incapable of creating local, full-device backups. Similarly, they can’t update your iPhone’s OS when it doesn’t have sufficient storage to download the package over the air. Tempering expectations I’ve made peace with the fact that most of these features likely won’t make it to the iPad anytime soon, if ever. Apple knows that adding them could cannibalize Mac sales, since fewer customers would feel inclined to pay more for a real computer. The iPad seems to be stuck in limbo, and I struggle to figure out where it’s heading. There’s no denying that every annual OS update makes the device slightly more powerful. Regardless, its software features continue to underperform when compared to Windows tablets. I had high hopes when Stage Manager was first announced, only to be disappointed by the same main set of limitations soon after trying it. For this reason, I’m skeptical about iPadOS 19 meaningfully elevating the experience. I think the iPad is doomed to remain a stretched-out iPhone with fancy branding just to pad quarterly earnings reports.

The European Union (EU) AI Act may seem like a done deal, but stakeholders are still drafting the code of practice that will lay out rules for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models, including those with systemic risk. Now, though, as that drafting process approaches its deadline, US President Donald Trump is reportedly pressuring European regulators to scrap the rulebook. The US administration and other critics claim that it stifles innovation, is burdensome, and extends the bounds of the AI law, essentially creating new, unnecessary rules. The US government’s Mission to the EU recently reached out to the European Commission and several European governments to oppose its adoption in its current form, Bloomberg reports. “Big tech, and now government officials, argue that the draft AI rulebook layers on extra obligations, including third party model testing and full training data disclosure, that go beyond what is in the legally binding AI Act’s text, and furthermore, would be very challenging to implement at scale,” explained Thomas Randall, director of AI market research at Info-Tech Research Group. Onus is shifting from vendor to enterprise On its web page describing the initiative, the European Commission said, “the code should represent a central tool for providers to demonstrate compliance with the AI Act, incorporating state-of-the-art practices.” The code is voluntary, but the goal is to help providers prepare to satisfy the EU AI Act’s regulations around transparency, copyright, and risk mitigation. It is being drafted by a diverse group of general-purpose AI model providers, industry organizations, copyright holders, civil society representatives, members of academia, and independent experts, overseen by the European AI Office. The deadline for its completion is the end of April. The final version is set to be presented to EU representatives for approval in May, and will go into effect in August, one year after the AI Act came into force. It will have teeth; Randall pointed out that non-compliance could draw fines of up to 7% of global revenue, or heavier scrutiny by regulators, once it takes effect. But whether or not Brussels, the de facto capital of the EU, relaxes or enforces the current draft, the weight of ‘responsible AI’ is already shifting from vendors to the customer organizations deploying the technology, he noted. “Any organization conducting business in Europe needs to have its own AI risk playbooks, including privacy impact checks, provenance logs, or red-team testing, to avoid contractual, regulatory, and reputational damages,” Randall advised. He added that if Brussels did water down its AI code, it wouldn’t just be handing companies a free pass, “it would be handing over the steering wheel.” Clear, well-defined rules can at least mark where the guardrails sit, he noted. Strip those out, and every firm, from a garage startup to a global enterprise, will have to chart its own course on privacy, copyright, and model safety. While some will race ahead, others will likely have to tap the brakes because the liability would “sit squarely on their desks.” “Either way, CIOs need to treat responsible AI controls as core infrastructure, not a side project,” said Randall. A lighter touch regulatory landscape If other countries were to follow the current US administration’s approach to AI legislation, the result would likely be a lighter touch regulatory landscape with reduced federal oversight, noted Bill Wong, AI research fellow at Info-Tech Research Group. He pointed out that in January, the US administration issued Executive Order 14179, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” Right after that, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) updated its guidance for scientists working with the US Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI). Further, references to “AI safety,” “responsible AI,” and “AI fairness” were removed; instead, a new emphasis was placed on “reducing ideological bias to enable human flourishing and economic competitiveness.” Wong said: “In effect, the updated guidance appears to encourage partners to align with the executive order’s deregulatory stance.”

Tom Hanks is steering Apple TV+ back into WWII waters with a high-stakes sequel to "Greyhound," with production scheduled for early 2026."Greyhound" returns with a sequelApple Original Films is once again partnering with Hanks' Playtone banner and director Aaron Schneider for the follow-up to the 2020 wartime thriller. Hanks returns as Captain Krause and is also writing the script.The sequel will expand beyond the Atlantic setting of the first film, taking audiences from the beaches of Normandy to battles in the Pacific theater, according to Deadline. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Olson Kundig is about to break ground on their new Moody Center Complex for Student Life at Rice University.  After shovels drop on May 8th, the firm will begin advancing towards a fall 2027 completion date. When it does open, the 75,000-square-foot design will serve Rice’s expanding population of approximately 9,000 students with a highly programmable new facility designed to instigate more social interaction—an aspect of life many sociologists have noted is increasingly bereft on American college campuses. The firm also recently announced another higher ed design commission to deliver the new Seattle University Museum of Art by 2028. Image rendering courtesy Olson KundigImage rendering courtesy Olson KundigImage rendering courtesy Olson KundigImage rendering courtesy Olson Kundig

Days Gone Remastered, an enhanced version of Bend Studio’s 2019 open-world title, is now available on PS5. Retailing for $49.99, owners of the PS4 original can upgrade for $10. PC players can also pick up Broken Road, a DLC that includes all the new content for $10. Check out the launch trailer below. Alongside visual improvements and PS5 Pro support, the remaster’s main appeal is the new content, particularly Horde Assault. The arcade-like experience involves surviving in the world for as long as possible against increasingly challenging Freakers. Hordes are larger than ever, and negative Injectors result in more harrowing fights. However, there are also positive Injectors for gaining an edge, and as you level up, new cosmetics and playable characters become available. Days Gone Remastered also adds Permadeath and Speedrun Modes, and new settings for Photo Mode, like time of day, new logos and a three-point lighting system. High Contrast Mode, UI narration, fully remappable controls, and other accessibility features are also included. Check out our feature for everything you should know before buying.

The Royal Palace of Amsterdam is a royal residence in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Opened in 1655 as a town hall, the main architect was Jacob van Campen, who designed it in the Dutch Baroque style. Louis Bonaparte became King of Holland in 1806 and established his court in Amsterdam, turning the town hall into a palace; it has been used by Dutch monarchs since then, although their main place of residence is Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. The Royal Palace of Amsterdam is used for entertaining and official functions during state visits and other official receptions, such as New Year receptions. This photograph shows the Royal Palace from Dam Square in 2016. Photograph credit: Diego Delso Recently featured: Indian Head gold pieces Blue-tailed damselfly Chandos portrait Archive More featured pictures

April 26 Lorenzo de' Medici 1478 – In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the Republic of Florence, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici (pictured) and killed his brother Giuliano at Florence Cathedral. 1915 – First World War: Britain, France and Russia signed a secret treaty promising territory to Italy if it joined the war on their side. 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established. 1989 – A tornado struck the Manikganj District of Bangladesh and killed an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest tornado in history. 1994 – Just before landing at Nagoya Airport, Japan, the copilot of China Airlines Flight 140 inadvertently triggered the takeoff/go-around switch, causing the aircraft to crash and killing 264 of the 271 people on board. Marcus Aurelius (b. 121)Alice Ayres (d. 1885)S. J. V. Chelvanayakam (d. 1977) More anniversaries: April 25 April 26 April 27 Archive By email List of days of the year About

See the Forgotten Paintings Made by Jane Austen’s Older Sister, Cassandra A new exhibition at the Jane Austen House in England includes six artworks that are going on public display for the first time Cassandra Austen's 1795 hand-drawn copy of a plate from a 1786 drawing instruction manual Luke Shears / Jane Austen House When Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817, her older sister, Cassandra, was overcome with grief. “She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow. I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself,” Cassandra wrote in a letter later that month. Years later, Cassandra burned the vast majority of her younger sister’s 3,000 letters, leaving only around 160 for the benefit of researchers, biographers and Janeites, as the author’s devotees are known. Questions began to swirl about her motivations. Was she protecting her sister’s legacy? What was she hiding? Cassandra’s controversial decision is “the act for which she is perhaps best known today,” as Artnet’s Jo Lawson-Tancred writes. Meanwhile, her own work as an accomplished watercolor artist whose paintings may have inspired parts of Jane’s novels has been largely forgotten. Now, an exhibition at the Jane Austen House in the English village of Chawton has assembled the largest public display of Cassandra’s artworks for a reconsideration of her legacy beyond the bonfire. Cassandra's 1802 watercolor of a man crossing a wintry landscape with his dog Luke Shears / Jane Austen House “The Art of Cassandra” features ten works. Six are recent donations or loans to the museum from descendants of the Austen family that are going on public display for the first time. “This is a small display but a truly exciting one,” Sophie Reynolds, the head of collections, interpretation and engagement at the museum, tells the Guardian’s Jamie Grierson. Cassandra's depiction of Elizabeth I for her sister's The History of England, a parody of history textbooks Public domain via Wikimedia Commons While some of Cassandra’s works are original portraits of family members like James, one of the Austen sisters’ six brothers, or watercolor landscapes, many are detailed reproductions of images from books and prints, per a statement from the museum. The exhibition’s curator, Janine Barchas, an Austen scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, has found seven prints or bookplates that match Cassandra’s artworks. These sources provide rich insights into the reading habits and tastes of the Austen sisters. The Austen sisters were about three years apart in age, and they were very close. Their artistic talents first converged as early as 1791, when Jane, then 15, wrote a parody of British history textbooks called The History of England. She dedicated the book to Cassandra, who provided drawings of historical figures like Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Cassandra’s best-known work is a portrait of Jane that now resides in the National Portrait Gallery in London. “Her skill was akin to Jane’s own—neat and careful, with delicacy and lightness of touch, so to see them is a pleasure in itself—but more than that, for those interested in Jane Austen, Cassandra’s artworks also remind us of the many paintings and drawings in Jane’s novels,” says Reynolds in the statement.Reynolds points to the character Elinor Dashwood’s drawings in Jane’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility. Upon moving to Barton Cottage, the women of the Dashwood family “make the house a home” by, among other things, arranging Elinor’s drawings on the walls of their sitting room, Reynolds says. The cottage where Jane spent the last eight years of her life and worked on all six of her novels is an ideal setting for Cassandra’s artworks, now carefully arranged on the sitting room walls. “Not since Cassandra’s creative years in this very cottage have so many of her surviving artworks been gathered together in one place,” says Barchas in the statement. “The Art of Cassandra” will be on view at the Jane Austen House in Chawton, England, from April 29 to June 8, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Liquid AI, the Boston-based foundation model startup spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is seeking to move the tech industry beyond its reliance on the Transformer architecture underpinning most popular large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT series and Google’s Gemini family. Yesterday, the company announced “Hyena Edge,” a new convolution-based, multi-hybrid model designed for smartphones and other edge devices in advance of the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2025. The conference, one of the premier events for machine learning research, is taking place this year in Vienna, Austria. New convolution-based model promises faster, more memory-efficient AI at the edge Hyena Edge is engineered to outperform strong Transformer baselines on both computational efficiency and language model quality. In real-world tests on a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, the model delivered lower latency, smaller memory footprint, and better benchmark results compared to a parameter-matched Transformer++ model. A new architecture for a new era of edge AI Unlike most small models designed for mobile deployment — including SmolLM2, the Phi models, and Llama 3.2 1B — Hyena Edge steps away from traditional attention-heavy designs. Instead, it strategically replaces two-thirds of grouped-query attention (GQA) operators with gated convolutions from the Hyena-Y family. The new architecture is the result of Liquid AI’s Synthesis of Tailored Architectures (STAR) framework, which uses evolutionary algorithms to automatically design model backbones and was announced back in December 2024. STAR explores a wide range of operator compositions, rooted in the mathematical theory of linear input-varying systems, to optimize for multiple hardware-specific objectives like latency, memory usage, and quality. Benchmarked directly on consumer hardware To validate Hyena Edge’s real-world readiness, Liquid AI ran tests directly on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone. Results show that Hyena Edge achieved up to 30% faster prefill and decode latencies compared to its Transformer++ counterpart, with speed advantages increasing at longer sequence lengths. Prefill latencies at short sequence lengths also outpaced the Transformer baseline — a critical performance metric for responsive on-device applications. In terms of memory, Hyena Edge consistently used less RAM during inference across all tested sequence lengths, positioning it as a strong candidate for environments with tight resource constraints. Outperforming Transformers on language benchmarks Hyena Edge was trained on 100 billion tokens and evaluated across standard benchmarks for small language models, including Wikitext, Lambada, PiQA, HellaSwag, Winogrande, ARC-easy, and ARC-challenge. On every benchmark, Hyena Edge either matched or exceeded the performance of the GQA-Transformer++ model, with noticeable improvements in perplexity scores on Wikitext and Lambada, and higher accuracy rates on PiQA, HellaSwag, and Winogrande. These results suggest that the model’s efficiency gains do not come at the cost of predictive quality — a common tradeoff for many edge-optimized architectures. Hyena Edge Evolution: A look at performance and operator trends For those seeking a deeper dive into Hyena Edge’s development process, a recent video walkthrough provides a compelling visual summary of the model’s evolution. The video highlights how key performance metrics — including prefill latency, decode latency, and memory consumption — improved over successive generations of architecture refinement. It also offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how the internal composition of Hyena Edge shifted during development. Viewers can see dynamic changes in the distribution of operator types, such as Self-Attention (SA) mechanisms, various Hyena variants, and SwiGLU layers. These shifts offer insight into the architectural design principles that helped the model reach its current level of efficiency and accuracy. By visualizing the trade-offs and operator dynamics over time, the video provides valuable context for understanding the architectural breakthroughs underlying Hyena Edge’s performance. Open-source plans and a broader vision Liquid AI said it plans to open-source a series of Liquid foundation models, including Hyena Edge, over the coming months. The company’s goal is to build capable and efficient general-purpose AI systems that can scale from cloud datacenters down to personal edge devices. The debut of Hyena Edge also highlights the growing potential for alternative architectures to challenge Transformers in practical settings. With mobile devices increasingly expected to run sophisticated AI workloads natively, models like Hyena Edge could set a new baseline for what edge-optimized AI can achieve. Hyena Edge’s success — both in raw performance metrics and in showcasing automated architecture design — positions Liquid AI as one of the emerging players to watch in the evolving AI model landscape. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Donald Trump wants to mine the depths of the ocean for critical minerals ubiquitous in rechargeable batteries, signing an executive order on Thursday to try to expedite mining within US and international waters. It’s a brash move that critics say could create unknown havoc on sea life and coastal economies, and that bucks international agreements. Talks to develop rules for deep-sea mining are still ongoing through the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a process that missed an initial 2023 deadline and has continued to stymie efforts to start commercially mining the deep sea.“A dangerous precedent”“Fast-tracking deep-sea mining by bypassing the ISA’s global regulatory processes would set a dangerous precedent and would be a violation of customary international law,” Duncan Currie, legal adviser for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition that has advocated for a moratorium on deep sea mining, said in a press statement.The ISA was established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. More than 160 nations have ratified the convention, but the United States has not. Ignoring the convention, the executive order Trump signed directs federal agencies to expedite the process for issuing licenses to companies seeking to recover minerals “in areas beyond national jurisdiction” in accordance with the 1980 US Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. A country’s territorial jurisdiction only extends roughly 200 nautical miles from shore.The Trump administration wants to work with industry “to counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources,” the executive order says. However, no country has yet to commercially mine the deep ocean where depths reach about 656 feet (200 meters) in international waters. There have already been efforts to explore parts of the ocean floor rich in nickel, copper, cobalt, iron, and manganese sought after for rechargeable batteries, though, and China is a leading refiner of many critical minerals. China responded on Friday: the BBC reported Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun as saying that Trump’s move “violates international law and harms the overall interests of the international community.”The Metals Company announced in March that the Canadian company had already “met with officials in the White House” and planned to apply for permits under existing US mining code to begin extracting minerals from the high seas. California-based company Impossible Metals asked the Trump administration earlier this month to auction off mining leases for areas off the coast of American Samoa, which would be within US-controlled waters. Trump’s executive order also directs the Secretary of the Interior to expedite the process for leasing areas for mining within US waters.Companies seeking to exploit offshore mineral resources argue that it would cause less harm than mining on land. Their opponents contend that there’s still too little research to even understand how widespread the effects of deep sea mining could be on marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them. Recent studies have warned of “irreversible” damage and loud noise affecting sea life, and one controversial study raises questions of whether the deep sea could be an important source of “dark oxygen” for the world. More than 30 countries — including Palau, Fiji, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — have called for a ban or moratorium on deep-sea mining until international rules are in place to minimize the potential damage.“The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn’t restricted to the ocean floor: it will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it,” Jeff Watters, vice president for external affairs at the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy said in a press release.See More: