MacworldiFixit has posted its video teardown of the new M4 Mac mini, and as usual, its a fascinating study of how design, engineering, and technology come togetheror in this case, taken apartWhile a lot of people are interested in the inner workings of Apples products, the Mac mini might draw more interest than any other product. Theres a widespread belief that users should be able to perform a certain amount of customization and upgrades with desktop computers, even with Macs. And the Mac mini has been used in unique situations and projects. Teardowns like iFixits dont just satisfy curiosity, they provide useful information.Watch iFixits video, and after that, here are a few takeaways from the teardown.Its packed to the gillsThe M1 and M2 Mac minis used an old design and left a lot of space inside. With the new design, the Mac mini is immensely packed. Its an incredible feat of design and engineering, but it also provides a serious hurdle to do-it-yourselfers. Which leads us toIts user upgradeablebut is it, really?Apple clearly has an idea of what components should be accessible, and its obvious in the Mac mini. For example, the CMOS battery is designed for access without diving deeper into the machine. In fact, its the only component thats readily accessible.We heard early reports about the Mac minis SSD being upgradeable and the iFixit video provides more info. The M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis use modules of different sizes and iFixit couldnt get its Mac mini to work when they tried swapping the SSDs.iFixit often refers to the Mac mini as being upgradeable, but being upgradeable involves the ability to remove a part and replace it with an available part. At this point, theres no available part for the Mac mini. Apple uses a proprietary SSD module that is nothing like the NVMe SSDs used in Windows PCs and is made by third parties such as Crucial. You cant buy a NVMe and pop it into the Mac mini.Could a company make a Mac mini-compatible SSD module? Maybe, but would it be worth the investment for them? Its hard to say. The Mac minis SSD is similar to that of the Mac Studio, and a Kickstarter project to make a third-party Mac Studio SSD upgrade has exceeded its funding goal, but it has only 142 backers. Granted, the Mac Studio is more of a niche than the Mac mini, but it still seems like a low-volume endeavor.In case youre wondering, the RAM is incorporated in the M4 chip, as it has since the M1. There is no way to upgrade RAM after purchase.The fan is bigThe ring of vents at the bottom of the Mac mini leads to a fan that takes up a considerable amount of space (and even more space in the M4 Pro model). I cant help but wonder if smaller cooling units can be used, which could make the Mac mini even more tiny.For example, Frore System makes solid-state active cooling chips that are super thin and effective. Last year, I covered how they modified a MacBook Air with its cooling chips, which allowed it to stop throttling to maintain a proper operating temperature. I dont know what a system like Frores would cost to implement, but I imagine its not as cheap as a fan, so it may be too pricey for consideration.

MacworldApples brand-new MacBook Pro only just went on sale last week and it already has its first discount: Amazon has dropped the price to $1,474, a savings of $125 off its $1,599 MSRP and a surprising price cut for such a new model.Running on a powerful M4 chip, the MacBook Pro will easily tackle any task you throw its way with extreme ease. And dont forget, it now comes with 16GB of RAM standard, double the previous model, and essentially a $200 price cut. The MacBook Pro already had a good battery, but theyve improved on that too. In our test, the laptop ran for about 20 hours before finally shutting down. Thats more than enough for you to leave home without a charger.In our review of the MacBook Pro M4, we gave it a near-perfect score, praising its performance, the powerful Center Stage camera, and the nano-texture glass display. The 14.2 Liquid Retina XDR display offers stunning colors, high brightness, and sharp details: The changes that Apple made to the $1,599/1,599 M4 MacBook Pro not only made it a clear pro laptop (finally), but it also created a package bursting with value.So there you have itskip Black Friday and get yourself the MacBook Pro M4 because we dont know how long this sale will last.Snatch the MacBook Pro M4 at its cheapest price everBuy it now at Amazon

VMware this weekannouncedthat the virtualization companys hypervisor products, VMware Workstation and Fusion, will be completely free for both personal and commercial users, as well as for educational purposes. The move follows a decision last May, when VMware made both Workstation and Fusion free for personal use; those who wanted to use the software for commercial purposes still had to sign up for a paid subscription.The free versions will have the same functionality as the paid products, but VMware owner Broadcom will not offer troubleshooting support. The old paid versions Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro are no longer available.If you currently have a commercial contract, you can rest assured knowing that your contract will continue to apply until the end of your contract term, Himanshu Singh, Broadcom product marketing director, said in a blog post. You will continue to receive full service and enterprise-grade support as per your agreement.Broadcom bought VMware in 2023 and then decided to make major changes to the product portfolio. Among other things, by removing all perpetual licenses, which received a lot of criticism from several quarters.

Apple is allegedly preparing to introduce aniPad-like Control Centerfor smart homes. Equipped with a display andsome form of homeOS, it is expected to be some kind of wall-mounted device that lets you access some Apple services, control smart home devices, handle security camera feeds, and the like.This sounds like a good idea. After all, we know theres a market for sophisticated alarm systems, and ApplesHomeKit Securevideo system will no doubt play a part in whats introduced.As long as Sirireally does improve, the company might have a hope of introducing something that works for a while. But will it?Smart homes? Its complicatedI recently spent another fruitless hour trying to make my printer connect to my new Wi-Fi network, which it still wont do. While doing that, I was also attempting to return an old HomePod to factory fresh (and make it stop making weird belching sounds) when it really hit me how utterly frustrating most smart home experiences still are.Things that promise huge leaps in convenience can become hugely frustrating exercises, with a user experience that becomes characterized in folk memory by myopic attempts at stabbing tiny, awkwardly-placed holes with bent paperclips, or endlessly pressing software reset buttons that dont seem to make anything happen.Thats just the hardware user experience. The software adds another dimension.Who hasnt found it quite creepy whenads for products theyve just been talking to their family aboutappear online shortly after installing a new smart TV? Who else dislikes it when Alexa or Siri or any other smart assistant raises its little voice toremind you its there? Dont even get me started on the privacy policy statements manufacturers provide, and how so many seem to think these give them carte blanche togather data about youand sell that information (anonymized they say) to people you know nothing about.All in all, smart home tech seems to end up meaning you put quite costly devices in your home that stop working pretty soon, dont work particularly well together, and turn you into a profit center for people youve gotno relationship with. Thats smart for the manufacturers, I suppose, but not for the rest of us. But so many years into the evolution of the space, it really seems like the faults in some attempts at home automation are a feature, not a bug.Is it smarter to be cynical?Thats not to say every manufacturer in the space can be accused of the same thing.Im sure many have introduced smart home products that are easy to switch to new networks and ship with clear and actionable instructions for returning the gadget to factory fresh, rather than sending them via your local electronics recycling center to be cannibalized for conflict minerals with the carcass sent to landfill.With so many problems, no wonder consumers dont seem to be racing to invest in smart home devices.Sure, billions of dollars are being spent on these things, but over half of that spend goes on devices for video playback, and market growth seems anaemic overall and growth predictions seem to defy historical reality. Look at thisStatista graph for some sense of this. That big column at the right looks really promising until you realize its an estimated figure for 2027, which requires the market to enter a period of accelerated growth that exceeds any historical growth trends. It is also fair to point to other surveys that suggest once they do get their smart homes together, consumersbelieve the devices improve their quality of life.Though there is the issue of trust.A matter of trustWhile governments eager for growth seem to think tech will save us, consumers trust the sector less and less. Theres lots of data that reflects this decline. Arguably this could well represent a reaction against everything from huge security problems such as the recent Crowdstrike disaster to election interference, mass deception, concerns about fake news, privacy erosion, security, and even frustration at the never-ending nature of digital transformation. Its not just tech leaders who feel like they are under constant pressure to adopt new digitized working practices. Those on the front line are also struggling to keep up with endless digital change.Perhaps, once people do make it home, (dodging self-driving vehicles, smartphone zombies, and electronic scooters on their domestic commute), they just want their home kit to work without needing to read a manual. Assuming there evenisa manual.Can Apple change this? Maybe. Perhaps it can introduce an iPad-like smart home device with a privacy-first OS and decent integration with peripheral devices from a range of manufacturers thanks toMatter and Thread. Perhaps it can make Siri simply clever and deploy artificial intelligence tomake your smart home actually smart.Perhaps Apple can breathe life into the whole category. But maybe consumers are tired of promises and want to see an ecosystem that delivers on those promises before they slap too many dollars down. With that in mind, Im going to kick my frustrating printer andgo for a bracing stroll.You can follow me on social media! Youll find me onBlueSky, LinkedIn,Mastodon, andMeWe.

The complexity of biology has long been a double-edged sword for scientific and medical progress. On one hand, the intricacy of systems (like the human immune response) offers countless opportunities for breakthroughs in medicine and healthcare. On the other hand, that very complexity has often stymied researchers, leaving some of the most significant medical challengeslike cancer or autoimmune diseaseswithout clear solutions.The field needs a way to decipher this incredible complexity. Could the rise of agentic AI, artificial intelligence capable of autonomous decision-making and action, be the key to breaking through this impasse?Agentic AI is not just another tool in the scientific toolkit but a paradigm shift: by allowing autonomous systems to not only collect and process data but also to independently hypothesize, experiment, and even make decisions, agentic AI could fundamentally change how we approach biology.The mindboggling complexity of biological systemsTo understand why agentic AI holds so much promise, we first need to grapple with the scale of the challenge. Biological systems, particularly human ones, are incredibly complexlayered, dynamic, and interdependent. Take the immune system, for example. It simultaneously operates across multiple levels, from individual molecules to entire organs, adapting and responding to internal and external stimuli in real-time.Traditional research approaches, while powerful, struggle to account for this vast complexity. The problem lies in the sheer volume and interconnectedness of biological data. The immune system alone involves interactions between millions of cells, proteins, and signaling pathways, each influencing the other in real time. Making sense of this tangled web is almost insurmountable for human researchers.Enter AI agents: How can they help?This is where agentic AI steps in. Unlike traditional machine learning models, which require vast amounts of curated data and are typically designed to perform specific, narrow tasks, agentic AI systems can ingest unstructured and diverse datasets from multiple sources and can operate autonomously with a more generalist approach.Beyond this, AI agents are unbound by conventional scientific thinking. They can connect disparate domains and test seemingly improbable hypotheses that may reveal novel insights. What might initially appear as a counterintuitive series of experiments could help uncover hidden patterns or mechanisms, generating new knowledge that can form the foundation for breakthroughs in areas like drug discovery, immunology, or precision medicine.These experiments are executed at unprecedented speed and scale through robotic, fully automated laboratories, where AI agents conduct trials in a continuous, round-the-clock workflow. These labs, equipped with advanced automation technologies, can handle everything from ordering reagents, preparing biological samples, to conducting high-throughput screenings. In particular, the use of patient-derived organoids3D miniaturized versions of organs and tissuesenables AI-driven experiments to more closely mimic the real-world conditions of human biology. This integration of agentic AI and robotic labs allows for large-scale exploration of complex biological systems, and has the potential to rapidly accelerate the pace of discovery.From agentic AI to AGIAs agentic AI systems become more sophisticated, some researchers believe they could pave the way for artificial general intelligence (AGI) in biology. While AGImachines with the capacity for general intelligence equivalent to humansremains a distant goal in the broader AI community, biology may be one of the first fields to approach this threshold.Why? Because understanding biological systems demands exactly the kind of flexible, goal-directed thinking that defines AGI. Biology is full of uncertainty, dynamic systems, and open-ended problems. If we build AI that can autonomously navigate this spacemaking decisions, learning from failure, and proposing innovative solutionswe might be building AGI specifically tailored to the life sciences.Owkins next frontier: Unlocking the immune system with agentic AIAgentic AI has already begun pushing the boundaries of whats possible in biology, but the next frontier lies in fully decoding one of the most complex and crucial systems in human health: the immune system. Owkin is building the foundations for an advanced form of intelligencean AGIcapable of understanding the immune system in unprecedented detail. The next evolution of our AI ecosystem, called Owkin K, could redefine how we understand, detect, and treat immune-related diseases like cancer and immuno-inflammatory disorders.Owkin K envisions a coordinated community of specialized AI agents that can autonomously access and interpret comprehensive scientific literature, large-scale biomedical data, and tap into the power of Owkins discovery engines. These agents are capable of planning and executing experiments in fully automated, robotized wet labs, where patient-derived organoids simulate real-world human biology. The results of these experiments feed back into the system, enabling continuous learning and refinement of the AI agents models.What makes Owkin K particularly exciting is its potential to tackle the immune systema biological network so complex that human intelligence alone has struggled to unravel it. By deploying AI agents with the ability to explore this intricate web autonomously, the project could reveal new therapeutic targets and strategies for immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases, potentially accelerating the development of groundbreaking treatments.Navigating challenges and ethical considerations of agentic AIOf course, such powerful technology comes with significant challenges and ethical considerations, including trust, security, and transparency.But we must tackle these challenges as agentic AI becomes more integrated into healthcare and research. For example, we can develop mitigation plans that include rigorous validation protocols, real-time human oversight, and regulatory frameworks designed to ensure safety, accountability, and transparency. By prioritizing ethical design and close collaboration between AI systems and human experts, we can harness the potential of agentic AI while minimizing its risks.The future of biological research with agentic AIAgentic AI has the potential to reshape not just healthcare, but the very foundations of biological research. By allowing autonomous systems to explore the unknown, we may unlock new levels of understanding in areas like immunology, neuroscience, and genomicsfields that are currently constrained by the limits of human comprehension.We could soon see a world where AI-driven labs operate around the clock, pushing the boundaries of biology at speeds and scales that far exceed human capabilities. This would not only accelerate scientific discovery but also create new possibilities for personalized medicine, disease prevention, and even longevity.In the end, agentic AI may be more than just another tool for researchers. It could be the key to understanding life itselfone autonomous decision at a time.Davide Mantiero, PhD, Eric Durand, PhD, and Darius Meadon also contributed to this article.This content was produced by Owkin. It was not written by MIT Technology Reviews editorial staff.

This is todays edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of whats going on in the world of technology.The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AIBack in 2022, the tech community was buzzing over image-generating AI models, such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAIs DALL-E 2, which could follow simple word prompts to depict fantasylands or whimsical chairs made of avocados.But artists saw this technological wonder as a new kind of theft. They felt the models were effectively stealing and replacing their work.Ben Zhao, a computer security researcher at the University of Chicago, was listening. He and his colleagues have built arguably the most prominent weapons in an artists arsenal against nonconsensual AI scraping: two tools called Glaze and Nightshade that add barely perceptible perturbations to an images pixels so that machine-learning models cannot read them properly.But Zhao sees the tools as part of a battle to slowly tilt the balance of power from large corporations back to individual creators. Read the full story.Melissa HeikkilHave we entered the golden age of plant engineering?In the 1960s, biologists selective breeding of plants helped spark a period of transformative agricultural innovation known as the Green Revolution. By the 1990s, the yields of wheat and rice had doubled worldwide, staving off bouts of recurring famine.The Green Revolution was so successful that dire predictions of worse famine to comefueled by alarming population growthno longer seemed likely. But it had its limitsonly so much yield could be coaxed from plants using conventional breeding techniques.Now, more precise gene-editing technologies could shave years off the time it takes for new plant varieties to make it from the lab to federally approved seed products. Read the full story.Bill GourgeyThis piece is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review, which is all about the weird and wonderful world of food. If you dont already, subscribe to receive future copies once they land.MIT Technology Review Narrated: Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment?Robots that can do many of the things humans do in the home have been a dream of robotics research since the inception of the field in the 1950s.While engineers have made great progress in getting robots to work in tightly controlled environments like labs and factories, the home has proved difficult to design for. But now, the field is at an inflection point. A new generation of researchers believes that generative AI could give robots the ability to learn new skills and adapt to new environments faster than ever before. This new approach, just maybe, can finally bring robots out of the factory and into the mainstream.This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, whichwere publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as its released.The must-readsIve combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.1 Donald Trump wants Elon Musk to maximize government efficiencyDespite claiming to be a department, technically its more of an advisory board. (Wired $)+ It will allegedly operate outside of the federal government. (WSJ $)+ Expect Musk to treat the US government like his loss-making social network. (Bloomberg $)2 The crypto industry has already started lobbying TrumpExecutives are wasting no time in presenting the President-elect with their wish lists. (NYT $)+ Were witnessing the industrys nascent attempts to make itself institutional. (NY Mag $)+ The Trump Pump is showing no signs of slowing. (CNN)3 Advertisers are considering staging a return to XIn a bid to curry favor with Musk and his political leverage. (FT $)+ Silicon Valley is decidedly more Trump-friendly than it used to be. (Insider $)+ Bluesky is starting to look more and more appealing. (Slate $)4 Major AI players are struggling to make new breakthroughsFunneling money into new products isnt having the desired result. (Bloomberg $)5 The worlds e-waste is actually pretty valuableTheres a lot of gold to be stripped out from those old circuit boards. (Economist $)+ AI will add to the e-waste problem. Heres what we can do about it. (MIT Technology Review)6 DNA testing is ushering in a new age of discriminationAnd you could be denied medical or life insurance because of it. (The Atlantic $)+ How to delete your 23andMe data. (MIT Technology Review)7 How to build the perfect humanoid robotUnfortunately, theyll be found in factories and warehouses before they make it to our homes. (IEEE Spectrum)+ A skeptics guide to humanoid-robot videos. (MIT Technology Review)8 The US is using AI to seek out critical mineralsAccess to regular supplies could lessen its reliance on China and Russia. (Undark Magazine)+ The race to produce rare earth elements. (MIT Technology Review)9 Apples AirTags can now share their location with airlinesWhich should (hopefully) minimize the chances of losing your luggage. (WP $)+ Its next device? An AI wall-mounted tablet, supposedly. (Bloomberg $)10 This new mathematics benchmark is being kept secretTo prevent AI models from training against it. (Ars Technica)+ This AI system makes human tutors better at teaching children math. (MIT Technology Review)Quote of the dayDont bring a watermark to a gunfight.AI researcher Oren Etzioni warns the industry to avoid putting too much faith in voluntary standards to actively prevent malicious actors from gaming the system, TechCrunch reports.The big storyThe great AI consciousness conundrumOctober 2023AI consciousness isnt just a devilishly tricky intellectual puzzle; its a morally weighty problem with potentially dire consequences that philosophers, cognitive scientists, and engineers alike are currently grappling with.Fail to identify a conscious AI, and you might unintentionally subjugate a being whose interests ought to matter. Mistake an unconscious AI for a conscious one, and you risk compromising human safety and happiness for the sake of an unthinking, unfeeling hunk of silicon and code.Over the past few decades, a small research community has doggedly attacked the question of what consciousness is and how it works. The effort has yielded real progress. And now, with the rapid advance of AI technology, these insights could offer our only guide to the untested, morally fraught waters of artificial consciousness. Read the full story.Grace HuckinsWe can still have nice thingsA place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet em at me.)+ Small changes can improve your life, from debobbling your clothes to oiling your keyholes.+ Woah: these fascinating deep sea creatures can turn back the clock on aging and revert to a more youthful form.+ TikTok is really into onions. Yes, onions. + As if filmmaking wasnt stressful enough, these movies were all completed in a single take.

Today, Apple unveiled Final Cut Pro 11, along with powerful updates to Final Cut Pro for iPad, Final Cut Camera, and Logic Pro.

Apple Arcade adds 15 new games to the service, including Skate City: New York, Talking Tom Blast Park, Gears & Goo, and FINAL FANTASY IV (3D REMAKE)+.

Apple's professional apps, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Camera, and Logic Pro, have all received major updates. Here's what you need to know.Final Cut Pro 11 is now available for macOS, while Logic Pro has also received an update.There is a suite of Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps offered by Apple for everyone from the novice to Hollywood professional for audio and film development. Several have been updated with new features that address new formats offered by iPhone 16 like Spatial Video and 120 fps 4K video.Apple provided updates to Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Final Cut Camera. More minor updates were provided to the Compressor app and iMovie. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Apple's long-overdue overhaul of the Mac mini shrinks an already great package even more, yet it still punches far above its weight class.M4 Mac miniI've owned a Mac mini since the very first G4 model. In an era of bulky towers and a G4 Cube just years before that impressed but didn't deliver, the little box brought Apple power to a small desktop package, and I was enthused.And since then, I've had one in service 24/7 constantly. Even now with a Mac Studio on my desk, there's one upstairs in use with a family member, one in the other room silently humming away acting as my network attached storage and test platform, and a few more on my shelf that I've hoarded over the years, just waiting for an application. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums