How to make imperfect decisionsPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter3 min readJust now-- Its Monday! And were back.Issue #214: aging in bursts + avoiding needinessThe hardest decisions have no right choice. Listing pros and cons doesnt always help because (as I found out recently when I had to make a tough decision about a move!) they obscure nuance.Daniel Rizea, a former engineering director at Google, recently made the tough call to jump ship for a less secure (but more exciting) stealth startup. On Medium, he lays out his entire thought process, going deeper than Ive seen anyone go into how they made a career move. Rizea explains that staying at Google would make more sense if I wanted to optimize for money alone, but I chose not to do that. Instead, he decides to take a pay cut and optimize for learning. Along the way, he confronts a line of demons: loss aversion, fear of change, and the not-super-great feeling of no longer being able to humblebrag at dinner parties that you work at Google. These are very human drives that can prevent us from changing our lives.At the end of our lives, Rizea writes, we only have the stories we can tell. Leaving Google would give him a new story.An underrated aspect of decision-making is not necessarily what you decide, but how you decide. And simply that you decide. In my experience, youll learn more from making an imperfect decision and committing to it than trying to reach a perfect decision in the first place.On Medium a few years ago, Adeline Dimond wrote something about indecision that has stuck with me ever since. One of her early-career friends was clerking for a federal judge. This friend was working late trying to call a case. She was rereading the evidence in some complex property dispute. Shed examined it all several times and it was almost midnight. The judge knocked on her office door and asked: Do you have a verdict?She didnt.Go home, the judge said. At some point, the game is over. Someone wins, someone loses. Just call it. Harris Sockel 3 of my open tabsA secret to winning friends and influencing people: it doesnt matter what you do as long as those actions arent coming from hidden neediness. (Richard Ngo via Ava Huang)Aging happens in bursts. Most people age quickest at 44 and 60. (F. Perry Wilson, MD MSCE)Baby Boomers are arguably the last generation named for a meaningful historic event (a ~50% spike in birth rates after World War II). Since then, our generational labels have lost specificity so much that Pew Research Center recently stopped using them in its trend reports. Douglas Giles, PhD proposes more granular generational labels based on big things that actually changed lives:Im part of the 9/11 Generation, which does feel truer than Millennial. Your daily dose of practical wisdomNot to get too violent, but: Ask your team to throw rocks at your early ideas. Its a phrase product management coach Isabelle Andrews uses to encourage her team to disagree (productively!) with sketchy thoughts before she shares them more widely.

Scientists Are Trying to Make Whiskey Using Rye Seeds That Were Submerged in a Lake Huron Shipwreck for Nearly 150 YearsDivers, distillers and researchers recently recovered grain from the James R. Bentley, a wooden schooner that sank during a storm in 1878 Divers recovered rye seeds from the James R. Bentleyshipwreck in Lake Huron. Jonah BrownOn November 12, 1878, the James R. Bentley was sailing across Lake Huron when a fierce storm blew in. The high waves and strong winds were no match for the three-masted wooden schooner, which sank to the bottom of the lake near the tip of northern Michigan. A nearby ship rescued the crew, but the cargo36,000 bushels of ryewas lost.Now, after spending the past 146 years submerged in Lake Hurons chilly waters, some of that rye may be getting a second life. A team of Michigan-based scientists, distillers and divers is trying to resurrect the long-submerged grains in hopes of one day turning them into whiskey.Discovered in 1984 near Cheboygan, Michigan, the James R. Bentley is one of the few privately owned shipwrecks in Michigan, according to MLive.coms Justine Lofton. All others are protected by a state law that prohibits divers from removing, altering or destroying artifacts.The 170-foot-long vessel, submerged 165 feet deep, belongs to shipwreck enthusiast Paul Ehorn. He agreed to let Chad Munger, the founder of Michigans Mammoth Distilling, organize an expedition to retrieve rye seeds from the wreckage.Growing Rye From the Depths of Lake HuronWatch on In mid-September, a team sailed across Lake Huron, dove to the shipwreck and filled several large tubes with 19th-century rye seeds.I could see blond grain, diver Dusty Klifman tells the New York Times Cara Giaimo. I thought, holy cow, this stuff is still good.Once the divers resurfaced, they put the seeds on ice and drove them to a laboratory at Michigan State University. Many of the seeds were black, mushy and smelly, but some appeared to be healthy.Eric Olson, a Michigan State University botanist who specializes in wheat breeding and genetics, began experimenting to see if he could get the seeds to germinate. He put some in cold storage and submerged others in a hormone solution, per the Times. He also tried drying some out. Unfortunately, despite all of these efforts, none of the seeds sprouted into plants.But Olson wasnt deterred. He extracted DNA from the seeds, which he will use to determine the ryes variety and origins. Moving forward, Olson also hopes to use gene-editing techniques to introduce some of the DNA into a modern rye variety. That genetically modified grain could one day be distilled into whiskey.Its the first time that someone's tried to resurrect a rye variety from a shipwreck, right? Olson tells Fox 17s Andy Curtis. This is a unique and novel endeavor.On a longer timeline, Munger hopes the project will lead to a resurgence of rye agriculture in Michigan, which was historically a major rye-producing state. He also wants to help develop a Michigan Rye Trail, a tourism initiative that would link farms and distillers across the statesimilar to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.We want to see Michigan recreate the economy it had built purposefully around growing rye 120 years ago, says Munger in a statement.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Agriculture, Alcohol, American History, DNA, Food, Food History, Food Science, History, Shipwrecks, Water

An illustration of two Skiphosoura bavarica in flight shows how the reptiles might have appeared in Jurassic skies. Gabriel UguetoDuring the Jurassic period, sharp-toothed flying reptiles with the wingspan of a modern golden eagle soared through the skies, before being wiped out by the same meteor that decimated the dinosaurs.Called Skiphosoura bavarica, the new pterosaur species was identified after scientists discovered a surprisingly well-preserved fossil in southeast Germany in 2015. Now, in a study published in Current Biology, an international team of experts reveals how Skiphosoura fills an important gap in pterosaur evolution that paleontologists have been puzzling over for the better part of 200 years.This is an incredible find. It really helps us piece together how these amazing flying animals lived and evolved, lead author David Hone, a paleontologist at Queen Mary University of London, says in a statement. Hopefully, this study will be the basis for more work in the future on this important evolutionary transition.Pterosaurs were the first and largest vertebrates to develop powered flight. They are not dinosaurs, but they coexisted with the iconic reptiles from the Triassic period to the end of the Cretaceous.For most of the past two centuries, scientists were aware of two major groups on the pterosaur evolutionary timeline. On the oldest end, there were the non-pterodactyloids, which had a short head, short neck, short bone in the wrist of the wing, a long fifth toe and a long tail.Later, the much larger pterodactyloids evolved, with a large head, long neck, long wrist bone, a short fifth toe and a short tailessentially the opposite of the non-pterodactyloids. Their wingspans could reach up to around 33 feet in lengthand in the words of IFLs Stephen Luntz, pterodactyloids were the largest flying creatures until airplanes became big enough to transport elephants.How the smaller, early pterosaurs evolved into giant pterodactyloids remained a mystery. Which of their several anatomical changes happened first, and which ones followed? Scientists werent surebut the discovery of intermediate species called darwinopterans, first uncovered in China in 2009, provided an important clue. Darwinopterans demonstrated that the head and neck of pterosaurs changed first. Photographs of the original specimen of Skiphosoura bavarica in natural and UV lighting. Ren LauerThen, the complete Skiphosoura specimen came along in 2015, thrilling scientists with its impressive conservation of nearly every single bone in three dimensions, instead of the more flattened remains typical of pterosaurs. Derived from ancient Greek, Skiphosoura bavarica means sword tail from Bavaria, referring to the German region where it was found. Its name was inspired by the species short, stiff and pointed tail. It also had sharp teeth and a crest on the front of its head.It would have been a generalized predator of small prey, taking things like lizards, small mammals, big insects and maybe fish. It was probably living inland, perhaps in forests, Hone tells Reuters Will Dunham. He adds that the creature might have also displayed bright colors or patterns.On the pterosaur timeline, Skiphosoura existed between the darwinopterans and the giant pterodactyloids, toward the end of the Jurassic Period. Skiphosoura had a wingspan of about six feet and, like the earlier darwinopterans, it showcased a pterodactyloid-like head and neck. But it also had a longer wrist and shorter toe and tail than its predecessorsevidence of the evolution toward pterodactyloids.In other words, thanks to Skiphosoura, the scientists were able to shed further light on the evolutionary changes that took place between early pterosaurs and later pterodactyloids. It also brings other pterosaur finds we had already made into focus, better explaining where they go in the family tree of pterosaurs and allowing us to show this transition from the early to late formsand see what features were changing in what order, Hone tells Reuters.In fact, the study also places Dearc, a Scottish pterosaur also from the Jurassic, earlier than Skiphosoura on the new timeline. By putting these groups in chronological order, researchers can trace how their anatomy changed: from the non-pterodactyloids to Dearc, the first darwinopterans, Skiphosoura and finally the pterodactyloids.With both Skiphosoura and Dearc now fitting into the pterosaur evolutionary order, artists could draw a gap-free version of The March of Progressbut for flying lizards, writes Paul Smaglik for Discover magazine.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Bones, Cool Finds, Dinosaurs, Evolution, Fossils, Germany, New Research, Paleontologists, Paleontology

Image credits:@metrocubicodigital (Porto, Portugal)@true_studio.viz (Da Nang, Vietnam)@omegarender.studio (Coventry, United Kingdom)@zaniboni.eduardo (Ribeiro Preto, Brazil)@ondrejchudy (London, United Kingdom)@navid3ds (Isfahan, Iran)@orion-archviz (Sorocaba, Brazil)@amirmallam (Cairo, Egypt)www.cgarchitect.com/members/janithaudayanga (Colombo, Sri Lanka)www.cgarchitect.com/members/jovankesuma (Malang, Indonesia)Best of the Week Nov 17, 2024Looking for inspiration? Check out the TOP 10 best images posted last week on cgarchitect.com!See more on our board www.cgarchitect.com/boards/64849e0c-best-of-the-week-nov-17-2024#top10 #vizprooftheweek #architecture #cgarchitect #archviz #visualization #architecturevisualization #3d #rendering #cgi #cgavizpro #render #vray #coronarender #unrealengine #vantage #3dsmax #revit #cg #3dbuilding #3drender #3darchitecture #3drender #3drendering #3dinterior #3dinteriordesign

Model Context Protocol, a new open source release from Anthropic, aims to eliminate the need to write code for every AI data integration.Read More

Children's author and film, music experts form Pigs Will Fly StudiosNew Swedish developer will also offer music production services for games, music and film News by James Batchelor Editor-in-chief Published on Nov. 26, 2024 A new games studio has opened its doors in Sweden, formed by a team with experience in the music, film and book industries.Pigs Will Fly Studios is based in Jnkping and was founded by Oskar Kllner, Albin Norling, and Ingemar berg. is currently part of a team of seven, with plans to grow over time.The developer's debut game will be a sci-fi action title set in the universe of Children of the Phoenix, a fiction series written by Kllner. The books follow two siblings who discover their mother is an alien from another planet, drawing them into an intergalactic war.In addition to game development, Pigs Will Fly will also over music production services via a state-of-the-art studio in the company's premises at Jnkping's old courthouse.The studio will be able to handle recording, mastering, and mixing, including for Dolby Atmos, and is targeting the games, film and music industries with this offering."This is an incredible opportunity," said Kllner, who serves as CEO. "Of course, its fantastic to be able to create a game based on my own books, and the fact that we founders come from different creative fields gives us a unique chance to combine our abilities into something far greater than the sum of its parts. We aim to be one of Swedens absolute best game studios."

For many, spending time with friends and family is the biggest holiday tradition there is and a large part of that is the satisfaction that comes with finding the perfect gifts for everyone. Lucky for you, we know a thing or two about picking out presents. RelatedEach year, we consult the greatest minds atThe Vergeto bring together a robust collection of gift ideas that builds upon both our editorial coverage and our individual interests. Our tasteful 2024 cheat sheet is chock-full of our favorite tech from noise-canceling earbuds and streaming devices to colorful e-readers and smart rings as well as inexpensive picks for those hoping to stretch their budget a bit further. After all, you dont need to gift a $500 film camera or a newfangled gaming console just to show someone you care. Sometimes, a fun shirt will do the job just fine. This is just a sneak peek, though. We also have gift guides for tinkerers, new parents, and everyone else on your holiday wish list. With a little luck, itll make checking off names that much easier.price range:Glocusent Bookmark Style Reading LightGlocusents Bookmark Style Reading Light is the perfect gift for those who burn the midnight oil reading. The clip-on USB light offers a lightweight design and multiple brightness levels, providing a soft, warm glow thats dim enough that it wont disturb anyone else trying to get some shut-eye nearby. Price: $10.99+AmazonGlocusent8BitDo Retro 18 Mechanical NumpadMost people dont need a number pad, but if they do, 8BitDos Retro 18 Mechanical Numpad may be the most charming data entry tool there is. It has hot-swappable mechanical switches and a satisfying clickiness, along with wireless support so you can use it either left- or right-handed. Best of all, it becomes a calculator with a single press, offering an old-timey seven-segment display when you need it most. Price: $35.99+AmazonBest Buy 8BitDoSnow Peak Titanium French PressJust because youre romping around the backcountry doesnt mean you have to settle for a cup of instant Folgers. Snow Peaks luxe French press weighs a mere 6.3 ounces and uses single-walled Japanese titanium, meaning you can use it to boil water before loading it up with your favorite artisanal coffee grounds. Price: $59.99+AmazonSnow PeakBackcountryKindle Colorsoft Signature EditionWith the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, you no longer need a smartphone or tablet to enjoy digital book covers and illustrations in full color. Amazons latest ebook reader adds new depth to the reading experience with nitride LEDs and a color E Ink display, making it an eye-popping upgrade for someone long entrenched in the monochromatic world of traditional e-readers. Price: $279.99AmazonBest Buy Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6The 2024 Motorola Razr Plus is the funnest flip phone you can buy, but if you want something reliable that will go the distance, Samsungs Galaxy Z Flip 6 is your best bet. The clamshell-style foldable features all-day battery life and a whopping seven years of software updates, along with a 3.4-inch OLED on the outside thats actually useful this time around. Price: $849.99+AmazonBest Buy SamsungAirPods 4 with Active Noise CancellationApples latest AirPods pack better sound, a USB-C charging case with a built-in speaker, and improved comfort. But their biggest upgrade over the standard AirPods 4 is the addition of active noise cancellation, which lets you tune out the outside world surprisingly well for a pair of open-style earbuds. Thats an extra $50 well spent. Price: $168.99+AmazonBest Buy WalmartBlink Mini 2The Blink Mini 2 is an inexpensive way for your giftee to keep an eye on valuables back home while out of town. The tiny 1080p camera features motion detection, two-way audio, and IP65 weatherproofing, the latter of which lets them monitor their back patio when paired with Blinks optional outdoor adapter. Price: $19.99AmazonBest Buy TargetTwelve South AirFly DuoLets face it: the wired earbuds airlines provide for you to use with in-flight entertainment systems arent exactly great. Thankfully, wireless adapters like Twelve Souths AirFly Duo let you use your own set of Bluetooth earbuds. The Duo also syncs with two pairs of headphones simultaneously, so you can binge up to 20 hours of Love Is Blind alongside your travel companion.Price: $42.99+AmazonBest Buy Twelve SouthAnbernic RG28XXThe six people still nostalgic for Game Boy Micro will absolutely love the Anbernic RG28XX. The handheld console is just as tiny and lets you play thousands of retro games via emulation, but it comes with a larger 2.83-inch IPS display that lets you game more comfortably on the go. And just look at those classic, Nintendo-inspired color combos. Price: $37.91+AnbernicNomad ChargeKeyNomads keychain-friendly ChargeKey is perfect for frequent travelers who dont want to lug a bulky charger around. The short braided cable comes in either a USB-C or Lightning-only configuration, both of which can deliver up to 60 watts of power. The cable tips even feature integrated magnets, allowing them to secure together when not in use. Price: $19NomadHatch Rest GoWhite noise machines are great for the babys room, but one that goes from the crib to a stroller or car seat can help make the difference between a fussy baby and peaceful, quality naps on the go. The Hatch Rest Go offers 10 sounds to cycle through and easily lasts overnight on a single charge, with the ability to recharge via USB-C.Price: $39.99AmazonBest Buy TargetRTIC 52 Ultra-Light CoolerYeti, shmeti. RTICs spacious injection-molded ice chests cost two-thirds of the price of Yeti coolers and cut very few corners to get there. Theyre sturdy, relatively lightweight, and can keep ice frozen for up to three or four days in the shade thanks to their well-insulated construction. Just dont expect them to ward off a grizzly bear. Price: $179.09+AmazonWalmartRTICCasio WS-B1000 watchPsh. Who needs an onslaught of push notifications and heart rate monitoring, anyway? Casios retro, Y2K-styled WS-B1000 pairs with your phone via Bluetooth and lets you track steps, set timers, and perform only the most basic wristwatch functions imaginable. Nothing more, nothing less. Price: $45.95+AmazonWalmartCasioGoliath Power SaberThe Goliath Power Saber is the first self-retracting and extending lightsaber err, power blade you can buy. The clever light-up toy uses a long screw to automatically raise a series of telescoping tubes, which safely collapse when pressed against something. That means your kid can channel their inner Obi-Wan without injuring others (fingers crossed). Price: $43.99+AmazonWalmartTargetAstro BotAstro Bot places Sonys newest mascot into a refreshing 3D platformer, one that sees the titular robot visiting a series of visually stunning worlds and using a trove of tools familiar to the genre. Some, including us, are calling it Game of the Year material given how inventive and fresh it feels which isnt easy to achieve for a game rooted in 90s-era gameplay tropes.Price: $49.97+AmazonBest Buy WalmartLego Plum BlossomNot everyone is a certified botanist or can even take care of a cactus, for that matter. Thankfully, Legos 327-piece Plum Blossom set requires zero upkeep once constructed, allowing your giftee to add a splash of color and artificial life to their home without even the remote prospect of failure (we hope). Price: $23.99+AmazonWalmartLegoGoogle TV Streamer (4K)Now that the days are getting darker, chances are your giftee is about to spend a lot more time on Netflix. Thankfully, the new Google TV Streamer 4K boasts onboard Google Assistant, easy-to-use smart home controls, and the best interface of any streaming device available. The set-top box even features a handy button for pinging the remote, giving it an edge over your couch. Price: $99.99Best Buy GoogleEndlessness (vinyl)Nala Sinephros second album, Endlessness, is an exercise in both space and nuance. Its a beautiful work of lush ambient jazz filled with pillowy strings and modular synths, one buoyed by an ace ensemble of London-based players (including the always-excellent Nubya Garcia on sax). Its an album to get lost in, whether youre familiar with the blips and bloops that define her electro-acoustic jazz or not. Price: $33.94+AmazonNala SinephroRough TradeiFixit FixHub Power Series Smart Soldering IronTinkerers will appreciate iFixits new 100W soldering iron, which can receive power from any USB-C connection and heats up within seconds. The sleek tool lets you make liquid metal connections just about anywhere and comes with a bevy of safety features that make it suitable for beginners and experienced DIYers alike, including a heat-resistant magnetic storage cap. Price: $79.95iFixitRoad to Nikko printNo one has captured the exquisite beauty of the Japanese countryside quite like renowned 20th-century printmaker Hasui Kawase. The Road to Nikko remains a great example of his keen eye for detail and ability to capture natural lighting, which, in this instance, dapples ancient cedars on the famed road into the mountains north of Tokyo.Price: $12.60+Ink & DropEmber Mug 2Coffee is the most important meal of the day, not breakfast, which makes finding the perfect drinking vessel all the more important. The Ember Mug 2 lets you lock in your desired temperature via a companion app for up to 90 minutes or indefinitely when using the included charging coaster, making your coffee taste great no matter when you drink it. Price: $85.50+AmazonBest Buy EmberWildbird Linen SlingThe Wildbird Linen Sling may seem like a trendy choice of baby carriers among metropolitan parents, but there are good reasons to consider it. Its a functional and lightweight way to carry your little one around, and the linen fabric offers a touch of luxuriousness. And frankly, youll look marvelous in it.Price: $58+AmazonTargetWildbirdBambu Lab P1P 3D PrinterThe hype around 3D printing is easily suppressed by the steep learning curve, not to mention both upfront and ongoing expenses. But if you know someone dying to hop in, the full-size Bambu Lab P1P is a safe bet. With practically no assembly required, breezy filament swapping, and quick printing speeds, your recipient can achieve their first print before they have time to completely give up on the hobby. Price: $449Bambu LabFlipper ZeroThe Flipper Zero is an open-source wonder of a remote hacking tool. It features RFID, NFC, sub-GHz, Bluetooth, USB-C, and a row of GPIO ports, allowing it to interface with a boatload of hardware. It can control your garage door, store U2F keys for two-factor authentication, or carry out a host of actions that may be a bit more interesting than the multitools cheery, dolphin-adorned exterior lets on. Price: $169Flipper ZeroCagiwiru Air Duster 4.0If youre still blowing money on cans of compressed air, just stop. A portable, rechargeable alternative like the Cagiwiru Air Duster 4.0 is an invaluable replacement for most needs. Its great for maintaining upkeep on all kinds of electronics, from keyboards and dusty case fans to various PC components youve left unattended.Price: $18.97+AmazonThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Princess Zelda is finally the star of the show in the latest Zelda title for the Nintendo Switch. The top-down adventure represents a fun, charming twist on the classic Zelda formula, trading the combat of previous titles for a more versatile approach to dungeon-crawling. Its also insanely cute, as if playing as Nintendos titular heroine werent enough.Price: $50.28+AmazonTargetGameStopHoto 3.6V Screwdriver Kit (Classic)Your average dollar-store screwdriver has nothing on Hotos tried-and-true electric model. The handy, cylindrical tool comes with 25 steel bits and offers three torque settings, providing you with everything you need to tackle Ikea furniture, holiday decor, and other medium-sized projects around the house. It packs a few modern conveniences, too, such as a built-in LED light and USB-C charging. Price: $39.99+AmazonHotoThe Bright SwordThere are a lot of Arthurian legends out there, though few tales are quite as enchanting as Lev Grossmans most recent work. The lengthy novel centers around an aspiring knight and his motley crew of companions, all of whom set out to rebuild Camelot in the wake of King Arthurs death. Its classic sword and sorcery, only with a heaping of historical twists. Price: $14.99+AmazonWalmartBarnes & NobleOura Ring Generation 4 Smartwatches might offer more advanced fitness tracking features than smart rings, but not everybody finds them comfortable to wear to sleep. The Oura Ring Gen 4 is a stylish and discreet alternative, one thats as accurate as it is comfortable. While it shines as a sleep and recovery tracker, you can also use it to keep tabs on light exercise and other health metrics. Price: $349+AmazonBest Buy OuraRothys The PointFlats are an unsung godsend. Theyre comfortable but still fashionable enough that you can wear them in casual and professional settings alike. Rothys makes a wide variety of washable, durable flats, with The Point being one of the most popular options. They also come in multiple colors and patterns, so you can style the shoes as you please. Price: $89+RothysStar Wars OutlawsStar Wars Outlaws is the best scoundrel simulator there is. The open-world sci-fi caper is steeped in the lore of a galaxy far, far away, one that lets you explore the bustling criminal underworlds of Canto Bight, Toshara, and yes Tatooine with a blaster on your hip and your adorable merqaal companion Nix by your side. Apparently, a bit of villainy aint so bad after all.Price: $39.99+AmazonBest Buy WalmartFellow Corvo EKG Electric KettleYou dont need to spend much to get a decent electric kettle. That being said, Fellows Corvo EKG Electric Kettle feels tailor-made for the hot beverage connoisseur who also has exquisite taste in gadget design. The classy kettle holds a generous 1.5 liters of water and features a wide mesh spout, which is a welcome reprieve from the gooseneck design on Fellows pour-over model. Price: $132+Best Buy Crate & BarrelApple AirTagAirTags can function as a second set of eyes for iPhone owners, allowing you to keep tabs on everything from your car keys to your backpack. Thats because the ultra wideband location trackers tap into Apples extensive Find My network, which allows for impressively precise tracking and lets users share the tracker with up to five other people for even greater peace of mind. Price: $24+AmazonBest Buy TargetHoverAir X1 droneUnless youre filming cinematic shots in Hollywood, you dont necessarily need a fancy quadcopter. HoverAirs so-called selfie drone is a great budget alternative to more premium models from DJI, with top-mounted controls, excellent object tracking, and a max video resolution of 2.7K / 30fps. And did we mention it can fit in your pocket? Because it can. Price: $299+B&H PhotoHoverAirAdoramaDistil Wando SunglassesIts not the generous replacement policy or timeless, round look of Distils flexible Wando Sunglasses that makes them attractive though they do look quite good. The real appeal lies in their hidden neodymium magnets, which let you effortlessly clip the polarized shades to your shirt or bag without having to worry about them falling off. That alone is worth the $69 price tag. Price: $51.75+AmazonDistilNintendo Sound Clock AlarmoIf your default alarm is triggering, Nintendo has your back with inklings and pikmin. The adorable motion-sensing Alarmo will first try gently waking you up with beloved characters and melodies from iconic Nintendo franchises like Mario and Zelda. If you snooze too long, though, you may get a loud visit from Bowser, which, frankly, is best avoided. Price: $99.99NintendoWyrmspanWyrmspan is like Wingspan but with cold-blooded beasties instead of birds. The one-to-five-player tabletop game features many of the same systems and mechanics as the lauded engine-building game that inspired it; however, the fantastical setting and a handful of thoughtful gameplay tweaks make it a great alternative, particularly if you own neither. Price: $59+AmazonStonemaier GamesAnker 2-in-1 USB C to USB C Cable 140WNo one should have to deal with a rats nest behind their desk when devices like Ankers 2-in-1 USB-C cable exist. The handy USB-C cable splits at the end, giving you the ability to charge up to two devices from a single port. That means you can split power between a phone and tablet or juice a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 50 percent in just 20 minutes using a single port. Price: $18.99AmazonAnkerAdidas x MLS Archive Collection jerseySadly, the MLS isnt exactly known for producing good-looking kits, at least compared to soccer leagues in the UK. The Adidas x MLS Archive Collection is a bold step in the right direction, however. Each throwback jersey pairs nostalgia-inducing retro styling with a more modern aesthetic, resulting in an attractive third kit that pays homage to the city it represents. Price: $79.99+MLS StoreBachans Japanese Barbecue SauceBachans Japanese Barbecue Sauce should be a staple in every household. The savory-sweet condiment is pretty atypical compared to American BBQ sauces, which often rely heavily on brown sugar or molasses for taste. Instead, Bachans recipe offers a nice balance of ginger, soy, mirin, green onion, and other Japanese flavors that work great if youre trying to add a kick of umami to your next meal. Price: $7.98+AmazonWalmartTargetCRKD Atom Collectible Keychain ControllerWhats better than a keychain that resembles a controller? One that actually works. CRKDs Atom is a tiny gamepad that features four face buttons, a D-pad, and four shoulder buttons. Youll need decent dexterity to use one (if you feel cramped using a detached Joy-Con, the Atom is similar), but its a fun charm that offers quick utility for mobile gaming when you need to kill time. Price: $14.99+AmazonCRKDOtoto Jungle SpoonNo one said ladles have to be boring. The slotted Jungle Spoon is a leaf-shaped dipper that takes after a monstera stem, adding a touch of leafy character to your kitchen. The heat-resistant nylon spoon wont scratch your nonstick pans, either, though we probably wouldnt recommend it if youve been repeatedly traumatized by critters gnawing holes into your garden veggies. Price: $16.95AmazonOtoto DesignSushi Go!: Spin Some for Dim SumOur favorite thing about Sushi Go!: Spin Some for Dim Sum is the name, but the game itself is a close second. The fun tabletop is easy to learn and quick to play, especially once you figure out how to go about assembling the most valuable dish combos possible. Its great for a family game night well, assuming you and the fam arent hungry. Price: $16.97+AmazonGamewrightNoble Knight GamesVTech Bluey Blueys KeytarIf your child loves Bluey, then theyll love playing Blueys Keytar, first featured in the Fancy Restaurant episode of the popular childrens show. The colorful musical toy features working keys with 10 different sets of instruments and sounds, which you can use to play your own songs or jam along to several built-in melodies (including the main Bluey theme). Price: $17.99+AmazonWalmartTargetApple Watch Ultra 2Short of a new iPhone, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 might be one of the best things you can gift the ultimate Apple fan in your life. The display is considerably bigger than most other Apple Watch models, and the 36-hour battery is relatively extensive. It also has a ton of health sensors and military-grade durability, making it particularly great for adventurous types. Price: $699.99+AmazonBest Buy TargetUE MinirollUnsurprisingly, the term Miniroll aptly describes Ultimate Ears small, puck-like Bluetooth speaker. Its compact, bulbous design makes it easy to carry in your backpack or a roomier pocket, while an integrated strap allows you to attach it to your belt loop or a set of handlebars. Its also water-resistant and comes in a few fun colors. Price: $49.99AmazonBest Buy B&H PhotoTrail of the LostIn Andrea Lankfords engrossing nonfiction narrative, Trail of the Lost, the Pacific Crest Trail is as pivotal a player as the three missing hikers the book centers on. Lankfords prior experience as a seasoned park ranger allows her to paint a nuanced portrait of the 2,650-mile trek, as does her meticulous research and interviews with those involved with the initial search and rescue efforts.Price: $16.10+AmazonWalmartBarnes & NoblePentax 17Pentaxs new film camera is an absolute charmer for analog enthusiasts but is far from a toy or novelty. The compact point-and-shoot is fairly easy to use, and its 37mm-equivalent lens can render some stunning snapshots. Plus, its half-frame format actually makes film cheaper, since it takes twice as many shots on each roll.Price: $496.95+B&H PhotoAdoramaRicoh ImagingGoogle Nest Learning Thermostat (fourth-gen)As temperatures dip, heating bills skyrocket. Thankfully, you can help your giftee save some money this winter with Googles latest Nest Learning Thermostat. The fourth-gen smart thermostat can learn and adapt to your habits over time, but unlike prior models, it sports a handsome Pixel Watch-like design and native support for Apple Home thanks to Matter. Price: $229.99+AmazonBest Buy GoogleBlack Diamond Spot 400You can look ma, no hands your lighting needs with Black Diamonds handy 400-lumen headlamp. The low-profile light is a convenient way to illuminate your immediate vicinity, as it offers more than enough power to navigate your home or local hiking trail in the dark. Best of all, its dual-fuel compatible, meaning you can power it with either a rechargeable BD 1500 Li-ion battery or three AAAs. Price: $37.39+AmazonBackcountryREIiRobot Roomba Combo i5If you or someone you know could use some help cleaning up, the Roomba Combo i5 is a sensible budget pick. The robot vacuum excels at sucking up dirt and mopping hardwood floors, and its capable of mapping out your home so you can direct it to clean specific rooms using your phone or one of several voice assistants. Its not a hands-free experience, but it sure is close. Price: $229+AmazonBest Buy TargetUGG Dasha ThrowThe reversible UGG Dasha Throw is a cozy gift anyone would appreciate. Made from plush fabric on one side and microfleece on the other, the soft blanket is made to provide warmth and comfort anywhere you take it. The 50 x 70-inch cover comes in several attractive hues, too, so you can choose one that wont look out of place in the living room or bedroom. Price: $50.99MacysEcho Dot (fifth-gen)Amazons latest Echo Dot offers a ton of value for less than 50 bucks. Its both a good speaker and an alarm clock with access to plenty of Alexa-enabled skills, allowing you to effortlessly set reminders, check the weather, and play your favorite tracks. Hell, it can even boost your Wi-Fi coverage if youre on an Eero mesh Wi-Fi network. Price: $22.99+AmazonBest Buy TargetMini Ikebana KitA bouquet is nice, but Kikkerlands DIY showpiece is a more unique gift for the flower lover in your life. The inexpensive kit revolves around the Japanese art of flower arrangement, Ikebana, which emphasizes minimalism and aims to capture the fleeting beauty of nature. It contains everything your giftee needs to build their own arrangement, including a ceramic vase, shears, a flower frog, and a towel. Price: $14+AmazonThe Huntington StoreKikkerlandLittle CornerCozy vibes can be a great stress reliever for a new parent. And one of the best delivery methods that doesnt involve a screen in your face is an adorable coloring book one thats not overly simplified for little kids. LittlePrice: $7.99AmazonEtsy (digital PDF)ESR Qi2 Magnetic Wireless Car ChargerESRs compact Qi2 charger is a handy way to mount and charge a MagSafe-compatible iPhone in your car, whether you prefer to rely on your dashboard or an air vent for installation. Once its set up and paired with a power adapter (youll need to supply your own), just slap your phone onto the magnetic pad to reap the benefits of 15W charging speeds. Price: $21.83+AmazonESR2004 Logo StickersStickers are timeless, and so is this pack of four featuring an era-appropriate Verge logo. Our ode to 2004 the golden years of the digital age, if you will recalls fond memories of glitzy, overdone layouts and the sudden blaring of low-bitrate music on Myspace. Stick one anywhere you want to express your love for the webs bygone era. Price: $10The VergeMicrosoft Surface Laptop (seventh-gen)The latest Surface Laptop uses an Arm-based Snapdragon X processor, resulting in Microsofts best MacBook Air competitor yet. Since it runs Windows on Arm, you just want to be sure all of your essential apps are supported. If so, youd be hard-pressed to find a better combo of specs, build quality, and battery life for the money. Price: $899.99+AmazonBest Buy MicrosoftDungeons & Dragons 2024 Players HandbookMuch like Mad Max: Fury Road, the new D&D Players Handbook is a triumph mired in controversy. Despite its long and rocky production, the redesigned 384-page tome is an exceptional resource for fifth-edition D&D players, owing to a more streamlined structure, gorgeous artwork, and other quality-of-life updates that render it as robust as it is user-friendly. Price: $44.99+AmazonWizards of the CoastD&D BeyondSony WH-1000XM5Sonys latest pair of noise-canceling headphones arent just a great gift for audiophiles theyre ideal for anyone who craves peace and quiet while listening to music or traveling. While expensive, they offer great audio quality, long-lasting battery life, much-improved voice call quality, and ample customization through Sonys mobile app. Now, if only they could still fold down... Price: $298+AmazonBest Buy TargetApple MagSafe Charger (2m)If you or a loved one recently picked up an iPhone 16-series phone, Apples updated MagSafe charger is the only device thats capable of wirelessly charging it at up to 25W. But the best part of Apples latest magnetic puck, in addition to the higher throughput and Qi2 certification, is that you can get it with an extra-long 2m / 6.6ft cable. Just dont forget the 30W USB-C adapter. Price: $34.99+AmazonBest Buy WalmartPatagonia Go-To ShirtEveryone loves a good staple, which is why Patagonias Go-To Shirt is such an easy recommendation. The comfy, slim-fit button-down is lightweight and extremely breathable, making it a great choice for a casual night out or a short jaunt on the trail. The cotton-polyester blend also prevents it from wrinkling too much, so travelers neednt worry about finding the nearest iron upon arrival. Price: $38.83+BackcountryPatagoniaREIRay-Ban Meta Smart GlassesWhats better than gifting a slick pair of designer sunglasses? A stylish pair that also has smart capabilities. Ray-Bans lovely Meta Smart Glasses can perform all kinds of neat tricks, allowing you to take hands-free phone calls, snap photos and videos, and livestream to Instagram. They even support multimodal AI, so you can quickly identify plants, landmarks, and other objects when youre out and about. Price: $239+AmazonBest Buy MetaBlundstone 500 Chelsea bootBlundstones original 500 Chelsea boot has changed very little since it was introduced in the late 1960s, and for good reason. Its got a classic silhouette with elastic sides and pull tabs for easy entry, not to mention a durable TPU outsole and weather-ready leather that makes it well suited for hitting the streets or the old dusty trail whichever your giftee prefers. Price: $189.95Blundstone (Mens)Blundstone (Womens)L.L. BeanPlayStation 5 ProThe PlayStation 5 Pro is pricey, but we doubt youll hear any complaints if you were to gift it. Sonys newest console plays all the same games as the standard PS5; however, it does so with upgraded hardware that makes fewer graphical compromises with performance. That means youll be able to experience higher frame rates, improved resolution, and better ray tracing in select titles. Price: $699+AmazonBest Buy TargetNeeDoh Groovy Glob stress ballThis past year might not have been as life-shattering for most as 2020, but wed argue life doesnt have to be pure chaos for a stress ball to come in handy. The NeeDoh Groovy Glob, like all of Schyllings colorful dough-filled shapes, makes for an inexpensive release that can be squeezed, squashed, and pulled to your hearts content. Price: $3.44+AmazonWalmartNeeDohFujifilm Instax Mini 12Anyone nostalgic for the good ol days will appreciate the Instax Mini 12. Much like the iconic instant cameras from the Polaroid era, Fujifilms latest requires you to do little more than point and shoot to generate wallet-friendly snaps. Its an entertaining gift, one that can help your friend or loved one reconnect with their inner child while capturing new keepsakes. Price: $69+AmazonBest Buy TargetWomen of Science Tarot deckEven if you dont believe in divination, you have to admit the Women of Science Tarot deck is pretty fun. The unique set bridges the gap between spirituality and science with illustrations depicting inspirational STEM leaders, from computer scientist Annie Easley to chemist Rosalind Franklin. Each major arcana card also includes info on a foundational scientific concept, making for an educational, inspiring deck. Price: $19.32+AmazonMIT PressMassive ScienceFitbit Inspire 3The lightweight Fitbit Inspire 3 is a great gift for someone looking to dip their toes into wearables. The throwback fitness band is an affordable way to add heart rate monitoring, smartphone notifications, and sleep / workout tracking to your wrist. Its basic, sure, but how many other wearables let you wear them as a clip and last up to 10 days on a single charge?Price: $69.95AmazonBest Buy WalmartRoyal Kludge F68 60% Foldable Low Profile Mechanical KeyboardFoldable keyboards are extremely convenient for portable office setups, but many tend to be membrane-style. Royal Kludges wireless F68 is a mechanical, low-profile alternative that folds in half to free up space in your bag. It features an aluminum build with either linear red or tactile brown switches as well as a built-in stand to hold your tablet or phone. Price: $39.99+AmazonRoyal KludgeNeweggThe Verge Wrapping PaperWe may be biased in this instance, but we consider wrapping paper to be as essential to gift-giving as the gift itself. Thats why we designed two sets of 8.75 19.75-inch wrapping paper for our gift guide shoot this year, both of which you can purchase in our store if you want to outfit your presents with a bit of colorful eye candy. Price: $15The Verge (Set 1)The Verge (Set 2)Ryobi 18V One Plus Performance Hand Vacuum KitRobot vacuums are a terrific investment... if youre willing to pay. If not, Ryobis cordless handheld is a relatively inexpensive alternative with powerful suction, a pivoting dush brush, and a respectable 18 minutes of battery life. Whats more, it comes with a three-year warranty and a bin thats large enough to accommodate cereal, dirt, and whatever else your kids leave in their wake. Price: $89+RyobiThe Home DepotLoop Experience 2 earplugsRegardless of what the hesher next door tells you, no concert is worth blowing out your eardrums. The Loop Experience 2 are a cheap way to cut back on unwanted decibels, as they offer a universal fit and a noise reduction rating of 12dB. The discreet earplugs are also available in an array of stylish colors, including a few seasonal shades to usher in the fall. Price: $27.95+AmazonLoopGuliKit KK3 Pro ControllerStick drift is the worst. Luckily, GuliKits new KK3 Pro Controller offers a remedy in the form of Hall effect sticks, which dont succumb to the drifting issues that often plague Joy-Cons. 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This 10-in-1 keyboard cleaning kit comes with everything you need to buff the scuffs and get rid of the dirt, including liquid cleaning solution, key removal tools, brushes, microfiber wipes and cloths, and cleaning pens. Price: $16.98AmazonKendamaTheres something special about gifting an analog game like Kendama in the age of Fortnite even more so when you consider that the Japanese toy has changed little since it was first developed hundreds of years ago. The cup-and-ball game remains easy to learn but difficult to master, too, making it a good fit for anyone looking to hone a skill over time.Price: $12.22+AmazonWalmartKendama USASungboon Editor Deep Collagen Power Boosting Mask (four-pack)Sungboons collagen mask is the rare TikTok sensation that actually lives up to the hype. Like magic, the face mask works overnight to improve elasticity, temporarily erasing fine lines and wrinkles. It also soothes, hydrates, and rejuvenates your skin, leaving you with a glowing complexion that should last far longer than the viral videos from which it sprang up. Price: $12.35AmazonGovee Christmas String Lights 2Govees Christmas String Lights 2 add a touch of color and magic to any Christmas tree. The smart lights offer over 130 preset lighting effects that sync with music, and Govee also includes shape matching and AI features that let you create custom light displays. Plus, its IP65 rating means you can even hang them outside, and Matter support allows you to control them with any major smart home platform. Price: $63.99+AmazonGoveeMechanism Gaming PillowIf youre going to succumb to marathon gaming sessions on the couch, you might as well make yourself as comfortable as possible. Mechanisms malleable 12-inch bean bag is designed to cradle a variety of handhelds including the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and PlayStation Portal so you never have to worry about whether your arms will hold up in the next dungeon. Price: $59+MechanismCuisinart Stainless Steel Smashed Burger PressWere not entirely sure when smash burgers became a capital-T Thing in the culinary world, but if your dad is into compressed beef and caramelized crust, Cuisinarts stainless steel press will surely be a hit. The inexpensive six-inch contraption is more convenient than using a shoddy spatula or the bottom of a pan to crush patties, though its not any more difficult to clean. Price: $19.25+AmazonWalmartCuisinartUgreen Uno USB-C to USB-C Cable 100WNo cable is cuter than Ugreens new Uno USB-C to USB-C. The 100W braided cord supports up to 480Mbps transfer speeds and can power a multitude of devices, including your phone, laptop, and tablet. The built-in LED display is what makes it adorable, though, as it puts on a happy face whenever you plug it in. Price: $10.39+AmazonUgreenFluxxIt will come as no surprise that Fluxx is a game in which everything, even the rules, is constantly in flux. Its quick to learn and allows for up to six players, but choose your companions wisely. The randomness of it all often makes it feel more like an activity than a traditional card game built on strategy, meaning diehard tabletoppers would do well to keep their ambitions at bay. Price: $19.95+AmazonBarnes & NobleSatechi Vegan-Leather Magnetic Wallet StandApples MagSafe technology ushered in a whole ecosystem of accessories, including god knows how many magnetic wallets. Satechis sleek four-card holder, while not particularly fancy or inventive, is an easy recommendation that doubles as a stand for propping up your phone in landscape or portrait orientation. Just make sure your dad owns an iPhone 12 or newer. Price: $23.99+AmazonSatechiYear of the RingLord of the Rings is a monumental trilogy, so much so our friends over at Polygon dedicated an entire year to exploring Peter Jacksons blockbuster adaptations and the original books that inspired them. Now that editorial package lives on an magnificent hardcover volume, allowing you to delve deeper into the series' history and its undeniable impact on pop culture.Price: $33.27+AmazonBookshopMagnexpert Magnetic WristbandI dont know about you, but Im getting tired of repurposing my spice containers as nail and screw holders while Im building something. Magnexperts magnetic wristband is a convenient solution. It wraps 15 magnets in a nylon cover with visible separators, allowing you to keep the tiny steel bits organized and within reach with little risk of losing them in shaggy carpeting and couch cushions. Price: $11.90+AmazonLego Insect CollectionA fun way to pass the time during the winter, Legos new insect kit is designed to bring a bit of the great outdoors inside. The 1,111-piece set lets you build life-size, posable replicas of several insects a Chinese mantis, a Hercules beetle, and a blue morpho butterfly all three of which can be displayed as home decor upon completion.Price: $63.95+AmazonWalmartLego2024 Mac MiniApples latest Mac Mini is as charming as it is capable a remarkable feat for a desktop that starts under $600. Its the best value in the current Mac lineup as a result of Apples zippy M4 silicon and the fact it now ships with 16GB of RAM by default, which should allow the adorable machine to perform a wide range of tasks for years to come. Price: $559+AmazonBest Buy B&H PhotoGaiatop Hand Warmers (two-pack)The chilly months have arrived for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and these adorable avocado hand warmers are great to have around for when you need some much-needed comfort. The rechargeable, pocket-friendly gizmos heat up quickly and can last for hours, and their endearing expressions are likely to warm your heart a little, too. Price: $12.99+AmazonGaiatopDisney Plus gift cardLooking to stuff someones stocking with the magic of Disney? Unless youre Scrooge McDuck, wed recommend a $25 Disney Plus gift card. Thats enough to stream Disney films and shows for two months, or you can put it toward a bundle that includes Hulu and either Max or ESPN Plus. Disney Plus has all the classics, too, along with modern blockbusters from Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more.Price: $25+AmazonBest Buy Disney PlusCreditsPhoto / Art Direction and Photography: Amelia Holowaty KralesCreative Direction: Kristen RadtkeArt Direction and Design: Cath VirginiaProp Styling: Maeve Sheridan and Ashleigh Sarbone

Nov 25Lauren FeinerGoogle and the DOJ make their final arguments in the ad tech monopoly case Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogle and the Department of Justice met one final time in an Alexandria, Virginia courtroom to debate the future of Googles online ad tech juggernaut.Over about three hours of closing arguments, attorneys for each sideplaying out in a separate DC District Court case over Google search. Read Article >Nov 25Emma RothGoogles empire is under siege Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesToday, Google will have a final chance to prove to a federal judge that its advertising business isnt a monopoly. The US Department of Justice spent several weeks earlier this year arguing that Google maintains too much control over web advertising and uses that power to lock in customers, leaving little room for competition. The trial wraps up this week. If it loses, Google could have to make sweeping changes to the core of its business.Even if the tech behemoth emerges from this trial unscathed, a spreading legal fire still jeopardizes everything it has created. For many years, Googles sprawling empire has faced little legal scrutiny, allowing the company to freely build up its search engine, browser, operating systems, and line of hardware products that all intersect to bolster one another. Its the overlap of Googles massive businesses that has attracted attention from government agencies and tech industry rivals, who are set on taking apart Googles stronghold piece by piece.Read Article >Oct 22Lauren FeinerTech critics want a Google exec punished for deleted chatsThree advocacy groups are trying to amp up the pressure on Google for allegedly destroying company records. The American Economic Liberties Project, Check My Ads, and the Tech Oversight Project are urging the State Bar of California to investigate Kent Walker, Googles President of Global Affairs and a member of the Bar. They claim Walker coached the company to engage in widespread and illegal destruction of records relevant to multiple ongoing federal trials. In a letter shared exclusively with The Verge, the groups point to a 2008 memo Walker sent to employees while he served as general counsel. The so-called Walker Memo was highlighted in the Department of Justices recent antitrust trial, one of multiple cases where Google has been accused of obscuring potentially incriminating documents. The memo referenced several significant legal and regulatory matters Google faced at the time as the rationale for a new policy limiting employee chat message retention. The DOJ claimed it marked a turning point for company secrecy as Google changed the default setting on chats from history on to history off.Read Article >Oct 17Emma RothGoogle is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads Illustration: The VergeGoogle is making a big change to company leadership. In a memo to staff posted on Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Prabhakar Raghavan, the senior vice president in charge of search, ads, and other important segments, will now take on the role of chief technologist. Prabhakar has decided its time to make a big leap in his own career, Pichai writes. After 12 years leading teams across Google, hell return to his computer science roots and take on the role of Chief Technologist, Google. In this role, hell partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence.Read Article >Oct 1Lauren FeinerHow Google tried to unravel the DOJs ad tech case Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesThe Department of Justice just wrapped up three weeks of trial where it argued whether Google has created illegal monopolies in the ad tech market. During much of it, Google kept asking a more fundamental question: what is that market?The company has a variety of defenses to the DOJs accusations, ranging from Supreme Court precedent to security concerns. One of its biggest, however, is that the agency simply doesnt understand online advertising. Google alleges that its slicing up the market in a way that doesnt make sense and that it downplays or ignores Googles biggest advertising competition: social media.Read Article >Sep 27Lauren FeinerGoogle and the DOJ are out of court until November 25th.Closing arguments in their ad tech antitrust trial will start at 10AM that day. But for now, its a wrap.The final day saw a couple of depositions from Google including testimony from Ryan Pauley, chief revenue officer at Verge parent company Vox Media plus a Daily Mail executive who returned in a short but heated DOJ rebuttal.US v. Google redux: all the news from the ad tech trialLauren Feiner31 seconds agoSep 26Lauren FeinerGoogle says a closed ad ecosystem isnt anticompetitive its just safer Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogle took a page out of a familiar playbook in court this week, defending itself from claims of anticompetitive conduct by raising security concerns. While the government argues it locked up the ad tech market to make more money, Googles witnesses say that a more closed ecosystem is often safer for users echoing a defense both it and Apple have made of their mobile app stores.Googles attorneys have spent the last few days mounting its defense against the Department of Justice. The company argues that conduct the Department of Justice paints as anticompetitive like locking customers into its services and exerting control over the rules of the industry through its dominance actually has justifiable business purposes. The point was emphasized by two Google executive witnesses: Per Bjorke, director of product management for ad traffic quality, and Alejandro Borgia, director of product management for ad safety. Combined, theRead Article >Sep 24Lauren FeinerHow Google made the ad tech industry revolve around itself Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogles mission statement seems made to evoke warm and fuzzy feelings about how its products help everyone. Our mission is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful, Google says on its corporate site. The company used to have an even more saccharine motto: Dont be evil.But the decisions Google made in growing its massive advertising technology business were cold-blooded and carefully crafted to primarily benefit itself, the Department of Justice argued during the first two weeks of its antitrust trial.Read Article >Sep 19Lauren FeinerTL;DR on the DOJs ad tech antitrust trial against Google.Ive been going to this extremely wonky and jargon-y trial almost every day, and I joined Decoder to translate the highlights so far. The trial which is only accessible in-person from an Alexandria, VA courtroom is in its second week. Google is expected to start calling witnesses any day now, once the Justice Department wraps its chief case.Sep 19Nilay PatelWhy Google is back in court for another monopoly showdown Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesToday on Decoder, were talking about the big Google antitrust trial thats currently taking place in a federal courthouse. No, not the one youre thinking of its the second Google antitrust case in just as many months. The company lost a landmark case in August in which a court ruled that it had an illegal monopoly in search.This time around, the Department of Justice is claiming Google has another illegal monopoly in the online advertising market.Read Article >Sep 19Lauren FeinerGoogle employees attempts to hide messages from investigators might backfire Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogle employees liberally labeled their emails as privileged and confidential and spoke off the record over chat messages, even after being told to preserve their communications for investigators, lawyers for the Justice Department have told a Virginia court over the past couple of weeks. That strategy could backfire if the judge in Googles second antitrust trial believes the company intentionally destroyed evidence that would have looked bad for it. The judge could go as far as giving an adverse inference about Googles missing documents, which would mean assuming they would have been bad for Googles case.Read Article >Sep 17David PierceIn US v. Google, YouTubes CEO defends the Google way Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeThe word of the day in US v. Google was parking. As in: did Google buy some of its most ascendant and dangerous competitors in the online advertising business, all the while planning on parking them off in some far-flung corner of the company so that no one could possibly upset Googles dominance? That is a central question of the governments entire case against Google, and it came up over and over on Monday morning.To kick off the second week of the landmark antitrust trial over Googles control of online advertising, the Department of Justice called Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube and a longtime Google advertising executive. Mohan came to Google in 2008 through Googles acquisition of DoubleClick, which formed the basis of Googles now-unstoppable advertising engine. Mohan also helped advocate for the acquisition of Admeld, another company at the center of the suit. He argued throughout his testimony that Google was never attempting to buy up and neuter its competitors; it was simply trying to compete.Read Article >Sep 16Lauren FeinerHow Google got away with charging publishers more than anyone else Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesFor years, Google took the same 20 percent commission for ad transactions that ran through its platform, even though it was higher than what any other industry player charged. Executives privately worried the fee was difficult to defend. Now, the Justice Department argues its a key sign of Googles monopoly over online ads.Googles so-called take rate took center stage on the last day of week one in the Justice Departments second antitrust trial against Google. Citing internal Google documents and the testimony of former Google sell-side ads executive Chris LaSala, the DOJ sought to demonstrate that Google never experienced any real pricing pressure due to its unshakable dominance in the market, despite knowing its fee was higher than competitors and being aware of customer complaints about its tools. The trial continues this week, with YouTube CEO and former Google ads executive Neal Mohan testifying on Monday.Read Article >Sep 13Lauren FeinerHow Google altered a deal with publishers who couldnt say no Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogle changed the rules of its publisher ad product in a way it knew online websites selling ad space would protest in order to gain back more control in the ad tech market, the Department of Justice alleged on the trials fourth day in its antitrust case against the company. Through the testimony of a former Google executive, internal company emails, and a recording of a contentious 2019 meeting with Googles publisher customers, the DOJ painted a picture of a company that ignored its customers preferences to strengthen its own business position, knowing they had few real alternatives. Googles attorneys countered that executives listened to customer feedback and made some adjustments, even though it kept the core of the change in place.Read Article >Sep 11Lauren FeinerGoogle dominates online ads, says antitrust trial witness, but publishers are feeling stuck Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogles tool that lets publishers sell ad space on their websites is ubiquitous, but thats largely a testament to how hard it is for customers to get out of it, one former publishing executive testified in federal court on Tuesday.I felt like they were holding us hostage, said Stephanie Layser, a former programmatic advertising executive at News Corp (which owns brands like The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post) who now works at AWS. Layser was testifying as a government witness in the Justice Departments second antitrust case against Google, which is accusing the company of monopolizing the markets for ad tech tools and illegally tying together two of its products. Read Article >Sep 10Lauren FeinerGoogles ad server is slow and clunky but virtually everybody uses it.Were moving through witnesses in the Google ad tech trial, including Stephanie Layser, a former consultant and News Corp advertising VP. Layser bolstered the DOJs claim that Google Ad Manager (formerly Doubleclick For Publishers or DFP) dominates the market thanks to its links to AdX. DFP is a 25 to 30 year old piece of technology.Itsslow and clunky, Layser lamented. It takes a long time to load on the page.Sep 10Adi RobertsonDay 2 of the Google-DOJ antitrust trial begins.The Virginia courthouse is a stickler about security, so Im posting on behalf of Lauren Feiner, who sent the following this morning:The government didnt say who would be testifyingbefore court adjourned yesterday, but we left off with several industry players explaining the publisher side of the market. Blissfully, the DOJ said were running ahead of schedule already. About to say goodbye to my phone, take my last sip of water (neither allowed in the courtroom!) and head back in.Sep 10Lauren FeinerGoogle and the DOJs ad tech fight is all about control Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogle and the US Justice Department each believe the other wants too much of one thing: control. Control is the defining characteristic of a monopolist, DOJ counsel Julia Tarver Wood said during opening statements in the federal governments second antitrust trial against the search giant, which kicked off on Monday in Alexandria, Virginia. To the government, Google exerts too much control over every step of the way publishers sell advertising space online and how advertisers buy it, resulting in a system that benefits Google at the expense of nearly everyone else.Read Article >Sep 9Lauren FeinerGoogle and the Justice Department have made their opening salvos in court.The government is trying to make this case about Google imposing control over a market, with DOJ counsel Julia Tarver Mason Wood arguing that Google acquired its way to success. Google, meanwhile, says the suit is about the government unlawfully forcing it to deal with rivals. It claims its not consolidating three markets, just working in one market with a buy and sell side.The Google ad tech trial is kicking off this morning.The Verges Lauren Feiner will be reporting on Googles latest antitrust battle from Virginia, where the Department of Justice will argue that its not just a search monopolist, but an advertising monopolist as well.Sep 6Lauren FeinerGoogle and DOJ return for round two of their antitrust fight this time about ads Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesGoogle and the Justice Department are set for a rematch of sorts on Monday when they return to court to argue about Googles alleged monopolistic behavior over how ads are bought and sold on the internet.The DOJ is fresh off a win in its search antitrust case against Google, where a federal judge in Washington, DC, agreed that Google had illegally monopolized the online search market. This time, the two parties will argue before a different judge in Virginia about whether Google has also illegally monopolized markets for advertising technology.Read Article >

Red teaming plays a pivotal role in evaluating the risks associated with AI models and systems. It uncovers novel threats, identifies gaps in current safety measures, and strengthens quantitative safety metrics. By fostering the development of new safety standards, it bolsters public trust and enhances the legitimacy of AI risk assessments.This paper details OpenAIs approach to external red teaming, highlighting its role in evaluating and mitigating risks in advanced AI models and systems. By collaborating with domain experts, OpenAIs red teaming efforts provide valuable insights into model capabilities and vulnerabilities. While the focus is on OpenAIs practices, the outlined principles offer broader relevance, guiding other organizations and stakeholders in integrating human red teaming into their AI risk assessment and evaluation frameworks.Red teaming has become a cornerstone of safety practices in AI development, with OpenAI implementing external red teaming since the deployment of DALL-E 2 in 2022. This practice involves structured testing to uncover AI systems vulnerabilities, harmful outputs, and risks. It has informed safety measures across AI labs and aligns with policy initiatives like the 2023 Executive Order on AI safety, which emphasizes red teaming as a critical evaluation method. Governments and companies worldwide increasingly incorporate these practices into their AI risk assessments.External red teaming offers significant value by addressing critical aspects of AI risk assessment and safety. It uncovers novel risks, such as unintended behaviors arising from advancements in model capabilities, like GPT-4o emulating a users voice. It also stress-tests existing defenses, identifying vulnerabilities, such as visual synonyms bypassing safeguards in DALL-E systems. By incorporating domain expertise, red teaming enhances assessments with specialized knowledge, as seen in evaluating scientific applications of AI models. In addition, it provides independent evaluations, fostering trust by mitigating biases and ensuring objective insights into potential risks and system behaviors.Red teaming practices vary widely, with emerging methods tailored to the evolving complexity of AI systems. Model developers may disclose the scope, assumptions, and testing criteria, including details about model iterations, testing categories, and notable insights. Manual methods involve human experts crafting adversarial prompts to assess risks, while automated techniques use AI to generate prompts and evaluate outputs systematically. Mixed methods combine these approaches, creating feedback loops where manual testing seeds data for automated scaling. OpenAI has implemented these methods in System Cards, refining red teaming for frontier model evaluations.Designing an effective red teaming campaign involves strategic decisions and structured methodologies to assess AI risks and impacts. Key steps include defining the cohort of red teamers based on testing goals and relevant domains and considering questions about the model and applicable threat models. Developers must determine the model versions accessible to red teamers and provide clear interfaces, instructions, and documentation. The final stage involves synthesizing data gathered from testing and creating comprehensive evaluations. These steps ensure thorough, goal-oriented risk assessments for AI systems.Comprehensive red teaming for AI systems requires testing across diverse topics, reflecting the varied use cases and risks associated with these technologies. Threat modeling guides domain prioritization, focusing on areas like anticipated capabilities, previous policy issues, contextual factors, and expected applications. Each testing area is anchored by hypotheses addressing risks, their targets, and their sources, ensuring a structured approach. While internal teams initially prioritize testing based on early evaluations and development insights, external red teamers contribute valuable perspectives, refining and expanding the scope of testing through their expertise and findings.The transition from human red teaming to automated evaluations is essential for scalable and consistent AI safety assessments. After red teaming campaigns, teams analyze whether identified examples align with existing policies or necessitate new guidelines. Insights from campaigns extend beyond explicit risks, highlighting issues like disparate performance, quality concerns, and user experience preferences. For instance, GPT-4o red teaming uncovered unauthorized voice generation behaviors, driving the development of robust mitigations and evaluations. Data generated by human red teamers also seeds automated evaluations, enabling quicker, cost-effective assessments by using classifiers and benchmarks to test desirable behaviors and identify vulnerabilities.While red teaming is a valuable tool for AI risk assessment, it has several limitations and risks. One challenge is the relevance of findings to evolving models, as updates may render previous assessments less applicable. Red teaming is resource-intensive, making it inaccessible for smaller organizations, and exposing participants to harmful content can pose psychological risks. Also, the process can create information hazards, potentially aiding misuse if safeguards are inadequate. Issues of fairness arise when red teamers gain early access to models, and growing model sophistication raises the bar for human expertise needed in risk evaluation.This paper highlights the role of external red teaming in AI risk assessment, emphasizing its value in strengthening safety evaluations over time. As AI systems rapidly evolve, understanding user experiences, potential misuse, and real-world factors like cultural nuances becomes crucial. While no single process can address all concerns, red teaming, particularly when involving diverse domain experts, offers a proactive mechanism for risk discovery and evaluation development. However, further work is needed to integrate public perspectives and establish accountability measures. Red teaming, alongside other safety practices, is essential for creating actionable AI risk assessments.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. If you like our work, you will love ournewsletter.. Dont Forget to join our55k+ ML SubReddit. Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities: A Comparative Analysis of Red Teaming Techniques Read the Full Report (Promoted)The post Red Teaming for AI: Strengthening Safety and Trust through External Evaluation appeared first on MarkTechPost.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence, demonstrating remarkable capabilities in various tasks. However, to fully harness their potential, LLMs must be equipped with the ability to interact with the real world through tools. As the number of available tools continues to grow, effectively identifying and utilizing the most relevant tool for a given task becomes a critical challenge. Existing retrieval methods, such as BM25 and dense retrieval techniques, provide foundational solutions but need to be improved in their adaptability and precision when dealing with large or complex toolsets. These methods often fail to scale effectively, struggle with nuanced user intents, and need to utilize the contextual understanding capabilities of modern LLMs fully.A team of researchers from Google proposed Re-Invoke, an innovative, unsupervised tool retrieval framework that leverages LLMs to match user intents with tools better. The system enriches tool documents with synthetic queries generated by LLMs, improving their representation in an embedding space. User queries are then analyzed to extract underlying intents, which are encoded into the same space. By leveraging the power of LLMs, Re-Invoke addresses the critical need for a scalable and effective tool retrieval solution, enabling LLMs to unlock their full potential and deliver more comprehensive and accurate responses.Re-Invoke has two core components:Query Generator: LLMs generate diverse synthetic queries relevant to each tool. These queries are appended to the original tool documents, creating augmented tool documents that represent the tools capabilities comprehensively. The documents are encoded into an embedding space to facilitate similarity-based retrieval.Intent Extractor: User queries are processed by LLMs to identify core tool-related intents. These intents are also encoded into the embedding space to ensure compatibility with the tool representations.Re-Invoke employs multi-view similarity ranking, where similarity scores are calculated between extracted intents and augmented tool documents. The system aggregates these scores across multiple intents to rank tools, prioritizing the most relevant tools.In evaluations, Re-Invoke demonstrated significant performance gains over state-of-the-art methods, achieving a 20% relative improvement in nDCG@5 for single-tool retrieval and a 39% improvement in multi-tool retrieval on the ToolE dataset. Integrating with LLM agents led to higher task success rates, confirming its efficacy in real-world applications.In conclusion, Re-Invoke presents a robust, unsupervised framework to address the tool retrieval problem for LLMs, combining intent extraction and document augmentation to achieve superior results. Its scalable design, enhanced retrieval accuracy, and adaptability to diverse toolsets make it a valuable advancement in the field, empowering LLMs to interact more effectively with external tools and deliver higher performance across tasks.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. If you like our work, you will love ournewsletter.. Dont Forget to join our55k+ ML SubReddit. Pragati Jhunjhunwala+ postsPragati Jhunjhunwala is a consulting intern at MarktechPost. She is currently pursuing her B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Kharagpur. She is a tech enthusiast and has a keen interest in the scope of software and data science applications. She is always reading about the developments in different field of AI and ML. [Download] Evaluation of Large Language Model Vulnerabilities Report (Promoted)