The holidays havent even kicked off, but were already looking to next year when, almost immediately, some of the Engadget team will head to Las Vegas for techs biggest annual conference. The pitches from companies, both legit and unhinged, are already filling our inboxes and spam tabs, so what are we excited about?Getty ImagesExcited might not be the word, but we expect AI to become even more pervasive in good and overhyped ways. There will also be the usual slew of new processors and subsequent laptops. We expect NVIDIA to debut its long-awaited RTX 5000 video cards at CES, while AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed well see next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs early next year. While 2024 was a year of endless AI PC hype, 2025 might be a year of reckoning. Microsofts long-delayed Recall feature is slowly trickling out to more users, for example, but is still facing struggles. PC makers in 2025 will have to actually prove their new AI-laced devices can live up to their claims.There are also audio products, EVs, flying EVs (!) and more. Check out the full CES 2025 preview. Mat SmithThe biggest tech stories you missedGoogles new AI tool Whisk uses images as promptsAnkers Prime Power Bank with charging base is back at a record-low priceMeta is rolling out live AI and Shazam integration to its smart glassesGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Metas Threads has grown to 300 million usersMore than 100 million people use the site every day.Cementing its status as the fastest growing social network ever (with a heavy nepo-baby lift from Instagram), Threads has hit 300 million users, with over 100 million people using the site every day. We could see some big changes for Threads as Meta capitalizes on that growth. The company reportedly has plans to experiment with the first ads for threads in early 2025, according to a recent report in The Information.While its still a ways off, Zuckerberg has repeatedly speculated that Threads has a good chance of becoming the companys next billion-user app.Continue reading.TikTok asks the Supreme Court to delay upcoming banThe social media app is just a few weeks away from a potential ban.Its a tale of two social media networks today. After a federal court last week denied TikToks request to delay a law that could ban the app in the United States, the company is now turning to the Supreme Court to buy time. The social media company has asked the court to temporarily block the law. The company, which argues the law is unconstitutional, lost its initial legal challenge earlier this month. The company then requested a delay of the laws implementation, saying President-elect Donald Trump had said he would save TikTok. That request was denied on Friday. TikTok is now hoping the Supreme Court will intervene to suspend the law, otherwise, app stores and internet service providers will begin blocking TikTok next month.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121528225.html?src=rss

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has said the company wants to redefine what it means to be an Xbox fan.

You can no longer buy credits on Skype as Microsoft pushes the platform to become subscription-based.

CrowdStrike moved Monday evening to dismiss Delta Air Lines' lawsuit around the July cybersecurity outage that led to canceled flights.

The U.K. government said Tuesday it's consulting on measures to regulate the use of copyrighted content by tech companies to train their AI models.

Watch a behind the scenes bluescreen shoot reel.The post Behind that Carry-On car fight scene appeared first on befores & afters.

Just what the alien symbiote ordered! DNEG delivers a ferocious VFX showcase for Venom: The Last Dance. From jaw-dropping high-flying fight sequences to new characters and some unforgettable dancing, the teams artistry brings this chaotic finale to life with impeccable detail.This behind-the-scenes look emphasizes the incredible work that DNEGs talented crews have created, blending creativity and precision to elevate Venoms thrilling conclusion.The post Venom: The Last Dance VFX Breakdown by DNEG appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has brought back the magic of motion-controlled miniatures for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew. Among their creations is the Onyx Cinder, a stunning spacecraft complete with servo-operated engines and functional lights. Built by John Goodson and supervised by John Knoll and the ILM Miniature Unit, this model wasnt just for showit played a pivotal role in blending practical effects with digital artistry.The Onyx Cinder was used for in-camera final shots while also informing the digital model, creating a seamless transition between physical and digital visuals. This innovative approach showcases ILMs dedication to pushing boundaries in visual storytelling. Catch ILMs spectacular miniature work in the first three episodes of Skeleton Crew, and stay tuned for more insights into their process!The post Star Wars: Skeleton CrewMiniature Magic by ILM appeared first on Vfxexpress.

The U.S. Census Bureau is changing how it counts immigrants in annual estimates by including more people who were admitted for humanitarian, and often temporary, reasons.The change is being made in an effort to better reflect population shifts this decade, officials said Monday. Population estimates, including immigration, are due to be released Thursday showing how the populations of the United States and the 50 states changed this year. However, the new approach to counting immigrants will only be reflected nationally.The percentage of U.S. residents who were foreign born rose to its highest level in more than a century in 2023. It could be even higher under the new methodology. Census Bureau officials wouldnt say Monday how much larger they expected the immigration figures to be in Thursdays release because of the change.Capturing the number of new immigrants is the most difficult part of the annual U.S. population estimates. Although the newly announced change in methodology is unrelated, the timing comes a month before a return to the White House of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations of people in the United States illegally.We feel confident that this was a good approach in order to make our estimates more current and reflect recent trends that weve seen, said Eric Jensen, a senior research scientist at the Census Bureau.The bureaus annual calculation of how many migrants entered the United States in the 2020s has been much lower than the numbers cited by other federal agencies, such as the Congressional Budget Office. The Census Bureau estimated 1.1 million immigrants entered the United States in 2023, while the Congressional Budget Offices estimate was 3.3 million people.The group of people being included in the international migration estimates are those who enter the country through humanitarian parole, which has been granted for seven decades by Republican and Democratic presidential administrations to people unable to use standard immigration routes because of time pressure or their governments poor relations with the U.S. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based research organization, said last week that more than 5.8 million people were admitted under various humanitarian policies from 2021 to 2024.Trump appears certain to dismantle humanitarian parole, saying during his campaign that he would end the outrageous abuse of parole. The annual population estimates released by the Census Bureau each year are calculated from births, deaths, migration to the United States and migration between states. The population estimates provide the official population counts each year between the once-a-decade census for the United States, the 50 states, counties and metro areas. The figures are used for distributing trillions of dollars in federal funding.Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform X: @MikeSchneiderAP.Mike Schneider, Associated Press

The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain, lawyers for the Congolese government told Reuters.Congo is a major source of tin, tantalum and tungsten, so-called 3T minerals used in computers and mobile phones. But some artisanal mines are run by armed groups involved in massacres of civilians, mass rapes, looting and other crimes, according to U.N. experts and human rights groups.Apple does not directly source primary minerals and says it audits suppliers, publishes findings and funds bodies that seek to improve mineral traceability.Its 2023 filing on conflict minerals to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said none of the smelters or refiners of 3T minerals or gold in its supply chain had financed or benefited armed groups in Congo or neighbouring countries.But international lawyers representing Congo argue that Apple uses minerals pillaged from Congo and laundered through international supply chains, which they say renders the firm complicit in crimes taking place in Congo.In parallel complaints filed to the Paris prosecutors office and to a Belgian investigating magistrates office on Monday, Congo accuses local subsidiaries Apple France, Apple Retail France and Apple Retail Belgium of a range of offences.These include covering up war crimes and the laundering of tainted minerals, handling stolen goods, and carrying out deceptive commercial practices to assure consumers supply chains are clean.It is clear that the Apple group, Apple France and Apple Retail France know very well that their minerals supply chain relies on systemic wrongdoing, says the French complaint, after citing U.N. and rights reports on conflict in east Congo.Belgium had a particular moral duty to act because looting of Congos resources began during the 19th century colonial rule of its King Leopold II, Congos Belgian lawyer Christophe Marchand said.It is incumbent on Belgium to help Congo in its effort to use judicial means to end the pillaging, he said.The complaints, prepared by the lawyers on behalf of Congos justice minister, make allegations not just against the local subsidiaries but against the Apple group as a whole.France and Belgium were chosen because of their perceived strong emphasis on corporate accountability. Judicial authorities in both nations will decide whether to investigate the complaints further and bring criminal charges.In an unrelated case in March this year, a U.S. federal court rejected an attempt by private plaintiffs to hold Apple, Google, Tesla, Dell and Microsoft accountable for what the plaintiffs described as their dependence on child labour in Congolese cobalt mines.MINERALS FUEL VIOLENCESince the 1990s, Congos mining heartlands in the east have been devastated by waves of fighting between armed groups, some backed by neighbouring Rwanda, and the Congolese military.Millions of civilians have died and been displaced.Competition for minerals is one of the main drivers of conflict as armed groups sustain themselves and buy weapons with the proceeds of exports, often smuggled via Rwanda, according to U.N. experts and human rights organisations.Rwanda denies benefiting from the trade.Among the appendices to Congos legal complaint in France was a statement issued by the U.S. State Department in July, expressing concerns about the role of the illicit trade in minerals from Congo, including tantalum, in financing conflict.The statement was a response to requests from the private sector for the U.S. government to clarify potential risks associated with manufacturing products using minerals extracted, transported or exported from eastern Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.Congos complaints focus on ITSCI, a metals industry-funded monitoring and certification scheme designed to help companies perform due diligence on suppliers of 3T minerals exported from Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.Congos lawyers argue that ITSCI has been discredited, including by the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) of which Apple is a member, and that Apple nevertheless uses ITSCI as a fig leaf to falsely present its supply chain as clean.The RMI, whose members include more than 500 companies, announced in 2022 it was removing ITSCI from its list of approved traceability schemes.In July this year, it said it was prolonging the suspension until at least 2026, saying ITSCI had not provided field observations from high-risk sites or explained how it was responding to an escalation of violence in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda and is a key 3T mining area.ITSCI criticised the RMIs own processes and defended its work in Congo as reliable. It has also rejected allegations in a 2022 report by campaigning group Global Witness entitled The ITSCI Laundromat, cited in Congos legal complaint in France, that it was complicit in the false labelling of minerals from conflict zones as coming from mines located in peaceful areas.Apple mentioned ITSCI five times in its 2023 filing on conflict minerals. The filing also made multiple mentions of the RMI, in which Apple said it had continued active participation and leadership, but did not mention the RMIs ditching of ITSCI.In its July statement, the U.S. State Department said flaws in traceability schemes have not garnered sufficient engagement and attention to lead to changes needed.Robert Amsterdam, a U.S.-based lawyer for Congo, said the French and Belgian complaints were the first criminal complaints by the Congolese state against a major tech company, describing them as a first salvo only.Sonia Rolley, Reuters