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ZDNETYou may have used generative AI to create text, images, and even videos. But have you ever called on it to conjure up your own music? A few different text-to-music tools can act as virtual composers, but one worth trying is Suno. Available on the web, through dedicated iPhone and Android apps, and via a Microsoft Copilot plug-in, Suno will write and play music based on your input.You can describe the topic and style of the music you want, opt to include lyrics and vocals, keep your song as an instrumental, or add your own lyrics as inspiration. In response, Suno delivers two songs based on your request. You can then play the songs, download them, and share them with other people. Suno uses its own AI models to create the music and then turns to ChatGPT to create the song's title and lyrics.Suno offersthree types of plans. With the free Basic plan, you get 50 credits per day. Generating a single song uses up 10 credits, so you can create as many as five songs each day. If you need more, upgrading to the Pro plan for $10 per month grants you 2,500 credits each month, while the Premier plan at $30 per month gives you 10,000 credits each month.Now, here's how Suno works.How to use Suno to generate music 1. Set up an account First, you'll need to create an account to use Suno. Browse to the website and click the Sign in button. You can use an existing account from Apple, Discord, Google, or Microsoft or create a dedicated account by entering your phone number. You're then signed in with your account. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 2. Listen to existing music Before you start creating your own music, you may want to hear what other people have generated. At the home screen, click the thumbnail for any of the songs on display. The music starts playing, and a sidebar shows you a description of the song along with any lyrics. You can rate the song with a thumbs up or thumbs down, copy and paste a link to it, add it to a playlist, or share it. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 3. Tweak the settings for your song To make your own music, click the Create option on the left. Before you describe the type of song you want produced, you can tweak a couple of settings. By default, Suno uses the latest stable model to generate your song, which at this point is version 3.5. Older models are available, as is the latest beta model. Click the down arrow for the model number at the top. You can experiment with different models, but you may want to stick with the default to start.Also by default, Suno will generate a song with lyrics. If you want an instrumental tune with just the melody, turn on the switch for Instrumental. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 4. Ask Suno to help you write your description For help in writing a description of your desired song, hover over the question mark icon next to Song Description. Following the displayed tip, you'll want to describe the style of music and the topic or subject of the song. Avoid mentioning specific artists and songs; instead, refer to the genre of music, such as rock, pop, jazz, classical, or country.To get further assistance, click the heading for Need Ideas. Suno suggests several topics, occasions, and moods on which to base your song. Select one, and you can fill in the blanks for the suggested music (just like playing Mad Libs) to add specific names and music genres. When finished, click Create. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 5. Enter your description If you'd rather type your own description, enter it in the text field, but keep it to no more than 200 characters. For my song, I created the following description: "a World War II song in the style of swing about a woman who misses her husband because he's fighting in the war overseas." Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 6. Listen to the songs In response, Suno generates two versions of a song based on your description. Click the Play button for either song to start listening. You can follow the lyrics on the right side as the song plays. Use the controls at the bottom to pause or restart the song, switch between the two versions, or repeat the song. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 7. Edit the song You can tweak either version of the song in certain ways. Click the three-dot icon for the version you want to revise. Move to Edit in the menu. From there, you're able to change the title of the song or any of the lyrics, crop the song to shorten it, or replace a section of the song with new music and lyrics. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 8. Create a song with your own lyrics Next, you might want to try generating a song with your own lyrics. For this, go back to the Create screen. Turn on the switch at the top for Custom. If you're a capable lyricist, enter your lyrics in the field at the top. To get some help instead, click the button for Write with Suno. Describe the lyrics you want or enter a theme or topic. Click the button for Write Lyrics. Suno then generates two versions of the appropriate lyrics for you. Click the button for Accept this option to choose the version you wish to use. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 9. Generate the music Back at the previous screen, add a genre or mood for the music you want. Click Create. In response, Suno delivers two versions of the song. Play either version, and you can edit either version if you wish. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 10. Manage your songs To work with the songs you've generated, move to the Library section. For any song, turn on the Public button to make it available for anyone on Suno to hear. Click the three-dot icon, and you can add a song to your playlist, share it with someone else via a link or email, or download it as an MP3 audio or an MP4 video. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 11. Use the Suno mobile apps Finally, you can use Suno on your mobile device. Download the app from the App Store or from Google Play. Open the app and sign in with your Suno account. The mobile edition works the same as the website but offers a couple of additional options.Tap the Create button to get started. Enter the text description for the topic and genre, but you can try other ways to generate the song. Tap Camera and aim your device's camera at a scene you want to base the song on. Tap Audio and play, sing, or hum a melody to use as the basis for the song. When done, tap Create. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET 12. Play the songs When the songs are ready, you're prompted to tap the Play button. While listening to the song, you can give it a thumbs up or thumbs down, share it with other people, or perform other actions. Show more Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNETArtificial Intelligence

Heres what to know about consumers bill payment preferences in 2024 and a glimpse of whats ahead.

The European Space Agency online store is down following a reported cyberattackAFP via Getty ImagesCybersecurity experts Sansec BV posted to the Bluesky social media platform, Dec. 23, to report that Foreign espionage campaign launched via Christmas sweaters" in one of the more unusual cybersecurity announcements of 2024. A web application security specialist, Source Defense Research, took to X and confirmed that a live Magecart attack had taken place against the European Space Agency online store. Heres what we know so far.Hackers Leave European Space Agency Online Store Temporarily Out Of OrbitIf you fancied getting hold of some European Space Agency merchandise as a post-Christmas treat, then you are out of luck it would seem. Visit the ESA store currently and youll see a notice informing you that the site is temporarily out of orbit for some exciting renovations. While the humorous puns continue with visitors being asked to please fly by later, the real reason behind the downtime appears to be far more serious.HAs the ESA Store been hacked?ESAThe X posting from Source Defense Research claimed that, while the ESA space shop site follows the latest Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, PCIDSS 4.0, the hackers were able to use the fact that the shop employed Stripe to execute a double-entry technique, faking Stripe's page on the ESA site.Inserting A Fake Payment Page Into The European Space Agency StoreThe Christmas Jumper Hack ExplainedIt would appear that a fake payment page was inserted into the process, served upon from the ESA shop and for all intents and purposes looking like the genuine article. The Source Defense Research posting included screenshots showing the malicious payment page alongside the real one, but employing a domain-spoofing technique with a different top-level domain used.I have reached out to both the European Space Agency and Stripe for a statement. In the meantime, however, it has been reported that ESA has clarified that the store operates on third-party infrastructure, and the agency does not manage its data, so the extent to which this hack impacts ESA data itself is likely to be minimal, if at all. Instead, it looks like it was most likely an opportunistic criminal attack with a pure profit motive.Read More: Amazon Security Warning As 3 High-Rated Vulnerabilities Hit Cloud

Increasingly, consumers are choosing not to share their feedback with brands directlyregardless of whether theyve had a good or bad experience.

TL;DR: Research in both biocomputing and neuromorphic computing may hold the key to better computer energy efficiency. By drawing inspiration from nature's own efficient systems, such as the human brain, we may be able to address the growing energy demands of our increasingly digital world. As computers consume more and more electricity, scientists are turning to an unlikely inspiration for greater sustainability: the humble biological cell. This approach, known as biological computing, could slash energy consumption in computational processes.A recent article in The Conversation highlighted this concept, which draws on nature's own efficient systems to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in modern computing. As data centers and household devices gobble up roughly 3% of global electricity demand, with artificial intelligence poised to push that figure even higher, the need for energy-efficient alternatives has never been more urgent.The concept of biological computing is rooted in a principle introduced by IBM scientist Rolf Landauer in 1961. The Landauer limit states that a single computational task, such as setting a bit to zero or one, requires a minimum energy expenditure of about 10 joules (J). While this amount seems negligible, it becomes substantial when considering the billions of operations computers perform.Operating computers at the Landauer limit would theoretically make electricity consumption for computation and heat management inconsequential. However, there's a significant catch: to achieve this level of efficiency, operations would need to be performed infinitely slowly. In practice, faster computations inevitably lead to increased energy use.Current processors operate at clock speeds of billions of cycles per second, using about 10J per bit approximately ten billion times more than the Landauer limit. This high-speed operation is a result of computers working serially, executing one operation at a time.To address this energy dilemma, researchers are exploring a fundamentally different computer design based on massively parallel processing. Instead of relying on a single high-speed "hare" processor, this approach proposes using billions of slower "tortoise" processors, each taking a full second to complete its task. This could theoretically allow computers to operate near the Landauer limit, using orders of magnitude less energy than current systems.One promising implementation of this idea is network-based biocomputation, which harnesses the power of biological motor proteins nature's own nanoscale machines. This system involves encoding computational tasks into nanofabricated mazes of channels, typically made of polymer patterns deposited on silicon wafers. Biofilaments, powered by motor proteins, explore all possible paths through the maze simultaneously. // Related StoriesEach biofilament is just a few nanometres in diameter and about a micrometer long, acting as an individual "computer" by encoding information through its spatial position in the maze. This architecture is particularly suitable for solving combinatorial problems, which are computationally demanding for serial computers.Experiments have shown that such biocomputers require between 1,000 and 10,000 times less energy per computation than electronic processors. This efficiency stems from the evolved nature of biological motor proteins, which use only the energy necessary to perform their tasks at the required rate typically a few hundred steps per second, a million times slower than transistors.Significant progress has been made in this field recently. Heiner Linke, Professor of Nanophysics at Lund University and author of the article in The Conversation, also co-authored a 2023 paper that demonstrated the possibility of operating a computer near the Landauer limit. This breakthrough brings us closer to realizing the potential of ultra-low-energy computing.While the concept of biocomputation is promising, challenges remain in scaling up these systems to compete with electronic computers in terms of speed and computational power. Researchers must overcome obstacles such as precisely controlling biofilaments, reducing error rates, and integrating these systems with current technology.If these hurdles can be surmounted, the resulting processors could solve certain types of challenging computational problems with a drastically reduced energy cost. This breakthrough could have far-reaching implications for the future of computing and its environmental impact.As an alternative approach, researchers are also exploring neuromorphic computing, which attempts to emulate the highly interconnected architecture of the human brain. While the basic physical elements of the brain may not be inherently more energy-efficient than transistors, its unique structure and operation offer intriguing possibilities for energy-efficient computing.

What just happened? Netflix is suing Broadcom, alleging infringement of multiple patents related to virtual machine operations. The video streaming giant alleges that VMware products like vSphere and their cloud solutions violate up to five Netflix patents related to managing and optimizing virtual machines. The patents in question cover some critical behind-the-scenes tech that helps keep virtual machines running smoothly, according to the lawsuit filed in a California federal court. Three of the patents deal with tracking and allocating CPU resources to virtual machines efficiently. The other two describe methods for a load balancer to seamlessly start up virtual machines on physical servers as needed.Netflix says VMware's virtualization tech flat-out uses these patented innovations without permission. They claim "VMware has infringed and continues to infringe" on these patents through products like vSphere Foundation, VMware Cloud Foundation, and their cloud offerings for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more.Netflix also asserts that VMware knew it was potentially infringing as far back as 2012 when some of these patents came up during one of the company's own patent applications. Netflix says the infringement has been "willful and deliberate" after VMware had this knowledge.Reuters reports that Netflix now wants VMware's new owner Broadcom, who bought them last year for a massive $69 billion, to award monetary damages.It's worth mentioning that this patent brawl actually has roots going back to 2018, when Broadcom first sued Netflix claiming it infringed on Broadcom patents for video streaming technology. That legal fight spans across multiple countries, including the US, Germany, and the Netherlands. The US lawsuit is slated for trial next June. // Related StoriesPrevious reports suggested that Broadcom's 2018 lawsuit came as a result of Netflix's meteoric growth during the Covid-19 pandemic when viewers flocked to streaming services. This boom came at Broadcom's expense, with dwindling sales of its TV set-top box chips as cable subscriptions declined. Broadcom also has a history with patent infringements: In 2017, it sued LG, Vizio, and other smart TV manufacturers as well as rival Mediatek for patent violations.VMware's software powers huge swaths of enterprise data centers and clouds so Netflix's offensive could have major ramifications if their patent claims prevail. Both sides are yet to issue comments.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsNosferatu the Vampyre (1979)Bram Stokers Dracula (1992)Shadow of the Vampire (2000)This Christmas, the multiplex will be invaded by something other than Wickeds airborne witches and speedy hedgehogs. A vampire is coming down the chimney, and he promises to scare the pants off you. Robert Eggers reimagining of Nosferatu has already accumulated raves from critics and is one of the most anticipated movies of the holiday season.If you liked the atmospheric horror film starring The Orders Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, and Bill Skarsgrd, then youre reading the right article. The following is a brief list of worthy movies you should watch if youre eager to see more bloodsucking this year or the next.Recommended Videos20th Century StudiosIf you like a remake, then its only natural to be curious about the original, right? When I first saw John Carpenters masterful take on The Thing, I immediately sought out the Howard Hawkes-produced 1951 original just to see how it compared with the version I had just watched. And while F.W. Murnaus 1922 silent film is undeniably a classic, its also a creaky one. Its dated, to put it mildly, and besides, Ive always preferred Werner Herzogs haunting 1979 remake, Nosferatu, which is creepier and better. Its one of the few horror movies that makes you actually feel the dread of death.RelatedThe story is pretty much the same: A young man travels to Transylvania to see a reclusive client and finds himself in the thrall of Count Dracula. He escapes, Van Helsing shows up, and his wife Lucy is hunted by the vampire. Yet Herzog throws a few surprises into his narrative, including an ending that puts a downbeat spin on Stokers more positive conclusion, and he emphasizes atmosphere above all else. This is a movie where you can feel the decay of all the bodies onscreen. Oh, and if youre squeamish about rats, its best to avoid this one altogether.Klaus Kinski is Count Dracula - Nosferatu (1979)The great French actress Isabelle Adjani is Lucy, and the psychotic German actor Klaus Kinski is the Count. Both were born to play these roles and give the picture a timeless, mythic quality thats downright lyrical. The brooding score is by Popol Vuh, and it evokes images of bare tree branches, gray skies populated by black crows, and empty tables covered in vermin. Its glorious.Nosferatu the Vampyre is streaming on Tubi.Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Jonathan Harker Meets Dracula Scene | MovieclipsRobert Eggers re-imagining of the classic vampire tale owes its biggest debt not to its namesake but rather to Bram Stokers Dracula. Both movies emphasize mood over outright horror, and both have bold, ambitious directors behind the camera. Megalopolis auteur Francis Ford Coppola is the filmmaker who made this, and it has the excessiveness and boldness that powered his earlier classics like Apocalypse Now and even One From the Heart.Gary Oldman is the Count in this one, and here, hes presented as a tragic anti-hero who just wants a little love in his life. Well, one in particular: Mina Murray, and since shes played by Winona Ryder, can you blame him? Coppola serves up gothic romance with all the trimmings: star-crossed lovers separated by oceans of time; a heroine with skin so pale you can literally see her heart beating through her chest at one point; and a love triangle so lopsided that it might as well be a circle.20th Century FoxThe actors are all fine, but Draculas real star is the production itself. The Oscar-winning costumes by Eiko Ishioka are genuinely weird and beautiful, while the set design and VFX all emphasize practicality over computer-generated nonsense. The score by Polish composer Wojciech Kilar recalls European decadence and the death of an old, dark world blighted by the light of progress and technology. By the end, theres a sense of something passing, and its not just the Count getting his head chopped off.Bram Stokers Dracula is streaming on Tubi.Shadow of The Vampire (2000) Official TrailerWho was Max Schreck? The German actor, who first embodied the titular Nosferatu in F.W. Murnaus film, didnt have much of a career before or after it, and he died in relative obscurity in 1936. The 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire depicts the making of Murnaus classic horror movie and puts forth this interesting theory: What if Max really was a vampire, and the director and his cast and crew didnt know it until midway through the production?Its an intriguing idea, if an absurd one, but director E. Elias Merhige milks it for all its worth in his darkly comic tale of a movie shoot that is constantly threatening to go off the rails. John Malkovich stars as a Murnau who is willing to do anything, even murder, to get the perfect shot, while Willem Dafoe gives an Oscar-nominated performance as Schreck, who brings new meaning to the term method acting. Its a deeply unsettling performance, but then, what else would you expect?Shadow of the Vampire can be rented or purchased on Amazon Prime Video.Editors Recommendations

This years picks leaned heavily into timeless and often tech-immune topics, from leadership and teamwork to the art and science of doing less.

The Japanese chemical company announced Thursday that it will establish a subsidiary in January to produce perovskite solar cells, which are light and flexible.