Celestial enthusiasts have much to look forward to in 2025, with eclipses, meteor showers, and planetary alignments lighting up (or darkening) the sky. Here are the events to add to your calendar. JanuaryThe first month of the year will bring a lesser-known meteor shower and some planetary action. Jan. 34: Quadrantid meteor shower. The Quadrantids are active from Dec. 28 to Jan. 12 but are expected to peak around 4 a.m. EST on Jan. 4. The moon will be only 47% illuminated, and the shower can produce more than 100 meteors per hour in ideal conditions. Viewing is best in the Northern Hemisphere. Jan. 13: Wolf Moon. The first full moon of 2025 has extra appeal, as it will pass close to (almost in front of) Mars. The red planet will appear to disappear behind the moon at 9:16 p.m. EST and reappear at 10:31 p.m. EST. Jan. 15: Mars at opposition. Peak Mars viewing is happening in January. When at opposition, the Red Planet's entire illuminated face is toward Earth. Look for it in the eastern sky as the sun sets toward the west. FebruaryFebruary's main event is a planetary parade, when the planets appear to be in one line in Earth's sky. The parade actually begins on Jan. 10 when the Moon joins up with Jupiter and continues through February. Saturn will drop off mid-month, but tiny Mercury will be barely visible in the parade on Feb. 28. A crescent Venus will also be visible on Feb. 19 when the planet is at its closest point to Earth. MarchMarch has a pair of eclipses: March 14: Total lunar eclipse. As the moon passes through Earth's shadow, it'll cast a deep red hue. Though the total lunar eclipse will be visible around the world, the full 65-minute totality will only happen in the Americas and Antarctica. March 26: Partial solar eclipse. Canadians and Americans along the east coast will get the best view of March's partial solar eclipse, which will cover up to 93% of the sun. If you can't travel to see it, you can watch the livestream on YouTube. AprilThe Lyrid meteor shower will be active between April 15 and April 30, with a peak on the night of April 2122. Around 1020 meteors (and possibly fireballs) are visible per hour in ideal conditions. For best viewing, look for the shower before the moon rises. MayThe Eta Aquaridsone of two showers resulting from Halley's Cometis expected to peak on the night of May 67. Viewers in the Southern Hemisphere may see up to 60 meteors per hour. Those in the Northern Hemisphere will still get a show, but a less spectacular one. JulyThe Delta Aquarids and Alpha Capricornids are both peaking at the end of July (2930). The former may have up to 20 shooting stars per hour with best conditions in the Southern Hemispherel the latter has fewer meteors, but they are very bright. The sky should be relatively dark for good viewing. AugustThe usually spectacular Perseids will be a bit less so in 2025; the shower's peak on Aug. 1213 lands just a few days after the full moon. However, it may still be worth looking for, as it often produces nearly 100 meteors per hour. At the same time, though, you can catch the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the eastern sky (an hour before sunrise on Aug. 12). SeptemberSaturn will be at opposition on the night of Sept. 21. Just like Mars in January, this event will show Saturn at its brightest, visible to the naked eye. (There's also a second partial solar eclipse visible from New Zealand on the same day.) OctoberThe Orionids are active from Oct. 2 to Nov. 12, with a peak on the night of Oct. 2223. The moon will be only 2% full, leaving the sky dark for solid viewing. The shower produces 1020 meteors per hour. While the Draconids are peaking just one day after October's full moon (the Hunter's Moon on Oct. 6), astronomers say there's a tiny possibility of a meteor storm this year. NovemberThe moon and meteors will light up the sky in November: Nov. 5: Supermoon. The second supermoon of 2025 will be the biggest and brightest since 2019 thanks to its proximity to Earth. Nov. 1617: Leonid meteor shower. In idea conditions, the Leonids, which come from the 55P/Temple-Tuttle comet, produce 1015 meteors per hour. On peak night in 2025, the moon will be just 9% full. DecemberFinally, the brightly colored Geminids will be active from Nov. 19 to Dec. 24 with a peak predicted for Dec. 1314. Unlike 2024, the moon won't interfere with viewing. Look for them between mid-evening and 2 a.m., when it's possible to see 120 meteors per hour in the Northern Hemisphere.

When you're focusing on a task, it's easy to lose track of time and forget to attend important meetings (or unimportant ones that your boss thinks are important), especially when you're working from home and those meeting take place online. Calendar notifications can help, but they're too easy to miss, or even ignore.In Your Face is an indie Mac app that seeks to ensure you'll never miss another meeting. It fills up your entire screen with notifications for any calendar appointments you set it to highlight. The application, which uses the macOS Calendar app for appointments, lives in the menu bar. You can click the icon to see all upcoming meetings. One minute before any calendar appointment begins, your entire screen will be overlaid with a reminder its about to take place. The idea is to make your meeting reminders impossible to miss. Credit: Justin Pot If you want, you can configure the warning to show up sooner. Maybe you, like me, like to go get a glass of water before a meeting beginsfive minutes should be perfect for that. You can also set the application up to allow for travel time, if your meetings aren't virtual. Credit: Justin Pot For me, though, virtual meetings are the real use case, mostly because those are the appointments I find myself most likely to miss. You can set the application to only pop up on screen for appointments that have a video conferencing link, be it in the event's description or the location. You can also filter out events you've rejected, which I recommend, or set the application to not show reminders outside of your working hours. Finally, if you dig through the settings, you'll find that you can customize the look and color scheme for the pop-up (arguably not important, but a nice touch). In Your Face offers a free trial, which you can use to decide whether the application will be useful for you. After that, it costs $1.99 a month, $19.99 a year, or $64 as a one-time purchase. The application is also available with a Setapp subscription, meaning you can pay $9.99 per month for access to In Your Face and around 250 other Mac applications.

Its no secret that Russia has been slowly working towards eschewing as much Western technology as it can and developing its own, and its latest effort seems to be related to video games. On December 25, Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, revealed some information on a domestic video game console being developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as reported by TechSpot. The theoretical console will have an Elbrus processor and be powered by either Aurora or Alt Linux, both Russian forks of the popular Linux operating system.According to TechSpot, the Elbrus processor was developed by the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies and primarily designed for defense, critical infrastructure and other applications. This processor isnt up to what Intel, AMD and Arm produce right now, and it certainly wont reach PS5 or Xbox levels of power. Despite the weaker chipset, Gorelkin stressed that the console isnt designed to play ports of older games, but will play domestic video game products. Presumably, this means Russia will also need its own developer community to design these games.Theres also another console called Fog Play in development, but its more of a cloud-gaming device. Users with high-end computers can rent them out to Fog Play owners, who play games on these computers through the cloud.These potential consoles are only one aspect of Russias broader technological sovereignty plans. Ever since its invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions, Russia has been trying to make this a reality but digital isolation is making this difficult.The adoption of Astra Linux in government, intelligence, military and even educational computers is another Russian effort to develop its own technology. To this end, Russia is also trying to replace file and website scanner VirusTotal (owned by Google) with its own Multiscanner platform in fears of US government infiltration.Despite this progress, Russia is still heavily reliant on Chinas technology. Chinese smartphones are popular there, and Chinese electronics and dual-use technology continue to enter Russia even as the Middle Kingdom no longer exports them to the US.Russia is likely unable to achieve true technological independence, in video gaming or other crucial areas, as it relies too much on China and doesnt have the capabilities to produce PS5 or Xbox-level chips. The two Russian video game consoles serve as a good example of the challenges the country faces given its poor relations with many of the worlds superpowers. Just like the Elbrus processor isnt going to truly compete against the best consoles, Russia will likely continue to struggle for technological sovereignty.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/russia-is-trying-to-make-its-own-game-consoles-in-a-bid-for-technological-independence-151358041.html?src=rss

Terraforms Labs CEO Do Kwon spent the last day of 2024 getting extradited to the US, Reuters reports. Kwon faces charges in the US for "orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities." The Terraforms co-founder has been held in Montenegro since March 2023, when he tried to board a flight with a forged passport six months after Interpol put out a "red notice" warrant for his arrest.South Korean-based Terraforms Labs wiped out $40 billion from the crypto market when its TerraUSD and Luna stable coins turned out to not be so stable and collapsed in May 2022. Kwon had already fled South Korea the month before.The US announced its charges in February 2023, with the SEC chair Gary Gensler stating, "We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for Luna and TerraUSD. We also allege that they committed fraud by repeating false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating losses for investors." South Korea has issued similar charges.Montenegro doesn't have extradition treaties with the US or South Korea. The request played out in court over the last year and a half, with Montenegro's Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic ordering Kwon's extradition last week. Terraform Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last January.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/terraform-labs-co-founder-do-kwon-will-face-securities-fraud-charges-in-the-us-142734704.html?src=rss

The PlayStation Portal has sold roughly two million units.

Ahead of the international launch of the OnePlus 13 and the OnePlus 13R, we've got details on the latter handset.

Nvidia has also halves price of the hardware in bid to wide appeal.

Bitcoin was far and away the best performing asset class in 2024 thanks to new ETFs and hopes for a crypto-friendly White House.

Throughout the coming months and years, you will start hearing, seeing, and reading more about something called agentic AI. As someone who has worked in technology, specifically AI, for decades, I can assure you that it isnt a buzzword or a fad. Agentics is the way of the future for all of us.Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence (AI) software that can work autonomously, without much human supervision. It understands natural language, sets goals for itself, plans workflows, makes decisions, adapts to changing circumstances, and, finally, learns and improves from interactions. Lets go deeper into how this will change the way you perform your work daily.Will your job be replaced?The short answer is that its very unlikely. I am sure you have seen news stories or read headlines stating AI will automate 60% to 70% of work. But, the fact of the matter is that of every job that currently exists in the world, only 5% could be completely automated. But, you will need to reskill or upskill your current abilities and talent to maintain a thriving career in the years to come.A digital coworkerWhen any of us hear the word coworker, we think of our friends at the office, people we see on virtual calls, or bump into in the breakroom. Those people will still be a part of your daily work life, but you will have some new coworkers who were the thing of science fiction in the not-too-distant past. Sooner rather than later, you will begin working alongside agentic agents.These digital coworkers are already a part of our day-to-day as software robots trained to perform specific tasks, your chatbots you interact with daily. Agentic coworkers are the next evolution. Agentic agents take AI from knowledge to action. Put simply, if I wanted to redesign my companys website, a GPT would tell me how I could do it. An agentic coworker would build me the website.Say goodbye to mindless tasksWorking in customer service or sales typically entails a lot of answering the same questions endlessly, and only helping customers truly in need or interested in doing business infrequently. For you, this means wasting so much of your time and intellect on issues that should be resolved by technology. This is what agentic AI will do for you. The calls that make it to your phone will be customers in need of creative problem-solving and innovative thinking.Digital agents can take care of inventory, ordering, and stocking your shelves whether youre working in a retail location or in an office. Typically you order supplies and products based on historical data that you keep. If the data is wrong, or the market has shifted in an unpredicted manner, youre out of luck, out of stock, and out of profit. Agentic AI manages and monitors data in real time based on real-world current conditions and orders supplies and products more effectively and faster. This leveraging of agentic AI not only frees up your time from entering POs and doing inventory but also positively affects the bottom line.Agentic makes you smarterYou need your brain back, 100% of it. Your best tools arent AI, or Excel, or PowerPoint. Your greatest tool and asset is your mind. Agentic AI will not solve every issue that arises in your day-to-day work, but it will eliminate multiple pain points every day. This will free employers and employees alike for innovation, creativity, and personal and business growth. With digital agents providing support 24 hours a day you will see that operational costs go down while efficiency goes up. Then you can simultaneously leverage intelligent task management systems to reset priorities for yourself, the rest of the staff, and an entire business.Business travel facilitatedWhen building and navigating your career, you will undoubtedly be called upon to travel to interview, meet clients, entertain prospects, and oversee production or projects. Agentic AI has the potential to change business travel forever. You must learn to leverage AI agents to book your flight and hotel with personalized choices that fit your travel budgets, personal preferences, wants, and needs. If youre meeting a potential client or partner, they will one day be able to recommend where to eat, possible gifts to bring, and attire that suits not only the situation, but the culture as well. AI will make check-in, security, and boarding at airports quicker and less stressful. Facial recognition matched to ID instantly coordinated with your ticket. The security line will cease to be a line, simply a hall you walk through.Marketing reimaginedForget everything you know about traditional marketing. Youre about to become a visionary strategist with the help of agentic AI. If you get this right, your whole marketing function will change to anticipate market change before it happens and it will deliver experiences that feel individually tailored to each one of your customers.This is not simple automation. It is like having a team of genius marketers who never sleep and are always learning and adapting. Youll be running campaigns that couple creativity with the art of data insights. Think of a brain at your fingertips that recognizes new market niches, recommends exciting product attributes, and anticipates the results of marketing campaigns before they are even rolled out.In the end, it is up to you to learn to leverage agentic AI to advance your career and business. Like traditional AI, and generative AI before it, agentic AI can be a tool to advance you, your efficiency, your attractiveness as an employee or business partner, and free you up to work on your business and yourself, instead of trudging through the minutia of day to day repetitive tasks. Its in your hands, you can decide to control your career, or let your career just happen to you.