Targus and Hyper continue to cater to Apple users, with the company debuting new gear at CES 2025 ranging from sleek tech backpacks to colorful hubs and adapters for a variety of applications.Targus and Hyper have lots of Mac and iPad accessories on display at CES 2025After being acquired by Targus in 2021, Hyper has continued its mission of creating capable and professional products for Apple users. CES 2025 shows that ideology is still strong. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Moft, known for its origami-like stands, wallets, and accessories, is showing off its newly-announced iPhone wallet that features support for Apple Find My.The Moft wallet with Find My connects to the back of an iPhone via MagSafeThe list of Moft iPhone wallets continues to grow. The magnet-loving brand has a whole host of different accessories that connect via MagSafe from stands, to notepads, to wallets.This latest one is a modification of its well-loved wallet and integrates a battery pack and necessary electronics to support Apple Find My and Google Find My Device. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

January 6: Little ChristmasConstantineXI Palaiologos1449 Four years before the fall of Constantinople, ConstantineXI Palaiologos (pictured) assumed the throne as the last Byzantine emperor.1725 J. S. Bach led the first performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, a chorale cantata for Epiphany.1912 German geophysicist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift, the precursor of plate tectonics, to the German Geological Society.1953 The inaugural Asian Socialist Conference, an organisation of socialist political parties, opened in Rangoon with 177 delegates, observers and fraternal guests.2014 The first episode of the documentary series Benefits Street aired on Channel4, prompting discussion in the United Kingdom about welfare dependency.Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (b.1756)Earl Scruggs (b.1924)Babrak Karmal (b.1929)Sybil Plumlee (d.2012)More anniversaries: January 5January 6January 7ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More2025 will be the year that big tech transitions from selling us more and more powerful tools to selling us more and more powerful abilities. The difference between a tool and an ability is subtle yet profound. We use tools as external artifacts that help us overcome our organic limitations. From cars and planes to phones and computers, tools greatly expand what we can accomplish as individuals, in large teams and as vast civilizations.Abilities are different.We experience abilities in the first person as self-embodied capabilities that feel internal and instantly accessible to our conscious minds. For example, language and mathematics are human created technologies that we load into our brains and carry around with us throughout our lives, expanding our abilities to think, create and collaborate. They are superpowers that feel so inherent to our existence that we rarely think of them as technologies at all. Fortunately, we dont need to buy a service plan.The next wave of superpowers, however, will not be free. But just like our abilities to think verbally and numerically, we will experience these powers as self-embodied capabilities that we carry around with us throughout our lives. I refer to this new technological discipline as augmented mentality and it will emerge from the convergence of AI, conversational computing and augmented reality. And, in 2025 it will kick off an arms race among the largest companies in the world to sell us superhuman abilities.These new superpowers will be unleashed by context-aware AI agents that are loaded into body-worn devices (like AI glasses) that travel with us throughout our lives, seeing what we see, hearing what we hear, experiencing what we experience and providing us with enhanced abilities to perceive and interpret our world. In fact, by 2030, I predict that a majority of us will live our lives with the aid of context-aware AI agents that bring digital superpowers into our normal daily experiences.How will our super human future unfold?First and foremost, we will whisper to these intelligent agents, and they will whisper back, acting like an omniscient alter ego that gives us context-aware recommendations, knowledge, guidance, advice, spatial reminders, directional cues, haptic nudges and other verbal and perceptual content that will coach us through our days and educate us about our world.Consider this simple scenario: You are walking downtown and spot a store across the street. You wonder, what time does it open? So, you grab your phone and type (or say) the name of the store. You quickly find the hours on a website and maybe review other info about the store as well. That is the basic tool-use computing model prevalent today.Now, lets look at how big tech will transition to an ability computing model. Stage 1: You are wearing AI-powered glasses that can see what you see, hear what you hear and process your surroundings through a multimodal large language model (LLM).Now when you spot that store across the street, you simply whisper to yourself, I wonder when it opens? and a voice will instantly ring back into your ears 10:30 AM.I know this is a subtle shift from asking your phone to look up the name of a store, but it will feel profound. The reason is that the context-aware AI agent will share your reality. Its not just tracking your location like GPS, it is seeing, hearing and paying attention to what you are paying attention to. This will make it feel far less like a tool, and far more like an internal ability that is linked to your first-person reality.And when we are asked a question by the AI-powered alter ego in our ears, we will often answer by just nodding our heads to affirm (detected by sensors in the glasses) or shaking our heads to reject. It will feel so natural and seamless, we might not even consciously realize we replied.Stage 2: By 2030, we will not need to whisper to the AI agents traveling with us through our lives. Instead, we will be able to simply mouth the words, and the AI will know what we are saying by reading our lips and detecting activation signals from our muscles. I am confident that mouthing will be deployed, as its more private, more resilient in noisy spaces, and most importantly, it will feel more personal, internal and self-embodied.Stage 3: By 2035, you may not even need to mouth the words. Thats because the AI will learn to interpret the signals in our muscles with such subtlety and precision, we will simply need to think about mouthing words to convey our intent. We will be able to focus our attention on any item or activity in our world and think something, and useful information will ring back from our AI glasses like an all-knowing voice in our heads.Of course, the capabilities will go far beyond just wondering about things around you. Thats because the onboard AI that shares your first-person reality will learn to anticipate the information you desire before you even ask for it. For example, when a coworker approaches from down the hall and you cant quite remember his name, the AI will sense your unease, and a voice will ring: Gregg from engineering.Or when you pick up a can of soup in a store and are curious about the carbs or wonder if its cheaper at Walmart, the answers will just ring in your ears or appear visually. It will even give you superhuman abilities to assess the emotions on other peoples faces, predict their moods, goals or intentions, and coach you during real-time conversations to make you more compelling, appealing or persuasive (see this fun video example).I know some people will be skeptical about the level of adoption I predict above and the rapid time frame, but I dont make these claims lightly. Ive spent much of my career working on technologies that augment and expand human abilities, and I can say that without question, the mobile computing market is about to run in this direction in a very big way.Over the last 12 months, two of the most influential and innovative companies in the world, Meta and Google, revealed their intentions to give us self-embodied superpowers. Meta made the first big move by adding a context-aware AI to their Ray-Ban glasses and by showing off their Orion mixed reality prototype that adds impressive visual capabilities. Meta is now very well positioned to leverage their big investments in AI and extended reality (XR) and become a major player in the mobile computing market, and they will likely do it by selling us superpowers we cant resist.Not to be outdone, Google recently announced Android XR, a new AI-powered operating system for augmenting our world with seamless context-aware content. They also announced a partnership with Samsung to bring new glasses and headsets to market. With more than 70% market-share for mobile operating systems and an increasingly strong AI presence with Gemini, I believe that Google is well-positioned to be the leading provider of technology-enabled human superpowers within the next few years.Of course, we need to consider the risksTo quote the famous 1962 Spiderman comic, with great power comes great responsibility. This wisdom is literally about superpowers. The difference is that the great responsibility will not fall on the consumers who purchase these techno-powers, but on the companies that provide them and the regulators that oversee them.After all, when wearing AI-powered augmented reality (AR) eyewear, each of us could find ourselves in a new reality where technologies controlled by third parties can selectively alter what we see and hear, while AI-powered voices whisper in our ears with advice, information and guidance. While the intentions are positive, even magical, the potential for abuse is just as profound.To avoid the dystopian outcomes, my primary recommendation to both consumers and manufacturers is to adopt a subscription business model. If the arms race for selling superpowers is driven by which company can provide the most amazing new abilities for a reasonable monthly fee we will all benefit. If instead, the business model becomes a competition to monetize superpowers by delivering the most effective targeted influence into our eyes and ears throughout our daily lives, consumers could easily be manipulated with precision and pervasiveness that we have never before faced.Ultimately, these superpowers wont feel optional. After all, not having them could put us at a cognitive disadvantage. It is now up to the industry and regulators to ensure that we roll out these new abilities in a way that is not intrusive, manipulative or dangerous. I am confident this can be a magical new direction for computing, but it requires careful planning and oversight.Louis Rosenberg founded Immersion Corp, Outland Research and Unanimous AI, and authored Our Next Reality.DataDecisionMakersWelcome to the VentureBeat community!DataDecisionMakers is where experts, including the technical people doing data work, can share data-related insights and innovation.If you want to read about cutting-edge ideas and up-to-date information, best practices, and the future of data and data tech, join us at DataDecisionMakers.You might even considercontributing an articleof your own!Read More From DataDecisionMakers

Govee is launching a new pixel light grid that can display art, animations, and live data. The Gaming Pixel Light lets you upload your own images and GIFs to display or choose from 150 different data sources, letting it provide live updates on the weather, Bitcoin prices, NBA scores, and more.You can also sync the display to games youre playing by hooking it up to Govees HDMI sync box or play 8-bit tunes that sync to the pixel grid using the built-in speaker. Naturally, theres an AI component as well an accompanying app can generate new pixel art for you using Govees AI Lighting Bot. You can generate pixel art with Govees AI Lighting Bot. Image: GoveeThe Gaming Pixel Light is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. You can wall-mount the screen or place it atop a table or desk, making it seem like a neat little addition to a gaming room or office.Along with this pixel light, Govee is announcing the Table Lamp 2 Pro an LED-packed tabletop lamp with a 2.5-inch JBL speaker that syncs up lighting with your music. The portable device has 210 independently controlled LED beads and 600 lumens of brightness. When its not synced with your music, you can customize the lighting yourself or choose from 100 preset scenes.The Table Lamp 2 Pro comes with a 2.5-inch JBL speaker. Image: GoveeThe lamp works with Matter, Google Assistant, and Alexa and comes with a rechargeable battery. You can also link two lamps together for a full stereo surround experience. Govee says it will release the Gaming Pixel Light and the Table Lamp 2 Pro in the second quarter of 2025, but it didnt provide any pricing information.

The HyperSpace Trackpad Pro is a Magic Trackpad for WindowsThe HyperSpace Trackpad Pro is a Magic Trackpad for Windows / The trackpad comes with software that will let users set custom shortcuts and gestures, including app-specific ones, and share them with others.By Sheena Vasani, a writer covering commerce, e-readers, and tech news. She previously wrote about everything from web development to AI at Inside. Jan 5, 2025, 11:00 PM UTCShare this storyTargus-owned Hyper introduced the HyperSpace Trackpad Pro, a premium haptic trackpad for Windows, on Sunday. The company plans to add basic compatibility with macOS via a firmware update later this year.Like the Magic Trackpad does on a Mac and other precision trackpads do on Windows laptops, the wireless HyperSpace Trackpad Pro supports multitouch gestures. However, Hypers trackpad software grants Windows users an advanced level of customizability, with the ability to set up shortcutsin the trackpads corners. That includes general functions like copying and pasting but also specific actions within apps like Adobe Suite, Figma, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. For instance, users could customize the trackpads bottom-right corner so clicking on it will add a new slide in PowerPoint. Users can also create and assign their own gestures instead, assigning in Hypers example a two-finger deep click to enter presentation mode in PowerPoint. Hyper also lets users adjust the haptic feedback and pressure sensitivity, tweak the click force, and create customizable sound modes. After theyre done, they can share these custom configurations or discover others via the Hyper Learning Cloud community.The trackpad has other things going for it beyond customizability. Hyper says it has independent force detection for up to 10 fingers as opposed to Apples four. It also features a 240Hz report rate, which should allowfor high responsiveness and extremely smooth tracking. Finally, the trackpad can support multiple devices and comes with detachable magnetic palm rests.The HyperSpace Trackpad Pro will arrive in the second quarter of 2025 and cost $129.99, the same as Apples Magic Trackpad. Most PopularMost Popular

Amazon Prime Video has licensed a documentary about Melania Trump that will be directed by Rush Hour director Brett Ratner, reports Variety. A Prime Video spokesperson told the outlet that the movie will be an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at the first lady. The news comes after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had dinner with Donald Trump, who was heavily critical of the company during his first term. It also follows the decision by Bezos and Amazon to donate $1 million to Trumps inauguration fund, just as other tech CEOs like Apples Tim Cook and OpenAIs Sam Altman have done. Prime Video is also set to livestream Trumps inauguration.RelatedThe film is the first significant Hollywood project that Ratner has taken on since 2017, when several women accused him of sexual misconduct and another of rape, Variety notes. He denied the allegations but parted ways with Warner Bros. Ratner has some notable ties to the Trumps, including a former partnership with Donald Trumps Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin. He also filmed 2011s Tower Heist largely on-location at Trump International Hotel & Tower and has reportedly run in Mar-a-Lago social circles since his departure from Hollywood life.Amazons Melania Trump documentary has already begun filming and the company plans to give it theatrical and streaming releases starting in the second half of this year, Variety writes.

GUI agents face three critical challenges in professional environments: (1) the greater complexity of professional applications compared to general-use software, requiring detailed comprehension of intricate layouts; (2) the higher resolution of professional tools, resulting in smaller target sizes and reduced grounding accuracy; and (3) the reliance on additional tools and documents, adding complexity to workflows. These challenges highlight the need for advanced benchmarks and solutions to enhance GUI agent performance in these demanding scenarios.Current GUI grounding models and benchmarks are insufficient to fulfill professional environment requirements. Tools like ScreenSpot are designed for low-resolution tasks and lack the variety to simulate real-world scenarios accurately. Models such as OS-Atlas and UGround are computationally inefficient and fail when the targets are small or the interface is icon-rich, which is common in professional applications. In addition, the absence of multilingual support reduces their applicability in global workflows. These shortcomings highlight the need for more comprehensive and realistic benchmarks to further this field.A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore, East China Normal University, and Hong Kong Baptist University introduce ScreenSpot-Pro: a new framework that is tailored to professional high-resolution environments. This benchmark has a dataset of 1,581 tasks across 23 applications in industries such as development, creative tools, CAD, scientific platforms, and office suites. It incorporates high-resolution, full-screen visuals and expert annotations that ensure accuracy and realism. Multilingual guidelines encompass both English and Chinese for an expanded range of evaluation. ScreenSpot-Pro is unique as it documents the actual workflows that result in real, high-quality annotations, therefore serving as a tool for the full assessment and development of GUI grounding models.The dataset ScreenSpot-Pro captures realistic and challenging scenarios. The base of this dataset is formed by high-resolution images, where the target regions form an average of only 0.07% of the total screen, thus pointing to subtle and small GUI elements. Data was collected by professional users with experience in relevant applications, who used specialized tools to ensure accurate annotations. Additionally, the dataset supports multilingual capabilities to test bilingual functionality and contains several workflows to capture the subtleties of real professional tasks. These characteristics render it particularly advantageous for the assessment and enhancement of the accuracy and flexibility of GUI agents.The analysis of current GUI grounding models utilizing ScreenSpot-Pro reveals considerable deficiencies in their capacity to manage high-resolution professional settings. OS-Atlas-7B attained the greatest accuracy rate of 18.9%. However, iterative methodologies, exemplified by ReGround, demonstrated the capacity to enhance performance, reaching an accuracy of 40.2% by fine-tuning predictions through a multi-step methodology. Minor components, such as icons, presented significant difficulties, whereas bilingual assignments further highlighted the limitations of the models. These findings emphasize the necessity for improved techniques that bolster contextual comprehension and resilience in intricate GUI situations.ScreenSpot-Pro sets a transformative benchmark for the evaluation of GUI agents in professional high-resolution environments. It addresses the specific challenges in complex workflows, offering a diverse and precise dataset to guide innovations in GUI grounding. This contribution forms the foundation of much smarter and more efficient agents that support a seamless performance of professional tasks, significantly boosting productivity and innovation in all industry fields.Check out the Paper and Data. 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. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Aswin Ak+ postsAswin AK is a consulting intern at MarkTechPost. He is pursuing his Dual Degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is passionate about data science and machine learning, bringing a strong academic background and hands-on experience in solving real-life cross-domain challenges. Follow us on X (Twitter) to get regular AI Research and Dev Updates here...

Our Picks Best shopping experience Warby Parker View details See at Warby Parker View details Best cheap sunglasses Knockaround View details See at Knockaround View details Best frames Roka Eyewear View details See at Roka View details Best for the budget-conscious Zenni View details See at Zenni View details Fast delivery EyeBuyDirect View details See at EyeBuyDirect View details Best for high-quality lenses and massive frame selection Eyeglasses.com View details See at Eyeglasses.com View details Best for sports sunglasses SportRx View details See at SportRx View details Best for style selection GlassesUSA.com View details Extra $10 off Sunglasses with code: SUNNIES10 See at GlassesUSA View details Best for swapping lenses Lensabl View details See at Lensabl View details Table of Contents The winter season is in full swing and you may think it's time to put your sunglasses away. But you'll still want to protect your eyes from the sun's rays. Prescription sunglasses make it easy to do so. The best prescription sunglasses ensure you don't have to wear contact lenses under regular sunglasses or be subject to the sun without any eye protection. To help, we narrowed down the best prescription sunglasses in terms of both style and budget. When creating a custom pair, you have a variety of sunglass lens colors and tints to choose from, as well as options like polarized or mirrored lenses, both of which reduce sun, UV rays and reflection glare. At a minimum, you'll at least want some antiglare coating. Gray, green and brown tints are the most popular. I tend to go with gray but some sites also offer yellow, blue or rose options. You also need to pay attention to the tint density because a higher density blocks out more sunlight. The tint density on non-fashion sunglasses tends to range from 50% to 80%. You can also get gradient tints that offer more density in different parts of the lens. Best overall prescription sunglassesOur top pick for this roundup of prescription glasses is Warby Parker. Besides affordability, Warby Parker offers a wide array of stylish sunglasses that you can customize to your needs. It also has a great app that helps you see how your sunglasses will look on you.Best prescription sunglasses of 2025 Photo Gallery 1/1 See at Warby Parker Pros High quality Convenient iPhone app Some cities have Warby Parker brick-and-mortar stores Online vision test Cons Pricier than some competitors Turnaround time 7 to 10 days (expedited shipping available for extra fee)Features offered Polycarbonate, anti-scratch, UV protection, anti-glare (polarized)Prescription option YesVirtual Try-On Yes, as well as home try-on for five framesReturn policy 30-day free exchange or return policyInsurance accepted Accepts certain vision insurance plans See at Warby Parker Several CNET editors have bought their glasses from Warby Parker, which has a good selection of sharp-looking eyeglass frames. While glasses start at only $95 with a single-vision prescription, chances are you're going to pay a bit more based on the type of frame options you choose, your prescription and the type of eyeglass lenses. For example, progressive lenses start at $295. Prescription sunglasses start at $195, jumping to $395 if you need precision lenses. Based on my and my co-workers' experience, the finished products tend to be a step up from what more budget-oriented sites offer.Notable site features:The company'sappallows you to search the site by frame size and to try on various frames virtually (it works surprisingly well) and better yet, you can try up to five frames at home for five days for free. Once your five days are up, you place your box in the mail with the prepaid return label. Hopefully, you find at least one style that you like from among the five you picked for the home trial. There's also a $15 online virtual vision test to renew outdated prescriptions. (Based on the test, you may not be eligible.)Shipping times:According to Warby: "Single vision glasses take seven to 10 business days to reach you from the time we have all of your order information. Sunglasses and progressives take 10 to 12 business days to reach you." (These estimates jive with the experience of CNET editors who have used the service; my pair arrived in six business days.) You can pay more for expedited shipping. See at Knockaround Knockaround doesn't have a prescription service, but it sells regular sunglasses, including polarized and mirrored coating for $28. They're not premium glasses obviously, but the lenses are pretty decent and the glasses look more expensive than their low price would indicate. These designer sunglasses also seem pretty durable. Several different styles, colors and lens options are available. These are the glasses to get if you don't want to worry about losing your sunglasses.Notable site features: A design-your-own feature lets you take sunglass frames and customize the colors of each part of the frame (each arm can be a different color, for example) and lens options.Shipping times:About five to seven days, although custom orders can take up to 12 days.

Florida witnessed a massive rise in VPN demand on New Year's Day after Pornhub began prohibiting people from accessing its site from within the Sunshine State, it is claimed.Between the clock striking midnight and 4am on January 1, the day of the Pornhub pullout, the folks at VPN-pushing vpnMentor documented a rather incredible 1150 percent spike in Floridians wanting to use a VPN to mask their public IP addresses.January 1 marked the implementation of Florida's age-verification mandate, so perhaps all those netizens were scrambling for a VPN client and provider so that they appeared to the adult dot-com to be visiting from somewhere outside the Sunshine State, and thus evade Pornhub's blockade.VPN demand, what's that exactly? vpnMentor is a site that recommends various VPN providers and tracks the industry. By demand, it means evidence that people are curious about using a VPN, from things like searches for VPN software and clicks on links to download a client, rather than actual VPN traffic and usage.A spokesperson explained to us: "To measure the impact of VPN demand the research team compiles data from a variety of sources. The team uses internal tools to assess changes in terms of search volume, web traffic, and clicks related to VPN services in general. We work with different metrics which we analyze, and we evaluate the searches or impressions that transform into downloads."So, in this context, take "demand" as a rough estimate of interest in a VPN service, rather than vpnMentor observing stuff like packet flows or connections.Here's the back story: In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed the Online Protection for Minors act, aka House Bill 3, into law. The legislation requires websites to verify visitors' ages, and for those hosting a "substantial portion of material harmful to minors," such as Pornhub, to block access to anyone under 18 in an effort to prevent kids and teens from peeping on any pornographic videos. Making sure children aren't looking at smut online requires identity and age verification, which Pornhub isn't willing to get into.HB3 allows fines of up to $50,000 for websites that don't comply with the regulations.And so in response, Pornhub's parent company Aylo decided to yank the site from Florida users as it had already done in other states with similar laws, including Kentucky, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, North Carolina, Montana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas, and Utah."Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous," Aylo told news outlets in a statement."Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws."America's favorite X-rated video-sharing site pointed to Louisiana as an example. That state began requiring age verification last year, and according to Aylo, Pornhub was one of the few sites to comply with the new law."Since then, our traffic in Louisiana dropped approximately 80 percent," the statement continued. "These people did not stop looking for porn. They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don't ask users to verify age, that don't follow the law, that don't take user safety seriously, and that often don't even moderate content. In practice, the laws have just made the internet more dangerous for adults and children."For what it's worth, Robin Tombs, boss of Yoti, which provides age checks for blue-movie sites in the US, argued earlier this week that its age confirmation system, using facial analysis, and identity document verification is secure and safe, as you might imagine.While we can't confirm that these laws have made the internet more dangerous, vpnMentor did document a similar VPN services surge in other say-no-to-porn states. In May 2023, Pornhub's Utah users ban resulted in a 967 percent spike in VPN demand, and Texas' law last year saw a 234.8 percent uptick.Some Florida residents jumped the gun before that smut site started geoblocking Florida IP addresses. On December 19, a day after Pornhub's decision to eject from that state, vpnMentor noted a 51 percent jump in that state's VPN demand.The New Year may ring in some good news for southern states' smut surfers, however. Over the summer, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging the legality of the Texas law, which could set a precedent for similar age-verification mandates and, thus, Pornhub blocks.The Texas case, Free Speech Coalition, et al v. Paxton, is set for argument on January 15.