Skip to main contentThe best Plex video player for Apple Vision Pro just got way better Zac Hall|Jan 6 2025 - 3:31 pm PTIt started with a planetarium. Now Theater for visionOS has become the best Plex video player on Apple Vision Pro. Thats because of a collection of new features in todays version 2.1 update.Plex playback is still new as part of the 2.0 upgrade. As I mentioned from the launch of Theater 2:Theater 2 already streamed YouTube. Now it can stream content from your personal Plex Media Server. Sure beats the visionOS Plex app that doesnt exist yet.OK, the Plex iPad app on AVP isnt tough competition, but the team behind Theater just upped their Plex game in a huge way. Adam Lisagor of Sandwich fame explains:2FA support, which was on the app roadmap, unlocks the ability to stream local Plex servers for lots of people. Remote server support unlocks access for their friends.Theater just officially became my favorite Apple Vision Pro app. Theater 2.1 is available on the visionOS App Store today. The app is free to download and enjoy. Plex support is included in the $4 unlock everything in-app purchase. If youre a Plex user, the unlock is easily worth $40 on its own. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel Featuredfrom 9to5Mac9to5Mac Logo Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: CommentsGuidesNewsManage push notificationsAllPost

The HDMI Forum, which manages the specifications for the HDMI connection, announced on Monday version 2.2 of the protocol. HDMI 2.2, as its called, increases bandwidth and aims to considerably reduce audio latency. Read on as we detail what exactly changes with the new HDMI 2.2 protocol.Heres whats new with HDMI 2.2The HDMI Forums continuing mission is to develop specifications to meet the HDMI eco-systems growing demand for high-performance capabilities and features, saidChandlee Harrell, president of the HDMI Forum. This new specification supports the fast-evolving landscape for amazing new technologies and products entering the markets now and in the future.HDMI 2.2 comes almost eight years after the announcement of HDMI 2.1, which enabled support for 4K120 and 8K60 resolutions.The new version of the protocol increases the bandwidth to 96Gbps, which is ideal for AR/VR devices that demand a lot of data. According to the HDMI Forum, the faster bandwidth also enables various commercial applications such as large scale digital signage, medical imaging and machine vision.But even if you dont have an AR/VR device, theres another aspect of HDMI 2.2 that will benefit a lot of users. Thats because it includes a new Latency Indication Protocol (LIP) to improve audio and video synchronization, which should considerably reduce audio latency especially when using an audio video receiver or soundbar. HDMI 2.2 also enables support for higher resolutions and refresh rates.Of course, it will be a while before the first HDMI 2.2 devices hit the market. Thats because the new protocol is yet to be rolled out for adoption, which should happen in the first half of 2025. Even so, given that HDMI 2.1 already supports resolutions such as 4K at 120Hz, most users probably wont be in a hurry to upgrade.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Apples macOS has changed a lot since its first version, but it still retains a lot of elements from the early days that make macOS unique. One of those elements is the iconic Dock, which lets users keep their favorite apps accessible with just a click and you may not have known this, but the macOS Dock just turned 25, and theres a cool story behind it.The story behind the macOS DockDeveloper James Thomson, who is behind the popular scientific calculator app PCalc, worked at Apple at the time when the company was developing the first version of Mac OS X, which would later replace the classic Mac OS 9. Interestingly, Thomson is one of the creators of the macOS Dock, and he has now shared some behind-the-scenes stories about the project in his blog.The Dock was unveiled to the world by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo on January 5, 2000. On the same day, Jobs also showed the first glimpse of the Aqua user interface, which wasnt present in the first beta versions of Mac OS X.Towards the end of the presentation, he showed off the Dock. You all know the Dock, its been at the bottom of your Mac screen for what feels like forever (if you keep it in the correct location, anyway), said Thomson.First version of the Dock included with Mac OS X Developer Preview 3The very first Dock included with Mac OS X was quite different from the one that shipped with the final version of the operating system. Instead of floating icons on a shelf, the Dock was just a row of square icons. Thats because the design were all familiar with wasnt ready at the time. It was my job to take his [Bas Ording] prototypes built in Macromind Director and turn them into working code.Before working at Apple, Thomson had created an app called DragThing, which essentially functioned as a Dock for the Macintosh. Users could use the app to add shortcuts to open apps, folders, and documents, and keep them always visible on the desktop. DragThing helped the developer get a job at Apple. He was later invited to work on a project that would essentially implement his idea in the Mac operating system.In the middle of all that, when I was out in Cupertino, I was asked if I wanted to work on a secret project with the code name berbar. I was shown some prototypes and basically told that six people had seen it, and if it leaked they would know it was me that had talked. I figured if anybody was finally going to kill off DragThing, it might as well be me.DragThing appEverything was a secretThe Dock was developed alongside Finder, another essential part of Mac OS X. However, the project started being written in Mac OS 9 before the new OS was even ready. I vividly remember the first time we got the code running on Mac OS X. Of course, everything about OS X was a huge secret, so only a few people at Apple had access to the new Aqua interface.I didnt see the shiny lickable buttons of Aqua itself for quite a while after Id been working on the Dock. There were rumours that any screenshot of Aqua would have the hardware MAC address of the machine encoded into the image, so leaks could be tracked down.Things started to get a bit complicated for Thomson as he was living in Ireland at the time, working at the companys offices in Cork. According to him, Jobs was furious when he learned about this and demanded that Thomson move to the US to work in Cupertino with the rest of the team. It has come to my attention that the engineer working on the Dock is in f*cking Ireland, Steve allegedly told a manager.Thomson didnt want to move, so he started traveling frequently to Cupertino while the team told Jobs that he had agreed to live in the US. I had an office on the Finder team corridor. I can only imagine that Steve would walk by looking for me, and they would say hed just missed me, while I was being bundled onto a plane at the other end.After Macworld 2000, when the Aqua interface and the Dock were unveiled to the world, Thomson was told that he would have to move to Cupertino for real, otherwise he would lose his job. He declined and resigned. In the end, the Dock was completely rewritten by another engineer before the official launch of the first Mac OS X.After Macworld 2000, when the Aqua interface and the Dock were unveiled to the world, Thomson was told that he would have to move to Cupertino for real, otherwise he would lose his job. He declined and resigned. In the end, the Dock was completely rewritten by another engineer before the official launch of the first Mac OS X.Of course, even without Thomsons code, the Dock lives on to this day not just on the Mac, but also on the iPhone and iPad. Make sure you read the full story on Thomsoms blog.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

"People use it much more than we expected."Fiscal ShortageWhile trying its darndest to become profitable, OpenAI is still falling comically short which, since it's the 800-pound gorilla in the nascent AI industry, should probably give pause to its rivals both large and small.In a post on X-formerly-Twitter, CEO Sam Altman admitted an "insane" fact: that the company is "currently losing money" on ChatGPT Pro subscriptions, which run $200 per month and give users access to its suite of products including its o1 "reasoning" model."People use it much more than we expected," the cofounder wrote, later adding in response to another user that he "personally chose the price and thought we would make some money."Though Altman didn't explicitly say why OpenAI is losing money on these premium subscriptions, the issue almost certainly comes down to the enormous expense of running AI infrastructure:the massive and increasing amounts of electricity needed to power the facilities that power AI, not to mention the cost of building and maintaining those data centers.Way back in spring 2023, analyst Dylan Patel toldThe Informationthat the company was likely spending around $700,000 per day running ChatGPT, or about 36 cents per query; nowadays, a single query on the company's most advanced models can cost a staggering $1,000.In other words, there's an inconvenient reality for anyone in the AI space trying to turn a profit, as OpenAI now is: the smarter these systems get, the more expensive they become to run which poses a major problem for pricing.Is This LossWith around 10 million paying subscribers, that gargantuan overhead means OpenAI is still burning through mountains of cash while chasing the dream of profitability.Indeed, according to insiders who spoke to CNBC last fall, OpenAI was on track to lose a whopping $5 billion in 2024, which put the company firmly in the red compared to its $3.7 billion in revenue.To that end, the company's board of directors sheepishly admitted in an end-of-year blog post that OpenAI needs way more cash than it previously thought even though it secured $6.6 billion in funding just a few months prior."We once again need to raise more capital than we'd imagined," the governing body wrote. "Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness."Though there have reportedly been internal talks to raise the price of a regular ChatGPT subscription (which currently costs a more modest $20 per month), that level of pricing increase doesn't seem like it'll keep up with the energy demands of powering the behemoth or the draw of shinier new toys.Share This Article

The CDC confirmed the first US-based severe human case of H5N1 bird flu in Louisiana in December. The Louisiana Department of Health reported Monday that the patient had died.The LDH revealed that the patient was over age 65, had underlying medical conditions and contracted bird flu after exposure to both wild birds and a noncommercial backyard flock. "LDH's extensive public health investigation has identified no additional H5N1 cases nor evidence of person-to-person transmission," the department wrote. "This patient remains the only human case of H5N1 in Louisiana." CNN Health reports that the patient had the D1.1 clade of the bird flu virus, which differs from the strain circulating in dairy cattle.When the patient first contracted the illness in December, the CDC stated that this sporadic case of severe H5N1 bird flu illness was not uncommon. The H5N1 virus has been linked with severe human illness and illness resulting in death in other countries in 2024 and before. As of publication, the CDC hasn't reported on the patient's death.This comes about two months after a Canadian teenager was hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu. The Public Health Agency of Canada stated that the virus was "related to the avian influenza H5N1 viruses from the ongoing outbreak in poultry in British Columbia." However, citing privacy reasons, Canadian public health officialshave not provided updates on the patient or the source of the virus even though their investigation has been closed.Within the past few months, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's national flu monitoring system has announced two human cases of bird flu in which there wasn't a clear link to exposure to sick animals -- an adult in Missouri reported in early September, and in late November, a child in California.The risk to the general public (i.e. people who do not have direct contact with farm animals, especially sick ones) remains low, according to the CDC. Many infectious disease experts and scientists have steadily increased the call for more alarm and action around the current bird flu situation, especially after bird flu was first reported in a pig this fall. While again stressing the risk to the general public is low, the CDC called avian influenza spreading to a new mammal "always concerning," especially in pigs as they're particularly susceptible to influenza viruses.What's more, the spread of avian influenza is overlapping with a renewed interest in the wellness trend of drinking raw milk. In November, raw milk sold in California was recalled because it contained bird flu virus.Two indoor cats that consumed this raw milk and have since died tested positive for Influenza A (of which the H5N1 bird flu is a subtype), which is rare in cats. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the department is "considering these suspected H5 bird flu cases and is obtaining confirmatory testing," noting that the nationwide H5 bird flu outbreak has been found in other cats infected with the virus after they consumed infected raw milk. More recently, pet food company Northwest Naturals recalled a batch of its raw turkey pet food after an indoor cat died from bird flu linked to the product.According to the USDA, over the past 30 days, there have been 182 confirmed cases in two states of cattle infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) virus. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in cattle to 917 in 16 states.The fact bird flu could be found in raw milk is not necessarily surprising as raw milk doesn't go through the pasteurization process that inactivates harmful bacteria or viruses like bird flu, but it called attention to another avenue in which -- while no human illnesses have been reported from it -- people could theoretically be exposed to bird flu.As long as animals and humans live, work and gather around each other, there will be a risk of viruses mutating enough to make the jump from species to species. Fortunately, bird flu in humans so far has been rare, in part because the virus doesn't spread that easily from animals to humans, or between humans, though sporadic cases have occurred in other countries as well as in the US. As the space between the potential for human exposure narrows in comparison to the continued spread of bird flu in animals, it is increasingly important to understand the risk bird flu poses to public health and its threat of another pandemic.Here's what to know about bird flu, or avian influenza, and what it looks like in people. Bird flu started as a poultry and bird issue in the US but has spread to cows, which frequently have close contact with people. That increases the risk of the virus one day making the jump to humans. Getty ImagesWhat is bird flu? Upgrade your inbox Get cnet insider From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated. In short,bird flu, aka avian influenza, is a type of flu that spreads between some animals and is currently causing outbreaks among birds and cattle in the US. Scientists are watching closely for mutations that could make it possible for the virus to spread between people, which would pose a major public health threat.More specifically, bird flu is a disease caused by infection with an influenza type A virus, and it's either "highly pathogenic" or "low pathogenic." The current H5N1 outbreak strain among animals is highly pathogenic.Bird flu was first detected and controlled in 1997, but itreemerged in 2003 and started spreading widely among birds.The World Health Organization reportsfour types of influenza viruses: A, B, C and D. Type A viruses, which occur in humans and in different kinds of animals, are the biggest threat to public health and can cause pandemics, the WHO says. The"swine flu" of 2009's pandemicwas caused by a type A virus.Seasonal flu virusesin humans are caused by type A and type B viruses. Bird flu has been ravaging the US poultry industry for the last couple of years, resulting in the culling (killing) of millions of infected or potentially infected birds. Getty ImagesIs bird flu deadly? How many cases have there been in the US?There have been 66 confirmedhuman cases of H5 (highly pathogenic) bird flu in the US, according to Jan. 6 information from the CDC. The vast majority of them have been in people with direct contact with sick animals, and the CDC's flu surveillance system shows no indicators of unusual flu activity in people.Human cases remain rare, but bird flu is considered a serious threat to public health because of its historically high mortality rate --about halfthe cases of bird flu H5N1 in people have resulted in death since tracking began, according to WHO information. One death from bird flu has been reported in the US, and historically, people who've tested positive for the virus have had direct contact with sick animals and exhibitedmild, flu-like symptoms.Is there a vaccine for bird flu?There's not a bird flu vaccine available or recommended to people right now. However, the US has been investing in the development of vaccines that could be used in an emergency situation, should one occur. In October, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response awarded about $72 million to CSL Seqirus, Sanofi and GSK to fill and finish additional doses of vaccines that could be used for avian influenza.The US Department of Health and Human Services announced in early July that the government isproviding Moderna with $176 millionto develop its influenza mRNA vaccine, which could be used if bird flu starts spreading person-to-person or becomes a pandemic.Can I get bird flu from milk, eggs or meat?There haven't been any reports of people getting bird flu in the US from drinking milk or eating meat from birds or cows. The commercial food supply, which makes up most food you'd get in a regular grocery store, is regulated, and meat from impacted animals shouldn't make it to store shelves.There have been fragments of inactive bird flu virus found in pasteurized milk samples since the virus started spreading to cows. The high-temperature pasteurization process inactivates any virus or bacteria, including bird flu, that could make people sick. Infectious virus has been found in raw milk, and the US Food and Drug Administration is reiterating the general health risks of drinking raw milk, not just in terms of bird flu but also for other pathogens that often live in unpasteurized milk.In terms of meat, cooking ground hamburger is also expected to kill the bird flu virus, according to the Department of Agriculture. The same is true for poultry; according to the CDC, cooking eggs and poultryto an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit kills viruses, including bird flu.It might be difficult to catch influenza from food or drink anyway, according to infectious disease experts we've spoken to in the past since influenza (including bird flu) is a respiratory virus.If you work directly with animals or livestock, which would include working on a farm, or even if youvisit a fair where there's livestock, you should check out the CDC's specific tips for safety to reduce the risk of spread.

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Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.Read on for today's Connections hints and answers.The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. And players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.Read more:Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every TimeHints for today's Connections groupsHere are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest, yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.Yellow group hint: Sing out.Green group hint: More than one or two.Blue group hint: Don't judge a book by its cover, or by this.Purple group hint: It is what it is.Answers for today's Connections groupsYellow group: Vocal musicGreen group: A handful ofBlue group: Book subtitlesPurple group: ____ is ____ (is ____)Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English WordsWhat are today's Connections answers? The completed NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 7, 2025. NYT/Screenshot by CNETThe yellow words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is theme is vocal music. The four answers are a capella, barbershop, doo-wop and madrigal.The green words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is a handful of. The four answers are a few, certain, some and various.The blue words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is book subtitles. The four answers are A Life, A Novel, Essays and Part One.The purple words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is ____ is ____ (is ____). The four answers are a deal, a rose, enough and love.

January 6, 20254 min readHMPV Cases Are Rising Across Asia, but Experts Say Not to PanicA common respiratory virus called human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, has been spreading in some countries in Asia, including China, India, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Heres what we knowBy Lauren J. Young edited by Dean VisserHuman metapneumovirus particles. Brian Megson, Health Protection Agency Center for Infections/Science SourceCases of a common respiratory virus called human metapneumovirus, or HMPV, are surging in several Asian countries, but experts say the situation shouldnt trigger fears of a larger global health threat. HMPV falls into the same mix of winter bugs as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which often peak during this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. Common HMPV symptoms, such as a runny nose, coughing and fever, are typically mild. Young children, older adults and people who are immunocompromised may be at a higher risk of severe disease, however.In mid-December 2024 health agencies in China reported an overall increase in respiratory infections, including an HMPV uptick in children under 14 years old in northern China. Reports of a hospital allegedly flooded with cases further fueled alarm and attention to this lesser known yet common winter respiratory disease.In Asia, they are having a fairly large outbreakmight even call it an epidemicof human metapneumovirus, says William Schaffner, an infectious disease physician and a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Theres no need to be panicky. But for those folks who are in higher-risk groups, this is a time to be careful, [to] be cautious.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Chinas relatively large case count has prompted the nation and nearby countries to increase surveillance. Cases have also been detected in Malaysia, India and Kazakhstan. Experts note that HMPV has been occurring in humans around the world for decades, however.The virus has circulated for at least 60 years, and genetic evolutionary studies suggest that it diverged from a bird virus between 200 to 400 years ago, says John Williams, a pediatrician and infectious diseases professor at the University of WisconsinMadison, who has studied HMPV for more than 20 years. HMPV causes regular annual seasonal epidemics, similar to the more widely recognized influenza virus and RSV. The typical HMPV season is late winter to early spring. So this isnt totally unexpected.Williams says widespread population immunity should lower the risk of a larger public health problem. Schaffner adds that its plausible that travelers in countries with high HMPV rates could bring the virus to the U.S.but its here already.The U.S. experiences seasonal spikes annually. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently reports a slight uptick in HMPV in the country. Cases are still low, however: as of the week of December 28, nearly 2 percent of diagnostic tests were positive for the virus. Last year HMPV peaked in April with about 8 percent of tests coming back positive.Scientific American spoke further with Schaffner about the recent HMPV outbreaks, common symptoms and those who are most vulnerable to severe disease.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]What is HMPV?Human metapneumovirus is another one of those winter respiratory viruses in the same family as RSV, and it increases during this time of the year [in the Northern Hemisphere]. The virus affects our nose, throat and chest, so its readily transmissible person-to-person. Researchers have been looking at this virus for some time, but because it doesnt have the prominence of influenza and COVID, for example, it hasnt been as well known to either the medical community or the general public. Its also less well known because we havent had easy and more widely available diagnostics. But now patients who are hospitalized, and even patients who are seen in doctors offices, can receive rather quick diagnostic tests. So doctors are making this diagnosis more frequently than they used to. This virus has come to more attention, but its always been there.What are the symptoms?Like other respiratory viruses, it can cause a stuffy nose, a sore throat or a cough because it goes down into your bronchial tubes. Some people can get complications of pneumonia. We are most concerned about young children because they havent had experience with or immunity to the virus, older, frail people who have chronic underlying illnesses and people who are immunocompromised.What do we know so far about the recent outbreaks and cases?In Asia, they are having a fairly large outbreakmight even call it an epidemicof human metapneumovirus. Its being diagnosed here in the U.S. But at the moment, influenza, COVID and RSV are much more prominently recognized at present. Were able to make these diagnoses much better, and so the harder we look, the more well find. I dont think this is something we should be alarmed about. Its certainly nothing nefarious. And yes, some of those travelers [to countries with higher rates of HMPV] could bring the virus to the U.S.but its here already. Im more concerned for the U.S. population now with influenza, which has rocketed up over the past several weeks, and our hospitals and emergency rooms are just chock-full of people who are really miserable and quite sick with influenza. And COVID and RSV are increasing also at the present time.Is there any concern for a larger global outbreak or pandemic?I dont think we can call it a pandemic because theres nothing new about this virus. Different parts of the world can increase at different times, but we are a global village, as the saying goes. And obviously these viruses dont need passports, so all of them can move around the world and be introduced just through the way human beings travel. And theres been an awful lot of internal travel here in the U.S. over the holiday season; many people getting together, family reunions, parties and the like. Thats provided an environment for all of these respiratory viruses to accelerate their spread.How can you minimize risk of HMPV infection?We dont have a vaccine against the human metapneumovirus, so what we can do is avoid people who are coughing and sneezing. If you become ill, please dont go to school or work. Stay home. If youre coughing and sneezing, do that in your elbow. If youre going to an indoor place where there are a lot of other people, wear your mask. If youre really in that high-risk group, think about some social distancing. Lets wait until these viruses pass, and then we can go out and about. So social distancing and wearing the mask really do help, along with good hand hygiene at all times.

Maybe we shouldnt be surprised that Nick Cannons housewhich he offered fans a tour of in a recently uploaded YouTube videolooks like it belongs to Tom Hankss 12-year-old character from Big. After all, the multi-hyphenate has a dozen kids to entertain and certainly has the cash to do so with flair. In response to a question about a tabloids estimation that he pays $3 million in child support annually, Cannon told the Los Angeles Times last year that that was a paltry figure. When you think about my lifestyle, I have to generate at least $100 million a year, he said. With all that in mind, what do you imagine the entertainer keeps inside his home? A slide connecting the floors? A candy room? A ball pit? Well, yesall of the above.Undoubtedly, the star feature of the home is the slide, which (naturally) deposits its rider into the aforementioned ball pit in the family room below. The comedian had a practical reason for eliminating his stairs in favor of a more whimsical amenity: I got tired of walking down the steps and going to the kitchen or going to the living room, so I said, I want to be able to slide into a ball pit at the front of my house.Cannons 13-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe, whom he co-parents with Mariah Carey, help show off their dads lavish Saddle River, New Jersey, pad over the course of the 30-minute video (Im pretty sure like 80% of this stuff is expired, Monroe says of the candy rooms offerings). Cannon moved into the 8,371-square-foot dwelling in 2015, the year after he and Carey split. Since then, Cannon has welcomed 10 more kids with five more partnerseach of whom he has reportedly gifted a house.Join NowNew Year's Sale: Become an AD PRO member for only $20 $12 per monthArrowRed is my favorite color, the Masked Singer host says near the start of the video, as his daughter plays the opening notes of Kanye Wests Runaway at a cherry red piano in the double-height foyer. That factoid is soon made very, very clear; the slide and the ball pit are also red, as is the huge sectional at the center of the family room, the chandelier above, the velvet ropes that partition the area, the dramatically swooping drapes, and the nearby pair of ginormous bean bags.Other fun features of the estate include custom Louis Vuitton Iron Man masks, a sword, a Godfather motif study, an all-black dining room complete with a suit of armor, a movie theater filled with countless pillows in lieu of furniture, and a private lake in the backyard, where Cannon ends the video. Thats my duck, he quips, pointing out a bird chilling on the water.The man really wasnt kidding when he referred to himself as the dad that is a big kid.

The tech industrys relentless march toward labeling everything plus, pro, and max soldiers on, with Dell now taking the naming scheme to baffling new levels of confusion. The PC maker announced at CES 2025 that its cutting names like XPS, Inspiron, Latitude, Precision, and OptiPlex from its new laptops, desktops, and monitors and replacing them with three main product lines: Dell (yes, just Dell), Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max. If you think that sounds a bit Apple-y and bland, youre right. But Dell is taking it further by also adding a bit of auto industry parlance with three sub-tiers: Base, Plus, and Premium.The new Dell product naming structure for 2025. Image: DellThat yields new products like the freshly announced Dell Plus 32-inch 4K QD-OLED monitor and Dell Pro Premium laptops. In the future, it means we can also expect product names like Dell Pro Max Plus. Since a laptop like the Dell Pro Premium comes in two sizes, 13-inch and 14-inch, their proper full names are Dell Pro 13 Premium and Dell Pro 14 Premium. Theyre spiritual successors to outgoing Dell Latitude laptops.Dells XPS line, which has been a prominent name in premium laptops for years, is being replaced by new Dell Premium models. So theyre part of the base-tier Dell line, at the Premium sub-tier.While this is a substantial brand restructuring for one of the worlds biggest PC manufacturers, Dell isnt tossing the old names out all at once. Existing products already launched under XPS, Precision, and other retiring brands will continue on as they are. But once theyre discontinued, theyll only be replaced by whatever Mad LibsOne of the current versions of the Dell XPS 13. Successor models will be called Dell 13 Premium. Photo by Joanna Nelius / The VergeUntil Dells lines are fully turned over, there may be even more confusion when, for example, customers are cross-shopping current XPS laptops with Dell and Dell Premium ones or when businesses have to consider a fleet of leftover Dell Precision notebooks or newer Dell Pro Max / Dell Pro Max Plus / Dell Pro Max Premium models.When I asked Dell for confirmation that the new branding means names of popular lines like XPS will be phased out, Frank Cestone, public relations for consumer and gaming at Dell, said, It will be a journey, but were taking the necessary steps to make this as easy as possible for customers on day-one and we know itll only get easier once the transition is fully complete.Simple names are nice, but the words plus, premium, pro, and max are so commonplace today its like theyre being stripped of all meaning. And Dell a company named after an actual person is stripping itself of some of its identity.