Following the abrupt discontinuation of Apple Pay Later over the summer, Apple has been rolling out support for multiple third-party pay over time alternatives. The latest Apple Pay addition: Synchrony.Pay Later with Apple Pay includes three separate optionsApple Pay already offered two different pay later options:But as noted by MacRumors, today Apple has rolled out support for a third provider.Synchrony has been added to the list of Pay with installments providers in the US. This means youll be able to split certain Apple Pay purchases into multiple installments, similar to what Apple Pay Later offered.Apple describes the feature this way, with a key qualifier:You can pay with installments and rewards using eligible debit and credit cards when you check out with Apple Pay online and in apps, on iPhone and iPad. Some cards from participating banks might not support these features. Contact your bank for more information. When checking out with Apple Pay, you can tap Change Payment Method to find the available Pay Later options for your purchase, including Synchrony where available.Do you use Apple Pays pay over time options? Whats your experience been like? Let us know in the comments.Best iPhone accessoriesAdd 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

TikToks US saga is almost at an end, and its last major source of hopea Supreme Court interventionnow looks unlikely to pan out. Thus, a January 19 ban in the US is looking more realistic than ever. Heres the latest.Supreme Court appears unlikely to stop TikTok banToday, the US Supreme Court heard more than two hours of arguments concerning TikToks impending ban.The general consensus from observers? The ban appears likely to be upheld.While the Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling, the hearing provided plenty of data that indicates the ban wont be stopped by the countrys highest court of law.Sam Baker writes at Axios:Most of the justices homed in Friday on one central point: The law would allow TikTok to keep operating if it used an algorithm other than ByteDances. And ByteDance, as a Chinese company, doesnt have First Amendment rights.Ann Marimow writes at The Washington Post:a majority of justices seemed to embrace Congresss national security concerns about the ability of the Chinese government to harvest the sensitive data of millions of American users and to potentially use that information to blackmail young Americans or turn them into spies.If the TikTok ban is allowed to proceed, then as TikToks legal representative, Noel Francisco, said during the hearing, the app will go dark in the US on January 19.What happens then is anyones guess.President-elect Trump has indicated that he wants to stop the ban, so its possible after his January 20 inauguration well see movement on that front.But if nothing else changes, TikToks time in the US could be coming to an end soon.Whats your take on the TikTok ban? Let us know in the comments.Best iPhone accessoriesAdd 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

Better LateJeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is preparing to launch its New Glenn rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just after midnight on Sunday.It's been a long time coming: the company has been working on the 320-foot rocket, which shares similar proportions and stats with SpaceX's Falcon 9 workhorse, for well over a decade.But whether it can truly compete with the likes of SpaceX remains an open question. Over that time, the Elon Musk-led company has seized the opportunity to cement itself as the space company and NASA contractor to beat.The mission was originally slated for a January 10 launch, but the date slipped to Sunday almost immediately.So far, the Bezos-led company has launched a much smaller reusable suborbital launch vehicle called New Shepard, which has been sending wealthy space tourists to the Earth's upper atmosphere since July 2021.If successful, New Glenn could offer SpaceX some much-needed competition as US space exploration efforts continue to grow in scope and scale but a failure could represent even more egg on Bezos' face.Stiff CompetitionDespite a lengthy development time and plenty of setbacks, the multi-stage rocket is no slouch. The New Glenn can produce roughly twice as much thrust at liftoff than Falcon 9, but falls short of the Falcon Heavy variant. It's 90 feet taller and 11 feet wider in diameter than a Falcon 9.As part of its NG-1 mission this weekend, Blue Origin is hoping to launch a payload dubbed the "Bue Ring Pathfinder" into orbit, a testbed for the company's Blue Ring spacecraft platform designed to support orbital operations.A lot is at stake for the company and we're not just talking about the longstanding feud between Musk and Bezos.SpaceX is currently firmly in the driver's seat, and NASA's incoming administrator is deeply in the pocketof the firm. Musk's close relationship with president-elect Donald Trump could also make it difficult for Blue Origin to secure important governmental contracts."This is our first flight and weve prepared rigorously for it," Blue Origin's New Glenn senior VP Jarrett Jones told the Orlando Sentinel. "But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket.""Its time to fly," he added. "No matter what happens, well learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch."Share This Article

How does it just keep getting worse?Fuelling the FireInstead of mourning the devastating destruction and death that's befallen the city of Los Angeles due to raging wildfires this week, Elon Musk has taken to his far-right hate speech incubator X to blame the fires on wait for it diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.In other words, Musk is using unabashedly racist lies to pin the climate change-fueled disaster on minorities."They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes," Musk tweeted. He was responding to a post by the anti-LGBTQ+ hate account Libs of TikTok, which claimed that the LA Fire Department ensured its employees were "racially diverse enough" something that was then contorted into racistvitriol in Musk's twisted mind.It's an appalling and unsurprising development, highlighting Musk's well-documented descent into sociopathic and extremist thinking, inspired by the right-wing cadre he's surrounded himself with on his social media platform.Racist AnticsWe won't waste our time to tell you how incredibly bigoted and misled Musk's claim is. As Jezebel points out, severe budget cuts have led to a terrifying shortage of firefighters in LA, motivated by diverting funds to the police department. Worse yet, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has forced imprisoned prisonersto battle the blazes for as little as $5.80 per day an atrocious glimpse of a climate change-fueled dystopia in which there are countless reasonable things to blame besides mild diversity efforts.Other users on Musk's X spread fear-mongering claims about "looters in LA" in the aftermath of the devastating fire, accompanied by AI-generated slop.It's far from the first time Musk has spewed racist lies to rail against DEI practices. Last year, civil rights groups were horrified after he endorsed a tweet suggesting Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and shouldn't become pilots.Musk has also baselessly claimed that "DEI is just another word for racism."In short, blaming the devastating wildfires, which have taken the lives of at least ten people, on racially diverse hiring practices is only the latest sign that Musk has completely lost the plot.And considering Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also announced new measures to increase hate speech on Facebook, we should expect more hurtful conspiracy theories to run rampant on social media.Share This Article

And Zuckerberg personally approved the piracy, according to these documents.Free LoadersNewly unredacted court documents allege that Meta, formerly Facebook, knowingly used pirated books obtained from the online archive Library Genesis to train its AI models, Wired reports.Submitted in an ongoing lawsuit filed against the platform by a group of authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates and comedian Sarah Silverman, the documents were finally released in full after a judge shot down Meta's attempts to keep portions of them sealed.The judge argued, perWired, that Meta fought for the redactions merely to "avoid negative publicity," citing a damning internal quote from one of its employees."If there is media coverage suggesting we have used a dataset we know to be pirated, such as LibGen, this may undermine our negotiating position with regulators on these issues," the employee wrote.Lie-braryLibrary Genesis, or LibGen, is a "shadow library" that provides free access to millions of books, academic articles, and magazines.That a multibillion-dollar corporation like Meta would tap into its store of pirated content is the latest sign of the impunity that tech companies have operated with to train their large language models, vacuuming up copyrighted content en masse with seemingly no regard for the law or even the decency, as one of the world's most valuable companies, to buy a single copy of each volume it was using to power its AI.Meta and other AI leaders argue that using books and other data scraped from the web constitutes "fair use," but it will ultimately be up to legal battles like this one to determine if that is the case.Fair use or not, some of the exchanges exposed in the newly unredacted documents suggest that Meta employees knew that what they were doing was legally and ethically dicey.With a grinning emoji, one engineer wrote: "Torrenting from a [Meta-owned] corporate laptop doesn't feel right," as quoted by Wired.And it goes all the way to the top. A cited memo allegedly shows that after employee discussions about using LibGen were escalated to "MZ" Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg the AI team was "approved to use" material from the database.High SeasThe plaintiffs argue that this shatters any plausibility that Meta may try to maintain."Meta has treated the so-called 'public availability' of shadow datasets as a get-out-of-jail-free card, notwithstanding that internal Meta records show every relevant decision-maker at Meta, up to and including its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, knew LibGen was 'a dataset we know to be pirated,'" they wrote in the most recent motion.Moreover, the authors point to testimony from a Meta corporative representative as an admission that the company also helped disseminate thepirated books by "seeding" their corresponding torrents, or uploading portions of the material so that other users could download them.More on AI: Facebook Caught Hosting AI-Powered HitlerShare This Article

Time zones: GMT (UTC +0), CET (UTC +1), EET (UTC +2)As a Support Engineer at Quaderno, you'll work on solving technical issues reported by our customers, as well as developing tools for increasing efficiency in the resolution of errors. Your work will impact the stability and quality of our web applications as well as our customers happiness. You would be a vital link between the Customer Success and Engineering teams, working closely with both.Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:Troubleshooting support tickets through analysis of logs, databases, and code.Explaining technical concepts in a clear, didactic way to non-technical users.Escalating complex cases to the engineering team and providing them with detailed context, possible origins, and options for resolution.Designing and developing internal tools that facilitate our daily work.Continually analyzing common problems and patterns to see where process improvements can be made.Indicators that this could be a good role for you:You have solid knowledge of Ruby on Rails and SQL databases.You have 2+ years of experience in a similar role, supporting and troubleshooting web applications, systems and software in general.You can break down complex technical problems and transform them into easy-to-understand explanations for customers.You demonstrate a customer-centric approach and thrive in a support environment.You feel that our values resonate with yours, and you see how they can act as guidance for your day-to-day work.You're able to work autonomously and stay self-motivated. Previous experience working in a remote team is a bonus.You are fluent in written and spoken English.Bonus points: you ideally have experience in fintech, taxes or payment processing.Bonus points: you ideally have experience with PHP and/or WordPress plugins. Related Jobs See more Back-End Programming jobs

Grok, the AI-powered assistant that debuted on the social platform X, is now available as a standalone app.Elon Musk's startup xAI has launched Grok 2, the second iteration of its AI model, as a dedicated iOS app, allowing users to access its features without needing an X subscription.Users can log in using their email address, Apple account or other supported platforms. The app provides tools for answering questions and generating images, while also offering a tiered subscription plan for advanced features.This release is xAI's first significant step away from its exclusive partnership with X (formerly Twitter), marking a bigger push to compete more directly with AI rivals, from Google Gemini to Meta AI and Claude.ai. By far the most popular is OpenAI's ChatGPT, which in November saw its number of visitors double, to 3.9 billion, according to Similarweb.The app has drawn attention for its conversational, humorous tone. According to its App Store description, Grok also prioritizes privacy, in an effort to manage user data interactions securely.Launched in November 2023, Grok was integrated into X and made available to paying subscribers. In December 2024, a free version became available with limited usage, such as 10 daily inquiries.X CEO Musk has positioned the assistant as a direct rival to prominent chatbots but with a distinct personality. At launch, he posted on X that Grok would be "funny" and "politically neutral."

Two years ago, at the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt, UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres warned that global leaders needed toaddress greenhouse gas emissions to keep air temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the year 2100.It's only the start of 2025, and we've already crossed that threshold.According to climate scientists at the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, global temperatures reached the highest levels on record in 2024, rising 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and making the year the hottest since recordkeeping began in 1850. That's a 2.88 degrees Fahrenheit rise globally.According to a Copernicus report released Friday, the global average temperature for the year was 15.10 degrees Celsius (59.18 degrees Fahrenheit). "This is equivalent to 1.6 degrees Celsius above an estimate of the 1850-1900 temperature designated to be the pre-industrial level," the report says.The annual report came out the same week that Los Angeles residents faced catastrophic wildfires that leveled more than 9,000 buildings and killed at least 10 people. Globally, the climate crisis has intensified the severity and frequency of natural disasters, including drought, hurricanes and flooding.Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which contributed to the report, noted that the temperature rise is a significant contributor to global climate-related disasters."These high global temperatures, coupled with record global atmospheric water vapour levels in 2024, meant unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rainfall events, causing misery for millions of people," Burgess said in a statement.Other highlights from the report:For the period of 2015 to 2024, every year was one of the 10 warmest years on record, according to Copernicus. On July 22, 2024, the daily global average temperature broke a record, reaching 17.16 degrees Celsius, or 62.89 degrees Fahrenheit. All continental regions except Antarctica and Australasia had their warmest-ever years.Scientists have attributed this type of climate change to human causes, particularly carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Increasedhome energy use and the massive amounts of energy that AI technology requireshaven't made the task of reducing reliance on fossil fuels any easier.

It might be too cold outside to golf now, but Apple Arcade subscribers can tee off from iconic PGA Tour courses like Pebble Beach Golf Links on Feb. 6.Apple Arcade is filled with familiar and classic games, alongside exclusive titles, that you can play for $7 per month (7, AU$10). You can find many of these games in the App Store, but they have paywalls and ads that might hinder your gaming experience. Using an Apple Arcade subscription, you can play each game without paywalls and ads, a feature usually denoted by "Plus" in the game's name.Here are all the games Apple is adding to its game service in February. You can also check out the games Apple recently added to the service, including the original Final Fantasy.PGA Tour Pro GolfDeveloper: HypGames Inc. AppleThis is Apple Arcade's first officially licensed PGA Tour game, and it offers a golf experience for fans of the sport and newcomers alike. You can play at legendary real-world courses, like the Links at Spanish Bay, upgrade your clubs and equipment to give yourself an edge and face off against others in head-to-head mode. Or you can just take in the scenery and imagine it's spring despite it being winter.Doodle Jump 2 PlusDeveloper: Lima Sky AppleCute characters, silly monsters and fun challenges await you in this sequel to the popular platforming game. You'll traverse a sleepy world full of sheep, a disco planet where the monsters boogie all night long and more wacky environments as you strive to become the new Doodle Jump King.My Dear Farm PlusDeveloper: HyperBeard Inc. AppleTending a farm doesn't have to be a chore in this cozy farm-sim adventure. Grow your crops, decorate your farm, customize your character and sell your wares at the market to the local townsfolk. And if you just want to relax with your pet on the farm and enjoy the fruits -- and vegetables -- of your labor, you can do that, too! You can access these games in Apple Arcade on Feb. 6, but there are plenty of other games to play on the service now for $7 per month or $50 annually. You can also try Apple Arcade for free for one month with your first sign-up, or you can get a three-month free trial when you buy a new Apple device. To access Apple Arcade, open the App Store on your iOS or iPadOS device and tap the joystick in the menu bar. Watch this: What to Expect From Apple in 2025 04:23

January 10, 20255 min readTrumps Erroneous Claims about the Los Angeles Fire Response, DebunkedPresident-elect Trump has incorrectly blamed California water management for the destruction from the recent fires in the Los Angeles areaBy Camille von Kaenel & E&E News Firefighters battle the Eaton Fire in strong winds as many homes burn on January 7, 2025 in Pasadena, California. A powerful Santa Ana wind event dramatically raised the danger of wind-driven wildfires. David McNew/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | As historic fires rip through the Los Angeles area, President-elect Donald Trump is demanding Gov. Gavin Newsom open up the water main and allow beautiful, clean, freshwater to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA!At first glance, it seems to make sense. Why wouldnt the leader of a state whose northern regions are currently enjoying above-average winter precipitation redirect water south to quench the burning metropolis as its fire hydrants run dry?To start, there isnt some central spigot nestled in the Sierra foothills that Newsom can just use a giant wrench to turn on. Then theres the fact that firefighters were more hamstrung by the raging Santa Ana winds than empty hydrants due to a lack of water from Northern California.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.Read on for a detailed explanation from our resident California water expert of the states complex water system and a brief history of Trumps fixation with the issue.Whats up with the water restoration declaration?On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social: Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.Newsoms communications director shot back: There is no such document as the water restoration declaration that is pure fiction.Is it? Not quite. Trump was referring to a real document, even if he used an unknown name for it that left even the most astute California water officials scratching their heads. Karoline Leavitt, the president-elects press secretary, explained the reference by pointing to a five-year-old legal showdown between Newsom and Trump over how to manage the state and federal systems of pumps, reservoirs and canals that move water around California.In short, the two disagree about how much water should be pumped out of the states main rivers, which combine in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, to the much drier farms of the Central Valley and cities of Southern California and how much water should be kept in the ecosystem to keep declining fish populations alive, including the Delta smelt, a frequent Trump target. Their separate plans for the pumps make only marginal differences in actual water deliveries but have taken on a political life of their own.The conflict peaked in 2020, when Trump unveiled the record of decision cementing his version of the rules at a rally in the Central Valley only to be sued by Newsom, citing harm to the environmentThat was the last significant water policy decision made during his first term in which both President Trump and Gov. Newsom took a personal interest, said Tom Birmingham, the former general manager of Westlands Water District, the largest agricultural irrigation district in the country that sided with Trump in that battle.Is there a water main in Northern California?No. Newsom would be hard-pressed, as Trump suggested on Truth Social on Thursday, to immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean.However, Southern Californias cities do depend on snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada mountains, home to the world-famous Yosemite National Park, and the Delta pumps for about 30 percent of their water supplies. Another 20 percent comes from the Colorado River, and 50 percent originates from local supplies, like groundwater and recycling.A lot of water in California does flow into the Pacific much of it is reserved for environmental uses, which keeps rivers flowing so theyre fresh enough to provide tap water to cities and keep endangered fish populations alive. Overall, water use in California breaks down roughly to 10 percent for communities, 40 percent for agriculture and 50 percent for the environment, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of Californias analysis of state data.Whats the origin story of Trumps obsession with California water?This isnt the first time Trump has used H2O as a cudgel against Newsom. Hes also threatened to withhold disaster aid unless Newsom goes his way on water, saying at a Southern California campaign stop last year that if the governor doesnt sign those papers, we wont give him money to put out all his fires. (Those papers presumably refer to the aforementioned water restoration declaration).The president-elects interest in the Golden States water dilemma likely dates back to a 2016 tour of the agriculturally rich Central Valley with former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who was one of Trumps earliest supporters.Trumps frequent references to the fight show the California water issue has a very special place in his heart, in his head, said Johnny Amaral, the chief operating officer for the Friant Water Authority, which serves Central Valley farmers, and Nunes former chief of staff.He talks frequently about the visit he made to the Central Valley in 2016 before the election where Devin was taking him around and showing him farmland, Amaral added. It warms our heart a little bit that he still talks about a 30-minute or hour drive around the east side.Nunes was trying to impress upon Trump that farmers in the Central Valley, a region that trends conservative, need more water from the state and federal water pumps in the north. He was clearly persuasive.But hows this related to the LA fires?Its not. Much of Southern California is in a drought right now, according to federal statistics, because of a dry start to Californias typically wet winter. But its not hugely lacking in imported water from Northern California, which, in contrast, has had relatively average precipitation so far. Levels at reservoirs across the state, including Southern Californias largest reservoir, Diamond Valley Lake, are currently at or above historic levels.LAs fire hydrants ran dry Tuesday night because there was tremendous demand, Janisse Quiones, chief executive and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said Wednesday. Water pressure fell as a result: Supplies at the citys three million-gallon water tanks that feed Pacific Palisades tapped out by 3 a.m. after firefighters started battling the blaze Tuesday, and backup water had to be trucked into the area.How are Democratic leaders responding?At a White House briefing Thursday, President Joe Biden offered an explanation for dry hydrants. He said power was cut to local water pumps to avoid utility lines causing more conflagrations. Fire officials are now bringing in generators for the pumps, Biden said.On CNN on Wednesday night, Newsom accused Trump of playing politics and trying to divide the country over the tragic fires. Also on Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the water shortages on the unprecedented scope of the disaster, which is slated to be the costliest in U.S. history.Debra Kahn and Julia Marsh contributed to this report.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.